Thirumaalai-4

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

 

“ Mattrondrum Venda Maname Madhilarangar

Kattrinum meitha kazhalinai keezh- uttra

Thirumaalai paadum seer Thondaradipodi Emperumaanai

Eppozhudum peesu”

 

“Srimat Krishna samahvaya Namo yaamuna soonave

yetkadakshai kalakshyanam sulabha: Sridara: sadaa”

 

Pranams,

 

Now let us see how our acharyas found all the arthas

of the sastras in the Nalayiram paasurams itself.

Nammazhvar gave 4 Prabhandams. As every one knows

Sri Sadagopan is regarded as Vedam thamizh seidha

Maaran in our Sampradhayam. This was proved by Periya

Perumal by accepting the request of Sri Thirumangai

alwar to hear the Tamizh vedam of alwar as par with

the Sanskrit vedam during the Adhyayana Utsavam. Even

today during the adyayana utsavam all divya desa

perumals listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham with

great joy. Nammazhwar’s first prabhandham

Thiruviruttam is considered as Rig veda Saaram.

Thiruvaasiriyam is regarded as Yajur Veda Saaram. We

all know the famous Thiruvaimozhi is regarded as Sama

Veda Saaram and Periya Thiruvandhadhi is considered as

Atharvana Veda Saaram.

 

“Maaran panittha tamizh maraikku Mangaiyarkon Aarangan

koora avadarittha” says Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his

Upadesa Ratna maalai. So Sri Thirumangai alwars six

prabhandams namely, Periya thirumozhi,

Thirukurundhandagam, Thiruvezhunkootrirukai, Siriya

Thirumadal , Periya Thirumadal and Thirunedundhandagam

are regarded as the six angas(shikshai, vyakaranam,

chandas, kalpam, niruththam and Jhostisham for

Sanskrit vedam) to the Tamizh Vedams of Nammazhvar.

Next our acharyas consider Itihasa Puranams as

pramanams. Sri Kulasekar alwars Perumal Thirumozhi

gives us the extract of Sri Ramanyanam. Periyazhvar,

Nachiyar got themselves involved in krishnanubhavam

and gave us the substance of Srimad Bhaagavatam and

Sri Vishnu puranam(Krishna leela) in their

prabhandams, Periyazhvar thirumozhi, Thiruppavai and

Nachiyar thirumozhi. One part of Sri Vishnu puranam

is Sri Vishnu dharmam which was given importance by

Sri Thondaradi podi Alwar. So Thirumaalai is regarded

as par with Sri Vishnu dharmam, which mainly deals

with explaining the magimai of Bhagavan Namam.

 

Vedas are many in number “Ananthavai Veda:” . It is

impossible for anyone to learn all in his lifetime.

Infact there is a legend according to which sage

Bharadwaj started learning the Vedas. Even after his

first life tenure he was unable to complete so he

requested Indra to give him one more lifetime.

Similarly 2 or 3 lifetimes passed then Indra asked the

sage what he will do if he gives him one more

lifetime. The sage replied I will again learn more of

the Vedas. Then Indra showed the sage 4 mountains and

took a hand full of mud from it and said the amount

you have learnt in all these life times is only this

handful and there is yet 4 large mountains of Vedas to

be learnt. So it is impossible for anyone to learn

all. There goes a saying in tamil “kattradu kaiman

alavu kalladhadhu vulagalavu”. Probably this saying

could have got its origin from the above story. So

what bhagavan advices is “Yaavanarthe udapane

samplutha: sampluthodhake” (learn how much is

essential for you). Our acharyas also regarded this

as the prime motto. Even Periyazhvar is praised in

his thaniyan as “Veindiya Vedangal Oodhi”. Does this

mean there is something called Veindiya vedam

(required vedam) and Vendadha Vedam(unrequired Vedam)?

The part of vedam which is essential for us is called

the Veindiya Vedam. As different parts are for

different adikaris and according to different yugas

the adhikaris keep changing. So we should learn what

is essential for us. How do we know which is

essential for us and which is not? Only to tell us

that emperuman by his apaara kaarunyam sent the

alwars, who like giving us the juice from a fruit

extracted the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and

gave us through their paasurams.

 

That is why our acharyas spent most of their time in

learning the inner meanings of the prabhandams. Even

Sri Ramanuja who spent a lot of time in analysis in

Brahma sutras and Vedanta to disprove the advaitins

and other philosophers is supposed to have taken guide

from the tamil paasurams to do so(“ettai kondu orunga

veduvar). And Swamy Desikan says “Teliyadha Marai

Porulum Theliya kandom” that he understood the

meanings of hard core Vedanta with the help of the

Nalayira Divya Prabhandham. So we have to leave the

Asaaram, Alpasaaram, saaram, saaratamam in the Vedas

and learn only the Saarataram. A Srivaishanavan is

supposed to be like a koozhi(hen) that is like a hen

which digs through all the dust and picks the things

essential to it alone a srivaishnavan is supposed to

dig through all the sastras and retain in his mind the

essential parts alone. That our acharyas have found

to be absolutely present in the arulicheyals. We are

all lucky to be born in kali. When everyone says kali

is gooram and very difficult to live in you may

wonder why I say that we are lucky. It is because we

need not do tapas like the rishis are medidate on the

god for years together in a forest. It is very easy

to attain him. We have got the arulicheyals which

give us the meanings of the Vedanta in a simplified

easily understandable form. To add to this we have

the strotras and vyakhayams and other works of our

acharyas which makes our job very very easy. And more

over in kali we can attain emperuman by just doing

Namasankeertanam. Whatever palan the rishis and

others in the other yugams attained by doing great

tapas and yagas we can attain the same palan in a

simple way by just uttering his namas. Even the

persons born in the other yugas wonder how lucky we

are all to be born in kali to enjoy the sweet bhakthi

flooded poetry of the alwars and other bhakthas. That

is why kali is regarded as saadhu and only way to

attain emperuman is Thirunama keertanam.

 

So that is why Sri Thondaradipodi Alwars Thirumaalai

is regarded superior to the other prabhandams as it

talks mainly about the Nama magimai and how a person

in kali can easily attain Emperuman’s feet without

much effort. Sri PVP who is called as “Vyakhyana

cakravarthi” has given an excellent Manipravala

commentary. Our Acharyas have given the commentaries

in Manipravalam which is a mixture of tamil and

Sanskrit. The vyakhyanams are so sweet usually elders

say it to be like a mixture of honey and milk(Thenum

palum kalandhar pol). Our acharyas have kept us a

great Nidhi of such vyakhyanams for enjoying which one

janma is not enough. One doubt may arise in our minds

now. When the alwars prabhandams are in tamil why are

the vyakhayams in Manipravaalam. That is because

during the time of the acharyas there were many people

who failed to accept the supremacy of the alwars

paasurams and said that they cannot be regarded as par

with the Sanskrit vedam so to disprove these people

the acharyas had to show that the alwar paasurams

contained nothing but Vedanta vishayam and hence had

to take the manipravaalam style so that even the

others could understand the vyakhyanams.

 

In the next posting we will see what is the actual

essence of Thirumaalai.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

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