SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr says that once it is known that emperumAn can be attained by everyone, don’t praise lowly persons who nurture only the life in this materialistic realm but praise emperumAn and make the entire world a purified one through your sojourns. Once knowing the nature of emperumAn, worship at the divine feet of emperumAn, recite his names and through your connection, purify the world.
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
paNdip perum padhiyai Akkip pazhipAvam
koNdingu vAzhvAraik kURAdhE eNdhisaiyum
pErththa karam nAngudaiyAn pErOdhip pEdhaigAL
thIrththa kararAmin thirindhu
Word by Word Meaning
pEdhaigAL – Oh ignorant people!
paNdiyai – stomach
perum padhi Akki – filling it up [stomach] with everything as if it were a huge town
pazhi pAvam koNdu – going on accumulating sins through faulty activities carried out knowingly and unknowingly
ingu – in this world
vAzhvArai – those who dwell in this materialistic realm
kURAdhE – instead of praising them
eN dhisaiyum pErththa karam nAngu udaiyAn – thrivikrama’s puffed up divine shoulders which blew to smithereens the eight directions (when he measured the worlds)
pEr – divine names
Odhi – reciting continuously without expecting any gain in return
thirindhu – taking a sojourn all over the world
thIrththakarar Amin – purify all the lands (through your connection)
vyAkyAnam
paNdu ip perum padhiyai Akki – nurturing this old materialistic realm. Alternatively, paNdi also means stomach. Hence, nurturing the stomach to make it like a huge town. Earlier one person (nanjIyar?) mercifully said that “this body is a mobile celestial vehicle” (since emperumAn has pervaded the physical body, this body becomes a celestial vehicle for emperumAn). AzhwAr feels sad that this body is being nurtured without knowing emperumAn and AthmA (his SarIram) are being destroyed.
pazhi pAvam koNdu – Gathering ridicules and sins in order to nurture the body. People of this world, without realising that they are the repository for the ridicules which come without a reason and the sins which come with a reason, will gather the results of those [activities] which they do unknowingly and those which they do knowingly. Ridicule is something which is thrust on us by others and sin is the result of lowly acts which we carry out ourselves. Ridicule results because we are beholden to someone else and sin, because of our own independence and thinking that “I am my Lord”.
ingu vAzhvAraik kURAdhE – instead of praising the people of this world who are like this [those who gather ridicule and sins]. Unless one thinks that there is something called as soul which is different from the body, he will not know that there is a world [SrIvaikuNtam] above and that one has to enjoy the happiness there. Since those who live here are people who think that there is nothing other than what is seen in this world, they will think that there is nothing other than living their lives for sometime here. It is better not to praise such people. It would be better not to praise them saying “can anyone ridicule you! can you accumulate any sin!”
ingu vAzhvArai – those who think that they are living here, while there is nothing called prosperity. One should not praise someone who thinks that sorrow is pleasure.
pEdhaigAL – Oh ignorant people! Those who think that there is nothing other than what is being seen with eyes. Those ignorant people who think that wealth which is seen by the eyes, is also a benefit!
eNdhisaiyum pErththa karam nAngu udaiyAn pEr Odhi – with the divine hands puffing up and growing in all the eight directions. The hands puffed up such that they wanted to destroy the existing directions and make new, larger directions. AzhwAr tells us to recite the divine names of emperumAn who measured the worlds to protect them.
thIrththakarar Amin thirindhu – go all over the world to make them auspicious. Has it not been divinely mentioned in perumAL thirumozhi 10-5 “thiridhalAl thavam udaiththu iththaraNidhAnE” (this world is fortunate because of those who go all over the place, with their hands folded and head bowed) and in perumAL thirumozhi 2-6 “thIdhil nanneRi kAtti engum thirundhu” (going to all places, manifesting their activities which are free from any faults)! Correct this world which cannot be set right by emperumAn himself, with his divine names. Just as people of this world spoil the others apart from spoiling themselves, those who recite emperumAn’s divine names will have noble activities themselves and will also make others to have noble activities. Has it not been mentioned in manu smirithi 8-92 “yamO vaivasvathO rAjA yasthavaiva hruthi sthitha: thEna chEdha vivAdhasthE mA gangAm mA kurUn gama:” (there is no need for you to go to gangA or kurukshEthram if emperumAn, who is the King residing amidst the solar galaxy, controlling everyone, stays in your heart and you do not have any argument with him [in other words, if you accept him and are well disposed towards him]).
thirindhu thIrththakarar Amin – make the world sanctimonious by your sojourns (according to tradition, there is an anecdote mentioned about people sanctifying the world – once dhEvappiLLai, elder (son?) to piLLAn had to go to a different town. He was very sad about it and told bhattar (elder son of kUraththAzhwAn) “while relatives like all of you are here, only I have to go outside. After reaching there, whose face shall I see when I wake up (meaning that they are all strangers)? bhattar responded by divinely saying “rAmapirAn (SrI rAma) gave mOksham (SrIvaikuNtam) even to grass. Yet, he left behind his sons lava and kuSa even though he had no difficulty in granting them mOksham, so that they could protect this world. In the same way, aren’t you going outside only to enable those who live there to get uplifted?”
We shall move on to the 15th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa ramanuja dhAsan
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