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Re: Selected excerpts from MahA VidvAn Sri U.Ve. PerukkAraNai Swamy's ThiruppAvai Monograph: Part XII-> Fifth day : Mayanai mannu Vada Mathurai Mainthan dinam

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Sadagopan • December 20, 2000 


Sriamthyai Godhayai Nama:
SrimathE RaamAnujAya Nama:

Dear BhakthAs:

The Vratham has begun. The Gopis were worried
about completing it without any hindrance (vignam).
One of the knowledgable Gopi pointed out that the Vignams
will be banished , if the Vratham is performed with
Bhagavan Naama UccharaNam (recitation of the name of the Lord).
The Gopis therefore invoked the name of NaarAyanan ,
KshIrAbhdhi Naathan, Vaamanan , Thrivikraman ,
DhAmOdharan and concluded that all those names 
are that of KrishNan , who is Aapath BhAndhavan
and anAtha Rakshakan. In this fifth paasuram ,
the Gopis invoke the name of DhAmOdharan and 
reflect in the subsequent paasurams on the Maayams 
(mysterious , wonderful  acts) of KrishNan as celebrated
by Swamy NammazhwAr (PiRanthavARum VaLarnthavARum--
seyuthu pOna MaayankaLum).

The Meaning of the Fifth paasuram:Dr.V.K.S.N.Raghavan
******************************************************

(All of our sins vanish like a blade of grass thrown
into fire , when we sing in praise of KrishNan and 
worship Him ). Him--the mysterious Lord ; the young
courageous Lord born at north MathurA , the One who 
sports in the pure waters of the great river , YamunA ;
the emerald-like shining Lamp that has risen from 
the race of cowherds;and the Lord DaamOdharA (the One
bound by the rope around the waist)who has brought high
esteem to His mother YasOdhA (literally, who illumined 
the mother's womb)--Him let us approach with sincerity 
(purity--physical and mental); let us worship Him with 
fresh and fragrant flowers;let us pay our obesiance 
to Him;let us sing in praise of Him , by words of mouth;
let us think of Him in our mind;if we do so (approaching , 
worshipping ,obeying,singing and thinking of Him alone), 
our sins of past , present and future will vanish like 
straw put into fire.Therefore let us sing His glory.

The Inner Meanings of this paasuram
************************************

Maayanai               Of the One who is the Swami of 
                       Moola Prakruthi as LeelA VibUthi 
                       Naathan

mannu                  Of the Para VaasudEva MUrthi        
  
Vada Mathurai          Of Sri VaikunTanAthan from whose 
Mainthanai             sacred feet the nectar of bliss flows

Thooya Peru neer       Of the One , who resides at
Yamunai ThuRaivanai    the bank of VirajA river (in 
                       Sri Vaikuntam )

ThAyai Kudal           Of the One ,who explained 
ViLakkam seytha        the "nama: Bharga" section of
                       Gaayathri manthram , which is 
                       equal in sacredness to one's own 
                       Mother during His avathAram as 
                       NaarAyaNA at BadrikAsramam to
                       perform upaEsam for Naran

DhAmOdharanai          Of the One , who got Himself tied up
                       with a small rope by a cowherd woman
                       because of the Bhakthi of that devotee

ThUyOmAi Vanthu        if we approach that One ( BhagavAn) 
                       with purity of Vaak, Manas and KaraNams

ThUmalar thoovi        and offer auspicious flowers (TuLasi)
                       dear to Him (aanUpura paryantham )

Thozhuthu              and perform archanai with them 

vAyinAl paadi          and control our Indriyams so that Vaak,
ManathinAl             mind and body will be fulfilled with
Chintthika             respect to their saasthrEic functions

pOya pizhayum          (then) all of our accumulated sins 

puhu taruvAn            (and) the ones (sins) acquired after
ninRanavum              SaraNAgathi consciously 

theeyinil thUsAhum      all of them will be destroyed like
                        cotton thrown into the fire.

Special comments on Individual words of Paasuram
*************************************************

(1)"MaayOnai": Our Lord is a MaayAvi. He hinted that much
in Githai: " sambhavaami aathma maayaya" .All the Maaya
ChEstithams from His avathAram at Vada Mathurai to growth 
in Aayarpaadi, many leelais in Gokulam  and BrundhAvanam ,
His serving as the charioteer for ArjunA, converting
day into night in the battle field of Kuru KshEthram ,
taking the disc in His hand inspite of His vow not to
use weapons in that war , are examples of the MaayA
of the MaayOn.Abhinava Desikan describes Maayai as
Moola Prakruthi and SankalpAthi Jn~Anam.As the Controller, 
commander of this Maayai , through His sankalpa visEsham
blesses the DevAs and incarnates as PadhmanAbhan in  
the milky ocean and later jumps out of the pillar as
Lord Narasimhan ,goes to the Yaaga saalai of Bali as
Vaamanan and transforms into Thiruvikraman and now
incarnates as KaNNan , the MaayOn or adhbhuthan .

Swamy NammAzhwAr celebrates this Maayam of the Lord , 
which He performs through His AchAryAs , who remove
the "Poy ninRa Jn~Anam " of ours and makes us qualified 
to receive SadAchAra Jn~Anam through the wonderous act 
of "Irumbai ponnAkkuthal" (SaraNAgathi) according to
Sri PBA Swamy.Our Lord stands on top of this AchArya
Paramparai and is therfore MaayAthi Maayan.

ANDAL appropriately addresses Him next
this MaayOn as " Mannu Vada Mathurai Mainthan".
Mannu stands for the place most desired and where
the Lord has blessed through His long resdence there.
That place is Vada Mathurai with Bhagavath Saaniddhyam.
Mainthan means kumAran of VasudEvar and Devaki .  

(2)"Thooya peru neer Yamunai": YamunA is most sacred and 
pure. Infact , it is more sacred than GodhAvari , which 
failed to describe what it saw (SeethAbahranam by RaavaNan)
to Raama , when He asked whether it had anything to say as
to what had happened there. YamunA on the other hand cleaved
and let VasudEvar walk across its sandy bed , when he was
transporting baby KrishNan on His head during the dark
rainy night of JanmAshtami.Yamunai also had deha sambhandham 
with the Lord through His Jala kreedais there with Gopis.
Our Lord came to be called Yamunai ThuRaivan or the Lord of
Yamunai for these reasons.

(3)"Aayar Kulatthinil thOnRum aNi viLakkai":Our Lord was born 
in Raaja Kulam with the parents of King VasudEvA and queen
Devaki. He surfaced in the community of cowherds (AaypAdi).
Lord has mentioned to ArjunA that He has had many janmams.
ANDAL does not agree. She says therfore here : "ThOnRum"
instead of "PiRanthum" deliberately. "ThOnrum" means
"aavirbavitthAn" /appeared instead of being born.Next ,
ANDAL saluted Him as " ThOnRum aNi ViLakkai"
or the most beautiful , lustrous lamp that appeared
amidst the aayar kulam . Another AzhwAr (KulasEkarar)
has commented in a similar way about Lord Raamachandran's
appearance in Soorya Kulam as a beautiful , bright lamp
( VemkathirOn kulatthiRkku Ohr aNi ViLakkAi ).

(4)"ThAyai Kudal Vilakkam seytha DhAmOdharanai" :
KaNNan was caught by YasOdhA in the act of stealing
butter and she wanted to punish Him by tying Him up
with a rope to a mortar to keep Him stationary. YasOdhai
was His mother and a Bhakthai. Hence , the Lord out
of His Bhaktha paara-tanthryam permitted Himself to
be bound ( KaNNinuNN SiRutthAmpinAL KattuNNupatta 
peru Maayan) .He is adiyavarkku yeLiyavan and therefore 
got Himself tied up with a DhAmam (rope) around 
His waist (udharam). This UdhAra Utthama Moorthy 
carried the welt marks(Thazhumpu) from that happening 
and came to be known as "DhAmOdharan". YasOdhA got 
all credit for managing Her "wild" son .AzhwArs described 
the glory of YasOdhA's role as His Mother this way :

" Ivanai peRra VayirudayAL"

"MaNi Vayiru VaaytthavaLE" 

"Unnaik KaNDAr yenna nOnbhu  nORRArkaLO"

This helplessness of the Lord in being tied up
by a human (mother) moved Swamy NammazhwAr so much 
that He stayed in a state of trance for six months.
Such is His MaayA (MaayOn).Even today , One can see 
the three welt marks on the waist of Lord RanganAtha
(Moolavar) bearing witness to this incident . ParAsara
Bhattar refers to these welt marks in periya PerumAL's
Udharam .It is generally accepted that the Moolavar 
at Srirangam is KrishNan and the Uthsavar is Raaman .

(5)"ThUyOmAi Vanthu ": If we approach Him (DhAmOdharan) 
with suddhi(purity) through observance of nithya karmAs,
abandoning proscribed acts (nishitthangaLai vittu), 
avoiding BhaagavathApachArams and knowing that 
SaraNAgathi done at His feet is only for attaining  
His grace , then we will be cleansed of all dhOshams.

(6)"ThUmalar thoovi thozhuthu , VaayinAL paadi,
ManathinAl chinthikka": Suddha pushpAnjali as at
Thirumalai is Thoomalar Thoovuthal ; Among the flowers , 
Utthama pushpam is the one grown by one in one's 
own garden(nandhavanam )for the Lord like periyAzhwAr
and ThoNDaradippodi); madhyama pushpam is one grown in
common ground; the adhama pushpam is one , which are 
collected through yaachakam from others.TuLasi Pushpa
samarpanam and manthra Pushpa samarpaNam are very
dear to our Lord's heart.Hence ANDAL recommends them
here .After PushpAnjali, the naama sankIrthanam
(VaayinAL paadi) has to be conducted.Bhagavath guna
dhyAna Chinthanai (dhyAnam) follows next.AmbharIsha
chakravarthy's dhyAnam of KrishNan (Sa vai Mana:
KrishNa:) is the way to follow .

(7)" ManathinAl chinthikka, pOya Pizhayum , puhu
taruvAn ninRanavum theeyinil thUsAhum CHEPPU":
If we offer pushpAnjali with a suddha manas ,
sing the glory of His naamAs and meditate on Him ,
all of our accumulated sins as well as the ones 
accrued after prapatthi will be burnt to ashes
like the bale of cotton thrown into a blazing fire.

(8) "Cheppu": The paasuram ends with the command,
"cheppu" (say).When we perform a rite (sandhyAvandhanam ,
Yaagam , AarAdhanam et al) ,there are deficencies
such as KriyA lobham , Dhravya LObham and Niyama
lObham . To overcome this deficencies , we do
prAyachittha hOmam. Even there , deficencies may 
occur. To banish that too , we say " Sri KrishNAnu 
smaraNam Param" as saathvika Thyaagam (KrishNArpanam).
That KrishNa dhyAnam removes all aparAdhams and blesses 
one with auspiciousness. Therefore ANDAL ended
the fifth Paasuram(from  the first set of Sextet ) 
dealing with the methods to perform nOnbhu with 
the word "Cheppu" to remind Her friends to utter 
the name of Lord KrishNA for sudhdi (KrishNAnu
Smaranam param ).

ANDAL ,Srimath Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
RaamAnuja Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan 

 


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           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
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