In a person's mind, if a thing called jealousy comes in, then it will destroy his peace of mind. In tamil there are some morals, one such thing is that when one goes to buy something the elders in the house will say, just dont buy this thing or that, do this thing or that just to give it off or as help to somebody. What does this mean generally for everybody. First we think we need to take care of our own food, clothes, things and fulfill your needs and use them before giving it off to somebody. Only after taking care of our wants, then only think of charity. Everyone knows this as the common interpretation. First us then only dAnam or dharmam. "namakku minjithAn dAnam dharmam" - This is not the real meaning of this moral.
In reality although this meaning is not the correct one, we have twisted and tuned it this way. "namakkunu minjinathu dhAnamum dharmamum thAn".
What is the real meaning? In this world we do lots of activities. We do lot of work in this world. Some people do very hard work and earn a lot of money and with it atleast in this 'iha' world they are happy. Some do lot of dhyAnam and dharmam so they can get happiness in the 'para' world. But there is one who does not know how time is passing, who is gambling, just killing time, always sleeping, talking all the time. For him doing nothing and wasting time, he has no happiness in either 'iha' or 'para' loka. Spending hours wasting time, without doing anything, talking always what is the use. Instead doing some work and earning some money can make him happy at least in this 'iha' loka. Or else by performing namakeerthanam, he can atleast be happy in the paraloka. Without doing any work, sleeping for hours or not doing any work, playing cards, drinking wine will give unhappiness both in 'iha' as well as 'para' loka. So one should be doing something. There is no work beyond us.
"namakku minjinathu" - in this world you think you did a lot of work, but there is no fruit or value from all that work as when the life leaves this body the only thing that will come alongwith you is the dAnam and dharmam - "namakkUnnu minjinathu dAnamum dharmamum than".
So the wrongly interpreted meaning is that dAnamum and dharmam is only to be done after our wants are taken care of. "namakku minjithA dAnamum dharmamum". We have interpreted it wongly. Like this many such "pazhamuzhigazh" have come as "maruvi" or wrong interpretation to us.
"mann kuthiraiyai nambi atrinazh eranginar pozhe" - what is this? It is indeed "manthirai" - when we go to take bath in the pond, the "mann" (sand), "thirai" (base), will look as if it were nearer to us.
Thinking thus, if we keep our legs in water, assuming the base to be nearer to us, then we will see the depth is indeed farther down. Therefore the pazhamuzhi "mann thiraiyai nambi AtrinAr erunginAr pozhe" has been mistaken to be "mann kuthiraiyai nambi AtrinAr.....". This is how it has come to be.
There is another one in tamil "Amai puguntha vIdu urupadAthu" - that is if a tortoise suddenly comes into our house then we immediately think that shanthi needs to be done isnt it. It is indeed "porAmai", a house where jealousy has entered, the peace will he gone. It is like this, in the news we read that somebody x or y got a lottery ticket in another place and after reading thid news we put the newspaper down. On hearing that news however, it did not cause any trouble to our mind. Reading that some x or y got 1 lakh rupees, we read it and throw it down. But our next door neighbour, when we hear that he got a lakh of rupees from a lottery ticket, our stomach burns.
But for this guy, should such fortune come, we see that until yesterday, he was crying in front of me and was under me, now this great fortune and how will it be for me and how can i take it. But in reality we should be happy about this. When somewhere somebody got money can we go and ask 10paisa from him or even a chocolate? If he is a neighbour atleast we can ask for a chocolate and he will give one, isnt it.
But one who is nearby and his sudden growth will remove the peace from us. Similarly if the disciple grows more than the guru, there is this porAmai and this cannot be digested which is worldly nature.
We should think about these incidents happening well before 1000 years. Nowadays the ganga snanam has become an ordinary matter. In today's travel conveniences, media conveniences, when we compare it to the past, we find that the world is in the cup of our hands. Whatever that happens any second in any place, any time, next second it is known to us, which is in our hands. Such is the link we have today. But in those days, going to kashi yatra or a North India trip was a great matter altogether.
No need to go back a 1000 years, even when we ask our elders in the house, say who are about 80 to 90 years old and we ask them what facilities they had when they were 30 years of age, we will come to know. Those days, if someone from tamilnadu, even once in a lifetime, if they went to delhi or calcutta it would be a great thing in itself. Likewise in tamilnadu, whether anyone from the north would even have visited madras would be a wonder. If anyone had gone to city, it had a distinct respect on its own. oh! he has been to madras. Those living near the edge of North india, even coming to chennai will be a great thing. For those in the south, going to bombay or calcutta would be a great thing.
Likewise going to a kashi trip or a ganga trip will be very rare, rarer would be anyone who would go or even making such a trip will be a hard exercise. But over 80 years ago we had trains and buses. It was difficult then, well think about how it would have been 1000 years ago and how they would have gone to allahabad and the triveni sangam. As yAdavaprakAsar and his disciples are travelling, they are settling at a few places, teaching lessons and then moving on. They are waiting for the right opportunity to make a move at the appropriate time to execute their plan. While they were discussing in secret like this our embAr Govindan heard this. embAr Govindan now understood their real intention that out of jealousy they planned this trip and to harm izhaiAzhwar. yAdavaprakAsar arranged this and all this plan using the theertha yatra as a ruse. On the way towards the vindhya mountains, when izhaiAzhwar was amongst the disciples, embAr comes running toward him.
Warning Sri ramanujar about this elaborate plan being executed by yAdavaprakAsar, govindan without letting anyone know mixed with the others and went off with them. Sri Ramanujar after knowing about this now started to walk swiftly in a direction away from the route taken by yAdavaprakasar and his disciples. Now yAdavaprakAsar asks Govindan about the whereabouts of Ramanujar (izhaiAzhwar). Then yAdavaprakAsar sends all his disciples hither and thither to search for Ramanujar and when they come back to report that they cannot find him, yAdavsprakAsar, although internally happy to have got rid of Ramanujar, shows false concern at this in front of all others. Internally he feels that he had originally thought that had he taken a bath in river ganga it would have done good to him but now even this wish had become fulfilled. Shortly after this, yAdavaprakAsar takes his disciples with him after taking bath in the ganges.
Sri Ramanujar however, being all alone in the forest is now struggling to find his way and whilst being like this, he sees a hunter and his wife approaching towards him. When asked about what had happened to Ramanujar, he describes about his situation and says he needs to go to Satyavrata kshetram in kanchipuram. The hunter and his wife say that they too are going to the same place and tell Ramanujar to follow them. To get over the tiredness with walking, if one were to tell stories, the tiresomeness of the journey would not be felt. When asked if izhaiAzhwar knew any story, izhaiAzhwar beautifully expounds the story of the Ramayana.
The hunter and his wife listening to the Ramayana were enthralled with it and kept telling Ramanujar that he was telling the story so beautifully and asked as to where did he learn this. In the meantime it became midnight. It was pitch dark, dense forest and mountainous terrain and they found a place to settle for the night. As Ramanujar, the hunter and his wife settle down to rest, the hunter's wife tells her husband that after this long tired walk, she needed some water to drink. When listening to this, izhaiAzhwar was feeling sad that these two had come like parents and accompanying him showing the way all along and to such kind people he could not even offer the assistance of providing even water. Ramanujar says early at dawn, he will go and get the theertham.
When the hunter and his wife asked Ramanujar in the morning wherefrom he got the theertham from, he says he got the theertham from a nearby well, sAlai well. Even today if we go to kanchipuram we can have the darshan of the sAlai well. From the sAlai well, izhaiAzhwar thinking of the hunter's wife as his own mother gave 3 times and as soon as he gave for the fourth time, he could not find her as she had disappeared. In the well, where he had performed the anushtanam it was called the anushtana kulam. Seeing a few people here and there, izhaiAzhwar asks what place is this and they tell him that this is indeed the Sathyavratha kshetram, Kanchipuram - can you not see the punyakOti vimAnam out there on the top? And then on seeing this great rajagopuram of pErarurAzhan, with tears in his eyes, Ramanujar beholds the tower of pErarurAzhan and thinks where is the vindhya mountains and where is he now astoundedly. How come overnight he had come all the way from the vindhya mountains to Sathyavratha kshetram so quickly, yet he did not even seem to travel so much, just overnight. It was pErarurAzhan and perundEvithAyar who had come as guardians with him until the sAlai well. As she drinks theertham of the well, the hunter's wife tells that the theertham from the well is so sweet. Ramanujar comes and tells what all happened to his mother and his mother tells Ramanujar to tell all this to thirukatchinambi. Thirukatchinambi, feeling very happy about this tells Ramanujar that when it was pErarurAzhan and perundEvithAyar themselves who came with you and if the theertham you offered them was so sweet, then he should get the same water from the sAlai well and perform the theerthakainkaryam from now on.
PErarurAzhan is very pleased with this and from thereon, in a golden vessel, Sri Ramanujar performed theerthakainkaryam.
