Thaniyan 4 - Volume 16- Iramanusa Nootrandhadhi - Velukkudi Swamy's Upanyasam

From the Bhakti List Archives

• October 20, 2002


Thaniyan 4 :- (Concluding Part)

Volume 16 :-

Volume Title :- Drishtaadhrishta Phalamaagiya
Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam (Contd..)


This is compared to an incident in Raamaayanam :-

When Hanuman started towards Lanka in search of Seetha Piraatti
all the other vaanaraas refrained from talking or eating.
Hanuman found Seetha. With that joy he returned and while
he was returning he was making all  joyful noices
indicating his victory. Hearing this all the vanarams
understood that Hanumaan succeeded in his attempt and they
also started shouting and jumping with joy. This joy of
all vaanaraas and the way they danced and jumped made the
sea also dance accordingly. Why ? because of the belief
that Hanumaan succeeded in his attempt of finding Seetha
piraatti. Similarly here when we recite the 4000 verses we
almost become tired and also doubtful whether we can reach
emperumaan. But when we recite the verses that sings the
praise of our aachaaryan we get a joy automaticaly because
of the vishwaasam or belief we get that our aachaaryan
will save us and make us reach the lotus feet of our
emperumaan and hence we do not need to worry about anything.

Now considering the line as "Kani thandha senchol.." :-

It means that the "Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadi" was composed
out of those sweet words that are as sweet as the fruit.

Senchol means "sweet words". Why the terms "sweet words" came from
Amudanaar? It was because Amudanaar sung this with fully
concentrated mind, and with his mouth and his hands synchronising 

together. But we cannot sing like that. Hence when we recite
this Nootrandhaadhi we get the same bhaavam of Amudanaar
had while composing this paasuram which will make us
synchronise our mind, speech and hands together and sing
this. Thats why it is mentioned as "Senchol". Also Senchol
means "Those words which are sweet to hear". Swamy
nammaazhwaar's paasuram was heard by all the dEvaas and
rishsis etc. They all felt that they should keep lisetning
to those paasurams always. Hence when those paasurams, which
were sung in praise of emperumaan Kannan , are very sweet
to hear, this Nootrandhaadhi should be sweeter than the nectar,
being sung in praise of the emperumaanaar. This is
because emperumaan felt that He did not achieve His goal
of making the jeevaathmaas  to reach Him and hence He sent
emperumaanaar who is none other than Aadhi Seshan and also the
Panchaayudhams of emperumaan together.

"Kalithurai Andhaadhi Paadi thandhaan.."

We already saw that Kalithurai Andhaahi is the style of
composing tamizh paasurams as mentioned earlier. The
significance of this Kalithurai style is all the paasurams will
end with the "E" kaaraam. That is like "Mevinen","Kaathanane"
"Adainthen", "ManamE", "Punniyane", "Sorvilane". Such style
comes only in Kanninun Sriudhaambu and Iramaanusa Nootrandhaadhi
for the enitre set of paasurams. We might find this style in one or 
two paasurams in other aazhwaar's works but not in any prabandham in 
its entirity. What is so unique about this style? Since all the 
paasurams in Kaninun Sirudhaambu and Nootrandhadhi end with the
"E" kaaram it always tells the pastence like "mevinEn" meaning I
surrendered, "Iraamaanusan ennai KaathananE.." means
"Iraamaanusan saved me..". In this way, these paasurams always say
that they "attained" or "achieved" something. This is the significance
of this Kalithurai. Only these two prabandhams as a whole are of this 
style. 

Why other paasurams were not sung with this style? It
was because they were sung as  praise on emperumaan and they always
had a doubt that whether or not they will get the kataaksham of
emperumaan . But here it was sung on the praise of aachaaryan and
hence they were very certain that they can cross the ocean of
samsaaram and attain the feet of emperumaan through their
aachaaryan. Hence this clearly tells if we surrender to our
aachaaryan we can surely reach Moksham through our aachaaryan's
kataaksham. Moreover so we can recite easily, the next paasuram
starts with the ending word of the previous paasuram which is the
Andhaadhi style.


"Punidhan thiruvarangathamudhaagiya punniyane.."

Here Amudanaar has been referred as Punidhan and Punniyan. "Punidhan"
because this Nootrandhaadhi makes us pure by destroying
all the bad karmaas, paapams and punyams within us and also
materialistic qualities like Kaamam, Krodham, Lobham etc. by making
us get emperumaanaars' kataaksham by reciting this prabandham. Swamy
Manavaala Maamunigal in his yathiraaja vimsathi says :-

"Kaamadhi dosha haramaathma padaasrithaanaam.."

Emperumaanaar himself is "Punidhan". To sing about this Punidhan,
another Punidhan (Amudanaar) composed this prabandham.  To sing about
a Punidhan the person who sings should also be a Punidhan. Otherwise
he will not find words to compose such a prabandham. Similarly when 
Kamban wanted to place his "Kamba raamaayanam" in Namperumaal's 
sannidhi, nammperumaal asked "Have you sung about Sadagopan ?". This 
clearly states that nammperumaal felt that only Kamban can sing in 
the praise of Sadagopan and no one else can. This was not told by me 
but by emperumaan himself ! This does not indicate that Kamban had 
that pride but he just states that emperumaan gave this gift only to 
him to make his tongue purify by singing the praise of 
Sadagopan.Similary Kamban said if someone can praise emperumaan 
Kannan with most appropriate words it can be done only by Swamy 
Nammaazhwaar and if someone has to praise Swamy Nammaahzwaar it can 
be only me and no one else. Thus a "Punidhan" (Emperumaanaar) can be 
praised only by another "Punidhan" (Amudanaar).

Now "Puuniyan" means who does Dharmam. Amudanaar did dharmam. Did he
give his wealth, home or food to anyone ? No. He gave the wealth of
the Sri Rangam temple itself which was managed by him, to Swamy
Koorathazhwaan as a Dhramam to continue the Kainkaryam. Hence he is
considered as the "Punniyan". Moreover in Nootrandhaadhi 90th pasuram
Amudanaar says "Iraamaanusan ennum punniyane..". He refers
emperumaanaar as "Punniyan". Amudanaar is also Punniyan (Dhaarmikan).
Hence a Punniyan (Amudanaar) can alone sing the praise the another
"Punniyan" (Emperumaanaar).

Hence now arrange the words in the taniyan as follows and say :-

"Thiruvarangathamudaagiya punniyan emperumaanar thirunaamathaal
kalithurai andhaadhi paadi thandhaan"

Amudanaar who is Punniyan has done a great dhramam of giving us this
prabandham that contains Raamaanuja Thirunaamam and praises
emperumaanaar as "Udaiyavar", "Punniyan", "Punidhan" etc. and
shows all of us the way that if we recite this Prabandham we can get
emperumaanar kataaksham and when we get his kataaksham we can
undoubtedly reach emperumaan's lotus feet at Sri Vaikuntam and do
nithya kainkaryam to Him. He also gave this prabandham in the
andhaadhi style such that we can recite easily by using the last
word of the previous paasuram. Hence again he is called as
"Punniyan". This is another dharmam done by Amudanaar.

This thaniyan refers to all those qualities of Amudanaar which match 
those of emperumaanar namely, Punidan, Punniyan, Amudhan
etc. Finally Agasthya Samhithai says that those who sing the praise
of Lakshmana Muni (Lakshmanan Raamma's brother) will reach Sri
Vaikuntam definitely.

Laskshmanaa was "Raamaanujaa".  Here our emperumaanar is also 
Raamaanujar. Hence if we sing in  praise of emperumaanar who is 
himself the incarnation of Laskshmanaa who in turn  was Aadhi Seshan 
himself,  we can reach Sri Vaikuntam.

Hence let us all recite this prabandham irrespective of caste, creed
or gender. This does not require specific qualifications like 
Gaayathri Manthram or Ashtaaksharam do. We do not even have to recite 
this by heart. But when we start reciting,   at one point  all our 
mind will be automatically singing the praise of emperumaanaar and 
nothing else. Hence let us all surrender at the feet of emperumaanar 
and attain the feet of emperumaan at Sri Vaikuntam and do nithya 
kainkaryam.

Lets us us sing pallaandu for Amudanaar, let us sing pallaandu for our
emperumaanaar, let us sing pallaandu for our poorvaachaaryaas and our
current aachaaryaas so that they all can be with us for many more 
yugamsto come and keep guiding all of us to save us from the cycle of 
lifeand death in this bhoolokam.


This ends the postings on thaniyan 4

RAAMAANUJASYA CHARANAU SHARANAM PRAPADYE. SRIMATHE RAAMAANUJAAYA NAMA:

Amudanaar, emperumaanaar, aahcaaryan, emperumaan thiruvadigale 
sharanam.


Vedics Iraamanusa Nootrandhaadhi team.





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