Kannan Kazhalinai Decad of pasurams

- Significance and MEaning of Nammazhwar's Kannan Kazhalinai (Source: From Tiruvenkatam News group).

Adiyen thanks Sriman.Raghunathan for choosing, among other recitals, Kannan Kazhalinai (Tiruvoimozhi 10-5) for recital during the celebrations. The ten pasurams, though not part of Koil Thiruvoimozhi has lot of significance. (Koil Thiruvoimozhi - certain important selected Thirumozhis in the entire Thiruvoimozhi 1000 for daily recital). adiyen would like to present the same to the extent adiyen has understood and gathered information, so that we can appreciate the greatness while reciting the same.and it will give great anubhavam to all those who attend the Celebrations. Significance Significance Significance of 1 2 3 : : : Professional Recognition for Thiruvoimozhi Naama Sankeertanam Primary Upadesa Decad in 10th Paththu (10th 100 Thiruvoimozhi) Significance 1: Professional recognition for Thiruvoimozhi Members may wonder what professional (poetical) recognition is required for Thiruvoimozhi, as this work is not a poetical literature. Rather it is the pouring of anubhavams of Azhwar and a religious work with great meanings (theLiyaatha maRai nilankaL theLikinROmE). Our acharyas had proved the greatness of the pasurams which Emperuman always enjoys. But during the early stages it was necessary for Madhurakavi Azhwar. Please go through the following special anecdote. Special anecdote: After NammAzhwAr departed from this earthly world, MadhurakaviAzhwAr was blessed with a Golden vigraham of NammAzhwAr which he consecrated and performed ThiruvarAdhanA and uthsavams in his honour. He was impressed by nammAzhwAr's works so much that wanted to stage NammAzhwAr's works in front of other scholars. the sangam poets objected to such claims and praises. NammazhwAr who had no connection with Sangam (a big deal!). Madhurakavi, it seems was saddened by this protest and was weeping literally. NammAzhwar, appeared as an old Brahmin and consoled him saying

"Do not worry about these petty issues; You just place this pAsuram of "kaNNan kazhaliNai..." on a kind of boat (sangap palagai) and watch" and disappeared. Madhurakavi did the same and the boat, it is told capsized throwing out all the jealous, haughty poets while it retained only the leaf containing "kaNNan kazhaliNai."- Such a POWERFUL PASURAM IS THIS! Each of these jealous poets wrote independently one Tamil poem on the Great NammAzhwAr, which finally turned out to be same one which all others wrote: What a mystery! What an AzhwAr! What a disciple! The verse is as follows: "Semang kurugaiyo seyyathirup pArkadalO nAmam paraangusamo naaraNamo - thAman thuLavO vaguLamO thOLiraNdO nAngum uLavO peruma umakku" meaning: Are you, (the Kurugaiyoor Piraan) Or Sriman Narayanan Himself?) Significance 2: Naama Sankeerthanam Elders say that Azhwar Sankeerthanam. Any time and every timemothers name and mother loves it so much, can see a number of places advising us to do eNNum thiru_naamam paadeer avan_naamam maadhavan enRenRu Odha valleerEl pEr aar Othuvaar aaraar amararE. ninaimin nediyaanE. in this thirumozhi brings out the significance of Naama Narayana Narayana. Like a baby utters and blabbers the Sriman Narayanan adores our calling Him NarayanA!. We Divya Naama Sankeerthanam. 10.5.1 10.5.5 10.5.7 10.5.8 10.5.10.

Significance 3: Primary Upadesa Decad in 10th Paththu (10th 100 of Thiruvoimozhi) Our acharyas have considered this thirumozhi as the primary upadesa thirumozhi in the 10th Paththu of Thiruvoimozhi. In this EXCELLENT TEN PASURAMS, NammAzhwAr advises (gives upadesam to) BhakthAs of Emperumaan. NammAzhwArs advice which had started off in Thiruvoimozhi 1.2, veedumin muRRavum, ends in this ten. nodi aayiraththippaththu adiyaarkku aruL pERE. 10.5.11

GENERAL MEANINGS Now let us see the ten pasurams and the general meaning one by one. kaNNan kazaliNai naNNum manamudaiyeer eNNum thiru_naamam thiNNam naaraNamE. (2) 10.5.1 1. Oh BhAgawathAs, who has always the thoughts of reaching the Lotus Feet of KaNNan (Parama sowlabhyan- who stooped down to our level and took KrishNAvataar)! You all need to think and meditate only on His name Narayanan. Nothing else. This is firm and definite. Take it for granted. (NampiLLai one of the Acharyas after Ramanujas period - greatly talks about this pAsuram: If one spoils an angam or a swaram on other manthrams, there is even a punishment to become brahmaraakshasan. Such fears are not here. It is a simple name and that is Narayana padham. Here AzhwAr says: eNNum thirunaamam. He did not say eNNum manthram. Since it is only Thirunaamam, there is no niyamam. Any time and every time- Narayana Narayana. Like a baby utters and blabbers the mothers name and mother loves it so much, Sriman Narayanan adores our calling Him NarayanA!). naaraNan emmaan paaraNangaaLan vaaraNam tholaiththa kaaraNan thaanE. 10.5.2 2. My Master, Narayanan is the Lord of BhUmi PiraaTTi. He is the One who killed kuvalayaapeetam elephant. He is Cause and Creator of whole Universe. thaanE ulagelaam thaanE padaiththidandhu thaanE undumizndhu thaanE aaLvaanE. 10.5.3 3. Narayanan is the life of all worlds. Without any extra assistance, on His own, He creates the worlds and during PraLayam, He Himself eats and spits the same out afterwards to protect the Universe. Like that, He protects and rules the whole Universe all by Himself. aaLvaan aazi_neer kOLvaaya aravaNaiyaan thaaLvaay malarittu _naaLvaay naadeerE. 10.5.4 4. The Cause /Creator of the whole Universe He is reclining on the Huge waters on AdhisEshan. Offer flowers at His Lotus Feet and pay your obeisance to Him. naadeer naaLthORum vaadaa malar_kondu paadeer avan_naamam veedE peRalaamE. 10.5.5 5. Everyday- daily, collect fresh, new flowers and offer to Bhagawaan and pay obeisance to Him. Sing His Thirunaamam (Name) with naama sangheerthanam. If you all do thus with sincere bhakti, you can easily attain mOksham. (Here AzhwAr uses naadeer word, to reach Him mentally (manas), koNdu word, to collect flowers (kaayam-body) and paadeer word, to sing (vaak), to imply performing our kaimkaryam to the Lord with manO, vaak and kaayam.)

mEyaan vEngadam kaayaa malarvaNNan pEyaar mulaiyunda vaayaan maadhavanE. (2) 10.5.6 6. Bhagawaan has got lovely blue hued ThirumEni (Divine Body). He has got the cute red mouth that sucked the life of pUthanai alongwith her posionous breast milk (who had come to kill the infant KaNNan). He is Sri LakshmI Nathan, (Madhavan) and is gracefully present at ThiruvENkatam, as SrInivaasan. maadhavan enRenRu Odha valleerEl theedhonRum adaiyaa Edham saaraavE. 10.5.7 7. If you utter Madhavan (Sriya:pathih- LakshminAthan), then, all your sins will be removed by such an utterance. No new sins also will come to you. (means: you will not commit such sins anymore). saaraa EdhangaL neeraar mugilvaNNan pEr aar Othuvaar aaraar amararE. 10.5.8 8. Emperumaan- One who has the colour of dark clouds- Those who utter His names will NEVER get any sin approaching them. Whoever sings His naama sangheerthanam, (Whoever they are- illiterateanjnAni- low caste- male- female- whatever- you name it- it is included!) they become on par with Nityar. (AzhwAr emphasises : Whoever utters Sriman Narayana padham, (as narrated in last pAsuram), they become paramapadhavaasis. No knowledge, no adhikaaram, no niyamam, no linking to caste/births, - Whoever they are, if they utter Bhagavan Naamaa, they are compared to NityasUris, is implied.Can we NOT DO THIS AT LEAST?) amararkku ariyaanai thamargatku eLiyaanai amarath thozuvaargatku amaraa vinaikaLE. 10.5.9 9. Bhagawaan, is a rare (to be seen) even by Brahma and other Devas. But for His BhakthAs, He is a Parama solwabhyan (to make Himself available to them as archaavataars, as vyUhAvataars). To such Greatest Emperumaan, those (without expecting any fruits from HimParamaikaanthins) who pay obeisance to Him, will NEVER get any sin approach them, at anytime. vinaival iruLennum munaigaL veruvippOm chunai nan malarittu ninaimin nediyaanE. 10. If you pay obeisance to Bhagawaan, puNyams, vibharItha jnAnam - wrong knowledge) will all get scared and flowers and offer to SarvEshwaran and think of Him. (AzhwAr says: All will vanish. Then, we can reach. In this pAsuram, AzhwAr is reported to mOkshayishyaami.) 10.5.10. paapams, the cruel anjnAnam (or vanish. Hence, gather fresh that is a hurdle to kaimkaryam have hinted on Sarva paapEbhyO

nediyaan aruL soodum padiyaan sadakOpan nodi aayiraththippaththu adiyaarkku aruL pERE.

(2)

10.5.11

11. Sri SadagOpar is blessed to obtain the grace of Nediyaan (Sriman Narayanan). He has composed 1000 pAsurams (on Him) and these ten (out of 1000) will be His blessings as His prasaadhams and bhAgyam. (means: Those who read these ten will be called The blessed ones to obtain the grace of Sriman Narayanan, similar to Sri SadagOpar, NammAzhwAr). CONCLUSION adiyen would like to submit that this compilation by rearranging / extracting materials mostly from sources available in the net (earlier postings by scholars, etc) is meant especially for beginners to invoke the interest for further study / learning. Interested members may get more details / explanations / precise meanings from their respective Acharyas / Scholars. Last but not least, let us remind ourselves once again about the hearty invitation from Sriman.Raghunathan to all of us for the excellent opportunity to participate in bhagavt bhagavatha kaimkaryan and anubhavam. Seeking your valuable blessings, adiyen dasan p t narayana ramanuja dasan

uNNum SORu parugu nIr tinnum veRRilai ellAm kaNNan * emperumAn enRenRE kaNgaL nIl malgi maNNiNuL avan SIr vaLam mikkavan Ur vinavi tiNNam en iLa mAn pugumUr tirukkOLUrE. (tiruvAi. 6.7.1) "To His devotee, all is kRshNa. Food - eaten to satisfy the appetite, water drunk to quench the thirst, and betel leaves consumed after the food, are all kRshNa only in their case. Saying His name, speaking of His qualities, and thinking of Him, His devotee will feel the hunger and the thirst and all other needs satisfied. They will not eat any other food since kRshNa-consciousness is enough food for them. Reciting His name and enquiring everyone on the way "Am I on the right path to tirukkOLUr? How far is it hence?", the devotee will proceed without any other need for sustenance . The very thought of His place serves as nourishment for the devotee".