tasya yathA kapyAsam puNdareekamEvamakshiNI

[Guest guest]

srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

srImadh varavara munayE namaha

 

Dear Members,

 

This is a very long mail. Please read fully without

omitting anything in order to appreciate how

beautifully our Sri Ramanuja has explained about

emberumAn's lotus eyes.

 

In my previous message on the Sapathagiri magazine

blasphemy, I had told that I will be writing shortly

on the chAndhOgya upanishad vAkhyam "thasya yathA

kapyAsam puNdareekam yEvam akshiNi". I am attempting

on it now. In fact I wanted to post about this

beautiful eyes of emberumAn after reading Sri

Vedaraman Sriraman's outpouring of AmalanAdhipirAn

based on Sri Satymurthy Iyengar's translation. What an

anubhavam it was.... "..kariyavAgip pudai paranthu

miLirndhu sevvaRiyOdi, neeNda ap periyavAya kaNgaL"

will really turn every one mad on Him as was done of

Sri Pillai urangAvilli dAsar. Of course this was

possible for him only because, Sri namperumAL showed

Himself in such a way on the request of Sri Ramanujar.

Only when He shows Him we can see that. Which is why

Sri nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi, 10th decad, on

thiruvATTARu pAsuram says "kATTi than kanai kazhalgaL,

kaDu naragam pugalozhittha vATTARRemberumAnai.."

(meaning, that vATTARRemberumAn who showed His lotus

feet and saved me from entering the naragam). Great

anubhavam. Also Smt Sumitra Varadarajan's outpouring

on "kamalach chengaN" from ThirumAlai during the same

time made me to think of writing this. But due to

bhagavat sankalpam I could write only now.

 

Episode 1

One fine day, here is our beloved Sri Ramanuja in his

young age, (oil) bathing his guru Sri yAdhava

prakAsar. Sri yAdhava prakAsar, who was pleased with

his sishyAs service started talking about the

chAndhOgya upanishad. In the course, he started

explaining the meaning of the vAkhyam, "thasya yathA

kapyAsam puNdareekam yEvam akshiNI". He explained the

meaning as 'The Lord's eyes are red in colour just

like the butt of a monkey'. He was explaining this as

kapi (monkey) + Asam (butt) = kapyAsam (monkey's butt)

Sri Ramanuja was stunned on hearing this. He could not

bear, the comparison of the lotus eyes of emberumAn,

in which a lot of kAruNyam is always seen, with that

of the butt of a monkey. He politely refuted the

meaning with tears flowing down in his eyes and his

AchArya was at loggerheads and drove him out. The

episode ends here.

 

Episode 2 (with respect to this discussion only)

Sri Ramanuja who is a pUrNa now, as the Sri Vaishnava

simhAsanAthipathi, is writing the magnum opus Sri

BhAshyam. All that is in his mind is only his

"drONa"AchArya Sri ALavandhAr's thiruvuLLam that the

rebuttal be written with the AzhwAr's pAsuram as the

basis.

 

He starts writing the meaning for the word "kapyAsam"

as,

 

"gambheerAmbas samudhbhUtha-sumrushTa

nALa-ravikaravikasitha puNdareeka thaLa amala

AyathEkshaNa"

 

Let us dwell on this explanation, which is a wonderful

one and irrefutable one prooving a lot of things about

our Sri Ramanuja. One may wonder, how just one word

"kapyAsam" will have so much meaning. Here I would

like to point out to all members that whatever I am

writing is based on Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swamy's

article on this topic which appeared in his

"Ramanujan" magazine. In this swAmy says that the

meanings or the vyuthpatthis of this word 'kapyAsam'

is a very difficult Sanskrit usage and that he has

elaborately explained in some his Sanskrit works for

which I have no access. However, accepting that he has

clearly explained, irrefutably, that Sri Ramanuja used

the above line to explain only the meaning of the word

'kapyAsam' let us proceed further.

 

 

1. "gambheerAmbhas samudh bhUtha" - The Lotus has many

names like 'jalajam', 'ambujam', 'ambOjam', 'neerajam'

etc. All of us know that the lotus grows only in water

and no where else. This word "gambheerAmbhas

samudhbhUtha" denotes that the lotus is not separable

from water. This is also evident from the Sri Vachana

bhooshaNa sUtram " thAmarayai alarthakkaDava

AdhithyanthAnE, neeraip pirindhAl atthai

ulartthumApOlE", meaning "like the Sun which makes the

lotus bloom while in water, will make it dry when it

is out of water". So the association between the water

and lotus is clearly explained here. Developing

further, what Sri Ramanuja says is that 'the eyes of

the emberumAn are like that of the lotus which is

unseparable from water' Where did Sri Ramanuja get

this connection between the lotus and emberumAn's

eyes? It is from these pAsurams.

 

neerAr kamalam pOl sengaNmAl enroruvan - from 'Siriya

Thirumadal' (Thirumangai AzhwAr)...(1)

 

azhaRalar thAmaraik kaNNan - from

'thiruviruttham' (Nammazhwar) ...(2)

 

The connecting words 'neerAr' and 'kamalam' explains

this clearly. In fact, in "eedu" Sri NampiLLai says

"kapyAsa sruti spashTamAgavE udhAharikkap paTTuLLadhu"

(The word 'kapyAsa' is clearly explained/referred

here). The actual Sri Sookthi is like this

 

"[azhaRalar thAmaraik kaNNan] azhaRRilE ninRalarndha

thAmaraippooppOle irundhuLLa thirukkaNgaLai udayavan.

*yathA kapyAsam puNdareekamEvamakshiNI*

ennakkadavadhirE"

 

Sri vAdhikEsari Azhagiya maNavALa jeeyar, in his

swApadhEsArtham for this pAsuram says "azhaRu endRu

aLarRu; neerilum sERRilum ninRu alarndhu sevvi mARAdha

thAmarai pOndra kaNNaiyudayavan enRapadi".

 

Okay, this explains that the emberumAn's eyes are like

the lotus which is inseparable from water. But Sri

Ramanuja uses the word "gambheera", which means

"great". Where is this supported in AzhwAr's pAsurams.

 

 

thaN 'peru neer' thadanthAmarai malarndhAlokkum kaN

perunkaNNan -thiruvAimozhi(Nammazhwar) ..(3)

 

The word "peru" or big is the supportive for writing

it as "gambeera". But see the beauty. while his one

line itself is enough for explaining the word in

analysis now, 3 examples are given only to show that

not only one pAsuram of one AzhwAr alone is

considered, but also many examples are there in

AzhwAr's pAsuram's with which Sri Ramanuja explained

this upanishad vAkhyam ad hence he IS A MASTER OF

TAMIL AND HENCE AZHWAR'S WORKS.

 

2. "sumrushTa nALa" - The lotus loses its beauty if it

is separated from its stem, just like if it is

separated from water. So being unseparated is also a

necessary condition for the lotus to retain its

beauty. So here Sri Ramanuja says that the eyes of

emberumAn are like the lotuses which are with a soft

stem. Let us see the supporting AzhwAr's pAsurams for

this.

 

embirAna thadankaNgaL, men kAl kamalth taDam pOl

polindhana - thiruviruttham (Nammazhwar) ..(4)

(it should be noted that the words are jumbled to give

the true meaning. Actually the pAsuram is as follows

 

vankARRaRaya orungE maRindhu kiDandhalarndha

men kAl kamalth thaDam pOl polindhana - maNNum viNNum

enkARkkaLavinmaik kANminenbAnotthu vAn nimirndha

thankARpaNinda en pAl embirAna thadankaNNgaLE)

 

Here nALa = kAl or the stem; sumrushTa = 'men' or

'melliya'. So it is proved that even this word is

taken from AzhwAr's pAsuram only. The word "menkAl"

here is an adjective explaining the characteristic of

the lotus.

 

3. "ravikaravikasitha" - Only the lotus in full bloom

can be compared with that of the eye of the emberumAn,

though it is in water with stem. What makes the lotus

bloom. As seen in the point 1 above, it is the Sun

which makes the flower bloom. The AzhwAr's pAsuram

that supports this is

 

anchuDara veyyOn--senchuDarth thAmaraikkaN selvan -

thiruAimozhi (Nammazhwar) ...(5)

 

"senchudarth thAmaraikkaN selvan" means, 'the

emberumAn whose eyes are like a lotus having a reddish

glow. Where does this reddish glow come to the lotus

it is from the Sun described by the usage of the word

"anchuDara veyyOn". This explains the word "ravikara

vikasitha". The other pAsurams which support this are

 

senthaN kamalakkaNN....sivandha vAyOr karunAyiRu

andhamillAk kadhir parappi alarndhadhokkum ammAnE -

thiruvAimozhi (Nammazhwar) ....(6)

means, 'the emberumAn's eyes are like a reddish lotus.

The lotus which is made to bloom fully by the Sun

through its infinite rays (andhamillAk kadhir

parappi)'.

 

senkamalam andharanchEr vengadhirORkkallal alarAvAl -

perumAL thirumozhi (kulasEkara Azhwar)

But in this pAsuram there is no mention about the

eyes. Nevertheless this talks about the lotus blooming

on seeing the Sun's rays.

 

Okay, these three are explained clearly. So Sri

Ramanuja should have written the meaning as

"gambeerAmbhas samudhbhUtha sumrushTa nALa

ravikaravikasitha, puNdareekEkshaNa". But he adds

three words, 1) thaLa, 2) amala,& 3) Ayatha. What is

the basis of including these three words? Again the

basis is nothing other than AzhwAr's pAsurams.

 

AzhwAr's, in some places use the word

"thAmaraikkaNNan", and use thAmaraith thaDankaNNan",

"kamalth thaDankaNNan" and "kamalath thaDam

perunkaNNan" in many places. The "la" and "La" in

Sanskrit changes to "Da" in Tamizh. This change is

advocated in the nyAya sAsthrAs, amarakOsam etc. In

amarakOsam, the word "thaLam" appears and Sri Ramanuja

was convinced that this "thaLam" in Sanskrit had

become "thaDam" in Tamizh, as in "kamalath

thaDankaNNan" and "thAmaraith thaDankaNNan". So based

on this he wrote "puNdareeka thaLa". The word "thaDam"

has two meanings. One is "Big" (viSAlam) and the

second is a Tank (like a thirukkuLam). This is

supported by pAsurams,

 

neelatthaDavarai mEl puNdareeka neDunthaDangaL

pOla......embirAn kaNNin kOlangaLE - thiruviruttham

(Nammazhwar) ...(7) Here the word thaDam means

"thaDAgam" a Tank.

 

The basis for the word "amala" is taken from

thiruvAimozhi, where Sri Nammazhwar says,

 

kamalakkaNNan.....amalangaLAga vizhikkum .....(8) As

you all know "amala" means flawless. Here it means the

beauty of the lotus which is flawless.

 

The basis for the word "Ayatha" is taken from the very

pAsuram from AmalanAdhipirAn, quoted in the beginning

of the mail, which inspired me to write this in the

list.

 

"..kariyavAgip pudai paranthu miLirndhu sevvaRiyOdi,

neeNda ap periyavAya kaNgaL" ....(9)

 

"Ayatha" is synonymous with "neeNDa" and "periya".

 

 

Dear Members, I have attempted to just translate a

wonderful article by Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swAmy in

one of his "Ramanuja" magazine. Actually I wanted to

share this with all when I read this about 8 months

back. But I don't know why, I waited for a pretext to

post this in the list. And now, as said above, the

wonderful essaying about our emberumAn's thirukkaNgaL

by Sri Vedaraman Sriraman and Smt Sumitra Varadarajan

really inspired me to write about this. Also the

controversy over emberumAnAr knowing the divya

prabhandhams or not added to this desire.

 

It can be seen from above references (1) to (9) that,

Sri Ramanuja used ATLEAST (but not limited to) the

following AzhwArs pAsurams to write the Sri Bhashyam.

 

1. Sri Nammazhwar,

2. Sri Thirumangai Azhwar,

3. Sri Kulasekara Azhwar &

4. Sri Thiruppanazhwar.

 

By this even the foolish argument that emberumAnAr did

not know tamizh is refuted.

 

Again if you see the thaniyans of these AzhwArs,

 

- Sri NathamunigaL, Sri eeswara munigaL, Sri SoTTai

Nambi, Sri AnanthAzhwAr and Sri BhaTTar have composed

thaniyans for ThiruvAimozhi and Sri Kidambiaacchan

composed the thaniyan for Thiruviruttham. Certainly

Sri Kidambiaacchaan, Sri AnanthAzhwAr and Sri BhaTTar

belong to the same period as Sri Ramanujar and beyond.

Now if one were to say that only those who composed

the thaniyan had discovered these pAsurams, does it

mean that all the five above, have discovered it in

various periods? How absurd it is?

 

Again the author in that magazine says that only

thiruvAimozhi was considered to be of some substance.

If it were so, why a great AchArya like Sri

Kidambiaacchaan composed a thaniyan for

Thiruviruttham? This proves that all the other pAsurms

were also equally in vogue and considered equally

divine.

 

- Sri Thirukkottiyur Nambi, Sri Emberumanar, Sri

Kooratthazhwan & Sri Embar have composed thaniyans for

Periya Thirumozhi of Sri Thirumangai Azhwar. Same

questions as above apply to this. Here emberumAnAr

himself has composed a thaniyan for this pAsuram. So

certainly emberumAnAr has gone through this and had

mastered it. So where is the question that emberumAnAr

did not know Tamizh/Thiruvaimozhi/and other pAsurams.

 

- Again Sri EmberumAnAr and Sri maNakkAl Nambi have

composed thaniyan for Sri KulasekarAzhwar's perumAL

thirumozhi.

 

and finally,

 

- Sri Periya Nambi and Sri Thirumalai Nambi have

composed the thaniyans for AmalanAdhippirAn. These

AchAryAs were quoted by that author amongst those who

do not know Tamizh and AzhwAr's pAsurams.

 

Sri ALavandhar composed the very famous thaniyan

"mAthA pithA....." on Sri Nammazhwar and how one can

say that he would not have gone through his

Thiruvaimozhi and other prabhandhams.

 

Remember that a thaniyan is a song of praise on a

person and this does not have a meaning unless the

person who composed it had utmost respect on that

person, based on his works.

 

 

I am sorry to have combined an argument with one of

the great anubhavams of enjoying the emberumAn. But I

had to do it as the necessity was generated.

 

Any mistakes in the above is purely mine and all the

credits goes to Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swamy for his

wonderful work.

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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