Thirumaalai-12

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Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

“ Mattrondrum vEinda 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,

Thondaradipodi alwar who started the prabhandam to show the importance of nAma

sankeetanam and what results it fetches to the baddha jeevatmas, in the second

paasuram wanted to do nAma sankeertanam himself. He thereby started singing

the praise of periya perumal by visiualising emperuman as Andal says “VayinAl

pAdi Manatthinal sindikka”(sing the praise of bhagavan with your mouth and

think about him in your mind). But then when he saw the beauty of emperuman’s

thirumEni (body) he got immersed in it. Then now he suddenly realises that he

wanted to do nAma keetanam and not to sing the beauty of emperuman and so now

he calls emperuman by his names Achchuta! Amararere! and so on.

 

Achchutha!!! Amararere!!!: Achchutha is one of the prime nAmas of the emperuman

which means that he is one who never leaves his devotees. He takes care of his

devotees at any point of time. Since we are more concerned with him protecting

us, it is one of the nAmas the bhakthas like to utter often. So here alwar

wants to prove to the world the supreme Sriman Narayanan, who is otherwise

called Achchutan never leaves his devotees to fate and hence he is the only

person who we can trust in all crucial circumstances. Many people may say,

they will save us but will not be able to keep up their words always, including

the devatas and also the brahma or rudran but the only saviour at all times is

achchutan. People may then question how alwar can say that the other devatas

who give results quicker than emperuman do not save us so now alwar then says

Amararere thereby proving that even those devatas are governed only by the

supreme Sriman Narayanan. He is the king of AmarAs(Devargal). Even in

Thirumangai Alwar’s Thirunedundandagam he says “Mai vanna …………. Devarendru

anjinome”(though he is beautiful, one who is standing in front of me but I fear

if he is a deva who is unapproachable by ordinary human). So it is natural

tendency of a human to fear while thinking of a deva. So if achchutan is

devadhEvan(king of kings) then we will never go near him. But then alwar says

though he has supreme powers he has a great guna called sowlabhyam which makes

him to come to us and play his leela with us like one among us. So thereby the

alwar proceeds to talk about the krishna avatara.

 

Ayartham kozhundhe!!! ennum: The lord who is the supreme took birth in a cow

herd where the gopi’s and gopan’s knew no veda or vedanta. They were

illiterate people who didn’t even know how to count the number of cows they

had. But one thing which was flooding in them where their love to krishna.

Thereby the lord proved that he doesn’t expect anything (education or money or

wealth etc) other than the pure love in our hearts towards him. So Alwar with

joy calls emperuman to be ‘Ayartham kozhundhu’ which means he was a small

sapling in the cowherd. Sri Krishna never enjoyed people calling him as

paratatvam but instead liked to be called “Hey krishna, Hey yAdhava, Hey

sakethi” as arjuna called him often. Though the alwars talked a lot about the

paratvam of bhagavan but they got immersed only in his sowlabhyam and always

meditated on the rAma krishna avataaras. Even Nammazhvar who was steady all

along till the first 20 paasurams totally looses himself when he taught about

the sowlabhyam of bhagavan, while he got himself tied by his mother,

yesodha(another illiterate gopi). Nammazhvar fainted and remained so for 6

months before he could really come to normal(“pattrudai adiyavargalukku

eliyavan”).

Why does alwar say kozhundhe? Though azhvars get involved in all the leelas

throughout the krishnAvatAra they seem to like the bAla leelas more than his

madura or dwaraka leelas. They like kutti gopala krishnan even more than the

geethacharyan though all their prabhandams are based on the bhagavat geetha.

Seeing geethacharyan we get respect but while seeing santana gopalan our love

or motherhood flourishes and so we want to play with the kid irrespective of

any Achara anushtanam. So like calling his son alwar calls emperuman here.

 

Echchuvai tavira yAn pOi indiralokam Alum: Alwar sung the above verses so

deeply that emperuman thought that alwar has jumped from singing thirunAma

magimai to sing his physical beauty. So he kidded alwar saying that he himself

said only thirunAma keertanam is the topmost and now he himself has lost for the

thirumEni azhaghu. But then alwar bravely replied that it is not at all

necessary for him to see the bhagavan it is enough if he sits in a place and

keeps saying achchuta, amararere, Ayartham kozhundhe etc. The sweetness of the

nAmas give him the utmost joy even if he doesn’t go and stand in front of the

bhagavan. But the beauty of the nAma is that it will attract bhagavan and make

him to come in front of the bhakthan like he did in the case of gajendrazhvan.

He ran to the call of the bhaktha.

Now bhagavan wanted to tempt alwar with the happiness and luxury of the svargam

or indra lokam. So alwar replies leaving the happiness of sitting in SriRangam

and doing bhagavan nAma keertanam I will never want to come to indralokam even

if you give it free. Here PVP says when we compare two places they should be

of equal nature. Can we compare SriRangam which is bhoologa vaikuntam with

svargam(indralokam)? It is known that the joy in indra lokam is temperory and

that after our credits(punyams) are over we are pushed back to samsara. So PVP

feels that we cannot compare it with SriRangam and hence says here the

indralokam is none other the SriVaikundam since emperuman is also called as

indiran. So here alwar even denies Srivaikundan like Anjeneya who denied to go

to paramapadam with Sri rAma saying “bhAvo nanyatra gachchathi” that he wants

only Sita rAma darshan and not the darshan of paramapadanAthan and he will stay

in this world and keep enjoying the essence of rAmayanam and will stand in any

place where rAmayana pArAyanam is done(“yatra yatra raghunAtha keertanam tatra

tatra kruthamasta kanchanim pAshpavAri paripoorna lochanam maruthim”). Hanuman

was immersed in the vibhavAvatAram and hence didn’t want to go to paramapadam

and similarly the alwars where immersed in the archAvatAram and hence they

wanted to stay like a grass or worm in the Divya desams and didn’t even prefer

a royal life in the paramapadam. Even kulasekara alwar says that he prefers

some birth in thirumalai rather than attaining moksha(“Emperuman ponmalai mEl

Adenum Avene”-perumal Thirumozhi). These alwars enjoyed the purappadu,

utsavams, kainkaryam, alangaram and beauty and leelas of the archAvadara

emperuman and hence wanted to always have the same anubhavams. Since they

didn’t know for sure if such anubhavams where present in paramapadam or not

they didn’t want to take a risk and go to the paramapadam since once we go

there we can never come back(“na cha punarAvarthate”)

 

Achchuvai perinum vEndEn ArangamAnagarulAne: Now we see that in the first half

of the paasuram Sri Thondaradi podi alwar called periya perumal with his

various thirunAmams and then he says that if he is blessed to sit in SriRangam

and sing the praise of the lord like this even though he doesn’t get the direct

darshan of the bhagavan he will prefer to stay here even if bhagavan is ready to

grant him moksha. Alwar says even if I get that great aboard I do not want it.

Alwar wants only to stay in srirangam and do bhagavat bhaagavata kainkaryam.

Sri parAsara bhattar, son of koorathazhvan(prime disciple of sri rAmanuja)

expresses similar feeling in one of his strotras. He explains why he doesn’t

want to go to svargam or even to the moksham. He says “hey bhagavan! Please

don’t send me to the svargam where the devas are busy drinking amrutham and are

in the constant look out of urvasi or rambai to give them the sensual pleasures.

Instead of enjoying in the gardens of the deva loka I would rather prefer to be

a street dog in Sri Rangam”. Here the acharya doesn’t even want to be born in a

high caste or not even as a human he prays to the lord to give him birth in

srirangam. He is not even worried what sort of a birth it is. He says it is

even ok if you make me a street dog in Sri Rangam because though then I will

not be eligible to go inside a temple still Namperumal will come out for Veedhe

purappadu. At that time I will stay in a corner and enjoy the beauty of the

bhagavan. Even if I miss him the emperuman will put his kadaksham(divine

grace) on me. So Sri bhattar says Srirangam is a better place even if you are

a low birth than svargam. Then emperuman told bhattar that then he will grant

him moksham which is emperuman’s divine aboard. Then bhattar replied I accept

it but I will go there and see if the same ThirumENi beauty and kolakalam of

Namperumal doesn’t exist in paramapadanAthan then I will pinch a hole at one

corner of the sky and jump back to Sri Rangam.

For the word Indira lokam PVP gives interpretation as vaikundam. He says

“Brahmendradi sabtangal paramarta vachagam”(the words brahma, Indra etc refers

to bhagavan only). In Sri bhashyam there is one full chapter with deals with

the same subject(IndraprAnAdikaranam). To our surprise all these alwars and

acharyas directly talk to the bhagavan than to any of the samsaris.

 

We will continue in the next posting.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

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