Arththi Prabandham – 39

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

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Introduction:

In this pAsuram, mAmunigaL replies to a group of people who were nearby and had a question for him. The people near mAmunigaL asked him “hey mAmunigaL!!! You mentioned that your mind is after everything except the lotus feet of SrI rAmAnuja (“una thAL ozhindhavaRRayE ugakkum”) in your previous pAsuram. With that said, since you were attached and affected by all those lowly and worldly things, how could SrI rAmAnuja accept you, given that you would have no real essence or substance in you for you would have been consumed by the mundane aspects in the world. How could have SrI rAmAnuja approved you who is full of negative vibes due to attachment with worldly aspects”? mAmunigaL replies , “During the time when I surrendered unto his lotus feet as the sole refuge, he saw the immense accumulation of negative aspects and gladly took them as objects of enjoyment. He took those as positives, accepted and approved me”. mAmunigaL gives an example to prove his point.

pAsuram 39:

vEmbu kaRiyAga virumbinAr kaiththenRu
thAm pugadAdhE pusikkum thammaipOl
thImban ivan enRu ninaiththu ennai igazhAr ethirAsar
anRu aRindhu angIkarikkaiyAl

Word-by-Word Meanings:

virumbinAr thAm – Those who relishes
vEmbu – neem (and neem leaves)
kaRiyAga – as a part of their vegetable side dish
pugadAdhE – does not throw it away
kaiththenRu – thinking that “this tastes bitter”.
pusikkum – They eat with much relish.
thanmaipOl – That is the nature of those people.

(Similarly)
ethirAsar – emperumAnAr
igazhAr – will not discard me
ninaiththu – thinking that
ennai – me (mAmunigaL)
thImban ivan enRu  – is a bad guy/ sinner.
anRu – During that day when I surrendered unto him
aRindhu – in spite of knowing that am a sinner
angIkarikkaiyAl – he regarded my sins as his object of enjoyment and approved me gleefully.

Simple Translation:

mAmunigaL celebrates the vAthsalyam of SrI rAmAnuja in this pAsuram by saying that he latter deemed his sins as his object of enjoyment. He quotes an example where some people add neem to their food and relish it rather than discarding it as bitter.

Explanation:

As per the pAsuram of thirumazhisai AzhvAr vEmbum kaRiyAgumenRu (nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi 94)”, there are some people who eats neem and neem leaves as vegetables to go with their main course. mAmunigaL takes this pAsuram and proves his point. He says “There are some people who are not big fans of sweet and non-bitter food. These are the people who collect bitter items starting from the likes of neem etc and add them in their food. They voluntarily go about collecting them and relish them while eating it. They relish and eat with the thought that it is very bitter in the first place. Similarly, when I surrendered unto the lotus feet of my master SrI rAmanuja, he knew that I was a person full of sins. Yet he did not disregard and discard me as a sinner. Instead he treated these misdeeds and sins in me as his object of enjoyment”.

adiyEn santhAnam ramanuja dasan

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