"namanum murkhazhanum pEsanaraghizh ninrArghazh kEtka" - It was not said that "naragizh ninrargal solla". Let's say if namanum and murkhazanum were just mentioning the word "krishna". It has not been
said that the people in naraka alone just repeated the word "krishna". In the bhajan, when it is said "Gopika Jeevana smaranam Govinda Govinda", the participants in the bhajan will repeat "Govinda Govinda". But these people in the narakam did not repeat, they just heard it.
"Shravana mangala namadeya", it is said that if one just hears the bhagavan nama, all mangalam will be got. Such a great mangalam will be bestowed upon one is what the pasuram says here. In each and every pasuram, it is the vaibhavam of the nama that is being told. In the world we live in, 21 percent is land and 79 percent is filled with water. There is water all around and only within that is this world we live in. In the midst of all the water, we have the place to live in.
Azhwar says, "Yeruneer verikozh vElai", "velAi" - in this instance, azhwAr denotes the ocean, on all four sides, the samudram is foaming with water all around the earth. It seems this samudram has a smell which is sugandham. This earth is surrounded by this samudram and filled with these qualities, says azhwAr. In our homes, if we want to perform a ganapathy homam or a navagraha homam, the roof at the top should not be open and it must stay closed, this is a vidhi or procedure to be followed. The terrace cannot be open and in an open space a homam should not be performed. The place where the homam is being done must be very clean which is yet another norm to be followed. The devotees participating in the homa should have the necessary qualities is another norm. The place where we are sitting for the homam should not be facing south, it should be facing east. The ingredients put inside the homam, the samithi or the ghee should be clean. Such is the norm to be followed.
Likewise a deity to be installed and the pooja to be performed is also dictated by certain norms. The agamas to be followed, the proportion of the height of the diety to which the vimanam should be built, the balipeetam, dwajasthambam be built likewise, the prahArams are all bound by specific rules and norms. Even for the mumukshas who are performing vedanta inquiry or meditation, they have a certain procedure and also a certain level of eligibility. For one who has no vairagyam, whatever be the amount of vedanta vichara he performs, it will not bear any fruit. The pang should be there that the bhagavan should be felt from the bottom of the heart. A meditation performed without any quest for seeing the Lord or a vedanta vichara performed without the gratitude borne out of having seen the Lord in this given janma itself will not bear any fruit. It will be said that by performing dhyAnam, one will not get depression, BP, sugar, tension or anger and the definition can be made likewise. But from the depths of the heart, the desire to see the bhagavan, a thApam or a deep earning desire wanting to see the Lord. With this if one does the japam, dhyAnam or vedanta vicharam, then only the fruit will be borne of out it.
azhwAr says, inside this earth, anywhere within the landmass being surrounded by water, anyone can perform a certain sadhana, what is that. It is "namakeerthanam". It need not be a certain place, anyone belonging to any place on the earth can do this sadhana. For namakeerthanam, there is no rule that it is restricted to a certain place or country and this is what azhwar tells in the first pasuram.
"Yeruneer verikozhvElai" - but one may ask should those people be just indians or foreigners or a certain type, now azhwAr says "mAnizhar thoyiyargazhellAm" - no, they can be in any place or whomsoever it can be "uyirghazhellAm", they can be anybody, from any place, male or female!
Therefore for namakeerthanam, place is not a matter, it is no matter whether they are educated or uneducated, male, female or child, old or one afflicted by illness, rich or poor, there is no comparison.
"Anyone from Anyplace" can tell the name - "mAnizhath uyirgazhellAm"" says azhwar.
Namakeerthanam is such a margam, a way.
"mAnizhar thoyiyargazhellAm" - Did bhagavan just create India? No! as all the universe is his creation only and the world indeed belongs to him. "Yeruneer verikozhvElai mAnizhar thoyiyargazhellAm", azhwAr says with broadmindedness and an yearning, will not anyone residing in any place in this world, chant namakeerthanam!
"verikozh ponthulapamAzhai" - the bhagavan is wearing a mala in his neck and the necklace is filled with scented fragrance, a tulasi malai. There is a specialty with tulasi, however. Any other creeper or plant when planted, the mango or gauva plant for example, when grown and then squeezed with the leaves a bit, the respective scent of either the mango or the gauva will be got. For tulasi, even if one small leaf or a stem of the sapling when taken and smelt, one can smell the scent from it. We have many flowers for performing aradhana to the God, but for Lord Vishnu, tulasi is the most important of all. Bhagavan becomes happy only with the tulasi. Vishnu aradhana should not be performed with an arali pushpam. But the one with which bhagavan is very happy is the offering of tulasi.
Therefore in "verikozhponthulapamAzhai", also it is said "verikozhvElai" for the ocean as this ocean has a smell by its nature, likewise the tulasi worn by the bhagavan also has a natural smell. There is a natural scent for the perumal, kasturi rangan, parimala rangan.
For about 60 years, AzhagiyamanavAzhan left Srirangam and went around to many places. After about 60 years, did he return back to Srirangam. Since AzhagiyamanavAzhan was not present in Srirangam, for the nithya Aradhana they needed a perumal to worship. Hence they installed a perumal and named it "thiruarangumAzhigaiAr". When after about 60 years, AzhagiyamanavAzhan returned and both AzhagiyamanavAzhan and thiruarangumAzhigaiAr met face to face, both looked alike. Since 60 years had passed when perumal was away, all those youngsters in Srirangam had now grown old or attained paramapadam. Since both the returned AzhagiyamanavAzhan and thiruarangumAzhigaiAr looked alike, there was a discussion as to who should be worshipped now as AzhagiyamanavAzhan.
In the temple, there was one who used to wash the clothes of the perumal, who was a very old person aged 93 years. They all went to this old person and ask him to identify AzhagiyamanavAzhan, but due to his old age both his eyes were dull and he was unable to make the distinction clearly. But he says he can still make an identification of AzhagiyamanavAzhan, how, one may ask. Even today in Srirangam, when the thirumanjanam is over, the vastram of the perumal will be squeezed and the theertham from the vastram would be given, called the "eeravAdai theertham". So the old man who used to wash the dresses of the perumal now says, "Let us perform a thirumanjanam for thiruarangumAzhigaiAr and also simultaneously perform a thirumanjanam for the now returned AzhagiyamanavAzhan". Then he tells them to bring the theertham, the eeravAdai theertham from the vastram of both the perumal and give it to him. When the theertham from the vastram of AzhagiyamanavAzhan was offered to the old man and as he drank it, he jumped with joy and exclaimed, 'He is our namperumal, He is our namperumal!". Since then, AzhagiyamanavAzhan became to be called as namperumal. Perumal on having been identified was so happy with it and gave the old man a title of respect as "eeram kolli".
Thus the thulapamAzhai of the perumal has a smell. Likewise lotus, rose, shenbagam, marukozhundhu, vettivEr have their own distinct and different smells. Same like dhavanam has a different smell. The smell from the thulasi is different.
Not just the smell of the tulasi from the garland of the perumal, the body and the dress worn by the perumal itself has a distinctive smell of its own. By its swabhAvam, this distinct smell from the body of perumal is what made the old man identify him and also the smell from the theertham. Therefore Ranga is described as kasturi ranga, parimala ranga, kAveri ranga. Who is this ranga? HE is the one sitting in SriRangam. Even the devas cannot see him and it is not easy indeed for them. When the devas prayed that the bhagavan must take an avatar, to tackle the crimes of HiranyAksha and Hiranyakashipu, they went to the parkadhazh and performed the stuti there. Likewise, to reduce the weight of the earth, in the Srimad Bhagavatham, Lord Bhoomi piratti in front, including Brahma and the 33 crore devathas prayed to the Lord and it was indeed the parkadhazh where they performed the stuti. Before the rama avatar, in order to perform the yagna of the putra kAmesti and when they were obstructed from making the offering to the devas, the devas prayed to the Lord from their place itself and the bhagavan gave abhayam in their respective place only. The devas never had a chance to go to vaikuntam and therefore going to the vaikuntam is no ordinary matter even for the likes of the devas. They can only go upto the ksheerabthi to see the bhagavan and having gone there, they hesitate to see and talk to the Lord there.
As the bhagavan is so majestic there, the bhagavan possesses both saulabhyam as well as gambheeram and both are mixed in HIM. If the bhagavan speaks it will be like a child but for the devas to speak it will be with hesitation when faced with the greatness of the Lord in the ksheerabdhi. Therefore vinnavar konaiyEtra, such an adhi devan which even the devas will be humble before HIM is the bhagavan, says azhwar. Therefore the body of the perumal itself has such a smell of great significance.
Secondly, azhwar says, for this namakeerthanam.
Anyone call tell the nama.
Anyone from Anyplace can tell the nama.
ok, anyone can tell, but do they need to know a little divyaprabhandam and have studied it or need to know vedam or the upanishads or even the ramayanam, mahabharatam. Would they need to know the bhagavatham instead. Whether they need to have gone to a school and learnt atleast the alphabets in order to tell the nama.
Even that is not needed, says azhwar.
Just say Ranga. If you cannot tell the name Ranga also, atleast hear the word Ranga. Isnt it easier to hear than tell, the ears dont have any lids to be closed because whatever one says, good or bad somehow falls into the ear isnt it. So hearing is sufficient.
Such a kripalu is the bhagavan and such a kripa is given by the nama.
Subham
Radhe Radhe
