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

seruvilE arakkarkOnai settra nam sEvakanAr: seruvu means war and Ravana was the arakkarkOn(king of asuras). Though Ravana was an asura king still rAma's one single arrow will kill him. Even that is not necessary. Perumal's sankalpam alone is enough to kill ravana. But it was leela of emperuman to have fought a war with ravana and then killing him. Emperuman had sympathy even towards ravana. When vibheeshana came and surrendered to perumal there were so many people in rama sena who objected in accepting his saranagathi. But emperuman sent sugreeva to fetch vibheeshana and added even if ravana turned up after second thought do get him to my feet. This stayed in emperuman's mind till the last. So he didn't want to kill ravana in a second but instead he gave him many chances. On the first day of the war, ravana was abandoned without any weapons. Perumal didn't kill him instead he asked him to go today and come the next day thinking that atleast tomorrow ravana will feel for his mistake and beg pardon. But then the next day ravana returned with all the weapons again since he was a arakkan, who will never change and hence perumal had no other option than to kill him. Ravana was a ten headed asura. Emperuman could have chopped off all his ten heads at a time. But again he didn't do it. He chopped his head one after the other again giving ravana a chance to change, atleast by seeing his heads fall to the ground. No one will be able to see their head fall to the ground but ravana saw his nine heads fall one after the other on the ground. This was the result of his great penance. He did penance for his selfish motives and he got the fruit of it. Sri PVP says this is his vyakhyanam as follows: "than thalai tharaiyilE purala kannAlE kAnbar ellaiyampadi erukka thAn kAnum padi OrOr thalaiyAga aruththirE avanai azhiya seithathu". Sevagar actually means one who does service. Emperuman who is our protector does service too. In early days police were called as Sevagar in tamil only now they are called as kAvalar. Emperuman acts both as a protector and also does service to his devotees willingly.

maruviya periya kOil madhil thiruvarangamennA: We may think, but ramanyanam took place long back in thretha yuga where to find that perumal now? Alwar immediately answers. He now stays in srirangam. In the big temple surrounded by huge walls. The rishis and Vedas always hided emperuman but the beauty of alwars and their prabhandams is that they clearly showed emperuman and where he can be seen now at this time with our eyes. Here alwar says madhil thiruvarangam(srirangam with big walls around). According to historians the big walls of the srirangam temple was built only in the chola, pandiya regimes but looking into the alwar paasurams we find that the walls were there from ancient times. Probably the kings only renovated the already existing walls. Even before the alwars, the agamas existed and were pramanas and in the pancharartra agama it is said that the temple has seven prakarAs and rituals prescribed accordingly. The last day of the brahmotsavam is hence celebrated as sapthAvaranam(seven Avaranas). So just by seeing the inscriptions we cannot conclude anything probably the kings renovated the old seven prakara madhils. Alwar from the beginning of the prabhandam has always insisted nAma keertanam. Even here he didn't say that a person has to go to periya koil but he says one has to think of the emperuman who killed the ten headed demon, ravana with his one arrow who now stays in thiruvarangam and say ranganatha once. That is why alwar says 'thiruvarangam ennA'.

karuvilE thiruvilAtheer! KAlaththai kazhikkindreerE: KaruvillE thiruvullavargal are those who are blessed with bhagavat bhakthi and jnanam from the womb of their mother. Prahladan was such a child who was blessed by saint naradha when he was in his mother's womb. Even today we see kids who from their childhood have attraction towards the lord. They play with small idols decorating it with flowers and trying to imitate the pooja procedures done in temples and by their elders at home to their small perumal. They conduct various utsavams to their perumal and that is their mode of play. We see some children in our families who has satsangam asking their mother's, if the sweet she was making was for perumal. The child at the back of the mind is very fond of having the sweet but it very well knows that the mother will give him the sweet only after offering to perumal and hence it waits for the mother to give the sweet rather than grabbing it. These habits of offering anything to bhagavan before having it ourselves should be brought into practice from childhood. There lies the role of the elders who are pious in the family. If the parents are not orderly then the kid also grows without bhagavat bhakthi. After some age it is very difficult to develop good things. As the saying in thamil goes, 'Indil vilayAthathu Iinbhadhil vilayumA?' But unfortunately nowadays parents do not pay much interest in developing these disciplines in their kids. They are more materialistic and the TV and other medias teach the children what they should not learn at that age. And hence the kids are totally spoilt. Nowadays satsangam has to be searched for whereas dussangam is easily got. But inspite of all these if a kid grows with bhagavat bhakthi then it is due to his poova janma sukrutham or what other than bhagavat-bhAgavata ashirvAdam. Even if a bhagavathan wishes a pregnant lady to have a pious child then the child will be born as a srivaishnava and he becomes a garbha sreeman like prahladan. Here alwar is talking about the bhakya heenas, karuvilE thiruvilAtheer(those who do not have the knowledge and bhakthi from childhood). Alwar pities these people who are just wasting their time without any use.

Some people even feel ashamed to say the bhagavan nAma in a crowd. Alwar says the way out for these people in the next paasuram which we will see in the next posting.