thiruppAvai - 6

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Sri Lakshminrusimha Parabrahmane namaha

Sri Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrivaNN-

SatakOpa Sri nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESikAya namaha

 

namO nArAyaNA.

 

ThiruppAvai upanyAsam of Sri U.Ve.VillUr KarunAkaran swAmi

**********************************************************

 

In the previous posting it was discussed how AndAL being

a paramaikAntin (*) will not worship anya dEvatA and thus

the nOnbu was not that of kAtyAyani vrattam. With this

background information about thiruppAvai, lets now get

into the importance given by AchAryAs to thiruppAvai and

then we shall move onto the taniyans.

 

Eighth Wonder of the World :

*****************************

Sri vEdappirAn bhattar says that "kOdai tamizh

aiyaindum-aindum aRiyAda mANidarai vaiyam sumappathu

vambu". On meaning may be "those who do not know

(recite) thiruppAvai is a burden to the earth" (vambu

interpreted as "burden"). But, vambu here means

"surprise" / "wonder" ie. Its a great wonder/surprise

if we encounter a person who does not know (recitation/

meaning) thiruppAvai. When yudhistira was questioned

by yakshakan as to what is the greatest wonder in this

world, he replied that eventhough people see many dying,

they somehow feel that they are not going to die (no

preparation to death, not concerned about future lives

etc ie. not following sAstrAs). But, our AchAryAs feel

that the greatest wonder is when one does not even

know thiruppAvai: " How come this world has a person

who doesn't even know thiruppAvai !! This is certainly

the eighth wonder of the world ".

 

 

Thaniyans

***********

 

Thaniyans are those verses that stnd apart from the main

verses/pAsurams etc ie. "thaniththu iruththal". So,

thaniyans for 4000 divya prabandhams are those verses

that are not a part of the pAsurams as such, but recited

before them to meditate on the glories of the AzhwAr,

to understand the gist of the upadEsam given by AzhwAr

in that divya prabandham etc.

 

It was previously discussed that thiruppAvai as a

mantram is one of its salient features. For each mantram,

there will be a dhyAna slOkam (whom to be meditated upon

and in what way ), and also, one should pay respect

beforehand to the rishi who intuited this mantram etc.

 

Similarly, for thiruppAvai (a mantram), the dhyAna

slOkam is the thaniyan composed by Bhattar - to chant

even the name of this great AchAryA, we are not

qualified. Bhattar once had "katti"(swelling ?) at the

back of his body. When a sishya asked bhattar about

this, bhattar answered that "disease"/"health problem"

is also an AchAryA (SwAmi Desikan refers to this in

Srimad Rahasya Traya sAram) since even when all the

AchAryAs keep teaching that one has to take refuge

unto Sriman nArAyaNA, many won't listen to it; but

when this AchAryA (disease) comes, they

automatically turn towards PerumAL !!

 

The great mahAn "ananthAzhwAn", for whom

thiruvEngadamudayAn Himself composed thaniyan

(accepting AzhwAn as His AchAryA) had paralysis.

ananthAzhwAn's kainkaryams to PerumAL can't be

matched - left even the company of emperumAnAr and

proceeded to thiruvEngadam to perform pushpa

kainkaryam , just because it will be pleasing to

his AchArya emperumAnAr and there are many many

pastimes of ananthAzhwAn with thiruvEngadamudayAn.

Since PerumAL made ananthAzhwAn have paralysis, even

when he had done enormous amount of kainkaryam, some

devotees could not tolerate it and were angry with

PerumAL. But, ananthAzhwAn told that

thiruvEngadamudayAn will _always_ do only good to His

devotees ("nangE seivAN") and this paralysis is

just burning of some past karmA/kadan and by this,

the time to attain Sri VaikuNTham is shortened =>

To make His devotee reach Him quickly, He gives

things like this and this is a great help given by

PerumAL out of His dayA. Such was the most matured

state of thinking by ananthAzhwAn. When one gets

suffering,one should realize that PerumAL is quickly

burning off some past karmA/kadan and this is only

good (pApam kazhinjuthu).

 

Coming back to the bhattar's katti, the doctor

himself was crying as to how to operate ; since

there was no anesthesia that time, the operation

would give enormous amount of intolerable pain to

bhattar. For this, bhattar told "Tommorrow,

thiruppAvai upanyAsam is there. So, you can please

operate during that time" !!! For bhattar,

thiruppAvai was anything and everything (unnum sORu,

parugum neer, thinnum vetRilai), and in that peak of

the bhagavad anubhavam arising out of thiruppAvai,

bhattar will completely loose the consciousness of

the body (whats the need of an anesthesia ?? ).

Such was the involvement of bhattar with thiruppAvai.

All the AchAryAs set such exemplary standard and

only from their lives we can understand a glimpse of

what bhagavad anubhavam is all about. Even in the

times of great difficulties, they set the right

example for us to follow - the mood one should have

etc.

 

PerumAL probably gives such difficulties to mahAns

to make their exaltedness known to all others and

also for others to follow the example set by these

mahAns during those times of difficulties. Bhattar

was given another diificulty by PerumAL and thus

bhattar from Srirangam went to thirukkOshtiyUr and

stayed there ( the ruling king of Srirangam made

bhAgavatha apachAram). Bhattar couldn't tolerate

the separation from RanganAthar and was in intense

viraha thApam. Nanjeeyar, the disciple of bhattar

told "Please forgive adiyEn; swAmi already knows;

but kindly let adiyEn tell this. To get rid of

this present suffering, we need PerumAL's aruL

which will easily fall upon if we get the

recommendation of AndAL <and kUratAzhwAn> ".Thus,

bhattar composed the following thaniyan in

sanskrit for thiruppAvai at that time :

 

"neeLAtungastanagiritaTi - suptamudbhodhya krushNam -

pArArthyam svam SrutiSataSirah: siddham-adhyApayantI |

svOcchishtAyAm sraji nigaLitam yA balAtkrutya bhunktE

godA tasyai nama idamidam-bhUya yevAstu bhUyaha " ||

 

" May I offer obeisance again and again to Goddess AndAL

alias GodA - to Her alone - who has awakened Lord

KrishNa(taking rest and) sleeping on the mountain-like

lofty breasts of Goddess nILA alias nappiNNai pirAtti;

GodA, who has imparted to Him her dependence (on Him)

as established in the hundreds of texts of the crown

of the vEdAs (viz. vEdAntA or upanishads); and gOdA ,

who forcefully enjoys Him after binding Him with

flower-wreaths that were already worn by Her "

 

So, the dhyAna slOkam is based on the 19th pAsuram

"kuttu viLakku", wherein nAchchiyAr wakes up Krishnar

and nappiNNai ("nappiNNai kongai mEl vaiththuk

kidantha malar mArban" - KrishNa is having His chest

resting on the breast of nappiNNai pirAtti). There are

many esoteric significances of this pAsuram - the

essence being that when devotees approach pirAtti

(nappiNNai), PerumAL is so much eager to bless them

<now, to open the door>, and when devotees

approach PerumAL, nappiNNai pirAtti is very much

eager bless them <now, to open the door>. Since

AndAL and Her friends prayed to both nappiNNai

pirAtti and PerumAL, both are in a fight as to who

will first open the door and thus one is pushing

the other down. Thus, one should understand about

this couple (PerumAL and pirAtti) who are very

eager to bless the devotees together with so much

vAtsalyam and they are our refuge. Thus, the

dhyAnam for thiruppAvai is on the unbounded dayA

of the divine couple towards us. Infact, on 19th

day of mArgazhi, ArAvamudhAzhwAn (kumbakOnam

sArngapAni PerumAL) will have nAchchiyAr

thirukkOlam and nAchchiyAr will have PerumAL

thirukkOlam. Probably this is the only divya

dEsam in which nAchchiyAr has PerumAL

thirukkOlam.

 

In the pAsuram, AndAL says only "nappiNNai kongai"

(breast of nappiNNai). But in the thaniyan, bhattar

says "mountain-like breasts of nILA".

Sri U.Ve.nadAdUr (SribAshya SimhAsanAdipati)

Asukavi SArvabhouma SrInivAsAchArya swAmi (alias

SrInidhi swAmi), the AchAryA and thiruth -

thagappanAr (father) of Sri KarunAkaran swAmy has

given a wonderful insight into the thiru uLLam

of bhattar. In Peria thiru madal, thirumangai

mannan performs mangaLAsAsanam as

"..mazhaikkoondal thennuyarporuppum dhaiva

vadamalaiyum, yennum ivayE mulaiyA-vadivamaindha

anna nadaya aNangE.." ie. the mountains

thiruvEngada malai and thirumAlirunchOlai are

present as two (mountain-like) breasts of bhoomi

pirAtti and in them PerumAL resides with great

pleasure.Srinidhi swAmy refers to kUrathAzhwAn's

SundarabAhusthavam, after the composition of

which AzhwAn got the association of emperumAnAr

(for around 12 years, they were separated) and

the sEvai of ranganAthan at Srirangam. Thus,

bhattar follows the footsteps of his father

kUraththAzwAn and performs mangaLAsAsanam to

thirumAlirunchOlai Azhagar and thereby expects

that both kUraththAzhwAn and Azhagar will be

pleased by this thaniyan apart from AndAL, and

thus similar to the end of the viraha thApam

of kUraththAzhwAn, his viraha thApam also will

come to an end (which eventually ended also).

 

In this thaniyan, bhattar also reminds us about

the "balAt kruthyam" AndAL did to PerumAL and

giving Him the "mayarvaRa madiNalam" ( nallA

kattip pOttu pAdam kaRpithA - tied PerumAL

completely by giving the garland she wore and

taught (and reminded) Him that they belong to

Him and He is their rakshagan). Thirukkudanthai

AndavAn would jovially say that, only after

seeing AndAL teaching so effectively, all the

schools started recruiting lady teachers to teach

the students!!

 

(*) ParamaikAntins are those who have single pointed

devotion towards Sriman nArAyaNA and are interested

only in the performance of kainkaryam to Him (here

and in Sri VaikuNTham) and His devotees ; they don't

have any interest of their own, other than these

kainkaryams. As AzhwAr says, they are "maRandhum

puram thozhA mAndhar".

 

-- to be cont --

AndAL thiruvadigaLE SaraNam

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

ananthapadmanAbha dAsan

krishNArpaNam