Published by Sri. N.Rajagopalan

 

 

 

 

 

Sri Bhutat Azhwar’s Irandam   Thiruvandhadhi

(Text with a Free Translation and Commentary)

 

 

by

N.Rajagopalan I.R.A.S. (Rtd.)

 

Published by Sri. N.Rajagopalan

‘Sri Nidhi’ , T-37A, 16th Cross Street, Besantnagar,                   Chennai-600 090.

 

 

 

Front and Back Covers

 

Sri Sthalasayana Perumal with Ubhaya Naacmar and Sri Bhutat Azhwar at Mahabalipuram

 

Processed and printed by Universal Print Systems Ltd., Chennai-600 008.

 

 

ISBN 81-901287-3-4

Price  : Rs.80/-

Special Edition 2002.

1000 Copies.

 

All Rights Reserved With The Author.

 

DEDICATION

 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO T£fE CHERISHED MEMORY OF MY ELDEST BROTHER SRI. N.GOPALAKRISHNAN, RETIRED CHIEF FINANCIAL CONTROLLER, NEYYELI LIGNITE CORPORARION, NEYYELI, TAMIL NADU.

 

 

 

FOREWORD

The four thousand hymns in Tamil( tñly $hiai ;i   ) sung by the Azhwars (saints immersed in the Divine) from the South of India have been a treasure house of gems, which shed light on the philosophic tenets of the Vedas and the Upanishads elusive even to the most learned. Swami Desikan, the great acharya and a renowned scholar of the 13a century A.D, had the following verse in Sri Guruparamparaa Saaram about the garlands of hymns woven by the

 

 

They in factinspired Sri Ramanujato propound the Visishta Advaita philosophy in later years. The adventofthe Azhwars has been referred to in the Srimad Bhagavata Puraanam(SkXI-5- 39-40). The Azhwars all hailed from the region in Tamil Nadu adjoining the rivers Cauveri, Paalar and Tamrabarani. They were all from different walks of life; different social strata, but not all contemporaries. Yet they were amazingly unifiedintheirvibrantdivineexperiencesandtheirphilosophic views. The causalprinciple underlying all existence for them was not animpersonalreality but the most Auspicious Person, SrimanNarayana with all the glorious attributes, the most important attribute being His compassion, represented by “Sri”, the divine mother Mahalakshmi, everresident in His heart. They directly experienced the Divine in the totality of the creation and their love of the Divine flowed in the form of beautiful poetry, enriching the path of devotion or Bhakti. Their

 

V

 

works convey the “Sareera-Sareeree-Bhava” implyingthatthe physical world is the body of the Lord and the Lord represents the life and soul of the physical world. The unconditional compassion (“nirhetuka kripa”) the Lord has for His creation, is the means to overcome all bondage resulting from one’s actions. For them, the Lord was not only the way or the means but also the goal.

 

The first three of these great sages, namely Sri Poikai Muni, Sri Bhutat Azhwar and Sri Pey Azhwar, were called the Mudhal Azhwars for they were the pioneers. They were contemporaries. Sri Thirumazhisai Piran, the fourth in the list, also must have lived around the same time as the Mudhal Azhwars, since there is good internal evidence from the works of the Azhwars for this. The Mudhal Azhwars were from

¥e vicinity of the modern city Chennai. The author has referred to the story of the origin of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandaminthe coming together of the Mudhal Azhwars in Thirukko,valoor, one dark stormy night in a small corridor at the threshold of a house, and how the presiding deity from Thirukkovaloortemple, Lord Trivikrama, along with sri Mahalakshmi, eager to mingle with His devotees, appeared amongst them although not revealing His presence. However, the Azhwars felt this indirectly as a sense of pressure in that small space. This led to the spontaneous outpouring of ¥e three sw>tand fragrant garlands of verses, each containing one hundred pasurams in the “andadhi” style, each following the other, beginning with Sri Poikai Muni, hisjx›eticarc1ightbeamingon the invisibleLord,inaresplendant cosmic vision then and there. This story is referred to in Sri Poikai

Wdf’S Mtl£l81          VdIl?l8 i

 

                                                         (86)

 

Irandaam Thiruvandadhi is the work of Sri Bhutat Azhwar. It is a masterpieceofTamil poetry; a beautiful garland of one hundred verses. While Sri Poikai Azhwar glorified the cosmic aspects of the Lord by

 

 

starting with “meumtnIbn”, Sri Bhutat Azhwar starts with “  M n”, lighting a lamp with devotion as the base, love as the oil, the sweet mind as the wick and the knowing Self as the shining flame offering all of them to the Lord. Sri Bhutat Azhwar had the special grace of the Lord from the early days of his life for he refers to the divine vision even as he was “in-utero”,

 

 

“Fire of knowledge burns all actions into ashes” says Sri Krishna in the Geetha (4-37).

While knowledge is essential for liberation, true spiritual knowledge leads naturally to superior devotion(“Bhakti”) which is intense love of the Divine. Perfect   often at the end becomes a superior Mñgi.For instance, Sri Aadi Samara, a great  also has done several works of pure devotion such as “Bhaja Govindam”, “Sri Ranganathashtakam” and others. This was true of all the Azhwars for theirbhakti was based on true and clear spiritual knowledge. Sri Bhutat Azhwar exemplifies this quiteclearly. PeAaps for this reason, Sri Bhuta Piran, although second in the list of the twelve Azhwars, is actually mentioned first in a single benedictory verse commonly recited:

 

 

 

The Azhwar points to the grace of the Lord as the underlying cause of the entire spiritual process.

 

vii

 

While emphasizing the easy accessibility of the Lord, he points out that no one can fully comprehend this aspect of the Lord.

 

                                           (5)

 

The Azhwar’s devotion to the Lord is a complete offering of“Self” with totalinvolvement,

 

 

and in his own word the love he has for the Lord is too overflowing for him to bear,

 

                       (100)

 

The Azhwar practices and recommends immensely Naamasankeerthana namely reciting the glorious names of the Lord including the “Sahasranama”,

 

 

In several verses (2,6,l4,20,38,39,44,5l,57,64,6d,72,73,77,92), he makes referencetothe Lord’s name. Similar to Sri Thirumazhisai Piran, he also concludes that the Lord’s name is the ultimate meaning of all the Vedas and the Upanishads.

 

V111

 

 

(39)

 

Sri Bheeshmarecommends recitation ofthe Sahasranaama of the Lord as the best Dharmato Yudhistira. Sri Bhudat Azhwar considers this as a penance.

 

                                                  (77)

 

Sri “Poodattazhwar”, or Bhuta Yogi as he was known, was born in Mallainearmodem Mahabalipuram.It was agreatharbour

city at the time of the great Pallava kings. They had left a rich legacy behind them in the form of the most beautiful sculptures, the relics of which stand even today on the seashores in Mahabalipuram. Many of the kings in their dynasty were great bhaktas themselves, and it wouldseementirely possiblethattheexemplaiy Azhwar’s bhakti might have been the stimulus for this.

 

In order to fully appreciate Azhwars’ works, one will have to read them with the aid of one of the authoritative commentary of the great Acharyas. However, %ese original commentaries are in the old “manipravaala” style with Tamil admired with Sanskrit. In addition, the words used will often be unfamiliareventotheardent modem day students. Sri Bhutat Azhwar’s Irandaam Thiruvandadhi is actually set in beautiful and rich literary Tamil(‘Tier ”). Thus it will be quite hard formostofus who are not proficient in literary Tamil. Therefore, there is a need forfreetranslations which are based on the authoritative interpretations of the commentators like Sri Periya Vaachaan Pillar. The current free translation of the Irandaam Thiruvandadhi by Sri Rajagopalan is therefore avery welcome addition which will begreatly appreciated by everyone interested in the Azhwars’ works. The

IX

 

translation is clear and succinct with a fine style of presentation. This follows splendidly his previous elegantbookin which hehad rendered a similar translation of Mudhal Thiruvandadhi.

 

May the grace of the Azhwars and the Lord Sri Ranganatha (‘TI sa ñgJ{;n›g" as lovingly referred to by Sri Bhuta Piran) always shine on my brother Sri Rajagopalan and encourage him to continue in similar endeavours.

 

 

N. Ranganathan. 32, Cobblestone Dr Willowdale, Ontario Canada.M2J2X7. May 21, 2001.

 

 

PREFACE

Bhutat Azhwar’ s Iranda‘m Thiruvandhadhi forms part of the ‘lyarpa“ portion of the ‘Na‘1a‘yira Divya Prabandham’, the collective works of the Azhwars of South India. The Azhwars probably lived between the fifth and eighth century A.D. in and around the regions served by rivers like Palar,Cauveri,Vaigai,and Tamrabarani. Drawn from different social backgrounds, they were mystic saints who through their inspired songs first propounded the Sri Vaishnava faith and Visishta‘dvaita‘ philosophy. The Divya Prabandham numbering in all four thousand hymns in Tamil has been termed the Tamil Veda, due to their rich philosophic content and thought harmony with Vedas and Upanishads.By their ecstatic poetry,these saints laid the foundations for the spread of the bhakthi movement in the South,and the enunciation of the Visishta‘dvaita’ philosophy by Sri Ramanuja who came later.Affirming the status of Narayana as the Supreme Being, (Parama-purusha) as authenticated in the Sruti declarations,they sang of Narayana both as immanent in the universe and transcendent and beyond it. They sang of Him in His diverse ‘praka‘ra’s’ or modes, as ‘Parava‘sudeva” in Vaikuntam,in ‘Vyuha’ form in ‘Kshira’bdhi’, in His various ‘Vibhava‘ta‘ra‘s as Rama, Krishna etc.,as ‘Antarya’mi’ in the hearts of all beings, and in ‘Arca" form in the temples erected for Him. To them, God was as real and transcendent in the ‘arca’ form as He is real and immanent in Vaikuntam.Thus all the five forms represent the one and only Supreme Being.In short,they experienced and articulated their experiences of the Lord in all His glory,both in ‘nitya vibhuti’ in the transcendent form,and in ‘lila’ vibhuti’ in the material universe.To them, God was not a mere abstraction or intellectual perception, but a living presence.He lived in them, and they lived in Him,or as one of the Azhwars beautifully phrased it, ‘n.niñSi+nenSin r err

 

Poigai Azhwar,Bhutat Azhwar and Pei Azhwar were the earliest of the Azhwar galaxy numbering in all twelve, and are referred to as

Xi

 

‘Mudhal Azhwars’. They were born on successive days in the same year and month, Poigai Piran the eldest of the three at Kancheepuiam,Bhutat Azhwar the middle one at ‘Thirukkadalmallai’ now known as Mahabalipuram, and Pei Azhwar the last at Mylapore in Madras. They came together for the first time in a place called Thirukkovalur, in the front passage of a house commonly known in Tamilhomes as one stormy night, while taking shelter from the pelting rain. As they were standing in the narrow passage, there being only that much room for them to stand, sharing their experiences of the deities in varioustemplestheyhadvisited,they feltastrangepressure in the darkness,as if there was a fourth person beside them. There indeed was a fourth person amidst them in that damp, dark passage eager to share the company of the three exalted sou1s,and listen to their conversation.Byvirtueoftheirsuperconsciousvision, the Azhwars intuitively understood the true identity of the fourth person as Sriman Narayana. In the ecstasy of their discovery,and being realised beings, eachofthemdescribed theeffectofthatelectrifyingexperience uniquely as he felt it. Poigai Azhwar conjured up a grand mental vision of the divine as the Supreme Master of the phenomenaluniverseby virtue of His ‘ubhaya-vibhuti’ in his ‘nidhi-dya‘sana” or ‘para-bhakthi’ state.Expressing this in poetic diction, he portrayed the world of matter as a lamp, the seven seas as the ghee, and the bright sun as the flame, all this being the manifest form of the Lord sporting the sparkling Sudarsana’. The second sage Bhutat Azhwar looked within his heart true to the Upanishadic script that the heart is to be understood as the principal shrineofthe Supreme Being in the whole universe(‘hnidayam tatvija‘neeya’t visvasya‘yatanam mahat’- Narayana-Suktham). His ‘parajna‘na’ or spiritual arclight beaming on the effulgent divine presence within, moved him to visualise love as the lamp, his deep yearning as the butteroil, and the mind pining away in divine bliss as the flame. The youngestofthem Pei Azhwaractualisedthatexperience, (ma‘nasa sa’ksha‘tka‘ra’) and exulted in the direct vision of Sriman Narayana in the company of His Divine Consort Sri, climbing the very summitofbhakthi,(parama-bhakthi).The Brahman of the Upanishads

 

Xl1

 

 

had revealed Itself to them, and by their hymns, they restated the truths ofthe Sruti in the language of the land,viz.Tamil.The Divya Prabandham,which is generally believed to be an exposition of the three Vaishnava mantras-ashta‘kshari,dvaya’,and carama sloka was thus born.Afterdescribing the cosmic form ofthe Parama-purusha the Sruti also explores the supersubtle Antarya‘mi state and speaks of its seat as the lotus blossom of the heart situated like a citadel in the centre of a city,tiny,crystal pure,with a canopy even tinier, which is free from any kind of sorrow. The reality within that shrine is the object of all spiritual quest. (MahanarayanaUpanishad-Daharavidya‘).Hence it is that the Azhwar who followed the Mudhal Azhwars viz.Thirumazhisai Piran glorified that Paramapurusha acs ‘men

 

Sri Bhutat Azhwar’sIianda‘mThiruvandhadhiisagarlandofmellifluous pasurams surcharged with great spiritua1fervour,and soaked in bliss divine,affirming the ‘parathvam’ of Sriman Narayana, and extolling the concept of‘Antarya‘mi Brahman’ as an avata‘raalso.In Azhwar’s perception,the heart of a devotee of Narayana is an abode as much as Vaikunta is,and in fact so dear to the Lord that it becomes the His most favourite abode relegating the ‘divya-desa‘s’ to the secondary rung in His preference scale. Hence the supplication ofthe Azhwar to the Lord, not to abandon the divys-desa‘s.’ Sleusirnr;ii                                                     ma$sb sr›ns6lnsieosn{gJ’(54). As in the case of the rest ofthe Azhwars, the ‘vibhavavata’ra‘s’ figureprominentlyin Bhutat Azhwar’sprabandham, and among them Sri Vamanavata‘ra’ for the evident reason of the ‘rakshkatva’ or protective instinct so conspicuously displayed, and Sri Krishnavata‘ra’ for the quality of ‘soulabhya ”.Among ‘divya- desa‘s’ Tirumalai and the Lord that abides there, are mentioned in eleven pasurams.The Azhwar calls it the gift ofthe Lord to celestial beings like Brahma,Sivaete.who hasten there everyday vying with one another for the Lord’s worship. The Azhwar scales the very heights of graphic imagery in portraying the ecology and ambience ofthe hills

 

 

atTiruvenkatam,suchastheonedepictedbyhimin onepasuram,where the primates living in the hill rise at dawn, dip in cool flower-laden ponds,andgatherfreshly blossomed flowers to offer to Lord Srinivasa, the Jewel ofTiruvenkatam, in worshipful prayer, drivinghomethepoint that even animals which habit the hills of Tirumalai,are endowed with intelligence and spiritual fervour to set out to worship the Lord there. Other divya-desa‘s like Thiruvarangam, Thirumal-irunjol ai, Tirukkottiyuree. are also addressed with great feeling by the Azhwar. The Azhwar affirms the profound truth that the Lord Who is the quintessence ofthe Vedas, and our only sure-fire passport to liberation

fromthebondageofsamsa‘ra’ is forever with us in the inner shrine of our hearts,and exhorts us to look within,and hold steadfast to the practice of meditating on His names and glory. Azhwaradvises us to take to the sacred Feet ofthe Lord even when all our faculties are in

inert-91),and meditate on His names, assuring us that the Lord’s names are a safety-net and insurance of protection even in this life, ( ñ Ceuenyñ min mñ(yñ—92). He recalls in deep gratitude how he had awakened to the drawing powers ofthe Lord’s sacred Feet, when he was a mere foetus and folded his hands in prayer in the mother’s womb-(  âCmñ  ni                                                                       e Eqn Cgeir Weir-87). Deeply immersed in a state of ‘sa‘dhyabhakthi’ thus, Bhutat Azhwar’s whole being is engulfed in the effulgence of that beatific state, where only the substratum of love remains, love for the Supreme Being that overflows like the current of a river in spate which has breached its banks.

This book just like the earlier one on ‘Sri Poigai Azhwar's Mudhal Thiruvandhadhi’ is a humble attempt of the author to reach out the message of the Azhwars to a larger section of the reading public, especiallythosenot sufficiently well-versed in Tamillanguage, butkeen on gaining a knowledge ofthe philosophical poetry ofthe Azhwars. The pages that follow contain a free translation of ‘Iranda‘m Thiruvandha‘dhi’,and explanatory and anecdotal notes based on the

 

salientaspectsofthe commentary of Sri Peravacha’n Pillar the famous ‘vya‘kya’nakarta"who lived between 1167 and 1262 A.D.,(the one and only oneofhis kind whohasthedistinctionofwritinga commentary in maniprava‘la’ on all the four thousand pasurams) as recapitulated by Sri Krishnaswami Aiangar, Editor ‘Vaishnava Sudarsanam’.

I wish to dedicate this work to the memory of my eldest brother Sri N.Gopalakrishnan, (Formerly ChiefFinancial Controller, Neyveli Lignite Corporation) who was the guiding light of our family , and exemplified in his life, like a true Sri Vaishnavathat he was,immense faith in the Lord, a palpable simplicity and humility of spirit,compassionate nature,and deep attachment to, and veneration for,our spiritual tradition and guru parampara.What little I have accomplished in life has been entirely due to Sriman Narayana’s grace actng through his doting care and guidance.

I am grateful to my younger brother Dr.N.Ranganathan Toronto, Canada, for his kind Foreword. I also place on record my gratitude to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams for their generous financial assiastance enabling the publication of this work. Finally, I am deeply grateful to Sarvasri B.G.Kuki1laya, P.S.Vasuandtheirdedicated band of staff at UniversalPrint Systems for all their help in the design ofthe cover and complexion ofthe book and preparation ofthe inputs.

16 th January, 2002.               N. Rajagopalan.

Besantnagar, Chennai-600090.

 

 

wss•d=•t =o • $› =•$ o=$s•

gs&usñ - Invocation ( Single Invocatory Verse )