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Perumaal thirumozhi - an insight of the vyaakyaanam by periya vaachaan pillai

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • February 29, 1996 


As per India's time Sri kulasEkara aazhwaar's birth day is dawning now, and I
would like to present the following insight on perumaal thirumozhi of the
aazhwaar, as a service to the Lord of Arangan's thiruvadikaL. Please read the
following articles posted by me before reading this if you may want to
visualise yourself some core aspects of our aazwaarkaL vaibavams.
1.Thiru mangai aruLich cheyalum Baktha Vatsala Perumal Avaathaara seyalum
2. Posts on Srirangam
3. Sri Krishna sthaaayi
Sampath Rengaraajan
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vaazhith thiru naamam

anchana maamalaip piRavi aathariththaan vaazhiyE
aNiyarangar maNath thooNai amarntha selvan vaazhiyE
vanchinagaranthannai vaazhviththaan vaazhiyE
maasithaniR punarpoosam vanthuthithaan vaazhiyE
anchlenakkudap paambil angaiyittaan vaazhiyE
anavaratham raamakathai aka makizhvOn vaazhiyE
senchonmozhi nooRRanchum seppinaan vaazhiyE
sEralarkOn sengamalath thiruvadikaL vaazhiyE

vaazhith thirunaamam for periya vaachaan pillai

thaNmai singam rOhiNi naaL thazhaikka vanthOn vaazhiyE
thaaraNiyil sEynalloor thaanudaiyOn vaazhiyE
punmai thavir thiruvarangar pugazhuraip pOn vaazhiyE
poothoor ethiraasar thaaL pugazhumavan vaazhiyE
manpugazh sEr sadagOpar vaLamuraippOn vaazhiyE
maRai naalin poruLthannaip puguththuraiththaan vaazhiyE
anbudan ulakariyaartham adiyiNaiyOn vaazhiyE
abayapratha raajar thaaL anavaratham vaazhiyE

When he was born, his Father, the then King saw his thEjas, and
understood that this child will be the "sirOmani" of their entire clan
or kulam and hence named him "kulaSekaran" (the one who will bring the
name for their clan).When KulasEkaran became the king he conquered the
neighbouring kingdom of paandiyan and chOlan and became the emperor of
this region. He himself has mentioned his position as a ruler for all
the three kingdomn in his paasuram as "kolli kaavalan koodal naayakan
kOzhik kOn kulasEkaran".

The lord who is having the KaruNai (infinite mercy) as his anikalan or
aaparanam (jewel), desired and provided the "gNaana" in the form of
bakthi to this aazhwaar. With this bakthi the aazhwaar, was restless
and wanted to see the Lord "atonce" instead of seeing HIM at
SRivaikundam. Thus he wanted to experience the "parath thuvam" of
Srivaikundam with his kalyaaNa kuNangaL, on the thiru arangaththaan who
is full of grace and whose temple is the simple means of purification.
Since his responsibility as an emperor an his day to day to routine
will prevent it, and hence he asks "when will I get to see the karumani
of thriuvarangam ?"  he further narrates the "steps" or stages those
bakthaas who are attached to HIM and are devoted to bagwath kainkaryam
will cross as

1. anukoolya sankalpam

2. prathikoolya varjanam

3. the udaiyavan or the paraman who is owner of everyone will bless us
(rakshippaan).

4. upholding in our mind the belief that he is the only deliverer

5. surrendering our aatmans to HIM

6. conveying our inability to seek HIM of our own self and that we
solely  depend on HIS GRACE even to seek HIM.

He conveyed bagwath anukoolya sankalpam by "iruLiriya" in the first
thriumozhi and confirms the obtaining of such sankalpam by "thEttarum"
in his second thirumozhi.  After this experience he narrates that he
lost the touch or association with the "prathikoolyars" such as  those
"dhehaathmaabi maanikaL" (ie those who thinks they are their bodies
only) and "vishayp pranavar" (those who thrive on vishayams and
materialistic pursuits only). Thus he conveys that he also experienced
"prathikoolya varjanam" by saying "meyyil" in the third thirumozhi.  He
further assumed that the Lord of Arangan is hesitating even after his
crossing the first two stages, probably because HE may be of the
opinion that "this king is still interested in his kingdom". Hence, he
sings, let me become any object in your thirumalai, and would want to
see your pavaLa vaay" by saying "oonREru" in fourth thriumozhi.  After
being born so many times and after establishing the fact of his nature
or swapaavam with "aakinchanyam" (ie helplessness or couldnot do
anything of HIMelf) and "anaya gathiththuvam" (ekaviswaasam or cannot
afford to take refuge with anyone else), by many of such thrishtaantham
to the lotus feet of the  Lord of "thiruvaiththuvak kOttamaan" in fifth
thirumozhi by saying "tharu thuyaram". After this stage it takes one to
reach the height of the sorrow and observe themselves as a piraati and
conveys the experience of "kooduvathu, pirivathu, ooduvathu", and
deliveres similar to naamaazhwaar as "minnidai madavaaril" and
resembling thirumangai as "kaathil kadippil", in the sixth thirumozhi
that starts with "Ermalar".  On the seveth thirumozhi onwards his
bakthi becomes very personal and the eedupaadu is very implicitely
conveyed in the paasuram "aalaineeL" wherein aazhwaar, feels  "are we
lost so long that we missed remembering sri bagwath vishayam so long?",
by saying the plight of dEvaki who pours out her feeling (of sorrow)
for having missed so much (of mother babay son relationship) on seeing
KaNNan after "kamsa vadahm". After assuming dEvaki baavanai to convey
his loss of association, he assumes kowsalyaa baavanai to assume to
sing "thaalaattu" for for Sri Ramaan as the Lord of thiruk kaNNapuram
in the eighth thirumozhi that starts with "mannupugazh".Then he assumes
the baavanai of dasarathaa and cries out that "I missed enjoying the
company of the prince Raama and missed witnessing his "veera
viLaiyaattu", in the ninth thirumozhi that starts with
"vanthaaLiNinai". After all the "missing" events were lapsed, he
delivers his tenth thirumozhi assuming the baavanai as sri vaalmeeki
who experienced the entire avathaarm of sriraam untill he enters the
thiruvadijOthi, starting "angaNedumathiL", on the thillai thiruch
chiththirakkoodam, where he "sees" with his "gyaana" that sriraama
lives forever ie the itheeham is that Sri raaman lives here in
nityaavaasam". Please note that as per Sri vyaasaa's sahasranaamam,
Lord shiva (as her thalaivan or iswaran) upholds to Sri Paarvathi that
Sri Raama naamam is to be worshipped as the total representation of the
aathimoolam Sri Vishnu. Since this is "the temple" for Lord shivaa
also, one can easily derive from the fact given to us by the aazhwaar
and vyaasa that our Lord Govindaaraajan lives here ie nityaa vaasam as
Sriraama, and thus being worshipped by everyone including lord shivaa.

	Since he devoted his life and prabandam on the "perumaal" who was the
chakravarthy thirumahan ie emperor Ramaa, this aazhwaar was also called as sri
kulasEkara perumaal and th ethirumzohi named after him as perumal. No other
aazhwaar was called "perumaal". Since he "realised" the Lord in "his self",and
obtained such "gyaanaa" while doing bagwath kainkaryam and says, "padiyaayk
kidanthun pavaLavaay kaaNbanE" and conveys that while seeking the Lord in his
soul by doing this kainkaryam (ie mana neghichchi or bakthi as the inner most
feeling realised within), he emphatically declares that he (self realisation)
is not important and that the Lord as the param is the "prathaana bOgam" by
saying "padiyaayk kidanthu" and only HE as the param is the "prathaana bOgam"
by saying "un pavaLa vaay", and continue to say that he has the blessing or
"apprathaanaa bOgam" which is the component for serving the "prathaana bOgam"
of the param by "kaaNbEnE" to Lord thiruvEnkadan. Hence all the entry steps to
the Lord or "padi's" that are infront of the Lord are named as "kulasEkaran
padi" symbloising aazwaar's resolve to serve thriuvEnkadan. More than referring
the physical padi to the aazhwaar there are core principles of Srivishishtaa
dvaidam conveyed here in implicit meaning by the aazhwaar. The
pradhaanam for the param is upheld here by the aazhwaar by saying he is just
the padi (step) only. Thus he had first indirectly conveys us that he has shown
us the six steps of the inner realisation and then expressed that the param is
the final destiny or prathaanam and one would seek to serve the param after
crossing these six stages. that is, one can also derive that even if you reach
at the "padi", or thershold you must only seek to see and serve the "param" as
pradhaanam only as resolved by the aazwaar. The literal meaning is such that
"aazhwaar would like to see the Param and serve HIM as his final destiny even
if he is lying down in the padi or the thershold of thrivEnkadan. And that a
realised soul will know here why the concept of "prathaaNam" is mentioned as
the ultimate when aazhwaar describes his postion (soul realisation) at the
thershold by resolving to finally serving the Param.

The striking similarity are the six stages (one the five stages of
sthaayi is elaborated into two here) that are similar to "sthaayi" of
Srikirshnaa bakthi which is the essence of the "mukunda maalaa" also.
There is an unique "pramaanath thirattu" (collective note on the
prominence of this thirumozhi vyaakyaanam) for this vyaakyaaNam in 57
paasurams. The vyaakyaaNam is offerred to us by "param"a kaaruNikar Sri
periya vaachaan pillai.

What ever is derived and presnted I surrender to the Lotus feet of the
Lord arangan as a service to Param who resides in Arangam with the thaayaar.

Sri kulasEkara perumaal thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sri Sri Ranganaayaki samEtha Sri Ranganaathan thriuvadikaLe saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan

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