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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00076 May 2002

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai,
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha


? Mattrondrum Venda Maname Madhilarangar
Kattrinum meitha kazhalinai keezh- uttra
Thirumaalai paadum seer Thondaradipodi Emperumaanai
Eppozhudum peesu?

?Srimat Krishna samahvaya Namo yaamuna soonave 
yetkadakshai kalakshyanam sulabha: Sridara: sadaa?

Pranams,

Now let us see how our acharyas found all the arthas
of the sastras in the Nalayiram paasurams itself. 
Nammazhvar gave 4 Prabhandams. As every one knows
Sri Sadagopan is regarded as Vedam thamizh seidha
Maaran in our Sampradhayam. This was proved by Periya
Perumal by accepting the request of Sri Thirumangai
alwar to hear the Tamizh vedam of alwar as par with
the Sanskrit vedam during the Adhyayana Utsavam. Even
today during the adyayana utsavam all divya desa
perumals listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham with
great joy. Nammazhwar?s first prabhandham
Thiruviruttam is considered as Rig veda Saaram. 
Thiruvaasiriyam is regarded as Yajur Veda Saaram. We
all know the famous Thiruvaimozhi is regarded as Sama
Veda Saaram and Periya Thiruvandhadhi is considered as
Atharvana Veda Saaram.

?Maaran panittha tamizh maraikku Mangaiyarkon Aarangan
koora avadarittha? says Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his
Upadesa Ratna maalai. So Sri Thirumangai alwars six
prabhandams namely, Periya thirumozhi, 
Thirukurundhandagam, Thiruvezhunkootrirukai, Siriya
Thirumadal , Periya Thirumadal and Thirunedundhandagam
are regarded as the six angas(shikshai, vyakaranam,
chandas, kalpam, niruththam and Jhostisham for
Sanskrit vedam) to the Tamizh Vedams of Nammazhvar. 
Next our acharyas consider Itihasa Puranams as
pramanams. Sri Kulasekar alwars Perumal Thirumozhi
gives us the extract of Sri Ramanyanam. Periyazhvar,
Nachiyar got themselves involved in krishnanubhavam
and gave us the substance of Srimad Bhaagavatam and
Sri Vishnu puranam(Krishna leela) in their
prabhandams, Periyazhvar thirumozhi, Thiruppavai and
Nachiyar thirumozhi. One part of Sri Vishnu puranam
is Sri Vishnu dharmam which was given importance by
Sri Thondaradi podi Alwar. So Thirumaalai is regarded
as par with Sri Vishnu dharmam, which mainly deals
with explaining the magimai of Bhagavan Namam.

Vedas are many in number ?Ananthavai Veda:? . It is
impossible for anyone to learn all in his lifetime. 
Infact there is a legend according to which sage
Bharadwaj started learning the Vedas. Even after his
first life tenure he was unable to complete so he
requested Indra to give him one more lifetime. 
Similarly 2 or 3 lifetimes passed then Indra asked the
sage what he will do if he gives him one more
lifetime. The sage replied I will again learn more of
the Vedas. Then Indra showed the sage 4 mountains and
took a hand full of mud from it and said the amount
you have learnt in all these life times is only this
handful and there is yet 4 large mountains of Vedas to
be learnt. So it is impossible for anyone to learn
all. There goes a saying in tamil ?kattradu kaiman
alavu kalladhadhu vulagalavu?. Probably this saying
could have got its origin from the above story. So
what bhagavan advices is ?Yaavanarthe udapane
samplutha: sampluthodhake? (learn how much is
essential for you). Our acharyas also regarded this
as the prime motto. Even Periyazhvar is praised in
his thaniyan as ?Veindiya Vedangal Oodhi?. Does this
mean there is something called Veindiya vedam
(required vedam) and Vendadha Vedam(unrequired Vedam)?
The part of vedam which is essential for us is called
the Veindiya Vedam. As different parts are for
different adikaris and according to different yugas
the adhikaris keep changing. So we should learn what
is essential for us. How do we know which is
essential for us and which is not? Only to tell us
that emperuman by his apaara kaarunyam sent the
alwars, who like giving us the juice from a fruit
extracted the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and
gave us through their paasurams.

That is why our acharyas spent most of their time in
learning the inner meanings of the prabhandams. Even
Sri Ramanuja who spent a lot of time in analysis in
Brahma sutras and Vedanta to disprove the advaitins
and other philosophers is supposed to have taken guide
from the tamil paasurams to do so(?ettai kondu orunga
veduvar). And Swamy Desikan says ?Teliyadha Marai
Porulum Theliya kandom? that he understood the
meanings of hard core Vedanta with the help of the
Nalayira Divya Prabhandham. So we have to leave the
Asaaram, Alpasaaram, saaram, saaratamam in the Vedas
and learn only the Saarataram. A Srivaishanavan is
supposed to be like a koozhi(hen) that is like a hen
which digs through all the dust and picks the things
essential to it alone a srivaishnavan is supposed to
dig through all the sastras and retain in his mind the
essential parts alone. That our acharyas have found
to be absolutely present in the arulicheyals. We are
all lucky to be born in kali. When everyone says kali
is gooram and very difficult to live in you may
wonder why I say that we are lucky. It is because we
need not do tapas like the rishis are medidate on the
god for years together in a forest. It is very easy
to attain him. We have got the arulicheyals which
give us the meanings of the Vedanta in a simplified
easily understandable form. To add to this we have
the strotras and vyakhayams and other works of our
acharyas which makes our job very very easy. And more
over in kali we can attain emperuman by just doing
Namasankeertanam. Whatever palan the rishis and
others in the other yugams attained by doing great
tapas and yagas we can attain the same palan in a
simple way by just uttering his namas. Even the
persons born in the other yugas wonder how lucky we
are all to be born in kali to enjoy the sweet bhakthi
flooded poetry of the alwars and other bhakthas. That
is why kali is regarded as saadhu and only way to
attain emperuman is Thirunama keertanam.

So that is why Sri Thondaradipodi Alwars Thirumaalai
is regarded superior to the other prabhandams as it
talks mainly about the Nama magimai and how a person
in kali can easily attain Emperuman?s feet without
much effort. Sri PVP who is called as ?Vyakhyana
cakravarthi? has given an excellent Manipravala
commentary. Our Acharyas have given the commentaries
in Manipravalam which is a mixture of tamil and
Sanskrit. The vyakhyanams are so sweet usually elders
say it to be like a mixture of honey and milk(Thenum
palum kalandhar pol). Our acharyas have kept us a
great Nidhi of such vyakhyanams for enjoying which one
janma is not enough. One doubt may arise in our minds
now. When the alwars prabhandams are in tamil why are
the vyakhayams in Manipravaalam. That is because
during the time of the acharyas there were many people
who failed to accept the supremacy of the alwars
paasurams and said that they cannot be regarded as par
with the Sanskrit vedam so to disprove these people
the acharyas had to show that the alwar paasurams
contained nothing but Vedanta vishayam and hence had
to take the manipravaalam style so that even the
others could understand the vyakhyanams.

In the next posting we will see what is the actual
essence of Thirumaalai.

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan 


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