WHAT A GREAT WEEK!!! (Part-2)

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri VanAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam

Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramya jAmataram munim

 

Dear Bhagavatas,

 

In the previous posting we enjoyed the glory of the great acharya, Sri Pillai

lOkAcharya who was born on Iypasi thiruvOnam, to the smallest extent possible.

Now we proceed to touch the glory of the three alwars, the mudal alwars who are

the heros of this week, born on consecutive days iypasiyil Onam, avittam and

sadhayam. The mudal alwars, poigai, bhoodham and pEy were the first alwars who

came to the world to sing the praise of emperuman in sweet and simple tamil

paasurams. Swamy manavala mAmunigal in his upadesa ratinamAlai says, “mattrulla

AzhvArgallukku munnE vandhudhiththu nattramizhAl nool seidhu nAttai uiththa

perttrimaiyOrendru mudalAzhvArgal ennum pEr evarkku nindra dulagaththE

nigazhindhu” (They came to the world before all the other azhvars and sang

beautiful tamil paasurams and uplifted the masses and hence they are glorified

as ‘mudal azhvars’ by everyone).

 

Today, we find many people mainly in Tamil Nadu, saying that they are working

for the upliftment of the Tamil language and there are ‘suththa tamilians’

(clear tamil speaking people). But actually the ones who gave tamil the due

importance and developed it is only the Srivaishnavas, which was the trend

started by the mudal alwars. All the important grammer and poetic excellence in

tamil can be seen in the paasurams of the alwars. The mudal alwars sang 100

paasurams each in ‘AndhAdhi’ style. This is one of the ancient and very

difficult styles of poetry in tamil.

 

Let us see how thiruvarangaththamudhanar glories these azhvars. Amudhanar in

his RamAnuja NootrandhAdhi, praises them not only as great bhakthas of emperuman

but also as great tamil poets. Let’s see how:

 

While telling about poigaiazhvar, amudhanar says, “varuththum puravirul mAttra

em poigaipirAn maraiyin kuruththin porulaiyum seithamizh thannaiyum kooti

ondrathirithan theriththa thiruvilakku”. We all know that the mudal azhvars

sang mudhal thiruvandhAdhi, erandhAm thiruvandhAdhi, and moondrAm

thiruvandhAdhi. The story of the 3 azhvars meeting in thirukOvaloor in an

edaikazhi (Corridor) and sharing the place to stay (oruvar padukkalam, eruvar

amaralAm moovar nirkalam-one can lie down, two sit and three stand), is known to

all. At that time emperuman, thirukkOvaloor Ayan wanting to have the thirumEni

sparsham (touching of body) of the great bhagavatas himself appeared there along

with his devis and garuda. Suddenly there was suffocation due to the appearance

of the fourth person but then it was dark and the azhvars couldn’t see who the

fourth person was. To find out who it was, the first two azhvars lit two lamps

" vaiyam thagaliyA vArkadalE neiyAga veiyakadhirOn vilakkAga " –says poigaiyar,

that is he lit a light with the world as the lamp, the water in the ocean as the

ghee and the sun as the fire. This is lOka deepam. On this perumal couldn’t be

seen.

 

So the next azhvar bhoodhaththAr lit another lamp, " AnbE thagaliyA ArvamE

neiyAga enburugu sindhai edu thiriyA jnanachchudhar vilakkEtrinEn nAranarkku " -

here he lit a light of knowledge with love as the lamp, his interest as the

ghee, and with his mind as a wick. Now perumal gave darshan due to the

brightness of this knowledge light and the third azhvar PeyAzhvar, the hero of

today (iypasi sadhayam, nov.13th 2002) saw perumal and sung “ThirukkandEn

ponmEni kandEn, thigazhum arukkan aniniramum kandEn”.

 

Amudhanar says, poigaiyAr lit a lamp to remove the darkness in this world. For

doing the same he sang 100 paasurams, which is nothing but the essence of the

Vedas in senthamizh (good tamil).

 

Then amudhanar proceeds to say, “eraivanai kAnum edhaththirul keda jnanamennum

niraivilakkEttria bhoothaththiruvadithAlgal” BhoodhaththAr lit a light to remove

the darkness in our minds to make us see the emperuman inside. The interesting

feature in the first paasuram of erandhAm thiruvandhAdhi of bhoodhaththAzhvar,

is that azhvar himself says, “jnanath tamizh purindha nAn” (I gave the knowledge

in tamizh). So it is proved that azhvar himself felt proud of doing paasurams

in tamil. So the first azhvar removed the darkness outside and the second

removed the darkness inside. Now that all places are bright the third azhvar

without any difficulty of lighting another lamp had darshan of emperuman with

piratti and sang the same. His paasuram makes anyone reading it even after so

many many years visualize the beauty of bhagavan as he gave darshan to the mudal

azhvars.

 

Amudhanar calls, peyazhvar as “Tamizh thalaivan”, “manniya pErirul mAndapin

kOvalul mAyanai kandamai kAttum thamizh thalaivan” (After the darkness was lost,

the tamil leader who showed us the mAyan, emperuman in thirukOvaloor).

 

Such were the greatness of the mudhal azhvars. As adiyen said in the previous

posting we have not even entered into the ocean of glory of the azhvars but just

tried to enjoy the greatness of them from a very far distance. Let us all sing

the glory of these great heroes today and forever.

 

PoigaiAzhvar thiruvadigale sharanam

BhoodhaththAzhvAr thiruvadigalE sharanam

PeyAzhvar thiruvadigale sharanam

 

Alwar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen Ramanuja DAsee,

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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