The ordinary ways of enjoying the TiruppAvai

[Guest guest]

Dear friends/members,

 

At the end of this year's (2009-10) " mArgazhi " season, I bumped into several of

my friends and relatives here in Chennai who I knew for sure either belonged to

the city's band of hardcore Carnatic music-afficianados or were long-time

members of the TiruppAvai cognoscenti.

 

" How did you enjoy this " mArgazhi " , sir " , I enquired of one of them.

 

" Oh, fantastic!, " replied one, " I think I must have attended at least 60

" kutcheris " (concerts) in all over the last 3 weeks! This is not the first time

in my life I am attending the Chennai " kutcheri " season, I've been at it now for

well over 15 years, but somehow the  " margazhi " atmosphere here in Chennai makes

every year's season seem as though one is experiencing it for the very first

time! As the poet would say, " Age does not wither nor custom stale " the charm

of the Chennai music season! I loved this year's festival... same as I have

every one of those in the last 15 years! "

 

Next I asked an old friend of mine from Mylapore how he had spent his " margazhi "

season knowing him to be an inveterate TiruppAvai buff who never missed the

customary " early morning TiruppAvai upannyAsam followed by rich

" sakkarai-pOngal " served fresh from the " madapalli " at the local " perumAl-koil " .

This gentlemen told me:

 

" Oh this 'mArgazhi' was very, very special indeed! I attended the 30-day

" tiruppAvai-upannyAsam " of Sri U.Ve Madhavachariar swAmi at Kesava Perumal

temple at Mylapore.What a great experience and treat it was! Oh what " anubhavam "

indeed! The swAmi verily transported us to the " aayarpAdi " at Srivilliputtur! Oh

what splendid " vyAkhyAnam " , what magnificent allusions and perorations! It was

simply great! I have heard many " tiruppAvai anubhavams " before in my life ---

one year I even had the privelege of attending a discourse by that titan of

SriVaishnavite theologians, the late " vaikunta-vAsi " Sri U.Ve Uttamoor

Veeraraghavachari swAmi! But this " mArgazhi " the " tiruppAvai " discourse seemed

so fresh and original and inspirational to me...Believe me, it was as if I were

delving into the masterpiece of Andal for the very first time in my life! I

don't really know why, I can't explain it if you ask me, but that's how I feel! "

 

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The magic of Chennai's Carnatic music and Mylapore's " mArgazhi tiruppAvai

mahOtsavam " is an unfading one indeed. Their appeal is ever renascent, ever

fresh and invigorating for every new generation of " rasikAs " and " bhAgavathAs "

who throng the city during the holy month of " mArgazhi " .

 

Let us leave the magic of Carnatic music aside.... to discuss which we know

there scores of other fora on the worldwide internet community. On the

Tiruvenkatam list let us talk about the magic of TiruppAvai, AndAl's

great and ancient classic 'sangam-Tamil' work.

 

I never cease asking myself what is it about this masterpiece of Tamil poetry,

this profoundly philosophical mini-opera of Vedanta, this soul-stirring

theological treatise of SriVaishnavism, or call the TiruppAvai whatever you

like....What really is it that makes people come back again and again --- year

after year, " mArgazhi " following " mArgazhi " and " upannyAsam " after " upannyAsam "

-- what makes them all come back to the TiruppAvai to take delight in the soft

cadences of its soulful poetry or to delve deep into its mystic themes time and

again and again? What is there in the TiruppAvai that makes those standard but

wonderful commentaries on it --- those traditional " vyAkhyAnams " of the great

masters of the hoary past beginning from, say, someone like Sri Periavachaan

Pillai to the relatively contemporarian Sri Uttamur Veeraghavachariar -- what

makes those commentaries that have been bequeathed to us over the centuries,

what makes them so riveting that

people flock to public discourses to hear those commentaries being repeated and

rehashed and revisited -- again and again and again --- 'mArgazhi' after

'mArgazhi'? And why is it that almost everyone who attends the customary 30-day

" mArgazhi uppanyAsam " at his or her local community temple, why does he or she

come away with the feeling that he has learnt something completely new about

the tiruppAvai, or has gleaned some new insight into its philosophical message

which he/she had completely missed before or had been wholly ignorant of?

 

Why are students and lovers of TiruppAvai always left with this feeling that in

spite of their familiarity, even intimacy with it, cultivated through several

years of study and appreciation, why is it they feel that they have still never

been able to fully plumb or understand its true message, its true contours or

its true essence? Why is the form and soul of the TiruppAvai so ethereal, so

elusive that it seems to remain forever beyond the grasp of human apprehension

--- a permanent will-o-the wisp whose presence lingers and yet keeps slipping

out of sight? Why does the TiruppAvai seem like some sort of " Mona Lisa smile " :

alluringly mysterious, pregnantly meaningful and hauntingly unrealizable?

 

Let us explore this question in the next posting.

Best Regards,

Sudarshan MK

 

 

 

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