You are here: SriPedia - SriRangaSri - Archives - Jan 2008

SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00036 Jan 2008

 
Jan 2008 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


 SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya nama:

Dearest all,

Subsequent to my first post, here is the sequel..
Sri Anbil Swami is pouring in with his Godha sthuthi
posts as well. Insatiable nectar for all your
consumption and pleasure

Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan
************
6.  Order reversed!

The usual refrain in devotion is that it should be in
unison at all levels of mind, word and deed and IN
THAT ORDER.

?manas Ekam, Vachas Ekam KarmaN Ekam maha-aatmanaam/
Manas anyath vachas anyath Karman anyath
dur-aathmanaam//

Andal recognized how difficult it is to control the
mind and reversed the order completely because it
would then be easier to achieve this. See the Paasuram
5 ?Maayanai mannu vaDamathurai mainthanai?? where she
puts the deed first, followed by word and finally by
the mind thus: ?Thoo malar thoovi thozhudu? (offering
flowers ? a physical act), ?vaayinaal PaaDi? (Singing
Lord?s glory ? employing words) and finally
?manathinaal chinthikka? (Contemplating on the Lord (a
mental exercise). This has been explained by asmad
Acharyan in his article in his ?SathaabhishEka Ratna
maalaa?.
Is not this reversal a revolution in the sequence of
worship?

7. First Accept. You have no need to research!
In every Paasuram, you can see the word ?yEl-Ore? as a
constant refrain. Now what does this word mean? It is
a combination of two words, namely ?yEl? which means
?Accept? and ?Ore? which means ?Think about it?.
Normally, people are asked to ?think about? a matter
and if found agreeable to ?accept? the same. Andal
reverses this order. She exhorts us to first accept
and then only think because she had already thought
about the matter exhaustively and arrived at
irrefutable conclusions and there was no need for us
to waste our time and energy in analyzing the pros and
cons of the matter.

In Gurukula Vaasm (Residential Studentship), the
system was to ?catch them young? teaching the young
pupils to recite mantras by rote in ?santhai? mode
because once committed to memory while young, it would
stay put indelibly for the rest of their life. There
is a whale of time after they leave the Gurukulam to
savor the nuances of what they had learned by
retrieving the mantras lodged in memory and enjoying
them. Andal?s approach is similar to this method of
teaching adopted in the olden days. No attempt to
argue it out in the first place!

This is also akin to what Tirumazhisai Azhwar advised
in Naanmukhan Tiruvantaadi in which he practically
ordered that he had analyzed all faiths and by a
stroke of good luck had arrived at the conviction and
conclusion that Lord of TiruvEnkaTam IS THE Paramaatma


?sAkkiyam katrOm, SamaNam katrOm, SankaranAr  aakkiya
Aagamanool aarAindhOM; BhaggiyathAl venkaTkariyAnai
SerndOm? (Tiruchanda Viruttam)

 ?We learned SAkkiyam (Jainism) SamaNam (Buddhism) and
did deep research into the doctrine of Saivam; which
were all totally misleading?

He advised in no uncertain terms that he having done
all the needed research on our behalf, we should
accept his conclusions as final and have no need to
?think it over? again! He says:

Naanmuganai NaaraayaNan paDaithaan - Naanmuganum
Taan mugamaai sankaranait taan paDaithaan ? yaan
mugamaai
Anthaadi mEliTTu arivithEn aazh poruLai
Sintaamal koNmin neer tErndu (Nanmugan Tiruvantaadi 1)
What an amount of self confidence Andal has and tries
to infuse in us!

8. Magic of Music 

The Vedas are 4 in number, Rik, Yajur, Saama and
Atharva. A whole Veda, namely, Saama Veda is totally
dedicated to rendering of mantras set to music. We
Indians ought to be proud that we are the pioneers in
integrating Music with Mantras to guide us on our
spiritual journey. Sri Nathamunigal received in a
trance from Swami Nammaazhwar the 4000 holy collects
known as ?Naalaayira Divya Prabandams? and promptly
chronicled them (paTTOLai PaDuthuvatu) , setting them
to music with appropriate Raagam, TaaLam etc and
initiated his disciples (MElai agathu Azhwaan and
Keezhai agathu Azhwaan) to spread the message through
the medium of music. This magic of fusion of music and
mantras (Sangeeta and Saahitya) is nowhere seen more
pronouncedly than in the rendering of the psalms of
Andal?s Tiruppavai. Andal, the God intoxicated bridal
mystic repeatedly emphasizes the musical aspect of her
magnum opus ? Tiruppavai, using the words ?PaaDu,
?PaaDi? etc in most of the 30 stanzas in her work For
example -

?Paraman aDi paaDi? (2), ?Utthaman pER paaDi? (3),
Vaayinaal paaDi? (5),?kEsavanaip paaDavum? (7),
?paaDip Parai koNDu? (8) ?mughil vaNnan pEr paaDa?
(11), ?manathukku iniyaani paaDavum? (12), ?Keerthimai
paaDip pOi? (13), ?Pangayak kaNNaanaip paaDavum? (14),
?maayani paaDElOr? (15), ?Thuyil ezhap paaDuvaan?
(16),  ?maithunan pEr paaDa? (18),?thiruruthakka
selvamum yam paaDi? (25), ?PallaaNdu isaippaarE? (20),
?Unnaip paaDip parai koNdu? (27)
Is this not a pioneering effort which no other Azhwar
seems to have attempted?

9. Pioneer in Community / Social service
It used to be said that till the time of Bhagavad
Ramanuja the initiation of the esoteric secrets were
handed down on ?one to one? basis (OraaN vazhi) i.e.
one preceptor to his one disciple, ?one at a time? and
that only Sri Ramanuja opened up the floodgates of
initiation to ?one and all? who desired such
initiation. 

Even her father, Periyaazhwar invited only those who
wished to ?save their souls? ?vaazh aaT paTTu ninreer
uLLeerEl vandu maNNUm maNamum koNmin? and segregated
and ?denied access? to others who were after worldly
pleasures, saying ?Koozh aaT paTTu ninreergaLai engaL
kuzhuvinil pugudal oTTOm?. 

But, the life of Andal shows that she shared the
secrets with all the 5 lakhs Gopis in the style of
?KooDi irundu kuLirndu? and through them the entire
posterity - a kind of community / social service that
made no such distinctions, the only requirement being
a desire for liberation (pOduveer poduminO)

Does this not show that in this also she is a pioneer,
a ?Maarga Darsi? as mentioned earlier?

10. ?Womens? lib movement? - of a different kind!
Do you know that Andal was the first votary of
?Womens? lib? movement?

This, she did - not through rebellion against what is
perceived as ?male chauvinism? but through a love and
affection compelling her spouse to do her bidding.

The most revolutionary of revolutions she spearheaded
was regarding her marriage. Having taken birth as a
human being she dared to marry the Paramaatma in his
archa moorti and she succeeded in it. Can any woman
(who talks of ?Womens? lib? movement today, desire
similarly, let alone achieve such a feat? It is Andal
who proved her point not only by saying: ?maaniDarkku
enru pEtchup paDil vaazhagillEn kaNDaai? (NT 1.5) but
also by accomplishing what she desired.
Thus, Andal is the pioneer of the ?Womens? lib?
movement albeit of a different kind!

11. Role Model for ?Inter Caste marriage?!
There is one more astonishing point about her
marriage. There was and even today is, so much taboo
on Inter-caste marriages. But, Andal being a Brahmin
married an ?iDaiyan? (a community that tends sheep and
cattle and usually live in forest lands). She was thus
a pioneer and a great revolutionary ushering in Inter
caste marriage at a time when people could never
imagine such a sacrilegious thing! 

It is interesting to note that the same analogy is
presented by Andal and Rukmini in different ways
representing their respective ?varnas?. Andal, the
Brahmin girl would not brook marrying anyone else
saying that ?the ?havis? is prepared for Gods cannot
be touched by a vile wily fox? (This is because
Brahmins engaged in Yagjna used to prepare food for
offering as ?havis? to the Gods.) On the other hand,
Rukmini, the Kshatriya girl who also married KrishNa
says that ?the meat for offering to Lion cannot be
touched by a vile wily fox?. (This is because before
embarking on a war, Kshatriyas used to offer meat to a
lion.)

This, however, cannot be taken as a precedent by
modern girls because neither they can claim to be
Andal or Rukmini nor will they ever dare to marry an
?Archa murthi? like Andal!

The credit for this revolution goes to our Andaal.
[To be continued]

dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy




      
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs


 
Yahoo! Groups Links

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

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:SriRangaSri-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    mailto:SriRangaSri-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    SriRangaSri-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
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list