Thirumaalai-12

[Guest guest]

[ From Smt. Sumithra Varadarajan ]

 

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

 

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

 

 

“ Mattrondrum vEinda 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,

 

Thondaradipodi alwar who started the prabhandam to show the importance of

nAma sankeetanam and what results it fetches to the baddha jeevatmas, in

the second paasuram wanted to do nAma sankeertanam himself. He thereby

started singing the praise of periya perumal by visiualising emperuman as

Andal says “VayinAl pAdi Manatthinal sindikka”(sing the praise of bhagavan

with your mouth and think about him in your mind). But then when he saw

the beauty of emperuman’s thirumEni (body) he got immersed in it. Then

now he suddenly realises that he wanted to do nAma keetanam and not to

sing the beauty of emperuman and so now he calls emperuman by his names

Achchuta! Amararere! and so on.

 

 

Achchutha!!! Amararere!!! : Achchutha is one of the prime nAmas of the

emperuman which means that he is one who never leaves his devotees. He

takes care of his devotees at any point of time. Since we are more

concerned with him protecting us, it is one of the nAmas the bhakthas like

to utter often. So here alwar wants to prove to the world the supreme

Sriman Narayanan, who is otherwise called Achchutan never leaves his

devotees to fate and hence he is the only person who we can trust in all

crucial circumstances. Many people may say, they will save us but will

not be able to keep up their words always, including the devatas and also

the brahma or rudran but the only saviour at all times is achchutan.

People may then question how alwar can say that the other devatas who give

results quicker than emperuman do not save us so now alwar then says

Amararere thereby proving that even those devatas are governed only by the

supreme Sriman Narayanan. He is the king of AmarAs(Devargal). Even in

Thirumangai Alwar’s Thirunedundandagam he says “Mai vanna …………. Devarendru

anjinome”(though he is beautiful, one who is standing in front of me but I

fear if he is a deva who is unapproachable by ordinary human). So it is

natural tendency of a human to fear while thinking of a deva. So if

achchutan is devadhEvan(king of kings) then we will never go near him.

But then alwar says though he has supreme powers he has a great guna

called sowlabhyam which makes him to come to us and play his leela with us

like one among us. So thereby the alwar proceeds to talk about the

krishna avatara.

 

 

Ayartham kozhundhe!!! ennum: The lord who is the supreme took birth in a

cow herd where the gopi’s and gopan’s knew no veda or vedanta. They were

illiterate people who didn’t even know how to count the number of cows

they had. But one thing which was flooding in them where their love to

krishna. Thereby the lord proved that he doesn’t expect anything

(education or money or wealth etc) other than the pure love in our hearts

towards him. So Alwar with joy calls emperuman to be ‘Ayartham kozhundhu’

which means he was a small sapling in the cowherd. Sri Krishna never

enjoyed people calling him as paratatvam but instead liked to be called

“Hey krishna, Hey yAdhava, Hey sakethi” as arjuna called him often.

Though the alwars talked a lot about the paratvam of bhagavan but they got

immersed only in his sowlabhyam and always meditated on the rAma krishna

avataaras. Even Nammazhvar who was steady all along till the first 20

paasurams totally looses himself when he taught about the sowlabhyam of

bhagavan, while he got himself tied by his mother, yesodha(another

illiterate gopi). Nammazhvar fainted and remained so for 6 months before

he could really come to normal(“pattrudai adiyavargalukku eliyavan”).

Why does alwar say kozhundhe? Though azhvars get involved in all the

leelas throughout the krishnAvatAra they seem to like the bAla leelas more

than his madura or dwaraka leelas. They like kutti gopala krishnan even

more than the geethacharyan though all their prabhandams are based on the

bhagavat geetha. Seeing geethacharyan we get respect but while seeing

santana gopalan our love or motherhood flourishes and so we want to play

with the kid irrespective of any Achara anushtanam. So like calling his

son alwar calls emperuman here.

 

 

Echchuvai tavira yAn pOi indiralokam Alum: Alwar sung the above verses so

deeply that emperuman thought that alwar has jumped from singing thirunAma

magimai to sing his physical beauty. So he kidded alwar saying that he

himself said only thirunAma keertanam is the topmost and now he himself

has lost for the thirumEni azhaghu. But then alwar bravely replied that

it is not at all necessary for him to see the bhagavan it is enough if he

sits in a place and keeps saying achchuta, amararere, Ayartham kozhundhe

etc. The sweetness of the nAmas give him the utmost joy even if he

doesn’t go and stand in front of the bhagavan. But the beauty of the nAma

is that it will attract bhagavan and make him to come in front of the

bhakthan like he did in the case of gajendrazhvan. He ran to the call of

the bhaktha.

Now bhagavan wanted to tempt alwar with the happiness and luxury of the

svargam or indra lokam. So alwar replies leaving the happiness of sitting

in SriRangam and doing bhagavan nAma keertanam I will never want to come

to indralokam even if you give it free. Here PVP says when we compare two

places they should be of equal nature. Can we compare SriRangam which is

bhoologa vaikuntam with svargam(indralokam)? It is known that the joy in

indra lokam is temperory and that after our credits(punyams) are over we

are pushed back to samsara. So PVP feels that we cannot compare it with

SriRangam and hence says here the indralokam is none other the

SriVaikundam since emperuman is also called as indiran. So here alwar

even denies Srivaikundan like Anjeneya who denied to go to paramapadam

with Sri rAma saying “bhAvo nanyatra gachchathi” that he wants only Sita

rAma darshan and not the darshan of paramapadanAthan and he will stay in

this world and keep enjoying the essence of rAmayanam and will stand in

any place where rAmayana pArAyanam is done(“yatra yatra raghunAtha

keertanam tatra tatra kruthamasta kanchanim pAshpavAri paripoorna lochanam

maruthim”). Hanuman was immersed in the vibhavAvatAram and hence didn’t

want to go to paramapadam and similarly the alwars where immersed in the

archAvatAram and hence they wanted to stay like a grass or worm in the

Divya desams and didn’t even prefer a royal life in the paramapadam. Even

kulasekara alwar says that he prefers some birth in thirumalai rather than

attaining moksha(“Emperuman ponmalai mEl Adenum Avene”-perumal

Thirumozhi). These alwars enjoyed the purappadu, utsavams, kainkaryam,

alangaram and beauty and leelas of the archAvadara emperuman and hence

wanted to always have the same anubhavams. Since they didn’t know for

sure if such anubhavams where present in paramapadam or not they didn’t

want to take a risk and go to the paramapadam since once we go there we

can never come back(“na cha punarAvarthate”)

 

 

Achchuvai perinum vEndEn ArangamAnagarulAne: Now we see that in the first

half of the paasuram Sri Thondaradi podi alwar called periya perumal with

his various thirunAmams and then he says that if he is blessed to sit in

SriRangam and sing the praise of the lord like this even though he doesn’t

get the direct darshan of the bhagavan he will prefer to stay here even if

bhagavan is ready to grant him moksha. Alwar says even if I get that

great aboard I do not want it. Alwar wants only to stay in srirangam and

do bhagavat bhaagavata kainkaryam. Sri parAsara bhattar, son of

koorathazhvan(prime disciple of sri rAmanuja) expresses similar feeling in

one of his strotras. He explains why he doesn’t want to go to svargam or

even to the moksham. He says “hey bhagavan! Please don’t send me to the

svargam where the devas are busy drinking amrutham and are in the constant

look out of urvasi or rambai to give them the sensual pleasures. Instead

of enjoying in the gardens of the deva loka I would rather prefer to be a

street dog in Sri Rangam”. Here the acharya doesn’t even want to be born

in a high caste or not even as a human he prays to the lord to give him

birth in srirangam. He is not even worried what sort of a birth it is.

He says it is even ok if you make me a street dog in Sri Rangam because

though then I will not be eligible to go inside a temple still Namperumal

will come out for Veedhe purappadu. At that time I will stay in a corner

and enjoy the beauty of the bhagavan. Even if I miss him the emperuman

will put his kadaksham(divine grace) on me. So Sri bhattar says Srirangam

is a better place even if you are a low birth than svargam. Then

emperuman told bhattar that then he will grant him moksham which is

emperuman’s divine aboard. Then bhattar replied I accept it but I will go

there and see if the same ThirumENi beauty and kolakalam of Namperumal

doesn’t exist in paramapadanAthan then I will pinch a hole at one corner

of the sky and jump back to Sri Rangam.

For the word Indira lokam PVP gives interpretation as vaikundam. He says

“Brahmendradi sabtangal paramarta vachagam”(the words brahma, Indra etc

refers to bhagavan only). In Sri bhashyam there is one full chapter with

deals with the same subject(IndraprAnAdikaranam). To our surprise all

these alwars and acharyas directly talk to the bhagavan than to any of the

samsaris.

 

 

We will continue in the next posting.

 

 

 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

 

Sumithra Varadarajan