SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
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Introduction (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
While the people are being so, amudhanAr thinks about the cultivation of goodness done by emperumAnAr for them, and celebrates him for that.
Introduction (given by piLLailOkam jIyar)
In previous pAsuram – amudhanAr talked in detail about the ways and unfortunate birth of those who did not associate themselves to emperumAnAr who is the most noble who lifts up both the people stuck for ever in the material world and those who have got at least a little amicability to be lifted up.
In this pAsuram – Those with knowledge surrounded by the lowly thamO guNam (mental darkness), and knowingly portraying the mystical worship (Agamam) said by rudhran as the best, and those following lowly baudhdha, (jaina, etc.), philosophies, and being in the side of rudhran, were the pAsupathar; they spread darkness with their words; emperumAnAr removed that darkness and helped everyone in the world, like drenching and cleaning by a good spell of rain; and emperumAnAr showed periya perumAL who is visible to our eyes as being easy to approach for all AthmAs, and as the suitable lord; this is the meaning emperumAnAr gave to us very easily. Oh! what a generous one he is – thinking so about the great help of emperumAnAr, amudhanAr celebrates him.
maruL surandhu Agama vAdhiyar kUrum avap poruLAm
iruL surandhu eyththa ulagiruL neenga than eeNdia seer
aruL surandhu ellA uyirkatkum nAthan arangan ennum
poruL surandhAn em irAmAnusan mikka puNNiyanE – 91
Listen
Word by word meaning (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
maruL – With all the ignorance
surandhu – gathered together
Agama vAdhiyar – taking up as authoritative reference the mystical worship (Agama) based on rudhran, people called pAsupathar, et al, came standing to argue
kURum – to establish rudhran as supreme; they talked based on their creations of new and many explanations,
avam poruLAm – which are such lowly meanings
iruL surandhu – that is, there was such excessive thamas (mental darkness)
ulagu – and the world was
eyththa – distressed due to that
iruL – and was covered in darkness;
neenga – to remove that,
than aruL surandhu – by his driving grace which is his
eeNdiya seer – distinguished and concentrated quality of protecting those surrendered to him,
surandhAn – he helped by giving
poruL – the meaning
ella uyirkatkum nAthan – that the lord of all the AthmAs
arangan ennum – is periya perumAL;
em – his such grace of giving that meaning to us,
irAmAnusan – that is, emperumAnAr,
mikka puNNiyan – is most virtuous, you see!
Or, can be read together as ‘mikka puNNiyanAna em irAmAnusan – porul sorindhAn’, where the focus is on his being most virtuous; ‘avap poruL’ -> harmful meaning;
When reciting as ‘AgamavAdhiyar kURum maRap poruL’, it is opposite of virtuous – such meaning told by those people; it is so because it affects AthmA;
Or, when some recite as ‘Agama vAdhiyar kURum maRaip poruL’, as said in ‘thaiScha prasidhdha vibhavasya samUlathAyai grAhyA thrayee’ (taking the three vEdhas as the source), they quote their Agamam as reference for their statements; and as said in ‘thrayAmapicha sAmAnyA vAdhaSchiththa vibEthaka:’ (their arguments are to confuse the mind); they use some words of vEdhas that celebrate some other beings due to some momentary happiness about them (praSamsA param), and they say that vEdhas say those meanings only;
Some also recite as ‘iruL sumandhu eyththa’ – in that case, the darkness is a heavy load for the world due to which it suffered;
seer -> beauty; (beauty of emperumAnAr)
Some also recite as ‘irAmAnusan ennum puNNiyan’, which also goes with the earlier meaning.
vyAkyAnam
maruL surandhu Agama vAdhiyar kURum – Since He is shown (as supreme) by unique names like nArAyaNa, krishNa, vAsudhEva, kESava, hrusheekESa, achyutha, anantha, and so on, for the three types of sentient entities (bhadhdha, muktha, nithya), and non-sentient groups (sudhdha, miSra, kAla thathvams), He is present everywhere with life-saving, pervading, governing, and not limited by the three aspects (time, place, item), and ever existing – with such qualities, He is the lord of everyone;
But not learning this, having all the effects of earlier births covering them, like the big gathering of poison at the churning of dark sea, they are filled with the gathering of ignorance, and so are rejecting the well known stories of protections of prahlAdhan, gajEndharan, and others, and also rejecting the story of maithrEyar’s neutral (sAmAnyam) question ‘yathaSchaithath charAcharam’ (wish to know who is the cause of creation, protection, and erasure) for which parAsara bhagavAn gave specific (viSEsham) answer ‘vishNOssakASAth udhbhUtham’ (it is from vishNu that all the worlds come about), etc., (whereas for other lowly purANAms, question would typically be specific – as in “tell me about skandhan”, etc).
They became involved in the bad Agamams of Siva yOgasAram, etc., which can give, just by looking at them, the ignorance/confusion as said in ‘thamas thvagyAnajamvidhdhi mOhanam sarva dhEhinAm pramAdhAlasyanidhrAbhi: thanibhadhnAthi bhAratha’ (the ignorance gives birth to it, and makes anyone with body to get deluded, making them be forgetful, have misunderstandings, laziness, sleepiness, etc., and makes them tied to the material world),
and so they take that up as authoritative reference, and come stand and do bad debates – such groups called as pAsupathar, etc;
avap poruLAm iruL surandhu – Starting from jatA kalAba basma rudhrAksha lingadhAraNAm (plait of hair, ash, etc., used by Saivites), the unwanted identities and meanings was spread which is darkness;
avap poruL -> harmful meanings.
When considering how some recite it as ‘Agama vAdhiyar kURum maRaip poruL’ – it means – not understanding from the words of rudhra, hara, thruyambaka, sthANu, virUpAksha etc., about the state of one who goes in non-virtuous path, that is rudhran, as one who is surrounded (vyApyathvam), that is, is of the form of aNu (atom). (as opposed to emperumAn whose nature is to surround (vyApakathvam);
and without considering the inner meaning based on sAmAnAdhikaraNa (being same based on how AthmAs are body of emperumAn) what is said in vEdham ‘sabrahmA sa Siva:’ (~brahmA and Siva are parts of emperumAn), etc., not considering what is said in the beginning and end (like summary), taking up some seemingly suitable ones from a few famous and non-known-well meanings from sUtha samhithai etc.,- darkness that is lowly meanings for such cases;
Or, split-reading it as ‘kURum aRaip porul’, their meanings that damage the nature of AthmA; saying damaging because it destroys the ways of AthmA.
Or, ‘aRai’ to mean, just meaningless sound (dhvani), like that of the waves in the ocean;
{Translator’s note: ANdAL also rejected ‘aRai’ paRai (sounding percussion instrument), and wanted ‘that’ paRai, that is mOksham.}
eyththa ulagiruL neenga – As said in ‘thamasthva gyAnajam viththi’ in the darkness that is ignorance, where the sentient were not able to discern between truth and non-truth, emperumAnAr removed such darkness; eyththa – (darkness that) makes people/AthmA weak;
than eeNdiya seer aruL surandhu – Like how the sun which removes darkness would spread several thousand rays into the world at the same time, emperumAnAr’s qualities like servitude to those who surrendered to him, etc., he spawned his distinguished gathering grace everywhere in the world; eeNdu – gathering together; seer -> beautiful;
As said in ‘thathra sathvam nirmalathvAth prakASakamanAmayam – sukasankEna badhnAthi gyAna sangEna chAnaka’ (sathvam, that is, not having dirt (misunderstandings, confusions, etc), that is, when having association with noble people, darkness that is ignorance would get removed), superiority of sathvam (purity) due to his acceptance of us,
and as said in ‘agyAna thimirAnthasya gyAnAnjana SalAkayA – chakShur unmileethamyEna thasmai sathguravEnama:’ ((AchAryan) removed the darkness that is ignorance, like how it brightens the eyes when wearing black paste (kAjal)), by emperumAnAr’s advises/teachings, all the darkness that is ignorance that followed us from time eternal will be removed without any trace.
ella uyirkatkum nAthan arangam ennum poruL surandhAn – He who is not in some unreachable place, but is in kOyil (SrIrangam) where we are present, where He is in lying posture, that is, periya perumAL, is the apt lord for us as said in ‘pathimviSvasya’ (He is the lord of the world), ‘uthAmruthavasyESAna:’ (He is the owner of Himself), and ‘lOkanAtha: purA bhUthvA [SrI rAmAyaNam – kishkinthA kANdam – 4.18 (iLaiya perumAL to sugreevan)]’ SrI rAma who is the lord himself…), and ‘muzhu Ezhu ulagukkum nAthan [thiruvAimozhi – 2.7.2]’ (Lord of all the worlds) – emperumAnAr showed this meaning to all the sentient in this world, to save them;
em irAmAnusan – our lord, that is emperumAnAr;
mikka puNNiyanE – know that emperumAnAr is highly virtuous;
Some also recite it as ‘irAmAnusan ennum puNNiyan’ – Since he helped us in this way, till the time there is moon in the world, know that he would be the most virtuous;
It could be read as ‘mikka puNNiyanAna em irAmAnusan – poruL surandhAn’ (Our highly virtuous emperumAnAr showed us the meanings).
From AzhwAr thirunagari SrI u.vE. vidhwAn thirumalai nallAn chakravarththi rAmakrishNa iyengAr’s ‘amudha virundhu’ :
maruL surandhu … ulagiruL neenga – Agama vAdhiyar – taking the Agamam said by rudhran as authoritative reference, and limiting themselves with that, and not researching fully, they debated with those who give the (true) meanings; they are Saivites like pAsupathar, etc.
Even though they are of many different groups and contradict each other in philosophy and activities, they are together referred to here as Agama vAdhigaL because they agree among them that Sivan is supreme which is against vEdhas, and like potter is to a pot, they consider Sivan as only the cause of everything; reason for wrong meanings like these is due to confusion of their mind.
Sivan wanted to achieve higher levels and prayed to emperumAn to worship him and carry him, be made worshipable, and so on; emperumAn seeing his state of wishing for self-elevation, ordered him to create mOha Sastthrams (that would confuse people into thinking that Sivan is supreme); purANAs say that Sivan taking this as a reason created such SAsthram.
varAha purANam says that there was a curse of gauthama towards those who live outside of what are prescribed in vEdhas and who live carelessly due to other afflictions; Sivan wanted to make that curse come true and so created mOha SAsthram. This history is also shown in paramatha bhangam – 41 by vEdhAntha dhEsikan.
avap poruL – Lowering the status of emperumAn and making lower level one as supreme, making prakruthi thathvam as upAdhAna kAraNAm for the world, and keeping the supreme lord as nimiththa kAraNam only – are all not the meanings of vEdhas, so they are lowly philosophies.
nArAyaNan is the first supreme one; brahmAn, rudran are based on birth only, and since the supreme one Himself changes as the world, He is upAdhAna kAraNam for the world, and since He changes by his own decision, He is also nimithha kAraNAm – these are the true meanings said in vEdhas.
ellA uyir … poruL surandhAn – it is to be noted here that amudhanAr says ‘arangan’ instead of ‘nArAyaNan’, when saying He is the lord of all the AthmAs. This is to get them to follow in the words of pAncharAthra Agamam which shows the true ways of SAsthram, and so is advising them to follow it in this world and come to arangan in this world, since pAncharAthram talks about archA mUrthy (statue).
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Translation: raghurAm SrInivAsa dasan
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