DEIVATHIN KURAL # 25 (Vol # 5) Dated 19 July 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 25 (Vol # 5) Dated 19 July 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page No 152 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
113. Thinking about the Van Thondar’s reputation, Somaasi Naayanaar decided that he was the man to be approached, especially because of the freedom and facility with which he could be so close and buddy-buddy with God! If Thiru Mazhisai Aazhwaar’s relationship with Bhujanga Sayana PerumaaL was such as to get the special name to PerumaaL as ‘Yatoktakaari’ here this Sundara Murthy SwamigaL’s relationship with Siva Perumaan was with equal facility and freedom! Our understanding and comprehension are rather limited about the ways of God and these great souls who are so friendly with God! We need not try to understand it also. It is enough if we avail the opportunity to cleanse our own minds and purify ourselves. Within our understanding and comprehension too our elders have shown many role models to follow in stories, Itihaasaas and PuraNas. It is enough if we draw the right lessons from them, like historical ideal characters such as Rama, Laxmana, Hanuman, Dharma Raja, Harischandra and such. One can always draw the right lessons from good and bad examples, as how to be and how not to be respectively!
114. If Sundara Murthy Naayanaar was in love with the girls Paravai and Sangili, we are not to immediately jump to conclusions and look down upon them. They were from other communities and one of them was from the community of prostitutes! Still we are not to see them in a poor light. From the beginning they have been referred as Paravai Naachiyaar and Sangili Naachiyaar with honour and respect! Who was Sundara Murthy Naayanaar? Who were those girls? At the time they were to be married legally as per the guide lines of Saastra why should this old Brahmin come and claim by an old worn out palm leaf that Sundara Murthy is his slave as per some undertaking by his great grandfather or somebody? Then why should this man happily follow him. Then it is further unexplainable that Easwara takes all that pain to get them together in wedlock! Then why should Easwara undertake to go as a deeply committed messenger on behalf of this Sundara Murthy to that woman of easy virtue!
115. The answer to all these questions is there in the early part of Periya PuraaNam! Either you take the whole thing as a Leela of God (known as ‘Thiru ViLaiyaadal’ by God) or believe you me that Sundara Murthy before his being born on earth was a Kinkara in Kailasa, the World of Siva! At that time he was known as Aalaala Sundarar and the two women in his life Paravai Naachiyaar and Sangili Naachiyaar were known as Kamalini and Aninditai, both maids as Parvathi’s servants. One day he came across these two girls and fell in love due to some residual tastes of their earlier lives! So they had to take birth on the earth to give fruition to the inexorable logic of balance Karma Vinai! But evidently they had the blessings of God to fulfil and enjoy their residual attraction for each other. That gets enacted on stage here on earth as part of Siva’s Thiru ViLaiyaadalgaL!
116. Like this, whatever is beyond our understanding and looks slightly out of the ordinary are explained with reasoning and logic in our PuraNas quite clearly. In our hurry with vested interest some of us are too quick to criticise on the one hand while on the other hand, innocent bystanders find it difficult to explain and feel diffident! When the reason has been given for some, it is in the rightness of things that we presume that there must be some logical reason for events and behaviour beyond our comprehension.
117. With regard to Paravai and Sangili Naachiyaar-s those who think less of Sundara Murthy should also take certain other details into consideration. Having legally wedded, when Sundara Murthy was about to start living with that wife, as a married couple, that this old man intruded in to their lives and claimed that Sundara Murthy was his slave. It was then that Sundara Murthy accepting his slavery went on visiting all the temple stations (kshetraadanam) behind the old man (whom he knew to be Parmaeswara himself, who had come to save him from worldly involvement as per his own request )! In one of those places, there was this Kotpuli Naayanaar who offered his two nubile daughters in marriage to Sundara Murthy. Those two girls Singadi and Vanappagai came in front and prostrated themselves in all humility to Sundara Murthy. Did he fall prey to the call of the flesh then? No. With equal humility and graciousness he accepted them as his two daughters! As further proof of this in the Padigam of that place he calls himself the father of Singadi, (as Singadiappan)! (Refer to Thiru Naattiyathaankudi Padigam starting ‘PooNaaNaavador’ in Tevaaram.)
118. Let me talk about this from another angle! In these stories of great people we see or hear or read about many of the events that are supposed to have happened in their lives. We also see as to how these events affected them and their minds. But in all this, we can never know as to what was the response and reaction in their hearts. What is revealed about that can only be limited. But their true response can be available only in the out pouring in poetical form arising from their very inner being!
119. Let Sundara Murthy Swami’s outer life be whatever, his true inner heart is revealed in his poems. They make us wonder as to how deep rooted can be the devotion of this man to be able to express such wonderful things that easily melt not only our hearts but our very being! For so many hundreds of years, so many generations of devotees have felt the intensity of his devotion through his songs! If we are not moved by those songs, it can only mean that we are dull idiots of the highest order! In one place he says, “...anne unnai allaal ini yaarai ninaikkene” meaning, ‘My dear Sir! If not you, whom can I think of?’ Another place he says, “...aththaa unakkaaLaai ini allen enalaame”, meaning that ‘I have become your man, can I deny this ever anymore?’ Then again he says, “...unai naan marakkinum, sollum naa namahsivaayave”, meaning ‘even if I forget you, this tongue of mine will continue to say only namasivaaya! It is anathema to think derogatively about him even for a fraction of a second! If he ordered or ticked off God even that was to show the world as to how easily God is accessible to the true devotee. Amongst the many paths of devotion there is one in which God is treated as a friend. In such a relationship along with love you could have some differences of opinion and some small tiffs. He had a special name as ‘thambiraan thozhar’. Thus while being the ‘Van Thondar’ who was harsh with God at times, goes on to sing ‘Thiruth-thondat Thogai’ in which he repeatedly says that he is subservient to every one of the 63 Nayanmaars! Now let us come back the Somaasi Naayanaar’s story.
120. Somaasi Naayanaar who was in search of a suitable person, who could be the Guru to enable him to fetch Parameswara in the Yagnam that he was intending to organise, identified Sundara Murthy SwamigaL as the right person worthy of being approached. It was easily said than done. Because, Sundara Murthy SwamigaL was always surrounded by a bevy of devotees of Siva and so many others, no one could go near him easily! Like a King he was ever covered by an assembly of high and mighty. Though he was born in the family of Aadi – Saiva – Brahmins of Archagas who work in temples, he was adopted, bred and brought up by the regional King of Thiru Munaippaadi. He was moving in the high society of Chera – Sozha – PaNdya Kings most of the times. The kings were his friends, especially the Chera King. He had visited many temples with all the three kings, together known as the ‘MoovendargaL’. So mostly he had as big an entourage as a Royal Personae would have!
121. Somaasi Naayanaar thought about the method of approaching Sundara Murthy Naayanaar. “I am a poor Brahmin. How can I approach him and attract his attention? What sort of a present or gift can I take to him?” He used to do his daily Karma Anushtaanaas and have his lunch only at about one in the afternoon. The lunch was not an elaborate one of many courses. Without ever giving a chance for anyone to feel, “yaar ivan Paarpaan pidungith thinnaraan?” meaning, ‘who is this beggar Brahmin pestering us like a parasite’; he used to live the most simple life as required of him by the Saastraas! Without troubling anybody, not expecting any alms or dakshina, he would go to the river side and pick up the greens growing there. This he would give his wife to cook. No picking on other people! Only picking the naturally growing greens from the river bank! Now he got a bright idea as to why not take some greens to present to Sundara Murthy Naayanaar?
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.