Thirumaalai(60)

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,

Paasuram-38 (contd)

Let us now proceed to see the poorvakandArtham of dvayam as in the
paasuram.

KAmbara thalai siraiththu vunkadai thalai errundhu* vAzhum:

 Here alwar says, ‘Kambara thalai siraiththu’ meaning shave the heads
fully along with the roots.  We will see what this implies.  Lowkikas
have ambitions different from that of bhagavat bhakthas.  Some bhagavatas
take up sanyasa leaving all these worldly ambitions and relations. 
When they take up sanyasa it is like shedding all the weight and tensions,
which existed in their minds.  Some like alwars shed their tensions
mentally even when they are in the samsAram.  Kulasekara alwar says,
“vundiyE vudaiyE vuganthOdum em mandalam than nOdum kooduvadillai yAn”. 
Alwar did not become a sanyasi but he remained like a water droplet on a
lotus leaf without getting attached with the sareera bandhus who were
running at the back of money and matter to live a sophisticated life.

Some people who have got detached from this worldly affairs, purposely
grown “sadAbAram”(thick clusters of hair locked with each other
tightly) on their heads but never feel it uncomfortable.  But when the same is
formed in the heads of a small kid before the first shaving of the
hair, the mother waits till the time when the sadai is actually removed and
feels relived only after the shaving of the same.  Similarly we all
purposely want to get involved with the worldly affairs and put ourselves
to miseries.  But the divine emperuman who considers each one of us as
his child is filled with tension to see all of us suffering and hence
waits for the time to relieve us from the same.  The child never
releases the difficulty similar is our case emperuman feels more than all of
us.

Sometimes some hair fall by itself, similarly sometimes some sareera
bandhus and lowkika matters leave us by itself.  Only if we get detached
it is going to affect others but if they themselves leave us thinking
us to be crazy then it becomes easier for us to concentrate on the
emperuman and attain his divine abode.

Here alwar says, like shaving the hair along with its root, we have to
leave the bondages to the worldly affairs along with the vAsana.  Sri
PVP in his vyakhyAnam says, “vAsanai ara”.  When we are binded with the
world then even when we do bhagavat kainkaryam and sit in front of
emperuman our minds still works towards the worldly tensions and how to
solve them.  Our acharyas beautifully say, if we see perumal then the
world never comes in front of us but if we see the world we can never
concentrate on the divine emperuman.  So leaving all the worldly bondages we
have to surrender in the holy feet of the lord.

sOmbharai vugaththi pOlum soozh punal arangaththAnE!:

 What do we do leaving the bondages?  After leaving all the worldly
bondages along with the vAsanas we live under the divine feet of emperuman
(vAzhum).  Then, will we stay without doing anything at all?  Yes, here
alwar says the saranAgathan then stays lazily in the feet of emperuman. 
Only thing he has to do is stay in the bhagavat sannadhi.  He takes
part in all the poojas and bhajans, which happens in the temple and does
nothing.  In Ramayana, bharatha feels bad that he has lost such a chance
to just sit along with perumal like the many who were in perumal’s
satsangam in chitra koodam, instead he had to go to ayodhya to take care of
the kingdom.

When he actually doesn’t do anything why should perumal protect him? 
That is perumal’s svaroopam.  The svaroopam of a saranAgathan is to stay
with the mahA vishvAsam that we are incapable of anything and perumal
is capable to even grant moksha without us doing anything other than
staying under his feet.  In the case of other upAsakas, moksha is attained
after many janmAs, depending on his capacity.  Krishna in bhagavat
geetha says, “anEka janma samsiddhaha” whereas when it comes to prapannas
the same Krishna in geetha says, “na chirAt”(I will grant the moksha in
this janma itself).  Since in the case of saranagathas the emperuman
who is sarvasankalpam grants moksha on his own.  Though the saranagatha
need not do anything still he cherishes doing kainkaryam to emperuman
not as an upAya to attain moksha but for the enjoyment of emperuman.

A prapanna is more active in bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryam but lazes
out only in lowkika family matters.  Bhakthas like nAma devar are also
supposed have been the same, active in bhagavat vishayam but lazy in
taking care of their body and family.  There is one interesting story in
the life of nAma deva.  He used to always stay in the temple of
panduranga in pandaripuram and never cared about his family.  Once his wife, who
was also a strong bhakthai came to complain to the divya dampathis
about the same.  She first came to the rukmini sannadhi and told her about
pandurangan making her husband mad of him and not allowing him to come
to their house at all.  Hearing this rukmini complained back saying it
is only your husband (nAma deva) who has made my husband mad.  He keeps
on singing bhajans with the other bhagavatas and never allows
panduranga to come to sleep even in the mid night. 

I make the bed and keep everything ready for him to come and lie down
but he never turns up.  I hear the bhagavatas singing lullaby during the
dolOtsavam so I think he is going to come and wait, but immediately
they sing the suprabhAdam and everything starts once again.  Listening to
rukmini devi lamenting, nAma deva’s wife proceeded towards
pandurangan’s sannadhi.  She complained to pandurangan.  Emperuman then replied,
“Shouldn’t you be proud of your husband?  He is the only bhaktha who I
have got who doesn’t care about the world but is always involved in my
bhakthi and stays under my feet always making me enjoy with his bhajans. 
Do you think he should come at the back of you leaving all these?” Nama
deva’s wife then realized her mistake and returned back with great
pride and joy to have possessed such a husband.  This is what emperuman
expects from each one of us.  Leave our lowkika bondages and stay under
his feet always without troubling us with all other sAdhanas, when
emperuman the siddhOpAyam is readily available and waiting to grant us
moksha.

So in the above two lines thondaradi podi alwar thus has given the
poorvakandArtham of the dvayam(sriman narAyana charanou sharanam
prapathyE).

As adiyen mentioned at the start this is a great vishayam and also a
rahasyam.  Adiyen has just tried to explain limited to adiyen’s ignorance
and lack of knowledge.  Adiyen requests the bhagavatas to please learn
the same from your acharyas after taking your samAsrayanam under your
respective acharyas.  All the errors in the above may be please pardoned
and corrected.  Adiyen is grateful to Sri Sri Krishna Premi anna and
Sri MAV swami whose lectures have helped adiyen in explaining the above.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan