Sri Parthasarathi thunai
SrimathE rAmAnujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha
Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha
Thaniyans rendered by Swamy emperumAnAr :
"ennamudham ootugEn engEvA paikiliyE!
thennarangam pAdavalla seerperumal-ponnan
silaisEr nudhaliyarvEl sEralarkOn engal
kulasEkaran endrE kooru"
"vAzhi parakAlan vAzhi kalikandri
vAzhi kurayaloor vAzh vEndhan vAzhiyarO
mAyOnai vAlvaliyAl mandhiramkol mangaiyarkOn
thooyOn sudarmAna vEl"
Among the ten azhvars, two azhvars who were kings were kulasekaran and kaliyan.
One of them is celebrated as "kollikAvalan koodal nAyakan kOzhikOn kulasEkaran"
and the other "AlinAdan arulmAri arattamukki adaiyAr seeyam kongumalar
kuzhliyar vEl mangai vEndan kottravEl parakAlan kaliyan". Let us compare and
contrast these two azhvars in this short posting.
Kulasekara azhvar had a great attraction to rAmAvathAram but still his daily
wish was to go to have the darshan of the archA moorthi in Srirangam
("gushyathE yasya nagarE ranga yAthrA dhinE dhinE"). Whereas kaliyan saw the
vibhavAthAra gunas in the archAmoorthis and got himself immersed in the divya
dEsa anubhavams. Kaliyan did bhagavata dhadheeyArAdhanam daily and for that
even went to the extent of stealing. Kulasekara azhvar also felt treating the
bhagavatas was more important than even his divya desa yathra. When his
ministers complained that the bhagavatas has stolen a jewel of the palace lord,
kulasekara azhvar strongly said that bhagavat bhakthas would never steal ("Aram
keda paran anbar kollAr endru avargalukkE vArankeda kudappAmbil kai yittavan
mAttralarai veerankeduththa senkOl kollikAvalan villavarkOn sEran kulasEkaran
mudivEndar sikAmaniyE"). Kaliyan didn't mind even stealing when it came to
bhagavata dhadheeyArAdhanam and the king kulasekaran didn't mind his life for
proving the bhagavatas to be flawless. So more than their passion towards
bhagavat kainkaryam the azhvars showed their deep interest towards bhAgavata
kainkaryam.
Now let us enjoy some aspects in their prabhandams. Both these azhvars have
sung a padhigam (10 paasurams) as "oodal paasurams" (a small fight between the
hero and the heroine). Kulasekara azhvar considers himself to be a gopi and
shows a false anger towards krishna who had left her and had stayed with
another gopi the previous night "A-rmalarpoonkuzhalAyar mAdhar..." whereas
kaliyan shows his anger towards thiruindaloor emperuman in the beautiful
padhigam "nummai thozhudhOm nuntham pani seidhirukkum nummadiyOm" Kaliyan is
always used to breaking usual norms. Here again he breaks the rule for an
"oodal paasuram" Oodal generally occurs between a hero and a heroine in the
Tamil literature but these paasurams indicate the oodal of kaliyan as his self
(thAnAna thanmaiyil oodal) with emperuman. There is one another interesting
feature in these paasurams. The story goes like this. Thirumangai Azhvar who
has a great thirst for enjoying the divine archa roopam of emperumans went to
thiruindhaloor to have the divine darshan of parimala ranganathan. But he went
a little late and hence the archakar has closed the doors and had gone home.
With all thoughts of having a great darshan (pArippu) kaliyan reached the
temple entrance and was taken aback to the see the locked door. Kaliyan doesn't
fall under our category who will just walk out of the place thinking that this
time it is not perumal's sankalpam let's have the darshan the next time nor
will kaliyan wait till the archakar opens the door in the evening. He started
arguing with the emperuman to give him darshan immediately. He says,
"nummadiyAr ellArOdum okka enni yirundheerO adiyEnai" (bharatha can wait for 14
years to see rama piran, sita piratti waited for 10 months, nammazhvar can sing
4 padhigams as 'thoodhu' due to separation from emperuman but kaliyan is
different from all these people since he cannot even sing 10 paasurams without
singing about the divya desa emperumans that is why he says 'Did you think me
to be like your other bhakthas?'). Such was kaliyan's state of mind. But how
will kulasekara azhvar act in a similar situation?
Such a situation came to kulasekara azhvar also. While azhvar went to have the
darshan of sowrirajan in thirukannapuram the doors were closed so azhvar was
unable to have the darshan of emperuman. What did he do? Kulasekara perumal
said, "Whether you give me darshan or not I don't mind. My prime job is to do
mangalAsAsanams to you. If you give me darshan I will sing after enjoying your
divine beauty if not still I will sing." Now azhvar decided to sing lullaby to
the sleeping emperuman and hence sings the 'thAlAttu padhigam' "mannupugazh
kOsalaithan". The name of the place is kannapuram that itself indicates that
the perumal inside is krishnan but then azhvar sings lullaby to Sri
Chakravarthi thirumagan who resides in thirukkannapuram. Why? Kulasekara
perumal's heart was filled with only ramayana and rama thirukkalyana gunas. So
since sowrirajan didn't give him darshan he assumed him to be like the perumal
in his heart and sang the paasurams. Such was kulasekara perumal's state of
mind. The thought process of both the azhvars is quiet different but both have
similarity in the sense that they give us the divine anubhavam that cannot be
explained by mere words.
Alwar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam
Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee
Sumithra Varadarajan
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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