Shri MaduraKavi Alwar

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

Pranams,

 

Today is Madurakavi Alwar's Thirunakshatram let us all

talk about the greatness of shri Madurakavigal. All

of us know that in the whole of the Nalaayira Divya

Prabhandam only the 11 paasurams of Madurakavigal

doesn’t praise the bhagavan instead it talks about

the magimai of sri Nammazhvar, aacharya of

Madurakavigal.

Madurakavigal was a Brahmana by birth and he was far

elder than Sri Nammazhvar and also well versed in

Vedas and highly educated. But shri Madurakavigal

smashed the pride of being a brahmana or elder by age

or well educated and surrendered to the feet of Shri

Nammazhvar who was supposed to be the incarnation of

Shri Vishvaksenar.

Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his Upadesa Ratnamalai sings

the praise of Madurakavigal as follows,

 

“ Arar Madurakavi evvulagil vandudiththa

Seerarum Chitiraiyil Chitirainal- paarulagil

Mattrulla aazhvargal vanduditha naalgalilum

Vuttradu endru nenje oor” (25)

 

Sri Mamunigal praises this day, chitiraiyil chitirai

on which day shri Madurakavigal came to this earth to

show us the right path which will lead us directly to

moksham. So he says praise this day more than the

Thirunakshatram days of the other alwars who has taken

birth. Oh my mind meditate on this day about the

great Madurakavi Alwar. The other alwars showed the

feet of emperuman which is very difficult for the

jeevatmas filled with paavam to attain but shri

Madurakavigal showed the feet of shri Nammazhvar

(aacharya) who is full of mercy and forgives our

mistakes and leads us to the feet of the Emperuman.

 

In our sampradayam, we regard aacharyas more important

than the bhagavan himself since our acharyas lead us

to the bhagavan’s feet whereas Emperuman stops with

saying Mam ekam charanam vraja. When we are confused,

how to do saranagathi in the feet of Emperuman our

aacharyas come to our help and like guiding a kid they

guide us to the Emperuman’s feet .

 

In the next paasuram Shri Mamunigal continues to say

about the divine work of Shri Madurakavigal(kanninun

siruthambhu)

 

“Vaaitha Thirumandiraththin madhimamam padam pol

seertha madurakavi seikalayai – Aarthapugazh

Aariyargal thangal arulichchayal naduve

Saerviththar tharpariyum therindu”

 

Like the middle word in the Thirumandiram Shri

madurakavigal’s Kanninun Chiruthambhu has been added

in between the arulichayal of the alwars due to the

importance of the meaning in these paasurams.

 

Now that we have seen the magimai of shri

Madurakavigal and his work from the words of Shri

Mamunigal let us see some interesting explanations

regarding Kanninun Chiruthambu.

In the 8th paasuram Madurakavigal says ‘Arul kondadum

adiyavar enbura arulinan avvarumarain porul arul kondu

Aayiram entamizh paadinan arul kandeer evvvuladinil

mikkadhe’ Here there are 2 explanations given by our

aacharyas. One is, in this paasuram there is

reference only to Nammazhvar who by his krupai gave

the meaning of the Vedas for the benefit of the

adiyars in the form of sweet 1000 paasurams . But

then the second explanation shows Madurakavigal’s

Aacharya bhakthi to the maximum according to which the

first arulinan avvarumarain porul refers to the

Geethaacharyan who gave the essence of the Vedas in

his Bhagavat Geetha and the second aayiram entamizh

refers to Sri Nammazhvar’s Thiruvaimozhi. Here Shri

Madurakavigal questions the readers whose arul is more

the geethacharya’s, who gave the geetha in Sanskrit

which is tough for many people to understand or shri

Nammazhvar’s, who gave the same in a simplified form

in sentamizh understood by all?

 

Again in the following paasuram shri Madurakavigal

says ‘mikka vediyar vedathtin enporul nirka paadi

ennenjul niruthinan’ Here our aacharyas again show

the greatness of Shri Nammazhvar as a teacher. Shri

Krishna taught the essence of the Vedas through his

bhagavat geetha to Arjuna. After completing Krishna

asked arjuna if he understood what all he has told

till now. Arjuna replied you have told a lot of

things in very high standard but much of it didn’t

stay in my mind but now I am clear in one thing that

what ever you say iam ready to follow. That was reply

by the shisya(Arjuna) to his Aacharya(Krishna). But

here the disciple of Nammazhvar Shri Madurakavigal

says ‘paadi ennenjul niruthinan’ my aacharya has sung

all the veda arthas and put them into my minds. So

thereby our aacharyas prove that Nammazhvar was a

better teacher than the Geethacharyan himself since

Nammazhvar is able to strongly put all his teachings

in the minds of his disciple.

 

Though it is a very small work with only 11 paasurams

the depth of meaning in it is extraordinary and that

is why it is placed equal to the other alwar paasurams

and valued even more by our aacharyas.

 

This was just adiyen’s small effort to talk about the

great Madurakavigal on his Thirunakshtram. Any errors

in this effort is due to my ignorance and lack of

knowledge. So may the learned scholars forgive my

mistakes and correct me too.

In connection with my previous postings let me inform

you all that Shri Parthasarathi Brahmotsavam starts

from today in Thiruvallikeni . And Shri Parthasarathi

would have started all his kolakalams by this time.

 

Madurakavi Alwar thiruvadigale charanam

Alwar Emperumanar Jeeyer Thiruvadigale Charanam

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

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