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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00017 Apr 2004

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha



Sri gOdhA nAchiyar in her wonderful nAchiyar thirumozhi says, "semmai vudaiya 
thiruarangar paniththa meimaiperuvArthai vittuchittar kEttu eruppar" (11-10). 
Here 'meimai peruvArththai' refers to Srimad bhagavat geetha only and that was 
given by thiruarangar who is none other than parthasarathi. Andal here says 
'vittuchittar kettueruppar' it is not an expression of doubt but she 
establishes that her dear father practiced the words of the geethacharyan. 
Vittuchittar, Periazhvar kettu-listened to the divine words of geethacharyan 
eruppar-and practiced the same in reality. Andal is referred to as "Anju kudi 
koru sandhadhi" these words she expressed about her father is applicable to all 
the azhvars. The greatest positive in our sampradayam is that all our azhvars 
and acharyas preached only what they practiced and hence it is not amazing to 
see the reflection of the words of geethacharya in the arulicheyals of azhvars. 
In this series of posting we are trying to exactly enjoy only a tit bit from 
the anubhavam of the kadai kutti azhvar. As per our acharyas, whatever 
thirumangai azhvar says is only a recollection of the previous azhvars who 
followed the vedas and geethAcharyan and gave the same with a base of 
anubhavams. The vedas, upanishads and geetha sastramum are filled with tattvas 
and hence spread the fragrance of knowledge whereas the azhvars spread the same 
fragrance in the form of a beautiful flower of bhakthi to the divine feet of 
emperuman. Hence the arulicheyal of azhvars are celebrated as 'tattvadarisi 
vachanam'. From the life history of thirumangai azhvar we see that vayalAli 
manavalan attracted azhvar with his beauty first and then only gave him the 
knowledge via the thirumanthram. After obtaining the thirumanthra upadesam 
azhvar says, "nalam tarum sollai nAn kandu kondEn nArAyana ennum nAmam". Here 
azhvar says kandu-kondEn I first saw and then obtained. In a similar way azhvar 
expresses his joy of seeing in his thiruvallikeni padhigam. At the end of each 
and every paasuram in this decade azhvar says, "thiruvallikeni kandEnE". Did 
azhvar only see parthasarathi in thiruvallikeni? Yes the very sight gives the 
knowledge; the geethAcharya roopam itself drives the divine intricate meanings 
of bhagavat geetha into our minds.



The first chapter of geetha starts with the sound of panchajanyam and ends with 
the utterance of charama slokam. Sri Venkata krishnan in thiruvallikeni holds 
the divine conch in his right hand and the left hand shows us his divine feet 
indicating "sarva darmAn parityajya mAm Ekam sharaNam vraja aham tvAm sarva 
pApEbhyO mOksha ishyAmi mA sucha:" The rest of the thirumeni of emperuman 
covers the rest of geetha. That is why thirumangai azhvar jumps with joy and 
sings "Oh! I have seen in thiruvallikeni" what? Not only the beauty of 
emperuman but the whole Srivaishnava tattvam, hitam and purushArtham. Let us 
now proceed to enjoy the thirunedunthAndaka paasuram.



(punarluruvAi) After talking about the greatness of emperuman azhvar now 
proceeds to talk about his sowlabhyam (easily accessibility). If emperuman has 
such greatness then is it that we cannot even go near him? No he is sarva 
sulaban like the water in a river that is accessible to both great rishis like 
vasista and the lowest of the lowest born chandAla emperuman is common to all. 
Again thirumangai azhvar saw this also in thiruvallikeni. While the moolavar 
stands filled with gAmbeeryam like a divine warrior the utsava moorthi stands 
with the wounds in his face due to the arrows of bheesma that emperuman 
accepted happily for the sake of his dear bhaktha arjuna. This indicates that 
emperuman who is undoubtedly the master of all will go to the extend of even 
becoming a charioteer to save his dear bhaktha and work like his slave. What a 
great sowlabhyam!



(analuruvil thigazhum) If emperuman becomes so easily accessible then will not 
his enemies try to harm him? Azhvar now due to his great love for emperuman 
starts to fear about his safety. That brings to his memory the words of the 
sastras. He might be sarva sulabhan that is only due to his sankalpam (wish). 
If people come in front of him with hard feelings wanting to hurt him then he 
becomes like a fire to them. Mostly emperuman has so much krupai that he 
forgives all the mistakes committed to him considering everyone to be his 
son/daughter. But one thing emperuman cannot forgive is bhAgavatAbhachAram. 
Emperuman burns those who do bhAgavadhAbhacharam. So he is like a fire to his 
enemies (enemy to his devotee as emperuman considers even ravana to be his 
brother, being the brother of vibeeshana) and as cool as a cucumber to his 
devotees. Sastras declare soorya and chandra to be the two eyes of emperuman. 
With one eye he burns his enemies (nigraham) and with the other he gives a 
soothing look to his devotees (anugraham). How is it possible to do both at the 
same time? Periyavachan pillai explains the same with an example. A lion feeds 
its cub even while it fights vigorously with an elephant. With respect to the 
elephant the lion behaves as an enemy whereas at the same time it shows its 
motherly love towards its cub. Similarly emperuman took narasimhAvatara to kill 
hiranyA and at the same time shower his love on bhaktha prahlAda. So both 
punaluru and analuru is emperuman.



(jOdhi) The glitter of all the lamps in this world is due to emperuman. He is 
the ultimate power. In geetha emperuman declares his vibhootis in the tenth 
chapter where he says, "AdhithyAnAm aham vishnu: jOdhishAm ravi ramsumAn" 
(10-21) and Arjuna in the very start of the adhyAyam celebrates emperuman as 
"param brahma param dhAma pavitram paramam bhavAn" (10-12) Here param dhAma 
means the supreme glitter (jOdhi). Following the words of arjuna kaliyan calls 
emperuman as 'jOdhi'. In the previous posting itself we enjoyed the same usage 
by swamy nammazhvar in his divine thiruvaimozhi.



In the next posting we will enjoy how azhvar explains his relationship with the 
paramAtma.



(To be continued)



Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam



Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan









































[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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