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

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00067 Nov 2002

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


Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

Dear Bhaagavatas,

Permit adiyEn to add a few words to Velukkudi Swamin's
reply to this query.

Our acharyas have shown that Azhvars indeed have spoken
about Bhagavad Gita in their works. Other than the 
pasuram that Velukkudi Swami wrote, about Thirumazhisaop
pirAn's pasuram on Gita, there are a couple of other
pasurams that come to adiyEn's mind.

Andal speaks of her father Periyazhvar as "meymaip
peruvArththai Vishnuchitthar kEttirupar" - that is
Periyazhvar would listen to the great, true word
spoken by Him. Acharyas have supplied vyakhyanam
for this as follows: Periyazhvar is considered the
amsam of Sri Garudazhvar. And Garuda became the chariot
for Sri Krishna during the Mahabharata war. Therefore,
Periyazhvar had listened to the great and true words
of Gita spoken by the Lord.

In Thiruvaymozhi, Swami Nammazhvar says "aRivinAl
kuRaivillA agal njAlaththavar aRiya, neRiyellAm 
eduththuraiththa niRainjAnath orumUrththi". Here the
neRi that He gave out is the Bhagavad Gita. Acharyas
have said that the Vedas contain all the truth but
hide them from us - that is, they are not easily
understood. Lord Krishna gave us the essence of the
Vedas and showed us the true path (neRi) through 
the Gita.

Sadly, I hear that there were attempts by certain
folks to use the azhvars pasurams to claim that Gita
was a latter day addition to Mahabharatam.

AdiyEn too, however, had a doubt as to why the azhvars
did not mention the Gita at a lot of places.

I think the reason for this is as follows.

Nanjeeyar says the following: "... kamsavathaththukkup
pinbAgak kazhiththu munbu veNNai kaLavu kaNdu 
yasOthaip pirAttiyAr kaiyAlE kattuNdu avaLukkanji
ninRa avaSthaiyaiyudaiya kushNanE ... ellAmenRum ..." 
when describing Srivaishnavas. That is, Srivaishnavas 
are those who are attached to Sri Krishna avatar (even 
more than Him at paramapadam), but even here they are 
attached only to that Krishna before Kamsa vada who stole 
butter and was caught by Yasoda and stood afraid of her.

I think the Azhvars have approached Him the same way. 
While Bhagavad Gita is no doubt important, Azhvars are 
still more attached to Sri Krishna in His youth, as this 
is when He showed the sowseelya and sowlabhya guNas to
the greatest extent. He showed other guNas too such as 
gnAna, shakti, etc, which He continued to exhibit 
throughout the avatar. But sowseelyam and sowlabhyam 
were not shown again by Sri Krishna to the extent it 
was at Ayppadi.

And Azhvars were in love with those guNas more than 
anything else. Recall that Nammazhvar fainted and 
was unconcious for six months upon thinking of these 
guNas when he sang the words "maththuRu kadai veNNai 
kaLavinil uravidai aappUNdu eththiRam uralinOdum 
iNainthirunthu Engkiya eLivE". His eLimai (sowseelyam) 
is what caused Azhvar to faint for six months.
Thiruppanazhvar too thinks of Krishna only as
"veNNai uNda vAyan". Thiruppavai is dedicated to
Krishna in Gokulam. And so on.

Knowing that, it should not be surprising that Azhvars
did not sing much about the Kurukshetra war, the 
Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's rule at Dwaraka, etc.

I look to bhaagavatas to add their thoughts and to 
correct my opinion expressed above.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
TCA Venkatesan

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
http://launch.yahoo.com/u2




[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