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Thirumaalai-12

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Mani Varadarajan • June 4, 2002 


[ From Smt. Sumithra Varadarajan ]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha



“ Mattrondrum vEinda Maname Madhilarangar

  Kattrinum meitha kazhalinai keezh- uttra

  Thirumaalai paadum seer Thondaradipodi Emperumaanai

  Eppozhudum peesu”



“ Srimat Krishna samahvaya Namo yaamuna soonave

  yetkadAkshai kalakshyAnAm sulabha: Sridara: sadaa”



Pranams,

Thondaradipodi alwar who started the prabhandam to show the importance of
nAma sankeetanam and what results it fetches to the baddha jeevatmas, in
the second paasuram wanted to do nAma sankeertanam himself.  He thereby
started singing the praise of periya perumal by visiualising emperuman as
Andal says “VayinAl pAdi Manatthinal sindikka”(sing the praise of bhagavan
with your mouth and think about him in your mind).  But then when he saw
the beauty of emperumanÂ’s thirumEni (body) he got immersed in it.  Then
now he suddenly realises that he wanted to do nAma keetanam and not to
sing the beauty of emperuman and so now he calls emperuman by his names
Achchuta! Amararere! and so on.


Achchutha!!! Amararere!!! :  Achchutha is one of the prime nAmas of the
emperuman which means that he is one who never leaves his devotees.  He
takes care of his devotees at any point of time.  Since we are more
concerned with him protecting us, it is one of the nAmas the bhakthas like
to utter often.  So here alwar wants to prove to the world the supreme
Sriman Narayanan, who is otherwise called Achchutan never leaves his
devotees to fate and hence he is the only person who we can trust in all
crucial circumstances.  Many people may say, they will save us but will
not be able to keep up their words always, including the devatas and also
the brahma or rudran but the only saviour at all times is achchutan. 
People may then question how alwar can say that the other devatas who give
results quicker than emperuman do not save us so now alwar then says
Amararere thereby proving that even those devatas are governed only by the
supreme Sriman Narayanan.  He is the king of AmarAs(Devargal).  Even in
Thirumangai Alwar’s Thirunedundandagam he says “Mai vanna …………. Devarendru
anjinome”(though he is beautiful, one who is standing in front of me but I
fear if he is a deva who is unapproachable by ordinary human).  So it is
natural tendency of a human to fear while thinking of a deva.  So if
achchutan is devadhEvan(king of kings) then we will never go near him. 
But then alwar says though he has supreme powers he has a great guna
called sowlabhyam which makes him to come to us and play his leela with us
like one among us.  So thereby the alwar proceeds to talk about the
krishna avatara.


Ayartham kozhundhe!!! ennum:  The lord who is the supreme took birth in a
cow herd where the gopiÂ’s and gopanÂ’s knew no veda or vedanta.  They were
illiterate people who didnÂ’t even know how to count the number of cows
they had.  But one thing which was flooding in them where their love to
krishna.  Thereby the lord proved that he doesnÂ’t expect anything
(education or money or wealth etc) other than the pure love in our hearts
towards him.  So Alwar with joy calls emperuman to be ‘Ayartham kozhundhu’
which means he was a small sapling in the cowherd.  Sri Krishna never
enjoyed people calling him as paratatvam but instead liked to be called
“Hey krishna, Hey yAdhava, Hey sakethi” as arjuna called him often. 
Though the alwars talked a lot about the paratvam of bhagavan but they got
immersed only in his sowlabhyam and always meditated on the rAma krishna
avataaras.  Even Nammazhvar who was steady all along till the first 20
paasurams totally looses himself when he taught about the sowlabhyam of
bhagavan, while he got himself tied by his mother, yesodha(another
illiterate gopi). Nammazhvar fainted and remained so for 6 months before
he could really come to normal(“pattrudai adiyavargalukku eliyavan”).
Why does alwar say kozhundhe?  Though azhvars get involved in all the
leelas throughout the krishnAvatAra they seem to like the bAla leelas more
than his madura or dwaraka leelas.  They like kutti gopala krishnan even
more than the geethacharyan though all their prabhandams are based on the
bhagavat geetha.  Seeing geethacharyan we get respect but while seeing
santana gopalan our love or motherhood flourishes and so we want to play
with the kid irrespective of any Achara anushtanam.  So like calling his
son alwar calls emperuman here.


Echchuvai tavira yAn pOi indiralokam Alum:  Alwar sung the above verses so
deeply that emperuman thought that alwar has jumped from singing thirunAma
magimai to sing his physical beauty.  So he kidded alwar saying that he
himself said only thirunAma keertanam is the topmost and now he himself
has lost for the thirumEni azhaghu.  But then alwar bravely replied that
it is not at all necessary for him to see the bhagavan it is enough if he
sits in a place and keeps saying achchuta, amararere, Ayartham kozhundhe
etc.  The sweetness of the nAmas give him the utmost joy even if he
doesnÂ’t go and stand in front of the bhagavan.  But the beauty of the nAma
is that it will attract bhagavan and make him to come in front of the
bhakthan like he did in the case of gajendrazhvan.  He ran to the call of
the bhaktha.
Now bhagavan wanted to tempt alwar with the happiness and luxury of the
svargam or indra lokam.  So alwar replies leaving the happiness of sitting
in SriRangam and doing bhagavan nAma keertanam I will never want to come
to indralokam even if you give it free.  Here PVP says when we compare two
places they should be of equal nature.  Can we compare SriRangam which is
bhoologa vaikuntam with svargam(indralokam)?  It is known that the joy in
indra lokam is temperory and that after our credits(punyams) are over we
are pushed back to samsara.  So PVP feels that we cannot compare it with
SriRangam and hence says here the indralokam is none other the
SriVaikundam since emperuman is also called as indiran.  So here alwar
even denies Srivaikundan like Anjeneya who denied to go to paramapadam
with Sri rAma saying “bhAvo nanyatra gachchathi” that he wants only Sita
rAma darshan and not the darshan of paramapadanAthan and he will stay in
this world and keep enjoying the essence of rAmayanam and will stand in
any place where rAmayana pArAyanam is done(“yatra yatra raghunAtha
keertanam tatra tatra kruthamasta kanchanim pAshpavAri paripoorna lochanam
maruthim”).  Hanuman was immersed in the vibhavAvatAram and hence didn’t
want to go to paramapadam and similarly the alwars where immersed in the
archAvatAram and hence they wanted to stay like a grass or worm in the
Divya desams and didnÂ’t even prefer a royal life in the paramapadam.  Even
kulasekara alwar says that he prefers some birth in thirumalai rather than
attaining moksha(“Emperuman ponmalai mEl Adenum Avene”-perumal
Thirumozhi).  These alwars enjoyed the purappadu, utsavams, kainkaryam,
alangaram and beauty and leelas of the archAvadara emperuman and hence
wanted to always have the same anubhavams.  Since they didnÂ’t know for
sure if such anubhavams where present in paramapadam or not they didnÂ’t
want to take a risk and go to the paramapadam since once we go there we
can never come back(“na cha punarAvarthate”)


Achchuvai perinum vEndEn ArangamAnagarulAne:  Now we see that in the first
half of the paasuram Sri Thondaradi podi alwar called periya perumal with
his various thirunAmams and then he says that if he is blessed to sit in
SriRangam and sing the praise of the lord like this even though he doesnÂ’t
get the direct darshan of the bhagavan he will prefer to stay here even if
bhagavan is ready to grant him moksha.  Alwar says even if I get that
great aboard I do not want it.  Alwar wants only to stay in srirangam and
do bhagavat bhaagavata kainkaryam.  Sri parAsara bhattar, son of
koorathazhvan(prime disciple of sri rAmanuja) expresses similar feeling in
one of his strotras.  He explains why he doesnÂ’t want to go to svargam or
even to the moksham.  He says “hey bhagavan! Please don’t send me to the
svargam where the devas are busy drinking amrutham and are in the constant
look out of urvasi or rambai to give them the sensual pleasures.  Instead
of enjoying in the gardens of the deva loka I would rather prefer to be a
street dog in Sri Rangam”.  Here the acharya doesn’t even want to be born
in a high caste or not even as a human he prays to the lord to give him
birth in srirangam.  He is not even worried what sort of a birth it is. 
He says it is even ok if you make me a street dog in Sri Rangam because
though then I will not be eligible to go inside a temple still Namperumal
will come out for Veedhe purappadu.  At that time I will stay in a corner
and enjoy the beauty of the bhagavan.  Even if I miss him the emperuman
will put his kadaksham(divine grace) on me.  So Sri bhattar says Srirangam
is a better place even if you are a low birth than svargam.  Then
emperuman told bhattar that then he will grant him moksham which is
emperumanÂ’s divine aboard.  Then bhattar replied I accept it but I will go
there and see if the same ThirumENi beauty and kolakalam of Namperumal
doesnÂ’t exist in paramapadanAthan then I will pinch a hole at one corner
of the sky and jump back to Sri Rangam.
For the word Indira lokam PVP gives interpretation as vaikundam.  He says
“Brahmendradi sabtangal paramarta vachagam”(the words brahma, Indra etc
refers to bhagavan only).  In Sri bhashyam there is one full chapter with
deals with the same subject(IndraprAnAdikaranam).  To our surprise all
these alwars and acharyas directly talk to the bhagavan than to any of the
samsaris.


We will continue in the next posting.



Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan






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