You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Jul 2006

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00145 Jul 2006

 
Jul 2006 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


                tri-mUrti in tiruvAimozhi ? Part 21.

4.8.1 (30):

        ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSai muganum, tirumagaLum
        kURu ALum tani uDamban, kulam kulamA asurargaLai
        neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa
        mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE.

In this pASuram, AzhvAr refers to the beauty of bhagavAn's tirumEni, 
His sauSIlyam, His vIryam, His ability to accomplish whatever He 
wants by His mere sa'nkalpam, etc.  Above all, AzhvAr points out that 
anything that cannot become useful in the kainkaryam of bhagavAn is a 
waste as far as he is concerned, no matter how attractive it may seem 
in the eyes of the rest of the world.  He is singing this 
tiruvAimozhi in the nAyaki bhAvam.  

mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE ? AzhvAr assumes the role of 
bhagavAn's nAyaki, and declares that she has no use for the beautiful 
complexion of her body if it does not attract emperumAn.

Who is this emperumAn that he is referring to?

ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSaimuganum, tirumagaLum kURu ALum tani uDamban ?
 The One Who has the beautiful tirumEni that is shared between the 
deity who has the bull as his vehicle, by the four-faced brahmA, and 
by Goddess mahAlakshmi.

Kulam kulamA aSurargaLai neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa 
mARALan ? He is also the One who made the decision through His mere 
Will that the wicked asura-s who were enemies of His devotees will be 
destroyed without trace, by numbers upon numbers.  

kuRai ilamE ? I do not care for
maNimAmai ? my beautiful complexion
mARALan kavarAda ? if it does not attract the Supreme Lord
tani uDamban -  who has the uniquely beautiful tirumEni; a-dvitIya 
vigrahattai uDaiyavan.
kURu ALum ? different parts of which are occupied by 
ERu ALum iRaiyOnum ? The deity who has the bull as his vehicle (a 
reference to Siva)
tiSai muganum ? The one who has faces in the four directions (a 
reference to the four-faced brahmA)
tirumagaLum ? and by Mother MahAlakshmi 
paDai toTTa ? and He Who destroyed with His weapons
kulam kulamA ? by generations upon generations
aSurargaLai ? the demons
neeRu Agum paDiyaga niyamittu ? after deciding that they will be 
destroyed without trace.

AzhvAr refers to Sivan as the one who has the bull as his vehicle, to 
contrast him with bhagavAn who has garuDa, the personification of the 
veda-s, as His vehicle.  The fact that emperumAn has accommodated 
Siva and brahmA in His body at the same level as He has accorded to 
His Divine Consort, SrI mahAlakshmi, shows His sauSIlyam or His 
willingness to treat all at equal level.  

nirumittu ? sankalpittu:  emperumAn is also One Who could have 
destroyed the asura-s, who were enemies of His devotees, through a 
minute fraction of His Infinite Will power.  But instead of 
destroying them thus with His Will power alone, bhagavAn chooses to 
use His weapons to kill them.   He would have destroyed them through 
His Will power alone if they were showing enmity only towards Him; 
but instead, they were showing enmity towards His devotees, and this 
is something that He could not tolerate.  So He became angry, and 
used His weapons to destroy them.  Through his choice of words, 
AzhvAr shows that bhagavAn will not tolerate any offense to His 
devotees ? He will not tolerate bhAgavata apacAram.   

kulam kulamA asurargaLai nIrAgum paDiyAga nirumittu paDai toTTa ? 
refers to His veeryam - one His six primary guna-s.  

mARu ALan ? He Who considers the enemies of His devotees as His own 
enemies;  He Who literally exchanges His position with that of the 
devotee, and destroys their enemies.   Note Lord kRshNa's refusal to 
eat in duryodhana's place, just because the later was an enemy of the 
pANDava-s;  in other words, He considered the enemy of the pANDava-s 
as His own enemy ? 

        dvishad-annam no bhoktavyam dvishantam naiva bhojayet   |
        pANDavAn dvishase rAjan mama prANA hi pANDavAH    ||

The spirit expressed in this pASuram by AzhvAr in his nAyikA bhAvam, 
is the same that is expressed by sItA pirATTi in SrImad rAmAyaNam:  

        na hi me jIvitenArthaH, naivArthair-na ca bhUshaNaiH   |
        vasantI rAkshasI madhye vinA rAmam mahA ratham   ||

"For me, living in the midst of these rAkshasi-s, without the great 
warrior rAma by my side, neither life itself, nor any of the other 
materials around me or the ornaments etc., are of any meaning"  (I do 
not care for any of these in the absence of my Lord rAma)".

It is also the same spirit that is conveyed by ALavandAr in his 
stotra ratnam:

        na deham na prANAn na ca sukham aSeshAbhilAshitam
        na cAtmAnam nAnyat kimapi tava Seshatva vibhavAt   |
        bahirbhUtam nAtha! kshaNamapi sahe yAtu satatA 
        vinASam tat satyam madhumatana! vij~nApanam idam   ||

"O madhusUdana! Please listen to this declaration that I make in 
front of mahAlakshmi:  This body that is useful for observing all the 
dharma-s, the prANa-s that support this body, the pleasures that all 
beings like, the soul that supports all these, the children and the 
relatives ? all of these are of use to me only if they help me in 
serving You.  If they are not of use for this, then they are of no 
use for me.  They can all disappear without a trace for me.  This is 
not something that I say for the sake of saying.  If this be a false 
statement, then I should suffer the same fate that the demon by name 
madhu suffered at Your hands".   

ANDAL reflects the same sentiment when She declares:  "koLLum payan 
onRu illAda ko'ngai tannai kizha'ngODum aLLip parittiTTu avan mArbil 
eRindu en azhalait tIrvEnE".  

AzhvAr has already referred to the sauSIlyam of emperumAn in 
accommodating rudra and brahmA in His body, in the two pASuram-s we 
have covered earlier: 

valattanan tirupuram erittavan (1.3.9)
ERanaip pUvanaip pU-magaL tannai (2.2.3)

It has been explained there that He is accommodating them in His body 
for their protection, in addition to reflecting His sauSIlyam.

Note that in this pASuram, bhavAn's guNa of vIrya as well as sauSIlya 
are sung.  SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan points out that this is 
analogous to vAlmIki rAmayaNam, where vAlmIki asks nArada to identify 
that person who has sixteen important guNa-s, the first two 
being `guNa' (meaning saiSIlya guNa), and `vIrya' ? guNavAn kaSca 
vIryavAn (bAla. 1.2)

This tiruvAimozhi teaches us that anything that will not be of 
interest to emperumAn should be given up by the bhakta.  

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

(To be continued)






 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list