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thirup pAvai - part 1 - munnurai - Kannan kAttiya vazhi

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • December 16, 1998 


Dear bAgwathALs,

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam

         We are  planning to present the   understanding  for  the
thaniyans  and *some* of the major aspects of thirup pAvai (of the 
30  verses), in the coming years.  This will be  an enormus effort 
to understand thiruppAvai by adiyEn.  Please  tune in to look  for 
the  postings.  We  request learned bAgwathALs  to step in and add 
to it whenever they feel necessary. We donot know if we can simply  
complete  this  task within  this  month  of   mArgazhi.  This  is  
perumAL  and  godhA pirAtti's  work and we simply pray to them and 
hope that they will bless us  with  atleast somewhat basic minimum 
understanding of these verses and provide meaningful discussions.
							
        An incident  from achArya  vaibavam  comes to mind.  It is
very  important to note from the  kalAshEbhams  of achAryALs  that
azhwAr's pAsurams are not easy to do vyAkyAnams  without anubavam.
When Sri  Ramanujar was approached by the sishyALs to do vyAkyAnam
for thiru vaay mozhi, it is believed that he said, "I may not want 
to do it by myself. (Later on the first vyAkyAnam was delivered by 
his direct disciple thirukurukoor  piLLAn).  Because   there  is a 
potential  scope that these nools (literatures) are to  be  learnt 
by everyone by their own anubavam and that it  is  very  apt  that there 
should be so many  vyAkyAnams  that must come out for  these 
from each  generation  of  achAryALs.  

Sri RmAnujA continued,
"The understanding of this must continue to  grow.  (meaning  each 
time  a  soul  reads  it and feels it (anubavam) they may come out 
with an unique bagwath anubavam and such will  become  vyAkyAnam).  
For brahma sudhram there is a  definite  vyAkyAnam  and  hence  my 
bAshyam is delivered for that. If I  write  a  vyAkyAnam like that 
for the thirumozhis,  the  future  generation of SrivaishnvaLs may 
fix their mind in it and say that this is the only valid vyAkyAnam.
instead, I desire that each one have their own anubavam."  In fact
the second of the five last (commandments)  rules of Sri Ramanujar
was  understood  by some schools  like these.  ie., azwar  aruLich
cheyalai pravarpiththaL.

        When bagwath Sri  Ramanujar  would say like that, we donot
even think that 4000 divya  prabhandam  is just a one layer seyyuL
with literal  meanings  from the words as they merely  appear.  We
donot even dare  presenting one simple meaning and cocluding it as
the  some  meaning  or  of  that  sort.  i.e.,  We  recognize  the
importance  attached to it by Sri  Ramanujar,  when handling  this
tamil vedam.  We recognize  the existance   of so many  (atleast 3
layers of) meanings and would attempt to see these verses from the
kalAkshEbams we have heard from different schools.  We will simply
attempt to present an infant  ramblings  of our  understanding  of
this sAgaram known as 4000 divya prabhandham.  We would attempt to
present  them with  these in our minds  such that this  ghOsti can
enjoy it.

        It is believed that Thirup pAvai is the only prabhandam of
4000 divya prabhandham that is written in most of the major indian
languages and all  Srivaishnavas  around the globe do anusanthAnam
of these 30 verses  irrespective  of their language.  The pAsurams
are written in many languages so that one need not even know tamil
and yet they can simply read it in their  language and still spell
the words of the pAsuram in Tamil.  ie., as similar to  chanting a
mantra.  All over the world (6 crores)  (approximately 60 million)
of  tamil  speaking  people  living  in 63  countries  as  well do
anusanthAnam  of these verses during this month.  Thus it is worth
a try to attempt to understand this one more time.


     It is  important  to discuss  the  introduction  prior to the
verses  themselves  for any kavi or kAvyam.  We attempt to present
the  various  vyAkyAnams on the essence of thirup pAvai as to what 
it contains and some related aspects of our achArya vaibavam prior 
to discussing  the verses  from  thirup  pAvai.  This  is  like an
executive summary but these are little longer than a  professional  one.  
Please forgive us of any apachArams  that may have  occurred  while  
attempting to discuss these.  We  intend  to  post only the details of 
our understanding from Sri PV pillai and  Sri Srinivasa iyengAr and Sri 
Azhgiya manavALAp  perumAL  nAyAnAr,  Sri Azhagiya singar (44 th) and  
Sri Utthamoor  Swami.  Above  all,  we will be
presenting our anubavam ie,  "Kannan kAttiya vazhi"  that  we  are
blessed with from our Lord Sri Krishna and follow the Sri  bagwath
niyamanam as the theme and present the comprehensive understanding  
of this Sri bagwath niyamanan where ever  supported  from  any  of these 
vyAkyAnam and other kAlakshEbhams. We donot  intend  to  get 
into any arguments and would merely present the details. So please 
forgive us if we donot answer your questions in the open net.

        adiyEn had done about 20 parts last year for the first few
lines of the first pAsuram. adiyEn will continue from where it was
left last year. Please lok into the archives for the first 20 parts.

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sri Boomi dEvi thAyAr samEtha Sri Oppiliappan thiruvadikaLE
saraNam
Sri RanganAyikA samEtha Sri RanganAthar thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sampath Rengarajan

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