Thirumaalai-59

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

 

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-38 (contd)

 

 

 

In the previous posting we saw the meaning of the dvaya mahA manthram in brief.

Now let us see how this has been conveyed by alwar in this paasuram. We saw

earlier that dvayam, as the name suggests has two parts, the poorva kandam and

the uttara kandam. In this paasuram, Sri thondaradipodi alwar gives the

meanings of the two parts in two lines each; only thing is that the order of the

parts is changed. The first two lines of the paasuram give the uttara

kandArtham of the dvayam and the last two lines the poorva kandArtham.

 

 

 

mEmporul pOga vittu meimayai migavunarindhu: AdiyArs are those who are totally

different from the lowkikas. Those who have left all the sAdhanas both in

samsAric matters and pAramArthikam are called as adiyars. Whichever the

lowkikas consider being the most precious are like ordinary stones to

bhAgavatas. KoorthAzhvan left all his wealth and came to fall under the feet of

his acharya, rAmanuja. He didn’t consider the lowkika money and matter as

important. Similarly Swami vedAntha desikan considered only kanchi deva perumal

as his wealth and ignored all other wealth. So here alwar says, mEmporul pOga

vittu, leaving all that which are considered as wealth in this world, the

bhAgavatas realize the ultimate truth. What is the ultimate truth? In tamil

‘mei’ refers to both sareeram and truth but actually the body is not true.

These bhagavatas realize the truth that the body is temporary and hence false,

and only the athma is true. Alwar says ‘migavunarindhu’. First stage is

realizing that the athma is alone true. The second stage (migavunarudhal) is

realizing that the athma also belongs to emperuman and hence it is not

independent.

 

 

 

Amparisarindhu kondu I-mpulanagaththadakki: After realizing that the athma is

a seshan(dependent) to the emperuman, then next thing he should wish for is

bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryam. Kainkaryam is the best gift to the dependent

jeevatma. After that ‘I-mpulanagaththadakki’ we have to control our sense

organs. When alwar said leaving all the lowkika matters, in the very first

line, it itself needs the control of all our senses. But then why does alwar

repeat that here after the jeevan has passed so many stages of realization and

accepting bhagavat kainkaryam? Here alwar fixes the meaning of the term

‘nama:’. While doing bhagavat kainkaryam one may feel that he has been blessed

with this divine kainkaryam and that he is enjoying the same. Actually even

this kainkaryam should be for the enjoyment of bhagavan and hence controlling of

our senses, which enjoy the kainkaryam we are doing, is what is mentioned by

alwar in ‘I-mpulangaththadakki’.

 

 

 

Thus in the above two lines alwar has given the uttara kandArtham of the dvayam

(srimathE nArAyanAya nama:). Before we see the poorva kandArtham let us clarify

one doubt, which may arise in all our minds. Why did alwar change the order and

give the uttara kandArtham first and the poorva kandArtham second. When we do a

practical experiment then we have to give the procedure first and then give the

inference or the result whereas when we have to teach a subject then we first

give the theory and what result it will give and then when the listeners are

interested to obtain the result we tell them the procedure.

 

 

 

Similarly dvaya mahA mantram is a practical experiment, which gives the

procedure followed by the result(we do saranagathi under the divine feet of the

emperuman and as a result obtain the kainkaryam which is also done for his

enjoyment and not for the sake of us). But the alwars actually wanted us to get

interested in the same so they first gave the result made us get attracted

towards the same and then gave the procedure. There is one nice legend in our

guru paramparai. One person went to one acharya and asked what he should do to

attain moksha. That acharya told him all the ways of nithya karmAnushtAnam,

bhakthi, prapatti etc and finally said if you do all these you can attain

moksha. The person felt the procedure to be very difficult. He then went to

another acharya and asked the same question. That acharya first explained all

the good things in the moksha lOkam and all the bad things in this world and

then slowly told him the ways to attain moksha. Though the ways specified by

both of them were same still, now the person realizing the importance of

attaining moksha and getting released from this samsAric miseries started doing

everything as per the acharya’s instruction.

 

 

 

So before telling any hard way to attain something we should make a person

realize the importance of attaining the result irrespective of all the

difficulties to attain the same. That is what alwar has done in this paasuram

also. We will proceed with the poorva kandArtham in the next posting.

 

 

 

(To be continued)

 

 

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

 

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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