nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi-22

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

 

 

Paasuram-15

 

 

 

" paladEvarEththap padikadandhAn pAdham

 

malarERa vittiraNji vAzhththa-valarAgil

 

mArkaNdan kaNda vagaiyE varunkaNdeer

 

neerkAndan kaNda nilai "

 

 

 

Many people get betrayed due to falling into the feet of incapable devas

declared azhvar in the previous paasuram. Now azhvar talks about the state of

those incapable devas, who many people consider to be their sole saviour, and

what they are actually doing under the divine feet of emperuman and hence shows

the way for everyone to fall to emperuman's feet and get uplifted.

 

 

 

(paladEvarEththap padikadandhAn) Amidst the praise of the devas including the

head of the devas, nAnmuka brahma the supreme lord measured the three worlds.

With the lord's feet on top of their heads what other go does the devas have

other than to accept his supremacy even if they had taunted on their own

supremacy at other times. Thirumazhisai azhvar himself in another paasuram

says, " kuraikonda nAnmukan kuNdikai neer peidhu maRaikonda mandhiraththAl

vAzhththi " When brahma himself does this what is left for the other devas, other

than to follow the leader?

 

 

 

(pAdham malarERa vittiraNji vAzhththa-valarAgil) If you pray to that supreme

lord and do pooja to his divine feet with beautiful flowers ( " kallAr tuzhAyum

kaNavalarum koovalaiyum mullAr mulariyum Ambalum " ) said azhvar.

 

 

 

We replied: Oh! We have already done that pooja.

 

 

 

Azhvar: Yes you have done it but not to the divine feet of emperuman but instead

to those devathas who once themselves prostrated to the lord's divine feet.

They are his servants. Why waste time praying to them? The same could be done

to the divine feet of emperuman as per the sastras. Whatever pooja you do to

those devas they instead are doing the same to the divine feet of emperuman then

why don't you directly do the same to the supreme lord. We don't need anyone to

mediate between the lord and us as we have a direct connection with him.

 

 

 

(valarAgil) Azhvar shows a sign of doubt here as the number of people who

directly fall to the feet of Sriman Narayanan is very less when compared to

those going astray (Asaipattu Alwar palar)

 

 

 

Ok! If we follow your advice then what will happen?

 

 

 

(neerkaNdan kaNda nilai mArkaNdan kaNda vagaiyE varum kaNdeer) Here the words of

the paasuram have been rearranged for easy understanding of the meaning. This

is called as 'anvayam'

 

 

 

The state of neerkaNdan-Sivan/Rudran (Rudran swallowed the alakAla poison that

appeared from the parkadal during the churning of ocean for the benefit of all.

While the poison was in his throat parvathi caught hold of rudran's throat and

hence the poison was stopped from going into the stomach. Thereby the throat of

rudran remained blue in colour and hence he is called as

neelakaNdan/neerkaNdan). MarkandEyan, the son of mrugandu maharishi came to

know about his death in a few days and hence went to rudra and asked for

extended lifetime and then moksha. Rudra hesitated and then slowly told

markandEya that he cannot grant moksha as lord janardhana is the sole head who

can grant moksha and that he was also one among the many who do

sAdhanAnushtAnams. Thereby markandEya did tapas towards the supreme lord and

became a great vishnu bhaktha and finally his wish was fulfilled by the

nirheduka krupai of emperuman. So markandEyan fully understood the state of

rudra. So if we pray to that emperuman with doing pooja to his divine feet we

will be able to realize the actual state of other devas like markandEya and if

we continue to fall into his divine feet then we are sure to be blessed with the

state obtained by markandEya.

 

 

 

Note: MarkandEya vriththAntham has been clearly stated in 12th skandam of Sri

bhagavatham and mahabharatham Aranya parva. Number of azhvar paasurams can also

be quoted to indicate to the same episode.

 

 

 

(To be continued)

 

 

 

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

 

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan