Thirumaalai(59)

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)

 

In the previous posting we saw the meaning of the dvaya mahA manthram
in brief.  Now let us see how this has been conveyed by alwar in this
paasuram.  We saw earlier that dvayam, as the name suggests has two
parts, the poorva kandam and the uttara kandam.  In this paasuram, Sri
thondaradipodi alwar gives the meanings of the two parts in two lines each;
only thing is that the order of the parts is changed.  The first two
lines of the paasuram give the uttara kandArtham of the dvayam and the
last two lines the poorva kandArtham.

 

mEmporul pOga vittu meimayai migavunarindhu:  AdiyArs are those who are
totally different from the lowkikas.  Those who have left all the
sAdhanas both in samsAric matters and pAramArthikam are called as adiyars. 
Whichever the lowkikas consider being the most precious are like
ordinary stones to bhAgavatas.  KoorthAzhvan left all his wealth and came to
fall under the feet of his acharya, rAmanuja.  He didn’t consider the
lowkika money and matter as important.  Similarly Swami vedAntha desikan
considered only kanchi deva perumal as his wealth and ignored all other
wealth.  So here alwar says, mEmporul pOga vittu, leaving all that
which are considered as wealth in this world, the bhAgavatas realize the
ultimate truth.  What is the ultimate truth?  In tamil ‘mei’ refers to
both sareeram and truth but actually the body is not true.  These
bhagavatas realize the truth that the body is temporary and hence false, and
only the athma is true.  Alwar says ‘migavunarindhu’.  First stage is
realizing that the athma is alone true.  The second stage
(migavunarudhal) is realizing that the athma also belongs to emperuman and hence it is
not independent.

 

  Amparisarindhu kondu I-mpulanagaththadakki:  After realizing that the
athma is a seshan(dependent) to the emperuman, then next thing he
should wish for is bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryam.  Kainkaryam is the best
gift to the dependent jeevatma.  After that ‘I-mpulanagaththadakki’ we
have to control our sense organs.  When alwar said leaving all the
lowkika matters, in the very first line, it itself needs the control of all
our senses.  But then why does alwar repeat that here after the jeevan
has passed so many stages of realization and accepting bhagavat
kainkaryam?  Here alwar fixes the meaning of the term ‘nama:’.  While doing
bhagavat kainkaryam one may feel that he has been blessed with this divine
kainkaryam and that he is enjoying the same.  Actually even this
kainkaryam should be for the enjoyment of bhagavan and hence controlling of
our senses, which enjoy the kainkaryam we are doing, is what is
mentioned by alwar in ‘I-mpulangaththadakki’.

 

Thus in the above two lines alwar has given the uttara kandArtham of
the dvayam (srimathE nArAyanAya nama:).  Before we see the poorva
kandArtham let us clarify one doubt, which may arise in all our minds.  Why
did alwar change the order and give the uttara kandArtham first and the
poorva kandArtham second.  When we do a practical experiment then we
have to give the procedure first and then give the inference or the result
whereas when we have to teach a subject then we first give the theory
and what result it will give and then when the listeners are interested
to obtain the result, we tell them the procedure.

 

Similarly dvaya mahA mantram is a practical experiment, which gives the
procedure followed by the result.  But the alwars actually wanted us to
get interested in the same so they first gave the result made us get
attracted towards the same and then gave the procedure.  There is one
nice legend in our guru paramparai.  One person went to one acharya and
asked what he should do to attain moksha.  That acharya told him all the
ways of nithya karmAnushtAnam, bhakthi, prapatti etc and finally said
if you do all these you can attain moksha.  The person felt the
procedure to be very difficult.  He then went to another acharya and asked the
same question.  That acharya first explained all the good things in the
moksha lOkam and all the bad things in this world and then slowly told
him the ways to attain moksha.  Though the ways specified by both of
them were same still, now the person realizing the importance of
attaining moksha and getting released from this samsAric miseries started doing
everything as per the acharya’s instruction. 

 

So before telling any hard way to attain something we should make a
person realize the importance of attaining the result irrespective of all
the difficulties to attain the same.  That is what alwar has done in
this paasuram also.  We will proceed with the poorva kandArtham in the
next posting.

 

(To be continued)

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan