<< Previous<\/a><\/p>\n AzhwAr<\/a> asks whether we have to take efforts to attain him instead of attaining him through his efforts, when his actions are like these, toiling hard to protect his followers, as seen in the previous pAsuram. When he is like this for his followers, should it not be that the reason for our having knowledge is to make us attain him? When he is trying to attain us, should we try to attain him? AzhwAr asks whether there is any shortcoming for us when emperumAn<\/a>, who has no results for his deeds (in other words no pApa or puNya), undergoes hardships which even we, who suffer from pApa and puNya, do not undergo, for protecting us.<\/p>\n Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:<\/p>\n thanakkadimai pattadhu thAnaRiyAnElum<\/em> thanakku \u2013 for himself (who is a chEthana, sentient entity) (emperumAn<\/a>, on his own) (if the\u00a0 chEthana gets this much taste, emperumAn will remove his enemy and offer himself. How is this possible?) thanakkadimai pattadhu than aRiyAnElum<\/strong> \u2013 servitorship is always ordained for jIvAthmA<\/a> (soul). This has been brought out by a few illustrations such as in (1) SrI rAmAyaNam AraNya kAndam 15-7 \u201cparavAnasmi<\/em>\u201d (I am fully dependent [on emperumAn<\/a>]), (2) sthOthra rathnam-60<\/a> \u201cthavAsmi<\/em>\u201d (I belong to you), (3) vishNuthathvam \u201csvathvam Athmani sanjAtham svAmithvam brahmaNi sthitham<\/em>\u201d (it is AthmA\u2019s characteristic to be a possession and brahmam (emperumAn)\u2019s characteristic to be the possessor). Even if this is not known. Hasn\u2019t it been said in vishNuthathvam \u201cAthmadhAsyam harE: swAmyam<\/em>\u201d (AthmA\u2019s characteristic is to be servitor and hari\u2019s is to be the Lord).<\/p>\n thAn aRiyAnElum<\/strong> \u2013 even if he (chEthana<\/a>) does not know emperumAn\u2019s and his qualities. Even if he does not know that his quality is being a servitor. Even if he is without good knowledge.<\/p>\n thAn aRiyAnElum<\/strong> \u2013 despite pramANams (authentic texts) saying the above mentioned; \u00a0not carrying out service to his AchAryan and learning from him about these.<\/p>\n manaththadaiya vaippadhAm<\/strong> \u2013 even unknown to the chEthana<\/a>, if emperumAn<\/a> enters his heart\u00a0 in order to claim ownership of his possession, what is required is not to shun him at that time. Is emperumAn not referred to as mAl<\/em>? mAl<\/em> means having affection. All that the chEthana needs to do is to provide emperumAn space when he comes head over heels to the chEthana. It is emperumAn\u2019s responsibility to do whatever else needs to be done after that. vaduga nambi<\/a> (a disciple of bhagavath SrI rAmAnujar<\/a>) once said \u201cwe need not carry out any means to attain emperumAn.\u00a0 When the neighbour dons thirumaN kAppu on his forehead, it is enough to tolerate that instead of making fun of him\u201d. Hasn\u2019t emperumAn said in SrI bhagavath gIthA 18-67 \u201cna cha mAm abyasUyathi<\/em>\u201d (do not share this secret with one who is jealous of me)! nanjIyar<\/a> (AchAryan of the vyAkyAthA of this prabandham SrI nampiLLai) once told thiruvarangapperumAL dhAsar \u201cwhen someone says \u2018emeprumAn\u2019 be happy that he has given us the quality of not being jealous towards him\u201d. It is opined here that we can only develop a desire towards emperumAn and cannot create the benefit of attaining him. An example is illustrated for this, now.<\/p>\n vanaththidarai EriyAm vaNNam iyaRRum idhu allAl<\/strong> \u2013 one can only dig a high ground in the forest and convert it into a lake so that (when rain falls) water can be prevented from going out and can be contained within the lake.<\/p>\n Apart from this…<\/p>\n mAri yAr peygiRpAr maRRu<\/strong> \u2013 is making rain to fall in a specific place, within the control of chEthana<\/a>?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it varuNa dhEva\u00a0 who is responsible for this! AzhwAr<\/a> says that when jIvAthmA<\/a>,\u00a0 appropriate to his being with knowledge, does not show hatred, wouldn\u2019t emperumAn<\/a> offer himself to such jIvAthmA as a benefit!<\/p>\n Instead of this, some persons will offer an alternative interpretation for this pAsuram.<\/p>\n [thanakkadimai pattadhu than aRiyAnElum]<\/strong> As mentioned in muNdaka upanishath 1-1-10 \u201cya: sarvagya: sarvavith<\/em>\u201d (whoever knows the natural character and natural disposition of all entities) and in SvEthaSvathara upanishath 6-8 \u201csvAbhAvikI gyAnabalakriyA cha <\/em>\u201d (it is mentioned that the paramAthmA has natural knowledge, power, deeds etc), emperumAn<\/a> knows everything as his nature. It used to be said derisively that the meaning for this term is: since the jIvAthmA<\/a> does not know that he is a servitor to such emperumAn and that emperumAn controls everyone, even if he does not have such knowledge, is it possible for such a jIvAthmA to keep emperumAn in his heart? While emperumAn has affection towards his followers, can the jIvAthmA keep him in his heart? Is there anything known that the jIvAthmA can, with his own efforts, know about emperumAn and attain him? While emperumAn himself will create the desire in the jIvAthmA<\/a> and offer himself, is there any meaning in the jIvAthmA trying anything on his own?<\/p>\n vanaththidarai EriyAm vaNNam iyaRRum idhu<\/strong> \u2013 it is emperumAn<\/a> who ordains the jIvAthmA to dig the lake.<\/p>\n allAl mAri yAr peygiRpAr maRRu<\/strong> \u2013 isn\u2019t it he who also makes indhra (lord of celestial entities) to create downpour!<\/p>\n vanaththidarai EriyAm vaNNam iyaRRum idhu<\/strong> \u2013 emperumAn makes us avoid avidhyA (ignorance), karmam (deeds resulting from puNyam and pApam), vAsanA (impressions from innumerable births) and ruchi (taste for repeating a particular deed) in our hearts.<\/p>\n That too ….<\/p>\n mAri yAr peygiRpAr maRRu<\/strong> \u2013 isn\u2019t it again he who makes his qualities to strike in the heart of the jIvAthmA<\/a>! If the words are slightly rearranged to read as vanaththidarai EriyAm vaNNam iyaRRum idhuvallAl peygiRpAr maRRu yAr<\/em> this will not appear to be an illustration. Instead of this, if it is taken to refer to those who have deep involvement with emperumAn<\/a>, we should consider that emperumAn is only to be attained and is not an object to be spoken of in any way that one thinks of in his heart. Or, even if the chEthana<\/a> does not know that he is a servitor to emperumAn, he should keep emperumAn in his heart. In other words, carrying out this as one\u2019s appropriate deed. It can also be taken to mean that he would know that chEthana and achEthana<\/a> form the body of emperumAn since he knows the meanings of vEdhAnthams (the end portions of vEdhams, dealing with emperumAn). For the term manaththadaiya vaippadhAm<\/em>, there are three interpretations: attaining emperumAn after seeing how others attain him; having only the desire to attain him; and, emperumAn only will create that desire too. Of these, the first interpretation is credited to [parASara] bhattar<\/a> [son of kUraththAzhwAn<\/a>], the second to thirumalai nambi<\/a> [one of the AchAryas of SrI rAmAnujar<\/a>) and the third to AzhwAn<\/a> [kUraththAzhwAn, one of the most important disciples of SrI rAmAnujar].<\/p>\n We shall consider the 17th<\/sup> pAsuram next.<\/p>\n adiyEn krishNa ramanuja dhAsan<\/p>\n archived in https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org<\/a><\/p>\n pramEyam (goal) \u2013 https:\/\/koyil.org<\/a> SrI:\u00a0 SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:\u00a0 SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:\u00a0 SrImath varavaramunayE nama: Full Series << Previous avathArikai AzhwAr asks whether we have to take efforts to attain him instead of attaining him through his efforts, when his actions are like these, toiling hard to protect his followers, as seen in the previous pAsuram. When he is like … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irandam-thiruvandhadhi","category-iyarpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/divyaprabandham.koyil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Mahavishnu-universes.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\navathArikai<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n manaththadaiya vaippadhAm mAlai vanaththidarai<\/em>
\n EriyAm vaNNam iyaRRum idhuvallAl<\/em>
\n mAri yAr peygiRpAr maRRu<\/em><\/p>\nWord by Word Meaning<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nadimai \u2013 being a servitor
\npattadhu \u2013 that it is being apt
\nthAn aRiyAn Elum \u2013 even if he is not able to know<\/p>\n
\nmanaththu \u2013 in the mind
\nadaiya \u2013 as soon as he reaches
\nmAlai \u2013 that emperumAn
\nvaippadhu \u2013 to keep him, by providing place
\nAm \u2013 is apt<\/p>\n
\nvanam thidarai – the high ground on which the forest has sprung up
\nEri Am vaNNam iyaRRum idhu allAl \u2013 other than the activity of digging a lake in that area so that rain water will not flow elsewhere but into that lake
\nmaRRu \u2013 other than
\nmAri \u2013 rain
\npeygiRpAr \u2013 to make it fall
\nyAr \u2013 who is there? (isn\u2019t rainfall due to emperumAn<\/a>\u2019s sankalpam<\/em> (vow))<\/p>\nvyAkyAnam<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\npramANam (scriptures) \u2013 http:\/\/granthams.koyil.org<\/a>
\npramAthA (preceptors) \u2013 http:\/\/acharyas.koyil.org<\/a>
\nSrIvaishNava education\/kids portal \u2013 http:\/\/pillai.koyil.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"