AmudhanAr’s IrAmAnusa nUtranthAthi Annotated Commentary in English By: "sampradAya prachAra dhurantharar" SrIrangam SrI V. MAdhavakkaNNan Our Sincere Thanks to the following for their contributions to this ebook: Images contribution: Ramanuja Dasargal at www.pbase.com/svami Neduntheru Sri Mukund Srinivasan eBook assembly: sadagopan.org Smt. Kala Lakshminarayanan CONTENTS TITLE PAGE Introduction 1 Paasuram 1 3 Paasuram 2 7 Paasuram 3 10 Paasuram 4 13 Paasuram 5 15 Paasuram 6 17 Paasuram 7 19 Paasuram 8 25 Paasuram 9 28 sadagopan.org Paasuram 10 30 Paasuram 11 33 Paasuram 12 38 Paasuram 13 42 Paasuram 14 45 Paasuram 15 51 Paasuram 16 52 Paasuram 17 57 Paasuram 18 59 Paasuram 19 62 Paasuram 20 65 Paasuram 21 68 Paasuram 22 71 Paasuram 23 74 Paasuram 24 76 Paasuram 25 78 Paasuram 26 81 Paasuram 27 83 CONTENTS CONT’D. TITLE PAGE Paasuram 28 85 Paasuram 29 88 Paasuram 30 90 Paasuram 31 93 Paasuram 32 95 Paasuram 33 97 Paasuram 34 100 Paasuram 35 102 Paasuram 36 105 Paasuram 37 109 Paasuram 38 112 Paasuram 39 115 Paasuram 40 117 Paasuram 41 122 sadagopan.org Paasuram 42 125 Paasuram 43 128 Paasuram 44 134 Paasuram 45 137 Paasuram 46 139 Paasuram 47 144 Paasuram 48 147 Paasuram 49 150 Paasuram 50 153 Paasuram 51 156 Paasuram 52 160 Paasuram 53 162 Paasuram 54 165 CONTENTS CONT’D. TITLE PAGE Paasuram 55 168 Paasuram 56 171 Paasuram 57 174 Paasuram 58 177 Paasuram 59 181 Paasuram 60 184 Paasuram 61 186 Paasuram 62 189 Paasuram 63 192 sadagopan.org Paasuram 64 194 Paasuram 65 197 Paasuram 66 200 Paasuram 67 203 Paasuram 68 207 Paasuram 69 210 Paasuram 70 213 Paasuram 71 216 Paasuram 72 218 Paasuram 73 221 Paasuram 74 224 Paasuram 75 227 Paasuram 76 231 Paasuram 77 234 Paasuram 78 237 Paasuram 79 240 Paasuram 80 244 Paasuram 81 248 CONTENTS TITLE PAGE Paasuram 82 251 Paasuram 83 254 Paasuram 84 256 Paasuram 85 258 Paasuram 86 262 Paasuram 87 265 Paasuram 88 268 Paasuram 89 271 Paasuram 90 273 Paasuram 91 276 Paasuram 92 282 Paasuram 93 284 Paasuram 94 286 Paasuram 95 288 sadagopan.org Paasuram 96 291 Paasuram 97 294 Paasuram 98 296 Paasuram 99 299 Paasuram 100 302 Paasuram 101 306 Paasuram 102 308 Paasuram 103 310 Paasuram 104 313 Paasuram 105 315 Paasuram 106 318 Paasuram 107 320 Paasuram 108 323 !@ !mEt rama{jay nm@ Let us begin to enjoy the majestic divine glories of ACHAARYA SAARVABHOUMAR Sri Ramanujacharya. May He bless this attempt [though adiyEn is completely disqualified for the same]. Just due to the sadAchaarya sambandham, adiyEn gains strength and commences this task. adiyEn closely follows Sri UttamUr Swami's wonderful vyAkhyAnam. Swami Ramanuja’s unparalleled glories have been sung by Amudhanaar in very sadagopan.org many ways and in different notes in this most wonderful and vine verses. While he did praise Ramanuja’s glories, he [amudhanaar] sings lowly of himself with naichyaanusanthAnam concurrently. The involvement of Ramanuja’s on the sweet AzhwAr’s sreesookthis; Srimad Ramayana, Sri Bhagavad Gita is enlisted here in these verses. Also the scholarship, the logical arguments and saasthric proof with which he [Sri Ramanuja] conquered the others non-vedic and avaidika religions and philosophies; the intense and deep devotion of Emperumaanaar Sri Ramanuja on archA murthys of Sriman Narayana are all glorified herein. The difference and uniqueness of Ramanuja as against the Lord Himself, the achaarya aikaanthyam are also nicely touched upon by Amudhanaar movingly. One may here, read about the glories of acharya and sing; here Amudhanaar saw with his own naked eyes and enjoyed the glories of Emperumaanaar and 1 thus bursts out with tremendous acharya bhakti with all these divinely beautiful verses. Hence this is grander. First seven verses are ubOdhgAtham. Then, Ramanuja’s bhakti for all AzhwArs is mentioned. In the beginning of this work, with two verses, Ramanuja’s special affinity and reverence for the two AzhwArs namely Paraankusa, Parakaala dhivua suris. Both these AzhwArs [Parankusa- Nammaazhwaar; Parakala- Thirumangai Azhwaar] have sung more than 1200 verses each and have immensely helped us with great upakaaram of these wonderful srisukthis which are none other than the four Vedas and six Veda angaas. The rendering of Nammaazhwaar srisookthis and the Uthsavam for him were varied out by Thirumangai Azhwaar himself during his period in Srirangam. Nammaazhwaar has enshrined in his Thiruvaaymozhi the Upanishad meemaamsa saareeraka saasthrA- the essence of Brahma suthra and has sung thousand verses. Also he is the prapanna jana santhAna kooTashthar. Emperumanaar Sri Ramanuja had arranged to have these thousand verses of Nammaazhwaar as well as the thousand verses of Thirumangai AzhwAr [who had begun this uthsavam] sung during the month of maargazhi. Also these two AzhwArs had sadagopan.org taken the roles of Naayaki as Paraankusa, Parakala naayaki and have sung verses in those roles languishing for His love and saving “her”. In view of the foregoing, these two AzhwArs have been sung herein specifically and exclusively. 2 THE FIRST VERSE OF AMUDHANAAR’S IRAAMAANUSA NOORRANTHATHI: 骲ÝÒ ªßÇ ¼©ß̨ۧÔë ªßìÙ©²Ý* É¡¯Ûª­Ó¨Û§- ©ßª²ÝÒ ªß±²Ý* ó¥Õ©¦Ó¨ÛÇ ÷ëÛ¨Û§®²Ý* ©­Ü¡¿­½ëßìÙ- §ßªÛª²Ý² ®¨Û§ õìߪң²Ý* £ìæì®Ó¨Û§ªÛ- ¨ßªÛª²Ý²Ó ®ß¯* ¼¨¤Ý½£! ¼£ß­Üͽ®ßªÛ ó®²Ý ¨ßª¢Ü¡½°. (2) 1 poomannu maathu porunthiya maar_pan pukazmalintha paamannu maaRan adipaNin^ thuynthavan palkalaiyOr thaammanna vantha iraama Nnuchan_chara Naaravindham nNaammanni vaazan^eNY chE!chollu vOmavan naamangaLE 1 sadagopan.org “poomannu mAdhu poRunthiya mArbhan” 3 1. SarvEshwaran is the One who has Periya PiraaTTi MahAlakshmi, (seated on Lotus Flower) permanently residing in His Chest. NammAzhwAr blessed us with the Divine Thiruvaaymozhi which is an excellent description of most auspicious kalyANA guNAs of SarvEshwaran Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan. Sri Ramanuja took refuge and immersed himself at the Lotus feet of Sri SadagOpar- NammAzhwAr. The great scholars, who have studied and mastered various saashthrAs, have realized the greatness of Sri Ramanuja (and his philosophy/ doctrine) and have surrendered to His feet as the only means for them. Oh mind! In order to enables ourselves and let us also be saved by taking refuge at the Lotus Feet of Sri Ramanujacharya, come and let us utter the divine names of Sri Ramanujacharya! COMMENTS BY SRI UTTAMUR SWAMI: AzhwArs were called so due to their immersing themselves in the glories of Thirumaal Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayana. NammaazhwAr calls Him as “num thiruvudai adigaL; ahagillEn iRaium enRu alarmEl mangai uRai maarbhan; numakkum poovin misai nangaikkum naathan; Thiru naaraNan thaaL; ninnANai ThiruvaaNai” thus declaring everywhere Sriman Narayana as LaksmI Pathi and sadagopan.org paying his obeisance to them as Dhivya Dampathi; enjoying as one Divine pair. vEri maaRaadha poomEliruppAL vinai theerkka- in order to dissolve all our sins, She resides eternally in His divine chest. Nammazhwar’s verses exhibit His and Her kalyANa guNas; parathva sowlabhyas and thus sang thousand verses on Them reaching the final crescendo attaining His Lotus Feet gloriously. Thus he is above all sages and other AzhwArs as well. He is in our Acharya parampara and thus we are blessed with such great Guru parampara from NammazhwAr as Prapanna jana santhAna kooTasthar- contemplated Sri Ramanuja and enjoyed reciting these verses of his again and again and also arranged for the Araiyar Uthsavam for the same. Thus he has become the idhatthaay for Thiruvaaymozhi. That is the greatness of Our Ramanuja. Not only that. He had transformed the kuDhrushTis to suDhrushTis. He had the ability to change them by quoting the appropriate vedic hymns and Vedanta 4 saasthrAs. The different streams and rivers of all fields of learning take birth in him like the waterfalls from the Thirumala mountain. This in order to establish the divine words of SatakOpa [Parankusa] and grant to the world, he took birth as Ramanuja and if one takes refuge at his feet, [he] would be blessed with clarity in understanding ubhaya vEdantha namely the Vedas, Vedanthas and the Tamil Veda- Dhivya prabandhams and be blessed with the adherence to the saathrAs in anushtAnam as well and the best of life here and there. Contemplating his such wonderful glories in our minds, let us utter his divine names [understanding their meanings] Ramanuja, YathirAja, Emperumanaar, Udayavar, Sri Bhashyakarar, etc. Since his birth, he was given the name of Ramanujan. This name is also addressed to Lakshmana and Lord Krishnan [Rama + anujan = Rama’s younger brother]. Our Ramanuja is blessed with great anubhavams and with kaimkarya ruchi and hence he was LakshmaNo Lakshmi Sampanna; Sri Sampannar. In Yathiraja sapthathi SamithOdhayaSankarAdhigarvai: svabalaadhuGrutha yaadhava prakaaSa: | aCharOpithavAn sruthErapArThAn nanu rAmAvaraja: sthra yEva bhUya: || sadagopan.org Swamy Desikan equates Ramanuja as KaNNan [Krishna]. bharathAra param namO[S]sthu thasmai praThamOdharaNAya bhakti bhAjAm. wherein he is equated to Bharata; Since he also has tremendous acharya, azhwaAr bhakti, he is Sathrugnan; [serving and His devotees / BhAgawathas] After Rama, he is the one who performed the way of life in accordance with saasthrAs; established dharma; and varNAsrama dharma; saraNAgatha rakshaNam [saving those who surrendered to him]. Thus he is Rama’s anujanm in all respects. He appeared after AndAL [who is also called Raamaa-RamyathE ithi Raamaa:] He followed the foot steps of Periya PiraaTTi Mahalakshmi [the most compassionate One who does not at all know punishment; who knows only daya, and forgiveness for all our trespasses] and accepts all those who take refuge 5 in him with infinite mercy and daya on them. Like SrI. Hence Rama’s anujan. [Rama- Mahalakshmi] Whenever we enjoy reading this name Ramanuja, all the above glories of his name should be contemplated. palkalaiyOr- it means those who have learnt different saasthrAs; vedanthas; Vedas etc.