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Thirumaalai-3

From the Bhakti List Archives

varadarajan_tcs • Thu May 23 2002 - 08:49:18 PDT 


Sri Parthasarathi thunai,
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha


" Mattrondrum Venda 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,

Now that the jeevatmas are not capable of understanding the sastras 
and acting accordingly emperuman had no other go than to come down 
himself to impart us the knowledge as given in the sastras.  So he 
came to earth taking various avatAras.  He saved his bhaktha 
Prahaladan in the Narasimha avatAra from the clutches of 
Hiranyakasipu .Thus he did "Dushtanigraham and sishta
paripaalanam" in his avatAras.  He tried to change the minds of
the people and make them understand his magimai.  In rAmAvatAra he 
lived and showed how a man should be.  As Sri Nammazhvar says "Karpar 
EramapirAnai allal mattrum karparo" but have people learnt
anything from rAmA but instead they question the authenticity of Sri 
Ramayanam.  Why did rAma do this and that?  The people have more 
crooked knowledge than good thinking.  So Emperuman was not 
satisfied.  He thought probably since rAmAvatAram was fully a 
manushyAvatAram people didn't recognize him so now he took the 
KrishnAvatAra where he showed his supernatural powers.  Now people 
like Duriyodhana and others started saying that kannan is doing magic 
which is known to them too.  Again people didn't believe
emperuman and there was no one to read his geetha and get benefited 
by it.  Our Acharyas say that Sri Krishna searched for a person, who 
was a gyani("Vasudeva Sarvamithi SamahAtma")and unable to find such a
mahatma he returned to his aboard without any satisfaction.  

In Bhagavat Geetha bhagavan says "Avajananthimam moodha:
Manusheem thanumaasritam".These moodhas think me to be a normal
man and even criticize me).  Here PVP analyses to whom Krishna is 
referring as moodhas? Is it Shisupalan and others who insulted 
Krishna?  No. Those people where created with that svabhavam to 
criticize and talk ill of Krishna.  So Krishna knows very well that, 
that is what can be expected from them.  Then whose behaviour worries 
the paramAtma?  Those people who were created to do mangalaasaasanam 
to him also criticize him and ask can rAma do this can Krishna do 
this etc.  Only the behaviour of such persons pains the lord.  Sri 
Mamunigal names these personalities as Astika Nastikargal.  They say 
they believe god and go to the temple to do prartanai but in public 
they question the authenticity of the avatAras of the Bhagavan.  Only 
the activities of such people troubles bhagavan and even in AmAvatAra 
he says "Mam avamanye" they are insulting me.  There
emperuman goes to the extent of saying not only the jeevans here but 
also the devas(trijaseeshvaraha) fail to respect the bhagavan and 
they start talking ill of him.  Here we have to remember the 
Govardhana leela of Sri Bhagavan where Indra talks ill of Sri Krishna 
and tries to wash out whole of gokulam.   So now Emperuman realized 
that though he had come in person people, fail to realize him and 
fall under his feet.  

Even after so much insults the dhayai of bhagavan made him to think 
out another way to liberate all the jeevatmas from the endless 
miseries of the samsara.  So now he decided to send the Alwars who 
were considered to be the Abhinava DasAvathArAs.  Like catching a 
deer by sending another deer or catching a elephant with the help of 
another trained elephant Bhagavan sent alwars who were Jeevatmas but 
with full of gyanam and bhakthi to correct us and lead us to the 
divine feet of emperuman.  As Nammazhvar says "Kaliyum kedum 
kandukonmin".  These alwars came to earth to reduce the kali
gooram. So they concentrated on the kaliyuga dharmam that is the 
bhaagavata dharmam.  The bhaagavata puranam indicates the avatara of 
the alwars as follows:
"Kalau kalau bhavishyanti Naarayana paraayanaaha kvashit kvashin 
Maharaja dravidesucha Bhoorishaha: Tambarabarni nadhi yatra 
kritamaala payasvini kavericha mahapunyam pratichita 
Mahanadhi……….bhagavatee vasudeve amalaachayaha"
This sloka shows that in kali Saadhoos will be born mainly in south 
India mainly in the banks of the rivers like tambarabarani, kaveri, 
Vaikai, paalaru etc.   This clearly shows that this sloka refers to 
the avatara of the alwars who where born similarly in the banks of 
the various rivers.  What will these alwars do?  "Yatra 
Sangeerthanenaiva" says Bhagavatam they will sing the praise of
the lord.  And what the alwars sung are now called as the Nalayira 
Divya Prabhandam commonly called as Arulicheyal.

The alwars were `Mayarvara madi nalam arulappetravargal'. 
That is the lord bestowed them with bhakthi and gyana by himself so 
there is no doubt in their absolute knowledge.  So we Srivaishnavas 
consider the arulicheyal more important than even the Vedas and use 
it for the thiruvaaraadanam of the bhagavan everyday.  Even the lord 
shows the importance of the arulicheyal by following the ghosthi in 
all his purappadu and also listening to them during the adyayana 
utsavams. According to us all the sastrams are present inside the 
Arulicheyals itself.  In present day we are all incapable of learning 
all the sastras so to make us learn all the arthas the crux of all 
the sastras has been provided by the alwars in their paasurams.  

Let us see how all the sastra arthas are present in the arulicheyals 
in the next posting.

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan




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