You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Jun 2002

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00028 Jun 2002

 
Jun 2002 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImadh varavara munayE namaha

Dear Members,

This is a very long mail. Please read fully without
omitting anything in order to appreciate how
beautifully our Sri Ramanuja has explained about
emberumAn's lotus eyes.

In my previous message on the Sapathagiri magazine
blasphemy, I had told that I will be writing shortly
on the chAndhOgya upanishad vAkhyam "thasya yathA
kapyAsam puNdareekam yEvam akshiNi". I am attempting
on it now. In fact I wanted to post about this
beautiful eyes of emberumAn after reading Sri
Vedaraman Sriraman's outpouring of AmalanAdhipirAn
based on Sri Satymurthy Iyengar's translation. What an
anubhavam it was.... "..kariyavAgip pudai paranthu
miLirndhu sevvaRiyOdi, neeNda ap periyavAya kaNgaL"
will really turn every one mad on Him as was done of
Sri Pillai urangAvilli dAsar. Of course this was
possible for him only because, Sri namperumAL showed
Himself in such a way on the request of Sri Ramanujar.
Only when He shows Him we can see that. Which is why
Sri nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi, 10th decad, on
thiruvATTARu pAsuram says "kATTi than kanai kazhalgaL,
kaDu naragam pugalozhittha vATTARRemberumAnai.."
(meaning, that vATTARRemberumAn who showed His lotus
feet and saved me from entering the naragam). Great
anubhavam. Also Smt Sumitra Varadarajan's outpouring
on "kamalach chengaN" from ThirumAlai during the same
time made me to think of writing this. But due to
bhagavat sankalpam I could write only now.

Episode 1
One fine day, here is our beloved Sri Ramanuja in his
young age, (oil) bathing his guru Sri yAdhava
prakAsar. Sri yAdhava prakAsar, who was pleased with
his sishyAs service started talking about the
chAndhOgya upanishad. In the course, he started
explaining the meaning of the vAkhyam, "thasya yathA
kapyAsam puNdareekam yEvam akshiNI". He explained the
meaning as 'The Lord's eyes are red in colour just
like the butt of a monkey'. He was explaining this as
kapi (monkey) + Asam (butt) = kapyAsam (monkey's butt)
Sri Ramanuja was stunned on hearing this. He could not
bear, the comparison of the lotus eyes of emberumAn,
in which a lot of kAruNyam is always seen, with that
of the butt of a monkey. He politely refuted the
meaning with tears flowing down in his eyes and his
AchArya was at loggerheads and drove him out. The
episode ends here. 

Episode 2 (with respect to this discussion only)
Sri Ramanuja who is a pUrNa now, as the Sri Vaishnava
simhAsanAthipathi, is writing the magnum opus Sri
BhAshyam. All that is in his mind is only his
"drONa"AchArya Sri ALavandhAr's thiruvuLLam that the
rebuttal be written with the AzhwAr's pAsuram as the
basis.

He starts writing the meaning for the word "kapyAsam"
as,

"gambheerAmbas samudhbhUtha-sumrushTa
nALa-ravikaravikasitha puNdareeka thaLa amala
AyathEkshaNa"

Let us dwell on this explanation, which is a wonderful
one and irrefutable one prooving a lot of things about
our Sri Ramanuja. One may wonder, how just one word
"kapyAsam" will have so much meaning. Here I would
like to point out to all members that whatever I am
writing is based on Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swamy's
article on this topic which appeared in his
"Ramanujan" magazine. In this swAmy says that the
meanings or the vyuthpatthis of this word 'kapyAsam'
is a very difficult Sanskrit usage and that he has
elaborately explained in some his Sanskrit works for
which I have no access. However, accepting that he has
clearly explained, irrefutably, that Sri Ramanuja used
the above line to explain only the meaning of the word
'kapyAsam' let us proceed further. 


1. "gambheerAmbhas samudh bhUtha" - The Lotus has many
names like 'jalajam', 'ambujam', 'ambOjam', 'neerajam'
etc. All of us know that the lotus grows only in water
and no where else. This word "gambheerAmbhas
samudhbhUtha" denotes that the lotus is not separable
from water. This is also evident from the Sri Vachana
bhooshaNa sUtram " thAmarayai alarthakkaDava
AdhithyanthAnE, neeraip pirindhAl atthai
ulartthumApOlE", meaning "like the Sun which makes the
lotus bloom while in water, will make it dry when it
is out of water". So the association between the water
and lotus is clearly explained here. Developing
further, what Sri Ramanuja says is that 'the eyes of
the emberumAn are like that of the lotus which is
unseparable from water' Where did Sri Ramanuja get
this connection between the lotus and emberumAn's
eyes? It is from these pAsurams.

neerAr kamalam pOl sengaNmAl enroruvan - from 'Siriya
Thirumadal' (Thirumangai AzhwAr)...(1)

azhaRalar thAmaraik kaNNan - from
'thiruviruttham' (Nammazhwar) ...(2) 

The connecting words 'neerAr' and 'kamalam' explains
this clearly. In fact, in "eedu" Sri NampiLLai says
"kapyAsa sruti spashTamAgavE udhAharikkap paTTuLLadhu"
(The word 'kapyAsa' is clearly explained/referred
here). The actual Sri Sookthi is like this 

"[azhaRalar thAmaraik kaNNan] azhaRRilE ninRalarndha
thAmaraippooppOle irundhuLLa thirukkaNgaLai udayavan.
*yathA kapyAsam puNdareekamEvamakshiNI*
ennakkadavadhirE"

Sri vAdhikEsari Azhagiya maNavALa jeeyar, in his
swApadhEsArtham for this pAsuram says "azhaRu endRu
aLarRu; neerilum sERRilum ninRu alarndhu sevvi mARAdha
thAmarai pOndra kaNNaiyudayavan enRapadi".

Okay, this explains that the emberumAn's eyes are like
the lotus which is inseparable from water. But Sri
Ramanuja uses the word "gambheera", which means
"great". Where is this supported in AzhwAr's pAsurams.


thaN 'peru neer' thadanthAmarai malarndhAlokkum kaN
perunkaNNan -thiruvAimozhi(Nammazhwar) ..(3) 

The word "peru" or big is the supportive for writing
it as "gambeera". But see the beauty. while his one
line itself is enough for explaining the word in
analysis now, 3 examples are given only to show that
not only one pAsuram of one AzhwAr alone is
considered, but also many examples are there in
AzhwAr's pAsuram's with which Sri Ramanuja explained
this upanishad vAkhyam ad hence he IS A MASTER OF
TAMIL AND HENCE AZHWAR'S WORKS.

2. "sumrushTa nALa" - The lotus loses its beauty if it
is separated from its stem, just like if it is
separated from water. So being unseparated is also a
necessary condition for the lotus to retain its
beauty. So here Sri Ramanuja says that the eyes of
emberumAn are like the lotuses which are with a soft
stem. Let us see the supporting AzhwAr's pAsurams for
this.

embirAna thadankaNgaL, men kAl kamalth taDam pOl
polindhana - thiruviruttham (Nammazhwar) ..(4)
(it should be noted that the words are jumbled to give
the true meaning. Actually the pAsuram is as follows 

vankARRaRaya orungE maRindhu kiDandhalarndha
men kAl kamalth thaDam pOl polindhana - maNNum viNNum
enkARkkaLavinmaik kANminenbAnotthu vAn nimirndha
thankARpaNinda en pAl embirAna thadankaNNgaLE)

Here nALa = kAl or the stem; sumrushTa = 'men' or
'melliya'. So it is proved that even this word is
taken from AzhwAr's pAsuram only. The word "menkAl"
here is an adjective explaining the characteristic of
the lotus.

3. "ravikaravikasitha" - Only the lotus in full bloom
can be compared with that of the eye of the emberumAn,
though it is in water with stem. What makes the lotus
bloom. As seen in the point 1 above, it is the Sun
which makes the flower bloom. The AzhwAr's pAsuram
that supports this is

anchuDara veyyOn--senchuDarth thAmaraikkaN selvan -
thiruAimozhi (Nammazhwar) ...(5)

"senchudarth thAmaraikkaN selvan" means, 'the
emberumAn whose eyes are like a lotus having a reddish
glow. Where does this reddish glow come to the lotus
it is from the Sun described by the usage of the word
"anchuDara veyyOn". This explains the word "ravikara
vikasitha". The other pAsurams which support this are

senthaN kamalakkaNN....sivandha vAyOr karunAyiRu
andhamillAk kadhir parappi alarndhadhokkum ammAnE -
thiruvAimozhi (Nammazhwar) ....(6)
means, 'the emberumAn's eyes are like a reddish lotus.
The lotus which is made to bloom fully by the Sun
through its infinite rays (andhamillAk kadhir
parappi)'.

senkamalam andharanchEr vengadhirORkkallal alarAvAl -
perumAL thirumozhi (kulasEkara Azhwar)
But in this pAsuram there is no mention about the
eyes. Nevertheless this talks about the lotus blooming
on seeing the Sun's rays.

Okay, these three are explained clearly. So Sri
Ramanuja should have written the meaning as
"gambeerAmbhas samudhbhUtha sumrushTa nALa
ravikaravikasitha, puNdareekEkshaNa". But he adds
three words, 1) thaLa, 2) amala,& 3) Ayatha. What is
the basis of including these three words? Again the
basis is nothing other than AzhwAr's pAsurams.

AzhwAr's, in some places use the word 
"thAmaraikkaNNan", and use thAmaraith thaDankaNNan",
"kamalth thaDankaNNan" and "kamalath thaDam
perunkaNNan" in many places. The "la" and "La" in
Sanskrit changes to "Da" in Tamizh. This change is
advocated in the nyAya sAsthrAs, amarakOsam etc. In
amarakOsam, the word "thaLam" appears and Sri Ramanuja
was convinced that this "thaLam" in Sanskrit had
become "thaDam" in Tamizh, as in "kamalath
thaDankaNNan" and "thAmaraith thaDankaNNan". So based
on this he wrote "puNdareeka thaLa". The word "thaDam"
has two meanings. One is "Big" (viSAlam) and the
second is a Tank (like a thirukkuLam). This is
supported by pAsurams,

neelatthaDavarai mEl puNdareeka neDunthaDangaL
pOla......embirAn kaNNin kOlangaLE - thiruviruttham
(Nammazhwar) ...(7) Here the word thaDam means
"thaDAgam" a Tank.

The basis for the word "amala" is taken from
thiruvAimozhi, where Sri Nammazhwar says,

kamalakkaNNan.....amalangaLAga vizhikkum .....(8) As
you all know "amala" means flawless. Here it means the
beauty of the lotus which is flawless.

The basis for the word "Ayatha" is taken from the very
pAsuram from AmalanAdhipirAn, quoted in the beginning
of the mail, which inspired me to write this in the
list. 

"..kariyavAgip pudai paranthu miLirndhu sevvaRiyOdi,
neeNda ap periyavAya kaNgaL" ....(9)

"Ayatha" is synonymous with "neeNDa" and "periya". 


Dear Members, I have attempted to just translate a
wonderful article by Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swAmy in
one of his "Ramanuja" magazine. Actually I wanted to
share this with all when I read this about 8 months
back. But I don't know why, I waited for a pretext to
post this in the list. And now, as said above, the
wonderful essaying about our emberumAn's thirukkaNgaL
by Sri Vedaraman Sriraman and Smt Sumitra Varadarajan
really inspired me to write about this. Also the
controversy over emberumAnAr knowing the divya
prabhandhams or not added to this desire. 

It can be seen from above references (1) to (9) that,
Sri Ramanuja used ATLEAST (but not limited to) the
following AzhwArs pAsurams to write the Sri Bhashyam.

1. Sri Nammazhwar,
2. Sri Thirumangai Azhwar,
3. Sri Kulasekara Azhwar &
4. Sri Thiruppanazhwar.

By this even the foolish argument that emberumAnAr did
not know tamizh is refuted. 

Again if you see the thaniyans of these AzhwArs,

- Sri NathamunigaL, Sri eeswara munigaL, Sri SoTTai
Nambi, Sri AnanthAzhwAr and Sri BhaTTar have composed
thaniyans for ThiruvAimozhi and Sri Kidambiaacchan
composed the thaniyan for Thiruviruttham. Certainly
Sri Kidambiaacchaan, Sri AnanthAzhwAr and Sri BhaTTar
belong to the same period as Sri Ramanujar and beyond.
Now if one were to say that only those who composed
the thaniyan had discovered these pAsurams, does it
mean that all the five above, have discovered it in
various periods? How absurd it is? 

Again the author in that magazine says that only
thiruvAimozhi was considered to be of some substance.
If it were so, why a great AchArya like Sri
Kidambiaacchaan composed a thaniyan for
Thiruviruttham? This proves that all the other pAsurms
were also equally in vogue and considered equally
divine.

- Sri Thirukkottiyur Nambi, Sri Emberumanar, Sri
Kooratthazhwan & Sri Embar have composed thaniyans for
Periya Thirumozhi of Sri Thirumangai Azhwar. Same
questions as above apply to this. Here emberumAnAr
himself has composed a thaniyan for this pAsuram. So
certainly emberumAnAr has gone through this and had
mastered it. So where is the question that emberumAnAr
did not know Tamizh/Thiruvaimozhi/and other pAsurams.

- Again Sri EmberumAnAr and Sri maNakkAl Nambi have
composed thaniyan for Sri KulasekarAzhwar's perumAL
thirumozhi. 

and finally,

- Sri Periya Nambi and Sri Thirumalai Nambi have
composed the thaniyans for AmalanAdhippirAn. These
AchAryAs were quoted by that author amongst those who
do not know Tamizh and AzhwAr's pAsurams.

Sri ALavandhar composed the very famous thaniyan
"mAthA pithA....." on Sri Nammazhwar and how one can
say that he would not have gone through his
Thiruvaimozhi and other prabhandhams. 

Remember that a thaniyan is a song of praise on a
person and this does not have a meaning unless the
person who composed it had utmost respect on that
person, based on his works.


I am sorry to have combined an argument with one of
the great anubhavams of enjoying the emberumAn. But I
had to do it as the necessity was generated. 

Any mistakes in the above is purely mine and all the
credits goes to Sri P.B.Annangarachariar swamy for his
wonderful work.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh





__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com




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