Q Regarding Bhagwad Gita & Azhwars.

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Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

 

Dear Bhaagavatas,

 

Permit adiyEn to add a few words to Velukkudi Swamin's

reply to this query.

 

Our acharyas have shown that Azhvars indeed have spoken

about Bhagavad Gita in their works. Other than the

pasuram that Velukkudi Swami wrote, about Thirumazhisaop

pirAn's pasuram on Gita, there are a couple of other

pasurams that come to adiyEn's mind.

 

Andal speaks of her father Periyazhvar as " meymaip

peruvArththai Vishnuchitthar kEttirupar " - that is

Periyazhvar would listen to the great, true word

spoken by Him. Acharyas have supplied vyakhyanam

for this as follows: Periyazhvar is considered the

amsam of Sri Garudazhvar. And Garuda became the chariot

for Sri Krishna during the Mahabharata war. Therefore,

Periyazhvar had listened to the great and true words

of Gita spoken by the Lord.

 

In Thiruvaymozhi, Swami Nammazhvar says " aRivinAl

kuRaivillA agal njAlaththavar aRiya, neRiyellAm

eduththuraiththa niRainjAnath orumUrththi " . Here the

neRi that He gave out is the Bhagavad Gita. Acharyas

have said that the Vedas contain all the truth but

hide them from us - that is, they are not easily

understood. Lord Krishna gave us the essence of the

Vedas and showed us the true path (neRi) through

the Gita.

 

Sadly, I hear that there were attempts by certain

folks to use the azhvars pasurams to claim that Gita

was a latter day addition to Mahabharatam.

 

AdiyEn too, however, had a doubt as to why the azhvars

did not mention the Gita at a lot of places.

 

I think the reason for this is as follows.

 

Nanjeeyar says the following: " ... kamsavathaththukkup

pinbAgak kazhiththu munbu veNNai kaLavu kaNdu

yasOthaip pirAttiyAr kaiyAlE kattuNdu avaLukkanji

ninRa avaSthaiyaiyudaiya kushNanE ... ellAmenRum ... "

when describing Srivaishnavas. That is, Srivaishnavas

are those who are attached to Sri Krishna avatar (even

more than Him at paramapadam), but even here they are

attached only to that Krishna before Kamsa vada who stole

butter and was caught by Yasoda and stood afraid of her.

 

I think the Azhvars have approached Him the same way.

While Bhagavad Gita is no doubt important, Azhvars are

still more attached to Sri Krishna in His youth, as this

is when He showed the sowseelya and sowlabhya guNas to

the greatest extent. He showed other guNas too such as

gnAna, shakti, etc, which He continued to exhibit

throughout the avatar. But sowseelyam and sowlabhyam

were not shown again by Sri Krishna to the extent it

was at Ayppadi.

 

And Azhvars were in love with those guNas more than

anything else. Recall that Nammazhvar fainted and

was unconcious for six months upon thinking of these

guNas when he sang the words " maththuRu kadai veNNai

kaLavinil uravidai aappUNdu eththiRam uralinOdum

iNainthirunthu Engkiya eLivE " . His eLimai (sowseelyam)

is what caused Azhvar to faint for six months.

Thiruppanazhvar too thinks of Krishna only as

" veNNai uNda vAyan " . Thiruppavai is dedicated to

Krishna in Gokulam. And so on.

 

Knowing that, it should not be surprising that Azhvars

did not sing much about the Kurukshetra war, the

Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's rule at Dwaraka, etc.

 

I look to bhaagavatas to add their thoughts and to

correct my opinion expressed above.

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan

TCA Venkatesan

 

 

 

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