SrI sArasAram -- I (26)

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srI:

SrI sAra sAram – I (26)

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I – ThirumantrAdhikAram

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The Significance of ‘namah’

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After explaining the praNava which is the first word in the Tirumantram, SwAmi

Desikan now discusses the meaning and significance of the second word,

‘namah’:

“vAkkiyangkaLukku avadhAraNatthilE tAtparyam koLLukai ucitamAkaiyAlE

praNavatthil avadhAraNatthODE thuvakki madhyama-padam udikkiRathu.

‘nama ityEva vAdinah’, ‘nama ityEva yO brooyAt’ enRu vicEshitthu

AdaraNeeyamAna ippadatthukku ‘sthoolam’, ‘sookashmam’, ‘param’ enRu

arthabhEdangkaL bhagavat-SAstrangkaLilE collappaTTana. ivaTRil sookashma-yOjanai

virOdhi-j~nAnatthukkum, anishTa-nivrutti-prArthanaikkum,

paratantra-svaroopa-nishkarshatthukkum, bhAgavata-SEshatva-pratipattikkum,

upAya-viSEsh-siddhikkum upyukta-mAkaiyAlE itthai vicEshitthu AchAryarkaL

anusanthippArkaL.â€

There is a general rule in the scriptures that a sentence, while conveying its

direct message which is positive, also has the capacity to deny firmly the

opposite view. This is what SwAmi Desikan says through this sentence:

“vAkkiyangkaLukku avadhAraNatthilE tAtparyam koLLukai ucitamAkaiyAlE

praNavatthil avadhAraNatthODE thuvakki madhyama-padam udikkiRathu.†–

When a sentence is uttered, it conveys only a particular thought. That excludes

other ideas. In the praNava, it was stressed that the jIva, signified by the

syllable ‘m’ is SEsha to the Lord, Who is signified by the first letter

‘a’. This by implication also conveys the denial of any opposite view. The

opposite view could be that jIva is SEsha to others too besides the Lord. The

denial of this statement is also contained in the praNava as a sentence. That is

a rule followed in the SAstra, scriptures. This exclusiveness of jIva’s

SEshatvam to the Lord, Sriyah-patih, is openly confirmed now in the middle word,

‘namah’.

In support of this, Swami Desikan gives two quotes:

“‘nama ityEva vAdinah’, ‘nama ityEva yO brooyAt’ enRu vicEshitthu

AdaraNeeyamAna ippadatthukku†–

The first quote is from Mahabharata and here is the full SlOka:

“sahitaScAbhyadhAvanta tatastE mAnavA drutam /

baddhAnjalipuTaa hrushTaa nama ityEva vAdinah //†(Mahabharata, SAanti

Parva, 344-45)

(Those people were happy and joining their hands in worship said ‘namah’.)

The second quote, ‘nama ityEva yO brooyAt’ (source is not known) means:

whoever says ‘namah’.. …. Though the quote is incomplete, Sri vangeepuram

navaneetam SrIrAmadESikAcaryar SwAmi has given in his edition the following

meaning in the foot: ‘Whoever says ‘namah’ will have limitless

benefits.’

Thus specially honoured word is ‘namah’. It has different shades of

meaning, says SwAmi Desikan:

“ippadatthukku ‘sthoolam’, ‘sookashmam’, ‘param’ enRu

arthabhEdangkaL bhagavat-SAstrangkaLilE collappaTTana.†–

In SrI pAncaratra scriptures, three types of meanings have been given for this

word (namah); they are: gross meaning, subtle meaning and higher meaning.

The gross meaning is called ‘sthoolam’, which is the general meaning

obtained according to vyAkaraNam (grammar). By this, we get the gross meaning of

a person bowing low before the Supreme Lord and performing prapatti with all its

auxiliaries.

The subtle (sUkshma) meaning is given by the niruktam, one of the six VedAngas.

This meaning is obtained by the association of letters in the word. By this, one

gets to know that he and his belongings do not belong to him and that he is not

independent.

The higher (param) meaning is derived by nighanTu, a vocabulary of Vedic words,

which deal with the statements contained in the rahasya scriptures. By this, it

is derived that the cEtana (animate being), by adopting the important means of

surrender, attains the Supreme Lord, Who is the readily available means for the

Bliss.

Thus there are different shades of meaning for this word, ‘namah’.

Among these, AcAryas favour only one, says SwAmi Deikan:

“ivaTRil sookashma-yOjanai virOdhi-j~nAnatthukkum,

anishTa-nivrutti-prArthanaikkum, paratantra-svaroopa-nishkarshatthukkum,

bhAgavata-SEshatva-pratipattikkum, upAya-viSEsh-siddhikkum upyukta-mAkaiyAlE

itthai vicEshitthu AchAryarkaL anusanthippArkaL.†–

Out of these three types of meanings, our AcAryas specially supported the

second type – the subtle meaning. There are several reasons for this:

1) ‘virOdhi-j~nAnam’ – The subtle meaning is useful to find out who are

the adversaries to the jIva-svarUpa. The jiva’s nature is being a servant of

the Lord and his devotees.

2) ‘anishTa-nivrutti-prArthanai’ -- The knowledge of this subtle meaning

paves the way for us to pray to the Lord to remove these evils and adversaries.

3) ‘paratantra-svaroopa-nishkarsham’ – The knowledge of the subtle meaning

leads us to certainty that the jIva’s nature is firmly under the control of

the Lord alone.

4) ‘bhAgavata-SEshatva-prtipatti’ -- It also creates a feeling within one

that he is the humble servant to BhAgavatas (the Lord’s devotees) too.

5) ‘upAya-viSEsh-siddhi’ -- From this subtle meaning, the best means for

mOkaha is firmly known to be prapatti.

As so many benefits are obtained, our AcAryas have specially preferred this

subtle meaning of the middle word, ‘namah’ of the Tirumantram, concludes

SwAmi Desikan.

 

 

(To continue)

dAsan

Anbil S.SrInivAsan

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