Guest guest Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text may need to change their encoding to UTF-8. ------------- srI: SrI sAra sAram – I (6) -- I – ThirumantrAdhikAram -- The Eminence of Thirumantra (continued) --- After highlighting the eminence of the Thirumantram as established by Scriptures from ten angles, SwAmi Desikan, now strengthens this with references from AzhvArs’ works: “AzhvArkaLum, ‘nin thiruveTTezhuththum kaRRu’, ‘eTTezhuththum OthuvArkaL’, ‘eTTezhuththum vAramAka OthuvArkaL’ enRu immoola mantraththaiyE parama-purushArththa-moolamaka aruLic ceithArkaL. anukoola-pratikoola sAdhAraNa-mAna janmam pOlanRikkE ‘piRanthapin maRanthilEn’ enkiRa SrEshTha janmam AchAryan upadEciththa thirumantram-adiyAka varukiRathu.†– AzhvArs too praised the Thirumantram as the means for the highest goal. SwAmi Desikan first quotes from Periya Thirumozhi: “nin thiruveTTezhuththum kaRRuâ€.—Learning the eight letters of Your name. Let us study the verse in full: “maRRum Or deivam uLathenRu iruppArOdu uRRilEn, uRRathum unnadiyArkkadimai. maRRellAm pEsilum, nin thiru-veTTezhutthum kaRRu nAn kaNNapuratthuRai-yammAnE.†(Periya Thirumozhi, 8-10-3) Here, we have to study the beautiful commentary given by SrI Uttamoor SwAmi for this verse:- In his avathArikai (introductory remarks), SrI SwAmi says: The Lord questions the AzhvAr: “Oh Azhveer! You have just said that you will not think of any other god even for a moment. But, you may have some dealings with some people who worship other gods. How can you avoid such persons even for a moment?†In reply to this query from the Lord, the AzhvAr submits this pAsuram, as above. Meaning: “Oh the Lord of Kannapuram! adiyEn will not move with those who think that there is a different dEvatA for worship. Since adiyEn has learnt SrI ThiruvashTAkshara mantra which You have taught me directly, and its various meanings, adiyEn remains dedicated to Your devotees.†The gist of the explanation given by SrI Uttamoor Swami: The AzhvAr submits: There may be many so-called dEvatAs. They are not, really. “divyO dEva EkO nArAyaNahâ€, EkO dEvah sarvabhootEshu goodah†etc. establish You as the only God, known as SrIman nArAyaNa. You alone are to be worshipped. adiyEn does not join the devotees of Siva etc. This adiyEn learnt from the ThiruvashTAksharam which You Yourself instructed me directly, besides revealing it in BadarikASrama. Hence, You need not think that adiyEn may abandon Your devotees. From that mantra, what adiyEn learnt is, adiyen is a servant of Your devotees. It is also a part of the service to You. This the foremost of the various messages adiyen learnt from this mantra. If You ask me what are the other messages, they include, that about myself, that about this world, that You are the means and that You are the goal to be attained. But the best of them all is being the servant of Your devotees. Here, the Lord intervenes and questions the AzhvAr: The Lord: “In the ashTAksharam, the praNavam and nArAyaNa contain many messages which do not exclude any jIvAtma. Is it not?†AzhvAr: “Oh Lord! Even if they convey many other meanings (maTRellAm pEsilum), adiyEn is firm about this meaning alone.†The Lord: “By the ‘u-kAram’ in the praNava, you are prohibited from being the servant any one else but Me. How can you say you are a servant of My devotees also?†AzhvAr: “Even though it negatives servitude to others, the service to Bhagavatas is an exception, as it comes within the service rendered to You.†The Lord: “Ok. But, take the word, nArAyaNa. ‘nAra’ which is a part of it, means all jIvas who are part of My body. When that is the case, how can you exclude some from your service? How can you say, ‘maTRum Or deivam uLathenRu iruppArOdu uTRilEn’?†AzhvAr: “Even though the word ‘nAra’ indicates all the jIvas, here that meaning will not apply, Lord!†The Lord: “How? Please explain.†AzhvAr: “That is a general meaning. But, when we pin-point ‘SEshatva’ which is the ultimate message, it certainly pertains only to You and those who are attached to You only. So, along with the Bhagavad service, exclusive service to Your devotees (BhAgavatas) is the ultimate message that is intended in this word. For, they cannot be separated from You. Those who say there is another god besides You, are not with You mentally, though they may be with You physically. Hence, for me, who is exclusively sticking to the correct sense of the terms, ‘a’ in the praNava and ‘nArAyaNa’, they as well as their so called dEvtas fall outside this exclusive zone.†Here, a conversation between Nanjeeyar and NampiLLai is worth mentioning. Nanjeeyar: “We are all claiming ourselves as servants solely of the Lord. If we tell Him that we will not stop at that; we are servants of Your devotees also, how will He take it?†NampiLLai: “allik kamalanAkiRAnâ€. That is, on hearing this, the Lord’s eyes blossom like the Lotus flower.†NampiLLai meant that the Lord will feel happy to hear that we are servants of His devotees too, because, that is the essence of this Thirumantram. (To continue) dAsan Anbil S.SrInivAsan ------ Messenger blocked? Want to chat? Go to http://in.messenger./webmessengerpromo.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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