tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Submission 37, Slokam 16 Part 3, tiruvAimozhi 1.5, pASuram-s 1.5.6, 1.5.7.

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SrImate ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya namaH. tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Submission 37, Slokam 16 part 3, tiruvAimozhi 1.5, Part 3, pASuram-s 1.5.6, 1.5.7. · pASuram 1.5.6: vinaiyEn vinai tIr marundAnAi! viNNOr talaivA! kESavA! manai SEr Ayar kula mudalE! mA mAyanE! mAdhavA! SinaiyEi tazhaiya marAmara’ngaL Ezhum eidAi SirIdharA! inaiyAi! inaiya peyarinAi! enRu naivan aDiyanE. Even though I am afflicted with the disease of trying to keep away from You, You are turning out to be the medicine that cures that disease! Oh Slayer of kESi! You were a part of all the cowherd families, and You were their Leader as well! You are the Great mAyan who hid Your Supremacy from all of them! When sugrIvan doubted Your valor, You aimed Your arrow and pierced the seven

huge trees with dense leaves and branches with one arrow! You who are attached very much to periya pirATTi! You have infinite such kalyANa guNa-s (auspicious attributes), and infinite nAma-s that describe these kalyANa guNa-s! I am Your eternal servant who is moved to the utmost just by thinking about Your sauSIlyam! svAmi deSikan captures the sauSIlya guNam of bhagavAn sung in this pASuram as “gopAdyApteh” (gopAdi Apteh) – a friend of the cowherds etc. – viNNOr talaivA! manai SEr Ayar kula mudalE! – He is the Supreme Lord of all the gods, and at the same time, He is an integral part of

all the households of all the cowherds, and their Leader too. Look at how AzhvAr simultaneously refers to His Supremacy – viNNOr talivA!, and immediately in the next word, brings out His coming down as ‘manai SEr Ayar kula mudalE!’, thus vividly bringing out His sauSIlyam. AzhvAr points to another case of His sauSIlyam in this pASuram as well – His friendship with sugrIvan, the king of the monkeys, by referring to the incident of bhagavAn piercing the seven trees to ‘convince’ sugrIvan that He is truly sugrIvan’s friend who will protect him - SinaiyEi tazhaiya marAmara’ngaL Ezhum eidAi SirIdharA. It is very moving to go

through SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan’s thoughts summarizing this pASuram in his bhagavad vishaya sAram, where he portrays AzhvAr repeatedly alternating between bhagavAn’s paratvam and sauSIlyam in this pASuram: “The Lord of nitya sUri-s! (viNNOr talaivA!); One who created brahmA and Siva! (keSavA!); Even so, One who became part and parcel of every household in AyarpADi! (Ayar manai SEr); One who became the Leader of the cowherds! (Ayar kula mudalE!); One who performed great wonders, such as letting Yourself be tied to a mortar by a woman even though You are paramaAtman Yourself (mA mAyanE!); The Consort of lakshmI! (mAdhavA!); One who instills confidence in those who are unsure of Your nature of protection, and then protecting them! (sauSIlyam - SinaiyEi tazhaiya marAmara’ngaL Ezhum eidAi); One who pierced seven huge trees that were so densely grown that one could not even identify the individual tree stems, all with a single

arrow in one shot (valor - SinaiyEi tazhaiya marAmara’ngaL Ezhum eidAi); One who is endowed with vIra SrI (SirIdharA!); One who is endowed with infinite kalyANa guNa-s! (inaiyAi!); One who is known by infinite nAma-s representing the infinite kalyANa gunA-s! (inaiya peyarinAi!). SrI PBA explains svAmi deSikan’s words – ‘gopAdyApteh’ as “iDak-kai valak-kai aRiyAda iDaiyargaLODum kalandu pazhagubavan” - suggesting bhagavAn’s sauSIlya guNam of moving at their level with the cowherds who can’t even distinguish between their right hand and their left hand. The reference to svAmi deSikan’s Slokam from dayA Satakam (nishAdAnAm… - dayA Satakam 65) that we saw in the pASuram 1.5.1 is appropriate as further explanation for the current pASuram as well. Please refer to the earlier write-up for the significance. · pASuram

1.5.7: aDiyEn SiRiya j~nAnattan aRidalArkkum ariyAnai kaDi SEr taNNam tuzhAik kaNNi punaindAn tannaik kaNNanai SeDiyAr Akkai aDiyArai Serdal tIkkum tirumAlai aDiyEn kANbAn alaRRuvan idanin mikkOr ayarvu uNDE? Arkkum aRidal ariyAnai, kaDi SEr taNNam tuzhAi kaNNi punaindAn tannai, kaNNanai, SeDiyAr Akkai aDiyAraic cErdal tIrkkum tirumAlai, aDiyEn SiRiya j~nAnattan kANbAn alaRRuvan; idanin mikka ayarvu uNDE? – I, lower than the lowest, am crying to see the Lord who is beyond the reach of even the likes of brahmA, rudra etc., wears the beautiful and fragrant soothing tirut tuzhAi garland, helps remove the association with the sinful bodies for those who have sought the liberation from repeated birth and dealth, and is always inseparably associated with SrI. Is there anything more ignorant than this desire of mine to attain this Supreme Being (who is unattaible even by the most realized beings)? svAmi deSikan captures the aspect of bhagavAn’s sauSIlya guNam reflected in this pASuram through the words ‘aSesha IkshaNa vishayatayA’, which is generally explained as “Because He is the Object to be seen (realized) by all”. At the outset, with this meaning, bhagavAn’s sauSIlya guNam is not conveyed explicitly. SrI UV notes, and we can infer this from the high-level meaning of this pASuram given in the previous paragraph, that if anything, AzhvAr praises bhagavAn’s Supremacy, and feels that he is at too low a level to even think of attaining bhagavAn. So, SrI UV notes that we have to ‘infer’ the reference to bhagavAn’s sauSIlya guNam sung in this pASuram, (since

it is not directly evident). He says that the sauSIlya guNam is inferred by the realization that on the one hand, His supremacy is such that AzhvAr feels that he is at too low a level to even think of attaining Him (aDiyEn kANbAn alaRRuvan idanin mikkOr ayarvu uNDE), but then bhagavAn’s sauSIlyam is such that He brings Himself down to the low level so that AzhvAr can still approach Him (Arkkum aRidal ariyAnai aDiyEn kANban alaRRuvan). SrI ve’nkaTESAcArya’s brief interpretation of svAmi deSikan’s words ‘aSesha IkshaNa vishayatayA’ – ‘ellArkkun kANa vENDum vishayam AgaiyAlum – Because He is the goal of

attainment of everyone - does not provide an easier understanding of the sauSIlya guNam that is to be conveyed. SrI PBA’s explanation is – ‘aDiyEn kANbAn alaRRuvan’ - ‘nISanAna nAnum uTpaDa ellArum kANak kUDiyavan – He who can be realized by all, including me who is the lowliest among the lowly beings’. While this will support the sauSIlya guNam, this thought is not directly reflected in the pASuram, as SrI UV points out. In the pASuram, there is reference to bhagavAn as ‘kaNNan’. SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan explains ‘kaNNan’ as ‘One who was a sulabhan for the gopa-s and the gopi-s – the cowherds and the cowherdesses”. The word ‘kaNNan’ has the literal meaning “One who has eyes” as given in the dictionary. When applied to bhagavAn, this word should be meditated as “One with eyes that are full of compassion; One who removes the sins of all on whom His eyes fall”. The reference to the name of emperumAn as ‘kaNNan’ by AzhvAr in this pASuram certainly reflects His sauSIlya guNam. If we take the meaning for svAmi deSikan’s

phrase ‘aSesha IkshaNa vishayatayA’ as “One for whom everything without exception is the object of His kaTAksham”, then the sausIlya guNam is evident. I hasten to point out that this is purely my own effort to explain the sauSIlya guNam sung by AzhvAr and identified by svAmi deSikan in this pASuram. -dAsan kRshNamAcAryan (To be continued) Do You

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