nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi-29

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha

Srimad Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

Paasuram-22

 

“azhagiyAn thAnE ariyuruvan thAnE

pazhagiyAn thAlE paNimin-kuzhaviyAi

thAnEzhulagukkum thanmaikkum thanmaiyanE

meenA yuyiralikkum viththu”

 

Thirumazhisai azhvar deeply enjoyed the divine beauty of Narasimha

perumal in the previous paasuram. Azhvar couldn’t just stop with

self-enjoyment. Azhvar felt very bad for all the jeevatmas who miss

this enjoyment due to their ignorance. How could people be without

enjoying the divine beauty of narasimhan? So azhvar sings this

paasuram as an advice to the common folks to fall to the divine feet

of the sowndarya moorthi, narasimha perumal, azhagiya singar.

 

(AzhagiyAn thAnE…) This is as a continuation of enjoyment of the

divine beauty of narasimhan. Is he the only person filled with

divine beauty? Doesn’t paramapadanAthan possess the same beauty?

 

(ariyuruvan thAnE) No. only the one who came to this world, as

narasimhan possesses the ultimate beauty. The beauty of

paramapadanAthan is like light that glows in the morning. While the

sun shines if one lights a lamp then the light of the lamp is of no

use. Whereas if the same lamp is lit on a dark night, then it has

its special significance. Similarly narasimha perumal is a light lit

in darkness. ParamapadanAthan is the embodiment of grace alone but

narasimhan showed both grace and anger at the same time (“dushta

nigraham, sista paripAlanam”). “seeRRathOdu arul peRRavan”. In

paramapadam emperuman shows his beauty to those filled with ultimate

knowledge (sarvagnar) whereas narasimha perumal showed his beauty

even to the ignorant (agynar). ParamapadanAthar’s beauty can be

enjoyed only in words but for narasimha moorthi “eraNiyanAgam

pilandhu ariyAi udiramalaindha kaiyOdirundhAnai ullavA kandArular”

[peri-thiru.4-1-1]

 

(azhagiyAn thAne ariyuruvan thAnE) This is that lord who is celebrated

as “Azhagiya singar” by the whole world.

 

Note: Hope by this time all of you have enjoyed the divine beauty of

Azhagiya singar at thiruvallikeni and joined the ghosti of

“kandArular” as sung by periazhvar.

 

The Sri Vishnu SahasranAmam celebrates this perumal as “nArasimhavapu: SrimAn”

 

(AzhagiyAn thAnE ….. paNimin) When we see some thing attractive to our

eyes we keep on seeing and enjoying it but we never get the idea of

falling to its feet. So what is so special of narasimhan that

instigates us to fall to his feet?

 

(ariyuruvan thAnE … paNimin) He is purushOtaman, the one supreme male.

He is Abhatsakam (who comes to our rescue at the time of danger).

When a person has both the strength and wish to come to our rescue

while in danger and also filled with divine beauty will not one

surrender to his feet? Anyway is it enough if he is powerful and

beautiful and doesn’t know what our problem is and how to actually

solve it?

 

(pazhagiyAn thAlE paNimin) This body is our disease that has to be

shed and what we have to actually attain is the divine body. We are

ignorant of this fact and hence keep taking utmost care of the body

whereas he very well knows what has to be shed and what should be

attained. So it is important for us to fall to his feet and get over

our miseries. If you consider his divine feet as upayam and upEyam

and surrender then he who knows the reason behind you entering this

body and suffering (karma) at all times viz., past, present and

future along with the solution for the same (his nirheduka krupai)

will surely save you from all the miseries.

We all go to the doctor to cure our diseases since we believe that the

doctor knows well about the disease and the method to cure the same.

The only doctor to cure our disease of samsAram is none other than

hari.

“maruththuvanAi nindra mAmani vannA”

“vaithyOnArAyanO hari:” “bhEshajam bhishak” (Vishnu SahasranAmam)

“eruththukodiyAnum piramanum Indiranum maRRum oruththarumip piravi

ennum noikku marundharivArumillai maruththuvanAi nindra mAmanivannA!

(peri-thiru-5-3-6)

Forget the brahma rudras who are also suffering with the disease of

samsAram and fall to the divine feet of emperuman the only doctor who

can cure this disease.

“avaidhya: prakrutha: prOkthO vaidhyO vaishnava uchchetE”

[samsaris are called as avaidhyas and vaishnavas are called as vaidhyas]

If people connected with him are themselves called as vaidhyas then

what to say about the lord himself?

How to believe that he knows well about this body to be shed and that body to be attained?

 

(thAnE thanmaikkum thanmaiyanE) The elements behind the creation of

prakruthi (nature) viz., mahan, ahankaram, panchabhoodhangal and the

similar 7 ingrediants and the pancha bhoodhas formed from sabdha

(sound), sparsa (touch), roopa (form), rasa (taste), gandha (smell)

tanmAthras all reside inside emperuman. ‘thanmai’ refers to the

tanmAthras, the pre-state of all the panchabhoodhas before their

complete formation, the very state in which all the special qualities

of the pancha bhoodhas are in the hidden form. For eg., the special

quality of sky (Akasam) is sound (sabdha guna). The pre-state of

Akasam is sabdha tanmAthrai that hides the quality of sound inside.

Similar is the case with other bhoodhas. There is a lot of

difference between tanmAthrai and quality. TanmAthrai is an

ingredient and forms the essential part in the formation of the

bhoodha. Thereby “thanEzhulagukkum…. thanmaiyanE” refers to

emperuman not only being the final product but also the reason behind

the ingredients necessary for formation.

Here “Ezhulagu” refers to the creating objects, mahan, ahankaram and

the pancha bhoodhas or otherwise,

 

(thAnEzhulagukkum thanmaikkum thanmaiyanE) Here ‘ezhulagu’ refers to

the seven lokas viz.,bhuvarlokam, suvarlokam etc at the top and 7

seven lokas viz., athala, vidhala etc underneath that includes all

the chetanas and achetanas. “thanmaikkum” refers to the achetana

gunas viz., sabdha, sparsa etc and chetana gunas. Thus it is seen

that emperuman is behind all the chetanas/achetanas and acts as the

controller and guiding torch of all their qualities.

 

If read as “than vaikkum thanmaiyanE” then it means that emperuman has

all the seven worlds inside him naturally.

Is there any instance where he has protected us?

 

(kuzhaviyAi meenAi vuyiralikkum viththu)What has he not done to

protect us? During the pralaya period he saved all of us by safely

keeping us in his stomach and he lying on a banyan leaf coolly.

“meenathanus tvam nAvi nidhAya

stirachara parikara manu manu bhagavan I

vEda sanAbhi svOkthi vinOdai: –

agali talaya bhayala vama mumavaha: II [ra-stv-2-60]

[Oh lord! You took the form of a fish you placed all the flora and

fauna near manu on a boat and saved all the creations with your great

words equivalent to Vedas without any fear]

In this way, during the manvantrapralaya, you placed all the living

creatures, including its head manu on a boat due to your sankalpa and

took the form of a jalajanthu (water creature) and saved the boat

without being destroyed due to the flooding water. You returned the

Vedas to brahma and made him capable of creation once again.

 

(viththu) As per the sAstra “sadEva sOmya” [chan-6-2-1] he is trividha

karana for creation (nimiththa, upAdhAna, sahakAri karanas)

 

(To Be Continued)

 

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan