There is a connection between the nama and its associated form. Tapas is associated with Speech, Mind and the Body. There are thus 3 types of tapas with 3 types of worlds. Say there is one who is observing a pure fast on ekAdasi, not even drinking water which means a tapas of the body. To have a darshan of Thiruvenkatamudaiyan in the month of Puratassi, one who walks from his village and then climbs all the way to the top of the mountain - is a tapam of the body.
Circumambulating the temple, performing the circumabulation by rolling over their bodies in wet clothes around the sanctum sanctorum is again a tapas of the body. In order to attain the bhagavan if one proceeds according to the sastras and performs the necessary tapas using his body this is called bodily tapas. In the sastras there are certain atonements mentioned for our sins, for example during pournami one has to eat 15 balls of rice, the next day 14, 13 etc..and once you reach ammavasya you will need to perform a pure fast and once again start with 2 balls of rice etc. But it should not be so that one day you eat a big ball of rice while the rest of the days a small ball. Eating exactly the same quantities of rice every day and not eating anything else at all is bodily tapas as you are straining the body.
Circumambulating the temple, performing the circumabulation by rolling over their bodies in wet clothes around the sanctum sanctorum is again a tapas of the body. In order to attain the bhagavan if one proceeds according to the sastras and performs the necessary tapas using his body this is called bodily tapas. In the sastras there are certain atonements mentioned for our sins, for example during pournami one has to eat 15 balls of rice, the next day 14, 13 etc..and once you reach ammavasya you will need to perform a pure fast and once again start with 2 balls of rice etc. But it should not be so that one day you eat a big ball of rice while the rest of the days a small ball. Eating exactly the same quantities of rice every day and not eating anything else at all is bodily tapas as you are straining the body.
For the mind, there is a connection with the food consumed by the body. For example, if we need to get a operation performed for the spine in our back or opening our head for brain surgery for example, in order to numb the pain the doctor gives some tablet and once this is consumed we loose conciousness. Even if our body is being cut with a surgical knife or being inserted with metallic elements we are not in concious of any of these happening at all. So when something like that tablet goes inside our body the mind becomes essentially dead. If we eat certain tablets we get sleep, sleep is just an event occuring withinin the mind itself - manOlayam is sleep.
The mind being supressed by the tamOgunaM is "sleep".
The mind filled with sattvagunaM is "bhakthi".
The mind filled with rajOguman are our "senses and desires".
Therefore we cannot deny the connection between the food and the mind. Depending on the type of food one consumes, the mind will change accordingly. That is why we always should eat temple prasadam, the prasad offered for the perumal, even the food prepared in our homes must be offered to the bhagavan before eating. If there are any doshams associated with the food all of this will be destroyed. The one preparing the food, his mind and the thoughts coming from it will all occupy the food as well as the one who is touching it, who is serving it.
In an ashram there is a sadhu who is always meditating. But during his meditation suddenly he started to get thoughts on the politics of the country. He got a thought that he needs to know the political situation of the country but he had no interest on politics until now. He wondered why these thoughts have come to him. He went to his gurunathar and mentioned this. Gurunathar asked him to go and find out what is happening in his kitchen. The cook was preparing the food and at the same time reading the newspaper held in his other hand. The cook had lot of interest in the political news. Due to his interest in that matter, his thoughts travelled and lodged themselves in the food. These are subtle things and one cannot ignore this.
Salt, Sour (tamarind), hot (chilly) food, garlic, drumstick will generate "RAJAS", kAma behaviour in the mind.
Spinach, Dhall and Milk will generate "SATTVA" behaviour in the mind.
Thick Yoghurt, overnight or preserved food etc will introduce "TAMAS", sleep behaviour in the mind.
Because within the mind itself we dont distinctly see 3 different - Sattva, Rajas and Tamo minds, rather all these 3 gunAs are mixed and reside as one within the mind. It purely depends on which one of these gunas get triggered and that is what potentially rises to the surface. So we stablish that there is a connection between the food and the mind, there is a tapas which is by controlling the body called bodily tapas and we now have another form of tapas which is the ManomanamAya tapam (Controlling the mind).
All these days you performed japam, meditation or went to temples, did parayanam, performed charitable acts etc - what is the fruit (phalam) of all these activities - WERE YOU ABLE TO CONTROL THE MIND? IF YOU HAVE NOT CONTROLLED YOUR MIND, ALL THESE ACTS ARE OF NO USE!
Controlling the mind is manomanamAya tapam (Tapas of the Mind).
With Speech, not talking of anything else except about the bhagavan, constantly performing namakeerthanam this is TAPAS of the SPEECH (vakkymanamAya tapam). If someone does not talk at all and keeps chanting "Rama", "Rama" always, that is a tapam. This is an illustrious form of tapas.
If there is a thing that is not in the mind, it will definitely not come in the speech. Just imagine if you are trying to do 2 things, lets say nama chanting which you are used to is going on in the mind and now you are trying to write a letter at the same time, either the letter will be wrong or the nama will be wrongly uttered. Because the thought in the mind and the speech are one in the mind. What is present as a thought inside the mind will only come out as speech.
As Azhwar is singing the Tirumalai, "kAvalizh puzhanaI vaIthu, kali thannaI kadakkhap paIndu - describing the greatness of namasankeerthanam, he becomes absorbed in the ThirumEni of the archAvathAra perumal. In the 4000 pasurams of the divyaprabhandam, one would definitely know this,
'PachaI mAmalai pOl meni pavaLa vaI kamala senkaN
AchutA amararere Ayar tham kozhunte ennum
Echsuvai thavira yAn poi indiranlOgam Alum
Achuvai perinum vendean arangA mA nagarulAne'
and with great majesty.
Poets will say there are three things which one will never get tired of,
a) One would never get tired of looking at the moon
b) One would never get tired of looking at the sea
c) One would never get tired of looking at the elephant
Similarly if one needs majestic appearance, an example of that is the mountain. If the walk of man has to be described as majestic, it would be compared to the walk of an elephant. Similarly if you want to describe the walk of a woman, we would describe that as "anna nadai - walk of the swan". Majesticness is described with the mountain, how is stands tall and majestic and that is the reason why Sri Thyagaraja swamigal describes this is in the Ramayana. When Sumantra came towards Sri Rama and mentioning that his father is asking him to come and when Rama comes to kaikeyi's chamber and comes to know that he has to go to forest for 14 years and does not become the prince, bharata would rule instead. But Sri Rama responds to all this and walks without even a change of his behaviour, manner, no hint of sadness - this Sri Thyagaraja describes as "mEru samAna dhEEra". Such a brave person like a mountain, will the mountain shake at all?, asks Sri Thyagarajar of Sri Rama. Such majesty!
Likewise Azhwar on seeing the perumal, such a big perumal in such a huge temple! - looking at the beauty of the perumal holding his head upon his hands, broad shoulders, long legs, describing the legs, hands, navel, eyes, face as lotus and the mala he is wearing is a lotus garland like a forest of lotuses. Looking at perumal sleeping upon the snake adisesha, Azhwar wonders if this is a mountain and the perumal looking like a mountain majestic in his appearance. The mountain, should be a chain of continuous mountains and in those mountains there should not be just rocks, there should be lots of greenery with trees, shrubs and bushes. As we behold the mountain with its majestic appearance, natural beauty, greenery there will be a great happiness occuring in the mind. Thus Azhwar as he was gazing at the perumal was wondering whether to call this a mountain, not just an ordinary mountain but instead azhwar called it as "mA malaI". A mountain like the Himalayas. The mountain is not just composed of rocks and thorns, "PachaI mAmalai pOl meni" - a continuous spread of green mountains like the Tirumala, how cool is it to behold the chain of Tirumala mountains. Then how is the mouth - 'pavaLa vaI' - red like that of a pearl. Why did the mouth become red, is it due to chewing betel leaves? No not that. Perumal felt that as his bhakthars always chanting the nama and the sweetness of the nama was so great that he kept on tasting the sweetness and the mouth therefore became red like a pearl. All are saying ranga, ranga and perumal having tasted the name, he kept on doing it for tasting the sweetness of HIS name - 'pavaLa vaI'. Many would have the pearl necklace on their neck, some would have a pearl ring on their finger, there is a difference between the redness of a pearl and that of a lotus. Azhwar brings that out clearly - "PachaI mAmalai pOl meni pavaLa vaI' - while the dress is green, mouth is red like that of a pearl, eyes like 'kamala senkaN', eyes become red like the red of a lotus - only HE can be called PUNDAREEKAKSHAN and no other bhagavan. His eyes like a red lotus is stretched up to the ears - "Neenda kangazh".
"kamala senkaN achutA" - achutA! this term meaning that one who is under HIS protection will never be deserted!
"amararere" - HE is deva-devan, "Ayar tham kozhunte" - azhwar thinks, I called HIM a mountain, can he climb a mountain or go near him a question may be asked, so instead he describes HIM as being born in the Ayar kulam. But if it is Ayar kulam born Krishna who is Parthasarathy (Arjunas charioteer) and is one who narrated the GITA which is quite confusing, azhwar did not want that, therefore he called "Kozhunte" - I do not want the Krishna who told the GITA, nor the Krishna who was a king in Dwaraka, nor the king of Mathura but the krishna who was tied to the grindstone by Yashoda.
"Echsuvai thavira yAn poi indiranlOgam Alum" - In addition to the anubhavam at the temple of Srirangam, "Achuvai perinum vendean arangA mA nagarulAne" - There are other names for Indra loka - swargam / vaikuntam. Indran can be Narendran, Gajendran, Mrigendran, Shailendran and Indran - devendran is also called as Vishnu. However if we look at the simple meaning of Indralokam it means swargam. Azhwar does not want this swargam, why because he looks at all the uthsavams happening in Srirangam where lots of devotees are singing, on the path of the chariot lots of devotees are performing angapradakshinam, calling out "ranga! ranga!" all over srirangam calling "Aranga", these sounds he cannot be heard in Indralokam. In Indraloka the devas are only chanting "rambha", "rambha" in Swarga. Azhwar would like to only hear "ranga". "indiranlOgam Alum" - azhwar does not want even to rule Indralokam, even if its given to him. Looking at the archAvatara moorthy of the perumal, describes him "pachai ma malaI pol meni.......' - thus the greatness of the Tirumalai pasuram is that all these pasurams are sung (mangalasAsanam) in front of the perumal itself, even in the Srimad Bhagavatham HE called upon parikshit as "rajan", "rajan". But here "arangA mA nagarulAne" - repeated over and over again. Azhwar does not want to leave Srirangam and go anywhere else. Azhwar says he will go to vaikuntam but if the perumal is there as being paravasudevan accompanied by Sridevi and Bhoodevi, he says he will still come back. He will stay in vaikuntam if the perumal will be present as Sriranganathar and in the same form as in Srirangam.
Azhwar says "Echsuvai thavira yAn poi" - in case I go to vaikuntam and in that vaikuntam if you are not as Ranganathar but as Paravasudevan, I do not desire that vaikuntam, I will rather be in Srirangam itself and experience the joy of being able to see YOU here as Ranganathar!!!
Subham!
Radhe Radhe!
