nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi-19

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

 

 

Paasuram-12

 

 

 

" madhiththAipOi nAngin madhiyAr pOi veezha

 

madhiththAi madhikOL viduththAi!-madhiththAi

 

madukkidandha mAmudalai kOLviduppAn Azhi

 

vidarkiraNdum pOyirandin veedu "

 

 

 

In the previous paasuram, azhvar advised others to turn all their sense organs

towards emperuman and his kalyana gunas. It is our usual practice not to accept

anything without questioning even if it comes from such a great person like

azhvar. So the question arised, why should we do so? So now in this paasuram

azhvar continues to say the merits and demerits in honouring emperuman. Instead

of pointing to us azhvar here talks with emperuman himself how the persons who

disrespect emperuman are put to difficulty and how gajendrAzhvan, who left all

his efforts and shouted for help from bhagavan ( " sa tu nAgavara: sreemAn

manasAchintayath harim " - sreemAn gAjendrAzhvan thought of hari mentally)

benefited with the grace of emperuman indirectly advising us to follow the

footsteps of gajendrAzhvan.

 

 

 

(nAngil pOi madhiyAr pOi veezha madhiththAi) You make those who do not

understand your greatness, even after going through all the four Vedas, to fall.

 

(nAngil madhiyAr)

 

" chaturvEda dharO viprO vAsudEvam na vindhathi I

 

vEdapAraparAkrAnthas sa vai brahmaNakarthapa: II "

 

[That brahmin who even after learning the four Vedas do not understand vAsudEvan

is equal to a donkey carrying a bag of saffron on its back]

 

 

 

(madhiyAr nAngil pOi veezha madhiththAi) You send those who don't understand

you to fall to various births, (deva, manushya, triyak, stAvar janmangal)

 

" thAnaham dvishadha: kroorAn samsArEshu narAdhamAn I

 

kshipAmyajasramashubhAN AsureeshyEva yOnishu II " [gita 16-19]

 

[i put those who consider me as enemy, who are harmful and cheap men filled with

sins into low births (Asura yOni)]

 

 

 

(madhikOL viduththAi) You removed the suffering of madhi-chandran who fell to

your feet. So it is clear that you remove the sufferings of those who respect

you and put others who disrespect you to inferior births. Is there any other

instance where this has happened? Azhvar continues,

 

 

 

(madukkidandha mAmudalai kOL viduppAn Azhividarkku madhiththAi) To remove the

strong hold of the harmful crocodile in the lake you decided to leave your

chakrAyudam. To save gajendrAzhvan just a single sankalpam of emperuman will

do. Then why did emperuman come running and what was the necessity of using his

powerful sudarsana chakra for killing this small animal. Here azhvar says,

mAmudalai that was a big, powerful crocodile when compared to gajEndrAzhvan but

to kill it just one sankalpam (thought) was sufficient but then emperuman wanted

to do shistaparipAlam (saving his devotee) along with dushtanigraham (killing

the enemy). For dushtanigraham one thought was enough but for shistaparipAlanam

it was not enough, since gajendran wanted to have the divine darshan of

emperuman and submit the flower into the divine feet of emperuman. So emperuman

came running to the call and sent his chakrAyudam to kill the crocodile. The

purpose of his svaroopam, thirumEni and divyAyudams are for the enjoyment of the

bhakthas declares the jitanthE stotra, " na thE roopam na chAkArO nAyudhAni na

chAspatham " The same has been declared by nammazhvar also in thiruvaimozhi 3-1-9

" mazhungAdha vainudhiya... "

 

 

 

(erandum pOi erandin veedu madhiththAi) Both the crocodile and elephant shed

their body. The crocodile was earlier a gandarvan (hoo hoo) who reached the

crocodile body due to a curse (of dEvalar, a deva rishi) so now he reached his

earlier form. The elephant that was a pandiya king (endradumnan) earlier reached

this elephant form again due to a curse (of agastiya muni) and hence now due to

the divine grace of emperuman he was blessed with moksha. In other words, the

crocodile was realized from the curse (shApamoksha) and the elephant was

realized from the whole samsAra (samsAra moksha)

 

 

 

(To be continued)

 

 

 

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

 

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan