thozhudhu ezhu en mananE!!! (Part-4)

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

SrimathE rAmAnujaya Namaha

Srimad Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

“mEshE chittA samuthbhootham pANdyadEsE kaNamsakam I

SriparAnkusa sathbhaktham madhuram kavimAsrayE II”

 

Continuing with the divine anubhavam of swamy Nammazhvar, azhvar adds

more adjectives to “paththudai adiyavarkku eliyavan” as “malarmagal

virumbhum nam arumperaladigal” Who is that? Peyazhvar answers this

question,

“endhai oruvalli thAmaraiyAl ondriya seer mArban thiruvallikeni yAn sendru”

 

In both the paasurams ‘malarmagal’ and ‘thAmaraiyAl’ refer to Sridevi.

Emperuman is sriyapathi. Sridevi nAchiyar with great love towards

the lord (virumbhum) seated herself on the lord’s divine chest

(ondriya). So it is been clearly proved that the bhakthavatsalan

talked about by nammazhvar is none other than our dear parthasarathi

with the mark of udharabhandayam on the hip and Sridevi nAchiyar on

his chest.

 

Nammazhvar has requested and cried for the divine darshan of lord

Krishna as the geethacharyan, Parthasarathi in many places. Let us

see one such example now.

 

“teerpAraiyAm eni enganum nAdudum! Annaimeer!

OrpAl evvaNNudal uttra nal nOyidhu tErinOm

PorpAguthAn seidhu andraivarai vel viththa * mAyatErp

PAganArkku eval sindhai tuzhAi disaikkindradE”

 

The above paasuram clearly shows that parankusa nAyaki (swamy

nammazhvar) has lost his heart to that divine charioteer who did all

amazing things and made the pancha pAndavas victorious in the

bharatha war. Is there necessity for any other proof to substantiate

the love and devotion azhvar had towards our dear Parthasarathi? But

in the vyakhyanam to the above paasuram it has been stated that

azhvar here refers to the vibhavAvathAra Krishnan. First of all,

emperuman took archavatArams only for those who have missed the

opportunity to have darshan during the vibhavAvatArams. So there is

no difference between the vibhava lord and the lord in archai.

Secondly, if we think a little deeper then we will actually feel

sorry for nammazhvar who was unfortunate. Why because he took

avatara just after the krishnAvatAram and hence missed the darshan

and after crying to have the darshan of the lord he ascended to the

divine abode even before parthasarathi came down to thiruvallikeni

from thirumalai. So azhvar missed both the darshans being born in

the intermediate period and hence was unable to enjoy the divya

leelas of kannan both in vibhavam and in archai. In Periya

thiruvandhAdhi, azhvar challenged emperuman stating “yAn periyan nee

periyai enbhadhanai yAr arivAr”. Since azhvar had got emperuman into

his heart he considered himself great but actual ‘periyan’ is we all

who are blessed to have the divine darshan of Parthasarathi and his

leelas today. Aren’t we blessed to have the divine darshan of MA

indicating to his heart where we find nammazhvar who had placed our

dear Parthasarathi inside and the very same Parthasarathi in archai

doing all sorts of leelas in front of us simultaneously? What a

wonderful darshani he gives us all in various thirukOlams ‘DinE DinE

navam navam’ ‘nam kannai vittru agandridAdu kaliyan Anai AnaiyE”

 

MA started his prabhandam undoubtedly with the mangalAsAsanams to our

dear Parthasarathi being close to his acharyan Nammazhvar’s heart but

that was not his motto. MA considered only his acharya as his god and

hence surely he wanted to show that his acharya had a stand higher

than even parthasarathi. That is due to his acharya nishtai that is

celebrated by all Srivaishnavas (emperuman himself) even today as

‘Madurakavi bhAvam’. In the 8th paasuram MA says,

 

“arul kondAdum adiyavar enbura

arulinAn avvarumaraiyin porul

arulkondu Ayiram enthamizh pAdinAn

arulkandeer evvulaginil mikkadE”

 

Here MA once again talks about our dear Geethacharyan. Emperuman Sri

Parthasarathi due to his bhakthavatsalyam for the joy of all his

devotees gave the essence of all the Vedas in a single bhagavat

geetha with 700 slokas. Though it is a concise one it is in Sanskrit

and not that easy for all to understand and practice. So azhvar due

to his ultimate grace on one and all sang the 1000 sweet and lucid

tamil paasurams so that everyone can understand, cherish and get

benefited. What a divine grace!

 

A comparison arises only when two people are related in some manner.

Here MA compares the grace of Nammazhvar to that of our dear

Parthasarathi to show that the grace of his acharya is even greater

than the lord who his acharya considers to be full of grace. That is

acharya nishtai. There is a legend in our sampradayam where

erumbiappa, one of the ashtadiggajas of Swamy manavala mAmunikal once

carried mAmunikal’s thiruvArAdhana perumal in one hand and swamy

mAmunikal’s divine padhuka in the other. Swamy mAmunikal on seeing

this criticized the act to be insulting emperuman. But at that time

erumbiappa replied, “My perumal (acharya pAdhukai) is never lesser in

greatness to your perumal (emperuman)” Such was the acharya bhakthi of

our poorvacharyas. Such high devotion towards the acharya was

initiated by MA but it is not that he didn’t realize the greatness of

emperuman close to his acharya’s heart that is why though we say his

prabhandam is fully about Swamy Nammazhvar we are able to spot two

instances where MA has sung about our dear Parthasarathi who was

surely inside MA’s heart though indirectly (MA’s heart-Nammazhvar;

Nammazhvar’s heart-Parthasarathi emperuman so Parthasarathi also

stays inside MA’s heart) So from the above it is very clear why MA

gives special darshan in thiruvallikeni alone indicating to his

heart. It is just to make us all amazed by seeing the very same

emperuman once visualized by nammazhvar in his heart straight in

front of us in archa roopam.

 

Next posting will be the concluding posting.

 

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan