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pAsuram 18
Introduction (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
emperumAnAr who helps us to know about the qualities of madhurakavi AzhvAr who is having the state of keeping nammAzhvAr in his divine mind, such emperumAnAr is my help, says amudhanAr.
Introduction (given by piLLailOkam jIyar)
Out of the AzhvArs discussed in the previous pAsurams, one who is considered as foremost, and who for making everyone be able to learn created thiruvAimozhi, who incarnated for that, such nammAzhvAr’s disciple who does not consider anybody else, is madhurakavi AzhvAr; emperumAnAr who helps everyone to know about such madhurakavi AzhvAr’s auspicious qualities and reach true goal, such emperumAnAr is my companion, says amudhanAr.
eydhaRku ariya maRaigaLai Ayiram in thamizhAl
seydhaRku ulagil varum SatakOpanaich chinthai uLLE
peydhaRku isaiyum periyavar seerai uyirgaL ellAm
uydhaRku udhavum rAmAnusan em uRu thuNaiyE. 18
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Word by word meaning (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
eydhaRku ariya – (For every one to get the meanings of ) Hard to attain
maRaigaLai – vEdhas,
(unlike praNavam which is very short, and unlike vEdhas which are very wide,
seydhaRku – to divine
Ayiram – as one thousand pAsurams only
in – that too being sweet,
thamizhAl – in the language that is easy for women and children to learn too,
SatakOpanai – since he prevents those who don’t accept or misinterpret vEdhas, AzhvAr having the divine name of SatakOpan
ulagil varum – incarnated in the world;
chinthai uLLE – in his divine mind
peydhaRku isaiyum – being apt/qualified to keep (such nammAzhvAr) is one
periyavar – having such greatness that is madhurakavi AzhvAr;
rAmAnusan – emperumAnAr
udhavum – helps (by showing madhurakavi AzhvAr‘s)
seerai – divine qualities such as knowledge,
uyirgaL ellAm uydhaRku – for all the AthmAs to reach the true goal
em uRu thuNaiyE – (such emperumAnAr is) my great companion.
vyAkyAnam
eydhaRku ariya maRaigaLai – As said in ‘ananthAvai vEdhA: [?]’ (vEdhas are boundless), it is being unlimited and cannot be said as having these many numbers in it, and it is not being accessible to all the sentient but only based on eligibility, and being rare for even very learned ones to discern, such samskrutha vEdhas;
Ayiram in thamizhAl – Without having the restriction of varNas, and which everyone who are interested can learn, and which can be numbered as being a thousand (thiruvAimozhi), starting from ‘uyarvaRa uyar nalam [thiruvAimozhi 1.1.1]’, up to the end ‘uyarndhE [thiruvAimozhi 10.10.11]’, in the beginning, middle, and end, it talks in detail about – nature, form, and wealth of emperumAn, nature, form of sentient and non-sentient, reasons for jIvAthmAs to be involved in the cycle of worldly existence (samsAram), devotion based knowledge that can help avoid such cycle, nArAyaNan being the source of existence of the worlds and not the other deities, emperumAn being complete in all auspicious qualities, being in assembly with dhivya sUris such as ananthan, garudan, vishvaksEnar, how he (nammAzhvAr) advised due to his extreme mercy to the laukikas (those involved in worldly activities) for them to experience what he got as divine experience, how he (nammAzhvAr) enjoyed emperumAn to quench his thirst for Him; it talks about all the meanings clearly and in appropriate length, and due to that it is being very very easy, as said in ‘bhakthAmrutham [thiruvAimozhi thaniyan]’, and in ‘thoNdarkku amudhu uNNach chol mAlaigaL [thiruvAimozhi 9.4.9]’ (I said this pathikam of thiruvAimozhi as nectar for the devotees), it is being enjoyable from start to end for those who are interested in it, in the dravidian language of thamizh in a beautifully set way, in the form of a prabandham called thiruvAimozhi;
seydhaRku – to incarnate that prabandham; to make its appearance; (to explain the hard to understand/attain vEdhas in sweet thamizh prabandham)
ulagil – This leelA vibhUthi (earth etc), which is as said in ‘asudhdhAsthEsamasthAsthu dhEdhyAmkarmayOnaya:, AvirinchAdhi mangaLam [?]’ (), and ‘iruL tharumA gyAlam [upadhESa raththina mAlai – 72]’ (world that gives ignorance), and ‘garbha janmAdhyavasthAsu dhukkamathyantha dhussaham, nakinchith kaNayannithyam charAmIndhirayagOchara: []’ (),
varum SatakOpanai – The present tense in ‘varum’ – AzhvAr’s divine and auspicious vigraham (form) is being worshiped in all dhivya dhESams, and in the divine residences of all prapannas, and his divine prabandhams being in use now and in all the future – is its meaning. Incarnating in this way, such –
SatakOpanai – ‘satar’ are those not having knowledge about their true nature, samsAris. He who was severe with such people in ‘oru nAyakam [thiruvAimozhi – 4.1.1]’ (~it is shown that even those who were ruling the world had had their fortune reversed and it was of no use, so come and surrender to emperumAn), and ‘naNNAdhAr muRuval [thiruvAimozhi – 4.9.1]’ (~ it shows the nature of this world which is not being helpful for AthmA);
he who opposed the ones who denied or misinterpreted the vEdhas. Such nammAzhvAr.
chinthaiyuLLE – in his (madhurakavi AzhvAr’s) divine mind,
peydhaRku – to keep in his mind as his lord, and as one to worship such nammAzhvAr
isaiyum – having suitable greatness; he (madhurakavi AzhvAr) divined as ‘mEvinEn avan ponnadi meymmaiyE [kaNNinuN chiruththAmbu – 2]’ (~ surrendered to nammAzhvAr‘s golden feet), ‘thEvu maRRu aRiyEn [kaNNinuN chiruththAmbu – 2]’ (do not know any other lord (than nammAzhvAr)), and ‘mikka vEdhiyar vEdhaththin utporuL niRkap pAdi en nenjuL niRuththinAn [kaNNinuN chiruththAmbu – 9]’ (nammAzhvAr made me understand the inner meanings of vEdhas (about the state of subservience to His devotees)).
periyavar – As said in ‘uNda pOdhu oru vArththaiyum, uNNAdha pOdhu oru vArththaiyum solluvAr paththup pEr uNdiRE; avargaLaich chiriththiruppAr oruvar uNdiRE; avar pAsuram koNdu ivvarththam aRudhiyidak kadavOm [SrI vachana bhUshaNam – 411,412]’ (Other 10 AzhvArs are happy/sad based on emperumAn‘s availability and talk in opposite ways; there is one AzhvAr (madhurakavi AzhvAr) who is like laughing at them, because he is always happy being subservient to His devotee nammAzhvAr; we shall show the meanings using such AzhvAr‘s prabandham about the ultimate state of serving His devotees), he having the greatness of being in charama parva naishtai (ultimate state that is being subservient to AchAryan) and being immersed in that which is said in SAsthram as ‘yasmAth thadhupadhEstAsau thasmAth gurutharO guru: | archaneeyascha vandhyascha [mahAbhAratham]’ (who teaches us about bhagavAn is higher than that bhagavAn) etc., – such madhurakavi AzhvAr who is complete in this respect;
madhurakavi AzhvAr with nammAzhvAr and nAthamunigaL – perumAL kOyil (kAncheepuram)
seerai – Having auspicious qualities that are praised in ‘mARan satakOpan vaN kurugUr, engaL, vAzhvAm enRu Eththum madhurakaviyAr emmai, ALvAr avarE araN [kaNNinuN chiruth thAmbu thaniyan]’ (~madhurakavi AzhvAr who sings about nammAzhvAr as our savior, is our protector), and ‘pArulagil maRRuLLa AzhvArgaL vandhu udhiththa nALgaLilum uRRadhu emakku enRu nenjE Or [upadhEsa raththina mAlai – 25]’ (~Oh mind! Think always that the day of incarnation of madhurakavi AzhvAr is more precious to us compared to that of other AzhvArs).
(now it talks about emperumAnAr)
uyirgaL ellAm – Without any distinction between the people of various varNams whether of lower ones or higher ones – for all the samsAris (people of this world);
uydhaRku – for their ujjeevanam (for reaching true goal); it is in amudhanAr’s divine mind that it is not possible to use other means to reach true goal than this (emperumAnAr’s help).
udhavum – bestows his help; when teaching about the meaning of thirumAnthram, emperumAnAr teaches that those auspicious meanings should be considered all the way to subservience to devotees in the same way as that of madhurakavi AzhvAr;
irAmAnusan em uRu thuNaiyE – such emperumAnAr is my strong help. uru -> firm/strong; thuNai -> one who helps/supports; by this it says that this would get me to reach paramapadham.
For the word of periyavar – it could also be explained as – all the swamis who have kept AzhvAr’s divine feet in their divine mind.
From AzhwAr thirunagari SrI U.Ve. vidhwAn thirumalai nallAn chakravarthi rAmakrishNa iyengAr’s ‘amudha virundhu’:
Ayiram in thamizhAl – This phrase shows the opposite of the difficulty of vEdhas, as thiruvAimozhi being easy and sweet. It is ‘theriyach chonna Ayiram [thiruvAimozhi 6.9.11]’ (~ The thousand pAsurams told for knowing it and its meanings (easily)).
ulagil varum satakOpanai – while others keep having their birth here due to their karmas, nammAzhvAr incarnated here to help remove the birth from here, by giving us thiruvAimozhi, etc.
That is his incarnation is for giving thiruvAimozhi.
emperumAn incarnated as hayagrIva to bring out the vEdhas that were hidden; He incarnated as krishNan to give us SrI bhagavath gIthA to show the meanings of upanishaths; nammAzhvAr incarnated to give us thiruvAimozhi in sweet thamizh, for everyone to understand.
emperumAn incarnated as krishNan a cowherd who helps cows find the way in forest, to give SrI bhagavath gIthA to help us find our way out of the forest of darkness;
it is in samskrutham which is hard and confusing as arjunan said ‘vyAmisrENaiva vAkyEna budhdhim mOhayaseevamE [SrI bhagavath gIthA – 3.2]’ (may be you are confusing me with the mixture of these sentences); SrI bhagavath gIthA confuses even arjunan; nammAzhvAr’s thiruvAimozhi is the thousand for everyone to understand.
periyavar – Here, nammAzhvAr -> periyan; madhurakavi AzhvAr-> periyavar. emperumAn is the greatest; but since He is inside the heart of nammAzhvAr he is even bigger than emperumAn; and since madhurakavi AzhvAr is always having nammAzhvAr in his heart, he is even bigger than nammAzhvAr; So, periyavar.
First stage is of keeping emperumAn in one’s heart; final stage is keeping His devotees in one’s heart.
uyirgaL ellAm uydharku udhavum – For everyone to reach true goal, emperumAnAr showed the ways of being subservient to nammAzhvAr, thus showed the state of madhurakavi AzhvAr. It is due to emperumAnAr’s help that vEdhAnthAcharyar said ‘thunbaRRa madhurakavi thOnRak kAttum thol vazhiyE nal vazhigaL thuNivArgatkE [guruparamparA sAram]’ (~ Being staunch that madhurakavi AzhvAr’s state of being subservient to AchAryas is the state that has been followed from time eternal), and it is due to emperumAnAr‘s help that maNavALa mAmunigaL said ‘madhurakavi soRpadiyE nilaiyAgap peRROm [Arththi prabandham – 55]’ (~ we are having the state in the same way as madhurakavi AzhvAr);
uRu thuNai – If we put in some effort, then others might be of help to us in return; unlike that, without any efforts from our side, emperumAnAr helps us to reach true goal, so he is being a help that is firm and apt for us.
– – – – – – –
Translation: raghurAm SrInivAsa dasan
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