SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr talks about how emperumAn carries out the activities for dhEvathAs who desire other benefits [and not emperumAn].
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
iRai emperumAn aruLenRu imaiyOr
muRai ninRu moymmalargaL thUva aRaikazhala
sEvadiyAn sengaNediyAn kuRaLuruvAy
mAvadivil maN koNdAn mAl
Word by Word Meanimg
imaiyOr – dhEvathAs (such as brahmA, rudhra et al)
emperumAn – Oh our lord!
iRai – Oh supreme being!
aruL enRu – please show mercy (in our matter), so saying
muRai ninRu – standing in the form of servitors
moy malargaL – beautiful flowers
thUva – scattering them in a disorderly way
aRai kazhala sEvadiyAn – having divine feet adorned with warrior’s anklets
sem kaN – having reddish eyes
nediyAn – being superior to everyone else
mAl – having affection towards his followers
kuRaL uruvAy – incarnating in the form of vAmana (dwarf)
mAvadivil – with mahAbali
maN koNdAn mAl – measured the earth
vyAkyAnam
iRai emperumAn aruL enRu – Oh supreme being for the world and our ordained Lord! Show us mercy.
iRai emperumAn aruL enRu – Just as it is mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 2-2-10 “kaLvA! emmaiyum Ezhulagum ninnuLLE thORRiya iRaiva! ” (Oh the mischievous lord who created us and all the worlds within you! Oh our lord!) the dhEvathAs will worship emperumAn.
aruL enRu – if the people living in the town find that one of their belongings has been stolen, they will assemble at the house of the head of the town who protects them and cry out about the loss of their property/possession. In the same way, these dhEvathAs will also come to emperumAn who is their protector and plead with him if their possessions / lands are taken away by demons such as rAvaNa et al. Who are these people who come and pray…..
imaiyOr – these are the people mentioned by nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi 2-2-10 as “veLLERan nAnmugan indhiran vAnavar ” (dhEvathAs such as rudhra, brahmA, indhra et al); they are the people, who have their own worlds, vehicles, flags, weapons etc [granted by emperumAn] and who, blowing their own trumpets, will call themselves as ISvarOham (I am the Lord). AzhwAr says that they leave aside their ego and trumpets and come and pray to emperumAn.
muRai ninRu – they will know that emperumAn is the lord and that they are the servitors, and holding their hands together, will bow down to emperumAn.
moymmalargaL thUva – just as their followers worship them with beautiful flowers, these dhEvathAs will worship emperumAn with beautiful flowers.
thUva – in their anxiety that whatever they have prayed for now should be granted , they will sprinkle the flowers, not at the divine feet of emperumAn but haphazardly on his head.
What does emperumAn do when they worship him like this?
aRai kazhala sEvadiyAn – emperumAn who stands with his warrior’s anklets sounding reverbrantly on his divine feet. Even as they are praying, he gets ready to do their bidding. kazhal is indicative of all other ornaments worn by him on his divine feet.
sengaN nediyAn – one who has lotus like eyes, indicative of the fact that he is the lord for all these dhEvathAs, as mentioned widely in sacred texts – SvEthAsvathara upanishath says of emperumAn “tham ISvaraNAm paramam mahESvaram tham dhEvathAnAm pramamcha dhaivatham ” (he is the mahESvaran for all these ISvarars and he is the dhEvathA for all these dhEvathAs).
nediyAn – he is the greatest among all.
mAl – even though they come to him for helping them with lowly benefits, he doesn’t frown at them but showers affection on them like water flooding the channels once the sluice gates are opened in a lake. He is affectionate towards them in the hope that at some point of time in the future, they will come to him, asking for himself instead of such lowly benefits.
Did he not lower his status while carrying out their tasks!
kuRaL uruvAy – the opinion is that in order to carry out the task for such followers, he did not take a great form consistent with his greatness of giving everything to others, but took the form of a dwarf (vAmana) for whom taking alms from others is the ordained duty.
mAvadivil maNkoNdAn – he took a huge form [after being granted his wish by mahAbali] capable of swallowing all the worlds, in order to measure the worlds [and get back what his followers had lost].
kuRaL uruvAy mAvadivil – Just as thirumazhisai AzhwAr mentioned in his thiruchchandha viruththam 109 “surukkuvAinRiyE surunginAy surungiyum perukkuvArai inRiyE perukkameydhu peRRiyOy ”, he dwarfed himself and grew to very large extent of his own volition, without anyone asking him to do so.
We shall take up the 100th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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Swami, where shall I get the audio of all the Divya prabhandham pasurams? Adiyen is requesting to know the availability in soft copy form.