geethA sAstramum nedunthAndaka sAstramum-10

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

 

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

 

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

 

 

“munnuruvAi minnuruvil vEdam nAngAi

 

vilakkoliyai mulaiththezhundha thingal thAnAi

 

pinnuruvAi munnuruvil pini moopillA pirappiliyAi

 

erappadarkkE ennAdhu endrum

 

ponnuruvAi maniyuruvil bhoodhamaindhAi

 

punaluruvAi analuruvil thigazhum jOthi

 

thannuruvAi ennuruvil nindra endhai

 

thalirpuraiyum thiruvadi enthalai mElavE”

 

 

 

This paasuram is a treasure of our Srivaishnava philosophy. While telling about

the first paasuram of thiruvaimozhi koorathAzhvan used to say that just this

paasuram is enough to prove the advaita philosophy to be useless. They say

emperuman is formless and that the tattvam is only one (chinmAtram

brahma-EkamEva adviteeyam). But azhvar strongly establishes this to be false

when he says “tuyararu sudaradi thozhudhu ezhu en mannanE”. This shows that

emperuman is different from the jeevatma and that he has form and hence azhvar

requests his mind to fall to the feet of the divine bhagavan. Similarly in this

very first paasuram of thirunedunthAndakam thirumangai azhvar clearly states the

vishistadvaitic philosophy of tattvatrayam. It is a quality of a qualified

speaker to first say what he is going to talk about and then elaborate on it.

It is wise to explain the topic before any speech. Azhvar hence clearly states

his philosophy with the words “minnuru” (which refers to the

objects we see in front of us-achit) “pinnuru” (that which cannot be seen with

our eyes and that which is at the back-jeevatma) “ponnuru” (that which is

different from the above two and that which leads the above two-paramatma). The

same has been given by nammazhvar as “elladhum vulladhum alladhu avanuru” Here

elladhu is parallel to munnuru; vulladhu-pinnuru; avanuru-ponnuru. The same has

been repeated by madurakavi azhvar, a very close disciple of nammazhvar as:

“pirar nan porul thannaiyum nambhinEn” Here porul refers to achit tattvam, nan

porul refers to the atma tattvam and pirar refers to the paramatma tattvam.

 

 

 

What is the achit tattvam?

 

Panchabhoodham-5, panjatanmAttraigal-5, karmendriyam-5, jnanEndriyam-5 manas,

ahankaram, mahan, avyaktham totally-24-‘porul’ or ‘munnuru’

 

The chit tattvam is the 25th tattvam that is the ‘nan porul’ (makaravachyanAna

jeevatma). Since this comes after the 24 tattvas kaliyan names it as ‘pinnuru’

 

The 26th tattvam is the paramatma ‘pirar’ – ‘ponnuru’

 

 

 

In azhvar thirunagari there is a practice of adorning nammazhvar with 25

blankets and then removing one by one. That is to show that through his

thiruvaimozhi 1000 paasurams azhvar has intended to remove the first 25 tattvas

(IshvaryAnubhavam, kaivalyAnubhavam) and take us all to the divine feet of

emperuman (moksha). In his Acharya hrudhayam, Swamy azhagiya Manavala perumal

nayanar shows that nammazhvar sung this thiruvaimozhi to remove the 25 but the

geethA of geethAcharyan was intended to remove 100 (the gowravas).

 

 

 

In bhagavat geetha, chapter 2, geethAcharyan has clearly stated the difference

in the three tattvas in 2 beautiful slokas. Let us see them one by one.

 

 

 

“na tvEvAham jAthu nAsam na tvam nEmE janAdhipA: I

 

na chaiva na bhavishyAma: sarvE vayamatha: param II” (2-12)

 

 

 

aham – me (the sarvEsvaran)

 

jAthu – always (in the past)

 

na Asam (ethi) na – it is not that I was not there

 

tvam – you (the jeevatma) also

 

(jAthu nAsee: ethi) na- not (that you were not there in the past)

 

emE janAdhipA:- these kings (other jeevatmas)

 

(jAthu nAsan ethi) na – not (that they were not there in the past)

 

sarvE vayam- All of us (you, me and these jeevas)

 

ath: param- also in the following days

 

na bhavisyAma: cha A-va (ethi) na- it is not that we will not be there.

 

 

 

This is really a life giving sloka to our sampradayam. In this geethacharya,

Sri Parthasarathi clearly gives the existence of a separate jeevatma and

paramatma and also that there are many jeevatmas who permanently exist in the

past, present and future. One question may arise here: where is the present

talked about in the above sloka? Our Poorvacharyas answer this question as

follows: The present has a surprising quality. While thinking about the past

the present becomes the future and while thinking about the future the present

becomes the past. So when Krishna says that he (the paramatma), arjuna (the

jeevatma) and the other kings (many other jeevatmas) were there in the past and

will be there in the future then it is implied that they will exist in the

present also and hence they are all nithyam. That is ramanuja sampradayam.

There are three tattvas and all are nithyam. In his geetha bhAshyam, swamy

EmperumAnAr excellently refutes all the other philosophies (sankara

matham, bhAskara matham, bhowtha matham, vaishEshika matham and meemAsa matham)

quoting another veda vakhyam (“nithyO nithyAnAm chEtanaschEtanAnAm A-kO

bhahoonAm yO vidhathAdhi kAmAn”) also here. For anyone who wants to get a

strong idea of our vishistAdvaitic philosophy while compared to other

philosophies mainly the advaitic philosophy of sankara it is very essential to

go through the geetha bhashyam of this particular sloka. Now that we have seen

that the jeevatma is different from the paramatma the next we have to see how

the achit is different from the chit (the jeevatma). Geethacharyan with

ultimate grace on all of us gives that in a separate sloka in the same adhyAyam

(chapter).

 

 

 

“nAsathO vidhyathE bhAvO nAbhAvO vidhyathE satha: I

 

vupayOrapi drushtontha: stvanayO: tattvadarshibhi: II” (2-16)

 

 

 

asat: - for ‘that which doesn’t exist’ the body (elladhu)

 

bhAva: - the permanent nature (nithyathvam) of ‘that which exists’

 

na vidhyathE – is not there

 

sat: for ‘that which exists’ the Atma (vulladhu)

 

abhAva: - the temperory nature (anithyathvam) of ‘that which doesn’t exist’

 

na vidhyathE – is not there

 

anayO: this knowledge about the body and atma,

 

antha: ultimately,

 

tattvadarshibhi: - for those scholars who know the truth

 

drushta: - is known in this way.

 

 

 

Thereby we have seen that the words ‘minnuru’ ‘pinnuru’ and ‘ponnuru’ of

thirumangai azhvar, have been the reflections from the words of the

geethacharyan. In the next posting we will proceed to see more interesting

facts in the words of geethacharyan reflected in the sweet voice of thirumangai

mannan.

 

 

 

(To be continued)

 

 

 

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

 

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

 

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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