Thirumangai Mannan : A tribute on His avathAra Dinam form Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

[Guest guest]

Kaliyan Perumai

 

 

 

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, parakAlan 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 as compared to other azhwars. Time And again Azhwar advocates kaimkaryam ot 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 kalyaN 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 re 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 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 managalasasanam 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 krhsNA -kAliyan and so on.

 

 

 

SvAmi Nam AzvAr became emotionally transformed into sri krshnA.

 

 

 

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 Aramudhan 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 SriViashnavites.

 

 

 

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 have sung the madal on Him and built the wall in ThirunaraiyUr. 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 specialty 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 kaimkaryam to Him. He sings on the vaibhavam of Thirukkurunngudi and also the Perumal residing there in 25 pasurams. As he continues this anubhavam along with the kaimkaryam to Nambi, Azhwar attains the Nitya Kaimkarya 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 Kaimkarya prApti in SriVaikuntam.

 

 

 

SrImadAli srInagari nAthaya kalivairinAe!

 

chatushkavipprdhAnAya ParakAlAya mangalam!!

 

 

 

 

 

Thirumangai Azhwar ThiruvadigalE charanam

 

 

Ram

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