Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha
Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha
Paasuram-15
"paladEvarEththap padikadandhAn pAdham
malarERa vittiraNji vAzhththa-valarAgil
mArkaNdan kaNda vagaiyE varunkaNdeer
neerkAndan kaNda nilai"
Many people get betrayed due to falling into the feet of incapable devas
declared azhvar in the previous paasuram. Now azhvar talks about the state of
those incapable devas, who many people consider to be their sole saviour, and
what they are actually doing under the divine feet of emperuman and hence shows
the way for everyone to fall to emperuman's feet and get uplifted.
(paladEvarEththap padikadandhAn) Amidst the praise of the devas including the
head of the devas, nAnmuka brahma the supreme lord measured the three worlds.
With the lord's feet on top of their heads what other go does the devas have
other than to accept his supremacy even if they had taunted on their own
supremacy at other times. Thirumazhisai azhvar himself in another paasuram
says, "kuraikonda nAnmukan kuNdikai neer peidhu maRaikonda mandhiraththAl
vAzhththi" When brahma himself does this what is left for the other devas,
other than to follow the leader?
(pAdham malarERa vittiraNji vAzhththa-valarAgil) If you pray to that supreme
lord and do pooja to his divine feet with beautiful flowers ("kallAr tuzhAyum
kaNavalarum koovalaiyum mullAr mulariyum Ambalum") said azhvar.
We replied: Oh! We have already done that pooja.
Azhvar: Yes you have done it but not to the divine feet of emperuman but
instead to those devathas who once themselves prostrated to the lord's divine
feet. They are his servants. Why waste time praying to them? The same could be
done to the divine feet of emperuman as per the sastras. Whatever pooja you do
to those devas they instead are doing the same to the divine feet of emperuman
then why don't you directly do the same to the supreme lord. We don't need
anyone to mediate between the lord and us as we have a direct connection with
him.
(valarAgil) Azhvar shows a sign of doubt here as the number of people who
directly fall to the feet of Sriman Narayanan is very less when compared to
those going astray (Asaipattu Alwar palar)
Ok! If we follow your advice then what will happen?
(neerkaNdan kaNda nilai mArkaNdan kaNda vagaiyE varum kaNdeer) Here the words
of the paasuram have been rearranged for easy understanding of the meaning.
This is called as 'anvayam'
The state of neerkaNdan-Sivan/Rudran (Rudran swallowed the alakAla poison that
appeared from the parkadal during the churning of ocean for the benefit of all.
While the poison was in his throat parvathi caught hold of rudran's throat and
hence the poison was stopped from going into the stomach. Thereby the throat of
rudran remained blue in colour and hence he is called as
neelakaNdan/neerkaNdan). MarkandEyan, the son of mrugandu maharishi came to
know about his death in a few days and hence went to rudra and asked for
extended lifetime and then moksha. Rudra hesitated and then slowly told
markandEya that he cannot grant moksha as lord janardhana is the sole head who
can grant moksha and that he was also one among the many who do
sAdhanAnushtAnams. Thereby markandEya did tapas towards the supreme lord and
became a great vishnu bhaktha and finally his wish was fulfilled by the
nirheduka krupai of emperuman. So markandEyan fully understood the state of
rudra. So if we pray to that emperuman with doing pooja to his divine feet we
will be able to realize the actual state of other devas like markandEya and if
we continue to fall into his divine feet then we are sure to be blessed with
the state obtained by markandEya.
Note: MarkandEya vriththAntham has been clearly stated in 12th skandam of Sri
bhagavatham and mahabharatham Aranya parva. Number of azhvar paasurams can also
be quoted to indicate to the same episode.
(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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