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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00157 Dec 2005

 
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                     TiruppAvai ?sAram?
                     ------------------

If the TiruppAvai is to be considered ?upanishad
sAram?, then it may well and equally be said that the
29th and penultimate stanza in the sacred hymn of
AndAl is verily ?tiruppAvai sAram? ?i.e the essence of
the whole TiruppAvai bottled into but one fragrant and
memorable verse (?nigama parimalam?). 

In most SriVaishnava homes or families, the TiruppAvai
in its entirety (?muppathUm thappAmE?) might get sung
only during the course of the 30 days of the
?mArgazhi? month. The 29th verse, however, will
continue to be chanted every day of the remaining
months of the rest of the year, and then year after
year without fail, forever. 

Every morning, when prayers to a household deity in a
SriVaishnava home draw to a close, there is  usually a
short burst of staccato recitations from
litany-passages culled out of a selection of Sanskrit
and Tamil scriptures. It is called ?sAttrmarai?. It
marks the climactic moment when the traditional daily
ritual of domestic worship (?nitya-tiruvArAdanam?) is
brought to a solemn close after the deity (usually, a
small icon or idol of Vishnu, Rama or Krishna, or a
sacred ?sAlagrAma-murthi? pebble) has been
ceremoniously bathed, clothed, bedecked with flowers
and jewelry, anointed with perfumery, offered food
(?prasAd?) and, after due honors, is finally beseeched
to continue presiding over the whole household,
protecting its members and showering His Grace and
Compassion on every member of the family (?engUm
tiruvarUL petru inbUruvar empAvaay!?, in the words of
the TiruppAvai). 

Now, in the ?sattrmarai? crescendo, it is no surprise
at all that by long-standing and well-established
convention, the very first passage taken up for
chanting by the assembled devotees is the 29th verse
from the TiruppAvai. It is not difficult to understand
why the SriVaishnava convention of litany
(?pArAyaNa-kramam?) has chosen to single out this
particular verse from amongst several other ageless,
sacred passages in the vast body of Vedantic
literature, and given it its prime pride of place. It
is because, more than any other single ?shlOka? in all
of the vast religious literature abounding in the
SriVaishnava faith, it is this verse alone, that is
seen to capture and contain, in full and exact
measure, both the substance and spirit of Vedantic
thought as expressed or embodied in the very best and
most heart-felt of Bhakti sentiment. 

For ordinary households anywhere in the world -- whose
family members even while they go about leading
secular lives that rarely, if ever at all, rise above
the banal or quotidian ?- for such households that yet
earnestly wish to pursue, embrace, practice and
cherish the nobility that lies in the Vedantic Way of
life (?vEdAnta-mArga?), to such distinguished people
the 29th verse of the TiruppAvai is indeed an
extremely handy and invaluable aid. 

The 29th verse of the TiruppAvai in fact, as the rest
of this series of essays shall attempt to describe, is
daily dosage of healthy Vedantic tonic for the human
soul.   

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

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan 


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