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periya thirumozhi...

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Vijay Triplicane • January 29, 1999 


Hello thirumaN^gai AzhvAr abhimAnis,
    I am extremely happy that our dear Sri Madhavakkannan has started
writing commentaries for periya thirumozhi. I thoroughly enjoyed it,
especially the fifth one,
"kaLvanEn AnEn ...
...
uLLelAm urugik kural thazhuth thozhin^dhEn udambelAm kaNNan^Ir chOra
n^aLLiruL aLavum pagalum n^Anazhaippan n^ArAyaNA ennum n^Amam"
This was really moving.  I thought some of the thamizh readers would
appreciate it better if the original is reproduced along with the
commentary for such emotional pAsurams. The articles would become too
long if all the pAsurams are written. So I encourage evrybody to
download the text and have it by the side while reading the commentary.
This will help you appreciate our dear AzhvAr much better. AzhvAr's
n^aichyAnusan^dhAnam goes to its peak in these pAsurams...

    I had privately sent my feedback to Sri Madhavakkannan, esp on the
3'rd pAsuram's commentary. He asked me to post it on the list and here
it is...
-----------------------------------
Dear Sri Madhavakkannan,
    I am very happy that you have started writing about my dearest
AzhvAr's pAsurams. I am sure I'll enjoy every bit of it.

    In your explanation of the 3'rd pAsuram, "chEmamE vENdi...", you
describe the phrase "oomanAr kaNda kanavilum pazhudhAy" as follows:
-------
such days have gone utter waste - and I am thinking of such useless days

similar to the dumb person?s thinking about his past (without being able

to narrate to others- Here AzhwAr is not able to narrate to others for
such brazen shameful acts of his in the past- he keeps silent being
unable to narrate to others).
--------
"oomanAr kaNda kanavilum pazhudhAy ozhindhana kazhindha an^ n^ALgaL"

I remember reading a sorta different description of this. Let me try to
put it in words. See how it fits.
Here AzhvAr thinks of his past and repents profusely for all the bad
deeds that he had been doing. He compares his past to the dreams of a
dumb person and says his past is even worse. This is how it is
explained. First of all dreams are not real. But if you have a good
dream, you could atleast talk about it to others and share your
happiness. But a dumb person can't do that. But he could atleast think
about it and be happy for himself. But look at our poor AzhvAr. He says
he can't even think about his past because there is nothing good and
that would only bring him sorrow. This is why he says his past is worse
than the dreams of the dumb. ("oomanAr kaNda kanavaik kAttilum
vyarthamAgavE en nAtkaL kazhindhana")

Another interesting point: The pAsuram starts in a good note, chEmamE
vENdi..." and then continues to talk about all his bad deeds. AzhvAr's
naichyam is so much that he does this sorta self analysis. He says,"
There are some bad people who think evil and do bad deeds. They fall in
a different category. But I thought good for others but ended up
forgetting all those to go behind women for just sensual pleasures.
isn't that even worse? " (This is like how a teacher would feel worse
for a good, sincere student failing the test than the one who usually
fails. )

adiyEn thirumaN^gai AzhvAr dhAsan
-Viji




--
Vijay Triplicane