SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavara munayE nama:
The most important principle enunciated in thirumanthiram (divine manthram or divine incantation), which is the essence of all vEdhas, is ananyArhaSEshathvam – viz. jIvAthmA (soul) is totally subservient only to paramAthmA (supreme entity) and is not subservient to anyone other than paramAthmA. The hurdle to this thought is ahankAram which considers that the body is AthmA and mamakAram which considers the belongings of the body as one’s own. prAmANams (authentic texts) such as SrI vishNu purANam 6-7-1 “anAthmanyAthmabhudhdhiryA chAsvE svamithi yA mathi: l samsAratharusambhUthi bhIjamEthath dhvidhA sthitham ll” (For nurturing the (poisonous) tree of samsAram, the two types of seed are: the knowledge of considering body which is different from AthmA, as AthmA, and the knowledge of considering what does not belong to AthmA as belonging to AthmA) say that ahankAram and mamakAram are the seeds for the tree of samsAram. While these two concepts are common to all jIvAthmAs, kings such as kulaSEkharar et al will be especially subjugated by these two. The svarUpam (basic nature) of materials such as moon, breeze, sandalwood etc will not be realised if they are not of use to anyone. In the same way, the svarUpam of jIvAthmA, which exists solely for emperumAn, will not be realised because of ahankAram and mamakAram. Is there any prAmANam to say that jIvAthmA exists solely for the sake of paramAthmA? yajur brAhmaNam 3-7 “yasyA’smi na thamantharEmi” (I will not leave the one, to whom I am servile, and go to another), thaiththirIya upanishath nArAyaNavalli 11 “pathim viSvasyAthmESvaram SASvatham Sivam achyutham nArAyaNam” (It is only nArAyaNan who is the lord of the entire world, who is his own lord, who is permanent, who is pious and who does not let go of his followers) affirm that it is only paramAthmA who is the lord for all the worlds. It is clear from these that jIvAthmA is the owned and paramAthmA is the owner, that jIvAthmA is not qualified to take care of his livelihood and that paramAthmA has all the right to take care of the jIvAthmA. Thus, the surmise of pramANams that jIvAthmA is totally dependent on paramAthmA will hold true only if this relationship is extended to the followers of paramAthmA, viz jIvAthmA has bhAgavatha SEshathvam (jIvAthmA is subservient to emperumAn’s followers) too. AzhwAr realised that despite having this knowledge of bhAgavatha SEshathvam, emperumAn had not yet bestowed bhAgavatha kainkaryam (service to bhAgavathas) on him. He thought that the reason for this could be that emperumAn might have considered that “Since he is a king, having time for only regal duties, he may not have the time for bhAgavatha kainkaryam” or that “Let him have the patience to wait for this kainkaryam when we give it to him” or, since he knows the involvement which AzhwAr had towards the urge for carrying out kainkaryam towards bhAgavathas, emperumAn would have thought “Let us wait till his involvement matures further”.
AzhwAr further thought that emperumAn does not lack the knowledge or power that we do, that he is omniscient and omnipotent to carry out whatever he thought. However, since he had not granted AzhwAr the kainkaryam that AzhwAr had desired, AzhwAr thought that it should be because of some deficiency in him. Hence, in this decad, he appeals to emperumAn in thiruviththuvakkOdu (a dhivyadhESam in present day kErala region) saying “I do not have the capability to fulfil my desire; no one else apart from you can do this for me; though I am longing fervently to carry out bhagavatha – bhAgavatha, kainkaryam, I do not have the capability to carry out any efforts towards that on my own”. He shows a few allegories towards this through materials / people to prove that he has no refuge other than the divine feet of thiruviththuvakkOttu emperumAn.
- pAsuram 5.1
- pAsuram 5.2
- pAsuram 5.3
- pAsuram 5.4
- pAsuram 5.5
- pAsuram 5.6
- pAsuram 5.7
- pAsuram 5.8
- pAsuram 5.9
- pAsuram 5.10
We will take up the first pAsuram of this decad, next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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