[sri ramanuja] Sri Ramanuja Journal, Volume 2, Issue 5

[Guest guest]

* Srimathe Ramanujaya namaH*

 

* Srimathe Varavaramunaye namaH*

 

* *

 

*Karthikai, Vyaya

Azhvar 2, Acharya 5*

 

**

 

**

 

*Thirumangai Azhavr Thirunakshathram*

 

*Karthikaiyil kArthikai 4th December 2006*

 

**

 

**

 

*Kaliyan Perumai*

 

 

 

*mAlai thaniyE vazhi paRikka vEANumenRu kOli-ppadhivirundha koTravanEa*

 

*vElai aNaitharuLUm kaiyAl adiyEan vinaiyai thUNItharuLa vEANum thuNindhu*

 

 

 

 

 

*Will any guest, who is offered a shelter for a night's stay, have a

peaceful sleep if he is incidentally and casually told that a cobra is

likely to pass through the room at any time? The person concerned will get

scared to think of such a situation and will never venture to go anywhere

near the chamber. (pAmbODu oru kUrayil payinRAr pOle anjuginREAn -Periya

Thirumzohi 11-8 ) This is exactly the state of souls in samsara, as

described by an Azhwar. This Azhwar does not stop just with the description

of this state of distress for all the souls in samsara, but clearly

advocates the means to get out of this state. Known as Parakalan (yamA for

yamA) this azhwar was the last in hierarchy of 12 azhwars. He is also known

as Thirumangai Azhwar, nElan, Kaliyan and so on. *

 

* *

 

*Thirumangai azhwar's avataram was in the month of karthigai in karthigai

thirunakshatram. Azhwar has a unique distinction of having visited more than

80 Divya Desams (87) as compared to other azhwars. Time And again Azhwar

advocates kainkaryam to Divya Desams as the easiest among the means to get

out of the cycle of samsara.( This is what is also enunciated by Sri PiLLai

lOkachAryar in mumUkshuppadi - vugandharuLina nilnagaLil prAvaNanAi pozhudhu

pOKkai) A queen takes the food from the golden vessel and adds a spoon of

ghee to it every time she feeds her baby prince. Same is the case of

Thirumangai Azhwar when singing on Perumal. He discusses all the kalyaNa

guNas exhibited by Perumal in his various incarnations before culminating on

the name of the Divya Desam or the Divya Desa Perumal. Periya Thirumozhi,

Periya Thirumadal, Siriya Thirumadal, Thiruvezhukkootrirukkai,

ThirukkurunthAntakam and ThirunetunthAntakam are the six Divya prabandhams

sung by Azhwar. His works are considered as the six angas of Veda. (

RajakumarargaLukku

pidi thORum nei sEArkka vEANdum; ivarkku adidhORum archAvathAram)*

 

* *

 

*Day and Night phenomenon*

 

 

 

*Souls in samsara experience the changeover from day and night all the time.

It is not the situation in the abode of Sriman Narayana, where the sun never

sets, and hence there is no night time. Souls that always think of Perumal

also never experience night time. Azhwar was one among the crowd where souls

experience both day and night until an incident happened. Deprived of

sufficient funds for temple kaimkaryam, Azhwar used to perform robbery.

Once, during the course of his robbery, he met with Divya Dhampathis, and

eventually was blessed with the "Thirumantram". Usually, it is not an easy

task to get the "Thirumantram". It takes years of service to Acharyan before

one can get that. The uniqueness of Azhwar is that he was not only blessed

with the "Thirumantram" in an unexpected fashion, but also under his command

of sword. This is why the unique thaniyan 'VAL valiyAl mandhiram koL'*

 

* *

 

*Azhwar's prabhAvam does not stop with this. In order to initiate him to

SriVaishnavism, Perumal could not find anyone other than Himself. Hence,

Azhwar got the initiation into SriVaishnavism through ThirunaraiyUr Nambi.

Last, but not the least, Azhwar learnt the meaning of Thirumantram from

Perumal Himself. This event happened in Thirukkannapuram. *

 

* *

 

*Azhwar's Anubhavams*

 

 

 

*Once Azhwar got into the anubhavam of Perumal, he could not resist

describing his earlier state and also the cause and consequence of

transition to new state. *

 

*He laments that he has wasted all the days and rues for that ;'vAdinEan

vAdi varundhinEan manthAl' Periya Thirumozhi 1-1-1; *

 

*He started visiting various Divya Desams and singing on the vaibhavam of

all the Divya Desa Archa moorthys. Though he sang on various Divya Desams,

there were some special ones. *

 

* *

 

*Divya Desa Perumal Longs for Azhwar's Pasurams*

 

*Seeing the talent of Azhwar and his knowledge in singing, Divya Desa

Perumals were raring to get his mangalasasanam. One among them was

Bhaktavatsalan in Thirunindravoor. Unable to get the darshan of this

Perumal, Azhwar proceeded to Thirukkadalmallai (known as Mahabalipuram).

Bhaktavatsalan closely followed him to get atleast a single word out of

Azhwar's mouth. Perumal was not satisfied. He did not lose his hope. He

chased Azhwar till Thirukkannamangai and ended up getting mangalasasanam

from him successfully. *

 

* *

 

*Azhwar Cross with a Divya Desa Perumal*

 

*When Azhwar was in Thiruvindaloor, the temple door of Parimala Rangan was

closed. Hence, he was denied the darshan of Perumal. Because of this, Azhwar

scolded the Perumal and asked the latter to keep all His greatness to

Himself. Defeated by Azhwar's bhakti, Perumal offered darshan to Azhwar. *

 

*Usually, when AzvAr's are cross with EmperumAn this is reflected in

vibhavam. In cosnoance with his forte (thuRai) Sri parkAla nAyaki's VuDal

tremendously sparkles in vUdal in archai in this thiru-indhaLUr thirumzohi

4-8; *

 

*'nummaith thozhudhOam' **and the boiling point at*

 

*'VAzhndhEa pOam nErEa'** *

 

 

 

*Special anukAram*

 

*One of the ways of sustaining oneself during separation from the Lord is to

imbibe the role of the Lord and his activities. GopikAs acted like Lord

krishNA -kAliyan and so on. *

 

 

 

*SvAmi Nam AzvAr became emotionally transformed into sri krishnA.*

 

 

 

*True to his spirit parkAla nAyaki talked as archAvatharam*

 

*'I am the one who descended here to Thiru-k-kaNNapuram from Tiru-vEAnkaTam'

*

 

*'vAdavarai ninRum vandhu -kaNapuram idavagai koLvadhu yAm' 8-2-6;*

 

* *

 

* *

 

*50 for 1 and 100 for 2*

 

*As Azhwar continued his Divya Desam tour, he came to Srirangam where he

dedicated 50 pasurams to Ranganathan. This is very unique because none other

than Ranganathan has got this number of pasurams from Azhwar. Azhwar doubled

this number when he sang on ThirunaraiyUr and Thirukkannapuram. This is

considered as Guru Dakshinai because of the upakArams done by them as an

Acharyan. *

 

*Azhwar builds a Chariot with his Mangalasasanam*

 

*Known as Chatushkavi, the king of 4 different kinds of poetry, Azhwar

webbed a chariot in a numerical fashion and dedicated the complete pasuram,

known as "Thiruvezhukkootrirukkai" to Ara-amudhan in Thirukkudanthai.

Bhaktas visiting this Divya Desam can still see the picture of a chariot

painted on the wall of the temple with the pasuram. This is testimony of

Thirumangai Mannan's poetic prowess -chithirak kavi. *

 

*Azhwar ties up 4 Elephants by Pouring of Bhakti** *

 

*Azhwar refers to all the four directions and points to an elephant in each

direction that protects him. He refers to Kallazhagar in Thirumalirumcholai

as the elephant in south, ThiruVengadamudayAn in north, Thirukkannapuram

Sowrirajan in east and Ranganathan in west. This pouring appears in his work

called as "ThirunetunthAntakam". This work is considered to be very

significant by SriVaishnavites. *

 

* *

 

*Azhwar as Parakalanayaki*

 

*Suffering due to the separation from Perumal, Azhwar starts to exhibit the

state of a maiden love deprived of her lover. The nayaki's state is being

described either by her mother community (thAip pASuram) or her friend

community (thOzhip pAsuram). Parakalanayaki's mother does so, pleading to

Perumal in Thiruvidaventhai to come and take her daughter. Same kind of

anubhavam is expressed with Perumals in ThiruvAli Thirunagari , Srirangam,

ThirunaraiyUr and Thirukkannapuram. When singing about the love on

Thirukkurungudi Nambi, Parakalanayaki herself describes her state of

distress and requests everyone around her to carry and put her in

Thirukkurungudi. *

 

*'kuRun kuDikkEa ennai vuithidumin'*

 

* *

 

*Parakalanayaki spreads bad words about her lover*

 

 

 

*With no positive response from her lover, Azhwar gets frustrated and

decides to spread bad message around the villages to capture her lover's

attention. In doing so, Azhwar starts to perform "Madal oorudhal", an act

where the lover spread the bad message about his lady love to get her

married. Here, Azhwar changes the protocol by being a lady love performing

this act. Parakalanayaki sings on the mischievous acts of Krishna and

dedicates rhythmic pasurams to ThirunarauyUr Nambi. Seeing this, Ranganathan

requested Azhwar to render a Madal on Him but thirumangai mannan replied

that madal was for nambi and madhil (wall surrounding the temple

premises) for ranganathan ('vumankku madhil nambikku madal'). The pasuram is

so rhythmic that it makes the ambience very divine when recited.*

 

 

 

*Thirukkannapuram Resonates Thirumangai Azhwar*

 

 

 

*Despite the numerous vaibhavams of Thirukkannapuram, the one that stands

out from the crowd is the speciality of hearing it when pronounced by

Thirumangai Azhwar. He was so dear to this Divya Desam that he wanted to

stay here forever after learning the "Thirumantram". He also exhibits the

excitement as Parakalanayaki after hearing the name Thirukkanapuram. That is

why, the words 'ThirukaNNapuram' should emanate from Kaliyan rather than

others. *

 

*This is analogous to bhattar spelling out Nam perumAL and ananthAzvAn

'Tiru-vEaNkaTamudaiyAn'.*

 

* *

 

*Azhwar Proceeds to SriVaikuntam*

 

 

 

*On entering Tiru-kuRunkuDi AzvAr feels this is his life. Here is the place

he proclaims that he has realized **everything.*

 

*'vAzhak kaNDOAm** vandhu kAnmin thoNdErgAL' 9-6-3; *

 

 

 

*After completing his major portion of the Divya Desam tour, Azhwar comes to

Thirukkurungudi. Experiencing the beauty of this Divya Desam, and the beauty

of Nambi, Azhwar decides to stay there and perform kainkaryam to Him. He

sings on the vaibhavam of Thirukkurungudi and also the Perumal residing

there in 25 pasurams. As he continues this anubhavam along with the

kainkaryam to Nambi, Azhwar attains the Nitya Kainkarya prApti in

Thirukkurungudi, and proceeds to SriVaikuntam. *

 

* *

 

*Remembering Azhwar and reciting his divine pasurams regularly will wipe out

all the sufferings for a soul in Kali yuga and help attain the state of

Nitya Kainkarya prApti in SriVaikuntam. *

 

* *

 

*SrImadAli srInagari nAthaya kalivairinAe!*

 

*chatushkavipprdhAnAya ParakAlAya mangalam**!!*

 

 

 

* *

 

*Thirumangai Azhwar ThiruvadigalE saranam*

 

 

 

*Varavaramuni dasargal*