Thirumaalai-60

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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)

 

Let us now proceed to see the poorvakandArtham of dvayam as in the paasuram.

 

KAmbara thalai siraiththu vunkadai thalai errundhu* vAzhum:

 

Here alwar says, ‘Kambara thalai siraiththu’ meaning shave the heads fully

along with the roots. We will see what this implies. Lowkikas have ambitions

different from that of bhagavat bhakthas. Some bhagavatas take up sanyasa

leaving all these worldly ambitions and relations. When they take up sanyasa it

is like shedding all the weight and tensions, which existed in their minds.

Some like alwars shed their tensions mentally even when they are in the

samsAram. Kulasekara alwar says, “vundiyE vudaiyE vuganthOdum em mandalam than

nOdum kooduvadillai yAn”. Alwar did not become a sanyasi but he remained like a

water droplet on a lotus leaf without getting attached with the sareera bandhus

who were running at the back of money and matter to live a sophisticated life.

 

Some people who have got detached from this worldly affairs, purposely grown

“sadAbAram”(thick clusters of hair locked with each other tightly) on their

heads but never feel it uncomfortable. But when the same is formed in the heads

of a small kid before the first shaving of the hair, the mother waits till the

time when the sadai is actually removed and feels relived only after the shaving

of the same. Similarly we all purposely want to get involved with the worldly

affairs and put ourselves to miseries. But the divine emperuman who considers

each one of us as his child is filled with tension to see all of us suffering

and hence waits for the time to relieve us from the same. The child never

releases the difficulty similar is our case emperuman feels more than all of us.

 

Sometimes some hair fall by itself, similarly sometimes some sareera bandhus and

lowkika matters leave us by itself. Only if we get detached it is going to

affect others but if they themselves leave us thinking us to be crazy then it

becomes easier for us to concentrate on the emperuman and attain his divine

abode.

 

Here alwar says, like shaving the hair along with its root, we have to leave the

bondages to the worldly affairs along with the vAsana. Sri PVP in his

vyakhyAnam says, “vAsanai ara”. When we are binded with the world then even

when we do bhagavat kainkaryam and sit in front of emperuman our minds still

works towards the worldly tensions and how to solve them. Our acharyas

beautifully say, if we see perumal then the world never comes in front of us but

if we see the world we can never concentrate on the divine emperuman. So

leaving all the worldly bondages we have to surrender in the holy feet of the

lord.

 

sOmbharai vugaththi pOlum soozh punal arangaththAnE!:

 

What do we do leaving the bondages? After leaving all the worldly bondages

along with the vAsanas we live under the divine feet of emperuman (vAzhum).

Then, will we stay without doing anything at all? Yes, here alwar says the

saranAgathan then stays lazily in the feet of emperuman. Only thing he has to

do is stay in the bhagavat sannadhi. He takes part in all the poojas and

bhajans, which happens in the temple and does nothing. In Ramayana, bharatha

feels bad that he has lost such a chance to just sit along with perumal like the

many who were in perumal’s satsangam in chitra koodam, instead he had to go to

ayodhya to take care of the kingdom.

 

When he actually doesn’t do anything why should perumal protect him? That is

perumal’s svaroopam. The svaroopam of a saranAgathan is to stay with the mahA

vishvAsam that we are incapable of anything and perumal is capable to even grant

moksha without us doing anything other than staying under his feet. In the case

of other upAsakas, moksha is attained after many janmAs, depending on his

capacity. Krishna in bhagavat geetha says, “anEka janma samsiddhaha” whereas

when it comes to prapannas the same Krishna in geetha says, “na chirAt”(I will

grant the moksha in this janma itself). Since in the case of saranagathas the

emperuman who is sarvasankalpam grants moksha on his own. Though the

saranagatha need not do anything still he cherishes doing kainkaryam to

emperuman not as an upAya to attain moksha but for the enjoyment of emperuman.

 

A prapanna is more active in bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryam but lazes out only in

lowkika family matters. Bhakthas like nAma devar are also supposed have been

the same, active in bhagavat vishayam but lazy in taking care of their body and

family. There is one interesting story in the life of nAma deva. He used to

always stay in the temple of panduranga in pandaripuram and never cared about

his family. Once his wife, who was also a strong bhakthai came to complain to

the divya dampathis about the same. She first came to the rukmini sannadhi and

told her about pandurangan making her husband mad of him and not allowing him to

come to their house at all. Hearing this rukmini complained back saying it is

only your husband (nAma deva) who has made my husband mad. He keeps on singing

bhajans with the other bhagavatas and never allows panduranga to come to sleep

even in the mid night.

 

I make the bed and keep everything ready for him to come and lie down but he

never turns up. I hear the bhagavatas singing lullaby during the dolOtsavam so

I think he is going to come and wait, but immediately they sing the suprabhAdam

and everything starts once again. Listening to rukmini devi lamenting, nAma

deva’s wife proceeded towards pandurangan’s sannadhi. She complained to

pandurangan. Emperuman then replied, “Shouldn’t you be proud of your husband?

He is the only bhaktha who I have got who doesn’t care about the world but is

always involved in my bhakthi and stays under my feet always making me enjoy

with his bhajans. Do you think he should come at the back of you leaving all

these?” Nama deva’s wife then realized her mistake and returned back with great

pride and joy to have possessed such a husband. This is what emperuman expects

from each one of us. Leave our lowkika bondages and stay under his feet always

without troubling us with all other sAdhanas, when emperuman the siddhOpAyam is

readily available and waiting to grant us moksha.

 

So in the above two lines thondaradi podi alwar thus has given the

poorvakandArtham of the dvayam(sriman narAyana charanou sharanam prapathyE).

 

As adiyen mentioned at the start this is a great vishayam and also a rahasyam.

Adiyen has just tried to explain limited to adiyen’s ignorance and lack of

knowledge. Adiyen requests the bhagavatas to please learn the same from your

acharyas after taking your samAsrayanam under your respective acharyas. All the

errors in the above may be please pardoned and corrected. Adiyen is grateful to

Sri Sri Krishna Premi anna and Sri MAV swami whose lectures have helped adiyen

in explaining the above.

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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