Sri Thirumalai Anandazhvan Vaibhavam 4

Part 4 of Sri Thirumalai Anandazhvan Vaibhavam series.

In his Irandam Thiruvandhadhi, Bhoothatthalwar describes an event occuring in the hills of Thirumalai as follows:

perugu madhavEzham mAppidikku munninRu
irukaN iLamUngil vAngi – arugirundha
thEn kalandhu nIttum thiruvEngadam kaNdIr
vAn kalandha vaNNan varai

This pasuram depicts a natural event occuring on the Thirumalai hills. A male elephant in mast, pulls off a bamboo shoot, dips it in a honeycomb nearby and extends it to its female consort.

Thirumalai Anandazhvan enjoyed this paasuram as follows: On one occasion when Ramanuja visisted Thiruvengadam, the devotees there requested that he give a discourse on the meaning of Dvayam. Ramanuja agreed and did so. However, he included the meanings of Thirumanthram and Charama Shlokam as well in the discourse and as such the discourse became lengthy.

Upon seeing this, Anandazhvan stated that on that day he understood the true meaning of Bhoothatthazhvar’s pasuram.

The male elephant in mast is a description of Sri Ramanuja – the mast is the tears in his eyes as he enjoys the divine words of Swami Nammazhvar (“paNdaru mARan pasunthamizh Anandham pAy madhamAy viNdida engaL rAmAnusa muni vEzham”).

The female elephant represents the devotees in the gathering.

The bamboo represents a delicious substance. Here it stands for dvayam. Amongst the Rahsya Thrayam – Thirumanthram, Dvayam, and Charama Shlokam, Dvayam is the most delicious to Sriman Narayana’s devotees. Also, since Azhvar said a moongil with two knots, it represents Dvayam with its two parts.

The honey in the comb nearby refers to Thirumanthram and Charama Shlokam that form the Rahasya Thrayam along with Dvayam.

The word nIttum (extend) refers to the fact that the discourse was extended because Ramanuja added the meanings of Thirumanthram and Charama Shlokam to the meaning of Dvayam.

Thus the description of Thiruvengadam by Bhoothaththazhvar as understood by Anandazhvan was that of Ramanujar extending a lengthy discourse to His devotees on the meanings of Rahsya Thrayam.

Courtesy : Sri TCA Venkatesan [www.acharya.org]