Thirumaalai-19

[Guest guest]

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,

 

Paasuram-6

 

“maramsuvarmadhileduthtu marumaikkE verumaipoondu

puramsuvar Ottai mAdam puralumpOdu ariyamAtteer

aramsuvarAgi nindra aranganArkku AtsaiyAdhe

puramsuvar kOlamsaidhu putkavvakedakkindreerE”

 

maramsuvarmadhileduthtu marumaikkE verumaipoondu: We all like to have relation

with anyone only when that person is useful to us but then do we ever think in

what way we could be useful to the other person? Like kamsan who wanted to

kill his own sister(just after her wedding), after knowing that her eighth

child will kill him, we all also act selfishly thinking about only our welfare.

But vasudeva was just married to devaki a couple of hours before but still he

begged kamsa to spare her life. That is how a srivaishnava should be. We

should try to be helpful to others without being selfish. Why should we be

like that, will be the common doubt? It is to earn some credits for the other

world. After so many births “kEnAbhi bhakya visheshesEna”(due to a lot of

bhakyam due to the punyams earned in various births) we have now got a human

birth. Even now if we stay like trees and animals then there is no use. With

a human body we act like dogs and monkeys then the lord gives us the same body

in the next birth. Only the humans has six senses so we have to use it

accordingly and try to realise the relation between the lord and the jeevatmas

and try to go to his feet and do kainkaryam. In this line, alwar says people

never realise these facts and hence they stay like a wall or a tree and they

gain no credits(verumai) for marumai(moksha logam).

 

puramsuvar Ottai mAdam puralumpOdu ariyamAtteer: when the body which is a house

with holes is shed down you will not know what to do says alwar. Alwar here

attributes the body to be a house which has a wall outside but with number of

holes(puramsuvar Ottai mAdam). Even thirumangai alwar describes a human body

as a 9 holed house. The soul stays in this house. Again it is not a permanent

house for the soul. We do not know from where we came and where we will go.

But in the intermediate time we consider the house to be ours and we take

upmost care of it. Like a house built of cement, this body is a house built of

flesh. Thirumangai alwar explains this excellently. “Oonidaisuvarvaiththu

enbhuthoon nAtti orOmam vaidhu onbhadhu vAsal thAnudai kurumbhai”(periya

thirumozhi 1-6-9). The house(body) is made of flesh, to give a shape to the

structure the flesh is supported by pillars of bones and to protect the flesh

it is covered with hair and the house has 9 holes. When we know that we are

supposed to vacate the house in which we are living in the month end then we

prepare ourselves to move into another house. We book a house in advance which

is more suitable for us. We look into many factors before actually selecting

the apartment in which we are going to live. Similarly, all of us have to

leave this body at the end of this janma(after death). Shouldn’t we think of

booking another house for the next? Again there are two options. We can

either get a new body in the next janma(select the body to our choice by doing

respective papam or punyam) else we can surrender to the emperuman and get

housed in his palace in the divine mokshApuri(moksham). There are actually

four purusharthas which we call aram, porul, enbam and veedu. The first three

we attain over here in this world and the last is the moksha. Veedu in tamil

means ‘a house’. So the house that actually ours and which is only THE house

is the paramapadam or moksham. The owner of the house lives in naimisaranyam

to whom thirumangai alwar surrenders to attain moksham. Only emperuman Sriman

Narayanan can grant us moksham. When our house is very old we try to renew or

reconstruct it. If it is in a very bad condition then we prefer to go to a new

house. Similarly we have taken birth after births and lived very long in this

bhoolokam so it is high time that we shift over to the new sweet home the

vaikundam, which never becomes worn out or old.

Alwar says that when we are in the last bed we will not know who to call for help.

Even our very close relatives or friends cannot help us, they will rather cry

due to inability. The doctors who have tried their level best will say, rest

left to god. But all through the life we havent believed in him and we have

never gone to his temple with a small tulasi garland. Then how will the belief

suddenly come in the last moment and how can a person think of him in his death

bed? That is why we have to do it now itself(when we are young and capable of

worshipping him). Think the perumai of the bhagavan and meditate on his nAmas.

But what we actually do? Alwar continues saying.

 

aramsuvarAgi nindra aranganArkku AtsaiyAdhe: Emperuman is dharma

swarropan.”Dharma yoni janardhanaha:” “rAmam dharma sanAthanam” “Dharma

samstappanaya” “Dharmasya prabhu: achutaha:” are various verses which say that

emperuman is a symbol of dharma. He has been our saviour always. When we help

our fellow people they forget it very soon. But emperuman never forgets when we

do a dharma and look for the enjoyment in his face. Even though whatever

service we do to the lord is not at all necessary for him still he adds one

credit to us for each good deed. Even though he is filled with so much

karunyam and is waiting to be called to help us out still we prefer to call the

less capable persons and suffer rather than calling him and enjoying the divine

bliss. That is why alwar says aranganArkku AtsaiyAdhe. Only for the sake of

we humans he came from his divine aboard the srivaikundam and settled in Sri

rangam to come to our call without any delay but then we never go near him or

call him inspite of innumerable miseries we are undergoing today.

 

puramsuvar kOlamsaidhu putkavvakedakkindreerE: we do not surrender to the lord

but we are busy decorating our body. We put on so many cosmetics and scent

ourselves to make our body appealing to others. But we lack to think that one

day this body will fall and no one will want to come near it. We put so much

make-up and then we wear a variety of dresses and jewels to make us beautiful.

Then the youth passes and then comes old age when all our beauty vanishes and

the same persons who appreciated the beauty once, now criticize it. Finally

comes death. Can the person who admired our body now keep it for more than a

day or two? No. Even our closest of the closest now get ready to bury or burn

the body. The father gets ready to burn the body of the son, the wife sees the

body of her husband burn down. This is the sad state of any body. But still

for this temporary period we want to decorate it and spend money and time for

its beautification. If we think a little bit we will know what a waste of time

and energy it is. We have to think and spend money and time for more dharmic

causes so that we can attain moksham. Azhvar says ‘putkavvakedakkindreerE’

meaning at the end, the body is eaten by predators like eagle( symbalising that

at the end the body is either buried(the soil eats it), or burnt(eaten by the

fire and burnt to ashes) or if we leave it open then the birds eat it). Here

alwar says “kavva”(bites) instead of “sappida”(to eat). Sri PVP explains why?

Considering the body which has never gone to the temple or done any kainkaryam

to the supreme lord or surrendered to him, even the bird doesn’t want to eat

this body. These birds, belonging to the same species of garudan who is the

vahana to bhagavan like to eat only bhagavat prasAdam so they eat only the body

which has been submitted to the lord under the name of saranAgathi (surrendering

to the lord,doing kainkaryam and uttering bhagavan nAma always). This

explanation is given just to show the importance of the bhagavat kainkaryam and

bhagavan nAma sankeertanam(shouldn’t be analysed taking in the actual sense).

 

One should realise the temporary nature of the body and should know the only

thing which can beautify our body is bhagavan nAma sankeertanam and bhagavat

kainkaryam.

 

To be continued in the next posting.

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

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