SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr was asked “What is the reason for your not singing about others?” He responds saying that all the words and their meanings in the world have been created due to emperumAn’s sankalpa (will), implying that only emperumAn has the greatness to be sung about.
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
pAttum muRaiyum padu kadhaiyum palporuLum
Ittiya thIyum iruvisumbum kEtta
manuvum surudhi maRai nAngum mAyan
thanamAyaiyil pattadhaRpu
Word for Word Meanings
pAttum muRaiyum – musical and prosaic
padu kadhaiyum – ithihAsas (epics) which came about to describe the old narrations
pal poruLum – purANas which describe many meanings
Ittiya thIyum – agni (fire) which was created to have all five elements within it due to panchIkaraNam (homogenisation of the five elements)
iru visumbum – expansive sky (thus the five elements)
kEtta manuvum – manu smruthi which is spoken of in vEdhas too
surudhi – the method of learning through uchchAraNa and anuchchAraNa (teacher saying once and disciples repeating the same three times)
maRai nAngum – the four vEdhas
(thus, all these)
mAyan than – one who has amazing power, that emperumAn’s
mAyaiyil patta – through his sankalpa (will)
dhaRpu – have existence
vyAkyAnam
pAttum muRaiyum padu kadhaiyum pal poruLum – vyAkyAthA periyavAchchAn piLLai’s opinion is that these four words denote the meanings which are spoken of extensively in purANas (ancient narratives which would appear new each time they are read). According to SrI vishNu purANam 6-8-13 these are “sargaScha prathisargaScha vamSam manvantharANi cha I vamSanucharitham kruthsnam mayAthra thava kIrthitham II” (creation, annihilation, lineage, period of manu and narratives of lineages were narrated by me to you).
pAttum – starting from kings and going up to sarvESvara, the songs which were sung about the greatness of each. Don’t purANas sing extensively about celestial entities, pithrus (forefathers), kings as mentioned in mAthsya purANam “agnE: Sivasya mahAthmyam”?
muRaiyum – the order of lineages and manvantharam (manu’s period). parASara bhagavAn called this “vamSamanvantharANi cha” (lineage and manvantharam).
padu kadhaiyum – srushti (creation), pralayam (annihilation), history of lineages which happened earlier. parASara maharishi called this “sargaScha prathisargaScha vamSAnucharitham kruthsnam”.
palporuLum – apart from these, various other meanings which are explained in purANas regarding activities based on varNa (four classifications based on qualities and profession) and ASrama (status in societal life), determination of terrestrial movement etc.
This is the interpretation of periyavAchchAn piLLai. The interpretation of appiLLai is:
pAttum muRaiyum – prose and proper music which sings about prose.
padu kadhaiyum – ithihAsas (epics) which talk about old narratives describing how they happened.
pal poruLum – various meanings described by purANas starting with sargaScha prathisargaScha.
Ittiya thIyum – agni (fire) which was created in order to exhibit the other elements (ether, water, wind and earth) through the method of panchIkaraNam (homogenisation). Homogenisation is the method by which emperumAn split each of the elements into eight parts, retaining four parts in the mother element and mixing each of the other four parts with each of the other four elements.
iru visumbum – sky (ether) which is bigger than the other four elements since it pervades them. Mentioning about these two elements (agni (fire) and AkASam (sky)) is representative of the other three elements and the materials which are resultant from them.
In periyavAchchAn piLLai’s interpretation, all these are vAchyam (meanings of words) and what follow are the vAchagams (words). In appiLLai’s interpretation, Ittiya thIyum iruvisumbum alone is meaning of words. Those which precede and succeed this are words.
kEtta manuvum . . . .dhaRpu – Just as mentioned in thaiththirIya samhithai 2-2 “yadhyai kincha manuavadhath thath bhEshajam” (whatever has been mentioned by manu is medicine), manusmruthi which has been quoted in vEdhas, and the four vEdhas themselves which have been taught by AchArya (teacher) and heard by Sishya (due to which they are called as Sruthi) have the nature of total truth since they have been created by the AScharya bhUtha (amazing entity, emperumAn) through his sankalpa (will). This implies that the connection between a word and its meaning has been created by emperumAn’s sankalpa.
mAyai – this refers to the knowledge through sankalpa (will) as brought out by Arsha nigaNdu (lexicon) saying “mAyA vayunam gyAnam” kaNNa (krishNa) also mentioned in SrI bhagavath gIthA 4-6 “Athma mAyayA sambhavAmi” (I am born out of my will). dhaRpu – thathvam; truth.
We will take up the 77th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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