gyAna sAram 14 – bUthangkaL aindhum

gyAna sAram

Previous pAsuram

                                                                       14^th pAsuram

thamizh:

“பூதங்கள் ஐந்தும் பொருந்துடலினார்  பிறந்த
சாதங்கள் நான்கினோடும் சங்கதமாம் – பேதங்கொண்டு
என்ன பயன் பெறுவீர் எவ்வுயிர்க்கும் இந்திரை கோன் 
தன்னடியே காணும் சரண்”

English:

“bUthangkaL aindhum porundhudalinAR piRandha
sAdhangkaL nAnkinOdum sangkathamAm – pEthangkoNdu
enna payan peRuvIr evvuyirkkum indhirai kOn
thannadiyE kANum saraN”

Phrasal Meanings:

bUthangkaL aindhum porundhum udalinAR piRandha  — The bodies of all the people born here are made up of the five entities – land, water, fire, air and ether

sAdhangkaL nAnkinOdum sangkathamAm  —  and are split in to four types of varNams – brAhmaNar, King, Businessmen, agriculturist (referring to the fourth sect) and everyone is expected to follow these in unison.

bEthangkoNdu enna payan peRuvIr   —  However, these differences are not useful and are worthless because

evvuyirkkum indhirai kOn thannadiyE kANum saraN –– all the jIvAthmAs have to take refuge at the feet of the hero of thirumAmagaL, sriman nArAyaNAn.

Synopsis:

There arouse a question: “Till the time that one is alive, he or she is going to be impacted by the differences in varNam. No one can be spared from that and would continue to follow anyone until the time he lives here”. svAmi aruLALa perumAL emberumAnAr answers that in this pAsuram by saying that “there is no use of those varNam” and then goes ahead and says that all jIvAthmAs have to take refuge under the lotus feet of the ONE who is the hero of thirumagaL            .

Explanation:
bUthangkaL aindhum porundhudalinAR piRandha:   swami thirumangai AzhvAr says “manju sEr vAn eri nIr nilam kAlivai mayaki nindra anju sEr Akai”. thiruvaLLuvar says “suvai oLi ooRu Osai nAtRam ivvaindhin vagai therivAn katE ulagu”. The above two excerpts means that entities like land, water, fire, air and ether combine together to form bodies. With this, we can infer that there is no connection between a body and a soul as the latter is made of the five entities. In addition, the body is one that undergoes a lot of transformations constantly as seen in newly born, young, adult and old stages of life in a man. On top of it, it is temporary and one that needs to be loathed. Hence, it is clear that this body is just a temporary place for the soul.

sAdhangkaL nAnkinOdum:    There are four varNams that includes brAhmaNar, king, businessmen, agriculturist. “sAdhangkaL” would mean varNam. These four varNams was born out based on the body that originated through the combination of five aforementioned entities.

nAnkinOdum sangkathamAm – pEthangkoNdu:    Within these four varNams, there are umpteen number of sub-divisions that gives birth to the conception of “higher and lower” among them. In the case of “brAhmaNar”, there are stages like “brahmacharyam”, “illaRam”, “vAnaprastham” and “thuRavaRam”. These differences are not just limited to just “brAhmaNar” but extend to other varNams as well. There are differences that originates with body as the genesis of these very differences.  parimEl azhagar captures this by the phrase “nAlvagai nilaithAi varNam thORum vERupAtudamayin”

enna payan peRuvIr:   svAmi aruLALa perumAL emberumAnAr asks the worldly people as to what do they derive out of such differences. The answer that is implicit in his question is that there is no benefit derived from these differences. The thing that stands out of all these is that these varNam differences creates and propagates the concept of “yAn” (I) and “yanadhu” (mine) that are eventually detrimental to a soul.

There is an alternate phrase instead of “enna payan peRuvIr“, because of “pAta bEdham”. The other phrase is “enna payan keduvIr” that is also been practiced by some. In this school of learning, “keduvI” is a viLi chol (sambOdhanam) that points out at the people standing nearby swami aruLALa perumAL emberumAnAr. It is to be construed that svAmi aruLALa perumAL emberumAnAr is talking to the people and addressing them as “keduvIr”

evvuyirkkum indhirai kOn thannadiyE kANum saraN:            The phrase “evvuyirkkum” would mean that it is for everyone. As they say “vENdudhal vENdAmai ilAn”, “innAr inaiyAr endRa vERupAdu illAmal”, the lotus feet of sriman nArAyANan, who is the hero of thirumagaL, is for everyone one and the like. It is the refuge for all souls and all the souls take shelter at HIS. It implies that since all souls are under HIS lotus feet, there is no difference between these souls in that they all have one destination. There is no difference in that and so the differences arousing from body does not mean anything. All souls are servants of their eternal master sriman nArAyANan. svAmi bhUdathAzvAr says:

“adhu nanRu idhu thIdhu enRu iyapadAdE
madhu ninRa than thuzhAi mArvan
podhu ninRa ponnangazhalE thozhumin muzhu vinaigaL 
munnagazhalum thozhumin”

                                                                                                               -mUndrAm thiruvandhAdhi (88)

The phrase “podhu nindRa ponnangazhal” means that sriman nArAyANan’s lotus feet is common for everyone. This is the reason why they keep satAri at the head of all those who come to the temple. The “satAri” is supposed to be svAmi nammAzvAr who represents the lotus feet of sriman nArAyANan.