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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00114 Jan 2004

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha



There is a type of grammar in sAnskrit called as "sAmAnAdhikaranam" - 'Bhinna 
pravriththi nivruththAnAm sabdhAnAm A-kasmin arthE vriththi:' To put it in 
simple words, this is a case where many adjectives are attributed to a single 
nown (a single vishEshyam but many vishEshanams). For example, "Rama is a tall, 
beautiful, intelligent person" Here tall, beautiful and intelligent are 
adjectives that talk about the same person. Similarly in his very first 
paasuram of thirunedunthAndakam, thirumangai azhvar uses a number of adjectives 
to the very same nown, the paramatma, Sriman Narayanan. He says, minnuruvAi, 
vEdam nAngAi, vilakkoliyAi, mulaiththu ezhundha thingal thAnAi and so on about 
the same emperuman. This sAmAnAdhikaranam is a very important concept in our 
sampradayam as emperumAnAr himself, has used this in many of his commentaries 
to establish our sampradayam. We are all parts of that emperuman; 
sareera-sareeri bhAvam is the lifeline of our rAmAnuja darshanam. We are all 
his attributes.



(MinnuruvAi-munnuruvil) As already seen, munnuru denotes the objects visible to 
our eyes, all the insentient objects (including our body). Thirumangai azhvar 
says that these insentient objects are like the lightning. The same has been 
expressed by Swamy nammazhvar also ("minnin nilai ella mannuyir Akkaigal"). 
Swamy Nammazhvar says that the lifetime of this body is worse than a lightning. 
How is that? We see that a lightning exists only for a few seconds. But all of 
us know that it will exist only for seconds but none of us can say when this 
body will actually fall. Such is the temporary nature of our body. While 
compared to the mountains and rocks the period the body exists is very short. 
So the azhvars call this body to be 'minnuru'. Now that we have accepted the 
body to be temporary like the lightning the very next question will be how can 
this be attributed to the paramAtma who is a nithyan. Though the soul is 
nithyan it is common to say that our life is short, though only the body falls. 
Similarly since we are all parts of that paramatma it is not wrong to call him 
also "minnuruvAi".



An atma takes this body only to spend its prArabhda karma and after completing 
the same it sheds this body like we throwing a worn out shirt and taking a new 
one to adorn our body. The same is expressed by Krishna as follows:



"vAsAmsi jeernAni yathA vihAya navAni kruhnAti narOparANi I

thathA sareerAni vihAya jeenAni anyAni samyAthi navAni dEhee II" (2-22)



One another sloka of geethAcharyan that reverberates the same artha is,



"antha vantha emE dEhA: nithyas yOkthA: sareeriNa: I

anAsinO apramEyasya thasmAt yudyasva bhAratha II" (2-18)



[Oh! bhAratha (born in the bharata kula) know that this body that is seen by 
you is taken by that atma (soul), which is neither created nor destroyed and 
that which enjoys and that which is different from all those insentient objects 
that are enjoyed, in order to spend its karmas and hence will be abandoned by 
the soul as soon as the prArabhdam (poorva karma) is over and hence don't 
hesitate to fight the war.]



Here emE is the body (munnuru); dEha: - that which looses weight gradually 
(minnuru)



Swamy Periya vAchan Pillai (PVP) in his thirunedunthAndaka vyakhyanam says as 
follows:



"bhOjanArthamAga angeegariththa kalamum bhOjanAndharam asprushyamApOlE, edhuvum 
kAryAntharam tyAjyamAgakkadavadhu"



We all use plastic plates to eat. Do we preserve them after eating? No we throw 
them off. Similarly, the soul enters this body to spend its karma and after 
completion of the same it leaves this body and enters a fresh body. So it is 
seen that the body has a temporary life and the soul is permanent though it 
keeps moving from one body to another. How to get out of this cycle? We will 
see in the next postings.



(To be continued)



Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam



Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan



























[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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