Thirumaalai-3

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

 

" 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"

 

Pranams,

 

Now that the jeevatmas are not capable of understanding the sastras

and acting accordingly emperuman had no other go than to come down

himself to impart us the knowledge as given in the sastras. So he

came to earth taking various avatAras. He saved his bhaktha

Prahaladan in the Narasimha avatAra from the clutches of

Hiranyakasipu .Thus he did "Dushtanigraham and sishta

paripaalanam" in his avatAras. He tried to change the minds of

the people and make them understand his magimai. In rAmAvatAra he

lived and showed how a man should be. As Sri Nammazhvar says "Karpar

EramapirAnai allal mattrum karparo" but have people learnt

anything from rAmA but instead they question the authenticity of Sri

Ramayanam. Why did rAma do this and that? The people have more

crooked knowledge than good thinking. So Emperuman was not

satisfied. He thought probably since rAmAvatAram was fully a

manushyAvatAram people didn't recognize him so now he took the

KrishnAvatAra where he showed his supernatural powers. Now people

like Duriyodhana and others started saying that kannan is doing magic

which is known to them too. Again people didn't believe

emperuman and there was no one to read his geetha and get benefited

by it. Our Acharyas say that Sri Krishna searched for a person, who

was a gyani("Vasudeva Sarvamithi SamahAtma")and unable to find such a

mahatma he returned to his aboard without any satisfaction.

 

In Bhagavat Geetha bhagavan says "Avajananthimam moodha:

Manusheem thanumaasritam".These moodhas think me to be a normal

man and even criticize me). Here PVP analyses to whom Krishna is

referring as moodhas? Is it Shisupalan and others who insulted

Krishna? No. Those people where created with that svabhavam to

criticize and talk ill of Krishna. So Krishna knows very well that,

that is what can be expected from them. Then whose behaviour worries

the paramAtma? Those people who were created to do mangalaasaasanam

to him also criticize him and ask can rAma do this can Krishna do

this etc. Only the behaviour of such persons pains the lord. Sri

Mamunigal names these personalities as Astika Nastikargal. They say

they believe god and go to the temple to do prartanai but in public

they question the authenticity of the avatAras of the Bhagavan. Only

the activities of such people troubles bhagavan and even in AmAvatAra

he says "Mam avamanye" they are insulting me. There

emperuman goes to the extent of saying not only the jeevans here but

also the devas(trijaseeshvaraha) fail to respect the bhagavan and

they start talking ill of him. Here we have to remember the

Govardhana leela of Sri Bhagavan where Indra talks ill of Sri Krishna

and tries to wash out whole of gokulam. So now Emperuman realized

that though he had come in person people, fail to realize him and

fall under his feet.

 

Even after so much insults the dhayai of bhagavan made him to think

out another way to liberate all the jeevatmas from the endless

miseries of the samsara. So now he decided to send the Alwars who

were considered to be the Abhinava DasAvathArAs. Like catching a

deer by sending another deer or catching a elephant with the help of

another trained elephant Bhagavan sent alwars who were Jeevatmas but

with full of gyanam and bhakthi to correct us and lead us to the

divine feet of emperuman. As Nammazhvar says "Kaliyum kedum

kandukonmin". These alwars came to earth to reduce the kali

gooram. So they concentrated on the kaliyuga dharmam that is the

bhaagavata dharmam. The bhaagavata puranam indicates the avatara of

the alwars as follows:

"Kalau kalau bhavishyanti Naarayana paraayanaaha kvashit kvashin

Maharaja dravidesucha Bhoorishaha: Tambarabarni nadhi yatra

kritamaala payasvini kavericha mahapunyam pratichita

Mahanadhi……….bhagavatee vasudeve amalaachayaha"

This sloka shows that in kali Saadhoos will be born mainly in south

India mainly in the banks of the rivers like tambarabarani, kaveri,

Vaikai, paalaru etc. This clearly shows that this sloka refers to

the avatara of the alwars who where born similarly in the banks of

the various rivers. What will these alwars do? "Yatra

Sangeerthanenaiva" says Bhagavatam they will sing the praise of

the lord. And what the alwars sung are now called as the Nalayira

Divya Prabhandam commonly called as Arulicheyal.

 

The alwars were `Mayarvara madi nalam arulappetravargal'.

That is the lord bestowed them with bhakthi and gyana by himself so

there is no doubt in their absolute knowledge. So we Srivaishnavas

consider the arulicheyal more important than even the Vedas and use

it for the thiruvaaraadanam of the bhagavan everyday. Even the lord

shows the importance of the arulicheyal by following the ghosthi in

all his purappadu and also listening to them during the adyayana

utsavams. According to us all the sastrams are present inside the

Arulicheyals itself. In present day we are all incapable of learning

all the sastras so to make us learn all the arthas the crux of all

the sastras has been provided by the alwars in their paasurams.

 

Let us see how all the sastra arthas are present in the arulicheyals

in the next posting.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan