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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00065 Jan 2003

 
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Dear friends,

If Stanza#28 ("karaivagal pin senru") celebrates the soul's
attaiment of God in the climactic moments of the 'tiruppAvai',
Stanza#29 ("sitran siru kAlE..") today (13 Jan) celebrates the
aftermath of such attainment.

The aftermath of attaining God, in SriVaishnava
thought, is equally, if not more important than the
soul's union with God.

What is the "aftermath" of such union? What does
attainment of 'brahman' entail? What follows
after a soul has attained the supreme state of
"parama-padam". This profound Upanishadic question
gets answered in the 29th 'pasuram' of the tiruppAvai.

******** ********** *********

The "aayarpAdi" girls say, "nee, kutrayval engaLai
kollAmal pOgAdu... anru kAn gOvindA... etraikkum
Ezh-Ezh piravikkum... undannOdu utrOmE aavOm... unakkE
nAmAt seyyvOm!".

This is a phrase pregnant with enormous significance.

After having "attained" the Feet of Krishna
("pOtthAmarai adiyE") the girls tell Him:

"O Krishna, if you think that we are happy now that we
have attained you, then you are thoroughly mistaken.
Our goal is not simply attaining you. Our real goal is
to attain you and then enter upon your personal
service ("antaranga kainkaryam") as your servants....
It is only You, O Krishna, who can grant us such
eternal employment whose rich reward is You Yourself!"

(In the "ArAiyarapadi" the commentator Sri.AMP Nayanar
puts it very beautifully, "engallai nee
kollumadanai-yozhiya, nAngal un pakkalilley unnai
yozhiyavumm koLvathonrundu enrerrindAyO!").

"O Krishna, our service to you should be not just for
now, not for today, not just for tomorrow... but for
eternity. The joy of eternal Service to You
("kainkarya-purushArtha") is for us a thousand-fold
greater than the joy of attaining You." (Here, one
recollects the prayer of nammAzhwAr's to the Lord of
Tirupati (T.mozhi 3-3-1):"ozhivil-kAlamellAm udanAy
manni, vazhuvilA adimai seyya vendumm nAm!").

The girls further tell Krishna, "Our service to, O
Krishna must be uninterrupted.... there should be no
break or leave of absence...."sambandham undAyirukka
seyydE patthumAsam pirind iruthal; pathinAlAndu pirind
iruthal, pathinArAndu pirind irutthal
seyyavonNAdu".... even if there should be some such
fated interruption, O Krishna, let us not be separated
from You too long.... 10 months like Sita is the
utmost we can bear.... but if we were to be separated
from you for 14 long years like Bharatha was or for 16
interminable years like NammAlwAr...it would be simply
unbearable for us....". The pathos ("akinchanayatvam")
of the poor, simple aayarpAdi girls is superbly portrayed
here by gOdA-pirAttiyAr.

Finally they tell Krishna, "Lord, 'matrai nam kAmangaL
mAtru"... 

In the course of our eternal employment ("nitya-
kainkaryam") with You, may our single-minded desire to serve
You remain unchanged! And should our hearts entertain the trace
of any other desire ("matru kAmangal") whatsoever, even those
desires, O Krishna, please sublimate them and convert everyone of
them ("mAtru") into undying God-desire only.....".

Beautiful and moving lines indeed are these of AndAl-pirAtti where
she defines for us what is true Desire and what is true Prayer.

If we pray to God to fulfil our many desires in life, prayer
becomes unwise. The purpose of life is not satiation of desire. If we
pray to God to root out all desire, that too would be un-realistic
because 'kAmA' can never be extinguished as long there is life. But
if we realize the true destiny of human desire -- that 'kAmA' too is
in fact one of the 4 great 'purushArthA-s' of life (the other being
'dharma', 'artha' and 'moksha'), then we would appreciate that the
wisest course of action for us is to pray, as the 'aayarpAdi' girls
did, for all gross desires to be turned into a sublime one... i.e to
be sublimated into a single all-powerful, all-exclusive desire for
God.

Prayer might start with trifles -- the 'aayarpAdi' girls ask indeed
for trifles in the previous pAsuram-s -- but finally, in Verse 29, we
see them asking God for the sublimation of their petty personal
desires. 

If we must pray for the various petty things in life
there will be no end to our petitioning. But if we pray for the one
thing in life that will put an end to all petitioning forever,
imagine how liberated and joyful we can be! This simple truth is
shown
to us here by AndAl. The prayer of the 'aayarpAdi' girls is the
surest way in which we too can organize our many unsatiated worldly
desires so that God may work through them for the realization of the
real end of life -- viz. the cessation of desire ending in
"parama-purushArtam".

When we pray to God in this way, it tends to purify and enlighten the
desire itself. And when the petition is granted it may be on a much
higher plane than when it was first offered to God. Yet it is the
same
prayer! The desire is always satisfied. But it gets sublimated in the
process of satiation.

That is exactly what happens to the 'aayarpAdi' girls, as we see, in
the tiruppAvai. They start by praying to God for things like rain,
good crops and prosperity("sAra mazhai", "teengnru nAdu" and
"neengAtha selvam"); then they ask for their sacrifices to be
fruitful
("neyy unnOm, pAl unnOm"); then they ask for trifles like "parai",
"villaku", "kOdi", "vidAnam" etc.. ... but finally they end up asking
for nothing else in life ("matrai namkAmangal matru") but the highest
and supreme Destiny of all Desire -- oneness with God and eternal
servitude to Him... "undannOdu utrOmE aavOm... unakkE nAmAt
seyyvOm!".

The essence of 'pAsuram' 29 is therefore only this: "Our prayer to
God
is not to ask that He change the course of things in this world for
our sake. True prayer is to ask Him to help us be part of that course
of
things He has designed for all Creation".

********* ******** **********

God ("mula-sukhrutan") is the means ("upAyam") and the
End ("upEyam") for every soul. He will shower his
infinite Mercy ("nirhEtuka-kripa") upon a soul of His
accord. All that the individual soul must do is to wish for
"ananya prayOjana kainkaryam' ... for eternal service unto
Him exactly as the 'aayarpAdi' girls did.

This is the highest and subtlest truth of SriVaishnavite
philosophy that this 29th Stanza of the "tiruppAvai"
teaches.

AndAl tiruvadigalE sharanam

dAsan,
Sudarshan 



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