Iraamaanusa nooRRanthAthi- 38th verse- why did Ramanuja wait so long for saving me! I have wasted all these years!

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Ramanujaya namah:

 

Dearest all,

This servitude- and being the dAsa bhoothar of Sri

Ramanuja and Sriman Narayanan- if only had I realized

and been blessed earlier, how much enjoyment I would

have had… Amudhaanr is remorseful that he had wasted

all these years. Even in this birth, - even after

Raamaanuja appeared years before, for some reason, I

am not blessed with his sambandham before. It is

because I had never ever approached His Holiness. Even

now, it is EmperumAnAr grace alone on me that he has

let me be blessed with his sambandham. He could have

done that before- is the feeling of Amudhanaar in this

verse-

 

aakki yatimai nilaippith thanaiyennai inRu,avamE

pOkkip puRaththitta thenporu Laamunpu puNNiyar_tham

vaakkiR piriyaa iraamaa Nnucha!nin aruLinvaNNam

nNOkkil theriviri thaal,urai yaayintha nuNporuLE. 38

 

I, the lowliest self, who has been under the wrong

impression and knowledge for ages that AthmA is the

Lord, have been enslaved by Sri Ramanuja and thus he

enabled me serve his Bhagawathas. Having done so on

me, mercifully and gracefully, now, my query is: why

at all I was left groping in the dark so long for

ages, and so many births? When I can see the depth of

compassion of DevarIr on adiyEn, I am not able to

comprehend this inexplicable query. Please tell me.

 

puNNiyartham vaakil piriyaa Iraamaanusa! - Oh

EmperumAnArE! Swami Ramanauja! The One who is praised

by the scholars and bhaagyasaalis!

Nin aruLin vaNNam nOkkil- when analyzing the way You

have blessed due to grace of Yours-

inRu- after becoming so old…

ennai aakki- You made me the object and recipient of

Your dayA..

adimai nilaippitthyanai… solidified my dAsyathvam and

setvitude to You and the Lord.

 

Munbu- In this same birth for so many years

Avam E pOkki- wasting all those time.

puRatthu ittadhu- pushed me into the sensual pursuits

and worldly objects;

en poruL?- Why?

Aa- kashtam [alas!]

Therivu aridhu- It is incomprehensible…

Aal- What is gone is gone [all precious time is gone

wasted without serving Ramanuja]

Indha nuN poruL uraiyaay- Please bless me with the

inner meaning or underlying reasoning of this and

alleviate my remorse.

 

[in similar tone, Swami Nammaazhwaar asks PerumAL: in

Thiruvaymozhi 10.8.9- anRu ennai puRam pOagap

puNartthathen seyvaan. ] For ages, He had been simply

ignoring me and today, He has taken me even as an

object worthy of consideration and He- the One who is

Enjoyment personified- has made Himself enter into my

smallest heart and

stay there. Today, he blesses me like this and

accepted me; why did He

leave me to those cruel five sense organs for so long

and simply ignored me? I demand an answer from

ThiruppEr Emperumaan for my doubt/question.

 

(An interesting anecdote reported by NampiLLai: as

written by Periyavaacchaan PiLLai: Nam jeeyer asked

his AchAryA Paraasara Bhattar (son of KooratthAzhwAn)

as to what could be the reply from Emperumaan for this

question from AzhwAr?

 

Bhattar immediately replies: what can He say? He is

ashamed of even raising His Head and is drawing lines

on the ground with His toe finger, due to His feeling

guilty of keeping AzhwAr waiting so long and not

having AzhwAr in Sri Vaikuntam..- What a reply! I bet

Emperumaan and PiraaTTi would have smiled at each

other with a beaming face for this reply from

Bhattar!)

 

It is because of the Lord’s swaathanthryam

[independence and freewill]. Who is the Lord? You are

the Lord… Oh Ramanuja… You are Emperumaanaar. Or it

could be due to praakrutham… and my praarabdha karma

perhaps.

 

EmperumAnAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan