Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 Sri Parthasarathi thunai SrimathE rAmAnujaya Namaha Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha Thaniyans rendered by Swamy emperumAnAr : “ennamudham ootugEn engEvA paikiliyE! thennarangam pAdavalla seerperumal-ponnan silaisEr nudhaliyarvEl sEralarkOn engal kulasEkaran endrE kooru” “vAzhi parakAlan vAzhi kalikandri vAzhi kurayaloor vAzh vEndhan vAzhiyarO mAyOnai vAlvaliyAl mandhiramkol mangaiyarkOn thooyOn sudarmAna vEl” Among the ten azhvars, two azhvars who were kings were kulasekaran and kaliyan. One of them is celebrated as “kollikAvalan koodal nAyakan kOzhikOn kulasEkaran” and the other “AlinAdan arulmAri arattamukki adaiyAr seeyam kongumalar kuzhliyar vEl mangai vEndan kottravEl parakAlan kaliyan”. Let us compare and contrast these two azhvars in this short posting. Kulasekara azhvar had a great attraction to rAmAvathAram but still his daily wish was to go to have the darshan of the archA moorthi in Srirangam (“gushyathE yasya nagarE ranga yAthrA dhinE dhinE”). Whereas kaliyan saw the vibhavAthAra gunas in the archAmoorthis and got himself immersed in the divya dEsa anubhavams. Kaliyan did bhagavata dhadheeyArAdhanam daily and for that even went to the extent of stealing. Kulasekara azhvar also felt treating the bhagavatas was more important than even his divya desa yathra. When his ministers complained that the bhagavatas has stolen a jewel of the palace lord, kulasekara azhvar strongly said that bhagavat bhakthas would never steal (“Aram keda paran anbar kollAr endru avargalukkE vArankeda kudappAmbil kai yittavan mAttralarai veerankeduththa senkOl kollikAvalan villavarkOn sEran kulasEkaran mudivEndar sikAmaniyE”). Kaliyan didn’t mind even stealing when it came to bhagavata dhadheeyArAdhanam and the king kulasekaran didn’t mind his life for proving the bhagavatas to be flawless. So more than their passion towards bhagavat kainkaryam the azhvars showed their deep interest towards bhAgavata kainkaryam. Now let us enjoy some aspects in their prabhandams. Both these azhvars have sung a padhigam (10 paasurams) as “oodal paasurams” (a small fight between the hero and the heroine). Kulasekara azhvar considers himself to be a gopi and shows a false anger towards krishna who had left her and had stayed with another gopi the previous night “A-rmalarpoonkuzhalAyar mAdhar...” whereas kaliyan shows his anger towards thiruindaloor emperuman in the beautiful padhigam “nummai thozhudhOm nuntham pani seidhirukkum nummadiyOm” Kaliyan is always used to breaking usual norms. Here again he breaks the rule for an “oodal paasuram” Oodal generally occurs between a hero and a heroine in the Tamil literature but these paasurams indicate the oodal of kaliyan as his self (thAnAna thanmaiyil oodal) with emperuman. There is one another interesting feature in these paasurams. The story goes like this. Thirumangai Azhvar who has a great thirst for enjoying the divine archa roopam of emperumans went to thiruindhaloor to have the divine darshan of parimala ranganathan. But he went a little late and hence the archakar has closed the doors and had gone home. With all thoughts of having a great darshan (pArippu) kaliyan reached the temple entrance and was taken aback to the see the locked door. Kaliyan doesn’t fall under our category who will just walk out of the place thinking that this time it is not perumal’s sankalpam let’s have the darshan the next time nor will kaliyan wait till the archakar opens the door in the evening. He started arguing with the emperuman to give him darshan immediately. He says, “nummadiyAr ellArOdum okka enni yirundheerO adiyEnai” (bharatha can wait for 14 years to see rama piran, sita piratti waited for 10 months, nammazhvar can sing 4 padhigams as ‘thoodhu’ due to separation from emperuman but kaliyan is different from all these people since he cannot even sing 10 paasurams without singing about the divya desa emperumans that is why he says ‘Did you think me to be like your other bhakthas?’). Such was kaliyan’s state of mind. But how will kulasekara azhvar act in a similar situation? Such a situation came to kulasekara azhvar also. While azhvar went to have the darshan of sowrirajan in thirukannapuram the doors were closed so azhvar was unable to have the darshan of emperuman. What did he do? Kulasekara perumal said, “Whether you give me darshan or not I don’t mind. My prime job is to do mangalAsAsanams to you. If you give me darshan I will sing after enjoying your divine beauty if not still I will sing.” Now azhvar decided to sing lullaby to the sleeping emperuman and hence sings the ‘thAlAttu padhigam’ “mannupugazh kOsalaithan”. The name of the place is kannapuram that itself indicates that the perumal inside is krishnan but then azhvar sings lullaby to Sri Chakravarthi thirumagan who resides in thirukkannapuram. Why? Kulasekara perumal’s heart was filled with only ramayana and rama thirukkalyana gunas. So since sowrirajan didn’t give him darshan he assumed him to be like the perumal in his heart and sang the paasurams. Such was kulasekara perumal’s state of mind. The thought process of both the azhvars is quiet different but both have similarity in the sense that they give us the divine anubhavam that cannot be explained by mere words. Alwar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee Sumithra Varadarajan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.