based on the vyakhyanam of Sri Periyavaccan Pillai
by Smt Sumithra Varadarajan

Now let us see how our Acharyas found all the arthas of the sastras in the Nalayiram paasurams itself. Nammazhvar gave 4 Prabhandams. As every one knows Sri Sadagopan is regarded as "Vedam thamizh seidha Maaran" in our sampradhayam. This was proved by Periya Perumal by accepting the request of Sri Thirumangai alwar to hear the tamizh vedam of alwar as par with the sanskrit vedam during the adhyayana utsavam. Even today during the adyayana utsavam all divya desa perumals listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham with great joy. Nammazhwar's first prabhandham Thiruviruttam is considered as Rig veda Saaram. Thiruvaasiriyam is regarded as Yajur veda saaram. We all know the famous Thiruvaimozhi is regarded as Sama veda saaram and Periya Thiruvandhadhi is considered as Atharvana veda saaram.

"Maaran panittha tamizh maraikku mangaiyarkOn Arangan koora avadarittha" says Sri Manavala Mamunigal in his Upadesa Ratna maalai. So Sri Thirumangai alwars six prabhandams namely, Periya thirumozhi, Thirukurundhandagam, Thiruvezhunkootrirukkai, Siriya Thirumadal , Periya Thirumadal and Thirunedundhandagam are regarded as the six angas(shikshai, vyakaranam, chandas, kalpam, niruththam and Jhotisham for sanskrit vedam) to the tamizh vedams of Nammazhvar. Next our Acharyas consider Itihasa purAnams as pramAnams. Sri KulasekarAlwAr's PerumAl Thirumozhi gives us the extract of Sri RAmAyanam. PeriyAzhvAr, NAchiyar got themselves involved in krishnAnubhavam and gave us the substance of Srimad Bhaagavatam and Sri Vishnu purAnam(Krishna leela) in their prabhandams, PeriyAzhvar thirumozhi, ThiruppAvai and NAchiyar thirumozhi. One part of Sri Vishnu purAnam is Sri Vishnu dharmam which was given importance by Sri Thondaradi podi Alwar. So Thirumaalai is regarded as par with Sri Vishnu dharmam, which mainly deals with explaining the magimai of bhagavan nAmam.

Vedas are many in number "AnanthAvai VedA:" . It is impossible for anyone to learn all in his lifetime. Infact there is a legend according to which sage Bharadwaj started learning the Vedas. Even after his first life tenure he was unable to complete so he requested Indra to give him one more lifetime. Similarly 2 or 3 lifetimes passed then Indra asked the sage what he will do if he gives him one more lifetime. The sage replied I will again learn more of the Vedas. Then Indra showed the sage 4 mountains and took a hand full of mud from it and said the amount you have learnt in all these life times is only this handful and there is yet 4 large mountains of Vedas to be learnt. So it is impossible for anyone to learn all. There goes a saying in tamil "kattradu kaiman alavu kallAdhadhu vulagalavu". Probably this saying could have got its origin from the above story. So what bhagavan advices is "YaavAnarthe udapAne sampluthah: sampluthodhake" (learn how much is essential for you). Our Acharyas also regarded this as the prime motto. Even Periyazhvar is praised in his thaniyan as "vENdiya vEdangal Odhi". Does this mean there is something called vENdiya vedam (required vedam) and vENdadha Vedam(unrequired Vedam)? The part of vedam which is essential for us is called the vENdiya Vedam. As different parts are for different adikaris and according to different yugAms the adhikaris keep changing. So we should learn what is essential for us. How do we know which is essential for us and which is not? Only to tell us that emperuman by his apaara kaarunyam sent the alwars, who like giving us the juice from a fruit extracted the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and gave us through their paasurams.

That is why our Acharyas spent most of their time in learning the inner meanings of the prabhandams. Even Sri Ramanuja who spent a lot of time in analysing Brahma sutras and Vedanta, to disprove the advaitins and other philosophers is supposed to have taken guide from the tamil paasurams to do so("etthai kondu orunga veduvar). And Swamy Desikan says "TeliyAdha Marai Porulum Theliya kandom" that he understood the meanings of hard core VedAnta with the help of the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham. So we have to leave the Asaaram, Alpasaaram, saaram, saarataram in the Vedas and learn only the Saaratamam. A Srivaishanavan is supposed to be like a kOzhi(hen), that is like a hen which digs through all the dust and picks the things essential to it alone, a srivaishnavan is also supposed to dig through all the sastras and retain in his mind the essential parts alone. That our Acharyas have found to be absolutely present in the arulicheyals. We are all lucky to be born in kali. When everyone says kali is gooram and very difficult to live in, you may wonder why I say that we are lucky. It is because we need not do tapas like the rishis are medidate on the god for years together in a forest. It is very easy to attain him. We have got the arulicheyals which give us the meanings of the Vedanta in a simplified easily understandable form. To add to this we have the strotras and vyakhyAnams and other works of our Acharyas which makes our job very very easy. And more over in kali we can attain emperuman by just doing nAmasankeertanam. Whatever palan the rishis and others in the other yugams attained by doing great tapas and yAgAs we can attain the same palan in a simple way by just uttering his nAmAs. Even the persons born in the other yugas wonder how lucky we are all to be born in kali to enjoy the sweet bhakthi flooded poetry of the alwars and other bhakthas. That is why kali is regarded as saadhu and only way to attain emperuman is thirunAma keertanam.

So that is why Sri Thondaradipodi Alwar's Thirumaalai is regarded superior to the other prabhandams as it talks mainly about the nAma magimai and how a person in kali can easily attain Emperuman's feet without much effort. Sri PVP who is called as "VyakhyAna cakravarthi" has given an excellent ManipravAla commentary. Our Acharyas have given the commentaries in manipravAlam which is a mixture of tamil and Sanskrit. The vyakhyAnams are so sweet usually elders say it to be like a mixture of honey and milk (ThEnum pAlum kalandhAr pol). Our Acharyas have kept us a great nidhi of such vyakhyAnams for enjoying which one janma is not enough. One doubt may arise in our minds now. When the alwars prabhandams are in tamil why are the vyakhyAnams in Manipravaalam. That is because during the time of the Acharyas there were many people who failed to accept the supremacy of the alwArs paasurams and said that they cannot be regarded as par with the Sanskrit vEdam so to disprove these people the Acharyas had to show that the alwAr paasurams contained nothing but vedAnta vishayam and hence had to take the manipravAlam style so that even the others could understand the vyakhyAnams.

In the next posting we will see what is the actual essence of Thirumaalai.