Thirumaalai-7

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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 we proceed to see the meanings of the paasurams.

The above taniyan on Sri Thondaradi podi alwar was

given by Thiruvarangaperumal arayar. In this tanian

the acharya says “Oh mind! Nothing else is necessary

always sing the praise of thondaradipodi alwar who

sang the great prabhandham Thirumaalai in praise of

the lord who went behind the cowherds,

Madhilarangar(Ranganatha whose temple is surrounded by

big walls)”.

 

Paasurams

 

“kAvalil pulanai vaiththu kalithannai

kadakkappaiyindhu

nAvalittu vuzhitharugindrom namantamar talaigal

meedhe

moovulaghuvundhu vumizhindha mudalvA ninnAmam kattra

Avalippudaimai kandai arangamAnagarulAne” (1)

 

The crux of the paasuram is that those who do nAma

sankeertanam they need not fear of the kali gooram in

this world and can have a ride over yaman after

death(even yaman considers such bhagavatals as his

master and instructs his dhoothas to do the same).

“Natascha yamavasyatha narakapAdha bheedhi: kudha:”

says Sri Desikan.

 

kAvalil pulanai vaiththu – This actually tells how a

bhAgavathan should be. For this Sri PVP has given

three different vyakhyanams. When we just think of

the meaning of these words we immediately come to a

conclusion that the person who is doing nAma

sankeertanam should have his senses(pulangal) under

control(kAvalil vaiththu). But let us now see how PVP

gives the meaning. Just analyzing a little bit if a

person keeps all his senses under control and does

everything which has been told in the sastras and

leaves those told in the sastras to be left then why

will yamam or his servants come near him. He has

already all the good points to attain bhagavans feet.

So he need not worry about narakavaasam. So here

alwar doesn’t refer to those who have already their

senses under control instead comes to say that even

for those who do not have their senses under control

the bhagavan nAma gives palan. How do we derive this

from the above words. PVP splits it as kAval il

pulan that is kAval is control il in tamil refers to

not under control . So that conveys the meaning “the

senses which are not under control”. PVP further

explains this by saying you can have nice oil bath and

then eat what ever you want to your full satisfaction

and sleep well but then say “Ranga” then you are bound

to swim through kali yuga. All sastras which came to

explain to us the importance of bhagavan nAma has

always taken people like Ajamilan and Kshtrabandhu as

reference who had absolutely no control over their

senses. So alwar who always talks based on the

pramanams is bound to say only about the persons

without senses under control. In Vishnu Dharmam

Sataneekan questions as follows: A man is incapable

of controlling his senses and to get rid of kama,

krodha and Asooyai(jealousy). Then is there no other

way for such a man to attain moksham? For this

question only alwar answers over here.

All of us are familiar with the Nanjeeyer-Anantazhvan

vrittantam. After taking sanyasam Nanjeeyer was

proceeding towards Srirangam to meet his acharyan Sri

ParAsara Bhattar. On the way he meets Thirumalai

Ananthazhwan who asks Nanjeeyer why he has taken

sanyasam? Nanjeeyer replied that he has taken it

because sanyasashramam is considered as the moksha

ashramam. But Ananthazhvan replied back saying “If

you bath only when you sweat and when you eat whenever

you feel hungry and if you keep meditating on your

acharyas feet will paramapadanathan push you from

moksham”. This shows that just by meditating on the

feet of the acharya by saying his nAma one can attain

moksha, no Achara anushtanams are required. That is

what is emphasized by thondaradipodigal in this

paasuram also.

The Second explanation of PVP is as follows. Earlier

we considered a person who has no control over his

senses and is yet to or just started doing or nAma

keetanam. Say a person who is doing nAma sankeertanam

for quite sometime then his vaasanas will reduce by

the effect of nAma keertanam. We do find that when we

start getting involved in bhagavat vishayam we get a

little detached to the worldly pleasures. So as the

days proceed Emperuman gets into our minds(“pundiyul

pugundhu”) and changes us little by little so our

senses are got under control. In Bhagavat geetha lord

Krishna says “shipram bhavati dharmathma….” My bhaktha

though he has wrong qualities will be cleansed by me

and as the days proceeds he will become a saadhu. So

now PVP says for such a person the senses come under

control.

The third explanation goes as follows. Emperuman is

the security for all our senses whenever we utter his

nAmam. That is when we utter emperuman’s nAmam he

gives darshan to us in our hearts(advanced stage) and

there by now emperuman takes the control of our

senses. Since now the power of guarding our senses he

kept in the feet of the bhagavan by uttering his nAmam

our senses are deemed to be under control. This is

third type of explanation PVP offers in his vyakhyanam

to the first sentence in the first paasuram in

Thirumaalai.

 

The next parts of this paasuram we will see in the

next posting.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

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