amalanAthipirAn - 6
From the Bhakti List Archives
• October 8, 2000
srI: srImathE rAmAnujAya nama: -- amalanAthipirAn ARAm pAsuram thundaveNpiRaiyan thuyartheerththavan anjiRaiya vaNduvAzhpozhil soozharanganagarmEyavappan aNdaraNdapakiraNdath thorumAnilamezhumAlvaraimuRRum uNdakaNdankaNdeeradiyEnai uyyakkoNdathE -- Meaning: That Sriranganatha, who removed the sin of Rudra who wears the white crescent moon, who resides in Srirangam which is surrounded by gardens where bees with beautiful wings live, His throat which swallowed this world, other worlds, the seven mountains, and the entire universe, has saved me who is His servant. -- Essence: The beauty of His throat that swallowed everything has taken over AzhvAr. The beauty of His chest has spread to His throat. In the previous song, His chest showed its beauty of wearing ornaments and being the home of Lakshmi, and pulled AzhvAr's mind from His stomach to itself. His chest only has those two matters of pride; His throat that looks like a conch, has the pride of several of His dEvis using their ornament like hands around His neck, the pride of saving the entire universe during praLaya, and the pride of periya pirAtti who resides in His chest hugging Him by His neck. It also has as an ornament the message sheet that was tied around His neck when He went as a messenger for the pAndavAs. Such a throat shows AzhvAr its beauty and pride and saves him from samsAra. -- thuNdaveNpiRaiyan thuyartheerththavan: In the previous song, AzhvAr had said that his karmAs that are based on his agnyAna and that are without origin were removed by Him. To prove that He will remove our sins, AzhvAr uses the example of Rudra who also in his agnyAna cut one of the heads of Brahma who is his own father and who is the teacher of this world. He who sinned and went to naraga and paid for his sins, and was born as several beings, then was born as man and after worshipping Him and praising His names ("thirunAma sangeerthanam") managed to cross the samsAra sAgaram, that person is known as Brahma. To sin against him is known as brahmahathyai. Rudra thus earned a sin that neither he himself nor any other could remove. He then went to ksheerAbdhi nAthan's place and He and periya pirAtti removed his brahmahathya dOsham. Similarly, He has removed AzhvAr's dOshams. Even when Rudra is coming as a sinned person, he is still decorated with the moon as an ornament. This says, that Rudra only has the importance of having a dEvathA as an ornament, and that he is not liberated yet. Even though he carries the name Iswara, he still does not have completeness ("poorNathvam"). Rudra sinned with his own father and searched for someone to remove that sin. Finally, like a lost boat reaching a beach, he reached Him who is of infinite sympathy and was cleansed of his sin. With this it is shown that while Rudra carries the name Ishwara, he is still bound by karmAs. Also, since he could not save even himself, he cannot save others, and that srIman nArAyaNA is the refuge. veNpiRaiyan thuyar: Due to his pride, Rudra removed one of Brahma's heads and thereby lost his quality of being a son; however, Brahma being a father, instead of destroying him only punished him and made him walk with a skull in his hand asking for alms. When Rudra reached the milky ocean ("thiruppARkkadal"), He came with pirAtti and removed his sin. He is the savior even to those that sin against Him. The example is kAkAsura (the asura in the form of a crow) who sinned against SriRama and He let the brahmAsthrA at him. The asurA went to Indra seeking help; Indra even with all his powers knew that to protect him from SriRama was not easy and let him go. The asura then went to other dEvathAs, but they would not help him either. He then went to the Rishis, who had helped thirisangu who also had been rejected by Indra, but they would not help. The asurA then went to everyone's door step in all three worlds hoping that someone would help him, but was unable to get any. He finally realized that the face of the person who had set the arrow at him was sweeter than those of any whose help he had seeked, and he reached Him for help and was saved. Thus He is the one who removes the fear that comes from oneself, comes from others and that comes even from Him, and saves us. thuNdaveNpiRaiyan thuyar theerththavan: Just as He removed the problems for Chandra so will He remove ours. When danger comes, He is the only refuge. anjiRaiya vaNduvAzhpozhil soozharanganagarmEyavappan: When people of this world commit sins such as brahmahathyai and are looking to be saved, He is lying nearby to save them. He is the father who is lying in the periya kOyil that is surrounded by gardens where the bees with beautiful wings live. Just as Rudra obtained water from Him at His door step and attained happiness, so do the bees in these gardens obtain honey and attain happiness. This shows His helpfulness in lying here so all can see Him. vaNduvAzhpozhil: The bees without going to where He is, will stay back enjoying the sweeteness of the gardens. Similarly, AzhvAr is being held back from Him in this world. On the other hand, the bees are like the people that have attained the nature to reach Him and who live by following the appropriate karmAs. The gardens are ornaments to Him and the city; the bees are ornamnets to the gardens; the pretty wings are ornaments to the bees. The bees help all His devotees reach Him, who is the father of all worlds. In these lines so far, AzhvAr has talked about His helping the one person that is Rudra who came to Him seeking help. In the following lines, Azhvar is talking about His throat that without discrimination helped all the worlds. aNdaraNdam: This world. pakiraNdam: The other worlds. orumAnilam: The universe that holds all these worlds. ezhumAlvarai: The seven mountains that protect these worlds and Earth from falling into the netherworld. muRRumuNdakaNdankaNdeer: When AzhvAr saw His throat, he remembered that He had swallowed the entire universe and had kept it in His stomach during praLaya. muRRum: This world, the other worlds and the netherworld. uNdakaNdam: We reach toward Him through kainkaryam, and He reaches toward us to protect us. adiyEnai uyyakkoNdathE: His throat removed the agnyAna and removed AzhvAr from the samsAra sAgaram and helped him reach the other shore. His throat has made sure that all the things that AzhvAr has gained so far will not be lost. Also, it has made sure that AzhvAR would never again get caught in samsAra. He swallowed the entire universe and protected them during praLayA. Just as He prevented the universe from being swallowed by the ocean of darkness, His throat has prevented AzhvAr from being swallowed by the ocean of samsAra. -- thiruppANAzhvAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam srI periyavAccAn piLLai, srI azhagiya maNavALap perumAL nAyanAr, srI vEdAntha dEsikar thiruvadigaLE saraNam -- adiyEn madurakavi dhAsan T.C.A. Venkatesan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! http://photos.yahoo.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@eGroups.com Search archives at http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/index.html#SEARCH