Have you ever tried to give a medicine to a little kid? They show tantrums to pop in a pill!
But obviously – A medicinal tablet is anything but sweet! And yet it is one of the things that can cure us all. Kids know that a medicine can cure them of pain and fever, and yet they cannot digest a sour-bitter pill. So, the pharma has come up with a nice looking capsule. The core medicine is wrapped inside and when taken, the bitterness is never known and it helps give the relief we need.
Most of us are like the kids. We want to learn lot of things, but are not willing to learn it the hard, rigorous way. Is there anyone who can guide us into understanding the ‘Supreme Reality’ & at the same time, deliver the message in an appealing way?
Yes, not one, but many who have written profound texts and compositions to give us the knowledge of the Thathvam. We also actually need someone who can lead us into implementing the procedure to attain the knowledge. But who?
Andal.
Andal went door to door and woke everyone into God-realization. Each day she spontaneously sang one song. They are like diamonds and pearls. We must understand them and practice them.
The poems guide us towards the Lotus Feet of the Supreme Being. They teach us how to prayer, whom to pray, and what to ask in a prayer. This is something we all do not know well. Andal explains the efficacy of each action and gives us a reason to follow it. She convinces us and implores us fondly 😊 She not only teaches us, she does it herself to show the results.
Andal’s compositions are very powerful and excellent:
A poem is said to be classic only when it possesses some distinct features. If a poem is merely wordy or rhythmic with not much meaning, it is the lowest form of poetry. If it has words with equal amount of meaning, then it is mediocre. But if a composition uses minim words to express a deep, profound meaning not seen superficially, then such a composition is a ‘sa:tvikam’– excellent kind of poetry.
The great epic Ra:ma:yanam is that way. Superficially Ra:ma:yanam is merely a fairy tale with characters for a hero, heroine, a villain, some good and bad people with a war and happy ending!
This is very similar to a movie we see daily. After watching them, the movies and its stories always vanish from our memories. We do not remember nor do we feel much nostalgic or emotional about them. But Ra:ma:yanam is not that way. The epic in its essence and poetry form has survived for millions of years and still remains in our hearts.
Such works which expresses profound meaning beyond what is seen outwardly are called classic-literature. Thiiruppa:vai is one such a literature which has a story on its periphery but gives deeper, philosophical insight of realities of life as found in the Ve:dam
But what are the realities of life?
We all are aware of the common word LIFE. Life is journey of the soul through a body. Anybody. If the soul leaves the body, then there is no life any more. We have to make the journey happy. The journey is full of ups and downs, hurdles and happiness, insults and praises, rains and sunshine’s. These are the realities of life.
How to face them, how to cross them and how to reach the goal ? What is the goal? What are the things we need to identify for a journey? If we are able to find explanations to these questions, then we have known life in its true sense and purpose.
Where can we find answers to them?
As humans we do not possess the qualities to tell about the correct “way of life” – because we are limited in knowledge, and we have a very short lifespan that is insufficient to learn the vast Truth! And so, such realities of life, have to be explained by Ve:das alone. And in Vedas too, there is a section called “antham” which tells good, beautiful things specifically necessary for us. That is called “Ve:da:ntham”. Someone needs to explain to us this Ve:da:ntham in simple words.
Andal has explained about them in Thiruppa:vai. But sadly we are not ready to hear even these songs. Are we? We are more interested in hearing about how to fulfill our materialistic desires. But somewhere deep inside, we also wish that the actual secrets of a good journey are told!
That is exactly what Andal does for us. She wove a beautiful story called Thiruppa:vai over the difficult concepts of ve:dam. The deep meanings of the compositions tell us about the journey of the soul, while the outer meaning is an interesting tale of how the Gopikas reach Krishna to get their desire fulfilled.
Priyam, Hitham – We need both. So in other words, the compositions are like a Medical Capsule.
-From the discourse of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji
