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Translated by Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

Brahma

"BrahmAvum madhu kaidapargal kaiyil agappattu kann izhanthu, dhanam izhanthu, nilam thuzhAvi, rudran kaiyilaE thalai aruppundaiyAlum rakshagan AgamAttAn"

Madhu and Kaidapa had once snatched the vedas from Brahma. Hence, he lost all the jnAnam and his wealth. In this context, veda is the wealth. This is considered as the wealth for andanars (Brahmins). Thirumangai Azhwar refers to this as andanar mAttu andhivaitha.... in ThirunedunthAndakam while referrring to the AshtAkshara mantram.

Nilam thuzhAvi refers to the aspect of one looking down towards the earth with a physical activity with one's feet scratching the ground as a reaction to an embarrasing situation. This aspect could be referred to the follwing NammAzhwar's pasuram on ArAvayitrAn (popularly known as AppakudathAn in ThiruppErnagar, also known as Koviladi).

inRennaip poruLAkkith thannathennuL vaiththAn
anRennaip puNarththathen seyvAn?
kunRennath thikazmAdangkaL sUz thiruppErAn
onRenakkaruL seyya uNarththaluRREnE (TVM 10.8.9)

There was an interesting discussion between Bhattar and Nanjeeyar about this pasuram. Azhwar says that today, Perumal has made him an entity in such a way that Perumal has entered in to his body. Where as this was not the case until yesterday - What is the justification for this?

Perumal: Azhweer, you have attained all the aspects that a soul needs to attain by completely doing Atma samarpanam to me, and that is why I have entered in to you. You are so special.

Without taking credit for himself, Azhwar replies with the following statement:

That again is purely because of your nirhEtuka krupai.

For this reply, Perumal could not answer any further and hence started to stand in a postion where He was looking down and drawing cirlces with His feet. Perumal is even a kind enough to do this nilam thuzhAval for bhaktA's sake. In this context, Perumal could be considered as Krishna in child form as NammAzhwar was completly immersed in "Krishna trishnA tattvam".

On the other hand, in the case of Brahma he had to do nilam thuzhAval because he could not protect himself. Finally, Perumal took Hayagrivar avatAram to get back the vedas and protect Brahma. AlavandAr refers to three pathis, prajApathi (Brahma), pasupathi (Rudran) and RamApathi (Perumal) when referring to Brahma. When Perumal took TriVikrama avatAram, there were two water sources that fell on Perumal's feet. One was from the kamadalam of Brahma and the other was from MahAbali. Rudran took the water that fell from Brahma lOkam on his head to get himself purified, and hence got the name Shivan.

Swamy PL also refers to the story where Brahma's head was plucked by Rudran. With all the all the above instances it becomes very clear that even Brahma cannot protect us from this samsara.

Let us look into the case of Rudran in the next posting.

Pillai Lokacharyar Thiruvadigale Sharanam
Azhvar Emperumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Sharanam

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