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Re: pEy azhwAr pAsuram and "Vishnu and Siva"

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • July 25, 1997 


Dear bAgwathALs,

Thanks to Sri PD for his posting on this pAsuram. About six months ago,
a colleague of mine who is a staunch advaitin asked me to provide him
with the meanings of this pAsuram as they appear in the preface of the
notes by Dr Radhkkrishnan on his commentary on Sri VenkatEsa perumAL.
I did some reasearch on this that time and compiled a lenghthy analysis
comprising of vyAkyAnams of Sri periya vAchchAn pillai, Sri puththur
swamigaL's urai and my own interpretations of these.  Since it is very
long, I will just give the highlights of it here.

Sri PV Pillai says

"Onru sAthakamAna vEshaththaiyum marrOnRu siththamAna vEshaththaiyum
okka tharippathE !ithu oru seelavaththaiyE" enkirAr.

ie Lord is adorning these two "vEshams" of "sith" and "sAthakamAna oru
vEsham" both in one, simply to exhibit that the kalyAna gunAs of this
combination was created by his vaibavam only (ie.. was his incarnation
only).  The word "vEsham" here is important. It means that these forms
are vaibavams of Lord for one cause or the other. Again he says
(implies) that he is only showing the kalyAna gunAs of this vEsham in
thiruvEngadam and not presenting HIMself in this "vEsham".


However puththur swamigal deals this particular pAsuram in length and
denies the shaivite/advaitic claim that Lord VenkatEsawara is in the
form of "Shiva and Vishnu combine" in here. HE first says that azhwA,
in the flow of his pAsurams dealt that thiru viN NagarAn and three
other deities have the kalyAna gunAs of thiruvikrama (one of LORD'S
vaibavam) in the previous pAsuram namely the 62nd pAsuram. (Refer my
today's post on Thiru viN Nagaram for the same). Similarly azhwAr went
ahead to explain that thiruvEngadan exhibits the kalyAna gunAs of this
duality avathAram known as "Sankara nArayana  avathAram" also present
in HIM as a "part" of HIM.  Puthur swami empahsizes that azwar in no
way says that this is a replica of "shiva vishnu combine" but only says
that HE contains the "kalyAna gunAs" of this duality avathRam of Lord
Vishnu in HIM as a "mere part" of HIM.  He further draws our attention
to same pEyazwAr's pAsuram no. 97 where azhwar says that

" Maa malarAn vAr sadiyAn enru ivarkatku ennaththAn amO imai"

ie both BrahmA and Shiva can never be compared to Vishnu as they are
never equal to HIM in anyway. This being the case, as clearly argued,
azhwAr never meant what is being derived in shaivite/advaitic schools.
Taking part of moonRAm thiruvandhAthi (bits and pieces of a literature)
to arrive at one'e own conclusion may sometime not yield the true and
correct meanings of the same.

I will be pleased to post the lengthy discussion only when I complete
my other tasks on thala purAnams committed.

pEy azhWar thiruvadikaLE charaNam
adiyEn
Sampath Rengarajan