Thirumaalai-32

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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,

 

Paasuram-17

“virumbi nindrEththa mAttEn vidhiyilen madhi ondrillai

irumbhupOl valiya nenjam eraierai vurugum vannam

surumbhamar sOlai soozhindha arangamAkoyil konda

karumbhinaikkandu kondu yenkanninai kalikkumArE!”

 

virumbi nindrEththa mAttEn vidhiyilen madhi ondrillai: Initially, alwar says, I

was not at all interested in bhagavat vishayam. Whenever we want to go for

bhagavat vishayam there is always some hindrance. As we consider many more

things more important in our life we have bhagavat vishayam as a last option.

We all think that we can reserve bhagavat vishayam for the later days but

cannot forgo the lowkika matters at this time. Whenever we sit to do

thiruvArAdhanam or pooja or some pArAyanam, there is one devil inside us which

keeps on telling,’isn’t this enough for today? haven’t we done enough? etc

etc’. But such thoughts never appear when we are involved in the lowkika

pleasures. We want more and more without any end. This is bhagavan mAyai

which puts us into this vicious circle of life and death. We go to the temple

to meditate on the god atleast for sometime. But the pitiable part is that

after going there our mind starts wondering here and there and we assume as if

the whole world will stop if we are not present in the office or at home and

least concentrate on the divine lord. There is no use in doing bhajanai or

pooja just for the sake of doing it or for punyam. It should be done for the

joy of doing it and with atmost concentration on the supreme lord. Here alwar

says “virumbi nindrEththa mAttEn” that is, I will not sing the praise of the

lord, due to my interest or deep love for him, instead I do it because it is my

fate and I even don’t have the intellect to really understand my mistake.

Sri PVP in his vyakhyanam says, “bhagavat vishayaththai pEsavendrAl vAk

indriyaththikku sakthi ellai. Vyathiriktha vishayangalai pesavendrAl Adaravum

vundai sakthiyum vundAyirukkum”

When it comes to bhagavat vishayam our mouth pains and we feel tired and

disinterested. But when it comes to lowkikam we gain all the strength and

interest to do a big lecture. We don’t mind straining ourselves for lowkika

pleasures but in case of bhagavat vishayam even a small hindrance is enough to

demoralize us. As the saying goes, “where there is a will there is a way”. If

we have deep love and bhakthi towards bhagavan we will always find time and

energy to do bhagavat kainkaryam and gunAnubhavam. If not we can find umteem

number of reasons not to do the same. If we are not capable to talk about

emperuman or do kainkaryam to him atleast we can listen to those who do the

same but we refrain and get away from such people thinking that they are mad

and unproductive. Sri PVP says, “Nee oruvan vundu endru ariyum arivum kooda

ellai” We are all so blindfolded due to the kAmika enjoyment that we do not

even have the intellect to realize that there is one supreme bhagavan.

“vunnai ozhiya sakala padharthangaludaiya svaroopa svabhAvangalai ariya

kshamanAi errukkum” Other than the lord we want to understand the qualities of

all other objects, living or non living, which exists in this world. Svaroopam

is the inherent quality and svabhAvam is the habit. We try to analyse so many

things in this world and consider ourselves to be very knowledgeable but we

hardly think that there is one thing which is beyond our thinking and analyzing

capacity. We do not even know that such a thing exists and we refuse to accept

it too. There are so many people who are so updated that they can say within a

second the price of onion to price of diamonds and can give as many data or news

up to date. But when we ask them about bhagavan they say there is no such thing

in their dictionary. What a pity!

 

irumbhupOl valiya nenjam eraierai vurugum vannam: Alwar says I used to be one

among the above said hard core people. But then even my hard heart, which is

like a piece of hard iron now melts. What made alwar’s heart melt?

 

surumbhamar sOlai soozhindha arangamAkoyil konda: My heart melts on seeing the

bhagavan who resides in the temple at Srirangam, which is surrounded by number

of beautiful gardens filled with number of bees. The temple atmosphere is so

peaceful and pleasant to our minds and the beauty of namperumal residing over

there even makes a nastika, hard at heart lose himself.

 

karumbhinaikkandu kondu yenkanninai kalikkumArE!: Emperuman is sweet like a

sugarcane. So alwar calls him to be a ‘karumbu’(sugarcane). But there is a

difference between a sugarcane and the emberuman. We can enjoy the sweetness

of a sugarcane only after drinking the juice. But the sugarcane, by the name

namperumal makes us enjoy the sweetness just as we look at it. That’s why

alwar says karumbhinai kandu kondu instead of, after eating he says on seeing,

yenkanninai-my eyes kalillumArE-enjoys, experiences the height of ecstacy. Why

does alwar say yen kanninai? Alwar feels proud that only his eyes are fortunate

to have the darshan of emperuman and enjoy and those who have missed this

opportunity are unfortunate. Not only the eyes, the ears which listen to

bhagavat gunam are lucky, the mouth which sings his praise are fortunate and

each and every part of our body which is involved in bhagavat vishayam are

fortunate and they are supposed to get the palan(result) of their creation.

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

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