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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00197 Dec 2003

 
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Dear friends,

(15) "ellArUm pOndArO pOndAr pOndheNikOL?"

          This expression is one of AndAl's really
humorous ones in the TiruppAvai and we must not
hesitate to take some good-natured liberties with it.
We must use it as a bit of comic interlude in the
middle of what probably thus far in this series of
postings has been a rather serious and solemn
narrative on the theme of "satsangh" in the
TiruppAvai.
             
                   ************

          It is far easier to put together a
cricketing team of 11 players than to assemble a
"satsangh" of one-half dozen devotees. Ready and
willing volunteers to a 'satsangh' are as rare to find
in the world as rainbow in the sky. 

Even in one's very own home, we know what a terribly
uphill task it is to enlist the enthusiasm and
commitment of members to participate in household
'satsangh-s' -- say, for instance, weekly chanting of
'Vishnu-Sahasranamam'. Reciting all of the 1000
'nAmA-s' of the Sahasranama takes usually less than
one half of one hour in all. And if one takes a
pocket-calculator out and does a bit of simple
arithmetic, it amounts to no more than 0.3% of the
total time available to anyone in a whole week. But
our kith and kin --- be it brother or son, uncle or
cousin --- everyone will generally grudge the time
asked of them for the Sahasranamam in favour of some
other "urgent" or "unavoidable" engagement. "Dad,
d'you know how much of school homework I have to do?"
your child would say. And from your brother or uncle
this too might be heard: "I'd love to join in the
'sahasranAmam', but y'know I'm always late coming home
from office".   

Getting our good neighbours to join us for the annual
reading of the "sundara-kAnda" of Srimadh Valmiki
Ramayana or group recitation of TiruppAvai during the
holy month of 'mArgazhi' (Dec-Jan) is often a task
next to impossible. "I'd love to attend," the comely
housewife next door will say, "but I'm awfully sorry I
won't be able to. My mother-in-law has an appointment
with the dentist? and well, er, you know how it is
with the mother-in-law?" 

Dentists' appointments and blaming poor mother-in-law
are probably two of the most creative but common
pretexts the whole world uses to avoid a 'satsangh'. 

AndAl probably foresaw all the great difficulties one
would encounter in gathering together a 'satsangh' of
God's devotees in this world. But she had a simple but
effective solution. She conveyed it in a single phrase
in the TiruppAvai:

        "ellArUm pOndArO pOndAr pOndheNikOL?"

Should the 'satsangh' ask itself "Has everyone come?
Is everyone accounted for?" and find itself short of
numbers, it should not get unduly anxious. "Never
mind, never bother", advises the TiruppAvai. 

All that the 'satsangh' must do is to deem every
single one of its members to be already in attendance!
("ellArUm? pOndAr pOndheNikOL?"). If not everyone has
turned up, "So be it!" the 'satsangh' should be able
to say to itself and simply proceed forthwith in its
task. In other words, the 'satsangh' should be
unmindful of how many of its members turn up and how
many remain absent.

The important meaning to be grasped from this line of
the TiruppAvai is this: 

If we have to wait for adequate numbers of persons to
join us in our 'satsangh', we might as well consider
our spiritual journey to end even before it begun. It
is always going to be difficult to find persons with
God-devotion in this world ? You can cast your net as
far and as wide as you can but you should never expect
to catch a sizeable haul. In the Bhagavath-Gita, the
Almighty Himself confirmed the rarity of the breed
called 'Bhakta' in this vast world:

           bahUnAm janma-nAmanthE 
            gnyAnavAn mAm prapadyatE  I
           vAsudEva: sarvamiti 
            sa mahAtmA sudurlabha:       II 

         It takes many, many births
           For the soul of a man to 
            know Me as Vasudeva
            and come to me in Love --
     Such souls are rare indeed in this world!
               
It would be the height of foolishness on our part to
await "many, many births" before gathering together a
'satsangh' of desired number. There is no point in
going around soliciting large membership for our
'satsangh'. It is enough if a handful of good people
gets together and begins a 'satsangh'. Which is why in
another verse later in the TiruppAvai (Stanza 20)
there is the expression "ippOthey emmai neerada?" that
AndAl uses to emphasize 'satsangh' must begin at once
and that it is pointless tarrying waiting for numbers
to gather. The moment for a 'satsangh' is "Now"?
"ippOthey?". 

Even if there is waiting to be done, it should not be
for long? for those large numbers of people -- as many
of them as do materialize at all -- might be so fickle
in their resolve and commitment, they may never remain
in the 'satsangh' for very long. Hence, it is very
important that the handful that gathers as genuine
'satsangh' should get on with its mission and task
without delay? Whoever comes and has gathered... they
must be deemed themselves to constitute the "satsangh"
of requisite plentiful numbers --- "ellArUm? pOndAr
pOndheNikOL?"

The TiruppAvai promises salvation in numbers but
nowhere does it specify any particular number. For a
true 'satsangh' it does not really matter? Any number
more than one will do, since after all, as none could
have said it better than AndAl, "ellArUm pOndArO
pOndAr pOndheNikOL?"

               *************
             (to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan





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