[sri ramanuja] A Peep into Periya Thirumozhi 319

[Guest guest]

srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

srImadh varavara munayE namaha

 

Dear Sri Padmanabhan swami,

 

Excellent words. But if you dont mistake me, I would like to add one

more point. "pugai poovE", refers to any flower and just a smoke, not

even a scent. AzhwAr says, any smoke is acceptable to emperumAn as He

is expects only our "thooya vuLLam". This obviously means "purity of

heart" is the only important thing.

 

When Sri Krishna said this, Arjuna still did not understood it. Sri

Krishna was fed up and then thought now no point in coming to these

people directly and hence started sending messengers in the name of

AzhwArs and AchAryAs.

 

There is an interesting imaginary conversation, narrated by Sri

Velukkudi Krishnan swamy. On seeing the great followership for Swamy

Emperumanar, PerumAL became surprised and asked Swamy, "I took so

many avatArams and told so many things and I even lived the true

virtuous life of Rama and I shouted to this Arjuna and the entire

world from amidst the war place, no one seem to understand me. But

when you say the same thing that I told, you get so many followers.

What did you do to achieve this?".

 

Swamy said " You always said "I" am the god, "I" am the all and so.

You know! Nobody likes the highly egoistic word "I". But adiyEn only

said that "You" are the only God and "You" are the supreme being and

one needs to listen and follow "Your" words. This is why they like me

more".

 

This is a perfect example of how an AchAryan guides the jeevAthmA to

the right part and is the reason why we hold our AchAryAs in more

high esteem than the perumAL Himself. Also, this clearly proves that

the ego is a real danger, even if it is with emperumAn Himself.

 

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

 

ramanuja, "Padmanabhan" <aazhwar wrote:

>

> THORNY FLOWERS

>

> When adiyEan tried to pluck a 'nandhyavattai' flower, one of the

neighbours mentioned that 'Oh! dont use this for perumAL, as it is

not conducive for Him'.

>

> Sri krshNA does not expect anything from us. 'pathram, pushpam ,

phalam -thOyam' are the simple things mentioned by Himself. Here, the

simple nature of worshipping HIm is highlighted.

>

> 'puruvadhuvum pugai-pUvEA' goes the line of thiruvAimozhi.

>

> a flower and and a scent is all that is enough.

>

> BudathAzvar in the iraNDAm thiruvandhadhi clarifies this

> '..thAmuLarEa, tham vuLLam vuL vuLadhEa..'

>

> The mind that is interested to worship Him is the crux here.

> The affection is the key driver and the flowers , water and other

likes are instrumental.

>

> A soft flower submitted without affection is not desirable whereas

a thorny flower submitted with full of affection is indeed welcome.

>

> That is what Tirumangai Mannan emphasises here

> 'kaLLAr thuzhAiyum, kaNavalarum,kUviLayum

> muLLAr muLariyum Ambalum mun kaNDakkAl,

> puLLAi Or yEanamAi pukkidanthAi ponnadikkenRu..' 11-7-6;

>

> Sri Periya vAChAn piLLai's commentary is crystal clear in this

regard:

> 'snEhap prAdhAnyam;SnEham illAdhavan idil thiruthuzhAyum

AgAdhu;SnEhathODEA idil alariyum Am'

>

> Even if thiruthuzhAi is submitted to the Lord without affection, it

is not desired. If given with affection even alari is desirable.

>

> Not that we have to search for a thorny flower but

> let us mind, at least be bereft of such throny feelings

>

> dasan

> vanamamalai padmanabhan

>