Thirumaalai-1

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

Pranams,

 

By the divine grace of the Sriya:pathi Sriman Narayanan let us all

now enjoy the beautiful meanings in the Prabhandam of Sri

Thondaradipodi Alwar's, THIRUMAALAI. Adiyen's posting will

be based

on the upanyasams of Sri Sri Krishna Premi anna on Thirumalai based

on Sri Periyavaachan Pillai's Vyakhyanam. This is a great task

which

adiyen hopes to complete successfully by the divine grace of Sri

Parthasarathi emperuman. I beg the pardon of the members for any

errors which may arise due to adiyen's ignorance and lack of

knowledge.

 

" Mattrondrum Venda Maname Madhilarangar

Kattrinum meitha kazhalinai keezh- uttra

Thirumaalai paadum seer Thondaradipodi Emperumaanai

Eppozhudum peesu"

 

" Srimat Krishna samahvaya Namo yaamuna soonave

yetkadakshai kalakshyanam sulabha: Sridara: sadaa"

 

The charitram of Sri Thondaradi podigal is known to all. Emperuman

played his leela on this Alwar and changed Vipra Narayanan to Sri

Thondaradi podi Alwar. After experiencing the hardship due to the

kama of worldly pleasures alwar realizes the ultimate joy In bhagavat

vishayam. This is the summary of the prabhandham we are going to

talk about. Book knowledge is valid only to a level, experience is

absolute. When even for a lowkika job experience is asked for.

Similarly to attain kainkarya of bhagavan in paramapadam also we

need experience in this world on the same. Alwar thus advices us to

fall under the divine feet of emperuman, telling us his experience of

miseries in this world and also the joy he got from bhagavat

bhaagavata sheshatvam. Let us all plunge into the divine arthas of

the prabhandham.

 

When there are so many other prabhandhams why chose Thirumaalai. Let

us just look into this first. This prabhandam is not very short like

Amalanaadhipiran nor is it very big like Thiruvaimozhi or Periya

thirumozhi. It is a prabhandam which is short and sweet in easy

tamil. But since I say easy tamil it doesn't mean the standard

of

tamil is less, it is in Sanga Tamizh only. Any person born in this

world as a Tamizhan that too a Srivaishnavan should surely byheart

this prabhandham. It is not difficult , even a small child can

byheart this very easily. Within this small prabhandham alwar gives

almost all the essential arthas. It doesn't contain Vedanta like

Thiruchandavirutham but contains all the necessary arthas for the

upliftment for any jeevatma. Alwar talks the parathvam of emperuman

in such a superb manner that we can say no other alwar has so

explicitly talked about the same. Though this prabhandam is

basically to prove only the thirunAma magimai. Alwar talks about the

govinda nAma at large. Suddenly the alwar gets involved in the divya

mangala vigraham of the bhagavan when he says "pachaimaamalai pol

Meni" etc. Then he does Jnana and vairakya upadesam to samsaris

like

us. He also condemns the durmathangal and establishes the vaideka

matham that too the vaishnava matham . Then he preaches bhakthi and

prapatti. He even teaches us how to sing/cry in front of the

bhagavan whole heartedly("Voorilane Kaaniyillai vuravu

mattroruvarellai"). He gives us the jist of how a bhagavat

bhaktha

should be.

 

Sri Periyavaachan Pillai whose glory cannot be explained with words

has given an excellent vyakhyanam to this prabhandam. When we read

alwar's prabhandam we feel that we understand the meaning(due to the

easy tamil used by alwar) but when we go through the vyakhyanam of

Sri PVP we will surely find many more arthas(inner meanings) that can

never strike our mandha bhuddhi. That is why our acharyas always talk

only with respect to the vyakhyanams and others who talk as they

feel are considered as moorkhas. As Sri Mamunigal says

"Thanjenjil thoondrinadhaye solli edu suttha upadesa vaarthai enbaar

moorkaraavar".

 

We all think that we are undergoing so much miseries in this world .

Very often people curse bhagavan to have put us into such

difficulties and think what ever effort they do is great but actually

emperuman undergoes more pain by seeing his children suffering and

tries to take us out of this in some way or the other. But we

samsaris stick to the world and refrain from even going near

bhagavan. Even though Emperuman is Sathya sankalpan and has all

divine qualities we prove to be more powerful and so we make it a

point not to give bhagavan even a small chance to release us from

this samsarakadal. As she Nammazhvar said we prefer to eat and say

here itself("atthai thindru ange kidakkum").

So Sri PVP starts his avadharikai asking who is a samsari? Why does

PVP ask such a question? He could have asked who is a Jnani who is a

Nityasoori etc since we cannot find many Jnani here or a Nitya soori

but why does he ask who is a samsari? We will find the answer to

this in the next posting.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan