Thirumaalai(44)

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

“ Mattrondrum vEinda 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, 

In our sampradayam, kainkaryam is very important.  What a Srivaishnava
begs from the lord is his kainkaryam.  For that they are ready to
sacrifice the divine anubhavams too.  When Sri Parthasarathi comes out for
veedhi purappadu there are many who enjoy the divine beauty of the
bhagavan but can the SripAda thangees who carry perumal enjoy the same?  But
they are the actual bhakyashalees since they give the happiness to the
whole crowd of bhakthas without selfishness doing thondu to bhagavan. 
Everyone cannot get this bhakyam.  This is possible only if perumal
chooses us for that kainkaryam.  Alwar in the following paasuram talks
about the kainkaryam bestowed by Sri Rama piran on a small squirrel(Anil
Kainkaryam).

 
Paasuram-27
 

“kurangugal malayainooka kuliththu tham purandittOdi

  taranganeer adaikkaluttra salamilA anilam pOllEn

  marangal pOl valiya nenja vanjanEn, nenju thannAl

  aranganArkku AtseiyAdhe aliyeththEn ayarginrEnE.”   

kurangugal malayainooka:  Alwar talks about the sEthu bhandhana
Vaibhavam here.  Hanuman, angadhan and other big monkeys are bringing big big
mountains to build the bridge across the ocean.  Neelan(Amsa of
vishvakarma) is the great monkey engineer who is planning the construction of
the bridge.  They are in a great hurry to complete the bridge as soon
as possible.  Sugreeva who wanted to urge the monkeys to do the job
faster told them that the afternoon mandagapadi(thiruvArAdhanam and lunch)
for perumal will happen only in the other shore, says Sri PVP in his
vyakhyanam.  The sugreeva parivar had so much love for perumal that they
can never even imagine to leave perumal hungry.  So they speeded the
process as far as possible so that they could reach the other shore in
time for the thiruvArAdhanam.  They are carrying big big mountains.  What
will they get as salary for this job?  Will perumal pay them in some
way?  Oh! They do not expect any sort of payment from perumal.  Just his
kataksham is enough for them.  One monkey which carried a big mountain
and put it in the sea while returning saw that perumal was looking at
him and hence gained a lot more energy and brought two big mountains the
next time, with great enthusiasm.  Though the job was done by only
monkeys which lacked the sixth sense, still the construction process was
highly organized.  Some monkeys were holding ropes in the sea so that a
straight bridge could be constructed and all the other monkeys dropped
the mountains in a orderly fashion. 

kuliththu tham purandittOdi taranganeer adaikkaluttra salamilA anilam
pOllEn:  There was one small squirrel which was looking at all the
enthusiastic monkeys doing rAma kainkaryam.  The squirrel was highly
inspired and wanted to get involved in the divine kainkaryam.  But this
project is a very big one.  Since the bridge had to be constructed across the
sea and the material used were not stones but big mountains.  In every
big kainkaryam, there is always a hidden small part to be done which
most of us overlook and feel that the kainkaryam is too big for us to get
involved.  But this small squirrel wanted to do kainkaryam in some way
or the other.  For instance, all our divyadesams have to be taken care
regularly.  Instead of collecting people or blaming the temple
authorities and others for not maintaining the temples, why can’t we just broom
the temple, remove the unwanted bushes grown around and keep the temple
clean ourself.  Won’t it be nice if we could put a beautiful kOlam in
front of the temple and sannadhis and light a lamp?  Actually this job
is not so difficult.  If each one of us instead of pointing towards
others do small small kainkaryams like this then for sure all our temples
will be well maintained.  We all maintain our houses, similarly if we
consider the temples also to be ours then we are sure to take the little
strain(actually doing kainkaryam in the temples is a pleasure) to
maintain our temples and make perumal happy.  We can surely see perumal
smiling at us enjoying the small kainkaryams we do, as he did in the case
of the small squirrel doing kainkaryam among the big monkeys.  We
shouldn’t combine with people who demoralize us rather join hands with those
who will make us more enthusiastic to do bhagavat kainkaryam.  That is
why satsangam is so essential for building one’s character.  The
monkeys where bringing only mountains but to build the bridge both stones and
mud is essential.  So the squirrel decided to carry mud for the
construction.  It was a very intelligent squirrel.  It very well knew that it
can carry only very little mud with its small hands.  So it dipped into
the water and rolled over the mud and it ran inbetween the mountains
and dropped all the mud all over its body.  Probably the squirrel also
knew that before doing kainkaryam to bhagavan it has to take a bath and
be pure.  The squirrel was both pure at heart and body.  The squirrel
knew that large amount of mud was needed to bind two mountains still it
didn’t get disheartened.  It wanted to do as much as possible, the
maximum it can do.  That is why alwar praises the squirrel to be ‘salamilA
anilam’(the squirrel which works without any tiresome). 

Actually the squirrel was doing a highly risky job.  The strong waves
of the ocean are unsafe for the small squirrel to dip in and the
squirrel may even get stamped by the big monkeys carrying big mountains in a
hurry.  There is a high possibility that the monkeys may overlook this
small creature and step over it.  The squirrel never gave thought to any
of these.  It had pleasure in doing kainkaryam to perumal and hence
continued to do  the same without any halt.   

Is there any result or palan which the squirrel will obtain by doing
this kainkaryam?  Why is it doing it so enthusiastically?  What did Rama
piran do about it? Let us see the answers to these questions in the
next posting. 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan