Good/Bad-3

August 4, 2006

nal-VEdham-nalla maRai

Those who follow the VEdhic path are within the realm of 'vaidhEka' madham. The vEdhAs are old , very old, nobody knows how old. They disclose things candidly and also in cryptic fashion. The code of conduct, the rituals, the Lord Himself are all described by the sacred texts of upanishad-s.

AZvAr-s also talk high of vEdhAs in several pAsuram-s.

'andhaNar mADu' described ThiruneduNthANtakam. The wealth of andhaNar-s.

However, Sri ANDAL in NachiyAr thriumozhi prefixes mARai as

'nalla maRai'

'vAi nallAr nalla maRai vOdhi..' 6-7 of NAchiyAr Thirumozhi.

The same is voiced by Thrirumangai Mannan in the ThriunAgai thriumozhi

'ivaL vAyil nal vEdham vOdhum' 9-2-1 of Periya Thirumozhi;

Of course, the leader svAmi Nam-AzvAr spells this out

'nal vEdhathu voli ninROngu' 7-3-4 of ThiruvAimozhi;

What do these words cannote?

nalla maRai, nal vEdham ?

Does it mean that there is bad vEdham?

Sri Periya vAchAn piLLai has cast a spell by wonderful vyAkyAnam for NachiyAr Thriumozhi pAsuram

'vAi nallAr nall maRai vOdhi ..'

TEXT: ArAdhana vishayamAGa parandhavai anRikkEa -ARAdhya vishayathil svarUpathil paranthavaRRaich solli, purusha sUkthAthigaLai solli

That is , the vEDham-s are not to be chanted as rituals or a mode/means of prayer.The vEDham-s which talk of the qualities and attributes of EmperumAn like purusha sUktham is being referred to here.

The same logic can also be drawn for other two pAsuram-s.

In Edu, however, nal-vEdham is equated to SAma vEdham and we can recall Sri krshNA preferring sAma vEdham to others.

In the light of Edu for The pAsuram thirundhu vEdhamum-6-5-8 of ThiruvAimozhi this understanding gets corroborated.

The emphasis thus is on two main aspects

1. EmperumAn's qualities and

2. Not to do it as a ritual or method or procedure/

That is why ThriuvAimozhi scores over in this regard. PuthUr svAmi in fact, used to say for nalla maRai as thriuvAi mozhi and purusha sUkthAdhigaL.

adiyEan

dAsan

vanamamalai padmanbhan