geethA sAstramum nedunthAndaka sAstramum-10

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

“munnuruvAi minnuruvil vEdam nAngAi

vilakkoliyai mulaiththezhundha thingal thAnAi

pinnuruvAi munnuruvil pini moopillA pirappiliyAi

erappadarkkE ennAdhu endrum

ponnuruvAi maniyuruvil bhoodhamaindhAi

punaluruvAi analuruvil thigazhum jOthi

thannuruvAi ennuruvil nindra endhai

thalirpuraiyum thiruvadi enthalai mElavE”

 

This paasuram is a treasure of our Srivaishnava philosophy. While

telling about the first paasuram of thiruvaimozhi koorathAzhvan used

to say that just this paasuram is enough to prove the advaita

philosophy to be useless. They say emperuman is formless and that

the tattvam is only one (chinmAtram brahma-EkamEva adviteeyam). But

azhvar strongly establishes this to be false when he says “tuyararu

sudaradi thozhudhu ezhu en mannanE”. This shows that emperuman is

different from the jeevatma and that he has form and hence azhvar

requests his mind to fall to the feet of the divine bhagavan.

Similarly in this very first paasuram of thirunedunthAndakam

thirumangai azhvar clearly states the vishistadvaitic philosophy of

tattvatrayam. It is a quality of a qualified speaker to first say

what he is going to talk about and then elaborate on it. It is wise

to explain the topic before any speech. Azhvar hence clearly states

his philosophy with the words “minnuru” (which refers to the objects

we see in front of us-achit) “pinnuru” (that which cannot be seen

with our eyes and that which is at the back-jeevatma) “ponnuru” (that

which is different from the above two and that which leads the above

two-paramatma). The same has been given by nammazhvar as “elladhum

vulladhum alladhu avanuru” Here elladhu is parallel to munnuru;

vulladhu-pinnuru; avanuru-ponnuru. The same has been repeated by

madurakavi azhvar, a very close

disciple of nammazhvar as: “pirar nan porul thannaiyum nambhinEn” Here

porul refers to achit tattvam, nan porul refers to the atma tattvam

and pirar refers to the paramatma tattvam.

 

What is the achit tattvam?

Panchabhoodham-5, panjatanmAttraigal-5, karmendriyam-5, jnanEndriyam-5

manas, ahankaram, mahan, avyaktham totally-24-‘porul’ or ‘munnuru’

The chit tattvam is the 25th tattvam that is the ‘nan porul’

(makaravachyanAna jeevatma). Since this comes after the 24 tattvas

kaliyan names it as ‘pinnuru’

The 26th tattvam is the paramatma ‘pirar’ – ‘ponnuru’

 

In azhvar thirunagari there is a practice of adorning nammazhvar with

25 blankets and then removing one by one. That is to show that

through his thiruvaimozhi 1000 paasurams azhvar has intended to

remove the first 25 tattvas (IshvaryAnubhavam, kaivalyAnubhavam) and

take us all to the divine feet of emperuman (moksha). In his Acharya

hrudhayam, Swamy azhagiya Manavala perumal nayanar shows that

nammazhvar sung this thiruvaimozhi to remove the 25 but the geethA of

geethAcharyan was intended to remove 100 (the gowravas).

 

In bhagavat geetha, chapter 2, geethAcharyan has clearly stated the

difference in the three tattvas in 2 beautiful slokas. Let us see

them one by one.

 

“na tvEvAham jAthu nAsam na tvam nEmE janAdhipA: I

na chaiva na bhavishyAma: sarvE vayamatha: param II” (2-12)

 

aham – me (the sarvEsvaran)

jAthu – always (in the past)

na Asam (ethi) na – it is not that I was not there

tvam – you (the jeevatma) also

(jAthu nAsee: ethi) na- not (that you were not there in the past)

emE janAdhipA:- these kings (other jeevatmas)

(jAthu nAsan ethi) na – not (that they were not there in the past)

sarvE vayam- All of us (you, me and these jeevas)

ath: param- also in the following days

na bhavisyAma: cha A-va (ethi) na- it is not that we will not be there.

 

This is really a life giving sloka to our sampradayam. In this

geethacharya, Sri Parthasarathi clearly gives the existence of a

separate jeevatma and paramatma and also that there are many

jeevatmas who permanently exist in the past, present and future. One

question may arise here: where is the present talked about in the

above sloka? Our Poorvacharyas answer this question as follows: The

present has a surprising quality. While thinking about the past the

present becomes the future and while thinking about the future the

present becomes the past. So when Krishna says that he (the

paramatma), arjuna (the jeevatma) and the other kings (many other

jeevatmas) were there in the past and will be there in the future then

it is implied that they will exist in the present also and hence they

are all nithyam. That is ramanuja sampradayam. There are three

tattvas and all are nithyam. In his geetha bhAshyam, swamy

EmperumAnAr excellently refutes all the other philosophies (sankara

matham, bhAskara matham, bhowtha matham, vaishEshika matham and

meemAsa matham) quoting another veda vakhyam (“nithyO nithyAnAm

chEtanaschEtanAnAm A-kO bhahoonAm yO vidhathAdhi kAmAn”) also here.

For anyone who wants to get a strong idea of our vishistAdvaitic

philosophy while compared to other philosophies mainly the advaitic

philosophy of sankara it is very essential to go through the geetha

bhashyam of this particular sloka. Now that

we have seen that the jeevatma is different from the paramatma the

next we have to see how the achit is different from the chit (the

jeevatma). Geethacharyan with ultimate grace on all of us gives that

in a separate sloka in the same adhyAyam (chapter).

 

“nAsathO vidhyathE bhAvO nAbhAvO vidhyathE satha: I

vupayOrapi drushtontha: stvanayO: tattvadarshibhi: II” (2-16)

 

asat: - for ‘that which doesn’t exist’ the body (elladhu)

bhAva: - the permanent nature (nithyathvam) of ‘that which exists’

na vidhyathE – is not there

sat: for ‘that which exists’ the Atma (vulladhu)

abhAva: - the temperory nature (anithyathvam) of ‘that which doesn’t exist’

na vidhyathE – is not there

anayO: this knowledge about the body and atma,

antha: ultimately,

tattvadarshibhi: - for those scholars who know the truth

drushta: - is known in this way.

 

Thereby we have seen that the words ‘minnuru’ ‘pinnuru’ and ‘ponnuru’

of thirumangai azhvar, have been the reflections from the words of

the geethacharyan. In the next posting we will proceed to see more

interesting facts in the words of geethacharyan reflected in the

sweet voice of thirumangai mannan.

 

(To be continued)

 

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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