thaiyil magam endru dhAraniyeer!!!

From the Bhakti List Archives

• January 21, 2003


From: sumithra varadarajan  
Cc: oppiliappan@yahoogroups.com, jetusa@yahoogroups.com, sv-
general@yahoogroups.com 
Date: Tue Jan 21, 2003 0:28am 
Subject: thaiyil magam endru dhAraniyeer!!!  


Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha
Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha
                          Thaiyil magam endru dhAraniyeer!!!

            "thaiyil magam endru dhAraniyeer Ettram endha
            thaiyil magaththukku sAttruginrEn-thuyyamadhi
            pettra mazhisai pirAn pirandha nAlendru
            nattravargal kondAdum nAl."   (URM-12)

Today is thaiyil magam, the thirunakshatram of thirumazhisai Alwar.  
This alwar, a disciple of pEyAzhvar was born in the place called 
thirumazhisai.  This place by itself has a lot of greatnesses.  Many 
divya desams gain their greatness due to the perumal, piratti over 
there or due to the alwar or acharya born in that place.  But 
thirumazhisai is a place, which has its own greatness,

         "vulagum mazhisaiyum vullunarindhu* thammil
         pulavar pugazh kOlAl thookka*- vulaguthannai
         vaiththeduththa pakkaththum* mAneer mazhisaiyE
         vaiththeduththa pakkam validhu"
(Some scholars placed the greatness of thirumazhisai in one of the 
plates of a balance and then the rest of the world in the other plate 
and found that the plate in which thirumazhisai was placed was 
heavier than the rest of the world)

 and hence this alwar has been named after the place in which he was 
born as THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR.  This alwar is otherwise 
called "bhakthisArar" (a name given by siva perumAn himself to this 
alwar pleased with the bhakthi of alwar).  Our acharyas praise this 
alwar as "vuraiyil idAdhavar" (one who never places the sword inside 
the cover).  One doubt may arise in our minds now.  We have seen only 
thirumangai alwar with a knife and never thirumazhisai alwar with a 
sword or knife then how does the acharyas call him like that?  In 
case of thirumazhisai alwar the sword is nothing but his own tongue.  
Alwar never keeps his mouth shut when it comes to argue against other 
philosophers and establish our sampradayam.  Since thirumazhisai 
alwar has learnt all other philosophies ("samanam kattrOm, sAkiyam 
kattrOm, sankaranAr Akkivaiththa Agama nool kattrOm") and then 
finally became a vaishnavite he is the best judge to say that there 
is no other philosophy as great as vaishnavism and hence alwar talks 
staunchly without any hesitation.  That is why he is regarded as 
vuraiyil idAdhavar.  Thirumazhisai Alwar's nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi 
and thiruchandha viruththam are great proof for the above.

The greatness of thirumazhisai alwar is beyond words and there are 
many instances in his own life history where emperuman himself has 
proved it to the world as in the incident with kanikannan and "sonna 
vannam seidha perumal" and also the incident at perumpuliyur.  Since 
all these legends are known to all of you, adiyen stops without 
elaborating the same.  Let us now enjoy the greatness of this day 
thaiyil magam as expressed by Sri Manavala mAmunigal in the above 
pAsuram in upadesa ratna mAlai-12 (the meaning is given based on the 
vyakhyanam of pillai lOkam Jeeyer).

In this paasuram (URM-12) mAmunigal explains the greatness of this 
day, thaiyil magam, the birthday of thirumazhisai Alwar to everyone 
in this world.

thaiyil  magam endru :  This is the tamil month of thai ("thaiyoru 
thingalum" regards andal).

dhAraniyeer: Oh! The blessed ones, who have the bhakyam to be born in 
this world where thirumazhisai alwar was also born.

Ettram endha thaiyil magaththukku sAttruginrEn : Only mAsi magam is 
considered to be mahA nakshatram then why do you say that thaiyil 
magam is a important day? If you have this doubt then listen, I will 
tell you the greatness of this very fine day.

thuyyamadhi pettra : This is the day, which is celebrated by great 
mahans (who are enriched in good penance)as a day  in which 
thirumazhisai alwar who,due to the divine grace of emperuman, has 
been blessed with clear and absolute knowledge ("mayarvara madhi 
nalam arula"pettra) took birth. Thirumazhisai alwar himself 
wonders,  "enmadhikku vinnellAm vundO vilai" (Will the space become a 
price for my intelligence?). 
What is purity for mind? "mananakamala marakazhuvi" To remove the 
thought of the devathAnthara parathvam.  That is considering sriman 
nArAyanan alone to be the supreme master and all others to be under 
him.  Azhvars purity in mind is thus reflected in his following 
verses:
"thAdhulAvu kondrai mAlai thunnu senchadai sivan needhiyAl vanangu 
pAdha"
"pOdhil mangai bhoodhalak kizhaththi dEvi"
"vEda nool Odhugindradhu vunmai yalla dillai mattru vuraikkilE"
"vulla nOigal theer marundhu vAnavarkkaliththa em vallalArai yandri 
mattrOr deivam nAn madhippanE"
"seermiguththa ninnalAl Or deivam nAn madhippanE"
"nAnmuganai nArAyanan padaiththAn nAn muganum thAn mugamAi 
shankaranai thAn padaiththAn"
"pidhiru manamillEn pigjakan thannOdu ethirvanavan enakku nErAn"
"kallAdhavan ellangai kattazhiththa kAguththan allAl oru deivam 
yAnilEn"
"eni arindhEn Esarkkum nAn mugarkkum deivam eni arindhEn emperumAn 
vunnai"

In this way, all through his prabhandam alwar has shown the clarity 
in his words and proved to be "uraiyil idAdhavar". 

mazhisai pirAn pirandha nAlendru: This is the day in which 
Thirumazhisai alwar (mazhisai piran) took birth blessed with great 
jnanam and hence has had punarjanma.

nattravargal kondAdum nAl: Since this alwar was born to a rishi, all 
the other rishis celebrate this day and hence mAmunigal says 
nattravargal kondAdum nAl.

Which is `pirandha nAl'? As per thirumazhisai alwar's verses "andru 
nAn pirandhilEn" I was not born earlier. "pirandha pin marandhilEn" 
here alwar refers to the birth with bhagavat sambhandha jnanam 
(knowledge about the relationship with emperuman) as the actual birth 
and rest to be equal to not born at all.  Thus this great day in 
which this great intellect took birth is considered special by great 
mahans.

What is `thavam'?  prapaththi. "sArvE thavaneri".  So the prapaththi, 
which is done under the divine feet of emperuman as an act of 
surrendering one's self under the holy feet is referred to 
as `nattravam' here.  AcharyAbhimAna nishtai is referred to 
as, "mattravarai sAththiyiruppAr thavam".  Examples for 
acharyAbhimAna nishtai are kanikannan, perumpuliyuradigal and 
others.  So from this it is seen that this day is to be celebrated by 
all acharyAbhimAnis.

Any mistake is due to adiyen's lack of knowledge and ignorance and 
hence shall please be pardoned by the other bhagavatas.

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee
Sumithra Varadarajan




---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/