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Thirumaalai-60

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Varadarajan Sourirajan • September 20, 2002 


Sri Parthasarathi thunai,
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

“ Mattrondrum vEinda 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,

Paasuram-38 (contd)

Let us now proceed to see the poorvakandArtham of dvayam as in the paasuram.

KAmbara thalai siraiththu vunkadai thalai errundhu* vAzhum: 

 Here alwar says, ‘Kambara thalai siraiththu’ meaning shave the heads fully along with the roots.  We will see what this implies.  Lowkikas have ambitions different from that of bhagavat bhakthas.  Some bhagavatas take up sanyasa leaving all these worldly ambitions and relations.  When they take up sanyasa it is like shedding all the weight and tensions, which existed in their minds.  Some like alwars shed their tensions mentally even when they are in the samsAram.  Kulasekara alwar says, “vundiyE vudaiyE vuganthOdum em mandalam than nOdum kooduvadillai yAn”.  Alwar did not become a sanyasi but he remained like a water droplet on a lotus leaf without getting attached with the sareera bandhus who were running at the back of money and matter to live a sophisticated life.

Some people who have got detached from this worldly affairs, purposely grown “sadAbAram”(thick clusters of hair locked with each other tightly) on their heads but never feel it uncomfortable.  But when the same is formed in the heads of a small kid before the first shaving of the hair, the mother waits till the time when the sadai is actually removed and feels relived only after the shaving of the same.  Similarly we all purposely want to get involved with the worldly affairs and put ourselves to miseries.  But the divine emperuman who considers each one of us as his child is filled with tension to see all of us suffering and hence waits for the time to relieve us from the same.  The child never releases the difficulty similar is our case emperuman feels more than all of us.

Sometimes some hair fall by itself, similarly sometimes some sareera bandhus and lowkika matters leave us by itself.  Only if we get detached it is going to affect others but if they themselves leave us thinking us to be crazy then it becomes easier for us to concentrate on the emperuman and attain his divine abode.

Here alwar says, like shaving the hair along with its root, we have to leave the bondages to the worldly affairs along with the vAsana.  Sri PVP in his vyakhyAnam says, “vAsanai ara”.  When we are binded with the world then even when we do bhagavat kainkaryam and sit in front of emperuman our minds still works towards the worldly tensions and how to solve them.  Our acharyas beautifully say, if we see perumal then the world never comes in front of us but if we see the world we can never concentrate on the divine emperuman.  So leaving all the worldly bondages we have to surrender in the holy feet of the lord.

sOmbharai vugaththi pOlum soozh punal arangaththAnE!: 

 What do we do leaving the bondages?  After leaving all the worldly bondages along with the vAsanas we live under the divine feet of emperuman (vAzhum).  Then, will we stay without doing anything at all?  Yes, here alwar says the saranAgathan then stays lazily in the feet of emperuman.  Only thing he has to do is stay in the bhagavat sannadhi.  He takes part in all the poojas and bhajans, which happens in the temple and does nothing.  In Ramayana, bharatha feels bad that he has lost such a chance to just sit along with perumal like the many who were in perumalÂ’s satsangam in chitra koodam, instead he had to go to ayodhya to take care of the kingdom.

When he actually doesn’t do anything why should perumal protect him?  That is perumal’s svaroopam.  The svaroopam of a saranAgathan is to stay with the mahA vishvAsam that we are incapable of anything and perumal is capable to even grant moksha without us doing anything other than staying under his feet.  In the case of other upAsakas, moksha is attained after many janmAs, depending on his capacity.  Krishna in bhagavat geetha says, “anEka janma samsiddhaha” whereas when it comes to prapannas the same Krishna in geetha says, “na chirAt”(I will grant the moksha in this janma itself).  Since in the case of saranagathas the emperuman who is sarvasankalpam grants moksha on his own.  Though the saranagatha need not do anything still he cherishes doing kainkaryam to emperuman not as an upAya to attain moksha but for the enjoyment of emperuman.

A prapanna is more active in bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryam but lazes out only in lowkika family matters.  Bhakthas like nAma devar are also supposed have been the same, active in bhagavat vishayam but lazy in taking care of their body and family.  There is one interesting story in the life of nAma deva.  He used to always stay in the temple of panduranga in pandaripuram and never cared about his family.  Once his wife, who was also a strong bhakthai came to complain to the divya dampathis about the same.  She first came to the rukmini sannadhi and told her about pandurangan making her husband mad of him and not allowing him to come to their house at all.  Hearing this rukmini complained back saying it is only your husband (nAma deva) who has made my husband mad.  He keeps on singing bhajans with the other bhagavatas and never allows panduranga to come to sleep even in the mid night.  

I make the bed and keep everything ready for him to come and lie down but he never turns up.  I hear the bhagavatas singing lullaby during the dolOtsavam so I think he is going to come and wait, but immediately they sing the suprabhAdam and everything starts once again.  Listening to rukmini devi lamenting, nAma deva’s wife proceeded towards pandurangan’s sannadhi.  She complained to pandurangan.  Emperuman then replied, “Shouldn’t you be proud of your husband?  He is the only bhaktha who I have got who doesn’t care about the world but is always involved in my bhakthi and stays under my feet always making me enjoy with his bhajans.  Do you think he should come at the back of you leaving all these?” Nama deva’s wife then realized her mistake and returned back with great pride and joy to have possessed such a husband.  This is what emperuman expects from each one of us.  Leave our lowkika bondages and stay under his feet always without troubling us with all other sAdhanas, when emperuman the siddhOpAyam is rea

So in the above two lines thondaradi podi alwar thus has given the poorvakandArtham of the dvayam(sriman narAyana charanou sharanam prapathyE).

As adiyen mentioned at the start this is a great vishayam and also a rahasyam.  Adiyen has just tried to explain limited to adiyenÂ’s ignorance and lack of knowledge.  Adiyen requests the bhagavatas to please learn the same from your acharyas after taking your samAsrayanam under your respective acharyas.  All the errors in the above may be please pardoned and corrected.  Adiyen is grateful to Sri Sri Krishna Premi anna and Sri MAV swami whose lectures have helped adiyen in explaining the above.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan


 



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