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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00092 Mar 2003

 
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Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

Dear bhAgavatas,

This discussion about the chanting of the prabandham
reminded me of an anecdote involving adiyEn's great
grandfather's brother known as Cunnapakkam Swami, that
I had read in a magazine.

During Manavala Mamunigal's Utsavam in Deva Perumal
Sannidhi in Kanchipuram one year at the turn of the
last century, on the ninth day evening, the ninth
decad of Thiruvaymozhi was being recited. Present 
in the grand ghosti were Srimad Paramahamsa Azhagiya
Manavala Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami, Srimad Cunnapakkam 
Swami and others. The last pasuram in the ninth 
Thiruvaymozhi of the ninth decad is as follows:

avanaivittaganRuyirARRakillA
aNiyizhaiAycchiyarmAlaippUsal,
avanaivittagalvadhaRkEyirangi
aNikurukUrcsadakOpanmARan,
avaniyuNdumizhndhavanmEluraiththa
aayiraththuLLivaipaththumkoNdu,
avaniyuLalaRRininRuymminthondeer
acchonnamAlainaNNiththozuthE

Here the first word in the first two lines are 
"avanai" and the first word in the second two lines
are "avani". While most people in the ghosti were
reciting it correctly, some were saying avanai for
the second two lines also. Thus the third line
became "avanai uNdu umizhnthavan mEl uraiththa".

Apparently one of these people was standing right
behind Cunnapakkam Swami. After the sarrumurai was
completed, Cunnappakkam Swami told Jeeyar Swami that
he thought that Sriman Narayana was the one who
swallowed and brought out everything, but it looks
like there is one who swallows even Him! Since others
had not heard the misuse of the word avanai for avani,
no one understood Swami. They asked him to explain,
but Swami would say no more. The bhAgavata who had 
made the mistake understood what had happened and
came forward, explained his mistake, explained how
he had been making the same mistake for a long time
and seeked the ghosti's pardon. At that point, Jeeyar
Swami said that perhaps Azhvar knew such things 
would happen and as such had used the phrase "enganE
sollilum inbam payakkumE".

adiyEn's thoughts on this discussion: it is imperative
that we recite Azhvar's works, even if initially one
does not know how to say it correctly. Not having 
someone to teach us or a lack of understanding of
Tamil should not be used as excuses to get out of the
chance to recite prabandhams (or Sanskrit shlokas).
This, however is only the first step. One then has to
make attempts to read the text correctly or search for
some books that explain the simple meanings or listen 
to audio cassettes or seek a learned bhAgavata and try 
to correct our mistakes. Just as not doing the first
step is wrong, so too is staying at the first step.

Azhvar had said enganE sollilum for sure, but that 
cannot be used as an excuse to not make attempts to
correct ourselves. Perhaps inbam would happen to Him
(not surprising considering His nature) and to other
bhAgavatas (not surprising considering the nature of
a Srivaishnava), but it should make us feel bad. We
should definitely get no inbam from making mistakes
or knowing that we might be making mistakes but 
making no efforts to correct them.

If whatever I said has hurt anyone's feelings, I seek
your pardons.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
TCA Venkatesan

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