geethA sAstramum nedunthAndaka sAstramum-3

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In our sampradayam, the erachorkal (divine words) of Azhvars are

considered as par with the Vedas as the Azhvars were divine

personalities who were granted with the knowledge of divinity by

emperuman himself (mayar varu madhi nalam arulinAn). After the

successful completion of geethOpadEsam, Sri Krishna asked arjuna if

he had understood what all he has said till now and if his confusions

have be cleared. Arjuna didn’t reply that he had got all the divine

meanings in his mind instead he told the lord that he had come to the

conclusion that he is going to follow whatever Krishna says. This is

the response from the disciple of the lord but do you know what the

disciple of nammazhvar, Sri madhurakavigal says, “nirkka pAdi

ennenjul niruththinAn” (Azhvar has sung the essence of the vEdas in

tamil and not stopping with that has strongly put it into my heart).

This was the difference between Krishna and the krishnatrishnA

tattvam, Swamy nammazhvar. Even

while writing the sribhashyam Swamy EmperumAnAr took the help of the

arulicheyals of azhvars wherever necessary. Swamy desikan with great

happiness declares that he got clarification for the confusing verses

in vEdas with the help of the divine works of azhvars. Such is the

greatness of the divine works of Azhvars.

 

Now coming to our topic, one of the great prabhandams of thirumangai

azhvar, thirunedunthAndakam it has all the important rahashya arthas

inside it. Sri Parasara bhattar has given beautiful nirvAham to the

same. Let us first compare the origin of nedunthAndakam and geetha.

This prabhandam was sung by azhvar in front of namperumal whereas

geetha was given by Parthasarathi in front of a baddha jeevatma

arjuna. Arjuna was not that happy to have heard the divine arthas

but namperumal was so excited to have heard azhvar’s prabhandam that

he was ready to grant anything that azhvar wanted (that only gave

rise to the famously celebrated adyayana utsavam in the mArgazhi

month). The geethAsAstam was given by emperuman to clear the

confusion of arjuna starting with the prathama adhyAyam (first

canto-Arjuna vishAdha yOgam). At that point emperuman even forgot

the fact that he is thereby giving out divine arthas that should not

be given so easily which he

feels for at the end (“etham tu thE nAthabhaskAya….). But azhvar sung

the prabhandam not in a hurry but with great happiness to have fully

enjoyed emperuman and wanting to reward bhagavan with his divine

words.

 

Azhvar has flooded this divine prabhandam with the rahasyatraya

arthas, artha panchaka jnanam and many other vedantic meanings. Why

did azhvar make such a prabhandam instead of just making an easy

prabhandam to show his joy? The first reason is whenever the Azhvars

start talking without their knowledge the vedantic arthas queue in

their words. It is not their deliberate effort but their talk always

circle around bhagavat vishayam only. Why does azhvar’s words always

have a special effect even more than the words of emperuman? That is

because even in day-to-day life we ignore anyone who talk about his

own greatness but when we find two or more people praising a specific

person then we feel that the person should be really great. Similarly

Krishna talked about his greatness himself so people started to ignore

him but when the Azhvars one after the other started talking about the

greatness of emperuman people were attracted towards bhagavan and

bhagavat vishayam. After the geethOpadEsam emperuman should have

understood this fact that is why he preferred to listen to his

greatness through bheemAcharya (Sri Vishnu sahasranAmam) and to this

day of hard kali blessed us with the great hierarchy of Azhvars and

acharyas.

 

Even emperuman was surprised to see the amount of success the Azhvars

and the acharyas (especially Swamy emperumanar) attained in their

mission. Only to show his astonishment thirukurungudi nambi went to

the extent of becoming EmperumAnAr’s disciple and till date holding

the name vaishnava nambi.

 

In the next posting we will enjoy bhattar’s comments (nirvAham) about

this divine sAstram and then proceed to see how the paasurams of this

prabhandam are beautifully enacted in the araiyar sevai in Srirangam.

 

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAseeSumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

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