SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr is asking whether we have ever heard of anyone suffering due to the sins committed, after attaining emperumAn. If this is the characteristic of emperumAn, is there anything such as someone is experiencing the results of sins, asks AzhwAr. Did not yama (deity of dharma, righteousness) ask a person who was experiencing the results of sinful deeds in hell, “You will go the terrible way! Have you not attempted to attain emperumAn even for one day?”. Did yama not tell a person, as mentioned in SrI vishNu dharmam “kim thvayA nArchithO dhEva: kESava: klESa nASana:” (did you not worship kESava, who removes sufferings?). Had he not said “You will go the terrible way! You did not go the right way! You spoiled yourself!”. Didn’t sIthAp pirAtti tell rAvaNa in SrI rAmAyaNam sundhara kANdam 21-19 “mithramaupayikam karthum rAma: sthAnam parIpsathA, vadham cha anichchathA ghOram thvayA asau purusharshabha: ” (SrI rAma who is the best among all purushas (souls) is the apt person to make friends for you who would like to remain in this world and who would not like to die a horrible death )! Did she not say that he had not attempted to carry out atonement for all the sins that he had committed!
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
ArE thuyaruzhandhAr thunbuRRAr ANdaiyAr
kArE malindha karum kadalai nErE
kadaindhAnaik kAraNanai nIraNaimEl paLLi
adaindhAnai nALum adaindhu
Word by Word Meanings
kArE malindha karum kadalai – the dark ocean which is full of clouds
nErE kadandhAnai – one who stood in the forefront and churned
kAraNanai – one who is the cause for all the worlds
nIr aNai mEl paLLi adaindhAnai – one who is reclining on thiruppARkadal (on AdhiSEshan)
adaindhu – after attaining
nALum thuyar uzhandhAr Ar – who suffered even for one day?
thunbu uRRAr ANdaiyAr – where are those who experienced sorrow (like that)?
vyAkyanam
ArE thuyar uzhandhAr thumbuRRAr – who, before this, has suffered the consequences of carrying out sinful deeds which are the reason for sorrow? Are there people who have experienced the result of carrying out lowly deeds? After attaining emperumAn, suffering the results of sins is equivalent to “agnina sinchEth ” (wetting with fire). Who has experienced the consequences of carrying out sins in the past, after attaining emperumAn? Hasn’t emperumAn himself told arjuna in SrI bhagavath gIthA 9-31 “kaunthEya prathijAnIhi na mE bhakthi: praNaSyathi” (my devotee does not get destroyed. Oh arjuna! You take this oath!). When the king of ocean did not pay heed initially to SrI rAma’s request to yield way for going to lankA (to wage war against rAvaNa), SrI rAma prepared to shoot an arrow on him. But when the king of ocean surrendered to him, did not SrI rAma not only not shoot the arrow on him but shoot it against the enemies of the king of ocean! Once a person attains emperumAn, all that remains is experiencing the benefit of that.
ANdaiyAr – in which time are those, who did not experience that benefit?
kArE malindha karum kadalai – is emperumAn such powerless that his followers have to suffer the consequences of sinful deeds? Is there any suffering for those who attain the omnipotent? Isn’t he the one who churned the ocean which was surrounded by clouds with manthara mountain as the staff!
nErE kadaindhAnai – he churned the ocean such that only nectar came out, without disturbing the clouds which had gathered over the ocean.
kAraNanai – the causative entity for all the worlds. Am I leaving him because I want to disprove the relationship with him? There is no place to go other than he, who is the cause for the worlds.
nIraNai mEl paLLi adaindhAnai – are we suffering because he is not making any effort to protect us? He is reclining in the milky ocean so that he could come near us and carry out our activities since he is the causative factor.
nALum adaindhu – have those, who attained him, suffered because they had carried out deeds which would give rise to sorrow? Since attaining him itself is sweet, attaining him every day will give rise to sweetness only. Alternatively, we can consider the meaning for ANdaiyAr as any point of time and nALum as every day and consider the meaning for the verse as those who would not suffer at any point of time or any day. The reason for AzhwAr saying this is the deep belief that he has on emperumAn. An incident which happened in the life of parASara bhattar (son of kUraththAzhwAn) is quoted here. One day, during the uthsavam at the SrIrangam temple, parAsara bhattar was recounting the greatness of periya perumAL (SrI ranganAthan), at a place called thiruvURRangarai. At that time, a disciple of siRiyAththAn came there and told bhattar, “jIyA! (a name by which bhattar was known, which means a knowledgeable/venerable person) All the brAhmaNas have congregated here. This is the time for sandhyAvandhanam (a daily ritual for people from the first three varNas). Come, let us get up and carry out sandhyAvandhanam”. bhattar told him “What have you done? When periya perumAL and the festivities are going on in a grand scale, just because I have not carried out a small task, will yama write it down in his book?”. bhattar then went on to mercifully recite the pAsuram “sollAy thirumArbA” from periya thirumozhi 6-3-9 and gave the following explanation: “unakkAgath thoNdu patta nallEnai vinaigaL naliyAmai nambu nambi ” – a king was listening to the names of people who had committed crimes in his kingdom. If the person who is reading out the names, mentions the name of a person who is very close to the king and the king says “let it be so. Go ahead and read the other names”, can that person’s name be read out again? In the same way, if emperumAn has accepted a person, yama et al cannot delve into his misdeeds ever. Thus AzhwAr says that due to any shortcoming in the power of emperumAn or if the relationship between us and emperumAn becomes false, we have to experience the result of our karmas (deeds). In other words, since there is no shortage in emperumAn’s powers to remove our sins and since there is nothing false in our relationship between us and emperumAn, there will be no need to experience the result of our sins.
We will take up the 28th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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