Ananya Bhakthi...

Few words in are repeated in the Ancient Hindu scriptures that give un-paralleled meaning. Words that must be contemplated about and constant effort must be made to retain it in our living memory.

One such word is 'Ananya' the word is as I was told by my Grandfather from whom, I learnt its importance, is very hard to translate in any other language.

Its mostly and most importantly used in scriptures to represent the emotion that once must have towards the Lord- 'Ananya Bhakthi' is the most widely uses phrase, Bhakthi of 'not-separateness'('our-ness') however, I was reminded, Tamil much to its credit has this word- ayalAr (aSalAr-in colloquial Tamil). 'avan- enna asalara? Could be translated into 'Is he an outsider?' So the basic thing that the many divine texts tell us, is to treat the Lord as our own, not as an outsider(asalAr, anya)

The word is mentioned so many times in the Bhagavadgita. -'AnanyAshchinthanto mAm', 'Ananya bhakthi..' 'Ananya-eva yogena'' etc...
Just goes to mention the importance Indian Culture emphasis on Ananya-Bhakthi!

Sri Nammazhwar

This is is the first post of my new Blog. I would like to begin to write about a Divine incarnation, who incarnated not as a supernatural God-Avatar, but as a Devotee to show us the path of Bhakthi.

Historically very little is known about Sri Nammalwar. Its only through Vaishnavite hagiography people quote little about his life.

According to historical scholars, he might have lived some time between 6-9 century AD. Traditional scholars might quote a date close to 5000 years back but that does not hold in a historical perspective.

Majority of things that we know about Him are through his own works and a small but celebrated work by his Devotee and an Alwar himself Sri. Madhurakaviyar.

Sri Nammalwars greatest poem is called the Thiruvaimozhi - might translate it as Divine verses. These verses are considered to be the greatest literature ever produced since the Vedas. And it is considered a Tamil rendering of the Vedas. vEdam tamizh seida mAran sadagOpan... ('The One who made the Vedas in Tamil') says Madhurakavi Alwar such is the beauty and divinity of the verses.

The work - or should we call it one! Since it doesn't appear to have  been composed by mere intellect - as the Great ones say. It seems to have flowed out like divine nectar out of his hallowed lips. It is an 'Anthadhi'
(antha + aadi) metre of songs, i.e. the ending words of  the first verse becomes the first words of the second and so on. Thiruvaimozhi is an Andhadhi of 1000 such verses! grouped into 100s called 'Pathu (tens)'.

Sri Nammazhwar never mentions any deity till almost 80-90 verses in Thiruvaimozhi, all verses till then are all considered to be the glories of the para-brahman  the God beyond the deity-hood if it may be called. The first deity He sings glories about is of Sri Thiruvegadathan! (The lord of Thirumalai)