Arththi Prabandham – 32

Introduction

In the earlier pAsuram, there was a line that said “aRamigu naRperumbUdhUr avadhariththAn vAzhiyE”. This meant that SrI rAmAnuja appeared / incarnated in the place called “SrIperumbUthUr”. Taking cue from that line, maNavALa mAmunigaL celebrates that glorious day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared in this world for us.

pAsuram 32

sankarabhARkara yAdhavabhAtta prabhAkarar thangaL madham
sAyvuRavAdhiyar mAykuvarenRu sadhumaRai vAzhndhidunAL
venkali ingini vIRu namakkilai enRu migaththaLar nAL
mEdhininanjumaiyArumenathuyar vittu viLangiya nAL
mangaiyarALi parAnkusa munnavar vAzhvu muLaiththidu nAL
manniya thennarangApuri mAmalai maRRumuvandhidu nAL
senkayalvAvigaL sUzhvayalnALum siRandha perumbUdhUr
sImAn iLaiyAzhvAr vandharuLiyanAL thiruvAdhirai nALE!!!

Word-by-Word Meanings

sankara – the philosophy propounded by Sankara
bhArkkara – the philosophy propounded by bhAskara
yAdhava – the philosophy propounded by yAdhavaprakAsa
bhAtta – the philosophies of bhAttas
prabhAkarar thangaL madham – the philosophy propounded by prabhAkara. All such philosophies
sAyvuRa – were destroyed (after SrI rAmAnuja appeared on the day)
vAzhndhidunAL sadhumaRai – The day when the four vEdhas would live healthily (i.e., the day when the meaning of the vEdhas would be understood and interpreted clearly) was when
vAdhiyar – people like Sankara who would argue
mAykuvarenRu – but would eventually fail without any doubt.
nAL – The day (when SrI rAmAnuja appeared) is when
vVenkali – cruel kali
ingu ini vIRu namakilai enRu  – will think that this place (earth) is no more its dwelling / ruling anymore (because of lack of conducive force to survive)
migaththaLar – and would shake terribly and wane off eventually.
nAL – The day (when sri rAmAnuja appeared) is when
mEdhini – even the earth
viLangiya – shone brightly
nanjumai Arum yena thuyar vittu – (when it realized) that its burden will be removed.
nAL – The day (when SrI rAmAnuja appeared) is when
vAzhvu – the glories of
munnavar – our entire gamut of ancestors that includes but not limited to the likes of
mangaiyarALi – thirumangai AzhvAr and
parAnkusa – nammAzhvAr
muLaiththidu – will resurface, blossom and prosper.
nAL – The day (when sri rAmAnuja appeared) is when
manniya – the place where periya perumAL (SrI ranganAthan) permanently resides
thennarangApuri – and is also known as the beautiful SrIrangam,
mAmalai – and the place that is known as “periya thirumalai” (thiruvEnkatam)
maRRum – and the various other divine places
uvandhidu – would be happy.
nALE – That day is when
vandharuLiyanAL – SrI rAmAnujar appeared
sImAnilayAzhvAr – as SrImAn and with the name of “iLaiyAzhvAr” in
perumbUdhUr – SrIperumbUthUr
sUzh – that is surrounded by
vAvigaL – (a) ponds and lakes that are full of
senkayal – red fish
vayal – and (b) paddy fields.
nALum – This place called SrIperumbUthUr, forever sports
siRandha – the look of a beautiful, great city.
thiruvAdhirai – (The star in which Sri rAmAnuja appeared in SrIperumbUthUr) was during the star of thiruvAdhirai. This is the day. This has to be the day. What a glorious day. It behooves us to take cognizance of the phrase, “SrImAn AvirabhUth bhUmau rAmAnuja dhivAkara:”

Simple Translation

maNavALa mAmunigaL  celebrates the glorious star of thiruvAdhirai when SrI rAmAnuja appeared in this world. When he was born in the earth, a lot of different things happened for good. The philosophies that were earlier misinterpreting vEdhas were destroyed. kali started to shake and feared that it would not get a place to live when SrI rAmAnuja will be there. Earth, the dhivya dhESams in it, the citizens of those dhivya dhESams everyone and everything was happy as they will be relieved on their burden when SrI rAmAnuja appears. Such a divine SrI rAmAnuja was born in SrIperumbUthUr, a place surrounded by beautiful ponds that has lots of red fish. It is a place that has the charm of a beautifully constructed city. What a glorious day indeed.

Explanation

There are some people that are referred to as “kudhrushtis”. They are those people that lack the normal vision to see things properly, as evinced by their very name of “kudhrushtis”. They are unable to see clearly the purport of vEdhas and hence explain things mentioned in them in a very shallow and misleading manner. They typically negate two things (a) the supreme lord SrIman nArAyaNan (viSEshaNam) and (b) HIS qualities (viSEshyam). The kudhrushtis include the likes of Sankara , bhAskara so on and so forth. As a result of this, the vaidhika dharmam was in hapless state. However, on the day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared in this world, the vEdhas rejoiced and knew that they are going to regain their lost glory, for their arguments and philosophies would be destroyed, paving way for the vEdhas to remain hale and healthy afterwards.

The day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared, the cruel and dangerous kali thought that it would never live comfortably in this earth. It was the day when kali started to tremble. Since the kali and kudhrushtis that were heavily influenced by kali ran helter sketler, the earth heaved a sigh of relief and shone brightly, as mentioned in the phrase “thavam thAraNi peRRadhu (irAmAnusa nURRandhAdhi 65)”. Earth shining brightly would mean that the divine places in it shone. The divine places are those that were sung by AzhvArs, thirumangai AzhvAr being the one who sang the most number of places. Hence, it goes without saying that the day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared, all AzhvArs’ glory started to prosper again. The day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared was the day all the dhivya dhESams started to be happy again. This includes SrIrangam where periya perumAL resides and thiruvEnkata mAmalai (as seen in the phrase “aruviseyyA niRkkum mAmalai (thiruviruththam 50)” and the various other dhivya dhESams. SrI rAmAnuja appeared in this earth in the star of thiruvAdhirai in a placed called SrIperumbUthUr. This place was surrounded with lakes that had lot of red fish. It always maintained the beauty of a city and its associated charm. SrI rAmAnuja  was given the name of iLaiyAzhvAr, the very name that would speak volumes of his birth and its significance.

maNavALa mAmunigaL is awestruck and exclaims “this is the day!. What a day! Can any other day match opportune day when SrI rAmAnuja came to this earth? At this point, we should remember the phrase “SrImAn rAmAnuja dhivAkara:” The phrase “thennarangApuri mAmalai maRRumuvandhidu nAL” could also mean that the citizens of dhivya dhESams that includes the likes of SrIrangam and thiruvEnkatam, would be happy on the day when SrI rAmAnuja appeared. These two dhivya dhESams serve as representatives to all others. As revealed in the irAmAnusa nURRandhAdhi thaniyan, “un nAmAmellAm enRan nAvinuLLE allumpagalum amarumpadi nalgu”, maNavALa mAmunigaL uses different names like emperumAnAr, irAmAnusa, ethirAsa and in this pAsuram he uses the name of “iLaiyAzhvAr”.

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