Arththi prabandham – 55

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

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Introduction

As a true Sishya and an ardent follower, one needs to be cognizant of two things viz.,

(a) thinking about all the benefits one’s AchAryan has done unto him and

(b) interest towards any deed that the AchAryan will do to him in the future.

This pAsuram specifically talks about the former. mAmunigAL celebrates the glorious qualities that emperumAnAr gave him. He lists them and eventually says that it is because of emperumAnAr’s grace that he was able to get these qualities.

pAsuram 55

thennarangar sIr aruLukku ilakkAgap peRROm
thiruvarangam thirupadhiyE iruppAgap peRROm
manniya sIr mARankalai uNavAgap peRROm
madhurakavi soRpadiyE nilaiyAgap peRROm
munnavarAm nankuravar mozhigaLuLLap peRROm
muzhudhum namakkavai pozhudhupOkkAgap peRROm
pinnai onRu thanil nenju pErAmaRpeROm
piRar minukkam poRAmayillAp perumaiyum peRROmE!!!

Word-by-Word Meanings

ilakkAgap peRROm – (We) became the target of
sIr aruLukku – causeless mercy of
thennarangar – periya perumAL, who is reclining south facing in the direction of SrIlankA, in a place that is very pleasing to the eyes and is known by the name of “kOyil”, where HE captivated HIS devotees by blessing them (“aruL koduthittu adiyavarai AtkkoLvAn amarum Ur (periyAzhvAr thirumozhi 4.9.3))
iruppAgap peRROm – (We) got the glorious opportunity of being permanent residents of
thiruvarangam thirupadhiyE – SrIrangam that is described as “thennAdum vadanAdum thozha ninRa thiruvarangam thiruppadhi (periyAzhvAr thirumozhi 4.9.11)”, “ArAmam sUzhndha arangam (siRiya thirumadal 71)”, “thalaiyarangam (iraNdAm thiruvandhAdhi 70)”. It is the chief of all the 108 dhivyadhEsams.
uNavAgap peRROm – (We) Our food is
kalai – the nectarine pAsurams of (nectarine for devotees that serves as garland for the Lord)
mARan – nammAzhvAr
manniya sIr – who is full of auspicious qualities starting with parabhakti etc
nilaiyAgap peRROm – (We) attained the last frontier of “charama parva nishtai”, that is celebrated as “yathIndhramEva nIrandhram hishEvE dhaivathambaram” etc. Myself and my associates started to talk about it “unnayozhiya oru dheyvam maRRaRiyA mannupugazh sEr vaduganambi thannilaiyai (Arththi prabandham 11)”).
soRpadiyE – (This tenet of charama parva nishtai (regarding one’s AchAryan as everything) is derived from the) divine words of
madhurakavi – madhurakavi AzhvAr who said “thEvu maRRaRiyEn (kaNNinun chiRuth thAmbu 2)”. (We got to live and abide by the tenets of the great madhurakavi AzhvAr).
munnavarAm nankuravar mozhigaLuLLap peRROm – We got to live, breathe and explore our ancestors’ works, their divine and esoteric purports. These are the works of AchAryas who lived by the way shown by AzhvArs.
muzhudhum namakkavai pozhudhupOkkAgap peRROm – (We) spent our times dwelling on that (works). Our minds does not go to anything that is not these divine works of our ancestors.
pinnai nenju pErAmaRpeROm – Our hearts and minds were so grounded to these works our ancestors that it never went behind
onRu thanil – any of the other works apart from our ancestors’ works.
piRar minukkam poRAmaiyillA – If the aforementioned qualities of ours that we got by the grace of emperumAnAr is placed on one side of a balance, then this one that am going to say would equal or weigh more than all of the above together. If such a rare SrIvaishnava is found with all of the aforementioned qualities, as described by “ippadi irukkum  SrIvaishNavargaL ERRam aRindhu ugandhu irukkaiyum (mumukshupadi dhvaya prakaNam 116)”, then we never become jealous seeing them. Such is our glory that was bestowed upon us by emperumAnAr.
perumaiyum peRROmE – We got this! Alas! What a great fortune to have gotten this , thanks to emperumAnAr’s causeless mercy.

Simple Translation

In this pAsuram, mAmunigaL celebrates the mercy of emperumAnAr. He adds that it is because of his (emperumAnAr’s) infinite mercy towards him that he got some treasured qualities in him. mAmunigaL starts by saying that they (himself and his SrIvaishNava associates) was chosen as the target of periya perumAL’s infinite blessings. They got the glorious opportunity of being in SrIrangam, the chief of all 108 dhivya dhESams. They got the rare blessings to eat, drink, breathe nammAzhvAr’s works day in and day out. They got the choicest blessings to live by the tenets propounded by madhurakavi Azhvar, i.e,. charama parva nishtai (regarding one’s AchAryan as everything). This happens to the rarest of the rarest cases. They got to explore and live by the words of their ancestors who in fact lived by the words of AzhvArs. They also did not go anywhere else apart from SrIvaishNava scriptures. They spent their lives living by it. Lastly, but most importantly, if they were to meet such a SrIvaishNava with all these aforementioned qualities, they would never get an iota of jealousy in them. They would be very happy about them. mAmunigaL says that all these fortunes that they got is solely due to the blessings of emperumAnAr.

Explanation

mAmunigaL says, “We became the target of the causeless mercy of periya perumAL, who is reclining south facing in the direction of Sri Lanka, in a place that is very pleasing to the eyes and is known by the name of “kOyil”, where HE captivated HIS devotees by blessing them (“aruL koduthittu adiyavarai AtkkoLvAn amarum Ur (periyAzhvAr thirumozhi 4.9.3). We got the glorious opportunity of being permanent residents of SrIrangam that is described as “thennAdum vadanAdum thozha ninRa thiruvarangam thiruppadhi (periyAzhvAr thirumozhi 4.9.11)”, “ArAmam sUzhndha arangam (siriya thirumadal 71)”, “thalaiyarangam (iraNdAm thiruvandhAdhi 70)”. It is the chief of all the 108 dhivyadhESams. Our food is the nectarine pAsurams of (nectarine for devotees that serves as garland for the Lord) nammAzhvAr, who is full of auspicious qualities starting with parabhakthi etc. We attained the last frontier of “charama parva nishtai”, that is celebrated as “yathIndhramEva nIrandhram hishEvE dhaivathambaram” etc. Myself and my associates started to talk about it “unnaiyozhiya oru dheyvam maRRaRiyA mannupugazh sEr vaduganambi thannilaiyai (Arththi prabandham 11”). This tenet of charama parva nishtai (regarding one’ AchAryan as everything) is derived from the) divine words of madhurakavi who said “thEvu maRRaRiyEn (kaNNinun chiruth thAmbu 2)”. We got to live and abide by the tenets of the great madhurakavi AzhvAr, who is described as “avargaLaich chiriththiruppAr oruvar uNdirE (SrIvachana bhUshaNam 409) referring to madhurakavi AzhvAr (He is a person who would laugh at the 10 AzhvArs because of lack of reliability in their approach towards reaching perumAL. Their approach is via perumAL himself whereas in the case of madhurakavi AzhvAr everything is nammAzhvAr for him). We got to live, breathe and explore our ancestors’s works, their divine and esoteric purports. These are the works of AchAryas who lived by the way shown by AzhvArs. We spent our times dwelling on those (works). Our minds do not go to anything that is not these divine works of our ancestors. Our hearts and minds were so grounded to these works of our ancestors that it never went behind any of the other works apart from our ancestors’ works.

If the aforementioned qualities of ours that we got by the grace of emperumAnAr is placed on one side of a balance, then this one that I am going to say would equal or weigh more than all of the above together. If such a rare SrIvaishnava is found with all of the aforementioned qualities thus far in this pAsuram, as described by “ippadi irukkum SrIvaishNavargaL ERRam aRindhu ugandhu irukkaiyum (mumukshupadi dwayaprakaNam 116)”, then we never get any jealous seeing them. Such is our glory that was bestowed upon us by emperumAnAr. We got this! Alas! What a great fortune to have gotten this, thanks to emperumAnAr’s causeless mercy.

adiyEn santhAnam ramanuja dasan

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