srImathE rAmAnujAya namah dear srI. vimal, your questions regarding the chanting of the divya prabhandham are very appropriate, and correct. The following is what I have gathered from elders. (i) The very fact that one wants to chant the divya prabhandham, and places emphasis on correctness, is a very good thing. After all, there are so many people who do not even knwo about, or want to chant the divya prabhandham. (ii) Chanting it "wrongly" is no sin. And, in fact, our AzhvArs will never consider that an "insult" etc. On the other hand, they probably will want to help us pronounce/chant it correctly. (iii) the danger in chanting "wrongly" are twofold - (i) the meanings can get distorted, and hence to a listener, the pAsurams may make no sense; (ii) for the chanter himself/herself, there will be no sense if the words are used interchangeably, and in an incorrect manner. (iv) As long as one recognizes the pitfalls of chanting wrongly, it is encouraged to make an attempt to chant correctly. There is nothing wrong in having a correct divya prabhandham book in front of us while chanting, so that we can refer to the book in places where we have a doubt. Over a period of time, one will get the correct wording/breaks. As far as the thiruppallANdu example you have given goes, it is technically wrong to interchange the words - because kUruminE addresses a third party (a group of people, for example), and kUruvanE addresses the AzhvAr himself. I suggest that "chanting" take second place to enjoying the anubhavam of the AzhvArs through the pAsurams - i.e., when we recite, let us focus on the underlying meanings, and recite the pAsuram accordingly. Nowadays, atleast the literal meanings are available easily, and it takes little effort to read through them. From experience, I can tell you that if we do that, the chances of using the wrong words are minimized. AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam, adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan, varadhan --- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, vimalkumar ranganathan <panardasan@xxxx> wrote: > > Respected Adiyaars, > > I have a huge doubt. Even though tamil is my mother tongue, I still have issues in understanding the meanings of most of the Prabandhams. Well, if understanding the basic, flat meaning is itself a problem as such, what about the subtle, deep, philosophical truth hidden in each verse of the Prabandham?? > > How should one chant the Prabandham?? Is it ok, if he chants it without knowing the meaning as such. And what about pronunciation mistakes?? Am I right if I say that it is an offense if we make mistakes when we chant the pasurams, as it is tantamount to insulting the Azhwars?? > > Sometimes, I do get the meaning, but still am prone to making errors. For example, thanks to Sri Madhavakkannan, I now know the meaning of "Thiruppallandu", but still I have confusions in the last word of each paragraph, I donno when to say "Pallandu KURUVANE" or "Pallandu KURUDHUME" or "Pallandu KURUMINE". Is it an offense when I mix and match them?? > > Sometimes, when I chant the Pasurams, my mind just wanders, thinking of very very trivial mundane things, thinking of anything but Perumal. Am I a sinner?? > > I request the elders and the cognizant in the list to kindly address my queries. > > AzhwAr EmperumanAr Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam. > > Dasan, > > Kidambi Soundararajan. > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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