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Thirumaalai-4

From the Bhakti List Archives

varadarajan_tcs • Fri May 24 2002 - 05:08:50 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 let us see how our Acharyas found all the arthas of the sastras 
in the Nalayiram paasurams itself.  Nammazhvar gave 4 Prabhandams.   
As every one knows Sri Sadagopan is regarded as "Vedam thamizh
seidha Maaran" in our sampradhayam.  This was proved by Periya Perumal
by accepting the request of Sri Thirumangai alwar to hear the tamizh 
vedam of alwar as par with the sanskrit vedam during the adhyayana 
utsavam.  Even today during the adyayana utsavam all divya desa 
perumals listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham with great joy.  
Nammazhwar's first prabhandham Thiruviruttam is considered as Rig 
veda Saaram.  Thiruvaasiriyam is regarded as Yajur veda saaram.  We 
all know the famous Thiruvaimozhi is regarded as Sama veda saaram and 
Periya Thiruvandhadhi is considered as Atharvana veda saaram.

"Maaran panittha tamizh maraikku mangaiyarkOn Arangan koora 
avadarittha" says Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his Upadesa Ratna 
maalai.  So Sri Thirumangai alwars six prabhandams namely, Periya 
thirumozhi, Thirukurundhandagam, Thiruvezhunkootrirukkai, Siriya 
Thirumadal , Periya Thirumadal and Thirunedundhandagam are regarded 
as the six angas(shikshai, vyakaranam, chandas, kalpam, niruththam 
and Jhotisham for sanskrit vedam) to the tamizh vedams of 
Nammazhvar.  Next our Acharyas consider Itihasa purAnams as 
pramAnams.  Sri KulasekarAlwAr's PerumAl Thirumozhi gives us the 
extract of Sri RAmAyanam.  PeriyAzhvAr, NAchiyar got themselves 
involved in krishnAnubhavam and gave us the substance of Srimad 
Bhaagavatam and Sri Vishnu purAnam(Krishna leela) in their 
prabhandams, PeriyAzhvar thirumozhi, ThiruppAvai and NAchiyar 
thirumozhi.  One part of Sri Vishnu purAnam is Sri Vishnu dharmam 
which was given importance by Sri Thondaradi podi Alwar.  So 
Thirumaalai is regarded as par with Sri Vishnu dharmam, which mainly 
deals with explaining the magimai of bhagavan nAmam.

Vedas are many in number "AnanthAvai VedA:" .   It is
impossible for anyone to learn all in his lifetime.  Infact there is 
a legend according to which sage Bharadwaj started learning the 
Vedas.  Even after his first life tenure he was unable to complete so 
he requested Indra to give him one more lifetime.  Similarly 2 or 3 
lifetimes passed then Indra asked the sage what he will do if he 
gives him one more lifetime.  The sage replied I will again learn 
more of the Vedas.  Then Indra showed the sage 4 mountains and took a 
hand full of mud from it and said the amount you have learnt in all 
these life times is only this handful and there is yet 4 large 
mountains of Vedas to be learnt.  So it is impossible for anyone to 
learn all.  There goes a saying in tamil "kattradu kaiman alavu 
kallAdhadhu vulagalavu".  Probably this saying could have got its 
origin from the above story.  So what bhagavan advices 
is "YaavAnarthe udapAne sampluthah: sampluthodhake" (learn how much 
is essential for you). Our Acharyas also regarded this as the prime 
motto.  Even Periyazhvar is praised in his thaniyan as "vENdiya 
vEdangal Odhi".  Does this mean there is something called vENdiya 
vedam (required vedam) and vENdadha Vedam(unrequired Vedam)?  The 
part of vedam which is essential for us is called the vENdiya Vedam.  
As different parts are for different adikaris and according to 
different yugAms the adhikaris keep changing.  So we should learn 
what is essential for us.  How do we know which is essential for us 
and which is not?  Only to tell us that emperuman by his apaara 
kaarunyam sent the alwars,who like giving us the juice from a fruit 
extracted the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and gave us through 
their paasurams.

That is why our Acharyas spent most of their time in learning the 
inner meanings of the prabhandams.  Even Sri Ramanuja who spent a lot 
of time in analysing Brahma sutras and Vedanta, to disprove the 
advaitins and other philosophers is supposed to have taken guide from 
the tamil paasurams to do so("etthai kondu orunga veduvar).  And 
Swamy Desikan says "TeliyAdha Marai Porulum Theliya kandom"
that he understood the meanings of hard core VedAnta with the help of 
the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham.  So we have to leave the Asaaram, 
Alpasaaram, saaram, saarataram in the Vedas and learn only the 
Saaratamam.  A Srivaishanavan is supposed to be like a kOzhi(hen), 
that is like a hen which digs through all the dust and picks the 
things essential to it alone, a srivaishnavan is also supposed to dig 
through all the sastras and retain in his mind the essential parts 
alone.  That our Acharyas have found to be absolutely present in the 
arulicheyals.  We are all lucky to be born in kali.  When everyone 
says kali is gooram and very difficult to live in, you may wonder why 
I say that we are lucky.  It is because we need not do tapas like the 
rishis are medidate on the god for years together in a forest.  It is 
very easy to attain him.  We have got the arulicheyals which give us 
the meanings of the Vedanta in a simplified easily understandable 
form.  To add to this we have the strotras and vyakhyAnams and other 
works of our Acharyas which makes our job very very easy.  And more 
over in kali we can attain emperuman by just doing nAmasankeertanam.  
Whatever palan the rishis and others in the other yugams attained by 
doing great tapas and yAgAs we can attain the same palan in a simple 
way by just uttering his nAmAs.  Even the persons born in the other 
yugas wonder how lucky we are all to be born in kali to enjoy the 
sweet bhakthi flooded poetry of the alwars and other bhakthas.  That 
is why kali is regarded as saadhu and only way to attain emperuman is 
thirunAma keertanam.

So that is why Sri Thondaradipodi Alwar's Thirumaalai is regarded 
superior to the other prabhandams as it talks mainly about the nAma 
magimai and how a person in kali can easily attain Emperuman's
feet without much effort.  Sri PVP who is called as "VyakhyAna 
cakravarthi" has given an excellent ManipravAla commentary.  Our 
Acharyas have given the commentaries in manipravAlam  which is a 
mixture of tamil and Sanskrit.  The vyakhyAnams are so sweet usually 
elders say it to be like a mixture of honey and milk (ThEnum pAlum 
kalandhAr pol).  Our Acharyas have kept us a great nidhi of such 
vyakhyAnams for enjoying which one janma is not enough.  One doubt 
may arise in our minds now.  When the alwars prabhandams are in tamil 
why are the vyakhyAnams in Manipravaalam.  That is because during the 
time of the Acharyas there were many people who failed to accept the 
supremacy of the alwArs paasurams and said that they cannot be 
regarded as par with the Sanskrit vEdam so to disprove these people 
the Acharyas had to show that the alwAr paasurams contained nothing 
but vedAnta vishayam and hence had to take the manipravAlam style so 
that even the others could understand the vyakhyAnams.

In the next posting we will see what is the actual essence of 
Thirumaalai.

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan 




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