Thiruppavayum Thirunedunthandagamum: Day 8

On 23/12/2014 Ubha Ve.Adoor Asuri Madhavachariar swami’s upanyasam Tiruppavai and Tirunedunthandakam entered the 8th day.” Keezhvaanam vellenru” ,the 8th pasuram of Tiruppavai was analysed.The third gopi is being woken up and more signs of daylight are to be seen.The eastern sky has whitened and even the slow buffaloes have gone grazing. Young gopis of their goshti on the way for their early morning bath have been stopped so that after waking up this gopi they can all go together. Come and join the happy group to do nama sankirtanam and remember the killing of Kesi, Mushtika and Chanura by the child Krishna. Was He a child ,no He is Devadhirajan the king of devas and if we go early in the cold morning He will feel sorry for us braving the cold weather and let His grace fall on us.There are five lakhs of gopikas in Vrindavanam.Andal says that they have to catch Him before He leaves for grazing the cows. Their namasinkirtanam that is calling out His names or the name of a divyadesam is enough to get His grace. It was His namam(name)” Ha Krishna Ha Dwarakavasa”that saved Draupadhi’s honour. Perumal will not always grant the wishes of His devotee because He is a hithaishi(does what is good for them). Likewise going to an acharya puts an end to agnanam (ignorance) and gnanam( true knowledge) dawns. Buffalos refer to the slowness of bhakthi yogam. kuthuhalam(joy) should be there while going to see acharyan and one should carry things like samith,etc while visiting him. Byseeking an acharyan gross qualities like lobham(greed) and krodham(anger) are destroyed.

Then swami moved on to the second pasuram of Tirunedunthandakam. In the previous posting we had talked about Perumal’s swarnamaya(golden) Tirumeni. So captivating is His roopam(form) that even enemies cannot stop praising Him. Mandodari who came to the battlefield when her husband Ravana was killed by Rama  should have hurled curses at Rama but she sings His glories as The one holding Shanku-chakram and the ever victorious one who is always with Sri. Likewise Vaali who falls prey to Rama’s arrows asks the reason for being targetted that to in hiding. SriRama tells Vaali that he deserved to be punished for not honouring the saranagathi of his brother Sugreeva and being an animal he warranted being hit from a hidden quarter. Convinced at the reasons Vaali wants to offer something to adorn Rama’s Tirumeni. Peacock feathers, ivory tusks, tiger nails are all made as offerings to Perumal and SriRama accepted a garland made up of Vaali’s nails.

Vedas list the yaagams to be done for different devathas in “Devatha Khandam”and the results that are obtainable. It is true that devathas have certain powers but they are limited. Among the 33 crores of devathas three reached the finals in deciding who was Paradevatha( The ultimate God) Tirumangaiazhwar analyses the swaroopam( form)and swabhavam( nature) of each of the three and concludes that “The ocean hued One “is Paratatvam. The panchabhuthams are prithvi,up, tejas, aakasham and vayu (earth, space,water,fire and wind) and this is what all living entities are made up of but Perumal’s Tirumeni is aprakrutham( spiritual)

The panchabhuthas are His creations. He has the form of para, vyuha, vibhava, hardha and archa which have been already discussed. 33crores of devathas do not fall in this category. Brahma is Shristikartha(creator) Vishnu is rakshakan(protector) and Shiva is samharakan(destroyer). Obviously our interest will be in getting protected. The first being to be created was Brahma and he was created by Vishnu. Vishnu taught him the Vedas and commanded him to create. He is prajapathi but not the ruler of the entire creation that is samashti  and vyashti. So Brahma is not the first creator, it is Vishnu who delegated the act of creation to Brahma, Thirty three devathas are the asta vasus(8vasus), ekadasha rudras(11 rudras), dwadashadityas(12 adithyas) and the 2 aswini devathas. but they are not trouble free and it is Perumal who ends their woes.In Srimadh Rahasyatrayasaram Swami Desikan by the proccess of elimination arrives at the nishkarshanam(conclusion) that Sriman Narayana is the Paramapurushan.Next azhwar discusses the roopams(forms) of the trio. All three have beautiful forms. Brahma is golden  in colour, Shiva has the colour of fire and Vishnu is ocean-hued. Brahma and Shiva sworship Vishnu without batting their eyelids for crores of yugams and attain moksham. It is Lakshmipathi alone that stands as Paratvam.

Writeup & Video : Vyjayanthi and Sundararajan