“anri” Tiruppavai #24

[Guest guest]

asmad gurubhyo namaha, srimathe ramanujaya namaha

jai srimannarayana!

 

The ‘che:thanas’ who believe in Bhagavan may serve Lord in two stages, jna:na

dasa, and pre:ma dasa. The first stage is like a raw fruit and the second is

like the juicy ripened fruit. In the jna:na dasa we visualize the ‘parathvam’ of

Parama:thma. We know that He is the omniscient; He is the almighty with all

divine attributes, kalyana gunas; He possesses the entire srusti as His, and He

had assured to rescue all the ji:va:s.

 

Jna:na dasa: We jivas - regarding our ‘swarupa’ feel - that we are

insignificant, ignorant, helpless and should seek SrimanNarayana’s protection;

we are the personification of ‘durguna:s’ and we are paramathma’s property –

realizing these facts we pray Him rescue us; complain about His delay in

showing compassion towards us; and pray for His protection and seek his refuge

to rescue us from this vicious circle of samsara. We compel Him as if it is only

God’s duty to protect us. In this jna:na dasa one knows perfectly the ji:va

parama:thma swarupam.`

 

When this jnanam ripens it is ‘incessant love’ stage. We will start visualizing

Lord’s soulabhyam and jaganmo:hana soundaryam. We will experience Lord’s

sougandhya, soukuma:rya lavanyam.. We will forget His parathvam and Sakthi. A

fear that our Swami who has become easily accessible with all that soukumaryam,

lavanyam etc. might attract the evil eye. As we forget the Lord’s capacities we

forget our inabilities and ajnanam. We regard Bhagavan a baby with ASakthi and

ajna:nam and themselves an intelligent capable mother. As the love grows the

mutual places are reversed.

 

Jna:na dasa is like a fit mother scolding her child to do his own work and

getting it done. premadasa is like – an old weak mother serving her healthy fit

young son with love. Rishies are in the jnana dasa. Alwars pass through these

two stages alternatively.

 

We see in Vishnuchittha our Andal’s father this ripened love at its height. On

Lord’s command when he did ‘parathathva nirnayam’ in the pandya sabha, he was

taken in a grand procession on an elephant. Then Lord with all His parivara came

to have enjoy the function. Vishnuchitta was afraid that the soukumaryam of Lord

might catch an evil eye and pleaded to Him to go away and sang pallandu pallandu

– This is the ‘mangalasa:sanam’. It is like elders blessing the young. If we get

the doubt if we can do this mangalam then we are in the jna:na dasa. Whether

elders or young, singing mangalam is the outcome of incessant love. Here the

procedure reverses. We take the role of protectors and He becomes the

‘protected’. The ‘haarathi’ procedure in the temples is the same. All join

together to sing mangalam to Lord as a protection shield.

 

Our Andal is also with the goshti of gopikas for the same reason. In the temples

so many pra:ka:ra:s with so many doors and locks are built for this purpose

only. The devotees’ mangalasasanam to Lord with love is the greatest pra:ka:ram.

With out the necessary love every thing else is mere waste. Bhagavan stays as

archa:mu:rthi in the temple for the sake of his devoted loving bhakthas.

 

Aandaal prays to Krishna – “people generally tend to seek the mundane desires

from you. Don’t give us anything else! Don’t give us any. We are offering

ourselves to you; we serve with love; we sing with love. This love will never

deplete. As long as there is love there will be this song too. That song is the

‘mangalam’. We came only for that purpose. Not for ‘parai’. Our objective is to

sing your praise. We accept the ‘parai’ for the villagers’ sake.”

 

‘Now when we are having this good intention, when the elders gave their

approval, when jnana dawned on us to sing your mangalam for your past leelas

in many avataras, as the people did not seem to realize your exhaustion then;

unable to bear your separation we left our ego and came to you, instead of You

coming to us. We feel that You should stop testing us now Please bless us!’ Lord

Krishna is looking at them with all smiles! ‘What ever we say or do is not the

‘sadhana’. It’s only your compassion! That’s all. Asking you to bless us is also

not proper on our part! Just your ‘daya’ (compassion) and our ‘pra:ptham’ –

Andal does mangalam (po:ththi) thus.

 

andal divya thiruvadigale saranam! adiyen ramanuja dasaha!

Jai Srimannarayana!