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

Paasuram-3
vEdanool prAyam Nooru manisarthAm puguvarElum
pAdiyum orangipOgum nindradil padinaiyandu
pEdhai bAlagan aDagum pini pasi moopu tunbam
AdalAl piravi vEndEn arangamAnagarulane

Let us now proceed to see the divine meanings in the third paasuram. Alwar in the earlier paasurams explained the importance of nAma sankeertanam and said that he will not even accept moksha granted to him since he preferred to stay in Srirangam and do nAma keertanam. Now in this paasuram alwar remembers are the difficulties in this world and says I don't want birth again. Sri PVP's vyakhyanam to this paasuram is excellent.

vEdanool prAyam Nooru manisarthAm puguvarElum: According to the vedas a normal human age is determined to be hundred. "sadAyurvai purusha:" says the vedas. Actually hundred years has been said for a jidendriyan who had full control of his senses but then for a commoner the life is even more less. Hundred or less a man's lifetime is only Alpa ayusu when compared to the life of the mountains or the ocean which lives for decades together. Our life span is not decided by us instead our fate and the bhagavan's sankalpam determines it. Here alwar says how our lifetime is spent. Even though we have the full span as mentioned in the vedas half of it is wasted. How?

pAdiyum orangipOgum nindradil padinaiyandu: Out of the 24 hours available in the day we sleep almost 12 hours. Though only 8 hours is recommended for any human body we enjoy sleeping more. So half of our lifetime goes in sleeping and hence only fifty years we are awake. Andal in thiruppAvai says "kumbakarananum thotrum vunakke peruntuyil thAn thanthAnO". Kumbakaranan Ravana's brother used to sleep for 6 months together and when he woke up he spent the rest of the 6 months eating. Here andal mocks at one of the gopi, who was still sleeping when all others were awake and waiting in her doorsteps. Andal here says to that gopi "probably u and kumbakaranan had a context to determine who sleeps more and probably you won and that is why kumbakaranan gave his sleep also to you and that is why you are sleeping still". Then nAchiyAr continues to say "kEsavanai pAdavum nE kEtE kidaththinO" Inspite of we singing the praise of the lord kEsavan how can you still sleep? That is our bhakhyam we are all blessed with only sleep always and hence we refrain even from bhagavat vishayam. So we loose half our life sleeping. Then what do we do with the rest of our lifetime?

pEdhai bAlagan aDagum pini pasi moopu tunbam: In the rest of our life the first fifteen is spent in innocence. Initially we do not even know to feed ourselves or clean ourselves everything has to been done only by our parents. Then we slowly come to know about the worldly affairs. When we are kids our main concentration is in playing(bAlastaave kreedhasaktha:). Then at the age of 20 or 25 we are more concerned with earning a living and hence not bothered about bhagavat vishayam. Now that we are somewhat settled in a job, we get married and then have kids. All are over and now when we grow old and want to go to bhagavat vishayam our body doesn't give room for it. When our eyes were able to see we were not prepared to go and have darshan of bhagavan but now our eyes have lost their power. Similarly our ears, legs and the whole body has become weak due to the age. We fall sick quite often. Summarising, we spend fifty years of our lifespan sleeping, then in the rest fifty years partly we spent as kids then in search of money and matter and then enjoying the togetherness in a family and finally now we have grown old. So the life now is filled with pini(disease), pasi(hunger) moopu(old age) and tunbam(suffering). So what do we really achieve?

AdalAl piravi vEndEn arangamAnagarulane: So alwar now says I hence do not want such a life which is worth for nothing. It is always filled only with miseries. Alwar in each of his paasuram refers to the lord who stays in SriRangam as arangamAnagarulane and tells his views to him.

So a doubt now arises. In the previous paasuram alwar said that he didn't want to go to moksha and now he says he doesn't want to live in this world, filled with miseries then what does alwar want? For this question Sri PVP gives an excellent vyakhyanam, let us see it in the next posting.