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Thondaradip podi aazhwaar and Swami Desikan's work

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Sampath Rengarajan • December 21, 1995 


Sri thondar adip podi aazhwwar thiruvadikaLE saraNam

When I think of this  aazhwaar,  nothing  comes to my mind  other than
the "actual  reality" in kaliyugam.  We are all in one way or other so
much engrossed in our routine all the time. Many a times we wander
around physically in pursuit of a career or wander mentally for clarity
in our mind to reach an apparently clear solution to our day to day
problems. No matter where and how long one  wander  around,  the hymn  of
this soul if  recited will clear all our sins and orient one to this
path to "arangan".

("engu  suRRiyum  aranganaiyE  vanthu  sEr"; ie  "where  ever you
wander  around,  return  back to the  origin  and  the  god  head
aranagan";  this  notion is also true with  respect  to the tirup
paanaazhwaar  and  pranavaak  krithi  analysis  I  had  presented
earlier)

	I want to recall a  discourse  I attended in Feb 1990, in
Kumbakonam,  India, on  Ramaayanam  by devanaar  valaaham  kannan
swamikal who is related to the 43 rd jeer.  (He is a chief engineer
working  in  Northern  India,  still   following  the   srivaishnava
tradition  in spirit and also in dress code ie  panchakacham,  and
kudumi) I thought I would  share some of the  contents of his discourse  and
present a small  "cocnlusion"
again, based on a primitive analysis on Swami Desikan's work.

Periyaazhwaar in one of his verse has implied "Oh lord, you are like the
mother  cow; you know the  whereabouts  of the calf in a herd of
(several) cows and you can  identify  the calf (jivans)  easily.  I pray that
you
identify me also similarly in the middle of this samsara and take care of me".

Thondar adip podi aazhwwar  outlined that " oh lord, I will have no time to
think of you  constantly  when I am in this  samsAram.  However,
due to your graceful and merciful  nature I beg you to forgive me
and bless me even if I am not thinking of you even once."

An overall analysis of Swami Desikan's work suggests clubbing both
these as follows. "Oh lord, you are like a mother,  who  always  think of
her child even when the child is not  thinking  of you.  We are  your
children  dwelling  in this samsaaram.  Thus due to this  samsaara
bandham, Even if we donot think  of  you  constantly,  you  think
that  we are  constantly thinking of you, and bless us with your "arul" or
grace
and mercy".

Conclusion:

It may be a simple "logic" for a rationalist. But it is also a divine
and implicit concept conveyed  in Swami Desikan's work.
It is  enough  to  pray  the  Lord  asking  him to  think  of you
constantly and bless you even if you are not able to think of HIM all
the time.  It is easy in this  kali  yuga to  "think" in the same lines
as suggested by the analysis on Swami Desikan's work while we are
praying.  This  aazhwaar was the cause for deriving or showing such "simple"
 way (hidden in  Swami Desikan's work)  "in seeking'", through his outpouring
in our
  thamizh maRai 4000. After all Bakthi itself is derived finally as a product
of
mind and mental frame work.  In Thamizh we can say it (bakthi) is "mana
neghizchchi",  or "mana vurukkam".  This is so explicitly  expressed in
thondar  adipodi  aazhwaar's hymn of the soul namely the thiru maalai.
 The last but not the least I also want to  add
that he is the avathaaram of "vana maalai" of thirumaal.

Rangan thiruvadikaLe sharanam
SaraNam SaraNam saraNam prapathyE

Sampath Rengarajan (Sampath Rengi)