Thirumaalai-22

[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-9

 

“mattrumOr deivan undE? MadhiyilAmAnidangAl

uttrapOdandrinEngal oruvarendruvunaramAteer

attram mEl ondru ariyeer avanallAl deivamillai

kattrinam mEitha endhai kazhalinai paniminneerE.”

 

 

mattrumOr deivan undE? MadhiyilAmAnidangAl: Here alwar wants to say that there

is no other god than the emperuman himself. But many people around him say

that there are muppaththu mukkodi dEvargal and some say there are only the

thrimoorthis. But alwar poses a question to all of them, wondering if there

can be anyother god equivalent to Sriman Narayanan. In front of the

purushOtamam all the others become only strees(ladies). Sri Parasara bhattar

was once telling his shisyas, the sridevi avirbhAva charitram during the

amrudha madhanam(churning of milk ocean). He told the shisyas that when the

devAs churned the pArkadal then sri Mahalakshmi appeared from inside and she

went and put the garland in her hand to the lord and got a permament place in

his chest. One of his shisyas Nanjeeyer asked bhattar ,”when shyness was a

important characteristics of ladies how could the loka mAtha, head of all the

women in this world go and sit in the chest of the emperuman in front of so

many dEvas?” Bhattar replied, ”Ofcourse ladies are shy by nature but they

never feel shy in front of 10 ladies only when a man is present they feel shy.

In front of purushOtaman all the other men appeared as women to her and hence

she didn’t feel shy.” So emperuman is alone considered as deivam or

paramapurusham. But people inspite of the explanations given by alwar doesn’t

want to accept it. They are still stubborn in their own opinions so alwar

calls them, ‘madhiyilla mAnidangAl’(human without brains). Here alwar says

mAnidangAl because he considers such human to be equal to animals. As sastras

say, “jnAna heena: pasu:”(one without knowledge is equal to an animal). Saint

purandaradAsar in one of his krithis ,sings in yesOdhA bhAvam, and says “poochi

vandhadE kanna poochi vandhadE” here he refers to brahma, sivan and the other

dEvas as poochi(insects) because when compared to the magimai of the lord Sri

Krishna(Yesodha’s kid) all others are like small insects.

 

uttrapOdandrinEngal oruvarendruvunaramAteer: BhAnAsuran was a great siva

bhakthan. His daughter ushai wanted to marry krishna’s grandson aniruddhan.

But coming to know of this bhAnAsuran put aniruddan behind the bars. Then

Krishna and his army came to fight. At that time bhAnAsuran lost all his power

and requested sivan to come to his rescue. Sivan and his army came to fight

against the lord but then he knew he cannot win over the lord and hence he fell

to his feet and begged to spare the life of bhAnan who was his bhaktha. So

emperuman spared him for the sake of Sivan. Ravanan was a great siva bhakthan

but siva peruman didn’t come to his rescue in the rAma-rAvana war. In the

Mahabharata war also no one could do anything against arjuna because Krishna

was shielding him. Siva peruman told dhuriyOdhana that, even his pAsupadAstram

cannot go past Krishna, who was sitting in front of Arjuna’s chariot. Brahma

gave a lot of varans to hiranyakasipu but then he couldn’t do anything against

narasimha bhagavAn. So there are so many instances where the so called big

deivams have lost to bhagavAn sriman Narayanan and have surrendered to him.

There are many more to quote, so alwar hear says only when you are all put to

such a crisis, will you realize that there is no other superior power greater

than emperuman. He is the ONE, with no other one equal to him. But people

refuse to accept this fact. Why? Alwar continues to explain,

attram mEl ondru ariyeer avanallAl deivamillai: why people do not accept is

because there is nothing inside their heads. They want only worldly pleasures

and hence go behind the suddhra devatas which give the simple worldly

pleasures. These people assume that the devatas will torture them if they do

not give them the proper offering and hence give bali etc and waste their time.

They never spend their time in reading through our sastras or listening to

them. And hence do not realize the truth. Ramanyana says “Adianthecha

madhyecha hari sarvathra geeyathe”(hari is present in the first, end and the

middle). The shruthis and smritis highlight the superiority of bhagavAn. In

Mahabharatha(considered as the 5th vedam) both Vishnu sahasranAmam and BG talk

fully of the bhagavath magimai only. Full of Bhagavatam is only

bhagavath-bhAgavatha kathai(stories). Inspite of all these the people still

remain ignorant because they do not have the brains to think and analyse. They

even do not want to accept the Vedas and itihasa puranas instead talk ill of

them. Still alwar pities them and says ‘avanallAl deivamillai’. Even though

you people cannot understand by yourself I now tell you that there is no other

deivam like him (infact there is no other deivam other than him). So now

people ask alwar who this ‘avan’ is? Alwar answers that question,

 

kattrinam mEitha endhai kazhalinai paniminneerE: Alwar cautiously says the

lord is Sri Krishnan. Because if he says narasimhan people will fear to go

near him. If he says chakravarthi thirumagan then they will say how can we

cheap people approach a great king. So he says the lord is none other than the

son of nandagopan who did nothing else than going at the back of the cowherds.

Even today when we see our kids not studying well it is our tendency to say

that you are fit for only going at the back of cowherds. But the emperuman,

lord of lords chose to be born in a clan of cowboys. He came down to attract

the people with his beauty. It is natural for anyone to loose themselves to a

beautiful kid. Even though a flower may be in our enemies garden we do enjoy

the fragrance. Similarly irrespective of whose kid it is we like to talk sweet

words to it and play with it. So emperuman opted to be born as a gopan and

enjoy and also steal all our hearts(like he stole butter in each house in

gokulam). So alwar says fall into the feet of my lord who went at the back of

the cowherds.

 

To be continued

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

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