"kavalil pulanai vaithu kalithanaik kadaka payndhu
naavalituzhi tharuginnom naman thamar thaligal meedhe
moovulagundumizhndha mudhalva nin namam katra
aavalippudaimai kandai arangama nagarulaane".
Thondaradipodiazhwar setup a flower garden in Srirangam and there for the perumal he planted many flowers of ugapAna vrikshi, tulasi, shenbagam, malathi, malli (jasmine) and brought them to the perumal. Just as Periazhwar, ananthAzhwar performed flower seva to the perumal, in the same manner thondaradipodiazhwar (Vipranarayanar) offered the seva. That is why the thought that at first he created the flower garland ("poomalai") for the perumal and now he will create the "pAmalai", that's why the pAsurams he wrote came to be known as "ThirumAlai".
It is said beautifully that one who does not know "ThirumAlai" is "ThirumAlaiariAr". In Srirangam today, thirupalliyezhuchi, when the palliyezhuchi (waking) is performed this itself was brought about by our thondaradipodiazhwar himself. That is why in Srirangam when the perumal on waking up itself listens to the pAsurams of the Azhwar. All the uthsava process, bhAvam, nithya arAdana process all of this will be so beautiful. They will put the screen for the night, earlier we have seen that the periyaperumal will be wearing panchakacham, now this will be removed and an ordinary dhoti will be adorned for the perumal. So beautifully and with bhAva drishti the thiruvAradanam will take place. There will be 108 molam pushpam offered in the night. The significance is that the aradhanam for the Ranganathar is the same as performed for the 108 divyadesham aradhanams.
In the thirumAlai of thondaradipodiazhwar, he says "kavalil pulanai vaithu" - pulangazh meaning 5 (the indriyas), but here pulan is said in singular, Kavalil pulanai vaithu meaning there is just 1 pulan and if we can control that one pulan its equal to controlling the five senses. That 1 pulan is "Manasu". If we can control the indriya called "Manasu", all the 5 indriyas will control by themselves automatically. Just like a spring it jumps out all the 5 indriyas - eyes, ears, nose, mouth..., all the 5 indriyas have 5 separate desires. The eye on its own always wants to keep on seeing something. Many of them have a phone to their ears and keep on talking, its a disease. Because if the cellphone is not there!, its like the old comics where the persons life will be somewhere beyond the 7 seas and caves. Similarly most of the peoples lives are in the cellphone. If they are away from that for even a minute, it seems like they have lost their life. Why, because of the avastha, they want to keep on talking something all the time. Or they want to keep pressing the buttons on the cellphone. This is a disease.
In the forest, there will be the elephant, sitting around it there will be female elephants and the kid elephants as well as the grandson elephant. The grandson elephant will say to the grandfather, look there is a hunter coming to catch us. The old elephant will say it seems, that even if the hunter brings chains, firesticks, knives we will not be affected but look to see if he has an elephant with him. The hunter will dig a hole and put a female elephant. When the male elephant comes and sees the female elephant, it will try to rub itself against it and the female elephant will drag the male as well into the pit. So the elephant got caught just by the sense of touch. There will be a beautiful scent from the lotus flower, the bee will rush towards it and will sit inside but come evening the lotus will flower will close itself and the bee will die inside. The bee has the desire on the smell and died.
Adishankara beautifully says - the deer had desire only on sound, fish had desire only on the taste, elephant had desire on the touch, vittil poochi ("moth") had desire on the light, bee had desire only on the scent but alas, you human, you have desire on all the 5 senses!
How will you then attain liberation? So we need to control the five senses and the main control is on the mind, here azhwar says "kavalil pulanai vaithu" - usually when the word Kaval is mentioned we will think of control, hands tied - likewise, you control the mind, perform namakeerthanam and meditate upon the bhagavan.
Brahmacharyam is not just for just the female or male. Each and every indriyam has brahmacharyam, if the eye sees what should not be seen then the eye has lost its chastity. If the ear listened to what it should not, then the ear has lost its chastity. Similarly if the tongue has eaten what it is not supposed to eat, then the tongue too has lost its chastity. Each and every indriyas has its own control. "kavalil pulanai vaithu" - keeping the mind in full control, not losing it or allowing it to go anywhere keep chanting bhagavannamakeerthanam, meditate on the bhagavan when said, then the fact that namakeerthanam has no objections, modes or procedures will be contrary.
But here periyavachanpillai beautifully says, "Kaval il pulanai vaithu", "il" - Kaval il. Let this pulanghazh run as they wish, don't bother. Let the mind run hither and thither, dont worry. Keep on performing namakeerthanam! Someone says, sir, my mind is not getting controlled. Yes, the mind will not. But you still do namakeerthanam. As you chant namakeerthanam more and more, all your sins will start to decrease rapidly and then automatically the mind will come to control. Kaval il pulanai vaithu - If at all you have the intelligence to be able to control the mind and perform namakeerthanam, the fruit will be got in an instant. Let the "pulanghazh" go on their own ways, you are unable to control them, due to its habit over the years it keeps running on its own but for this reason don't say you wont perform bhagavath bhakthi. Let the "pulanghazh" run as they used to, but you perform namakeerthanam and they will subside.
We are performing namakeerthanam always, then we get tired of it. We say we are doing it and what did we see out of it? The Mind still has desire, anger, fear, jealousy and nothing has changed, but don't worry about all this and just keep chanting one day it will definitely change. Why are you not seeing now? Its because the namakeerthanam is now removing your sins and that's why you are not seeing the benefit. Once the sins are decreased and ultimately removed, then the fruits will begin to show up. How can the path shown by the mahans will become false. How can what the Guru has told be false. They will never tell the wrong thing, they will tell only what is truth and you patiently just do this.
Kaval il pulanai vaithu, apart from the above two types of namakeerthanam, there is a third meaning. Lets say there is a child in our house, we go outside to get some rations, we need to stand for a long time at the ration shop. If we bring the child and make it stand for long hours, it will be tired and be hungry. The child cannot be left alone in the house also. What we then do is that, we go to our known neighbour and leave the child in their care, telling them to take care of the child responsibly while we go and get the rations. What the neighbour will do, he will treat the child as its own, not allowing the child to slip or fall in a pit or gutter, not allowing it to touch anything and thus take care of the child safely until the child is returned back to her mother.
So what is the third thing, you tried control of the mind, you tried allowing it go helter-skelter then there is this third thing. The Kaval (control) of the pulanghazh is at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Ranganatha. Is not the lord, the rishikesha, the chieftain of the indriyas "aham indriyo rishikesha twam yantri kEla keshava", as you are the chieftain. So my eye should not see wrong sights, ear should not hear wrong words, mouth should not eat wrong foods - all this is your responsibility. Put the responsibility on HIM - Kaval "il" pulanai vaithu - and you perform the namakeerthanam. Perumal will give all that you need automatically. We have already said that one who may have have jnana, vairagya may not get bhagavath darshanam but one who performs namakeerthanam certainly will. The Jnana, vairagya will come on its own. Sri Ramakrishnar will tell a beautiful story. There was a king and he had a servant. The servant was extremely fond of this king and loved him with his life. Being so fond of this king, he has a desire, one day to invite him to his home and treat him nicely. He will keep asking the king often to come to his home. But the king has his own protocol, he cannot sit at ordinary chair, visit ordinary places etc. He needs a throne, security arrangements setup, he may need fan, need serving as per royal arrangements but the servant was caught up in his love for the king. The King then asked his minister to make arrangements ready for his visit. Immediately 100 people went to the house, whitewashed it, put fans, AC, made security arrangements in all the neighbouring houses, brought all gold cups and saucers, finally the king came. He stayed and made the servant happy but when he left, the king did not take anything with him as this was not a big thing for him.
Likewise, just keep the desire that the bhagavan should come to you, that's enough. The yogyatha will come automatically from the bhagavan to you. The desire should not be an act or a drama it should be truthful. Keep on saying, "Ranganatha, please come to my heart, again and again keep calling!". Bhagavan will come to the pure heart. The bhagavan knowing the devotee's desire wants to take a place at the heart of the devotee but he knows that if the devotee's chittam is not clean, how can he go and occupy the place. So the devotee is throbbing with the desire in his heart and its genuine so Lord Ranganathar himself gives chitta suddhi, Jnanam, Bhakthi, Vairagyam and then will come and occupy the place in his heart. Therefore "Kaval il pulanai vaithu".
a) Control the mind and perform namakeerthanam
b) Let the mind run helter-skelter, perform namakeerthanam
c) Give the control-of-mind responsibility to Sri Ranganathar, perform namakeerthanam
IN ANY WAY, FOR THE ONE PERFORMING NAMAKEERTHANAM THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY LOSS AT ALL
Radhe Radhe
Subham
Read more translations of the other episodes at: http://aranganinarumai.blogspot.com/
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