"namanum murkhazhanum pEsanaraghizh ninrArghazh kEtka naragamE swargamAghum nAmanghazhudaiya nambi avanathuoor arangamennAthu ayarthuvizhazhiyamAndhar kavazhaiuzh padugirArendru athanukkE kavazhgindrEnE". In the first pAsuram, azhwAr says and how he finished the last pAsuram - "karuvilE thiruvizhAtheer kAzhathai kazhikkindrErE".
Why does not one get the thought of the bhagavan, it is mainly because that this type of thought is present within the family, with the parents and such parents who will always be praying to the Lord and perform sEva to the lord. If such is the case then the child that is born to them will also be like that.
"karuvilE thiruvilAtheer" - Even for us, we will always think that we should go to the temple, hear about bhagavans leelais, stories and hear his namam chanted and not waste time unnecessarily. We should be writing some namam in a notebook, do bhagavatha parayanam, go to kshetrams, theerthayatras, do whatever good possible, perform sEva to adiyArghazh, go in search of adiyArghazh and invite them to our place and offer seva to them. If such thoughts often arise in our minds, then this can only be due to our mother who was like that. When we were small and in an age when we were ignorant of everything, mother would put her child at the feet of the bhagavathars who have arrived in town after having the darshan. She would request that her child should be blessed with a good life. She would tell the child about this periyava and also request the periyava to touch and bless the child. In the temple when the theertha prasadam is offered, she would make her child receive it even if she did not get it. Only like this, due to a mother, the satsangham or bhagavath bhakthi is brought forth into the child.
Azhwar says, "karuvilE thiruvizhAtheer". "kAzhathai kazhikkindrErE" - kAlam is precious, the 24 hours can neither be added or subtracted by anyone."yamasya karunAnAsti kartavyam harikeerthanam" - Say our life is going to be lost soon, the doctor has said it will last only 6 months. It is extremely hard when one is made aware of his death and is awaiting it. That is why we will pray that we need to get anAyasamaranam. If death strikes suddenly it is considered a punyam or bhagyam. But for one who is struck with a disease and a date of either 3 months or 6 months has been ascertained and if one is aware of the disease, expecting his death, then this is very difficult. Not only that, there will be the loss that all these days I have not heard of or been in satsangham nor chanting nama nor performing dhYanam. All the time involving in other's affairs, as azhwar said. Having wasted all these years, now my health is also not supporting me. Not only that in this birth, I might not be able to get the kripa of the bhagavan fully and may waste this birth are the thoughts which will arise. When Yama comes towards us, we cannot ask him to wait for some more days until I have performed dhyanam or japam or keerthanam. Yaman will deny us that - Yamasya karunAnAsti.
Instead Yama will ask, "What did you do all these days, with the time you have had?" Yaman has no pity. That is why it is said that without wasting any time, one has to perform keerthanam always.
Therefore, "kAlathai" - kAlam is very precious. Say, a wife looking after old parents and the husband to take care of his family, goes to work and facing difficulties earns some money to pay rent, buy provisions, medical expenses, expenses related to relatives around him - social expectations, all this being a dharmam - "illaram is a dharmam" - in this dharmam, there are all these necessary duties and we have to abide by that and for that money is needed. For earning that money, a job is needed and we have to work for that. This is not wrong.
Otherwise, one would dissociate himself from his family and avoiding all contacts, being all alone by himself would perform dhyanam of the bhagavan day and night, they are working for the "paralOka", whereas the householder works for the "ihalOka". Both are not wrong.
Either be happy in this world or happy in the other world. Search one of them, either in the "iha" or the "para".
But not being fit for "iha" nor the "para" and always spending time in wasteful activities, making fun, involved with gossip, fun and play, gambling or consuming alcohol etc., If one practices these all the time, he would be neither fit for the "ihalOka" nor the "paralOka" nor enjoy either of them. If one spends hours and hours of time talking to someone, what is the benefit out of that. Likewise one is playing for hours and what does he gain from that? If our mind is involved with all activities or sadhanas in pastimes, what is the gain in it?
Pastime is only for a time, when one has worked very very hard and for the mind if there is a need for a relaxation, then a pastime is necessary. But that should not become a life in itself and occupy most of the time. Therefore, azhwAr says beautifully here, "karuvilE thiruvizhAtheer kAzhathai kazhikkindrErE", and this meaning is a very important thing, one should take extreme care of spending the time available to us.
When one is spending money, he carefully maintains accounts mentioning the expenses for say milk, provisions, rice etc., and scrutinizing very carefully his spending, likewise we need to carefully spend time in the same fashion. To be more specific, time is even more precious than money and time must be spent more carefully than money. In the Srimad Bhagavatham, there is King Prithu who prays to the bhagavan saying that he will need protection from the person who will steal his time away.
Why are they coming to steal your time. They simply say that they cannot pass the time. Although time is not passing for them, it is indeed time not enough for us as we have so much work to do. It is surprising to hear anyone say that time is not passing.
Therefore kAlam is like thus. For a student about to write an exam for 3 hours, as each hour passes and there is just 2 hours, just an hour left, half an hour left to complete the question paper kAlam just passes. Likewise as we hurtle down the path towards old age, our time with the bhagavan is also becoming shorter and shorter. Within this left over time we have, we need to do more and more japam. We are still like how we were when born and not moving up, we climb up and then come down repeatedly. Our life is just going on like this, it is a worry which we need to have often. Therefore living a life of a householder and performing the duties correctly is not wrong or working for the bhagavan is also not wrong. Being as a householder, one can perform dhyAnam or namakeerthanam and this is a simple way. By and large we speak of papam, punyam and rebirth.
Which is papam and which is punyam and the basis upon which it is defined is mentioned in the sastram. Bhagavan in the Gita says, "tasmAt shAstram pramAnam te kAryAkAryavyavasthitau". Just because something seems right in your mind will not be indeed right and likewise the wrong too, the path of dharma is very subtle. Therefore, you just follow what the mahans have said and act upon their words only. You don't make a way for yourself. Just follow what our ancestors or mahans have laid out for us, just follow it to the dot and keep going, there is no analysis to be done for yourself. Because to analyse all this is not possible for you, we don't have the wisdom and the mind as well and it is subject to accepting and not accepting at the same time. The mind has both desire and non-desire for certain things and with this duality in you, there is no scope for analysis of the path shown by our ancestors.
If a person has done enormous papam, then he is called a 'murkhazhan'. One such person who has done enormous papam was sought after and brought by the yama dhootas and taken to the Yama lokam. In Yama loka, they open the list of papams this person has committed for which there is a big ledger. There in the sabha of Lord Yama, when this sort of person was brought in to face him, Lord Yama being a Dharmaraja will know instantly what papam or punyam a person has done just by looking at him. This 'murkhazhan, having committed so many sins had a huge list spanning across many fat notebooks. There is this person who is next to him and Yaman looks at the papams committed by this person, the 'murkhazhan' brought before Yama dharmaraja. When he was brought before Yama, Yama got up and showed his respect for him, the 'murkhazhan'. Why did Yama show respect for a 'murkhazhan'?
Why did Yama raise from his throne and come all the way to pay respect to the 'murkhazhan'. Yama is known for dharma and Yama always will never swerve from the path of dharma at any cost, being known as 'Dharmaraja'. Therefore it is said 'yamAya dharmarAjAya'.
Even today if you go to the villages, just like there being a draupadi temple, the village amman temple or the village gaurdian temple or the manmatha temple, there will also be a dharmaraja temple likewise. This dharmaraja temple is the temple for Yama. Nobody got that name except for Yama, being called as Dharmaraja. Even God, when we perform namakeerthanam or pooja or fasting, may change and give the fruits based upon our actions, but Yama will never change. Whatever is due and how much is due, that much Yama will give it in full and there is no way one can get his favor or be able to change his delivery of what is due to us in anyway. That is what the line of dharma which he has drawn upon can never be moved by him.
Nobody could understand the reason behind this. This 'murkhazhan' has done so much papam and it is true that we have written so many pages and records about his papams and mainly due to his papams we have brought him here. At the same time, our head Yama dharmaraja himself who wont make a mistake, will not without any reason get up and offer respect like this. Yama will not make a mistake as the yama dhootas who have been with him all the time know very well. The direction of Yama is South. Therefore our ancestors would say that when you pray, do not pray facing the Southern direction. When performing pooja to the swami do not place it in the South direction. Don't perform japam or dhyanam facing South. If you light a lamp, do not light the wick facing the direction of the South. Because South is the location where the kingdom of Yama is present. The place of our pithrus. All this has been told by our ancestors.
Also whenever we have any difficulty we usually say "AiyO", we should not say "AiyO" at all. AiyO is the name of the wife of Yama as said in the puranas. So when we have some difficulty, Lord Yama's wife on hearing "AiyO" will say that as she cannot go now to attend to the call, can her Lord Yama go instead! So when we have some difficulty, we should call out the name of the bhagavan and not say "AiyO". But we have got this in practice somehow. So, it becomes a surprise for the yama dhootas that their Lord has come down to pay respects to the 'murkhazhan'.
This is what Azhwar mentions in this pAsuram,
"namanum murkhazhanum pEsanaraghizh ninrArghazh kEtka naragamE swargamAghum nAmanghazhudaiya nambi avanathuoor arangamEnAthu ayarthuvizhazhiyamAndhar kavazhaiuzh padugirArendru athanukkEkavazhgindrEnE".
So Yaman says "When two people perform something and we don't understand why they did this, the person who performed the action will only be able to tell the reason. Why and what is the reason for this behavior? If they don't mention the reason behind this, why did they do it." Only then can we ascertain whether it is good action or bad action. Therefore, now Yama dharmaraha speaks to tell the reason for standing up and paying respects to the 'murkhazhan'.
Subham!
Radhe Radhe
