"Yeruneer verikozhvElai mAnizhath uyirgazhellAm verikozhponthulavamAzhai vinnavarkOnaiyetHa" - Namakeerthanam is the easiest dharmam.
Just because we do a great thing, we may think that we can expect that a huge fruit can be got from it. Likewise if something was done very easily, it does not really mean it will not bear any fruit. It is not important to just mention that the thing we do is either a great one or a small one, it is far more important for the thing to be done right. What is the right thing to do - is the most important aspect. What then is the right thing?
If we found the right thing to do and then if we do it properly, then the fruit is got easily. As said earlier, just because something was done right, it is not necessary that it will surely bear fruit. By and large, if one has to attain the bhagavan as dictated by the shastras, one can perform the way of dhyAna, yOga or vedAnta vichAra. The same sastras have also said with equal importance that there is the way of namakeerthanam as well to attain the bhagavan.
If one argues that he will only do one of these things above that are mentioned in the shastras but will not follow the easier way of namakeerthanam, then it is pure obstinacy. Some may like to torture themselves and revel in pursuits of the way mentioned in the shastras. Some may find joy in torturing others , whilst some find joy in torturing themselves. But such a nice and easy path has been shown by the azhwars. It is indeed about this path that azhwars always mention in all their pAsurams.
Just a simple and easy path, the moment one takes on this path, Anandam is achieved and not afterwards. When one is performing the bhagavannamakeerthanam or listening to the leelas and gunas of the bhagavan or when one is seeing the divyamangala vigraham or when one is participating in the uthsavams or viewing the porappAdu, we get the anandam then and there itself. Not afterwards , but during the performance of the activities itself. When one is chanting the nama, the tongue tastes sweet, there is peace in the mind and one begets anandam. When one is seeing the divyamangala vigraham, there itself does one beget anandam and when the vigraham is bedecked with beautiful clothes and jewels, such an anandam is got. During the porapAdu, as the bhagavathars sing, praise and chant namakeerthanam and revel in his glories, when we have the darshan of the divyamangala vigrahma in the porapAdu itself, it is indeed such a magnificent sight to behold, isn't it. It is such a great thing to be involved in this porapAdu and therefore even today, be it tirumalai or srirangam, puri or brindavanam, pandaripuram or guruvayoor, lakhs of devotees throng in long queues over long hours to behold the perumal. Such a great sukham does one get just with the darshanam itself.
So when azhwar tells about the significance of the namakeerthanam, firstly, he says that there is no restriction for place as a requirement. There is no restriction that it has to be done in a certain place or country and there is no specific requirement of an eligibility that one needs in this place to possess.
Therefore azhwar says, "the earth surrounded by the waters of the ocean is itself the eligible place for namakeerthanam" it is so beautifully said,
"Yeruneer verikozhvElai".
OK, the place is fine, swami, but who can tell the namakeerthanam. Is this restricted to men only or just women or only Indians or foreigners? Is it restricted to those who are qualified with academic degrees or even to those who are not learned?. Or, is this restricted to those who always perform snAnam and be with austerity and only after that can chant nama. Is this restricted to one who has done no wrong at all in his life? Who can tell?
"mAnizhath uyirgazhellAm" - ANYONE CAN DO.
"verikozh ponthulava mAzhai" - ANYONE who can think of him, with the scent of the thulasi mala worn on his neck, the one who is praised even by the devas themselves, "vinnavarkOnaiyetHa", who is verily that ranganathan.
"verikozh ponthulava mAzhai vinnavarkOnaiyetHa" - "thulapamalai", the thulasi mala is synonymous with the perumal and always identified with the perumal. Therefore azhwar has given an identity that is the symbolism of the perumal himself. Perumal has the name "pundarikakshan" and "thamarai kannan". If it is said "thamarai kannan", then there is no need to discuss which God it is. If it is "thamarai kannan", it is perumal undoubtedly. Therefore his eyes, navel, face all are lotuses, even the feet "thiruvadi". The forest of blooming thamarai - "thamarai poothakAdu". Likewise pundarikaksham.
Therefore thulapamalai is always associated with perumal and is seldom anything other.
"verikozh ponthulavamAzhai" - the thusali malai on the neck of the perumal is slowly waving about, the beauty of the perumal when he walks about with the waving thulasi malai on his neck is seen and felt. The scent from the malai which the fortunate bees are fascinated by and surround the perumal.
Azhwar views the perumal like this. Should not azhwar see the perumal with lots of gold and bedecked with fine jewelry. Why only one tulasi mala? The reason being, if perumal has bedecked himself with lots of jewels and god, the devotee would feel that he may not be able to afford a similar mala as an offering to the perumal, as he cannot buy the necessary diamonds, gomedhakam, vaiduryam, pavalam, muthu and worry about offering such costly items. The devotee can now think that he can pick some tulasi leaves from his garden and create a garland and thus easily offer it to the perumal. And the devotee will be happy that even he can and has the capacity to offer a garland to the perumal. Perumal thinks that for his devotee, a pang of not being able to afford thulasi should not be felt. Perumal will take himself what can be easily offered by the devotee like the thusali malai.
Just a leaf, a flower, a drop of theertham water from a udrani spoon or even just a fruit is enough. Perumal would be happy with just that.
Therefore azhwar says "verikozh ponthulava mAzhai vinnavarkOnaiyetHa" - as perumal is coming around in the porappAdu, anyone can chant the nama, anyone from any place can chant the nama.
OK, does he need to have any eligibility - "arivizha manisarellam", asks azhwar
If one studies too much, the mind will become bad as there will be too many questions.
"arivizha manisarellam" - a pAmaran who knows nothing and if he is asked to say "Govinda", he can get mukthi or vaikunta as well. If one told a pAmaran to chant nama, he will tell it faithfully and sincerely. In a way, there is a great bhagayam for being a pAmaran. In case he is not able to say "Govinda", even if he said "GoindA", he will attain mukthi.
When the seeds are thrown to be sowed into the ground, all of them will not fall straight, some may fall flat, some deep. But even though the seeds are not falling into the ground correctly, the plant will always standup to grow straight. Likewise, when you are telling the nama, whether right or wrong or opposite, namam will bear its fruit correctly.
"arivizha manisarellam" - one meaning is that there is no eligibility required to tell the nama and the other meaning is that when there is such a simple way for people to do this, even then they are not telling the nama. When mahans visit any home, they will come inside and wish that the occupants of this home be always in peace and happiness only. Let the children in the house study well, marriage should happen soon, lots of money should come in, the house should be in happiness and santosham always is what the mahans always will think. When they visit a temple, they will wish for the growth of this temple, many bhakthas should visit, the devotees prayers to be answered, perumal must give the kripa to every devotee.
In the perumal sannidhanam, such a mahan will always be sitting close to a Krishna vigraham only, they will never sit separately. They will always be near the feet of the thiruvadi of the bhagavan. Whenever we see a mahan, it is customary to always ask for our shortcomings in our life. Many will come and they will ask for children to be born, work, marriage of their son or daughter, difficulties to be gone, money, win a court case and loan problems to be solved. Like this, when they are asking so many things, it may not be clear to the mahan what they have asked for and maybe not all of this will fall on the mahan's ears due to the amount of crowd and noise of people around waiting to have darshan of the mahan. So many thousands will come with problems and will the mahan register everything that is in their minds. There is no need to worry about that aspect at all. Why because, we should observe where the mahan's are sitting? Aren't they sitting at the feet of the perumal. The perumal is hearing and seeing everything. Whether the mahan is able to hear and keep note of everything you say or not, the krishnan beside him is hearing everything and taking a note of the prayers. Krishnan knows everything. The one who has created this jagath and paripAlanam, will he not fulfill the desires of this ordinary man easily. Whichever home he visits, let that prosper.
Whichever place he visits, let that prosper, let there be plenty of rainfall, let the farmers grow and prosper, let all the people of the world be living in good health and with good amount of food, let there be no difficulty for the nation, all the people of this world should be together, there should be no jealousy or selfishness and as the bhagavan has created everything for us, why should then one fight each other and put themselves into difficulties - is the main thought and the swabhAvam of the mahan.
But even such a mahan is still worrying about the growth and development of a certain place, to this place the mahan is very unhappy to find that a lot of people are going to this place every so often. In this place there is a light still burning. This place must be sealed and locked and no one should be allowed to enter that place at all. Waste grass should grow plentiful to absorb that place, there should be cobwebs hanging all over this place everywhere and no lamp should burn here and be empty. Which place is that? NARAKAM or Hell.
Simply and with such ease, whichever place you are staying or wherever you are staying, either in America or Australia or Canada or Dubai, get up in the morning, think that in this direction, there is Srirangam and then bring the diety of the periya perumal into your mind, think that so beautifully with his lotus feet stretched in the sleeping posture and thus perform the dhyAnam of this perumal. Think of Azhagiyamanavazhan. Think of that srirangam gopuram standing so tall. Think of the saptha prAkAram. Just facing the direction of the Srirangam, just have darshan and say "RANGA". THIS IS ENOUGH. Do another time like this in the evening also. Whichever country you are in, you can think of rangan, you can hear his nama or tell his nama. Likewise anybody can tell this. But given such freedom, seldom are people telling the namam and still going to NARAKAM! If they told the namakeerthanam all the time, all papams will be burnt and since they are not telling the namakeerthanam, they have to sadly experience the effects of their pApams. That is why they are going to narakam.
Only telling the namakeerthanam is enough, all the papams will be burnt.
Namakeertham will destroy all papams.
NAMAKEERTHANAM yasya "SARVA" pApapranAsanam! When you tell the nama, if you have stolen something that pApam will be gone, if you have told a lie that pApam will be gone IS NOT WHAT is being told here - SARVA pApa - (meaning ALL) pApam will be gone forever!!!
Such a way, that all pApam will be gone is what our maharishis have shown us. All these pAsurams are sung by the azhwars so deeply and with deep conviction. When such an easy path is being shown by the azhwars, where is the difficulty in telling this. Within this whole janma from morning till night, how much does one talk, talk with friends, talk with family, get angry and shout, talk in offices, talk with friends whilst travelling in bus, train...so much does one talk...but can one not atleast say 10 namas atleast for 10 minutes!
Even in case one does not believe in swarga, naraka or rebirth, it is still ok. When we leave our homes, we look at the weather and it seems as if it is going to rain or maybe not. Anyway why not take an umbrella is what we think just to be safe. If the rain comes, then it is a gain, if not, well there is still no loss anyway. Is the umbrella 10 kg in weight? Like that, you don't have to believe in rebirth or narakam, Why don't you just tell the nama and leave it be. If at all if there was a narakam, then it would have come in handy isn't it. You are not going to go into lots of difficulty for saying just this, just to say Govinda! Ranga! how difficult it can be?
Therefore "mundrezhuthiya pErAl kshatirabandhuvum parAngathi kondAn" it is said.
Just say "Govinda, Ranga" it is enough. Just in case rebirth, narakam and swargam was there, then whatever you have said, that nama will be a gain for you only anyway so where is the loss here. So much one spoke in his life, so many things, to that add 10 no.s of speak of this nama as well into the bargain. As you tread on your lifepath a little unknown investment in the form of punyam could be always be available for you.
Therefore, azhwar says here
"arivizha manisarellam arangam endru azhaipArArghizh puriyizh vazh naragam ellam puzhezhundu ozhiyum andro!
so for even those who are "arivizha manisarellam" - why because, anyone, even a pAmaran can do namakeerthanam is one thing, another is why don't they get the good mind to think of telling the namakeerthanam at all. Which is the good thing?
In this world, which is good? It is treading on the path shown by the mahans. We should not put a path for ourselves. This will give us fear if we lay a path on our own, where it will go, how will it happen and how it will end are all unknown parameters to us.
By and large, if we are building a home, we need an experienced person who has built it and get his thoughts and suggestions before embarking on the task on how to build it. How did he approach it, how did he get the loan, how did he get the design, how did he apply for approvals?. Just for even the normal day-to-day things in life, we approach a person who has had experience in that are and ask for his opinions. Even if a marriage to be performed for your daughter, you ask a person who has done at that mantapam or this mantapam on his experiences, the rent, are there good water facilities, are there car parking facilities so on and so forth. Or we do go and personally see that ourselves and confirm it. What we can see we see and what we cannot see, we ask an experienced person and get to know about it. But after all, these things are seen clearly by us with our very own eyes to confirm it. In case there were mistakes done in spite of having consulted with an experienced person, even then it is just for ordinary day-to-day things only.
But having attained a human birth and born as a human, if you did not attain the bhagavan, the loss is a GREAT ONE, A VERY GREAT ONE - THIS WHOLE JANMA ITSELF!!!
Not just 1 hour, 1 day or matter of just days.
When will you come back as a human again in this earth?
How many years or centuries it will take, where will you be born again and how, just think!.
Again you will need to have to experience all the 9 months of time in the womb and face the difficulty waiting to come out.
Again you need to study the alphabets and go to the school.
Again you need to struggle hard to find work.
Again a marriage, children to be got.
THIS CYCLE. HOW HARD AND DIFFICULT IT IS TO REPEAT.
So, azhwar says, if you are a wise person, perform the namakeerthanam now itself. Try hard not to get locked into another janma reserved for you once again.
"arivizha manisarellam arangam endru azhaipArArghizh" - can you not say one time, "RANGA!", "ARANGA!" - "puriyizh vazh naragam" - if they have said so, if each and everyone has been taught to tell the namakeerthanam, what will happen?
LOCK WILL BE PUT ON THE DOOR OF NARAKAM! Narakam will have grass, long grass grown all over the place and there will be cobwebs hanging all over, it will be totally dark, why because there wont be anyone to go and stay there.
A house, village or a town will be populated only when 10 people or more stay in there. If there is no one staying there, it will be a deserted place.
Therefore, azhwar says, in this earth surrounded on all sides by water, if each and everyone of the people of this earth tell the bhagavannama keerthanam, what will be the fate of narakam then? "naragam ellam puzhezhundu pOgum", narakam wll be deserted, there will be no people there and only grass growing and no people left to go there at all.
With the desire for such a state, azhwar sings this pAsuram.
Subham!
Radhe Radhe
