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

In our sampradayam, kainkaryam is very important. What a Srivaishnava begs from the lord is his kainkaryam. For that they are ready to sacrifice the divine anubhavams too. When Sri Parthasarathi comes out for veedhi purappadu there are many who enjoy the divine beauty of the bhagavan but can the SripAda thangees who carry perumal enjoy the same? But they are the actual bhakyashalees since they give the happiness to the whole crowd of bhakthas without selfishness doing thondu to bhagavan. Everyone cannot get this bhakyam. This is possible only if perumal chooses us for that kainkaryam. Alwar in the following paasuram talks about the kainkaryam bestowed by Sri Rama piran on a small squirrel(Anil Kainkaryam).

Paasuram-27
"kurangugal malayainooka kuliththu tham purandittOdi
taranganeer adaikkaluttra salamilA anilam pOllEn
marangal pOl valiya nenja vanjanEn, nenju thannAl
aranganArkku AtseiyAdhe aliyeththEn ayarginrEnE."

kurangugal malayainooka: Alwar talks about the sEthu bhandhana Vaibhavam here. Hanuman, angadhan and other big monkeys are bringing big big mountains to build the bridge across the ocean. Nalan(Amsa of vishvakarma) is the great monkey engineer who is planning the construction of the bridge. They are in a great hurry to complete the bridge as soon as possible. Sugreeva who wanted to urge the monkeys to do the job faster told them that the afternoon mandagapadi(thiruvArAdhanam and lunch) for perumal will happen only in the other shore, says Sri PVP in his vyakhyanam. The sugreeva parivar had so much love for perumal that they can never even imagine to leave perumal hungry. So they speeded the process as far as possible so that they could reach the other shore in time for the thiruvArAdhanam. They are carrying big big mountains. What will they get as salary for this job? Will perumal pay them in some way? Oh! They do not expect any sort of payment from perumal. Just his kataksham is enough for them. One monkey which carried a big mountain and put it in the sea while returning saw that perumal was looking at him and hence gained a lot more energy and brought two big mountains the next time, with great enthusiasm. Though the job was done by only monkeys which lacked the sixth sense, still the construction process was highly organized. Some monkeys were holding ropes in the sea so that a straight bridge could be constructed and all the other monkeys dropped the mountains in a orderly fashion.

kuliththu tham purandittOdi taranganeer adaikkaluttra salamilA anilam pOllEn: There was one small squirrel which was looking at all the enthusiastic monkeys doing rAma kainkaryam. The squirrel was highly inspired and wanted to get involved in the divine kainkaryam. But this project is a very big one. Since the bridge had to be constructed across the sea and the material used were not stones but big mountains. In every big kainkaryam, there is always a hidden small part to be done which most of us overlook and feel that the kainkaryam is too big for us to get involved. But this small squirrel wanted to do kainkaryam in some way or the other. For instance, all our divyadesams have to be taken care regularly. Instead of collecting people or blaming the temple authorities and others for not maintaining the temples, why can't we just broom the temple, remove the unwanted bushes grown around and keep the temple clean ourself. Won't it be nice if we could put a beautiful kOlam in front of the temple and sannadhis and light a lamp? Actually this job is not so difficult. If each one of us instead of pointing towards others do small small kainkaryams like this then for sure all our temples will be well maintained. We all maintain our houses, similarly if we consider the temples also to be ours then we are sure to take the little strain(actually doing kainkaryam in the temples is a pleasure) to maintain our temples and make perumal happy. We can surely see perumal smiling at us enjoying the small kainkaryams we do, as he did in the case of the small squirrel doing kainkaryam among the big monkeys. We shouldn't combine with people who demoralize us rather join hands with those who will make us more enthusiastic to do bhagavat kainkaryam. That is why satsangam is so essential for building one's character. The monkeys where bringing only mountains but to build the bridge both stones and mud is essential. So the squirrel decided to carry mud for the construction. It was a very intelligent squirrel. It very well knew that it can carry only very little mud with its small hands. So it dipped into the water and rolled over the mud and it ran inbetween the mountains and dropped all the mud all over its body. Probably the squirrel also knew that before doing kainkaryam to bhagavan it has to take a bath and be pure. The squirrel was both pure at heart and body. The squirrel knew that large amount of mud was needed to bind two mountains still it didn't get disheartened. It wanted to do as much as possible, the maximum it can do. That is why alwar praises the squirrel to be 'salamilA anilam'(the squirrel which works without any tiresome). Actually the squirrel was doing a highly risky job. The strong waves of the ocean are unsafe for the small squirrel to dip in and the squirrel may even get stamped by the big monkeys carrying big mountains in a hurry. There is a high possibility that the monkeys may overlook this small creature and step over it. The squirrel never gave thought to any of these. It had pleasure in doing kainkaryam to perumal and hence continued to do the same without any halt.

Is there any result or palan which the squirrel will obtain by doing this kainkaryam? Why is it doing it so enthusiastically? What did Rama piran do about it? Let us see the answers to these questions in the next posting.