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Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi, Velukkudi Swamy Upanyasam (English Translation)

From the Bhakti List Archives

narayankv • January 23, 2002 


Volume XIV :-

Volume Title : Dhrishtaadhrishta Phalamaagiya Iraamanusa Thirunaamam

In the last issue we saw why we do not have to worry about anything 
if we have sambandham of Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam.

Now we continue with the next phrase in the thaniyan :-

"Muni thandha nootru ettu saavithiri.."

Here Muni means emperumaan and not "Amudanaar".
When Amudanaar gave us the Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi which is 
equivalent to the Gyaathri Manthram then why does Muni represent 
here "emperumaan" and not Amudanaar?

The reason why Muni is used here is :-

When emperumaan wants to create this world He starts doing Dhyaanam. 
As a result He first creates Brahma and then Shiva and then Devaas 
and so on. For creating each of these He does dhyaanam (Meditation).
Who does Dhyaanam ? It is the Rishis. Rishis are also called
Munis. Hence the name "muni" here points to emperumaan and not 
Amudanaar.

"Muni thandha nootru ettu saavithiri.." means the 108 Gaayathri 
Manthram which is the essence of all vedaas that was first ever 
recited by emeprumaan Himself and hence the phrase "Muni thandha 
nootru ettu saavithiri..".

Swamy Naamaazhwaar says :-

Munimaa pirama mudavitha..

Meaning :- "Who exists even before Brahmaa and everything
else in this world."

Also "Muniye Naanmgane Mukkannappaa.."

Meaning :- "Oh. My lord Muni is He who  does dhyaanam to
create this world, who Himself is brahmaa the Naanmugan and who is 
Shiva the mukkannappan.."

Hence one who does dhyaanam  is called "Muni".

But why the word Muni used here  for the creator, emperumaan?

It is just to make us remember that it was this Muni emeprumaan who 
created Brahmaa through Dhyaanam. It was this Muni who taught the 4 
Vedaas to Brahmaa. It was this Muni who also gave the essence of 4 
Vedaas which is the Gaayathri Manthram, to Brahmaa. Hence "Muni 
thandha nootru ettu saavithiri..".


"Gaayathrim Chandasaam Maathaa.."

Gaayathri is considered as the mother of Vedaas. If a child
exists, there exists a mother.Hence if Vedaas exist then its
mother also exists which is the Gayaathri Manthram. When
emperumaan gave this Gaayathri Manthram to Brahmaa, He gave
it along with the Pranavam in the beginning of the manthram.
This Gaayathri manthram along with the Pranavam is recited
108 times by all vaidhikaas. Pranavam was alo given along
with this manthram because, Pranavam is considered to be
the essence of the Gaayathri Manthram and Gaayathri Manthram
is the essence of the Vedaas and hence, "Muni thandha nootru ettu 
savithiri ennu nunn porulai.." where the phrase "nootru ettu 
savithiri ennu nunn porulai.." represents the above 
explanation.  "Nunn porul" here means Pranavam which is nothing but 
the essence of the Gaayathri manthram.

Hence in this "Nunn Porull" which is Pranavam, we have three
letters A, U, Ma (to be pronounced as in Tamil). Here the
letter 'A', called as "Akaaram" represents the Paramaathmaa, "U" 
which is called as "Ukaaraam" represents the "Thaayaar", and the "Ma" 
which is called "Makaaram" represents the Jeevaathmaa or the 
Chethana. This constitutes the Pranavam. Otherwise these three 
letters can also indicate Sri Raamaa, Seethaa and Lakshmana. When 
Raamaa, Seethaa and Lakshmanaa went to Dhandakaaranyam (Forest) 
Raamaa went first, Seetha was in the middle and Lakshmana was walking 
behind Her.

This is indicated in Raamaayanam :-

"Agratha: prayO rama: seetha madhye sumdhyamaa
drishtathasthu dhanushpaani: laskshmana: anuja dhaama"

If we try to equate the letters in "Pranavam" with Raamaa,
Seetha and Lakshmanaa then "A" represents paramaathmaa who
is Sri Ramaa here, "U" represents Thaayaar who is Seethaa
here, "Ma" represents the Jeevaathmaa who is the Laskhmana who
is always seshan (Daasan or slave) to emperumaan to do
kainkaryams. In this order the Paramaathmaa always is at the
higher stage and Jeevaathmaa is in its lower state. If the
Jevaathmaa has to reach Paramaathmaa, then someone has to show
the path to the Jeevaathmaa. Hence Thaayaar acts as a link to
show this path to the Jeevaathmaa. Similarly when Lakshmana
wanted to join Ramaa and Seethaa for dhandakaaranyam Raamaa
did not agree. But it was Seetha who supported Lakshmana for
Raamaa's kainkaryam. Hence Seethaa showed the path for the
Jeevaathmaa.

The meaning of the three letters in Pranavam is a pleasure to
know. The significance of the three letters itself is so
interesting. If we think of the relative predominance given among 
these three letters, it is for the "Akaaram A" that the highest 
priority is assigned. 

But if we look at the meaning of the letters, the
Jeevaathmaa gets the priority. The reason is like this :-

If the aachaaryan teaches us the Ashtaaksharam which has the
Pranavam in it, is he going to get any benefit out of it ? No.
It is the Jeevaathmaa who is going to experience the fruits
of knowing the meaning of it. Similary if we take the battle in
Krurukshethra where emperumaan Kannaan did Gitopadesam to
Paarthan (Arjuna), it was Arjuna who was given importance.
If Arjuna was not there, who would Krishna have told this to?
Hence if we consider the meaning of the letters in the
Pranavam the importance is given to the makaaram " Ma"
which represents the Jeevaathma whereas if we consider the
significance or importance of just the letters in the Pranavam
the importance is given to "Akaaram A" which is
Paramaathmaa.

To combine these two, exists the "Piraati" or "Thaayaar" which
is "ukaaram" who links the Jeevaathmaa to Paramaathmaa.

Hence the "makaaram" is Jeevaathmaa. In the example from
Raamaayana Lakshmana represents the "makaaram" the
Jeevaathmaa who is "Raamaanuja" the brother of Raamaa.
Similarly here also we have emperumaanaar who is "Raamaanujaa".
Even Bharatha was "Raamaanujaa" when we quoted our earlier
example for Drishta and Adhrishta Phalam but we also said that
that might give only Drishta Phalam and Adhrishta Phalam. Here
Swamy Pillai Lokam Jeeyar compares Lakshmana the Jeevaathma to
emperumanaar who is another Jeevaathmaa in our present context.
Hence Ramaanujaa represents "makaaram" here. So as we said
earlier in the context of significance of the meaning of letters
in Pranavnam, the "makaaram" is given importance and hence
"makaaraam" represents "Raamaanujaa" here. Hence
emperumaanaar is given importance. This meaning of Pranavam
has given importance to the Jeevaathmaa (Raamaamnuja).

Even when we consider just the Letters in Pranavam the
importance is given to Makaaram through another example.
This is just to state the Jeevaathmaa has significance in
Pranavam both by just letters and also through meanings.
How is Jeevaathmaa considered important by letters ?

Lets us consider the following example :-

"Sangodu chakkaram endhum thadakkaiyan.."

Here thadakkaiyan represents emperumaan. It says emperumaan
holds sangu (Conch), sakkramam (Disc) in his hands. Here even
though emperumaan is important, since the Sangu comes first
by just mere letters, importance is given to Sangu the Conch.
Similarly the Ashtaaksharam which contains Pranavam was given
to the Jeevaathmaa, hence the Jeevaathma gets the importance.
Similarly in the battle of Kurukshethraa  Arjuna who is a
Jevaathmaa was behind Krishna Paramaathmaa and Paramaathmaa
was behind but the importance again went to Jeevaathma because
without that Jeevaathmaa Arjuna, emperumana kannan wouldn't
have given us the Gitai. Hence if Jeevaathmaa is behind but
still given importance, in Pranavam too even though the
Jeevaathmaa which is "makaaram" is behind, still it is
given importance. Hence it can be proved that Jeevaathmaa
has importance both by means of mere letters and also the
meaning of each one of them. Now in our context the
Jeevaathmaa is "Raamaanujaa" and hence he is given
importance both by means of letters "Ma" (Jeevaathmaa) and
its inner meaning.

Hence "nootru ettu savithiri ennu nunn porulai.."

That is Jeevaathmaa is always given importance in Pranavam.
Gaayathri Manthram is the essence of Vedaas and Pranavam is
the essence of the Gaayathri manthram.

Similary on our side the equivalent of 108 Gaayathri manthram
is the 108 paasurams of Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi and just
like the essence of Gaayathri Manthram is the Pranavam, the
essence of this Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi is the thirunaamam
"Raamaanujaa". Hence the Raamaanuja Thirunaamam is equivalent
to the Pranavam itself. How ? Pranavam is considered very
important because it gives more importance to the Jeevaathmaa
to whom it is being taught. We already compared this in our
example and stated that "Emperumaanaar" is the Jeevaathmaa in
the "Makaaram". Hence here emperumaanar Raamaanuja
thirunaamam is considered equivalent to the Pranavam and given
importance as it is given to the Jeevaathmaa in the Pranavam.
Hence like Gaayathri Manthram, here we have Iraamaanusa
Nootrandhaadhi and like Pranavam where Jeevaathmaa is
considered important, here we consider Raamaanuja Thirunaamam
which is equivalent to Pranavam itself. Now coming to the
"ukaaram", we can compare "Thaayar" the ukaaram in
Pranavam to the Aachaaryan in our case who is "ukaaram"
and it is our Aachaaryan who links the Jeevaathma
"makaaram" with the Paramaathmaa the "Akaaram". The
only difference in this comparision is, "Thaayar" can show
the "Jeevaathmaa" only the feet of emperumaan but "Aacharyan"
shows the feet of both emperumaan and thaayaar for the
Jeevathmaa. Hence just like "Thaayaar" who is "ukaaram",
here Aachaaryan is "ukaaram". Who is the Aachaaryan
here ?, Our Emperumaanaar. Here now emperumaanaar is considered
as "ukaanram".

"Avvaanavarku Mavvaanavar adimai enru Uvvaanavar uraithaar.."

Meaning :-

Here Avvaanaavar is emperumaan, Mavvaanavar is Jeevaathma and
Uvvaanavar is Thaayaar or Aachaaryan. Hence it is the Uvvaanavar
(Aachaaryan) who teaches us that, the Jeevaathma (Mavvaanaavan)
is always Adimai or Daasan to emperumaan (Avaanavar). This is
what our emperumaanaar also taught us as :-

"Sema nal veedum porulum dharumamum, seeriya narkaamamum
engivai naangenbar, naagnum kannanukke aamadhu kaamam
aram porul veedudharkennuraithaaan, vaamanan seelan
Iraamaanusan indha mann misaiye."

- (Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi - 40)

Meaning :-

"In our life we should live in such a way that Dhramam, Artham
(Wealth), Kaamaam (Desire) and even moksham, all these four
should always be attributed to emperumaan Kannan". We may ask
if we chant Raamaanuja thirunaamam how will emperumaan be
satisfied ? Emperumaan will be happy only if we chant His
thirunaamam. This question may arise in us. But in many
instances emperumaan himself says that I like all those who
chant the thirunaamam of my Bhakthan rather than my thirunaamam.
Hence Raamaanuja thirunaamam is given more importance than
emperumaan's thirunaamam.


Will continue ..


RAAMAANUJASYA CHARANAU SHARANAM PRAPADYE. SRIMATHE RAAMAANUJAAYA NAMA:


Vedic Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi Team
http://www.radioramanuja.com





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