Thirumaalai-4

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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 let us see how our Acharyas found all the arthas of the sastras

in the Nalayiram paasurams itself. Nammazhvar gave 4 Prabhandams.

As every one knows Sri Sadagopan is regarded as "Vedam thamizh

seidha Maaran" in our sampradhayam. This was proved by Periya Perumal

by accepting the request of Sri Thirumangai alwar to hear the tamizh

vedam of alwar as par with the sanskrit vedam during the adhyayana

utsavam. Even today during the adyayana utsavam all divya desa

perumals listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham with great joy.

Nammazhwar's first prabhandham Thiruviruttam is considered as Rig

veda Saaram. Thiruvaasiriyam is regarded as Yajur veda saaram. We

all know the famous Thiruvaimozhi is regarded as Sama veda saaram and

Periya Thiruvandhadhi is considered as Atharvana veda saaram.

 

"Maaran panittha tamizh maraikku mangaiyarkOn Arangan koora

avadarittha" says Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his Upadesa Ratna

maalai. So Sri Thirumangai alwars six prabhandams namely, Periya

thirumozhi, Thirukurundhandagam, Thiruvezhunkootrirukkai, Siriya

Thirumadal , Periya Thirumadal and Thirunedundhandagam are regarded

as the six angas(shikshai, vyakaranam, chandas, kalpam, niruththam

and Jhotisham for sanskrit vedam) to the tamizh vedams of

Nammazhvar. Next our Acharyas consider Itihasa purAnams as

pramAnams. Sri KulasekarAlwAr's PerumAl Thirumozhi gives us the

extract of Sri RAmAyanam. PeriyAzhvAr, NAchiyar got themselves

involved in krishnAnubhavam and gave us the substance of Srimad

Bhaagavatam and Sri Vishnu purAnam(Krishna leela) in their

prabhandams, PeriyAzhvar thirumozhi, ThiruppAvai and NAchiyar

thirumozhi. One part of Sri Vishnu purAnam is Sri Vishnu dharmam

which was given importance by Sri Thondaradi podi Alwar. So

Thirumaalai is regarded as par with Sri Vishnu dharmam, which mainly

deals with explaining the magimai of bhagavan nAmam.

 

Vedas are many in number "AnanthAvai VedA:" . It is

impossible for anyone to learn all in his lifetime. Infact there is

a legend according to which sage Bharadwaj started learning the

Vedas. Even after his first life tenure he was unable to complete so

he requested Indra to give him one more lifetime. Similarly 2 or 3

lifetimes passed then Indra asked the sage what he will do if he

gives him one more lifetime. The sage replied I will again learn

more of the Vedas. Then Indra showed the sage 4 mountains and took a

hand full of mud from it and said the amount you have learnt in all

these life times is only this handful and there is yet 4 large

mountains of Vedas to be learnt. So it is impossible for anyone to

learn all. There goes a saying in tamil "kattradu kaiman alavu

kallAdhadhu vulagalavu". Probably this saying could have got its

origin from the above story. So what bhagavan advices

is "YaavAnarthe udapAne sampluthah: sampluthodhake" (learn how much

is essential for you). Our Acharyas also regarded this as the prime

motto. Even Periyazhvar is praised in his thaniyan as "vENdiya

vEdangal Odhi". Does this mean there is something called vENdiya

vedam (required vedam) and vENdadha Vedam(unrequired Vedam)? The

part of vedam which is essential for us is called the vENdiya Vedam.

As different parts are for different adikaris and according to

different yugAms the adhikaris keep changing. So we should learn

what is essential for us. How do we know which is essential for us

and which is not? Only to tell us that emperuman by his apaara

kaarunyam sent the alwars,who like giving us the juice from a fruit

extracted the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and gave us through

their paasurams.

 

That is why our Acharyas spent most of their time in learning the

inner meanings of the prabhandams. Even Sri Ramanuja who spent a lot

of time in analysing Brahma sutras and Vedanta, to disprove the

advaitins and other philosophers is supposed to have taken guide from

the tamil paasurams to do so("etthai kondu orunga veduvar). And

Swamy Desikan says "TeliyAdha Marai Porulum Theliya kandom"

that he understood the meanings of hard core VedAnta with the help of

the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham. So we have to leave the Asaaram,

Alpasaaram, saaram, saarataram in the Vedas and learn only the

Saaratamam. A Srivaishanavan is supposed to be like a kOzhi(hen),

that is like a hen which digs through all the dust and picks the

things essential to it alone, a srivaishnavan is also supposed to dig

through all the sastras and retain in his mind the essential parts

alone. That our Acharyas have found to be absolutely present in the

arulicheyals. We are all lucky to be born in kali. When everyone

says kali is gooram and very difficult to live in, you may wonder why

I say that we are lucky. It is because we need not do tapas like the

rishis are medidate on the god for years together in a forest. It is

very easy to attain him. We have got the arulicheyals which give us

the meanings of the Vedanta in a simplified easily understandable

form. To add to this we have the strotras and vyakhyAnams and other

works of our Acharyas which makes our job very very easy. And more

over in kali we can attain emperuman by just doing nAmasankeertanam.

Whatever palan the rishis and others in the other yugams attained by

doing great tapas and yAgAs we can attain the same palan in a simple

way by just uttering his nAmAs. Even the persons born in the other

yugas wonder how lucky we are all to be born in kali to enjoy the

sweet bhakthi flooded poetry of the alwars and other bhakthas. That

is why kali is regarded as saadhu and only way to attain emperuman is

thirunAma keertanam.

 

So that is why Sri Thondaradipodi Alwar's Thirumaalai is regarded

superior to the other prabhandams as it talks mainly about the nAma

magimai and how a person in kali can easily attain Emperuman's

feet without much effort. Sri PVP who is called as "VyakhyAna

cakravarthi" has given an excellent ManipravAla commentary. Our

Acharyas have given the commentaries in manipravAlam which is a

mixture of tamil and Sanskrit. The vyakhyAnams are so sweet usually

elders say it to be like a mixture of honey and milk (ThEnum pAlum

kalandhAr pol). Our Acharyas have kept us a great nidhi of such

vyakhyAnams for enjoying which one janma is not enough. One doubt

may arise in our minds now. When the alwars prabhandams are in tamil

why are the vyakhyAnams in Manipravaalam. That is because during the

time of the Acharyas there were many people who failed to accept the

supremacy of the alwArs paasurams and said that they cannot be

regarded as par with the Sanskrit vEdam so to disprove these people

the Acharyas had to show that the alwAr paasurams contained nothing

but vedAnta vishayam and hence had to take the manipravAlam style so

that even the others could understand the vyakhyAnams.

 

In the next posting we will see what is the actual essence of

Thirumaalai.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan