"tiruppAvai": Personal "anubhavam-s" -- why they should be shared with others

[Guest guest]

> >

> >Dear friends,

> >

> >In the "tiruppAvai", AndAl has the "aayarpAdi" girls

> >waking up each other and first congregating and only

> >then proceeding in assembled procession to God's

> >doorsteps.

> >

> >The principle of "worshipping together" is greatly

> >stressed through the phrase: "koodi-irundu...

> >kuLirnthu...mahizhirndu..." etc.

> >

> >In the whole of the "tiruppAvai" adiyen notices that

> >the girls never even once speak in the first person

> >singular! They all speak in one voice but never

> >individually!

> >

> >The pursuit of God according to AndAl cannot be

> >undertaken in solitude. Like most things in life,

> >achieving God too requires "team work"... the ability

> >to work with other people, communicate with other

> >people and share with other people even one's personal 'anubhavam'

of inner delight. The TiruppAvai is like the Himalayas. Nobody can

trivialize it even if one attempts to. A child may make an awkward

drawing of the Himalayas on a piece of paper at school. Can we say

that the child is trivializing the Himalayas? No! The child is only

expressing its wonder and delight at picturing the Himalayas in its

own tiny mind.

 

> >Mahatma Gandhi, who may not have been a SriVaishnavan

> >bearing the marks of "samAshrayanam", but who was

> >deeply religious in outlook, once seemed to echo

> >exactly the very same sentiment of the "tiruppAvai".

> >He said, "I want to find God, and because I want to

> >find God, I have to find God along with other people.

> >I don't believe I can find God alone. If I did, I

> >would be running to the Himalayas to find God in some

> >cave there. But since I believe that nobody can find

> >God alone, I have to work with people. I have to take

> >them with me. Alone I can't come to Him."

> >

> >It is amazing how some of the truths of SriVaishnavam

> >... and of the poetry of the "tiruppAvai" ... are

> >actually grounded in universalism... The TiruppAvai does not

belong to SriVilliputtur or SriRangam alone!

 

> >adiyen hopes that my drawing this parallel between

> >Gandhi and "tiruppAvai" will not hurt the sentiments

> >of orthodox members on the lists I am posting to.

> >

> >dAsan,

 

Sudarshan

 

 

 

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