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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

?munnuruvAi minnuruvil vEdam nAngAi

vilakkoliyai mulaiththezhundha thingal thAnAi

pinnuruvAi munnuruvil pini moopillA pirappiliyAi

erappadarkkE ennAdhu endrum

ponnuruvAi maniyuruvil bhoodhamaindhAi

punaluruvAi analuruvil thigazhum jOthi

thannuruvAi ennuruvil nindra endhai

thalirpuraiyum thiruvadi enthalai mElavE? 

 

This paasuram is a treasure of our Srivaishnava philosophy. While telling about 
the first paasuram of thiruvaimozhi koorathAzhvan used to say that just this 
paasuram is enough to prove the advaita philosophy to be useless. They say 
emperuman is formless and that the tattvam is only one 
(chinmAtrambrahma-EkamEva adviteeyam). But azhvar strongly establishes this to 
be false when he says ?tuyararu sudaradi thozhudhu ezhu en mannanE?. This shows 
that emperuman is different from the jeevatma and that he has form andhence 
azhvar requests his mind to fall to the feet of the divine bhagavan.Similarly 
in this very first paasuram of thirunedunthAndakam thirumangai azhvar clearly 
states the vishistadvaitic philosophy of tattvatrayam. It is a quality of a 
qualified speaker to first say what he is going to talk about and then 
elaborate on it. It is wise to explain the topic before any speech. Azhvar 
hence clearly states his philosophy with the words ?minnuru? (which refers to 
the
objects we see in front of us-achit) ?pinnuru? (that which cannot be seen with 
our eyes and that which is at the back-jeevatma) ?ponnuru? (that which is 
different from the above two and that which leads the above two-paramatma). The 
same has been given by nammazhvar as ?elladhum vulladhum alladhu avanuru? Here 
elladhu is parallel to munnuru; vulladhu-pinnuru;avanuru-ponnuru. The same has 
been repeated by madurakavi azhvar, a very close disciple of nammazhvar as: 
?pirar nan porul thannaiyum nambhinEn?Here porul refers to achit tattvam, nan 
porul refers to the atma tattvam and pirar refers to the paramatma tattvam.  

 

What is the achit tattvam?

Panchabhoodham-5, panjatanmAttraigal-5, karmendriyam-5, jnanEndriyam-5 manas, 
ahankaram, mahan, avyaktham totally-24-?porul? or ?munnuru?

The chit tattvam is the 25th tattvam that is the ?nan porul? (makaravachyanAna 
jeevatma). Since this comes after the 24 tattvas kaliyan names itas ?pinnuru?

The 26th tattvam is the paramatma ?pirar? ? ?ponnuru?

 

In azhvar thirunagari there is a practice of adorning nammazhvar with 25 
blankets and then removing one by one. That is to show that through his 
thiruvaimozhi 1000 paasurams azhvar has intended to remove the first 25 
tattvas(IshvaryAnubhavam, kaivalyAnubhavam) and take us all to the divine feet 
ofemperuman (moksha). In his Acharya hrudhayam, Swamy azhagiya Manavala perumal 
nayanar shows that nammazhvar sung this thiruvaimozhi to remove the 25but the 
geethA of geethAcharyan was intended to remove 100 (the gowravas).

 

In bhagavat geetha, chapter 2, geethAcharyan has clearly stated the difference 
in the three tattvas in 2 beautiful slokas. Let us see them one by one.

 

?na tvEvAham jAthu nAsam na tvam nEmE janAdhipA: I

na chaiva na bhavishyAma: sarvE vayamatha: param II? (2-12)

 

aham ? me (the sarvEsvaran)

jAthu ? always (in the past)

na Asam (ethi) na ? it is not that I was not there

tvam ? you (the jeevatma) also

(jAthu nAsee: ethi) na- not (that you were not there in the past)

emE janAdhipA:- these kings (other jeevatmas)

(jAthu nAsan ethi) na ? not (that they were not there in the past)

sarvE vayam- All of us (you, me and these jeevas)

ath: param- also in the following days

na bhavisyAma: cha A-va (ethi) na- it is not that we will not be there.

 

This is really a life giving sloka to our sampradayam. In this geethacharya, 
Sri Parthasarathi clearly gives the existence of a separate jeevatma 
andparamatma and also that there are many jeevatmas who permanently exist in 
the past, present and future. One question may arise here: where is the present 
talked about in the above sloka? Our Poorvacharyas answer this question as 
follows: The present has a surprising quality. While thinking aboutthe past the 
present becomes the future and while thinking about the future the present 
becomes the past. So when Krishna says that he (the paramatma), arjuna (the 
jeevatma) and the other kings (many other jeevatmas) were there in the past and 
will be there in the future then it is implied that they will exist in the 
present also and hence they are all nithyam. That is ramanuja sampradayam. 
There are three tattvas and all are nithyam. In hisgeetha bhAshyam, swamy 
EmperumAnAr excellently refutes all the other philosophies (sankara
matham, bhAskara matham, bhowtha matham, vaishEshika matham and meemAsa matham) 
quoting another veda vakhyam (?nithyO nithyAnAm chEtanaschEtanAnAm A-kO 
bhahoonAm yO vidhathAdhi kAmAn?) also here. For anyone who wants toget a strong 
idea of our vishistAdvaitic philosophy while compared to other philosophies 
mainly the advaitic philosophy of sankara it is very essential to go through 
the geetha bhashyam of this particular sloka. Now that wehave seen that the 
jeevatma is different from the paramatma the next we have to see how the achit 
is different from the chit (the jeevatma). Geethacharyan with ultimate grace on 
all of us gives that in a separate sloka in the same adhyAyam (chapter).

 

?nAsathO vidhyathE bhAvO nAbhAvO vidhyathE satha: I

vupayOrapi drushtontha: stvanayO: tattvadarshibhi: II? (2-16)

 

asat: - for ?that which doesn?t exist? the body (elladhu)

bhAva: - the permanent nature (nithyathvam) of ?that which exists?

na vidhyathE ? is not there

sat: for ?that which exists? the Atma (vulladhu)

abhAva: - the temperory nature (anithyathvam) of ?that which doesn?t exist?

na vidhyathE ? is not there

anayO: this knowledge about the body and atma,

antha: ultimately,

tattvadarshibhi: - for those scholars who know the truth

drushta: - is known in this way.

 

Thereby we have seen that the words ?minnuru? ?pinnuru? and ?ponnuru? of 
thirumangai azhvar, have been the reflections from the words of the 
geethacharyan. In the next posting we will proceed to see more interesting 
facts in the words of geethacharyan reflected in the sweet voice of thirumangai 
mannan.

 

(To be continued)

 

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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