Prapannajana koodasthar-Sri NammAzhvar!!

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri Vanachala mahA munayE Namaha

 

“mAthA pithA yuvadhayas thanyA vibhoothi:

sarvam yadhEva niyamEna madhanvayAnAm I

Atyasya na: kulapathEr vagulAbhirAmam

Srimath thathangri yugalam pranamAmi moordhnA II”

 

Today (12th June 2003) is vAikAsi visAkam, the thirunakshatram dhinam

of our beloved prapannajana koodasthar, “vEdam thamizh seida mAran”,

saTakOpan, kurugoor nambi, Sri Nammazhvar. “vundO vaikAsi

visAkaththukku opporunAl vundO saTakOparkku opporuvar, vundO

thiruvAimozhikku oppu then kurugaikkundO O-r parthanil okkumoor”

wonders Sri manavAla mAmunigal in his excellent upadesa ratinamAlai.

What else can be told about the greatness of Sri nammAzhvar, his

divine work thiruvAimozhi, the day and star on which he was born and

of course the divine place which gave birth to this born genius?

Madurakavi Azhvar, the brilliant shisya of nammazhvar adorns azhvar

as everything to him and says he

knows nothing other than azhvar and his sweet paasurams “dEvu

mattrareyEn kurugoor nambi pAvin en esai pAdi thirivanE”. The head

of our sampradayam is nammazhvar and our sampradayam’s key word is

madurakavi bhAvam (Acharya shisya lakshanam, panchamOpAyam).

 

Nammazhvar is considered as the angi (soul) of all the other Azhvars,

who are considered as his body. Today whatever 4000 paasurams which

we have, even though they were originally given by various Azhvars,

have reached us only through nammazhvar who first gave it to

nAthamunigal. Just sitting under a tamarind tree if a person can do

wonders then it is none other than the “mayarvaru madhinalam

arulappettra” nammAzhvar. He not only changed ordinary people and

attracted them towards his sampradayam through his paasurams, his

charm attracted even the various divya dEsa emperumans who came in

front of azhvar themselves to get azhvar’s mangalAsAsanams.

Thirumangai azhvar reserves the greatness of

going to each and every divya desam and doing mangalAsAsanams but

nammazhvar never visited any divya desam but instead only the

perumals visited him to get mangalAsAsanams from the mouth of azhvar.

Such an exotic azhvar’s greatness cannot be explained by mere words

(“vAchAma gOcharam”).

 

Now let us see how Sri Aalavandaar enjoys calling nammazhvar as all

sort of relation to him. The above given stotra is one of the gems

from the stotra ratnam (5) composed by Sri Aalavandaar.

 

Meaning: Adiyen prostrates to the divine feet of that great azhvar,

who has been the mother, the father, spouse, kid, huge wealth and

everything for all my ancestors, always, and that azhvar who is our

kulapathi, whose divine feet is adorned with a magizhamAlai and

filled with srivaishnavasri.

 

Vyakhyanam:

 

mAthA - A mother, She longs for a kid and hence does all sort of

vrathas before the child develops in the womb, her mind always

worries about the same, then she holds the baby safely in her womb

for 10 months, then she bears the pain during delivering the child,

then she takes atmost care of the child till it grows without caring

about all the filthy things the kid does, she feeds the child in

time irrespective of the child crying or not, ultimately only thing

she wants is the child’s love towards her and wants to be together

always. Sri Nammazhvar wants to be always in the bhagavata

sathsangam of each of one of us and hence is like our mother.

 

pithA – A father, who always works for the upliftment of the child.

When a child does a mistake a mother still showers her love but a

father scolds the child inorder to correct his mistakes and make him

a better person. Sri nammazhvar does hithOpadhEsam (advice) to all

of us irrespective of us shutting our ears towards him.

 

Yuvadhya: - After an age, the youngster forgets both his mother and

father and gets attracted towards his spouse, because of the

sweetness and love between them. Sri Nammazhvar and his prabhandams

are so sweet that we get attracted similarly.

 

thanayA: after the spouse gives birth to a child, one is always

concentrated on the child who relaxes him with his childhood

activities, the child who will take care of him when he becomes old

and sick, the son who will do his last rites and hence prevent him

from going to the naraka called the “puthu”. Sri nAmmazhvar is like

a son to each one of us since he takes care of each one of us by

showing the path of divinity to us and taking us all to moksha

through his paasurams.

 

Vibhoothi: Ishwaryam is absolutely necessary for anyone to get

involved with any of the above. So nammazhvar is our wealth.

 

Sarvam: Not only the above, but azhvar is all sort of bhokyams (enjoyment) to us.

 

yadhEva: such an azhvar, whose divine feet

 

niyamEna: always, being with him always like before and never going away from him.

 

madhanvayAnAm: to all the people of my clan (“vidhyaya janmanA vA”)

 

Atyasya: being the pradhamAcharya (foremost teacher) for the vaidhika santhAnam

 

na: kulapathE: like a lady attaining the same gothra of the husband

after the marriage nammazhvar has become our kulapathi.

 

vagulAbhirAmam: the one who is adorned with the garland of vagula

flower (magizhampoo). The sweet smell of his thiruvadi mesmerizes us

and puts us always under his divine feet.

 

Srimath: one who is always filled with srivaishnasri (kainkarya sri).

“antharikshagadhas sriman” “sathu nAgavara: sriman” “lakshmanO

lakshmisampanna:”. In all the above cases the only wealth, all of

them have is the bhagavat kataksham and kainkaryam. Nammazhvar has

all the wealth to shower on all of us for our upliftment.

 

thadhangriyugalam: we can just say ‘that’ but can never completely

talk about the same. ‘yugalam’ shows the beauty in the togetherness

of the divine feet

 

pranamAmi moordhnA: thinking and talking about the greatness of

azhvar one cannot stop with just saying nama: but will immediately

fall into his divine feet.

 

Here Sri aalavandaar has considered Sri Nammazhvar as his parama seshi

(head) and has surrendered to his divine feet. One question, which

arises, is: How can there be two heads for a prapannan? Here

Ishwaran is the prathama seshi and bhagavatas (nammazhvar as the

head) are the dvaraseshi, those who lead us towards the prathama

seshi viz., emperuman. Thereby there is no contradiction says

vyakhyana chakravarthi Sri Periya AchAn pillai.

 

Adiyen has tried to give the meaning of the stotra according to Sri

periyavAchAn pillai’s vyakhyanam to stotra ratnam as correctly as

possible. Adiyen begs the pardon of the bhagavatas for any knowingly

or unknowingly committed mistakes. Learned bhagavatas may please

correct the mistakes so that others do not get misleaded due to

adiyen’s ignorance.

 

“Adiyen ciria jnanaththan” (adiyen is a dull headed person). Adiyen

surrenders to the divine feet of Sri nAmmazhvar on this divine day

for making even mandha bhuddhis like adiyen to write a few words

about the divine soul following the footsteps of our acharyas in the

great forum of bhagavatas. Let us all join hands to sing the praise

of the great soul Sri saTakOpan on this day and ever and do

mangalAsAsanams to the divine feet of emperuman.

 

“saTakOpa munim vandhE satAnAm bhuddhidhooshakam I

agnAnAm jnAnajanakam thintrinee moolasamsrayamII”

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free online calendar with sync to Outlook.