Pallavi: kurai onrum illai maraimUrti kaNNA kurai onrum illai kaNNaa kurai onrum illai gOvindA Anupallavi: kaNNukku teriyAmal nirkkinrAi kaNNA kaNNukku teriyAmal ninrAluum enakku kurai onrum illai maraimUrti kaNNA Charanam 1: vEnDiyadai tandiDa vEnkaTEsan enrirukka vEnDiyadu vErillai maraimUrti kaNNA maNivaNNA malaiappA gOvindA gOvindA (rAgA: kApi) Charanam 2: tiraiyin pin nirkinrAi kaNNA unnai marai Odum jnAniyar maTTumE kAN pAr enrAlum kurai onrum enakkillai kaNNA enrAlum kurai onrum enakkillai Charanam 3: kunrin mEl kallaAgi nirkkinra varadA kurai onrum illai maraimUrti kaNNA kurai onrum illai marai mUrti kaNNAmaNivaNNA malaiappA gOvindA gOvindA (rAgA: sindhubhairavi) Charanam 4: kalinALukkirangi kallilE irangi nilaiyAga kOyilil nirkinrAi kEshavA kurai onrum illai marai mUrti kaNNA
Charanam 5: yAdum marukkAda malaiyappA un mArbil Edum tara nirkkum karuNai kaDalannai enrum irundiDa Edu kurai enakku onrum kurai illai maraimUrti kaNNA maNivaNNA malaiappA gOvindA gOvindA gOvindA gOvindA gOvindA gOvindA gOvindA Meaning: (Adapted From http://www.chennaionline.com/music/thamizhsongs/2004/song17.asp) Pallavi: I do not ("illai") have any ("onrum") problem ("kurai") Oh, KaNNa the vEdAs ("marai") personified ("murthi")! I do not have ("onrum illai") any problem ("kurai"), kaNNA! I do not have any ("onrum illai") complaint ("kurai"), Oh, gOvindA! Anupallavi: You are ("nirkinrai") invisible ("kannuku theriyaada"), Oh, kaNNA! But even ("ninraalum") when you remain invisible("kannuku theriyaada"), I ("yenakku") do not have any ("onrum illai") problem ("kurai"), Oh, kaNNA! Caranam1: When there is ("enrirukka") Venkatesan to give us ("thandhida") what we want ("Vendiyadhai"), we shall not want ("Verillai") anything ("Vediyadhu"), Oh, kaNNA! maNivaNNa! malaiyappA! gOvindA! Caranam2: You are standing ("nirkinrai") behind ("pin") a screen ("tiraiyin"), kaNNa! Only ("mattume") the wise men ("jnaaniyar") who are well-versed in the vEdAs ("marai Odum") can “see” ("kaan paar") you ("unnai"). Still ("enraalum") I do not have a ("onrum illai") problem ("kurai") (if I cannot see you). Caranam3: You ("varadaa") are standing ("nirkkinra") like a stone ("kallaagi") on the hilltop ("kunrin mel"). I do not have any problem ("kurai onrum illai") still. Caranam4: You have taken ("kalinaalukkirangi") this stone-form ("nilayaaga") recognising this kaliyugA ("kalile"). You are permanently here ("nirkinrai") in this temple ("koyilil"). Caranam5: You do not refuse ("marukkaada") the request ("yAdum") from your devotees. The ever-merciful ("karunai-kadal") Goddess Lakshmi ("kadal annai") is residing in your ("un") chest ("maarbil"). In that situation ("enrum irundida") what ("Edu") deficiency ("kurai") can I ("ennakku") have? I do not have any complaint ("kurai onrum illai"), kannA, maNivaNNa, malaiyappA, gOvindA!
I do not understand Tamizh. Though I have always liked to learn different languages my eagerness to learn Tamizh greatly increased when I heard about Thiruppavai. Eventually after spending quite some time with Thiruppavai, I heard about Thiruvaay Mozhi. I firmly believe that we eventually achieve what our mind consistently searches for. After doing some initial inquiries into Thiruppavai, by the mercy of the Almighty, I came across an Audio CD by his divine grace Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji. I liked the contents so much that I literally fell in Love with God as well as the Lovers of God. As they say, without love of God, all the rituals are mere sentiments and nothing else.
NONEof this is my original composition. I am not even qualified to completely understand the whole Thiruppavai on my own and give my own understanding, gist or opinion on that. This is only the gist of what I understood from that audio CD. I humbly request the readers to kindly excuse me for any errors that would have occurred in this article. I liked it so much that I could not restrain myself from writing it up so that those interested among my friends and well wishers would be benefitted from it.
For the human being endeavoring to get the highest possible benefit with minimum possible efforts, understanding and recitation of Thiruppavai is the single best process. This wonderful Thiruppavai has been gifted to the entire humanity by Andal. Sirivilliputtur is a place in Southern Part of India. Some years after the advent of Kaliyuga, Vishnuchittulu (or Periya Azhwar) found a girl crying in the backyard garden in their house among the Tulasi plants. That girl was none other than Andal. Andal gave us the process which not only benefits us with all the comforts of life for our spiritual growth, but also gives us the Love of God and helps us in God realization.
Some people live only to eat. Such people are known as Bhubhukshuvulu. Some people eat to live. Second category of people is considered to be in higher God consciousness. The Second category of people who are not just interested in bodily concepts of life but are interested in understanding the supreme goal of human life and gaining the knowledge of the supreme which is considered to be the highest are called Mumukshuvulu. These are the people who would like to grow from the stage where they currently exist on the spiritual platform.
If the knowledge possessed by Mumukshuvulu is compared to a mountain, then that possessed by Bhubhukshuvulu to progress in materialistic life is like an atom! Among those Mumukshuvus,there are some people who observe severe austerities in the forests in an attempt to understand the Supreme Lord. These devotees have a knowledge even higher than ordinary Mumukshuvus. Now again if we compare the knowledge possessed by ordinary Mumukshuvus as an atom, then that possessed by those elevated ones is like a mountain. There are some devotees who work as instruments of the Lord who are hand picked by the Lord Himself to establish and show to common people the way to worship the Lord and reach his abode. If the knowledge possessed by elevated Mumukshuvus is compared to an atom, then that possessed by the devotees picked by Lord is like Mountain.
There are ten such great personalities in South India. (Kindly note that actually there are Twelve of them, but for some reason, two pairs of those great personalities are considered as one each). They did not do a great deal of extreme penance. But they could realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They cherished the realization of God. They could not contain the happiness of the realization of God; so they sang the Love of Godhead in the form of hymns. Those hymns have become the gist of Vedas helping the jeevas in material world to cross this great ocean. All the hymns put together by Azhwars are called ‘Nalayira Divya Prabhandam’.
‘Nalayira’ refers to the fact that there are four thousand pasurams in Divya Prabhandam. Those who recited Divya Prabhandham are called DivyaSooras. Since they cherished the Love of Godhead by soaking themselves in the divine Love, they are called ‘Azhwars’. They cherished the nectar of love of Godhead and also helped the jeevas to appreciate the sweetness of devotional service to the Lord. If the knowledge of the sages or the elevated Mumukshuvus is compared to an atom, that of Azhwars is like a mountain. The reason is simple, the former has their knowledge due to their self endeavor where as Azhwars have the knowledge given directly by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
All the Azhwars longed to see the Lord; they did not want any comforts in this material world. Since this body always longs for things that are materialistic in nature, they longed to end the relationship with the material body and that was their prayer to the Lord. Azhwars always wanted God to give them His divine Darshan.
Vishnuchittulu was one among the Azhwars. He is also a realized soul. He is also known as ‘Periya Azhwar’. Literal transition of the word ‘Periya’ is big, but contextually, it means the first among them. The reason for calling him first among Azhwars is neither his age nor his knowledge. Others used to long and pray to the Lord for his darshan; but on the contrary, Lord has shown His causeless mercy to Periya Azhwar with his divine darshan.
After cherishing the Lord's divine beauty, Periya Azhwar requested the lord to disappear immediately and go away so that nobody can cast an evil spell on the most beautiful Lord. He prayed and sang so that nobody casted an evil spell on the Lord. The knowledge that he had about the Lord got converted to the Love of Godhead and due to this, Periya Azhwar requested the Lord that it was okay even if Lord did not give him his darshan but that Lord should be fine and safe all the time. Such is the knowledge, wisdom and Love of Periya Azhwar towards Lord. He had a very great (big) fear that it would affect Lord’s well being if Lord gave him the darshan This ‘Big’ fear is the reason to call him ‘Big’ Azhwar hinting that he is the first among them.
All the Azhwars considered the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a Supreme person and wanted to cherish His company and divine beauty. Many Azhwars considered themselves to be feminine to cherish the Supreme Lord considering Him to be masculine. They were actually males but considered them selves to be feminine to attain the Lord.
Being feminine naturally, Andal did not need any kind of assumptions or mental consideration of being a feminine; naturally taking the darshan of Lord, being loved by the Lord Himself, reaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead, attaining the causeless mercy of the Lord is our ‘Andal’. Andal is Periya Azhwar’s daughter. Andal’s love and knowledge of the Lord is considered to be much higher than that of Periya Azhwar.
Vishnuchittulu (Periya Azhwar) found Andal among the Tulasi plants in his backyard. He used to do the service of preparing a garland of Tulasi leaves and offering it the Lord of Sirivilliputtur. Since the kid was found among the Tulasi plants, he named her as malika or kodai in Tamizh. That Kodai is none other than Godha Devi or Andal. Love of Lord was as natural to Kodai (or Godha) as fragrance to Tulasi plant.
Her father used to explain the glories of the Supreme Lord to Godha. After hearing constantly about Lord, Godha started feeling that she belongs only to Lord and no one else. Then she decided that she would serve only Lord and not any one else. Finally, she decided that she would marry only the Lord and none other than the Lord. But was it possible? We don’t know!
Godha was listening to Periya Azhwar’s description of Sreemad Bhagavatam. She was relishing the Sree Krsna Leela. She also wanted to enjoy being the consort of the Supreme Lord. She wanted to know how many different forms Lord has and when he would take those forms. Periya Azhwar described her the glories of 108 divya desams where the Lord has taken different forms. After visiting all those 108 Divya Desams, Godha devi fell very much in Love with Lord Ranganatha.
She was then very much eager to become the consort of the Lord. But she was not sure if that was possible. She was staying in Sirivilliputtur and Lord was at SriRangaKshetram. Neither could she stay without reaching the Lord, nor was it easy to reach Him. She thought how it would be possible to bear the separation from Lord. Then she began to wonder if there was some one else who had similar feelings towards Lord and if so how did they bear the separation from Lord.
She came to know of Gopikas in Nanda Vraja. Godha also wanted to go to Nanda Vraja to enjoy serving the Lord. But Lord was on this earth in Dwapara Yuga where as she was in Kaliyuga; She was in Sirivilliputtur while Lord was in Nanda Vraja. It was both different times as well as different place. She did not have the strength to reach Lord. But she was not able to bear the separation from Lord. While she was trying to find out the ways to bear the separation from Lord, she came to know the what Gopikas did to bear the separation from Lord. When Periya Azhwar was describing Bhagavatam, at the Sree Krsna Rasa Leela Ghatta, in the night of Sharad Purnima, when Lord wanted Gopikas to enjoy the feeling of separation from Him, He disappeared from them.
When Gopikas were feeling the separation from Lord and when they were unable to bear this, they all imitated the dance with Krsna. One of the Gopikas imitated Krsna and others became Gopikas and they all enjoyed the dance. Some times, some of Gopikas assumed the forms of Asuras and the one who imitated Krsna would kill asuras. In this way, by imitating the pastimes of Krsna, they used to bear the separation from Lord. Godha devi came to know the ways to bear the separation from Lord from this. She realized she can also bear the separation from Lord by imitating and enjoying the pastimes. She also wanted to imitate.
What should she imitate? She also wanted to become one of the Gopikas. She became a Gopika in imagination to imitate the pastimes of Lord.She was at Sirivilliputtur, but she assumed that to be Repalle (Nanda Vraja). She considered her friends around her to be other Gopikas. She assumed that the Vatapatrashai Bhavan around her is none other than Nandagopa Bhavan. She assumed the residing deity at Vatapatrashai Bhavan as Lord Shree Krsna. She became a Gopika in her ways of thinking, singing and living. She became a Gopika very naturally.
She started a sacrifice, a Vrata to obtain Lord. Before this Vrata, Godha always used to wonder if she was beautiful or not, if Lord would like her or not. She used to wear the flowers that were supposed to be offered to Lord. Her father used to prepare the garland for the Lord and keep it in a basket. The only intent of Godha was to see if she would be found beautiful by Lord in those flowers.
She would wear those flowers and decorate her and would see her reflection in water, alter the decoration and would think in which way Lord would like her. She was so small that she never even thought that it would be incorrect to offer the “used” flowers to Lord. After seeing herself adorned by those flowers, she would keep those flowers back in the basket. These flowers would later be offered to Lord Ranganatha. She was not so wise that she could think about it. But her intention was not wrong at all. She could not think if the flowers that she used should not be sent to Lord. By the time her father comes back, she would keep the flowers back in the basket.
This used to happen every day but her father did not realize it for many days.One day, her father found a hair in the garland. He immediately understood what has happened and he realized that the flowers have been used and that he cannot offer them to Lord. So he did not send those flowers to Lord. The same night Lord appeared to him in his dream and asked, “My dear Father-in-Law, why did you not send the flowers to me?” Vishnuchittulu was surprised. He realized that Lord accepted the flowers used by Godha. He realized that Lord called him as Father-in-Law because he accepted Godha.
He realized that the kid that was growing up in his house was not an ordinary girl. He knew she was a divine girl. He realized that she came to save him. So he named her as Ennai Aaala Vandaal – meaning: “She came to save me” – which became Andal.
Lord was eager to wear the garland that was used by Godha. So Godha has got one more name. This another name is due to the fact that she offered the used flowers to the Lord. This name is Aamuktha maalyada. In Tamizh, it is Sudi Koduthha Naachiyaaar.
Godha devi assumed that the whole villiage is Vraja. She started imitating the Kaathyani Vratam that Gopikas used to perform. For this purpose she had to awaken all the Gopikas around her, and for them, she wrote and offered one Pasuram (Shloka) per day to Lord. All those Pasurams/Shlokas or songs are famously known as Thiruppavai.
Thiruppavai is a vratam that can bring us all the necessary riches to live a good spiritual life. In imagination, Godha has already reached Vrajadhaam. Lord Krsna was growing up in Vraja. Lord was born in Mathura but He was not interested to grow up there. Since there were many people who would selflessly love Lord in Vraja, Lord decided to grow up in Vraja. Every body loved Krsna at Vraja. Evey one were very innocent at Vraja. Every one in Vraja knew nothing greater than loving the Lord. Since such people were there, Lord reached Vraja. He was shining there like a lamp in the darkness.
Lord will be at Paramapadam also. But he came to Vraja to enjoy the company of people who would love Him selflessly. Where ever He is, he would take care of the creation and protection of all the universes. He is there inside and outside of every living entity and matter. He lives in every living being to make them work the way their Karma dictates.
Krsna came to this world and was living in Vraja. He used to enjoy the company of Gopas and Gopikas there. He used to entertain them all. He used to get entertained by them all. All the Gopas and Gopikas innocently loved Krsna. It so happened that once the elders in Vraja did not allow the Gopikas to play with Krsna. They hid the Gopikas in their respective houses and did not allow them to go out. Krsna was also sad and Gopikas was also sad about the separation. Then, there was no rain in Vraja for some time. This turned out to be luck of Gopikas and Lord Krsna. Only Cows were the property of people at Vraja. Only if it rains, there would be grass and only if there was grass, cows can eat something and would live and give milk. So rain was vey important for Vraja vaasis.
There was a need to so some sacrifice (vrata) so that it would rain. They realized that it was important to do the Kathyani Vrata. That was to be performed by small kids. Gopikas were hidden by their parents. But they all had a collective problem of shortage of rains. So they had to bring the kids out of their hiding places. And the best part was that the Vrata has to be performed along with Krsna. They avoided their Gopikas to mingle with Krsna so far. But for the problem to be solved, there was no other way than performing the Vrata. Then they requested Krsna to help them perform the Vrata. Krsna acted as if He was angry because they did not allow Him to play with His beloved Gopikas till then. But He was happy that they finally surrendered to him.
Initially He acted angry but quickly He came forward to help them all when they requested him Elders were all very happy. They brought all Gopikas and handed them over to Krsna to perform the vrata. Krsna was also very happy. Gopikas were also extremely happy. They spent a lot of time looking at each other and talking to each other. Krsna promised that He would give them all the paraphernalia required for the performance of sacrifice. He said they should come to His place at the dawn of the next day to collect all the required material to perform the vrata. It was very difficult for each of them as well as to Krsna to part with each other. But since they had to go and any ways they were supposed to be meeting on the next day, they finally parted.
Every one woke up at the early morning the next day and gathered at one place. After checking if every one of them had joined the group, they all started to Nanda Gopa Bhavan. All of them reached the Bhavan, woke up Nanda Gopa, Yashodha, Krsna and Neeladevi. They explained their intent to Krsna. They said they came to see Him waking up, they said they came to see the divine beauty of Krsna. They wanted to see the beauty of Krsna and to glorify Him.
They asked for the material required for the performance of vrata. They told Him that it was not just the material that they had come for Since the elders had handed them over to Krsna they would still need to do the vrata so they needed the material but their actual intent was only to serve Krsna and to enjoy His company. They prayed Krsna that they should enjoy his company and should be able to serve Him for ever, for many life times. They indeed got that boon from Krsna. Godha gets invited to Lord Himself and reaches Shree Ranga Kshetra andthen she serves the Lord. She married Lord Ranganatha who was the presiding deity (archya murthi) there. She still serves the Lord there.
Godha devi has performed the Dhanurmasa vrata. This vrata is something that should be performed by every one on this earth. Any one who wishes to be improved in life has to perform this vrata. It can get any of our desires satisfied. Usually, there would be some difficulties in performing other vratas. But in this Dhanurmasa vrata, there are no such difficulties. But it would get us all the benefits. Godha devi proved that it gets us all the benefits. If this vrata can get Godha the Lord Himself, how can it not provide us the smaller benefits? If we get a Rs.1000 note, we should know that we already have a Rs.10, Rs.20 or Rs. 100 in that. There is no doubt about it. Similarly, this vrata can get us the companionship at Lord’s feet, then what to speak of other small benefits.
There are three kinds of human beings on this earth. Some are in the mode of goodness, some in the mode of passion and others in the mode of ignorance. Those in the mode of goodness (Sattva Guna) would like to help others and do all the good deeds. They are lucky to have the faith in God. They are usually very polite to others. Those in mode of passion (Rajo Guna) are under the illusion that they are the ones who are the doers, that they should enjoy the results. They are under the assumption that if they were not there, the word would no more continued to exist. They have dominating false ego. Those in mode of ignorance (Tamo Guna) gives maximum importance to the body and every thing they do revolve around the pleasure of the body. They live a life completely away from serving the Lord.
Even in Vraja, we see different people with all three characteristics. Gopikas loved Lord selflessly. Some of the Gopakas have a little false ego. Gopikas who loved Lord were hidden by their parents so that they don’t play with Krsna. Some elders did not want Krsna, for them their life is important and that should be fine. Even such people who wanted to keep Krsna away, when they had to face a difficulty, they also needed Krsna to remove the obstacle for living their good life. They did not go to Krsna out of their love for Him but for their own requirements of good life and to safeguard their body.
But Krsna in Bhagavad Gita said it was okay even if we took His shelter for whatever reasons!! (Aartho Jignasu Artharthee Gyanecha, Chaturvidha Bhajante maam Sukruthinah Arjuna). So, even if we ask Krsna to help us in material benefits, even if we ask Him for more riches, or if we have to get back the lost riches, whether we ask Him for knowledge or the Lord Himself and services unto Him, anything is fine with Him. He will be more than happy if we took His shelter. He wants us to take His shelter. He will be more than happy if we could take His shelter. The reason is very simple: He is the natural relative to us. If some one is truly worried about us and truly interested in our wellbeing, it is only Lord Krsna. Others may also give us some benefit but that may not be in the true interest of our benefit.
Since the Gopikas wanted to serve Him, He gave them that benefit and the benefit of rain to the elders. In this world, there are some people who want ONLY to serve the Lord. They do not need any other benefits. Those are Sattvikas. They are very less in number in this word. Some others live a life as if they are equal to Lord. They are in mode of passion. Some of the elders in Vraja belong to this category. Some people live a life of ignorance, and would like to live away from serving Lord. For those who want to serve Lord, He gives them the benefit of serving them. He actually acts according to the wishes of those devotees. Lord makes them do things that will benefit the entire humanity and world. Even those Satvikas would like to do things which would benefit the whole world, which is also the wish of the Lord.
Although the Gopikas performed the vrata only for the sake of elders, they were happy that they could serve Krsna and that they could spend time with Him. Though they wanted to serve only Krsna, they also got benefitted by the rains. They also got the benefit of serving Krnsa. So if Satvikas perform this vrata, they would any way be doing things that would benefit the world, apart from this, they would also be serving Krsna – which brings them the highest happiness.
For those in the mode of passion, this vrata gives not only those things that they desire, but also gives the love for Lord. Those who are in mode of ignorance will also benefit from their standpoint apart from being given the ability to develop the love for Lord, which is the highest benefit. This vrata gives us the Love of Lord. There is no restriction that some one can do and others can’t. This vrata can get all kinds of benefits for any kind of people.
Andal performed this vrata for thirty days. Unlike the vrata being performed by Gopikas in one day, Andal performed this for thirty days by offering thirty pasurams to Lord. She wrote the Pasurams in such a way that those are beneficial to a good living even today. Gopikas did not tell other what they have have exactly done. But VedaVyaasa has recorded it for us. Godha devi has not only performed the vrata but also made them as thirty pasurams and gave it to humanity. Whoever wants to improve in their respective lives in what ever ways should perform this vrata.
Vedas are considered as very important for our correct living. There are so many different dharmas in Vedas. Different ways of achieving things to satisfy different needs are mentioned in the Vedas Thiruppavai has got a similar power. Vedam Anatthukkum VitthahumKodai Ayyaindum Aindum-These thirty Pasurams sung by Godha devi is NOT the meaning but is the origing on Vedas. This means Thiruppavai is much simpler and more prominent than Vedas. Simple to practice. Easy to perform to get the results. It is said that the life of human being is a waste if one does not learn the thirty pasurms sung by Godha. This earth would grieve the weight of such a living entity. (Vayyam Sumappadhum Vambu).
I will stop this here. In the second part, I intend to write about the exact message of Godha in Thiruppavai. If God wishes, I will come up with second part in next six months. Thank you J Hare Krsna.
Please feel free to write your comments or suggestions to me at ramchander@gmail.com.
Dear friends, some facts and figures on Krishna's existence....just pasted some portion of an article that figured in rediff. (I don't find article on rediff now. This is not the first time I found such articles disappearing on different wesbites, many a number of times) Did Krishna exist? Most certainly, says Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician who teaches in the United Kingdom, proffering astronomical, archaeological, linguistic and oral evidences to make his case. "I used to think of Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. Imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (a professor of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy. I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions [as him]," Pandit says. Which meant, he says, that what is taught in schools about Indian history is not correct? The Great War between the Pandavas and the Kauravas took place in 3067 BC, the Pune-born Pandit, who did his MBBS from BJ Medical College there, says in his first documentary, Krishna: History or Myth?. Pandit's calculations say Krishna was born in 3112 BC, so must have been 54-55 years old at the time of the battle of Kurukshetra. Pandit is also a distinguished astrologer, having written several books on the subject, and claims to have predicted that Sonia Gandhi would reject prime ministership, the exact time at which Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati would be released on bail and also the Kargil war. Pandit, as the sutradhar of the documentary Krishna: History or Myth?, uses four pillars -- archaeology, linguistics, what he calls the living tradition of India and astronomy to arrive at the circumstantial verdict that Krishna was indeed a living being, because Mahabharata and the battle of Kurukshetra indeed happened, and since Krishna was the pivot of the Armageddon, it is all true. You are a specialist in nuclear medicine. What persuaded you to do a film on the history/myth of Krishna? You think there are too many who doubt? Is this a politico-religious message or a purely religious one? We are always taught that Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. And this is exactly what I thought as well. But imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (of the Department of Physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research somewhere in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy. I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions. This meant that what we are taught in schools about Indian history is not correct. I also started wondering about why this should be so. I think that a mixture of the post-colonial need to conform to western ideas of Indian civilisation and an inability to stand up firmly to bizarre western ideas are to blame. Also, any attempt at a more impartial look at Indian history is given a saffron hue. I decided that I could take this nonsense no more, and decided to make films to show educated Indians what their true heritage was. The pen is mightier than the sword is an old phrase but I thought of new one: Film is the new pen. Any ideas I have will receive wide dissemination through this medium. I wanted to present a true idea of Indian history unfettered by perception, which was truly scientific, not just somebody's hypothesis coloured by their perceptions and prejudices. Why not a documentary on Rama, who is more controversial in India today? Proof of his existence would certainly be more than welcome today... A documentary on Rama is forthcoming in the future. But the immediate reason I deferred that project is the immense cost it would entail. Whereas research on Krishna and Mahabharata was present and ready to go. Further more, Rama according to Indian thought, existed in the long hoary ancient past of Treta Yuga, where science finds it difficult to go. 3067 BC is when the Mahabharata war took place, says Dr Achar. How did he arrive at this? There are more than 140 astronomy references in the Mahabharata. Dr Achar used simulations of the night sky to arrive at November 22, 3067 BC, as the day the Mahabharata war began. He used the references common to Udyoga and Bhisma Parvan initially, and so Saturn at Rohini, Mars at Jyestha with initially only the two eclipses, Lunar at Kartika and Solar at Jyestha. Let me tell you how rare this set of astronomical conjunctions is. The Saros cycle of eclipses is periodic at 19 years and so is the Metonic cycle of lunar phases. So if I say that Amavasya has occured at Jyestha, then this will occur again in 19 years, but if I say that a solar eclipse has occured at Jyestha, then this occurs again at Jyestha only after 340 years. Add Saturn at Rohini and we take this to 1 in 7,000 years. This set of conjunctions takes all of these into consideration, but also takes all the other data into consideration. So now, we know about Balarama's pilgrimage tithis and nakshatras, and believe it or not, all that fits the 3067 BC date perfectly. And to top it all, so does the repetition of the three eclipses described at the destruction of Dwarka 36 years later. This would explain why so many other researchers tried and failed to find the date of the Mahabharata war as it is based on such a unique set of astronomy that it occured only once in the last 10,000 years. So essentially, your thesis is that since the Mahabharata war actually happened, as confirmed by astronomical deduction, Krishna was also a living entity since he's the fulcrum of the Great War? Not just that, but the fact that archaeology, oral and living traditions point to the same. And yes, we cannot separate the Mahabharata war from Krishna. If one is shown to have happened, then the other must be true as well. There is talk of a banyan tree which the documentary says was a witness to the Battle of Kurukshetra, where 4 million people are said to have died in 14 days. Where exactly does this exist? Has the tree been carbon-dated to confirm its age? There is indeed a banyan tree at Jyotisaar in Kurukshetra which is worshipped as such. This concept is similar to the tree in Jerusalem, which is thought to have witnessed Jesus's arrival. Carbon-dating of this banyan tree is unlikely to give any concrete answers. I have included it in the documentary to show the living tradition of India --- like worship of the Ganges cannot be carbon-dated to give any answers. There is a gentleman named Ram Prasad Birbal, who said he has found many bones which are said to belong to the Kurukshetra battle. Has this been scientifically proved? Ram Prasad Birbal is a resident of Kurukshetra. I am not aware of carbon dating of those bones. But I am informed that thermo-luminescent dating of other relics as well as carbon-dating at other sites in Kurukshetra have given dates far older than the Indus valley civilisation. Further, Euan Mackie, an eminent archaeologist, had found a clay tablet of Krishna's Yamalaarjuna episode at Mohenjedaro, a site of the Indus Valley civilisation proving that even in 2200 BC, there was a culture of worshipping Krishna. You said Hinduism spread across South East Asia in those times ... how big was this religious empire? The Hindu religious empire extended across the whole of the Asian sub-continent to South East Asia, from Afghanistan to Thailand (where Ramayana and Krishna are still shown through dances), Burma, Cambodia (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, etc), Vietnam, Laos (little Kurukshetra and temples), Malaysia (which was Hindu until recent) up to Java (more temples), Bali (where Hinduism is still the religion) and Indonesia, where Bhima's grandson is said to have performed a thousand fire rituals at Yogyakarta. Afghanistan was of course home to both the Yadu race and Shakuni (Kandahar or Gandhar). Dr Achar said the Kurukshetra war must not have happened on a full moon day... The Mahabharata war did not start on an Amavasya. That is straight forward. Krishna tells Karna "Saptama chappi divasat Amavasya Bhivasyati" and says that Karna should tell Drona and Bhisma to do the ayudha (weapons) pooja on that date. But not start fighting the war on that date. The documentary is quiet crisp. I am told this is the first time you held a camera, and learnt how to shoot. How many days did this take and what was your budget? I learnt film editing first using a variety of software such as Final Cut 6 as I realised that a film director must be able to do decent basic editing to realise what to shoot, from what angles and for what duration. I bought a professional grade HD movie camcorder initially and then learnt to shoot before we went filming in 8 major Indian cities, the US, UK and Cambodia. However, nothing prepares you as thoroughly as filming on your own. Most of this was done with a skeleton crew, mostly handling audio. I later was funded to buy the latest Cinealta tru HD movie cameras, which are not available in India, and which I am now proficient in using. I also taught a few crew members how to shoot. Then came the task of assembling a team of professionals to do editing, graphics, voice over and all else, so that I had a team of people for my next set of documentaries. It was a steep learning curve, as I never went to film school, but it has worked out well, with people within the industry who are veterans complimenting my work. I personally think that it was all God's grace. The budget was 15,000 pounds or approximately Rs 12 lakh. It took me 18 months to complete. Your documentary says India did not have a tradition of putting down everything in writing till 325 BC, when Alexander the Great arrived. How did you come to this conclusion? This is what the current scientific belief is. Although people have talked about deciphering the Indus Valley "script", there is no straightforward conclusion about the same, so we stuck to the "official line" there. We will deal with these issues in a future documentary. S R Rao, the marine archaeologist from the National Institute of Oceanography, found a 9th century building, and an entire city. Where was this and when did he find it?. S R Rao found the sunken city of Dwarka a few years ago at Beyt Dwarka in the early 1990s. Apparently, this city near Dwarka was set up 36 years after the Mahabharata war. Is this the summation of Rao? It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dwaraka has submerged six times and the modern-day Dwarka is the 7th such city to be built in the area. Scientifically speaking, we see that 36 years after the war there were the same repetitions of an eclipse triad as we have shown in the documentary. From Dwarka to Kurukshetra is more than 1,000 km. How do you think Krishna travelled to help the Pandavas? As a scientist, I believe that they travelled on horses which would enable them to reach pretty quickly. If you consider 1,000 km, that should take him 7 days if he had a string of horses. Of course if you take faith into account, then it could happen in a twinkling of an eye. What's the link between the two comets that Sage Vyasa talked about, the retrograde motion of Mars (Mangal or Kuja) at Antares (Jyestha) to all this The idea that comets are harbingers of doom is well-documented. The thing is that there is a set of statements describing comets and their positions. Only Dr Achar has arrived at the correct deduction, that those sentences in Bhisma Parvan relate to comets, not planets --- which is where previous researchers found it difficult. We know that Halley's comet was seen in that year as well. Dr Achar interpreted verses from the Bhism Parvan and Udyog Parvan to arrive at various conclusions. One of them is that when Saturn in at Aldebaran (Rohini) it brings great bad tidings. The last time this happened was in September 2001, when 9/11 happened. When does this happen next? Actually Saturn at Rohini is long known to be a bad omen by astrologers. Rohinim Pidyannesha Stitho Rajan Shanischarah. This transit happened in 1971 where a million or so were killed, and again in 2001 September, when 9/11 happened. The next time is in 2030/2031 AD approximately. When is the next time Mars will be in Antares? Mars at Jyestha has to be taken in conjunction with the other things mentioned by Karna when he talks to Krishna, as it occurs every year. In any case, those people were great astronomers and not just warriors, so we don't know what the extent of their knowledge was regarding these events, In my personal humble opinion it was perhaps even better than that which we have today.
This very term is most commonly used internationally to achieve world peace. The question is, is it really possible to love every one in the world and accept every one as our own brothers and sisters? Well, answer is conditionally yes. And the condition would be your acceptance of Universal Fatherhood. If you accept the Universal Fatherhood of Supreme Personality of Godhead, yes, Universal Brotherhood is most certainly possible, very logical and would be a much appreciated truth much beyond the blind religious sentiments! (A religious practice without knowing the actual philosophy behind is a mere sentiment, of course!)
Irrespective of what religion we follow, we have to start reading our own scripture. You should not only read, but try to understand the true essence of Bhagavad-Gita/Quran/Bible/Guru Granth Sahib or whatever is the authentic prescribed Scripture of your Religion or belief. God is the creator of all the creatures living and all the things non-living. Our souls are qualitatively (and NOT quantitatively) same as God's. And when I mean souls - its not just human souls. If we read our scriptures with an attempt to Love God (and not just as a ritual), we would all come to the same conclusion that every soul is a creation of God, very much loved by God. Father loves his all kids - but If one brother hurts the other, would father not be unhappy? Will father not be happy if all his kids are helping each other in the time of crisis? Once each of us understand that we are the children of same God, we would start loving each other in the true sense - I guess. If you start loving God, you would start loving Him in all ways and all his creation - manifested and unmanifested !!! And of course you would start loving all the souls irrespective of whether they are in the form of human or they are in the form of animal. Magically True Universal Brotherhood :) Very much possible - again, conditionally!!
A Spiritual Trip to Melkote and Srirangapattanam by devotees of Shvetadweepa Bhakti Vriksha Vrinda On 9th May 2009
Participants : Bhakti Vinod Pr Srivas Pr Sudanshu Pr and Family Manish Pr and Family Brahma Pr and Family Jitendra Pr and Family Sibun Pr and sisters Bhaskar Pr Shobna Mataji Manish Pr’s neighbors Ajay Pr Sandesh Pr and Family Ram Pr Gurappa Pr
On 9th May 09, it was around 6am when we all met at Sudhanshu Prabhuji’s house. We were all excited about our spiritual trip to Melkote and Srirangapattinam.We waited for all devotees to arrive. Bhaskar Pr had arranged for a 18 seater bus. All devotees boarded the bus by 6:30 am and were ready to start the spiritual journey. Sandesh Pr and Manish Pr. started separately by car and went to pick up some more devotees from different places and meet with the bus devotees at Ramanagaram. Park.
The journey started with an ecstatic Keertan lead by Brahma Pr. and there after lead by many other devotees
Sudanshu Pr then announced that the next thing in our agenda is chanting to finish our rounds. Everyone including younger devotees started chanting.
While the elders were busy chanting the youngest devotees Shesadri and Aryan as usual were running around the bus enjoying the bus ride .
Few devotees were planning for Krishna Conscious games, quizzes and other events that could be conducted during the day disturbing Sudanshu Pr once in while.
We reached Ramnagaram Park by around 9am and we had Prasadam there. After sometime Sandesh Pr along with senior devotees Srivas Prji, Bhakthi Vinod Prji and others arrived at the Park. All had prasadam followed by quick introduction of some people who did not know each other.
After having Prasadam, we all headed towards Melkote. Once again devotees started glorifying Krishna with lot of Bhajans and Kirtans taking turns. Later Manish Prji read out some pastimes of Mayapur Narasimha Dev and everyone enjoyed it. For few of the devotees it was like a lullaby story and went to sleep . As Melkote was nearing Sudanshu Pr devised a game to wakeup everyone. He asked one of half of the group to loudly chant beginning of Narasimha Aarti and other half of devotees to chant the last para of the Aarti. And whoever is the loudest wins. This way both teams chanted as loud as possible. It was fun and also woke up everyone . Everyone woke up with eyes wide open with no more sleep or drowsiness . Thus chanting the Narasmiha Aarti we reached Melkote by around 12:00 noon. First we went to take the Darshan of Lord Cheluvanarayana. In the queue few devotees Bramha Pr, Sandesh Pr and Ajay Pr did a short Kirtan and then went inside to take darshan of the Lord.
A little history behind the deities here: After the actual deity was established, Ramanuja felt the need for a utsava vigraha in the temple. Ramanuja dreamt Lord Cheluvanarayana and he was informed that he could bring the utsava vigraha from king’s palace in Delhi. Ramanuja travelled to Delhi and requested the king for the return of the idol of his dreams. The muslim king, who was highly impressed by Ramanuja’s power and devotion agreed to return the idol. The idol however was in possession of the young princess who was deeply attached to the beauty of Cheluvanarayana. The princess agreed to hand over the murthy to Ramanuja with great difficulty. Ramanuja accepted the idol and started on his return journey to Melkote. The princess who could not bear the separation followed the murthy with Ramanuja to Melkote. Even today, there is a small idol of the princess in her memory and is identified as "Bibi Nacchiar" (Muslim Angel).
After that, we went to visit Melkote Yoga Nrsimha temple. Temple of Lord Nrsimha on top of the hill is one of the oldest temples in the area.
It was a walkable distance from the Cheluva Narayana Temple. There were many huge steps leading to the temple and it was quite sunny and hot. Still the devotees were very enthusiastic to go by walk.
On the path of steps there were many vendors selling buttermilk, and flowers(even lotuses) and other pooja paraphernalia..Few devotees bought the lotus flowers and other pooja iteams to offer to Lord Narasimha.
There is a nice story behind how Sri Yoga Narsimha appeared in Melkote. Prahlad Maharaj had installed a shalagram shila. He was worshipping with great devotion. Pleased by the devotion of His great devotee, the Lord manifested Himself from the shila into a form of Yoga Narasimha ( swayambhu/self manifested) .
The steps led to an entrance where there were small shops selling devotional music cds. Then came the final entrance of the temple.
Once inside the temple Sudanshu Prji led an ecstatic Kirtan of Narsimha Aarti. Devotees took the beautiful darshan of the Lord and attended to Krishna Katha and an ecstatic Kirtan by Bhakti Vinod Prji.
Once out of the temple devotees started walking back to a place near the Cheluva Narayan temple to a local devotees house where the lunch Prasadam was arranged. I believe it was a Iyengar’s house, who was the regular contact of Iskcon devotees. He cooks and offers the prasadam as per the requirement of the devotees.
While few devotees were honouring Prasadam, others were relaxing outside the Iyengar house. Then we headed towards Gosai Ghat at SriRangaPattana. We stopped at Kaveri Sangam thinking it to be Gosai Ghat. After spending couple of minutes there we started to Gosai Ghat and reached there in 10 mins. As soon as we reached Gosai Ghat, while few devotees prepared for their skit, remaining devotees not losing the opportunity started Kirtans led by BhaktiVinod Pr. After the Kirtan the devotees watched a skit on the pastimes of Ramanujacharya. Without much rehearsal the devotees presented the skit very well. Ramanujacharya of the skit made everyone onstage and offstage to chant loudly “OM NAMO NARAYANA” !! All enjoyed the skit. Followed by this, there was a skit of Dhruv maharaj by the enthusiast young devotee Jaydev.
After those two skits, we all decided to take a holy dip in the river of Kauveri. The Prabhujis were taking holy dips in a circle in the river chanting “Radhe Shyam”. With all the fun and still keeping Krsna in the centre, it was really blissful.
The matajis offered obeisances to Kaveri Ma and took few drops of holy waters and sprinkled on their heads. It was very pleasant and refreshing to watch the holy waters flowing incessantly towards the downstream. As if Kaveri Ma was reminding us that our devotion towards Krishna be similarly be naturally and incessantly draw our minds towards Lotus feet of Krishna.
By this time it was getting dark and everyone got ready to proceed towards Sri Ranganath Swamy temple. We reached the temple by 7:30 pm and took the darshan of the most beautiful and munificient Lord Sri Ranganatha Swamy lying on the magnificient Ananth Shesha. It was very difficult to move away from the Lord. Coming outside the main temple devotees then took darshan of Sri Tulsi devi nearby and sat down next to Her on the green grass. It was dark by this time and the weather was cool and pleasing. Devotees relaxed for a while and then everyone started back towards the bus. Once everyone boarded the bus and the car they started back to Bangalore. It was around 9PM then.
In the bus, the ecstatic Keerthans began again. Some devotees were tired and went asleep. Funniest thing is, after a full day of total spiritual experiences and keerthans, and at around 11pm Sudhanshu Pr says that we did not do anything much on that day and we should start dancing to please Krsna . We reached Sudhanshu pr’s house by around 12 midnight, honoured prasadam again and headed towards our respective homes. It was a very spiritual day all together, most of it spent in remembering Krsna. I am sure each of us are looking forward for the next one.
Even before I started jotting down this particular article on Nammazhvar’s Thiruvaay Mozhi, I did a quick search on google to see if there is an exclusive article on the same in an attempt to see if my effort would be redundant. There are many articles on this subject – however what I wanted to mention is a little different from the other existing articles. Of course, the very subject matter – God and Love of God – is so vast that irrespective of many devotees authoring the articles, there is always still something more to covered due to the anata feature of the Almighty.
I do not understand Tamizh. Though I have love for learning languages other than my mother tongue, my eagerness to understand Tamizh took a new turn when I heard about Tiruppavai. Eventually after spending quite some time with Tiruppavai, I heard about Thiruvaay Mozhi. I firmly believe that we eventually achieve what our mind consistently searches for. After doing some initial inquiries into Thiruvaay Mozhi, by the mercy of the Almighty, I saw a DVD on the same at Chinna Jeeyar Swamijee’s Ashramam at Shamshabad, Hyd.
I liked the contents so much that I literally fell in Love with God as well as the Lovers of God. As they say, without love of God, all the rituals are mere sentiments and nothing else.
NONE of this is my original composition. I am not even a fraction of so great that I could understand the whole Thiruvaay Mozhi and give my own gist or opinion on that. This is only the gist of what I understood from a DVD where Thiru Vengalamma has explained about Thiruvaay Mozhi. I humbly request the readers to kindly excuse me for any errors that would have occurred in this article. I liked it so much that I could not abstain myself from writing it up so that my friends and well wishers would be benefitted from it.
Usually, the creation of a melodious song has three backstage artists: Composer, Music director and Singer. There are a few devotees who composed, directed its music and sang the songs praising the Lord. (They are called as vagheyakarulu in Telugu). For them it comes very naturally not due to their talent, but due to their love for God. To name a few, Thyagayya, Ramadasu etc. Similarly, there are some twelve great devotees of the Lord in regions of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. They are called Azhwars. Azhwars in Tamizh means the ones who came to improve our lives. Yet another meaning for the same word in Tamizh is those who are fully soaked or dipped. If we have to enjoy the sweetness of Gulab Jamun, we need to soak it fully in the sweet liquid called sheer. Similarly, Azhwars are the ones who are fully soaked with the Love to the Lord. Azhwars have existed on this earth during the end of dwaparayuga and initial stages of kaliyuga. They were very great devotees of Lord. If they have to improve our lives, obviously they should have been first fully soaked in the Love of God. They wrote great scriptures in Tamizh in the praise of the Lord. If we do not know Tamizh, should we just give up the attempt to understand those scriptures? I don’t think so. Do we not comprehend the cricket commentary in English though it is not our mother tongue? Do we not watch and understand Hollywood movies though our mother tongue is not English? When the subject is very interesting to understand, language should no more be a barrier to understand the subject matter. Small kids understand and enjoy the cartoon films inspite of the fact that those films are not in the native languages of the kids watching them. If we have a desire to understand the subject, we will automatically start understanding the language over a period of repeated sincere attempts. So, is it the language that is a barrier, or is it a lack of the desire to understand? We may not understand the language to the extent of perfection in grammar and doing R&D in the language, but we will start understanding at least to the extent of enjoying the subject of interest. A question arises; what should that subject be on which we should have interest on? We should have an interest on something which improves our lives as well as which is also extremely pleasant, attractive and interesting. Not everything can have both the mentioned characteristics. Some things may be good but not pleasant (medicine, for example) – others may be pleasant but may not be good for health (ice creams, for example). All the literary works of Azhwars has both those characters. They have the capability to both improve our lives as well as attract us to a very large extent.
Among twelve Azhwars, NamAzhwar is considered to be head of them all. Meaning of ‘NamAzhwar’ in Tamizh is ‘Our’ Azhwar. He was considered as their own Azhwar by everyone as his only idea was to improve the lives of the people. There are many other Azhwars like Kulasekhar Azhwar who said ‘Diwi va Bhuvi va, mamasthuva so, narakeva, narakanthaka”; They prayed to the Lord requesting Him that whether they were in Hell, in Heaven or on earth, they should be able to concentrate on Lord alone and serve Him all the time. But NamAzhwar was always praying that he could not bear being in this materialistic world. This materialistic world has a characteristic of making the living souls entangled into its complexities. If you place a tumbler of water in the Freezer of the Refrigerator, irrespective of whether you want it or not, that water would eventually freeze into Ice. That is freezer’s characteristic. Similarly, this materialistic world will only give us folly and make us entangled irrespective of our likes and dislikes. Hence NamAzhwar used to pray to God to take him away from this materialistic world and that is how he finally reached Vaikunta to serve the Lord. Usually, we celebrate the birthdays like Sree Rama Navami, Krsna Ashtami, etc. Similarly, the appearance day celebrations of Azhwars called Thirunakshatra is celebrated in a grand way; but for NamAzhwar, his disappearance day (paramapadotsava) is celebrated in a grander way than his appearance day or Thirunakshatram. It is because he had a strong desire to leave this world and reach the Lord. Inspite of NamAzhwar desiring strongly for paramapada, the Lord left him for some time to live in this materialistic world for our sake – for the sake of all the fallen and struggling souls so that NamAzhwar would write Thiruvaay Mozhi which the Lord thought would be very helpful for us in getting out of this materialistic entanglements. NamAzhwar struggled by living in this world just for you and me. NamAzhwar used to experience the Lord and with that happiness, he used to instruct us as to how to live and how not to.
He mainly wrote four literary works on the Love of the Lord but we will be discussing only on first ten pasurams of Thiruvaay Mozhi in this blog. Thiruvaay Mozhi means good word. Every other word and discussion other than that of Lord’s is not considered as good words irrespective of their importance in this materialistic world. Only words related to the Lord are considered good. We may think there are so many scriptures like Ramayana etc. But there are always some stories of those other than the Lord in such scriptures. Thiruvaay Mozhi is not a story at all. In all the thousand Pasurams, NamAzhwar only longed to see the Lord; When Lord gave his darshan, NamAzhwar felt the ecstasy; some time he felt that Lord’s appearance to Him is not true and felt very sad. Apart from that, here and there NamAzhwar advices us how we should live and how we should not spoil our lives. All the thousand pasurams are filled with only these kinds of bhaavas. When the Lord has shown the paramapada to NamAzhwar, NamAzhwar was very happy and he told to the Lord that he immediately wanted to tell this to us, he comes back and tells us the same in Thiruvaay Mozhi. He completes the scripture with how beautiful the lokas in between on the way to reach lord – the ecstasy he felt at each and every loka and the treatment they give us etc. Right from the beginning when he felt the presence of the Lord till the end of the scripture where he is going away to Vaikunta Loka, to paramapada, he explains everything in his scripture.
One scientist wanted to taste and let the world know the taste of particular chemical called cyanide. He knew that he would die but he had a strong desire to let the world know its taste. So he decided to taste the chemical and he could only write the letter ‘S’ and he died. Till date, the world does not know if that ‘S’ stands for ‘Salt’ or ‘Sweet’. There was none other after that who dared to find its taste. We should not be bothered about such things which are of materialistic characteristics. But the subject matter of NamAzhwar in his scripture is not of this sort. His subject matter is all time nectarean and gives happiness all the time. Pepper kashaya is very troublesome to have but once we have, it cures our diseases like pneumonia. Ice cream is so very enticing to eat but if we eat we might catch cold. So there are things that are either good for us but not pleasant and some are enticing but are not good to our health. But our NamAzhwar’s subject matter is extremely interesting and pleasant and understandable to one and all. Once we start comprehending and contemplating his scripture, there is no end for the happiness. It gives us divine happiness. Such is the characteristic of NamAzhwar’s Thirvaay Mozhi. This is an attempt only to understand the first ten pasurams of Thiruvaay Mozhi.
The Lord has only good characteristics. The Lord’s characteristics are called ‘Kalyaana Gunas’. We have something called nirupaka dharma. Example, there might be some one who has a mole on right cheek. If we do not know that person’s name, we can refer to him as the person with a mole on right cheek. Or, to give you another example, what is it that burns? It has to be fire. Nirupa Dharma means the characteristic unique to something. God also has a Nirupa Dharma. Lord has all the good characteristics and that too all the time. That is the reason why he is known as ‘Kalyaana Guna Ekatanudu’. This is the Nirupa Dharma of Lord. Many of us have some good characters – but we cannot have all of our characteristics as good. Also, we cannot have all the good characters. When I am being solicited on a stage, obviously I will show only my good characteristics to every one – characters like humility etc but I will not show my anger on stage. But we cannot have only good characters nor can we have those good characters all the time. God has ONLY good characters ALL the time. If there is something that has got ALL good characters at one place and at all time, that is God. Lord gave darshan to NamAzhawar. When some one asked NamAzhawar as to why would the Lord have given him darshan and what one should do to see the Lord; NamAzhawar said that even he could not understand the reason. He said he was only going though the vicious cycle of birth and death in this samsaara and suddenly due to Lord’s causeless mercy, he was able to reach the lotus feet of the Lord. He says that he could suddenly feel the ecstasy of the love of the Lord. He said he does not have enough good qualities to see the Lord but still he was very lucky to see the Lord. Then others asked him that if he had no good qualities, then even others should be able to see the Lord but they were unable to. NamAzhawar had many good qualities, he used to follow the karmacharana and has the knowledge of the Lord. He was completely surrendered to the Lord and he had lot of Bhakti and Love for the Lord - but all these seem to be not enough reasons and good qualities to see the Lord. A very innocent man went to a king and offered a lemon out of ignorance. Out of compassion, king gave that innocent man half the kingdom. It is foolish for the innocent man to say that he bought half the kingdom for a lemon and the worth of the kingdom is just a lemon. It looks equally foolish for NamAzhawar to say that Lord would have given him the darshan due to his limited good qualities. Realizing the Lord cannot happen with our materialistic eyes; it is possible only to have aatmasaakshatkara. Even to Arjuna, it was possible to see the real form of the Lord after Lord granted him the spiritual eyes. Devaki devi could not see the form of the Lord with four hands and had to pray lord to appear as a small kid. This is very obvious. Even to reach moon, we cannot go as it is, we need to make so many arrangements with special kind of attire/oxygen etc to reach moon. If such should be the arrangements to reach moon, imagine what all we need arrange to reach the Lord who is beyond millions of Galaxies. The limited strength and our material eyes are not enough to see such a powerful lord. So when we say that we could see the lord, it is only Atmasaakshatkaram. But Atmasaakshataram is equal to pratyaksha samanakaram. We can embrace Lord, we can touch Lord as if he is materially next to us. We can see Lord during atmasakshatkaram as candid as we can see the lord with our eyes if He were next to us. Such would be the happiness, enthusiasm and joy if we get Atmasakshatkaram of the Lord. NamAzhawar had such a realization of Lord. Lord showed him his divine good qualities. Lord’s qualities are not called as gunas but they are called Kalyana-gunas. We also have some good qualities at times – but you cannot compare these with the qualities of Lord. Hence, the qualities of Lord are called Kalyana-gunas. Once Lord gave darshan to NamAzhawar, NamAzhawar was very restless and eager to tell all of us about the Lord. He was so overwhelmed to tell us the qualities of the Lord. The state of NamAzhawar was like a small kid who is taken into a shop of many dolls and is told that it is his father’s shop and that all those dolls were his own dolls. The kid would obviously be overwhelmed to see that all types of dolls are his own. He starts his Thiruvaay Mozhi with the description of good qualities of lord with following pasuram: uyarvaRa uyarnNalam udaiyavan evan? avan mayarvaRa madhinNalam aruLinan evan? avan ayarvaRum amarargaL athipathi evan? avan thuyaraRu sudaradi thozhuthezhen manamE!
Usually, we feel like sharing something with the other people who are on same platform. If we watched a good movie, we would like to share it with some one who has a similar taste in cinema. If a poet is feeling good about his work, he would like to share it with another poet. Similarly, NamAzhwar wanted to share this with some one who is on same platform of ecstasy to start with. He found that many of the people were busy with their own materialistic worldly activities. So he is talking to his own self (en maname). He said to his own soul and told it that he was very very lucky. ‘evan? Avan’ means ‘who ever has this characteristic, it is Him’. All the time NamAzhwar is referring to the Lord with his different characteristics. NamAzhwar says the one with these characters gave him the darshan. God has many good characters but the one that we are most concerned is with His quality of having infinite happiness. What ever we do – either materialistic act or spiritual – our aim is to get some happiness from it. Lord is Anandamaya. In the first line (uyarvaRa uyarnNalam udaiyavan evan? Avan) , NamAzhwar is explaining that the Lord has infinite happiness. He explains the character of happiness of Lord. ‘uyar’ means greatness. Happiness of Lord is very great. There are two meanings for ‘Uyarvu’ in Tamizh. First – hardwork ; second – greatness; In his first line, the first uyarvu means hard work and the second uyarvu means greatness. It means, the Lord’s greatness is not earned with Hardwork. Lord did not do any hardwork to earn that greatness. We cannot compare it with us in this materialistic world where we have to struggle very hard to earn a little happiness which is again temporary. We work very hard all the month and get salary on the 1st of the month – happiness – but temporary. Once the salary is over on 3rd of the month, we are back to normal (Did I catch you smiling?). Lord is someone who can do any great deed very easily. So His happiness is not something that is hard earned for him. He is always happy and always enjoying. There might be so many pleasures in this material world – but once we start enjoying with the Lord, all these material pleasures will appear to be extremely miniscule. When you are standing on the top of mount Everest, there might be some cake piece at the foot of the mountain. The fact is that it might be in reality there – but the happiness of eating that cake is miniscule when you compare it with the happiness of conquering the mount Everest. Once we start enjoying the higher tastes, we will start ignoring the lesser enjoyable ones. A small kid will be very happy when we give him a chocolate. But we cannot make is equally happy with the same chocolate when he grows old as he would have seen many other enjoyable eatables. Similarly, if we start enjoying the happiness that we get out of our devotional service to the Lord, we will not have the longing for other worldly happiness which would look very miniscule in comparison. If , say, the happiness that we get out of worldly things is like the one we get in eating the cake, then the happiness that we get out devotional service to the Lord is like conquering the Mount Everest! If we want to praise some one, we will first tell a couple of his good characters and then say that he helped me a lot and is a good person. But Azhwar could not abstain himself till he finished mentioning all the characters of the Lord and suddenly stops to say that the Lord has done a very great favor to him. Suddenly changing the topic, NamAzhwar says ‘mayarvaRa madhinNalam aruLinan evan? avan’ – says that Lord has granted the true knowledge in such a way that his folly is suddenly disappeared. Leaving the fact that Lord is great aside, NamAzhwar is now eager to let us know what the favor that Lord has done unto him is. Folly (Agyana) is of three types: One – No knowledge at all. I am body. This kind of Agyana is not very dangerous. The day the person knows that there is something inside body, he will start pondering on the spiritual facts. TWO – (Anyathagyaana) – We might have an illusion of something. Example, a person with jaundice will see the a white colored conch shell as a yellow one. In this stage, we might consider our self to be the servant of some boss, or some one rich. My boss is my protector. He is giving me the food etc. We will consider some mortal beings to be having proprietorship on our lives. In this stage, at least we understand that we are subordinate to some one else. This is also not very dangerous as the day we know that there is some one who is more powerful than the boss, we might start worshipping the higher authority for what the higher authority has done unto us. Three – (Vipareethagyana) – In this stage, we will see the same conch shell as butter. It’s white so we thinks it is butter. Fully illusioned. In this stage, we might consider that we are not subordinate to any one and we do not belong to any one. I am independent and I can live my own life. This is a dangerous stage and it is difficult to save people in this stage.
NamAzhwar says that Lord has done a very great favor by removing all the above kind of agyanas or illusory follies. Mayarvu means agyaana. Aara means in a way as to drive away. Madhi means gyaana or knowledge. Nalam means bhakti or the bhakti that gives divine happiness. Lord gives the knowledge which makes us have a lot of bhakti to the Lord. Such is the power of knowledge – once we get that knowledge we automatically tend to love the Lord which is not different from Bhakti. It is impossible to have even a little knowledge of Lord and not have Bhakti. Knowing the Lord makes us love Him. Some times, there might be very good satsangs or Pravachans but there may not be people to listen to them. Usually, in this materialistic world and that too in this kaliyuga, if we invite some one for a movie, they will be happy to come along but if you invite them to satsangs, they will hesitate to come. So, some good souls would request other people to come and attend the satsangs since they know that it is the only good thing that a human being can do. Similarly, it seems like Lord chose Azhwar as if there were no other soul as a companion to the Lord. That’s not true. That’s what is meant in third line ‘ayarvaRum amarargaL athipathi evan? Avan’. We are under illusion. We are as great as all the souls who are serving the Lord in Sri Vaikunta. We have the similar relationship with God as them. The difficulty that we are facing is that we forgot that fact and we are here in this illusory world. This very fact is a very big illusion. AmarargaL means the one with no death. Death here means the separation from the Lord. Such is the immortality of the souls serving the Lord. And Lord is the master of all such souls who have no death at all. So the Lord is not alone, Lord has so many servants serving Him. NamAzhwar says inspite of this, Lord chose him to help him get to the lotus feet of Lord. ‘thuyaraRu sudaradi thozhuthezhen manamE!’; NamAzhwar says – serve the Lord and live life and enjoy!! Elevate yourself. Cross over the material ocean. The Lord’s lotus feet help us in overcoming the sorrow of this materialistic world. NamAzhwar instructs his own soul to serve the Lotus feet of Lord and Enjoy. Thuyararu means the one which drives away the sorrow. But NamAzhwar does not mention whose sorrows the Lord’s feet would drive away. Our sorrows are any way driven by the Lotus feet of Lord. It seems, they even drive away Lord’s sorrow!! Lord also has a sorrow. In Ramayana, it is said that ‘thrusham bhavati dukhitah’ which means that Lord Rama is worried more about people than the people are worried about themselves. When Vibheeshana surrendered unto Lord, Lord has done an initial round of virtual patthabhisheka. After that, it is said that Lord Rama was happier than Vibheeshana himself. This is because Lord Rama becomes happy when others are happy and is worried when others are worried. Lord has only one rule. He will save only the surrendered souls. If we surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord, both our sorrows as well as the Lord’s sorrows are removed. The Lord’s only wish is to save us. He would save only the surrendered souls. If we want to live our troubled lives by not surrendering unto Lord, we are anyways worried. The Lord would also be worried for us. When Azhwar says en ManamE, it might look like he is having ego and false ownership of his soul. How can one say “my dear soul”. That is not the case. For example – there are two persons who were good friends from childhood. After they grew up, if one person becomes a great person, the other would tell every one that he knows this great person from childhood. He may not do the same thing if the other person has become a thief. Similarly, Azhwar is very happy that his soul has had darshan of Lord. He is very excited that his soul could see the most merciful Lord. So he is happy to associate himself with his soul. That is the reason why he said “my dear soul”. In the second line, there is no such feeling as ‘my dear soul’, this feeling came only in the fourth line of the pasuram.
How do we get this realization of the Lord? How can we understand the Lord? If we try to understand the Lord just like we understand the material nature or the jeevathmas, it is not possible. We live in illusion. Similar to dirt associated with body, our soul also is covered by impurities. This is the main reasons for illusion. This is the main cause for loving few things and hating some people in this world. This dirt of the material life should go away in order to understand the Lord.
Maline mocanam pumsaam Jala snaanam dine dine Sakrd gitramrta-snaanam Samsaara mala nasanam
Avidya, Asmata, raagam, dvesha etc are the dirts of material life. These are the causes for the illusion that we are the body. It is possible to get rid of the dirt by reading Bhagawad-Gita even once.
Infact, these dirts can be removed by yogabhyasa and ashthanga yoga (Yama, Niyama, pranayaama, prathyahara, dharana, aasana, dhyaana, Samadhi). If we practice all these, all the dirts associated are removed and we become pure enough to see the Lord. But this is not possible in these times of our restless minds. Upanishads say ‘nethi, nethi’. Na ithi means not just that. Upanishaths gives lot of characters of the Lord but again those are all incomplete. We cannot understand the Lord completely by understanding upanishads. Even if we understand the Lord to a very very small extent, our lives would be all meaningful and happy. It is not possible to understand the Lord just based on knowledge. Lord is not some one who can be understood with our material senses. Material senses are enough to understand other things but not God. If we cannot understand Lord by senses then how is it possible? To give another perspective of it, we may not understand the Lord by our will but what if Lord Himself want us to understand him. A blind person may not have the capability to mount on to elephant. But if the same elephant lifts the blind person and makes him sit on its back, what would be the difficultly of the blind person. Similarly, it may be very very complex and difficult to understand God. Even reading all the upanishads may not be able to completely describe the Lord. But what if God himself want us to understand him? It becomes very simple in that case. In this similar manner, all the complex statements and teachings of Upanishads etc are simplified into simple statements by NamAzhwar in Thiruvaay Mozhi. We have both soul and Supersoul in us. Soul has the dirt related to material life whereas nothing of that sort affect the Lord in us. They are compared to two birds – one always eats the leaves of the tree and is worried all the time; the other one is only shining and does not eat. These are the complex teachings for upanishads to explain us that though the Lord is within us, he does not get affected by the material dirt unlike us. To explain this in simple terms, NamAzhwar says ‘kulanodu kulanalan’ that Lord is there in the material things that we feel with our material senses and at the same time He is NOT there in them. Meaning, He is there in all those material things but he does not get affected by the dirt. We can explain the flower to have characteristics like fragrant and colorful. These two are characteristics of a flower. But each of them individually need not hint at the reference to flower. Similarly, the entire material world or all the jeevas describe that they are proprietary of the Lord.
At the end of every ten Pasurams, NamAzhwar tells the palashruthi which describes the benefits by reading those pasurams. Usually for any scripture, they will tell palashruthi at the end of the scripture. But here, our Azhwar is in the mood of a worried mother who would give a chocolate to her child in an attempt to encourage the kid to go to school every day fearing that the child may not go to school otherwise. Azhwar is worried that if he does not tell us the benefits, we might go away from devotional service to the Lord. He says that if we read these Pasurams, we need not worry about going to the Vaikunta and he will take care of us and make sure we will go to Vaikunta to serve the Lord. He says he will take all the trouble and all we need to do is read these ten pasurams. All these ten Pasurams are very important for Moksha. Thousand Pasurams all together are called Thiruvaay Mozhi. Even every eleven pasurams are also termed as Thiruvaay Mozhi in the Dravidian culture.
Such is the beauty of Thiruvaay Mozhi. There is a lot more to write but I will stop here on the first ten Pasurams. If Lord gives me an opportunity, will surely write a similar article on Next Ten Pasurams in a couple of months. Hare Krsna
Krishna is part of history and not mythology 
