Sri Periya Jeeyer's Arthi prabhandham-12

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam

Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramyajAmataram munim

 

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After taking the tonic, the divine work of nammAzhvar what should we do?

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“MADURAKAVI SOL PADIYE NILAYAGAP PETTROM”

 

We have to act as per the words of madurakavigal. What did madurakavigal say?

 

Madurakavi is the only alwar who never sung about any of the divya desa

emperumans. He has only one prabandham to his credit, the kanninun siruthAmbhu.

But our acharyas consider this prabandham, consisting of 11 paasurams as the

supreme. In these 11 paasurams nowhere does madurakavigal sings about bhagavan,

he considers his acharya, Sri SaTakOpar as the only god to him.

 

Though the prabandham was sung on nammAzhvar still it has been included into the

nAlAyira divya prabandham. Why? That is because these are the 11 paasurams,

which actually got us back the other 4000 paasurams with us today. Nathamunigal

under the instruction of parangusa dAsar recited this prabandham, kanninun

siruthAmbhu 12000 times and obtained all the other paasurams via nammAzhvar in

archai. So without these 11 paasurams we would have been left without the 4000

paasurams.

 

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What is the so great about these paasurams and why is it regarded more important

than even thiruvAimozhi and other prabandhams?

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For Srivaishnavas the panchamObhaya nishtai (charamObhAya nishtai) is very

important. What is panchamObhaya nishtai? Bhagavan in geetha says the ways to

attain moksha as, karma yoga, jnana yoga, bhakthi yoga and finally prapatti.

But in our sampradayam there is one another important upaya that is the

panchamObhayam (fifth way), Acharya nishtai. The first person who showed this

in practice is madurakavigal and hence Acharya nishtai is more frequently

referred as madurakavi bhAvam. All the acharyas in our guruparamparai followed

madurakavigal and remained with great prathipaththi towards their acharyas and

mainly Sri EthirAjar. So mAmunigal says, we have to act according to the words

of madurakavigal and remain with acharya bhakthi, very essential for a

srivaishnava.

 

Our PoorvAcharyas consider ThiruppallAndu to be equal to the pranavam

(“vedaththukkE Omennumadhu pOl vulladhukkellAm surukkAi thAn mangalamAdhalAl”),

since any vedam starts only with pranavam and our dravida vedam starts with

thiruppallAndu. Whenever any prabhanda ghosti starts it is always with the

thiruppallAndu. Madurakavi Alwar’s kanninun siruthAmbhu is regarded as equal to

the “nama:” padham in thirumanthram (“vAiththa thirumandiraththin

madiyamAmpadham pOl seerththa madurakavi seikalaiyai”). Even while looking at

the order of the prabandhams we find that the kanninun siruthAmbhu has been

given the central position by our poorvAchAryas. Sri Manavala mAmunigal in his

upadesa ratna mAlai says, “pArulagil mattrulla AzhvArgal vandhuthiththa

nAlgalilum uttrathemakkendru nenjE Or”.

 

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Why is madurakavi greater than all other Azhvars?

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All alwars cried to reach emperuman and showed us his supremacy. They also

advised us to fall into the divine feet of emperuman. But can we really do

that? No unless an acharya comes and puts us into emperuman’s feet we cannot do

it ourselves. Madurakavigal was the only alwar who showed us the easy and

possible way to attain emperuman. Consider your acharya as everything and fall

into his feet you are sure to attain the divine abode of emperuman, says

madurakavigal. He didn’t just say it as an advice but showed it in practice.

That’s the greatness of madurakavigal.

 

The topic we should now discuss is about what madurakavigal said and how we

should act accordingly but just writing the drop from the ocean of greatness of

madurakavi Azhvar has taken almost a posting. Anyway, let us now proceed to see

what madurakavigal has to say. Most of the words of madurakavigal have been

repeated in mAmunigal’s Arthi prabhandam in the anushtana mode (as a practical

procedure). We will see how the words of the two match. Madurakavi Azhvar

considered his acharya, nammazhvar as everything and our swamy mAmunigal,

yatheendra pravanar considered emperumAnAr as everything. Madurakavigal sung

only one prabandham but our swamy has sung two to show his acharya bhakthi, his

first and last prabhandams, the yethirAja vimsathi in Sanskrit and Arthi

prabhandam in tamil.

 

Madurakavigal started his prabandham talking about kannan though he was not

interested in the same but for making his acharya listen. But our swamy starts

the prabhandam with a pallandu to ethirAjar (“vAzhi ethirAjar vAzhi ethirajar

vAzhi ethirAjarena vAzhththuvAr”), since his mind was filled with only his

acharya bhakthi and nothing else. Swamy says that he will stay only along with

those who think ramanuja as everything and always stays in the thought of

ethirajar, since such people are prostrated by even the nithya sooris.

 

In the next posting we will see how the words of madurakavigal has been

reflected by mAmunigal in his Arthi prabhandam.

 

(To Be Continued)

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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