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pEyaazhvaar paasuram

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Parthasarati Dileepan • March 18, 1996 


For our faith to be secure we need a thorough
understanding of why Sriman Narayana is the supreme
Lord and why others, such as Siva, are not.  Therefore
any reasoned article that addresses this issue must be
welcome in this group.  However firm our faith may be,
however deep our learning may be, misunderstanding
and ray of doubt do creep into our minds from time to
time.  To remove this malady articles that address the
"parathvam" of Sriman Narayana are required on a
regular basis.  In this regard I would like to present what
I learnt about the following beautiful paasuram of
pEyaazhvaar [1] that was quoted here recently.

thaazsadaiyum neeNmudiyum oNmazuvum sakkaramum,
soozaravum ponnaaNum thOnRumaal, soozum
thiraNdaruvi paayum thirumalaimEl enthaikku,
iraNduruvum onRaay isainthu.

In this paasuram pEyaazhvaar compares the attributes
that are unique to the two gods Vishnu and Siva, and
concludes that both sets of attributes are fit for our Lord
Sriman Narayana (thirumalai mEl enthai).  Note that the
"thirumalai mEl enthai" is none other than Sriman
Narayana is already answered by pEyaazhvaar in the
62nd paasuram preceding this one.

It is incorrect to suggest that pEyaazhvaar intended an
equality of form between Lord Sriman Narayana and
Siva.  While Siva's form is fit for our Lord of
Thiruvengadam,  the converse is most emphatically not
what aazhvaar implies.  Thus, the  aazhvaar states in this
paasuram, without ambiguity, the uniqueness of our Lord
Sriman Narayana's supremacy.

Articles clearing any doubt about the supremacy of our
Lord Sriman Narayana must be welcome in this group in
spite of the fact that our group is blessed with highly
learned scholars and people of extraordinary faith.  The
recent flurry of censure could have been avoided if
quotations from our poorvaachaaryaas were used in stead
of, or at least in addition to, western sources.

I seek the forbearance of this group if my understanding
is in any way flawed.


pEyaazhvaar thiruvadigaLE saraNam


-- dhaasan Parthasarati Dileepan


[1]  No musical ecstasy comes even close to Srimathi
M.S. Subulakshmi's rendering of this pEyaazhvaar
paasuram.  If there is interest I can make a wav file of
this and make it available from my ftp machine.