MoondrAm thiruvandhAdhi-Paasuram-8

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha

Srimad Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

Paasuram-8

"nAmam palasolli nArAyaNa vendru

  nAmangaiyAl thozhudum nannenjE! – vA maruvi

  maNNulaga muNdumizhindha vaNdaRaiyum tanthuzhAi

  kaNNannaiyE kaNka nam kaN"

" நாமம் பலசொல்லி நாராயணா வென்று 

  நாமங்கையாற்  றொழுதும் நன்னெஞ்சே!-வா மருவி 

  மண்ணுலக முண்டுமிழிந்த வண்டறையுந் தண்டுழாய்க் 

  கண்ணனையே காண்கநங் கண்"

Sri Parthasarathi perumal-Thiruparthanpalli

Photo courtesy: http://www.manavalamamunigal.org/

nal nenjE – Oh my good mind!

nArAyaNa endru pala nAmam solli – chanting narayana and various other divine names;

Am kaiyAl – with the beautiful hands;

nAm thozhudum – let us pray;

maruvi vA – you also accept this and come;

maN vulagam – earth and other lokas (worlds);

vuNdu vumizhindha – one who swallowed all the world once upon a time and then exposed it out;

vaNdu aRaiyum vaN thuzhAi – one who adorns the cool thiruthuzhAi (tulasi) garland, that has bees humming around;

kaNNanaiyE – that kannapiran;

nam kaN – our eyes;

kAnga – let it see and rejoice;

Introduction:

 In the last paasuram, peyAzhvar called his mind/heart to surrender and do divine service to the divine feet of the lord.   In this paasuram, he advices his mind, that it is not enough to do one service with one part of the body but we should do various kainkaryams with various/all parts of our body.

 Commentary:

 (nan nenjE!) In the previous paasuram even before azhvar could call his mind/heart to go to do divine service the heart was ready for surrendering and doing service.   So azhvar celebrates the mind as "good mind/heart".

"munduRRa nenjE" (Peri thiru.1)

"ennai negizhkkilum ennudai nannenjam tannai agalvikkath thAnum killAn eni (thiru 1-7-8)

 "nan nenju"- As it is capable of dictating all the other organs.

 (nAmam pala solli) For the ultimate enjoyment, to fulfill the very purpose of existence of the tongue, chant the enthralling divine names reverberating the kalyana gunas and divine actions of the divine lord (sahasranamam).   If chanting is done for a purpose of attaining a specific result then it is enough to chant one name many times.  But for enjoying the lord's divinity we rejoice chanting all his divine names to the extent possible limited to our capacity.

 (nArAyaNa vendru)   How many ever different divine names we chant it can never equal this one divine name "nArAyaNa".  Each name will talk about different aspects viz., svaroopa, roopa, guna, vibhooti etc. but this very thirunamam conveys all the various aspects in entirety.   Moreover, this is the only name that cannot be attributed to any other devatha.

 Thereby, pEyAzhvar talked about vAchika kainkaryam (service by words).

 Then azhvar starts to talk about kAyika (by actions) kainkaryam.

 (nAm ankaiyAl thozhudum) To do any physical service the very first organ that comes to our aid is the hands.   This is the specialty of the hands.  We should therefore use these hands for the purpose of doing anjali to the lord and all other divine services.

(vA maruvi) If I aspire to do divine service at all times, all places and at all states you please don't say against, instead give me full cooperation.

 In the previous two lines azhvar talked about the organs with which divine service is to be done, now he proceeds to instruct that let us enjoy Him with our eyes and let us do kainkaryam.

 (maNNulagam vuNdu vumizhindhu) Before the pralayam, the lord protects all the worlds inside his stomach, by swallowing all of them and later he exposes them out during srushti without suffocating them inside forever and then protects them from outside.

Inspite of He protecting or not, His beauty, His beautification, His simplicity, His grace etc makes us fall for Him –

 (vaNdaRaiyum taN thuzhAi kaNNanaiyE) That Krishna (one with the beautiful eyes) who adorns the cool divine garland of tulasi, with humming bees' circumbulating around enjoying the nectar of the garland happily;

 vaNdaRaiyum taN thuzhAi – oppanai azhaghu – beauty added due to decoration, external beautification

kaNNan – natural beauty of the lotus eyes;   Also indicates the simplicity that even allowed the gopikas (yesodha) tie him with a rope;

(nam kaN kAnka)Let our eyes enjoy the divine beauty and let all our organs do ultimate divine service to Him at all times.

Interesting points from DivyArthdeepikai of kanchi swamy  

Azhvar in this paasuram highlights the necessity of doing service (Kainkaryam) to the supreme Lord with all parts of our body.  The very purpose of our tongue/mouth is to chant His names (Narayana…Saharanama); our hands are meant to prostrate him (Anjali); Eyes always enjoy His divine beauty; All parts of our body is governed by the mind so the mind should get involved with Him;

The verse “vandaraiyum taN thuzhAi” indicates the divine tulasi garland on the divine body of the Lord [“tOlinai mELum nanmArbin mElum sudarmudi mElum tantAlinai mElum”] bees ever circiling around these garlands.  Our ears should hear the humming of those bees and also our nose should smell the sweet fragrance of that thiruthuzhAi only. It is worthy to remember the mukunda mala sloka “jihvE keerthaya kesavam muraripum …” here.

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam 

Jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharNam