is she capable - post 2

[Guest guest]

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

That great saraswathee who grants us the knowledge, who grants us the capacity

to be a 'kavi', sits in the tongue of brahmaa, the god for creation, and is

called naamangai by aazhvaars. Brahmaa's tongue is her residence or seat.

 

[We also know the other two VVIP ladies - lakshmee and paarvathi also have

similar eminent and elated seats, one in the chest and other 'half of the body'

of her husband as their residences or seats. Just on the lighter side - that

also shows how the ladies dominate in our life. Already in the first post we saw

'it is very nice to see the wife as the first thing in the morning as we get up

from bed. Such is the important position to our ladies in our saasthraas and in

practice, but still there are many women, who talk of women's liberation etc.

Actually, in my humble opinion, the poor 'men' are the lots who need

liberation].

 

Though saraswathee is the god of education, she did not teach vEdhaas to her

husband brahmaa. See slOkam from naaraayaNeeyam, which states brahmaa learnt all

vEdhaas from the supreme lord sreeman naaraayaNan [and not from his wife

saraswathee which can be inferred].

 

Evam thaavath praakrutha prakshayaanthE

braahmE kalpE hyaadhimE labDha janmaa|

brahmaa bhooyasthavaththa Evaapya vEdhaan

srushtim chakrE poorva kalpa upamaanaam || sl. 1. CantO 8

 

meaning: Thus at the close of brahma praLaya [total dissolution] and the

beginning of the new cycle of creation [that is now prevailing] a new brahma

having come into being on the first day of the cycle, obtained the knowledge of

vEdhaas from thyself, and began the work of creation in consonance with what had

prevailed in the previous kalpa [cosmic period].

 

Why this situation? Brahma learning from vishNu or naaraayaNan and not from the

goddess of learning. The reason is she was not created by brahmaa at that time -

of brahman's learning. She came into being much afterwards.

 

dharma adhikaan abhisrujan nathha kardhamam cha

vaaNeem viDhaaya viDhir angaja sankulO~bhooth |

thvadh boDhithai: sanaka dhaksha mukhaisthanoojai

rudhboDhithascha viraraama thamO vimunchan ||

 

slOkam 7 cantO 10 of naaraayaNeeyam

 

meaning: Next he created dharma dhEva and kardhama prajaapathi. On creating

vaaNee, the vaak dhEvathaa, he himself overcame by a lustful sentiment towards

her, whereupon he was rescued from this dark passion by his own offsprings like

sanaka and dhaksha and others, who were endowed with the necessary insight to do

so by thee.

 

This slOkam also makes it clearto us bhakthaas [readers], that at every stage

the supreme lord naaraayaNan has to come to rescue of others [including brahma

or sivan] or help and act, either it be, in creation of brahma, teaching of

vEdhaas or preservation of vEdhaas or something else just for that matter any

thing and every thing [which itself justifies his supreme authority].

 

On this creation of sarswathee brahmaa's kaamam and my krishNa the lord's

supremacy a simple translation of srimadh bhaagavatham '28 to 34' slOkams in

chapter 12 of third skandham is given here.

 

"O Vidhura, we have heard that the daughter Vaak [meaning saraswathee] that was

born from his body distracted the mind of Brahmaa and brought him desire and

although he wasn't sexually inclined, he thus developed a sexual preference.

slOkam 28

[this is what is given in naaraayaNeeyam slOkam also referred above but in

kavi's own style]

 

The sons, the sages headed by mareechi, who thus saw that the mind to him had

lost its sense of duty, with due respect submitted themselves as follows: slOkam

29

 

'Never before such a thing was done by you, nor would that be done by anyone

else what you entertain towards your daughter, without controlling the sexual

urge, Oh master. slOkam 30

 

Certainly such an attitude does not befit the most powerful one whose good

behavior and character, Oh master of the universe, the world surely is following

in its choice of prosperity. slOkam 31

 

Let us offer our obeisance to the Supreme Lord [sreeman naaraayaNan] who

situated in Himself from His own effulgence has the goodness to manifest the

proper sense of duty for our protection.' slOkam 32.

 

Thus seeing all the sons before him addressing him, the father of all fathers

of mankind, at that moment ashamed, quitted the body accepting the blame, about

the fog that in all directions is [still] known as darkness. slOkam 33

 

When there was once the contemplation on how he would create himself all these

worlds, as they were composed in the past, from the four mouths of Brahmaa the

vEdhic literature manifested. slOkam 34 [end of bhagavatham reference]

 

brahma knows all the vEdhaas as he received the same directly from the supreme

lord sreeman naaraayaNan. These vEdhaas recite the glory of that supreme lord.

Since saraswathee is created by brahma and further since she sits in the mouth

of brahma, whenever he recites the vEdhaas naturally she has to support him in

properly pronouncing the vEdhaas as she is the vaak dhEvathaa. Thereby we can

pre- conclude she knows all the vEdhaas, in full and thereby can give the full

glory of that Supreme Lord.

 

This is what a normal person like us will conclude.

 

See here - swamy dhEsikan says vEdhaas themselves are not fully capable of

describing the lord in his full glory - slOkam:

 

yadh ekaika guNapraanthhE sraanthaa nigamavandhina: |

yathhaavath varNanE thasya kimuthaanyE mithampachaa: ||

 

slokam 2 chapter 1 sri yaadhava abhyudhayam of swami nigamaantha mahaa dhEsikan

 

meaning: These vEdhaas which sing his characters [guNam] in detail, while

describing each one of his characters, are not able to describe, in full, of

that one particular character itself, and thereby become weak and stand off.

[that single guNam, one guNam of that supreme lord, itself is not fully

described and is so vast which can not be fully described by vEdhaas]. In such a

situation how we less capacitated can describe him fully.

 

[mithampahaa: is translated by Uthamoor swamy as 'aRiviligaL' - to be

translated as fools? Or less capacitated as above - dear readers - you can

decide. As this isa free translation by myself]

 

If this is the situation for vEdhaas themselves, how can we expect saraswathee

to describe or know that supreme lord's guNam's in full. See aazhvaar's paasuram

 

niRam veLidhu seidhu pasidhu karidhu enRu

iRai uruvam yaam aRiyOm - eNNil niRaivu udaiya

naamangai thaanum nalam pugazha vallaLE?

poo mangai kELvan polivu. 56 3rd thiruvandhaadhi

 

poomangai kELvan - sreeman naaraayaNan - one who has poo as her seat or place of

residence - the flower - lotus flower - as her residence - poo - that lotus as

her udan piRappu - co born - so poomangai - is that mahaa lakshmi - her kELvan -

her husband is that Supreme Lord - my krishNa.

 

kELvan polivu - that Lord's glory.

 

That naamangai - saraswathee - she is also not a simple person as per aazhvaar -

eNNil niRaivu udaiya naamangai - she is also full to the brim in all things,

including knowledge - capacity - vaak patuthvam - cleverness to use words etc.

 

We - aazhvaar says about himself - iRai uruvam yaam aRiyOm - we do not know -

what is his colour, shape, character etc - colour? - is he white - niRam

veLidhu? Or is it green - pasidhu - or it is karidhu - black?

 

Ok, we decide that we are not capable. So we decide to ask that naamangai. Is

she capable? nalam pugazha vallaLE? Is she capable or is she not?

 

Now this leads to a big doubt. This vallaLE? If it was vallaLO - then we can

conclude aazhvaar expressed a doubt that whether she is capable?

 

Because it is vallaLE - 1. can it be an exclamation? Leading to an answer 'yes'

- she can do it for she is that naamangai - vaak dhEvi so she can do it.

 

2. can it be a doubting mind's question - vallaLE? -is she capable? Leading to

the position of a 'doubting thomas'.

 

Then the answer can be aayes or aaNO as one has the level of faith on that vaak

dhEvi.

 

We can say a 'NO', for even when vEdhaas can not do [which are brought out by

the very same lord about whom these vEdhaas sing] how can she do?

 

For she is not directly taught by that very lord himself. Brahma, perhaps, would

have reserved some thing. Or the lord himself might have reserved something from

brahmaa and thereby what saraswathee received may be only a portion of vEdhaas

only and not full etc. so she can not fully describe poomangai kELvan polivu. So

the question from aazhvaar is interpreted by poorva aachaaryaas as she, that

saraswathee, is NOT CAPABLE.

 

See how much has been stored in an apparently simple 'paasuram' as above and

wonder the glory of the lord and the aazhvaars who sing his such glory. KrishNa

krishNa.

 

Dhaasan

 

Vasudevan m.g.