Paratathvam and Sowlabhyam
Quoting from Agamas, Naanmuga Thiruvandathi, Thiruviruttam, Siriya Thirumadal, all works composed by the alwars who have enjoyed the greatness of Emperuman, the Paratathvam and Sowlabhyam of Sarveshwara is explained in Saazhal form. Saazhal Pasurams are like two parties teasing each other as to who is greater. Your side or my side. While one side takes the Paratathvam supremacy of the Lord as their favourite, the other side enjoys his Sowlabhyam. "In order not to get scared of his paratathavam, sowlabhyam needs are to be thought of : in order not to belittle his greatness, paratathvam needs to be contemplated.
In Vaibhava avatharams one side extolls the greatness of Rama and Krishna, while the other side mocks at such celebration by questioning the greatness of the Lord in a playful way.
Sow: Side one: Look at the way he walked on those hard stones and lived in the forest with the most beautiful deer eyed sita.
Par: ide two: Know well clearly that the lotus feet are the flowers that adorn the Nitya sooris.
Sow: Side one: Oh! friend look at the way he grew as a small cowherd boy in Nandagopa's kulam in Ayarpadi, the one who appeared removing the shackles of his father, Vasudeva and grew at ayarpaadi.
Par: Side two: He, the one who grew at ayarpadi is the father of Chatumukha Brahma. The Birthless Lord took somany births for us can we have any grievance.
Sow: Side one: Look at the stomach that has eaten the curd kept in Ayarpadi. he stooped so low to steal the curd and ate.
Par: side two: Most wonderful thing. the stomach that you are talking about is the same stomach that had swallowed the seven worlds and still had lots and lots of space. He saved us during pralaya is there any grievance for us.
Sow: Side one: Look at him he got tied down by a small rope. that too by an illiterate dark haired cowherd woman.
Par: side two: He is incomprehensible and inaccessible for those who think they can see him with their own efforts.
Sow: Side one: Look at him walking such a small dwarf walking in the yagasaalai of Bali and begged him for three measures of earth.
Par: Side two: He is Vibhu.-- one who has manifested everywhere. He cannot be seen or understood by anyone in His fullest entirety.
The Agamas
The agamas are theological treaties and practical manuals of divine worship. Though the agamas do not derive their authority from the Vedas they are not antigonistic to them. they are all vedic in spirit and character and are regarded as authoritative. The agamas are divided into three sections. The Vaishnava, the Saiva and the Sakta. The Vaishnava agamas are of four kinds, the Vaikanasa, Pancharatra, Prathishthasara and vijananalalitha. the Lord Vishnu is the supreme Lord in the Pancharatra agama. they believe that the agamas were revealed by Lord Vishnu himself. Every thing from a blade of grass to Brahma is Lord Krishna himself. The commonest and the greatest is Lord Vishnu. How easy at the same time marvelously incomprehensible.
Naanmugan Thiruvandaadhi.
Andhaadhi means hymns composed in a particular style where the last word of one hymn becomes the begining word of the next hymn. Naanmugan Thiruvandhaadhi is the fourth in the series of Eyarpaa having 96 poems. It was sung by Thirumalisai alwar. He in this prabhandham, beautifully narates the extra ordinary qualities of the Supreme Lord Sriman Narayana and establishes the Paratatva Nimayam
In several verses of the Nanmukha Thiruvanthadi we see thirumalisai alwar's absolute freedom and closeness with the Lord, and they seem to indicate that the Lord actually followed the alwar at his call.
In verse seven he says " O Lord Narayana, you may grace me today, or tomorrow, or some other time later, but your grace is definitely coming, I cannot be without you nor can you be without me.
In verse 51 he says "Who is my companion but the Lord, who is his own, without a peer or superior? O Kaya hued Lord, nobody knows you as I do. Can the whole sky be a price for my mind?
Again In verse 86 he says "See O Heart! The supreme Lord exists. Always he exists. In the heart of devotees he exists. The Lord appears before devotees like me on his own, Know it."
Speaking of the Venkatam hill, Thirumalisai alwar says Everywhere
to be continuedon the hill amid cool mountain springs, the Lord appears before his devotees who sit in the forest meditating on his feet. the Venkatam lord is a permanent fund for Gods and men alike.. is this not his sowlaabhya quality. Again the Lord is also the maya that keeps us deluded.
In another verse Thirumalisai Alwar says "pursuing through my countless births, the lord has caught up with me now, The lotus lord of cloud like hue, has come to stay within my heart. He revealed his glory form, so now my soul indeed is blest. The karmic bonds are cut away, the soul has found its joyous home."
Though the Alwar has always pleaded for the lord's grace, here we find the lord has all along been the hound of heaven, in pursuit of the Alwar. CAN THIS BE EXPLAINED? its so magical. one wants to be in the place of the alwar, oh! what? Oh! how would it feel !!!!!
(The correction has verses 82, 85,88,89 and 96)
Thiruviruttam.
Thiruviruttam is a poem of a hundred and four lined stanzas. This constitutes the essence of the Rig Veda. Thiru means Sri. Viruttam literally means an event. "The event of falling in love with the supreme being" is narrated poetically, bridal mysticism is symbolized in a fluent way.
To save us from false knowledge.
From evil ways and the dirt of the body
To save us from coming again and again,
to all these,
And to give us life
Thou Lord of the Immortals
comest down here,
Taking birth in many a womb,
And accepting many a form,
harken, Lord to by submission true.
O my poor heart, you went alone,
After the fiery bird that he rides
He who wears the cool tulasi
and the flaming discus,
Will you come back to me?
or will you stand there gazing in wonder
At Lakshmi and the Goddess of the earth.
And the lovely haired maid of the cowherds
a triple glory, clinging shadow like to him?
(correction says stanza 30 and 31Kannan Vaikunthanodu must look up)
Winter comes, the dark rain clouds gather in the sky, or is it winter?
Massed and blown by the wind,
Flinging the good rain,
Are they fierce dark bulls
Battling it out in the sky?
Or, has winter come to torment me,
Winter, dark, bearing His loveliness
Seemingly cool, flowery
But cruel probing my wounds,
The agony of being away from Him?
Tell me clouds,
How did you acquire the Yogic, powers
To look my Lord?
Is it through the penance you have
done through his grace,
wandering far and wide, your hearts in pain
Bearing your heavy bountiful burden of rain
to save all life here?
How comes it?
That these water lilies are dark blue like my Lord
Is it because they forshook the forest and the earth
And took to the water
Standing there, legs unflinching in penance?
The passion grows and whereever she turns
she sees the witchery of her lovers eyes.
Like lotus pools, wide stretching
on the broad brow of a dark hill,
Whereever I turn
His eyes weave beauty.
The eyes of my Lord dark and lovely
Lord of the good of the heavens
And of the world girt by the swelling waters,
Oh, but they are lotuses, she cries, His eyes,
His hands, His feet all are lotuses, lotuses.
Then a sudden mis giving assails her,
Could she so ill equipped, speak in mere
Words of His beauty?
Who can conceive of it.
The lovely dark of my Lord?
Is it within the reach
Even of those whose thought
crosses the sky and beyond.
To the world eternal?
No it is not possible, she concludes, with a touch
of elation over her lovers infinitude and a sense
of sadness at her own inadequacy:
Who can speak to them,
His colour, beauty, His name, His form?
They would talk however,
As though they know,
Those men who pursue jnana and dharma,
But however far they go,
Whereever they reach
In the blaze of light that He is,
May be they learn a little,
But how could they ever attain to it,
My Lord's Greatness?
The implication is that knowledge and righteousness
will fall short of realisation, and that only love can reach him.
She loves, of course, but the lover has not come,
and the pain of being alone grows.
The west darkens, the cresent moon shows itself
and the night wind stirs,
It is night,
With the cresent moon,
That milk mouthed child,
clinging to her waist,
The west is lamenting
Her loss of the sun.
here is the cool wind stirring
Searching seeking to steal from us
What he has given us,
the yearning for his tulasi.
Yes, but the wind is no longer cool,
says the woman in love,
it is the cruel wind and it burns,
It is invisible we know not its form,
nor can we trace its footsteps.
It goes about whispering scandals
and tormenting me ceaselessly.
The night darkens and lengthens
into an age as though, bent
on destroying her,
The young moon rises
has it come to save her
to break the unshrinking darkness
encircling night?
let it, but it burns too.
The loud unceasing lament of the bird Anvil,
from the grove and the voice of the restless sea
stealing into the land through a hundred creeks
torture her throughout the night.
Does the sea call to me to give up my poor bangles of conch shell.
She wonders in pain, unable to get back the amrita that it yielded
when the Lord churned it?
when morning comes and the sun rises over the hill,
it seams as though her lover is before her
and she rejoices that all evil and suffering are at an end.
But that is for a moment,
the sense of being away from him breaks in, and she cries out
When When will I reach Him
and adds heavily.
O Lord of the discus
that destroyed the asuras.
Thus in a number of stanzas in the poem, Nammalvar speaks of his passion for God, the love lorn woman in the poem is Nammalvar himself.
There are a few other characters in this drama of love that the poem presents. namallavar does not mention them specifically, but the context and the words given to them reveal their identity. If we call the chief character the woman in love, as nayaki or talaivi as is generally done. the other characters are nayaki's maid and friend, her mother, and her foster mother, the lover himself and his friend and a kattuvichi, a woman whose advice is sought on the supposition that the nayaki is possessed. the function of the nayaki's friend is to sympathise with and console her and also to comment on her forlorn condition.
Towards the end one cannot help feeling that the simple original symbolism of bridal mysticism the soul in love with God and longing to be united with Him, has become complicated if not confused, by the introduction of the other characters, the situation devised for them, and the words given to them. But here Nammalvar discards the symbolism and says,
to be born to die,
Age after age, age afer age,
to die and to be born,
those who can see
And laugh at this futility
surely they will long to end it
By turning in love to him the origin,
round whom the immortals gather to worship,
How can there be any sleep for them.
He also gives up the symbol of the lover and calls God Father and Mother.
entering the body
being wedged it it, being unwedged
thus the soul struggles endlessly
so betimes some how I will turn
to Him who is my Mother and My Father
And the Lord of Liberation.
But the mixing up of symbols and what is symbolised, the extension of symbols beyond the limits of logic. the coming in of other symbols and direct utterances are all characters that mark mystical poetry and Thiruviruttam illustrates them. Bewilderment is intution, thus Thiruviruttam is the poetry of intution.
Siriya Thirumadal
Siriya thirumadal is a special style of poem where our Alwar assumes the role of the Nayaki, madly in love with the Perumal. thirumangai alwar portrayed himself as Parakaala Nayaki, a female performing Madal Oordal as an expression of intense and insatiable love for the Lord. He threatens the Lord that if he will not present His darshan to him, he will do madal erudhal. he openly confesses his love for the Lord.
Here the nayaki sends her heart as a messenger to perumal. As the heart continues to stay with perumal and not come back all the consequences are imagined and sung.
Though Thirumangai alwar makes references to many temples in the madal this madal Oordhal is meant for Thirunarayoor Naachiyaar koil. since thiruNaraiyoor is the kshetram where thirumangai alwar got his panch samskaram done by the Lord himself.
To show his gratitude for emperuman he dedicated the madals to the Lord there.
there is an interesting story about these thiru madals. Thirumangai alwar built temple walls (Madhil) for Srirangam. Pleased by such service, Lord Ranganatha presented Alwar with the honour of teertham, Parivattam and Sri satakopam, and asked him alwar wo'nt you present the thirumadal prabhandam for me also. i.e. in Tamil "Thirumadal prabhandangal namakku arulicheyyal aagaatho".
Alwar wonderfully replied with "Mathil inge, madal ange" i.e. walls i have built for Srirangam, madal I have sung for Thiru Naraiyoor.
Thus endless discussions and examples of gods parathavam and Sowlabya can be given, if we understand just a few our lives can be worth.
Quoting from Agamas, Naanmuga Thiruvandathi, Thiruviruttam, Siriya Thirumadal, all works composed by the alwars who have enjoyed the greatness of Emperuman, the Paratathvam and Sowlabhyam of Sarveshwara is explained in Saazhal form. Saazhal Pasurams are like two parties teasing each other as to who is greater. Your side or my side. While one side takes the Paratathvam supremacy of the Lord as their favourite, the other side enjoys his Sowlabhyam. "In order not to get scared of his paratathavam, sowlabhyam needs are to be thought of : in order not to belittle his greatness, paratathvam needs to be contemplated.
In Vaibhava avatharams one side extolls the greatness of Rama and Krishna, while the other side mocks at such celebration by questioning the greatness of the Lord in a playful way.
Sow: Side one: Look at the way he walked on those hard stones and lived in the forest with the most beautiful deer eyed sita.
Par: ide two: Know well clearly that the lotus feet are the flowers that adorn the Nitya sooris.
Sow: Side one: Oh! friend look at the way he grew as a small cowherd boy in Nandagopa's kulam in Ayarpadi, the one who appeared removing the shackles of his father, Vasudeva and grew at ayarpaadi.
Par: Side two: He, the one who grew at ayarpadi is the father of Chatumukha Brahma. The Birthless Lord took somany births for us can we have any grievance.
Sow: Side one: Look at the stomach that has eaten the curd kept in Ayarpadi. he stooped so low to steal the curd and ate.
Par: side two: Most wonderful thing. the stomach that you are talking about is the same stomach that had swallowed the seven worlds and still had lots and lots of space. He saved us during pralaya is there any grievance for us.
Sow: Side one: Look at him he got tied down by a small rope. that too by an illiterate dark haired cowherd woman.
Par: side two: He is incomprehensible and inaccessible for those who think they can see him with their own efforts.
Sow: Side one: Look at him walking such a small dwarf walking in the yagasaalai of Bali and begged him for three measures of earth.
Par: Side two: He is Vibhu.-- one who has manifested everywhere. He cannot be seen or understood by anyone in His fullest entirety.
The Agamas
The agamas are theological treaties and practical manuals of divine worship. Though the agamas do not derive their authority from the Vedas they are not antigonistic to them. they are all vedic in spirit and character and are regarded as authoritative. The agamas are divided into three sections. The Vaishnava, the Saiva and the Sakta. The Vaishnava agamas are of four kinds, the Vaikanasa, Pancharatra, Prathishthasara and vijananalalitha. the Lord Vishnu is the supreme Lord in the Pancharatra agama. they believe that the agamas were revealed by Lord Vishnu himself. Every thing from a blade of grass to Brahma is Lord Krishna himself. The commonest and the greatest is Lord Vishnu. How easy at the same time marvelously incomprehensible.
Naanmugan Thiruvandaadhi.
Andhaadhi means hymns composed in a particular style where the last word of one hymn becomes the begining word of the next hymn. Naanmugan Thiruvandhaadhi is the fourth in the series of Eyarpaa having 96 poems. It was sung by Thirumalisai alwar. He in this prabhandham, beautifully narates the extra ordinary qualities of the Supreme Lord Sriman Narayana and establishes the Paratatva Nimayam
In several verses of the Nanmukha Thiruvanthadi we see thirumalisai alwar's absolute freedom and closeness with the Lord, and they seem to indicate that the Lord actually followed the alwar at his call.
In verse seven he says " O Lord Narayana, you may grace me today, or tomorrow, or some other time later, but your grace is definitely coming, I cannot be without you nor can you be without me.
In verse 51 he says "Who is my companion but the Lord, who is his own, without a peer or superior? O Kaya hued Lord, nobody knows you as I do. Can the whole sky be a price for my mind?
Again In verse 86 he says "See O Heart! The supreme Lord exists. Always he exists. In the heart of devotees he exists. The Lord appears before devotees like me on his own, Know it."
Speaking of the Venkatam hill, Thirumalisai alwar says Everywhere
to be continuedon the hill amid cool mountain springs, the Lord appears before his devotees who sit in the forest meditating on his feet. the Venkatam lord is a permanent fund for Gods and men alike.. is this not his sowlaabhya quality. Again the Lord is also the maya that keeps us deluded.
In another verse Thirumalisai Alwar says "pursuing through my countless births, the lord has caught up with me now, The lotus lord of cloud like hue, has come to stay within my heart. He revealed his glory form, so now my soul indeed is blest. The karmic bonds are cut away, the soul has found its joyous home."
Though the Alwar has always pleaded for the lord's grace, here we find the lord has all along been the hound of heaven, in pursuit of the Alwar. CAN THIS BE EXPLAINED? its so magical. one wants to be in the place of the alwar, oh! what? Oh! how would it feel !!!!!
(The correction has verses 82, 85,88,89 and 96)
Thiruviruttam.
Thiruviruttam is a poem of a hundred and four lined stanzas. This constitutes the essence of the Rig Veda. Thiru means Sri. Viruttam literally means an event. "The event of falling in love with the supreme being" is narrated poetically, bridal mysticism is symbolized in a fluent way.
To save us from false knowledge.
From evil ways and the dirt of the body
To save us from coming again and again,
to all these,
And to give us life
Thou Lord of the Immortals
comest down here,
Taking birth in many a womb,
And accepting many a form,
harken, Lord to by submission true.
O my poor heart, you went alone,
After the fiery bird that he rides
He who wears the cool tulasi
and the flaming discus,
Will you come back to me?
or will you stand there gazing in wonder
At Lakshmi and the Goddess of the earth.
And the lovely haired maid of the cowherds
a triple glory, clinging shadow like to him?
(correction says stanza 30 and 31Kannan Vaikunthanodu must look up)
Winter comes, the dark rain clouds gather in the sky, or is it winter?
Massed and blown by the wind,
Flinging the good rain,
Are they fierce dark bulls
Battling it out in the sky?
Or, has winter come to torment me,
Winter, dark, bearing His loveliness
Seemingly cool, flowery
But cruel probing my wounds,
The agony of being away from Him?
Tell me clouds,
How did you acquire the Yogic, powers
To look my Lord?
Is it through the penance you have
done through his grace,
wandering far and wide, your hearts in pain
Bearing your heavy bountiful burden of rain
to save all life here?
How comes it?
That these water lilies are dark blue like my Lord
Is it because they forshook the forest and the earth
And took to the water
Standing there, legs unflinching in penance?
The passion grows and whereever she turns
she sees the witchery of her lovers eyes.
Like lotus pools, wide stretching
on the broad brow of a dark hill,
Whereever I turn
His eyes weave beauty.
The eyes of my Lord dark and lovely
Lord of the good of the heavens
And of the world girt by the swelling waters,
Oh, but they are lotuses, she cries, His eyes,
His hands, His feet all are lotuses, lotuses.
Then a sudden mis giving assails her,
Could she so ill equipped, speak in mere
Words of His beauty?
Who can conceive of it.
The lovely dark of my Lord?
Is it within the reach
Even of those whose thought
crosses the sky and beyond.
To the world eternal?
No it is not possible, she concludes, with a touch
of elation over her lovers infinitude and a sense
of sadness at her own inadequacy:
Who can speak to them,
His colour, beauty, His name, His form?
They would talk however,
As though they know,
Those men who pursue jnana and dharma,
But however far they go,
Whereever they reach
In the blaze of light that He is,
May be they learn a little,
But how could they ever attain to it,
My Lord's Greatness?
The implication is that knowledge and righteousness
will fall short of realisation, and that only love can reach him.
She loves, of course, but the lover has not come,
and the pain of being alone grows.
The west darkens, the cresent moon shows itself
and the night wind stirs,
It is night,
With the cresent moon,
That milk mouthed child,
clinging to her waist,
The west is lamenting
Her loss of the sun.
here is the cool wind stirring
Searching seeking to steal from us
What he has given us,
the yearning for his tulasi.
Yes, but the wind is no longer cool,
says the woman in love,
it is the cruel wind and it burns,
It is invisible we know not its form,
nor can we trace its footsteps.
It goes about whispering scandals
and tormenting me ceaselessly.
The night darkens and lengthens
into an age as though, bent
on destroying her,
The young moon rises
has it come to save her
to break the unshrinking darkness
encircling night?
let it, but it burns too.
The loud unceasing lament of the bird Anvil,
from the grove and the voice of the restless sea
stealing into the land through a hundred creeks
torture her throughout the night.
Does the sea call to me to give up my poor bangles of conch shell.
She wonders in pain, unable to get back the amrita that it yielded
when the Lord churned it?
when morning comes and the sun rises over the hill,
it seams as though her lover is before her
and she rejoices that all evil and suffering are at an end.
But that is for a moment,
the sense of being away from him breaks in, and she cries out
When When will I reach Him
and adds heavily.
O Lord of the discus
that destroyed the asuras.
Thus in a number of stanzas in the poem, Nammalvar speaks of his passion for God, the love lorn woman in the poem is Nammalvar himself.
There are a few other characters in this drama of love that the poem presents. namallavar does not mention them specifically, but the context and the words given to them reveal their identity. If we call the chief character the woman in love, as nayaki or talaivi as is generally done. the other characters are nayaki's maid and friend, her mother, and her foster mother, the lover himself and his friend and a kattuvichi, a woman whose advice is sought on the supposition that the nayaki is possessed. the function of the nayaki's friend is to sympathise with and console her and also to comment on her forlorn condition.
Towards the end one cannot help feeling that the simple original symbolism of bridal mysticism the soul in love with God and longing to be united with Him, has become complicated if not confused, by the introduction of the other characters, the situation devised for them, and the words given to them. But here Nammalvar discards the symbolism and says,
to be born to die,
Age after age, age afer age,
to die and to be born,
those who can see
And laugh at this futility
surely they will long to end it
By turning in love to him the origin,
round whom the immortals gather to worship,
How can there be any sleep for them.
He also gives up the symbol of the lover and calls God Father and Mother.
entering the body
being wedged it it, being unwedged
thus the soul struggles endlessly
so betimes some how I will turn
to Him who is my Mother and My Father
And the Lord of Liberation.
But the mixing up of symbols and what is symbolised, the extension of symbols beyond the limits of logic. the coming in of other symbols and direct utterances are all characters that mark mystical poetry and Thiruviruttam illustrates them. Bewilderment is intution, thus Thiruviruttam is the poetry of intution.
Siriya Thirumadal
Siriya thirumadal is a special style of poem where our Alwar assumes the role of the Nayaki, madly in love with the Perumal. thirumangai alwar portrayed himself as Parakaala Nayaki, a female performing Madal Oordal as an expression of intense and insatiable love for the Lord. He threatens the Lord that if he will not present His darshan to him, he will do madal erudhal. he openly confesses his love for the Lord.
Here the nayaki sends her heart as a messenger to perumal. As the heart continues to stay with perumal and not come back all the consequences are imagined and sung.
Though Thirumangai alwar makes references to many temples in the madal this madal Oordhal is meant for Thirunarayoor Naachiyaar koil. since thiruNaraiyoor is the kshetram where thirumangai alwar got his panch samskaram done by the Lord himself.
To show his gratitude for emperuman he dedicated the madals to the Lord there.
there is an interesting story about these thiru madals. Thirumangai alwar built temple walls (Madhil) for Srirangam. Pleased by such service, Lord Ranganatha presented Alwar with the honour of teertham, Parivattam and Sri satakopam, and asked him alwar wo'nt you present the thirumadal prabhandam for me also. i.e. in Tamil "Thirumadal prabhandangal namakku arulicheyyal aagaatho".
Alwar wonderfully replied with "Mathil inge, madal ange" i.e. walls i have built for Srirangam, madal I have sung for Thiru Naraiyoor.
Thus endless discussions and examples of gods parathavam and Sowlabya can be given, if we understand just a few our lives can be worth.
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