Vedam is a word we often hear being said. What is the great thing about this word, does it mean wisdom or jnAnam - "The jnAna of the paramAtman". That paramAtma which is desirous of the truth and by means of whose sankalpa alone this universe has been created, maintained and then dissolved unto HIMSELF, that wisdom of the paramAtma is verily Vedam.
For everything there needs to be rules and regulations, isnt it. For our benefit, happiness and well-being the sAstram has been told. The sAstram has been dictated to us, why, not to induce fear into ourselves nor to control us but only for us to be happy.
Dharmam is a word meaning swabhAvam. Our Earth, even when filled with all the garbage deposited by us, any bombs exploded on it, any amount of drilling and damaging, the Earth still remains patient and that is the dharma of the Earth. Ocean stops and controls its flow at a certain level from the land and doesn't flow out into the land and that is the dharma of the Ocean. The Wind keeps blowing all around and that is the dharma for the wind. Sun comes and presents itself in the Sky and that is the dharma of the Sun. Moon waxes and wanes and that is its Dharmam. A flower and its fragnance is its dharmam. A dog is faithful and that is its dharmam. A snake has its venom and that is its dharmam. An elephant doesn't forget anyone who has done harm to it and that is its dharma. So the behaviour and the instinct of all these is their dharmam. Therefore we often use these words of "Vedam", "Sastram" and "Dharmam".
If we take "Vedam" alone, the things contained in it is enormous. Whatever we have got till now is only a little and many have dissappeared. Just taking Sama Vedam alone, it has had thousands of branches - JaiminisAkhA, GautamasAkhA, RanAyanisAkhA they say but we have one or two only with us now. Similarly lots of vedams in Yajur and Rik and their several sAkhAs have been lost and there is only little of them left. Not one can read all these vedas in its entirety. Even if one has been able to study just one of the vedas, its substance - veda bhAshyam taken in and its meaning absorbed is itself a very difficult task. This is just talking about one of the vedas, then we have 4 vedas, their bhAshyams, 6 angAs etc and as we keep studying this one life alone is not enough. In our relIgion the cow "GO" is equivalent to the bhagavan - inside the body of the cow the entire Gods and Godesses are present and therefore we perform the 'GO' pooja. Likewise from the bhagavan just like the milk that comes from the cow, the vedas have come down. If we don't boil the milk and keep it for many days, the milk will get spoilt. Even if its boiled it will still become spoiled. So we just add a little curd and it becomes curd entirely. Thus the vedam came down and due to the interest to keep it safe it went to several mahans and with their bhasyam (just as the milk became curd). What then happens, say if we consume too much of curd, the curd has the property of "tamas" / laziness and we will become sleepy.
if we take "Sastras", then it will look correct with respect to advaita or look correct with respect to visishAdvaita or look correct with respect to dvaita or look correct when speaking in terms of the natural order or look correct when spoken by the atheists, buddhists, jains thus in the sastras whatever we read will seem correct with these various sects.
So what we should do, take that curd and put that in a good vessel called "SAMSKARAM", use the churning rod called "WISDOM", use with the rope that scrutinizes and reviews again and again which the rishi Sri Veda Vyasa churned them thus. That churning is what has come out of Sri Veda Vyasar and it was the great rishi who gave from himself all the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmasutram, Mahabharatam, Bhagavatham whatever he wanted to give to the world including the bhagavad gita, the vessel being "samskAram". Churning rod is wisdom, rope is the inquiry by which the scrutinizing, reviewing, judging is being done again and again.
Performing this analysis like this, in the end Veda Vyasar thought "Alodya sarva sastrani vichArasya punapunaha idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada" and this is the vakyam of Sri veda vyAsar. This slokam is in the Mahabharatam. It is Veda Vysasar who blessed us with the 1 lakh slokas of the Mahabharatam. For our religion, if we say "1" achAryar it is only Sri Veda Vyasar. There is no vedam, upanishad, bhagavad gita, brahmasutram or Mahabharatam without Vyasar and if we dont have all these then there is no sanatana dharma religion.
Thus on the ashAda poornima otherwise called Guru poornima, everyone prays only to Sri Veda Vyasar, Adi Guru who is the embodiment of Sriman Narayana. Sri Veda Vyasar thus tells in his Mahabharata "Alodya sarva sastrani vichArasya punapunaha idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada" - whatever sastras I blessed with unto this world, again and again I scrutnized and analysed to find out what is its essence - idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada, it says ultimately that one has to do dhyAnam of the Lord Narayana.
How does one do the dhyAnam of Lord Narayana. Closing your eyes and in the space within your heart thinking of "Shanka Chakra GadhAdhara Catur Bhuja Vanamali Kaustubham Srivastham moorthi of Lord Narayana is not what is meant here as this type of dhyAnam is specifically to be done at the time of the brahmAmuhurtham (very early morning).
But one can chant the namasankeerthanam with no specific time, any time of the day, any place, by anybody and that is what Sri Veda Vyasar said by "sadA" - MEANING "ALWAYS" FOR 24 HOURS.
Thus in 24 hours what can one do is Namasankeerthanam and that is what has been allowed. Thats why with namakeerthanam, do dhyAnam of Lord Narayana and thats what Sri Veda Vysasar having given his own sastram with analysis told thus.
Azhwar now saying this in the thirumAlai, "vEdam nool prAyam nooru manidhar tham puguvarAElum, pAdhiyum urangi pOgum ninradhil padhinaiAndu, pAEdhai pAlagan adhAgum piNi pasi mooppu thunbam,
AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE" - When singing thus, the perumal was listening to this and told to stop - What are you saying? AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE, perumal looks at Azhwar and asks, "Sing the song you sang before this."
"pachchai mAmalai pOl mEni pavaLa vAy kamalach sengkaN"
"achchudhA! amarar ERE! Ayar tham kozhundhE! ennum"
"ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum"
"achchuvai peRinum vENdEn arangkamA nagaruLAnE!"
Now perumal became confused with this "ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum", "achchuvai peRinum vENdEn arangkamA nagaruLAnE!" - Indira lokam meaning Mahendran that is Vishnu, Vaikuntam. In the first pAsuram I dont need Vaikuntam, by being here itself "pachchai mAmalai pOl mEni pavaLa vAy kamalach sengkaN achchudhA! amarar ERE! Ayar tham kozhundhE!" says Azhwar in the pAsuram. In another he sings "AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE". Bhagavan has two - ChitRinbam and another pErinbam. Whatever we have in this world and experience it is "inbam", but that is ChitRinbam - why? not that this "inbam" is small in itself, but hidden underneath this "inbam" there is fear as well. For example when we go to eat on a feast where sweet pAyasam is being served, even as we are drinking it, there is a lurking fear within us as to whether our BP, Sugar may go up and we may need to visit the doctor and illness may strike us. The person is relaxing inside the boat, there is gentle breeze blowing, there is a nice moon coming up on the sky, the trees are swaying gently but then suddenly what happens is there is still the fear that the boat may sink.
The person is travelling in the airplane on an excursion, suddenly there is turbulence in the air and as the plane shudders he starts to fear. As we are sitting and watching TV, there is a news mentioning about an earthquake we fear. In this world, whatever we experience and embedded within that experience there is always a lurking fear within. If we have stored lots of money inside the house, there is the fear that a thief may come and steal it. So we see that there is a fear whilst eating, travelling, sleeping, having things with us and if we dont have things there is distress - all this is ChitRinbam.
What is pErinbam then, it is that inbam which has no fear or distress embedded within. Such an inbam is "Sri Vaikuntam" and that is what is termed as "Mukthi" or "Moksham".
Perumal wanted to grant Azhwar this pErinbam but Azhwar denied this ("ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum, achchuvai peRinum vENdEn").
Ok then, let Azhwar be born again and again in this world said the perumal but Azhwar alsi said "AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE" - the confusion in thrumAlai.
A child who is sitting now suddenly will request to be lifted up when on lifting it up will ask to be let down again, once let down it will ask to be escorted for a walk and the child doesn't know what to do at all. Likewise the Azhwar is asking the perumal two things, the perumal has only the 2 ubhaya vibhUthi at HIS disposal, one is the Srivaikuntam which is pErinbam and the other wordly ChitRinbam. So what is the opinion of the Azhwar? Only when this is analysed properly by the vyAkyAnakarthas we come to know - Azhwar has another opinion that there is a "thrithIya vibhuthi" for the perumal. There is a third aiswaryam which is neither Sri Vaikuntam nor the wordly ChitRinbam but being inside the temple of Sri Ranganathar is the third vibhuthi. Being inside the temple does not constitute the Sri Vaikuntam, why because in vaikuntam "sadhA pashyanthi soorayaha" devotees sit and watch the perumal in vaikuntam. There is no thirumanjanam, no prabhanda goshti, no veda pArayanam, no kalakshEpam all these are not in Sri Vaikuntam but in the Bhoolokha Vaikuntam inside the Sri Ranganathar temple all these are present. But this vaikuntam is in Earth and we can call this worldly, yet we cannot say so because one who enters the Sri Ranganathar temple itself, one experiences the divine joy. As long as they stay inside the temple, they dont feel the pain of the samsAra. They long to see the perumal all the time. Perumal on his part not wishing to stay always inside the sanctum sanctorum, keeps the devotees engaged all the 365 days in the year with many processions, vaibhavams and thirumanjanams thereby mixing HIMSELF happily with the devotees, the Azhwar asks if I can atleast be a fish in the pushkarini of your temple here, can I not be a plant in your garden, or atleast be a kulasekhara padi so the Azhwar begs the perumal that he neither wants vaikuntam, not the sufferings of world but to have a place inside the temple. Thats why the song "ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum achchuvai peRinum vENdEn" - so many people work in this temple, can I not get a kainkarya bhagyam here and keep me always with you, the Azhwar asks the perumal. If so its more sreshtam than the Sri Vaikuntam and I will still not be affected by the worldly life. The Azhwar will not feel as if he is in Bhoolokham and will have such supreme joy being inside the temple is what the vyAkyAana karthAs say. Radhe Radhe
For everything there needs to be rules and regulations, isnt it. For our benefit, happiness and well-being the sAstram has been told. The sAstram has been dictated to us, why, not to induce fear into ourselves nor to control us but only for us to be happy.
Dharmam is a word meaning swabhAvam. Our Earth, even when filled with all the garbage deposited by us, any bombs exploded on it, any amount of drilling and damaging, the Earth still remains patient and that is the dharma of the Earth. Ocean stops and controls its flow at a certain level from the land and doesn't flow out into the land and that is the dharma of the Ocean. The Wind keeps blowing all around and that is the dharma for the wind. Sun comes and presents itself in the Sky and that is the dharma of the Sun. Moon waxes and wanes and that is its Dharmam. A flower and its fragnance is its dharmam. A dog is faithful and that is its dharmam. A snake has its venom and that is its dharmam. An elephant doesn't forget anyone who has done harm to it and that is its dharma. So the behaviour and the instinct of all these is their dharmam. Therefore we often use these words of "Vedam", "Sastram" and "Dharmam".
If we take "Vedam" alone, the things contained in it is enormous. Whatever we have got till now is only a little and many have dissappeared. Just taking Sama Vedam alone, it has had thousands of branches - JaiminisAkhA, GautamasAkhA, RanAyanisAkhA they say but we have one or two only with us now. Similarly lots of vedams in Yajur and Rik and their several sAkhAs have been lost and there is only little of them left. Not one can read all these vedas in its entirety. Even if one has been able to study just one of the vedas, its substance - veda bhAshyam taken in and its meaning absorbed is itself a very difficult task. This is just talking about one of the vedas, then we have 4 vedas, their bhAshyams, 6 angAs etc and as we keep studying this one life alone is not enough. In our relIgion the cow "GO" is equivalent to the bhagavan - inside the body of the cow the entire Gods and Godesses are present and therefore we perform the 'GO' pooja. Likewise from the bhagavan just like the milk that comes from the cow, the vedas have come down. If we don't boil the milk and keep it for many days, the milk will get spoilt. Even if its boiled it will still become spoiled. So we just add a little curd and it becomes curd entirely. Thus the vedam came down and due to the interest to keep it safe it went to several mahans and with their bhasyam (just as the milk became curd). What then happens, say if we consume too much of curd, the curd has the property of "tamas" / laziness and we will become sleepy.
if we take "Sastras", then it will look correct with respect to advaita or look correct with respect to visishAdvaita or look correct with respect to dvaita or look correct when speaking in terms of the natural order or look correct when spoken by the atheists, buddhists, jains thus in the sastras whatever we read will seem correct with these various sects.
So what we should do, take that curd and put that in a good vessel called "SAMSKARAM", use the churning rod called "WISDOM", use with the rope that scrutinizes and reviews again and again which the rishi Sri Veda Vyasa churned them thus. That churning is what has come out of Sri Veda Vyasar and it was the great rishi who gave from himself all the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmasutram, Mahabharatam, Bhagavatham whatever he wanted to give to the world including the bhagavad gita, the vessel being "samskAram". Churning rod is wisdom, rope is the inquiry by which the scrutinizing, reviewing, judging is being done again and again.
Performing this analysis like this, in the end Veda Vyasar thought "Alodya sarva sastrani vichArasya punapunaha idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada" and this is the vakyam of Sri veda vyAsar. This slokam is in the Mahabharatam. It is Veda Vysasar who blessed us with the 1 lakh slokas of the Mahabharatam. For our religion, if we say "1" achAryar it is only Sri Veda Vyasar. There is no vedam, upanishad, bhagavad gita, brahmasutram or Mahabharatam without Vyasar and if we dont have all these then there is no sanatana dharma religion.
Thus on the ashAda poornima otherwise called Guru poornima, everyone prays only to Sri Veda Vyasar, Adi Guru who is the embodiment of Sriman Narayana. Sri Veda Vyasar thus tells in his Mahabharata "Alodya sarva sastrani vichArasya punapunaha idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada" - whatever sastras I blessed with unto this world, again and again I scrutnized and analysed to find out what is its essence - idam ekam sunispannam dhyeyo narayanah sada, it says ultimately that one has to do dhyAnam of the Lord Narayana.
How does one do the dhyAnam of Lord Narayana. Closing your eyes and in the space within your heart thinking of "Shanka Chakra GadhAdhara Catur Bhuja Vanamali Kaustubham Srivastham moorthi of Lord Narayana is not what is meant here as this type of dhyAnam is specifically to be done at the time of the brahmAmuhurtham (very early morning).
But one can chant the namasankeerthanam with no specific time, any time of the day, any place, by anybody and that is what Sri Veda Vyasar said by "sadA" - MEANING "ALWAYS" FOR 24 HOURS.
Thus in 24 hours what can one do is Namasankeerthanam and that is what has been allowed. Thats why with namakeerthanam, do dhyAnam of Lord Narayana and thats what Sri Veda Vysasar having given his own sastram with analysis told thus.
Azhwar now saying this in the thirumAlai, "vEdam nool prAyam nooru manidhar tham puguvarAElum, pAdhiyum urangi pOgum ninradhil padhinaiAndu, pAEdhai pAlagan adhAgum piNi pasi mooppu thunbam,
AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE" - When singing thus, the perumal was listening to this and told to stop - What are you saying? AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE, perumal looks at Azhwar and asks, "Sing the song you sang before this."
"pachchai mAmalai pOl mEni pavaLa vAy kamalach sengkaN"
"achchudhA! amarar ERE! Ayar tham kozhundhE! ennum"
"ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum"
"achchuvai peRinum vENdEn arangkamA nagaruLAnE!"
Now perumal became confused with this "ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum", "achchuvai peRinum vENdEn arangkamA nagaruLAnE!" - Indira lokam meaning Mahendran that is Vishnu, Vaikuntam. In the first pAsuram I dont need Vaikuntam, by being here itself "pachchai mAmalai pOl mEni pavaLa vAy kamalach sengkaN achchudhA! amarar ERE! Ayar tham kozhundhE!" says Azhwar in the pAsuram. In another he sings "AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE". Bhagavan has two - ChitRinbam and another pErinbam. Whatever we have in this world and experience it is "inbam", but that is ChitRinbam - why? not that this "inbam" is small in itself, but hidden underneath this "inbam" there is fear as well. For example when we go to eat on a feast where sweet pAyasam is being served, even as we are drinking it, there is a lurking fear within us as to whether our BP, Sugar may go up and we may need to visit the doctor and illness may strike us. The person is relaxing inside the boat, there is gentle breeze blowing, there is a nice moon coming up on the sky, the trees are swaying gently but then suddenly what happens is there is still the fear that the boat may sink.
The person is travelling in the airplane on an excursion, suddenly there is turbulence in the air and as the plane shudders he starts to fear. As we are sitting and watching TV, there is a news mentioning about an earthquake we fear. In this world, whatever we experience and embedded within that experience there is always a lurking fear within. If we have stored lots of money inside the house, there is the fear that a thief may come and steal it. So we see that there is a fear whilst eating, travelling, sleeping, having things with us and if we dont have things there is distress - all this is ChitRinbam.
What is pErinbam then, it is that inbam which has no fear or distress embedded within. Such an inbam is "Sri Vaikuntam" and that is what is termed as "Mukthi" or "Moksham".
Perumal wanted to grant Azhwar this pErinbam but Azhwar denied this ("ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum, achchuvai peRinum vENdEn").
Ok then, let Azhwar be born again and again in this world said the perumal but Azhwar alsi said "AdhalAl piravi vAEndAEn arangamAnagarullanAE" - the confusion in thrumAlai.
A child who is sitting now suddenly will request to be lifted up when on lifting it up will ask to be let down again, once let down it will ask to be escorted for a walk and the child doesn't know what to do at all. Likewise the Azhwar is asking the perumal two things, the perumal has only the 2 ubhaya vibhUthi at HIS disposal, one is the Srivaikuntam which is pErinbam and the other wordly ChitRinbam. So what is the opinion of the Azhwar? Only when this is analysed properly by the vyAkyAnakarthas we come to know - Azhwar has another opinion that there is a "thrithIya vibhuthi" for the perumal. There is a third aiswaryam which is neither Sri Vaikuntam nor the wordly ChitRinbam but being inside the temple of Sri Ranganathar is the third vibhuthi. Being inside the temple does not constitute the Sri Vaikuntam, why because in vaikuntam "sadhA pashyanthi soorayaha" devotees sit and watch the perumal in vaikuntam. There is no thirumanjanam, no prabhanda goshti, no veda pArayanam, no kalakshEpam all these are not in Sri Vaikuntam but in the Bhoolokha Vaikuntam inside the Sri Ranganathar temple all these are present. But this vaikuntam is in Earth and we can call this worldly, yet we cannot say so because one who enters the Sri Ranganathar temple itself, one experiences the divine joy. As long as they stay inside the temple, they dont feel the pain of the samsAra. They long to see the perumal all the time. Perumal on his part not wishing to stay always inside the sanctum sanctorum, keeps the devotees engaged all the 365 days in the year with many processions, vaibhavams and thirumanjanams thereby mixing HIMSELF happily with the devotees, the Azhwar asks if I can atleast be a fish in the pushkarini of your temple here, can I not be a plant in your garden, or atleast be a kulasekhara padi so the Azhwar begs the perumal that he neither wants vaikuntam, not the sufferings of world but to have a place inside the temple. Thats why the song "ichchuvai thavira yAn pOy indhira lOkam ALum achchuvai peRinum vENdEn" - so many people work in this temple, can I not get a kainkarya bhagyam here and keep me always with you, the Azhwar asks the perumal. If so its more sreshtam than the Sri Vaikuntam and I will still not be affected by the worldly life. The Azhwar will not feel as if he is in Bhoolokham and will have such supreme joy being inside the temple is what the vyAkyAana karthAs say. Radhe Radhe
