Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi, Velukkudi Swamy Upanyasam (English Translation)

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Volume XIV :-

 

Volume Title : Dhrishtaadhrishta Phalamaagiya Iraamanusa Thirunaamam

 

In the last issue we saw why we do not have to worry about anything

if we have sambandham of Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam.

 

Now we continue with the next phrase in the thaniyan :-

 

"Muni thandha nootru ettu saavithiri.."

 

Here Muni means emperumaan and not "Amudanaar".

When Amudanaar gave us the Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi which is

equivalent to the Gyaathri Manthram then why does Muni represent

here "emperumaan" and not Amudanaar?

 

The reason why Muni is used here is :-

 

When emperumaan wants to create this world He starts doing Dhyaanam.

As a result He first creates Brahma and then Shiva and then Devaas

and so on. For creating each of these He does dhyaanam (Meditation).

Who does Dhyaanam ? It is the Rishis. Rishis are also called

Munis. Hence the name "muni" here points to emperumaan and not

Amudanaar.

 

"Muni thandha nootru ettu saavithiri.." means the 108 Gaayathri

Manthram which is the essence of all vedaas that was first ever

recited by emeprumaan Himself and hence the phrase "Muni thandha

nootru ettu saavithiri..".

 

Swamy Naamaazhwaar says :-

 

Munimaa pirama mudavitha..

 

Meaning :- "Who exists even before Brahmaa and everything

else in this world."

 

Also "Muniye Naanmgane Mukkannappaa.."

 

Meaning :- "Oh. My lord Muni is He who does dhyaanam to

create this world, who Himself is brahmaa the Naanmugan and who is

Shiva the mukkannappan.."

 

Hence one who does dhyaanam is called "Muni".

 

But why the word Muni used here for the creator, emperumaan?

 

It is just to make us remember that it was this Muni emeprumaan who

created Brahmaa through Dhyaanam. It was this Muni who taught the 4

Vedaas to Brahmaa. It was this Muni who also gave the essence of 4

Vedaas which is the Gaayathri Manthram, to Brahmaa. Hence "Muni

thandha nootru ettu saavithiri..".

 

 

"Gaayathrim Chandasaam Maathaa.."

 

Gaayathri is considered as the mother of Vedaas. If a child

exists, there exists a mother.Hence if Vedaas exist then its

mother also exists which is the Gayaathri Manthram. When

emperumaan gave this Gaayathri Manthram to Brahmaa, He gave

it along with the Pranavam in the beginning of the manthram.

This Gaayathri manthram along with the Pranavam is recited

108 times by all vaidhikaas. Pranavam was alo given along

with this manthram because, Pranavam is considered to be

the essence of the Gaayathri Manthram and Gaayathri Manthram

is the essence of the Vedaas and hence, "Muni thandha nootru ettu

savithiri ennu nunn porulai.." where the phrase "nootru ettu

savithiri ennu nunn porulai.." represents the above

explanation. "Nunn porul" here means Pranavam which is nothing but

the essence of the Gaayathri manthram.

 

Hence in this "Nunn Porull" which is Pranavam, we have three

letters A, U, Ma (to be pronounced as in Tamil). Here the

letter 'A', called as "Akaaram" represents the Paramaathmaa, "U"

which is called as "Ukaaraam" represents the "Thaayaar", and the "Ma"

which is called "Makaaram" represents the Jeevaathmaa or the

Chethana. This constitutes the Pranavam. Otherwise these three

letters can also indicate Sri Raamaa, Seethaa and Lakshmana. When

Raamaa, Seethaa and Lakshmanaa went to Dhandakaaranyam (Forest)

Raamaa went first, Seetha was in the middle and Lakshmana was walking

behind Her.

 

This is indicated in Raamaayanam :-

 

"Agratha: prayO rama: seetha madhye sumdhyamaa

drishtathasthu dhanushpaani: laskshmana: anuja dhaama"

 

If we try to equate the letters in "Pranavam" with Raamaa,

Seetha and Lakshmanaa then "A" represents paramaathmaa who

is Sri Ramaa here, "U" represents Thaayaar who is Seethaa

here, "Ma" represents the Jeevaathmaa who is the Laskhmana who

is always seshan (Daasan or slave) to emperumaan to do

kainkaryams. In this order the Paramaathmaa always is at the

higher stage and Jeevaathmaa is in its lower state. If the

Jevaathmaa has to reach Paramaathmaa, then someone has to show

the path to the Jeevaathmaa. Hence Thaayaar acts as a link to

show this path to the Jeevaathmaa. Similarly when Lakshmana

wanted to join Ramaa and Seethaa for dhandakaaranyam Raamaa

did not agree. But it was Seetha who supported Lakshmana for

Raamaa's kainkaryam. Hence Seethaa showed the path for the

Jeevaathmaa.

 

The meaning of the three letters in Pranavam is a pleasure to

know. The significance of the three letters itself is so

interesting. If we think of the relative predominance given among

these three letters, it is for the "Akaaram A" that the highest

priority is assigned.

 

But if we look at the meaning of the letters, the

Jeevaathmaa gets the priority. The reason is like this :-

 

If the aachaaryan teaches us the Ashtaaksharam which has the

Pranavam in it, is he going to get any benefit out of it ? No.

It is the Jeevaathmaa who is going to experience the fruits

of knowing the meaning of it. Similary if we take the battle in

Krurukshethra where emperumaan Kannaan did Gitopadesam to

Paarthan (Arjuna), it was Arjuna who was given importance.

If Arjuna was not there, who would Krishna have told this to?

Hence if we consider the meaning of the letters in the

Pranavam the importance is given to the makaaram " Ma"

which represents the Jeevaathma whereas if we consider the

significance or importance of just the letters in the Pranavam

the importance is given to "Akaaram A" which is

Paramaathmaa.

 

To combine these two, exists the "Piraati" or "Thaayaar" which

is "ukaaram" who links the Jeevaathmaa to Paramaathmaa.

 

Hence the "makaaram" is Jeevaathmaa. In the example from

Raamaayana Lakshmana represents the "makaaram" the

Jeevaathmaa who is "Raamaanuja" the brother of Raamaa.

Similarly here also we have emperumaanaar who is "Raamaanujaa".

Even Bharatha was "Raamaanujaa" when we quoted our earlier

example for Drishta and Adhrishta Phalam but we also said that

that might give only Drishta Phalam and Adhrishta Phalam. Here

Swamy Pillai Lokam Jeeyar compares Lakshmana the Jeevaathma to

emperumanaar who is another Jeevaathmaa in our present context.

Hence Ramaanujaa represents "makaaram" here. So as we said

earlier in the context of significance of the meaning of letters

in Pranavnam, the "makaaram" is given importance and hence

"makaaraam" represents "Raamaanujaa" here. Hence

emperumaanaar is given importance. This meaning of Pranavam

has given importance to the Jeevaathmaa (Raamaamnuja).

 

Even when we consider just the Letters in Pranavam the

importance is given to Makaaram through another example.

This is just to state the Jeevaathmaa has significance in

Pranavam both by just letters and also through meanings.

How is Jeevaathmaa considered important by letters ?

 

Lets us consider the following example :-

 

"Sangodu chakkaram endhum thadakkaiyan.."

 

Here thadakkaiyan represents emperumaan. It says emperumaan

holds sangu (Conch), sakkramam (Disc) in his hands. Here even

though emperumaan is important, since the Sangu comes first

by just mere letters, importance is given to Sangu the Conch.

Similarly the Ashtaaksharam which contains Pranavam was given

to the Jeevaathmaa, hence the Jeevaathma gets the importance.

Similarly in the battle of Kurukshethraa Arjuna who is a

Jevaathmaa was behind Krishna Paramaathmaa and Paramaathmaa

was behind but the importance again went to Jeevaathma because

without that Jeevaathmaa Arjuna, emperumana kannan wouldn't

have given us the Gitai. Hence if Jeevaathmaa is behind but

still given importance, in Pranavam too even though the

Jeevaathmaa which is "makaaram" is behind, still it is

given importance. Hence it can be proved that Jeevaathmaa

has importance both by means of mere letters and also the

meaning of each one of them. Now in our context the

Jeevaathmaa is "Raamaanujaa" and hence he is given

importance both by means of letters "Ma" (Jeevaathmaa) and

its inner meaning.

 

Hence "nootru ettu savithiri ennu nunn porulai.."

 

That is Jeevaathmaa is always given importance in Pranavam.

Gaayathri Manthram is the essence of Vedaas and Pranavam is

the essence of the Gaayathri manthram.

 

Similary on our side the equivalent of 108 Gaayathri manthram

is the 108 paasurams of Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi and just

like the essence of Gaayathri Manthram is the Pranavam, the

essence of this Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi is the thirunaamam

"Raamaanujaa". Hence the Raamaanuja Thirunaamam is equivalent

to the Pranavam itself. How ? Pranavam is considered very

important because it gives more importance to the Jeevaathmaa

to whom it is being taught. We already compared this in our

example and stated that "Emperumaanaar" is the Jeevaathmaa in

the "Makaaram". Hence here emperumaanar Raamaanuja

thirunaamam is considered equivalent to the Pranavam and given

importance as it is given to the Jeevaathmaa in the Pranavam.

Hence like Gaayathri Manthram, here we have Iraamaanusa

Nootrandhaadhi and like Pranavam where Jeevaathmaa is

considered important, here we consider Raamaanuja Thirunaamam

which is equivalent to Pranavam itself. Now coming to the

"ukaaram", we can compare "Thaayar" the ukaaram in

Pranavam to the Aachaaryan in our case who is "ukaaram"

and it is our Aachaaryan who links the Jeevaathma

"makaaram" with the Paramaathmaa the "Akaaram". The

only difference in this comparision is, "Thaayar" can show

the "Jeevaathmaa" only the feet of emperumaan but "Aacharyan"

shows the feet of both emperumaan and thaayaar for the

Jeevathmaa. Hence just like "Thaayaar" who is "ukaaram",

here Aachaaryan is "ukaaram". Who is the Aachaaryan

here ?, Our Emperumaanaar. Here now emperumaanaar is considered

as "ukaanram".

 

"Avvaanavarku Mavvaanavar adimai enru Uvvaanavar uraithaar.."

 

Meaning :-

 

Here Avvaanaavar is emperumaan, Mavvaanavar is Jeevaathma and

Uvvaanavar is Thaayaar or Aachaaryan. Hence it is the Uvvaanavar

(Aachaaryan) who teaches us that, the Jeevaathma (Mavvaanaavan)

is always Adimai or Daasan to emperumaan (Avaanavar). This is

what our emperumaanaar also taught us as :-

 

"Sema nal veedum porulum dharumamum, seeriya narkaamamum

engivai naangenbar, naagnum kannanukke aamadhu kaamam

aram porul veedudharkennuraithaaan, vaamanan seelan

Iraamaanusan indha mann misaiye."

 

- (Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi - 40)

 

Meaning :-

 

"In our life we should live in such a way that Dhramam, Artham

(Wealth), Kaamaam (Desire) and even moksham, all these four

should always be attributed to emperumaan Kannan". We may ask

if we chant Raamaanuja thirunaamam how will emperumaan be

satisfied ? Emperumaan will be happy only if we chant His

thirunaamam. This question may arise in us. But in many

instances emperumaan himself says that I like all those who

chant the thirunaamam of my Bhakthan rather than my thirunaamam.

Hence Raamaanuja thirunaamam is given more importance than

emperumaan's thirunaamam.

 

 

Will continue ..

 

 

RAAMAANUJASYA CHARANAU SHARANAM PRAPADYE. SRIMATHE RAAMAANUJAAYA NAMA:

 

 

Vedic Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi Team

http://www.radioramanuja.com