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Re: thiruk kaNNan kudi - part 7

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sridhar Srinivasan • May 15, 1998 


Sri Sampath Rengarajan's eloquent insights on thiru-neer aNi vizha 
were thoroughly enjoyable.  Particularly striking was his exposition 
on the term "neermai" and how this word encapsulates myriad kalyana 
guNas of the lord.

> 
> Neermai - an  explanation:  The tamil word neermai has no parallel
> in sanskrit as this one word  replaces  many kalyAna  gunAs of the
> Lord that are addressed by many single words. i.e.,  Neermai  is a
> composite  in  nature  of  many  kalyAna  gunAs  of the  Lord  put
> together.  Neermai means  "neeraip  pOnRa  thaNmai".  That is "the
> charecteristics of water".  There are so many charecteristics that
> water has.  Of which five  important are  adaptability  to fill in
> any form or shape (the wearing of thiru neer here symbolize that),
> cooling nature (i.e., the mercy or compassion to ease the pains of
> the  sufferings of the bhakthALs and make their life  comfortable)
> easy availability everywhere, life saving, and life supporting,
> 

The beauty of our languages, Tamil and sanskrit, as vehicles to 
express difficult-to-represent, experiential, emotional concepts is 
quite compelling.  Sri Rengarajan's words bring to mind Sri Parasara 
Bhattar's eloquence in Sri Ranga Raja Stavam:

Ekaikasmin parama avayavE 
anantha soundarya magnam
sarvam drakshe kathamithi matha
mAmatha manda chakshuhu
thAm sou bhraathra vyathikarakarA rangarAjAngakaanaam
thallAvaNyam pariNamayitha vishwa pAreeNa vruthi

Bhattar says that the lord's beauty is so entrancing that his senses 
become immersed in the infinite beauty (anantha soundarya magnam) 
of each of the lord's avayavas (features) that there is no hope for 
him to enjoy and experience, to consummation, the lord's avayava 
soundarya.  Bhattar chides his eyes for this state of ineptness 
(maamatha manda chakshuhu) and then suggests a way out:  Let us get 
on to the boat that is Lord's laavaNyam (lavaNam in sanskrit is 
salt; lavaNyam is that aspect of Lord's beauty that is pervasive 
and omni-present, akin to how salt in water spreads so as to engender 
and make prominent the salty characteristic throughout the solution) 
- Lords samudaaya shobha.  Since laavaNyam represents the pervasive 
aspect of Lord's beauty, Bhattar says, once we jump aboard this boat, 
we can traverse from one avayava (rangaraajangakaanaam)  to another 
entrancing aspect without loss of continuity and yet beget that sense 
of fulfillment of having enjoyed multifarious aspects of lord's 
avayava shobha.

Aazhwaar Emberumaanaar Jeeyar ThiruvadigaLe sharaNam

Sridhar