thiruvAimozhi – 3.9 – sonnAl

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

Full series >> Third Centum

Previous Decad

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bhagavan-nammazhwar

Highlights from nanjIyar‘s introduction

See nampiLLai‘s introduction.

Highlights from vAdhi kEsari azhagiya maNavALa jIyar‘s introduction

In ninth decad – emperumAn seeing AzhwAr along with his sensory organs crying out, says “While the whole world is praising others and becoming purposeless, I have made you to praise me” and highlights AzhwAr’s fortune; AzhwAr becomes satisfied and highlights the following aspects:

  1. emperumAn’s ultimate saulabhyam (easy approachability) which is cause for being praiseworthy
  2. the greatness of relationship with such emperumAn who is easily approachable
  3. his control over nithyasUris (eternally free souls of paramapadham)
  4. the praises that match his lordship
  5. his great generosity which makes him bestow what is desired [by others]
  6. his Sriya:pathithvam (lord of SrI mahAlakshmi) which is the cause for such generosity
  7. the completeness of his names and qualities which are the target of praises
  8. he being the ultimate result
  9. his ability to bestow the purushArtham (goals of individuals)
  10. his being the creator of the world

Meditating upon these aspects, AzhwAr mercifully advises to worldly people “instead of praising such emperumAn, why are you losing your purpose of existence by praising worthless others?”.

Highlights from periyavAchchAn piLLai‘s introduction

See nampiLLai‘s introduction.

Highlights from nampiLLai‘s introduction

samsAris (worldly people) made AzhwAr forget crying out for his loss [as explained in previous decad] and cry out for their loss. In the previous decad AzhwAr along with his sensory organs cried out [towards emperumAn] which will melt anyone who heard that; Like AzhwAr blissfully enjoyed bhagavAn as said in thiruvAimozhi 2.3.9parugik kaLiththEnE” (enjoyed drinking such experience) and then sought the association of nithyasUris as said in thiruvAimozhi 2.3.10adiyArgaL kuzhAngaL udan kUduvadhenRu kolO” (when will I join together with the groups of nithyasUris?), here too after crying out in sorrow, he looked at the samsAris thinking “who will share my agony at the loss of emperumAn?”; but, as they are not a company in the result [of serving emperumAn in paramapadham], they are also not a company in the loss of the same; AzhwAr only saw – as said in nAnmugan thiruvanthAdhi 6 “aRiyAr samaNar, ayarththAr bavuththar, siRiyAr sivappattAr” (jainas who don’t know the truth, baudhdhas who are bewildered, Saivas who waned away becoming very lowly), those (jainas) who talk irrelevant aspects, those who accept just accept knowledge based lineage instead of accepting a chEthana (sentient) [bhagavAn as the cause] which can remember what was previously thought/done,  those (Saivas) who consider a jIvAthmA like themselves to be ISvara (supreme lord), those who depend on other dhEvathAs, those others who make the aforementioned persons to be greatly intelligent due to praising mortal beings to fulfil their worldly desires; on seeing them, AzhwAr forgot his agony as said in “vALERu kANath thELERu mAyumApOlE” (a person comes out running having stung by scorpion crying in pain; but outside he sees some one who has his hands cut off fully – the first person then forgets his pain seeing the greater pain of the other person); since AzhwAr is of the nature that when he sees others suffering he will try to help them before taking care of his own suffering, he thought “let me help remove their suffering and will bring them along [in the path of mOksham]” and gave them the most apt advice and as they ignore that and remain the same way, while going on his way leaving them behind, he speaks about the difference between them and him [this is explained in detail in the coming sections].

  • emperumAn is having all auspicious qualities;
  • he is the divine lord of SrI mahAlakshmi;
  • since he is very beautiful, the praises will remain truthful and he will be worthy of such praises;
  • he is having subordinates who would hear such praises and glorify them as said in thiruvAimozhi 10.6.11 “kEttArAr vaNavargaL” (the residents of paramapadham will not be satisfied in hearing thiruvAimozhi once and will want to hear again and again) and thiruvAimozhi 9.4.9 “thoNdarkkamudhuNNach chol mAlaigaL” (these garlands made of words are nectar for the devotees);
  • he is most generous to be able to fulfil the desires of those who praise him as said in thiruvAimozhi 3.9.5  “vENdiRRellAm tharum kOdhil en vaLLal” (the faultless benevolent lord who will give anything that is prayed for);
  • he is being the owner of both spiritual realm and material realm, thus having the ability to give what was asked;
  • he is indicated by all words, whatever words one may use, as said in thiruvAimozhi 7.8.10 “valladhOr vaNNam sonnAl adhuvE unakkAm vaNNam” (whatever one says according to one’s capability, that will be acceptable by you);
  • he is present everywhere as said in thiruvAimozhi 2.8.9engum uLan kaNNan” (krishNa is present everywhere), so that one need not search with difficulty to find him after compiling some verses on him;
  • he is easily approachable; he is the one who can bestow all purushArthams (goals) such as bhOga (enjoyment), mOksha (liberation) etc;
  • even if he does not bestow them, he is sarvESvara who is fit to be simply glorified.

Instead of praising such emperumAn, the worldly people were praising,

  • those who have nothing praiseworthy in them;
  • singing praises as in calling a bald headed as “cool long haired”, calling a dirty-eyed person as lotus-eyed;
  • since the one who is praised does not have anything to offer, he would end up giving false promises;
  • those who are praised are so impermanent that, when one prepares many days and in the end prepares a poem in praise of a worldly person, when approached to read out his praises, that person who is praised himself may be dead – thus it’s a loss when the one who is praised is alive and is a loss when such person is dead – and hence is a loss in all manner;
  • not only is there no use in praising such persons, one needs to praise such worldly persons who have nothing good in them, yet to praise as having been born in high paternal and maternal heritage;
  • so, what is the result of that? there will be some defect for the person who is praised even during birth; hearing the praises [knowing well they are false praises], those who hear them will be reminded of the defects of the person who is being praised; in this way, one will reveal the defects of such defects and become unfavourable [in this current birth here], since unfit objects were glorified, one will subsequently go to naraka [after death] and will be condemned and outcast saying “he is the one who praised that unfit person”.

AzhwAr seeing such persons who are praising very lowly persons, advised them good words saying “While AthmA is a servitor of ISvara, it is not fitting to praise others with your faculty [sensory organs]”, the advice did not yield result as in the case of the advice of SrI vibhIshaNa et al to rAvaNa, thinking “We will also get the same result like these who don’t listen to good advice [if we continue to stay here]” and “While we are living in this world with this material body among these people, how fortunate we are to have the senses which are attached exclusively to bhagavAn?”, feeling blissful like escaping with the properties of self, while being caught in a place well known for robbery, meditating upon his difference [from those worldly people], concludes joyfully by speaking his own benefit.

Each pAsuram is discussed subsequently.

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

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