Magnanimity II -2

[Guest guest]

The open mindedness and reverence towards fellow AchAryAs

 

A flashback into the incidents and events of AchAryAs should be an

eyeopener to the present day srEvaishNavites.

 

Unlike now, the AchAryAs considred not only the fellow AchAryAs as

source of knowledge but also their disciples.

 

The disciples of one AchAryA also used to attend the lectures given by the others.

 

When some doubt arises to the lecturer, he asks the disciple how his

AchAryA would have explained the particular point.

 

It is extremely improbable whether this can happen in today's context,

even if one assumes that one disciple attends othes' lectures -leave

alone attending lectures in the first place.

 

PiLLai amudhanAr was explaining thirumozhi first pAsuram of the

seventh ten -kaRavA maDa nAgu- and when he explained the first

sentence it was not correlating with the second. The meaning became

like this -the Lord is calling upon the devotee without forgetting

like the cow remembering its calf. This did not satisfy him and he

enquired to one of the devotees of bhaTTar who was present there "how

Sri bhaTTar would have explained this pAsuram?" The disciple explained

that the first line should be interpreted in a particular way (for

detials please refer to the next posting on A peep into periya

thirumozhi 175) treating kaRavA mada nAgu as iraNdAm veARRumai and

understand as follows: The devotee -namely thirumangai AzhwAr

declares that he will always call upon the Lord like a calf which is

without forgetting , yearing for its cow's milk -kaRavA mada nAgu

-7-1-1;

 

The meaning apart, the greatness of Sri piLLai amudhanAr in first

confessing that he was not able to interpret correctly, second

acknowledging the greatness of bhaTTar and finally accepting

bhaTTar's commenatry by requesting the disciple as final. This gives

full marks to bhaTTar and the disciple but hats of to Sri piLLai

amudhanAr's greatness in displaying total lack of ego thus

highlighting that their prime motive was anubhavam and AzhwAr's

thoughts rather than anything artificial.

 

 

The Edu of swAmi nam-piLLai is replete with quotes mentioning that lot

of tamilians not necessarily srEvaishNavites by following, were

attending the upanyAsam-s of Sri bhaTTAr and also nam-piLLai. Some of

their queries have been answered. For instance, refer EDu for

'thalaiyil vaNangavum AngalOA thaiyalAr munbEa' thiruvoizmozhi 5-3-7

;

 

This pAsuram refers to the fact the thalivi - worhipping the Lord

with her head. In tamil culture, thalai-magan and thalai-magaL are at

par and thalai-magaL is not supposed to worship the thalai-magan.

When Sri kUrathAzhwAn was elucidating on this pAsuram a hundred years

old "Amaruvi mEaithAn nambiAr" rose slowly trembling and asked '

swAmi- is it correct to say that the thalaimagaL has worshipped

-thalaiyAlEa vaNangapperumOA?

 

Our Sri kUrathAzhwAn 'Idhil enna sandhEham-sishtAchAram vuNdu kANum;

Sri janaka rAjan thirumagaL anushtithAr kANum enRu solli "kousalyA

lOka bharthAram sushuVeyam manasvinE tham mamarthEA sugam brcha

sirasA sAbivAdhayA'

 

This rAmAyaNa slokam refers to the fact that pirATTi mentions to

thiruvaDi that she worships sri RAmA with her head.

 

Sri kUrathAzhwAn- the great AchAryAn,great scholar, the versatile

genius lecturing and somebody questioning him and him taking the

matter seriously and replying with the relevant quotes. Unimaginable

in the present day context. This not only highlights the fact that

those days upanyAsam-s were not mere lectures but interactions and

anubhavam-s.

 

More than anything else this goes to show the modesty of Sri

kUrathAzhwAn -leading by example-as always.

 

(to be continued)

dAsan

vanamamalai padmanabhan