IDU OR ARPUDAM KELEER PART 2

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Vaishnava perunthagaiyeer,

 

Sri lakshmi nrusimha divya paadukaa sEvaka SrivaN satakOpa Sri Vedaanta

dEsika yateendra mahaa dEsikaaya namah:

[inserted on 2.9.99] Before I present my comments on Srimaan Srinivasan's

swamy's post I will include the post itself for your information for a clear

understanding.

 

Sub: Re idu or arpudam keleer

Namo naaraayaNa, Sri Vasudevan in his article "idu or arpudam keleer" wrote:

"Actually periyaazhwar never says kuzhal vaasikka, [flute] it is only ootha-

there is lot of difference between vaasikka and ootha. If the instrument is

casually played, it is ootha. With all sincerity and devotion, if it is

played then it is vaasikka. So Govindan simply oothina podE ippadi

arpudangal. Vaasiththaal enna enna nigazhumO? That is why in the last

paasuram aazhwaar says for his oothinaththukkE, it is amudap punal".

 

At the outset let me state that it brings joy and pleasure to read your

articles. I have always wished that I could appreciate the beauty of the

divya prabhandham the way all of you do. Hopefully some day or rather in

some life PerumaL will help me in this effort.

 

Let me confess that my tamizh is sub-par, and may be I should think twice in

bringing this up.But nevertheless here it is. Is it possible that

periyaazhvaar preferred using "ootha" to "vaasikka" for the following

reason. As you rightly pointed out, ootha is more casual approach. But then

vaasikka is to recite. One usually recites what is known, whereas if it is a

casual approach, chances are this is being played for the first time or

attempting some thing new. May be there is no need for perumaL to recite

since whom is HE going to show HIS sincerity or devotion to?

 

Also HE being the creator, HE is never wrong, be it creating a tune or a

world. The fact that we are so much in awe when it comes to HIM even a

casual playing of a tune from HIM is nothing but perfection for us. In a way

we should be happy that he was casual about it lest we would be drowned in

the ocean of joy with no recovery. AdiyEn Ramanuja dasan (srinivasan).

 

Thanks for the responses from Srimaan MadhavakkaNNan swamy, and Srimaan

Srinivasan swamy (vasan). Before we go into the next part, I

would like to add following points.

 

1. Srimaan Srinivasan swamy concurs with me, saying ootha is more

casual in approach. He adds vaasikka is to recite. Actually, while playing

the flute, air is blown into the kuzhal from mouth, the fingers control the

length of the air column, by closing the holes along the length of the

flute, thereby music is produced. So technically the word ootha is correct,

since any flautist blows air into the flute to give out music.

 

2. Vaasikka is to recite as per Swamin. In tamil 'vaasikka' is 'to read

loudly' 'padi urakka'. Can be taken as 'recite' also since recitation is

repeatedly reading same matter loudly or repeatedly speaking same matter

loudly. Actually 'vaachika' in samskrit is 'oral' if used as adjective and

'a message' if used as noun. So reading loudly, reciting loudly is vachika.

Same word is used vasikka in tamil. In musical parlance vaasikka gets added

emphasis 'with sincerity and devotion'. This is what I mentioned earlier. To

create the impact and easy understanding of the depth of music, added the

comparison between ootha and vaasikka.

 

3. Srinivasan Swami also adds "to whom he is is he going to show HIS

sincerity or devotion to?" In gita the sarva swamy KrishNan says

"na mE paartha asthi karthavyam thrishu lOkEshu kinchana

naanavaapthamavaapthavyam vartha Eva cha karmaNi"

 

"yadhi hyaham na varthEyam jaathu karmaNyathanthritha:

mama varthmaanuvarthanthE manushyaa: paartha sarvasca:"

 

Oh Arjuna, I do not have any duty, I have nothing to obtain, in

spite of this position I do my duty (work). If I do not do my duty like this

people will follow me in not doing duty".

 

So he has to show his sincerity in every thing he is doing. The

result of his sincerity is very nicely expressed by periyaazhvaar as amudhap

punal, arpudham etc (which is the subject of these postings).

 

4. Srimaan Srinivaasan swamy adds "in a way, we should be happy that he

was casual about it, lest, we would be drowned in the ocean of joy with no

recovery". I am sure, we all want Him to be serious and we get drowned in

HIS music without any recovery, not even signs of recovery.

 

Is it not such an aanandam to get drowned in HIS music? Do we really

need a recovery? - come back to normal senses after enjoying that music from

HIM, my beloved KrishNaa - appadiyE karainthu vidavallavaa aasai - recovery-

NO.

 

Is it not such a koduppinai to see him with our eyes, to listen to

his music with our ears, to get drowned in His music- appadiyE karainthu

avanOdu aikkiyamaai vida- the bhagyam gOpees had- kidaikkumaa antha

bhagyam? - oh krishnaa.

 

I feel the bodies of these gOpees were only floating around after

the music session, till the time they were destined to shed the bodies,

because the soul is already aikkiyamaaivittathu in Krishnan.

 

At least for giving a session of that drowning music HE must come

again, may be for a short duration, for 'dharmasamsthaapanaarthaaya' on

another occasion but now to give only the music, oh krishnaa why not you

come and give that music?

 

5. Periyaazhvaar very nicely links KaNNan with narasingham. On this an

interesting episode.

 

KaNNan came to DuryOdanan's sabai as "innaar thoodhena" (please

recall kaasaiyaadai paasuram of Thiru mangai mannan). He pleaded for kingdom

first for the PaaNdavaas, when refused he pleaded for 5 towns, 5 villages

and 5 houses etc. All these were refused. DuryOdanan negatived everything.

Then Kannan asks "Hey duryOdana is war the only way? Are you sure you will

not retreat on your words? En meethu Sathyamaaga nee paandavargaLukku onRum

thara maattaaya?". Immediately duryOdanan thooNin meethu arainthu sathaym

seithu said "NO" (promised by beating the pillar nearby and said a firm No).

Kannan laughed and said to himself, "naan ivanai en meethu sathyamaaga

kettEn, ivan en thaai meethu allavaa sathyam seigiraan", (I asked for the

promise on me but this fellow gives it on my mother).

 

How suddenly Kannan claims pillar is his mother. Because in his

previous narasingha avathaaram, he was born from the thooN. So pillar is

kaNNan's mother.

 

Now let us go back to our topic. In the previous posting, we saw who is the

karunchirukkan and how is considered by Periyaazhvaar as thirumaal,

naagaththaNaiyaan etc. Now let us see what is the arpudam as described by

periyaazhvaar.

 

3.6.1. kOvalar sirumiyar iLankongai kudhukalippa udal uL avizhnthu engum

kaavalum kadanthu kayiru maalaiyaagi vanthu kavizhnthu ninRanarE.

 

3.6.2 MadamayilkaLOdu maan piNaipOlE mangaimaar malarkkoonthal avizha udai

negizha oru kaiyaal thugil paRRi olgiyOdarikaNaada ninRanarE.

 

3.6.3 VaaniLampadiyar vanthu vantheeNdi manamurugi malarkkaNgal panippa

thEnaLavu seri koonthal avizha senni vErppach chevi sErthu ninRanarE.

 

3.6.4 MEnakaiyOdu thilOththamai arambai uruppasi aravar veLgi mayangi

vaanagampadiyil vaai thirappinRi aadal paadal avai maarinar thaamE.

 

3.6.5 Nannarampudaiya thumburuvOdu naaradanum veeNai maRanthu kinnara

mithunangaLum tham tham kinnaram thodugilOm enRanarE.

 

3.6.6 ambaram thiriyum kaanthapparellaam amuda geetha valaiyaal surukkundu

nam paramenRu naaNi mayangi nainthu sOrnthu kai maRiththu ninRanarE.

 

3.6.7 AmaralOkaththaLavum senRu isaippa avi uNaa maRanthu vaanavarellaam

aayar paadi niraiyap pugunthu eeNdi seviuNaavin suvai koNdu magizhnthu

govindanaith thodarnthu enRum vidaarE.

 

3.6.8 Paravaiyin kaNangaL koodu thuranthu vanthu padu kaadu kidappa

karavaiyin kaNangaL kaal parappittu kavizhnthirangi seviyaattagillaavE.

 

3.6.9 MaruNdu maan kaNangaL mEigai maRanthu mEintha pullum kadai vai vazhi

sOra iraNdu paadum thulungaap pudai peyaraa ezhuthu chiththiram pOl

ninRanavE.

 

3.6.10 MarangaL ninRu madhu thaaraigaL paayum malargaL veezhum vaLar

kombugaL thaazhum irangum koombum thirumaal ninRa ninRa pakkam nOkki avai

seyyum guNamE.

 

In these 10 paasurams the first two are at human level (

manithargaLaippaRRi)

 

The next five are the devaas level (dEvargaLaippaRRi)

 

Next three are the five sensed animals and birds level (miruga, thavara

vagaigaLaippaRRi)

>From this it is clear that every thing in the world is brought under the

influence of kaNNan's music and all chethana vasthukkal lost their balance

and were simply kattip podappattadhu.

 

How and what is the meaning of each portion etc we will see in next posting.

 

Dasan Vasudevan M.G.