Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha
Srimad Vara Vara MunayE
namaha
Sri Vanachala mahA munayE
namaha
Andal’s thiruppavai is not big with thousand
paasurams but it is short and sweet comprising of just thirty jems. Even among them our acharyas consider
two paasurams to be very precious.
The two paasurams are, “ellE elankiliyE”
(15) and “chittram sirukAlE” (29). “thiruppAvaiyAgiradhu eppAttiRE; bhagavat
vishanyaththilirukkumpadi ellAm ‘chittram sirukAlE’ yilE sollugiradhu.
BhAgavata vishayaththilirukkumpadi ellAm eppAttilE sollugiradhu “ –
ArAyirapadi. [‘Chitram sirukAlE’ shows how bhagavan should be
and ‘ellE elankiliyE’ talks about the bhagavatas]
This fifteenth paasuram clearly shows the
Srivaishnava lakshanam. The
speciality of this paasuram is that here there is a clear conversion between
those outside and the gopi inside.
The gopi inside is waiting for everyone in gokulam to join the ghosti
since she doesn’t want anyone to miss this great satsanga anubhavam. While discussing among themselves the
mistakes on either side the gopi finally realizes that it is wrong for her to
argue with a Srivaishnava and says “nAnEthAn
Ayiduga”. This is
the ultimate Srivaishnava lakshanam.
“ellAdha kuRRaththai silar vundendrAlum
adhai ellai seiyya murpadAdhE esaigai andrO vaishnavalakshanam”
The best person who showed the perfect Srivaishnava
lakshanam in Sriramayanam is BharatAzhvan. He says, “matpApamEvAthra nimiththamAseeth” [It is my sin which is
the reason] Bharathan tried the find the reason for Sri Chakravarthi
thirumagan to be sent to the forest.
First he tried to blame manthara but then she was after all a servant
who wanted the welfare of kaikEyi.
Then he thought that kaikEyi was only responsible for this. Again kaikEyi did it due to her
vatsalyam (mother’s love). Why
did dasaratha listen to her words when he was the king and had all the rights
to take any decision? So dasaratha should be held responsible. But he did it to uphold his
words. Why did Sri rama listen to
it? He did it to make his father and stepmother happy and further to maintain
the dignity of his clan by upholding his father’s words. So finally bharathAzhvan decided that
no one other than his own fate and all his sins were responsible for Sri rama
being sent to forest. There is
absolutely no fault on bharatha and he was not even present in ayodhya when
all these happened still he took the responsibility on his heads. That is the perfect Srivaishnava
lakshanam. He further says if I
haven’t even taken birth then kaikEyi wouldn’t have behaved like this at
all.
(To be continued)
Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE
sharaNam
Adiyen ramanuja dAsee
Sumithra Varadarajan