Chanting of the Prabandham the best possible way

[Guest guest]

Respected Adiyaars,

 

I have a huge doubt. Even though tamil is my

mother tongue, I still have issues in understanding the meanings of most of the

Prabandhams. Well, if understanding the basic, flat meaning is itself a problem

as such, what about the subtle, deep, philosophical truth hidden in each verse

of the Prabandham??

 

How should one chant the Prabandham?? Is it ok, if

he chants it without knowing the meaning as such. And what about pronunciation

mistakes?? Am I right if I say that it is an offense if we make mistakes when we

chant the pasurams, as it is tantamount to insulting the Azhwars??

 

Sometimes, I do get the meaning, but still am prone

to making errors. For example, thanks to Sri Madhavakkannan, I now know the

meaning of "Thiruppallandu", but still I have confusions in the last word of

each paragraph, I donno when to say "Pallandu KURUVANE" or "Pallandu KURUDHUME"

or "Pallandu KURUMINE". Is it an offense when I mix and match them??

 

Sometimes, when I chant the Pasurams, my mind just

wanders, thinking of very very trivial mundane things, thinking of anything but

Perumal. Am I a sinner??

 

I request the elders and the cognizant in the list to

kindly address my queries.

 

AzhwAr EmperumanAr Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam.

 

Dasan,

 

Kidambi Soundararajan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

 

dear srI. vimal,

 

your questions regarding the chanting of the divya prabhandham are

very appropriate, and correct. The following is what I have

gathered from elders.

 

(i) The very fact that one wants to chant the divya prabhandham,

and places emphasis on correctness, is a very good thing. After all,

there are so many people who do not even knwo about, or want to

chant the divya prabhandham.

(ii) Chanting it "wrongly" is no sin. And, in fact, our AzhvArs

will never consider that an "insult" etc. On the other hand,

they probably will want to help us pronounce/chant it correctly.

(iii) the danger in chanting "wrongly" are twofold - (i) the

meanings can get distorted, and hence to a listener, the

pAsurams may make no sense; (ii) for the chanter himself/herself,

there will be no sense if the words are used interchangeably,

and in an incorrect manner.

(iv) As long as one recognizes the pitfalls of chanting wrongly,

it is encouraged to make an attempt to chant correctly. There is

nothing wrong in having a correct divya prabhandham book in front

of us while chanting, so that we can refer to the book in places

where we have a doubt. Over a period of time, one will get the

correct wording/breaks.

 

As far as the thiruppallANdu example you have given goes, it is

technically wrong to interchange the words - because kUruminE

addresses a third party (a group of people, for example), and

kUruvanE addresses the AzhvAr himself.

 

I suggest that "chanting" take second place to enjoying the

anubhavam of the AzhvArs through the pAsurams - i.e., when we

recite, let us focus on the underlying meanings, and recite the

pAsuram accordingly. Nowadays, atleast the literal meanings are

available easily, and it takes little effort to read through

them. From experience, I can tell you that if we do that, the

chances of using the wrong words are minimized.

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

varadhan

 

 

 

 

ramanuja, vimalkumar ranganathan

<panardasan> wrote:

>

> Respected Adiyaars,

>

> I have a huge doubt. Even though

tamil is my mother tongue, I still have issues in understanding the

meanings of most of the Prabandhams. Well, if understanding the

basic, flat meaning is itself a problem as such, what about the

subtle, deep, philosophical truth hidden in each verse of the

Prabandham??

>

> How should one chant the Prabandham??

Is it ok, if he chants it without knowing the meaning as such. And

what about pronunciation mistakes?? Am I right if I say that it is

an offense if we make mistakes when we chant the pasurams, as it is

tantamount to insulting the Azhwars??

>

> Sometimes, I do get the meaning, but

still am prone to making errors. For example, thanks to Sri

Madhavakkannan, I now know the meaning of "Thiruppallandu", but

still I have confusions in the last word of each paragraph, I donno

when to say "Pallandu KURUVANE" or "Pallandu KURUDHUME" or "Pallandu

KURUMINE". Is it an offense when I mix and match them??

>

> Sometimes, when I chant the Pasurams,

my mind just wanders, thinking of very very trivial mundane things,

thinking of anything but Perumal. Am I a sinner??

>

> I request the elders and the cognizant

in the list to kindly address my queries.

>

> AzhwAr EmperumanAr Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam.

>

> Dasan,

>

> Kidambi Soundararajan.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Web Hosting - establish your business online

>

>

[Guest guest]

Priya Bhagawatas,

We are all tiniest of the kids and remain so throughout our life in front of

Lord Srimannarayana and Nityasoori brundam. Just as a mother not only excuses

her child but enjoys its talking with loss of clarity, grammar, pronunciation

etc., Perumal and His parivaaram enjoy our chanting and excuse us for our

mistakes while chanting the Divya Prabandham or any stothram; but it is

our duty to ask for the apologies at the end for our ignorance like

"Mantraheenam, kriya heenam Bhaktiheenam Janardhana.................and

Yadakshara padabrahstam maatra heenantu yadbhaveth tatsarvam kshamya ta devam

naarayana namostutey." But from time to time we also should put some efforts to

correct ourselves slowly. Thus instead of not chanting at all on the pretext

of

possible errors, it is better to continue chanting and ask for apologies at the

end, as nobody what ever experienced one may be cannot guarantee 100% accuracy

in chanting

 

Jai Srimannarayana

 

Dr.Kilambi Ramakrishna Ramanuja Dasan

 

vimalkumar ranganathan wrote:

 

> Respected Adiyaars,

>

> I have a huge doubt. Even though tamil is my

mother tongue, I still have issues in understanding the meanings of most of the

Prabandhams. Well, if understanding the basic, flat meaning is itself a problem

as such, what about the subtle, deep, philosophical truth hidden in each verse

of the Prabandham??

>

> How should one chant the Prabandham?? Is it ok,

if he chants it without knowing the meaning as such. And what about

pronunciation mistakes?? Am I right if I say that it is an offense if we make

mistakes when we chant the pasurams, as it is tantamount to insulting the

Azhwars??

>

> Sometimes, I do get the meaning, but still am prone

to making errors. For example, thanks to Sri Madhavakkannan, I now know the

meaning of "Thiruppallandu", but still I have confusions in the last word of

each paragraph, I donno when to say "Pallandu KURUVANE" or "Pallandu KURUDHUME"

or "Pallandu KURUMINE". Is it an offense when I mix and match them??

>

> Sometimes, when I chant the Pasurams, my mind just

wanders, thinking of very very trivial mundane things, thinking of anything but

Perumal. Am I a sinner??

>

> I request the elders and the cognizant in the list

to kindly address my queries.

>

> AzhwAr EmperumanAr Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam.

>

> Dasan,

>

> Kidambi Soundararajan.

>

>

>

>

>

> Web Hosting - establish your business online

>

>

>

>

> Srirangasri-

>

>

>

> Your use of is subject to

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:

 

Dear Sriman Soundararajan,

The first important thing is the "desire" to

recite/chant the prabandhams(it's like the baby taking the first step

while starting to learn "how to walk" and keep in mind that the baby

falls down many a times during its initial walking process). If

everybody knows the nitty gritty,the deep hidden philosophical

meanings of prabandham there will be no "disciples" or students and

everybody will become an "AcArya" or an expert and this state is

a "highly" unstable state and it will break down by itself(does not

require any external force/medium but due to its own internal

structure). So,it doesn't matter if one makes pronounciation mistakes

and all other errors initially. Just remember that practice makes a

man perfect. By constant and regular recitation or listening to

musical renderings of prabandham ghoshti,one slowly picks up the

right way of chanting and also understands the hidden meanings by

listening to upanyasams/discourses on bhagavad viShayam by learned

AcAryAs(this process is a function of time and does not happen

overnight). One should be fortunate to have an AcArya at close

quarters to learn the hidden meanings. In this context[Cf SVB 73-79],

Sri KUraththAzhvAn,sent by Sri Ramanuja,had to wait at the doorstep

of the AcArya Sri TirukkOShtiyUr nambi for six months to receive an

authoritative understanding on "adiyEn uLLAn udal uLLAn"

[NammAzhvAr's TVM 8.8.2] regarding which of the two, namely,

j~nAthrthva(bliss of wisdom) and shEShathva(service to the Lord) is

the essential attribute of the jIva. With respect to your

question "am I a sinner",I would like to quote thAyAr/sIta's words

"na kashcin na aparADhyathi"(there is none above mistakes). According

to Hanuman the rAkshasIs were sinners(pApAnAm) but according to

thAyAr they were meritorious(shubhAnAm)[Cf SVB 5-22:puruShakAra of

Sri Mahalakshmi].

 

A mother does not "wait" for the baby to pick up the

language to begin the conversation. She just speaks and the baby

listens and speaks/talks then learns to read and write. A

mother "rightly" interprets the blabberings of her child and so is

the Lord. HE(being the supreme psychologist,psychiatrist and

psychoanalyst) will interpret it the right way as He knows our

intentions. Attitude is more important than the act. Normally at the

end of the recital,we ask the Lord for forgiveness for all

apacArams/sins incurred during the recital(otherwise also).

Recollecting Sri Ramanuja's sharaNAgathi gadhyam(R says Lord is his

mother,father, relative,guru,knowledge,wealth etc and in short,his

everything):

 

thvamEva mAthA ca thvamEva pithA thvamEva banDhushca gurusthvamEva |

thvamEva vidhyA dhraviNam thvamEva thvamEva sarvam mama dhEvadhEva ||

 

AzhvAr EmperumAnAr JIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam

NC Nappinnai

[Guest guest]

I respectfully thank all the adiyaars for taking the time to address my query,

in short I observe that it is ok to make mistakes initially, but one should try

his/her level best to rectify the mistakes by following the recital of famous

Scholars in audio cassettes, having a book for reference, and ofcourse, praying

to Emperumanaar, the Azhwaars and ofcourse Perumal to help me (wow, a huge

sentence I must say!!).

 

Again, thanks to all the Adiyaars.

 

AzhwAr EmperumanAr JIyar ThiruvadigalE Saranam.

 

Dasan,

 

Kidambi Soundararajan.

 

 

 

 

 

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