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Re: Andal's greatness

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Nanmaaran • December 9, 2002 


Dear Shri Venkatesan,
Sorry for the delayed response. I was in a official tour.
Let me try to explain the point in detail. For example, we can say that "Einstien is uncomparable". Here it wont mean that he is the Superior in all kinds. In that particular subject and angle or way of expression, he is uncomparable. Same way we can say "Stephen Hawking is uncomparable"  Whereas if one says that "Stephen Hawking excels over other scientists of the century" then that has to have a specific reason and cannot be brought under nahi ninda nyaayam. I think the example is clear. In the same way, maamunigaL had said that "thiruppalaanduku undO oppu" etc. At the same time he says "Andaal excels over other azhwars" he does not say "thriupaavaikku oppu unDO."
Thanks for posting 2000 padi and 4000 padi's references about "vinchi niRkum thanmai". 
1. But iam not able to get convinced that her "natural feminine gender gave that   excellence". It could be an advantage to her as she can absorb stree baava quickly. but cannot be an "Excelling factor" as Males absorbing stree baava is more tougher.And moreover there is nothing physical when said about "stree baavam" it is only at Mind which a born male can also achieve which was shown by other alwars in their naayaki baavam.
2. How come she becomes the heir of the azhwars as historically she is prior to later azhwars like thirumangai azhwar, thiruppaanazhwar etc?
3. If  shri raamanuja's eNNam was that "ladies are the better people to learn and understand tirupaavai" then how come we have other male acharyas who enjoyed thirupaavai and wrote thaniyans like " thirupaavai muppathum cheppinaaL vaazhiyE" Note that even shri maamunigaL also lived after shri raamanuja. So i wonder whether raamanuja had made such statements or this is some story which got into shri Ramanuja's life history later.
4. And if you read thru out the "upadEsa rathina maalai"  we can notice that only for aaNdaaL he had made such deeper statement like " aaNdaaLai bhakthiyudan naaLum vazhuthaai"  He had told about pallaadu, thriuvaaymozhi etc but word "bhakthi" is attached to her ONLY. 
On the way of searching the answers for this,  i had a chance to read one old tamil uRai for this. Let me get the same in my hand, translate and post it here.
Regards,
Nanmaaran 
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Note from Moderator:

I sense that not much value is being added in continuing this thread at this point.  It is traditional to accept pUrVAcAryas' interpretations and anubhavams.  It is possible that different AcAryas may have different anubhavam's, and in this case one follows one's own AcArya's instructions.  These issues cannot be settled by debating through mail after a point.  So I would like to reqeust that further discussion on the above be pursued through private mail, or through recourse to a proper AcArya.
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