2.1. Parimelazhagar Urai Introduction (Part 1) - Endless & Indestructible happiness.

Before we begin any task, it is in Tamil Culture to say a prayer. We need Divine Grace for things to fall in the right place. We are about to enter a sacred book. So I request you to take a few seconds to send a small prayer to the Higher Power  - what we are about to understand should be absorbed in the right manner in our minds. We pray that this knowledge will put us on the right path in our life and we will reach our destination (Veedu) with a pleasant journey all along.

I was hooked on to the book after reading the introduction and it became one of the best parts of my journey. I now pray that the right words will fall at the right place to convey to you, the meaning that I have absorbed.

A quick recap: Thirukkural is based on the Purudartham – that is Aram, Wealth, Pleasure and Self Actualization (refer earlier post on Our life in 1330 couplets). The book contains three big sections called Paal on the topics: Aram, Wealth and Pleasure but there is no separate section for Self Actualization. Self Actualization is also called Veedu in Tamil (Veedu literally means home. In pursuing self actualization goals, we are essentially going back to our roots. We go back to where we came from).

Thiruvalluvar begins his work with an introduction portion (called Payiraviyal) consisting of four Chapters – Praise of God, Importance of Rain, Significance of Saints, and Aram Reinforcement (Kadavul Vaazhthu, Vaan Sirappu, Neethar Perumai, Aran Valiyuruthal). When we read these four chapters, we will have a good idea of what the rest of the book is about. Praise of God will serve as a good introduction to the Paal on Aram, Importance of Rain was written as an introduction to the Paal on Porul. Surprisingly, ‘Significance of Saints’ is an introduction to the Paal on Pleasure. Saints are people who have renounced everything. Only a person who has enjoyed something to the fullest can get bored of it and give it up. Saints are the people who have, in some previous birth, mastered the skills in ‘pleasure seeking’ and therefore were able to let go of it. They are the authority on the subject. You see, the minimum requirement for a teacher to teach elementary education should be - the completion of elementary education. It is my humble opinion that the chapter on Aram Reinforcement was written as an introduction to Veedu. There is a wide debate about who wrote the Payiraviyal, some say Thiruvalluvar did not write it and it was entirely the work of Parimelazhagar (henceforth P.A). It has been established in my previous post that Thiruvalluvar and P.A. were united at the Unarvu level (Refer post: Should Thirukkural be memorized) so it doesn’t matter if P.A. or Thiruvalluvar wrote it. It’s all the same to us.  

P.A. took up the job of writing an explanation (an explanation for a main book is called Urai) for Thirukkural. An Urai need not have any original idea. But Parimelazhagar breaks this tradition and writes an introduction for his Urai (called Urai payiram). It is very rare that an author of Urai will write an introduction, this maybe the only rarest instance.

Just as his Guru, P.A. is a man of few words. Each and every word is important. Without necessity he will not put a word. It is in the culture of Tamilians to not waste anything, even words!

In order to understand how important it is to pay attention to every word, and how these authors have packed a ton of meaning into every word, I will, only for this section, produce a word by word meaning.

This is the starting line on P.A.’s Urai:

Explanation:

The world is divided into living and non living things. Living things are further classified as those that can move (Sangamam in Tamil) and those that cannot move (Thavaram in Tamil). Living beings are also differentiated on the basis of the number of ways they experience the world (refer earlier post on Our life in 1330couplets). Humans experience world in 6 ways (touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing), the sixth sense is called manam a Sukuma sense that cannot be touched or seen but its working can be felt. Manam makes humans record events of all lives (from all births) and helps humans to engage in logical reasoning (tharka arivu). We can think and plan our life. It looks like Manam is centered in the heart area. When we are struck with grief we have heaviness in the heart area, when are happy we feel light in the heart area. So we can use anumana pramanam (Refer: How true is truth) to say that manam is centered in the heart area.

The purpose of our current existence on this earth is to live out our vinai. (vinai in Tamil is better known as Karma. I will use the Tamil word vinai, to refer to the effects of our past actions). To live out our vinai, we are blessed with a physical body. Our body is called Thanu. The effects of our past actions in the previous birth determines the kind of body we have taken in this life. Each of us have been given instruments such as nose, ear, eyes etc also called as Karunam, and we have been allotted a place to live out our vinai. That is, we are born in a particular country for a specific reason. That place is called Bhuvanam. The physical objects that we are blessed with in order to live out our experiences, are called Bogam. Once our vinai is over, we will leave our Thanu, Karana, Bhuvana, Bogam and move on.

Because of the presence of Manam, man always searched for ways to better his life. He wanted to be a better person tomorrow, than what he was yesterday.

He searched and found that there is a state of life which is higher than our human existence, a much happier state of mind. He found that such a place is called Padam. Only happiness exists here. Many such Padams exist. Indira Padam, Brahma Padam, Shiva Padam, Vishnu Padam and so on. Man even found out how to get there.

Only humans have that possibility of planning and becoming something better than the current existence. Eg: Humans can plan and become a Deva (a more evolved form of existence). A cow or an ant cannot think and become a human.

So in this first line, Parimelazhagar says that, (in order to reach) Padams such as Indira Padam etc. Etc refers to other Padams.

Now, the first line continues…

Explanation

Reaching Padams did not leave a man happy. When his vinai was over, the existence in Padam was also over. Man was clever, he wanted a place where there was permanent, unlimited, never ending happiness. He searched hard and succeeded and found the existence of Veedu. It can be understood as our final destination. After several births, we finally reach our home.

This is the crucial part: Veedu is roughly characterized by two aspects a) Never ending happiness and b) a never ending place - As in, we don’t have to leave the place when the time is up. In Padams, we have to leave when our vinai is over. But in Veedu there is no question of leaving. It is forever.

We are taught to believe that nothing in creation is meant to be permanent. Is it even possible to think of such a thing as permanent and never ending happiness ? Apparently, such a state exists, and it called reaching God or Veedu.

So P.A. says, (In order to reach Padams) and a place called veedu,  that is indestructible and gives endless happiness…

The first line continues…

Explanation

A person can get rich by winning a lottery. But he will not be able to teach someone how to become rich. Only someone who has done the hard work and earned richness can give guidance to others. Similarly, some people get to Veedu by accident. Such people cannot teach others how to get there. Only someone who has planned their life in a certain way and achieved Veedu can teach others. So P.A. says, he is going to give instructions to someone who is willing and who is capable of adopting a certain set of Principles in their life. For those who are not ready to follow any Principles, this is of no use.

The first line continues… 

Explanation

Here P.A. says that learned elders have taken four broad categories under which the Principles will be laid down. We have seen the categories in the earlier post (Purudartham) as Aram, Wealth, Pleasure, Veedu.

To sum it up, P.A.’s first two lines tell us that Learned elders have taken up four broad topics called Aram, Wealth, Pleasure, Veedu, to lay down the path that guarantees Padams such as Indiran etc and Veedu which is characterized by endless and indestructible happiness, for human beings who are capable of living a Principled life.

This finishes the first two lines of the Introduction. I feel I must stop here and allow time for the message to sink in.
Just two lines need so much explanation. But that’s the way to read these books. We can jump directly into the Kurals and rush through all of them without these introductions, but that’s not going to help us much. Our Guru always says it’s alright to go slow, whatever little we read we have to get an in-depth understanding. That’s the way our ancestors taught. It’s called Marabu Kalvi (Traditional Way of transferring knowledge across generations).

Never ending happiness, is that even possible? Isn’t happiness the ultimate goal of our search in our lives.

Forget never-ending, even temporary happiness is not guaranteed today. Happiness is highly misunderstood but widely sought after. We have been running up and down, crossed oceans, moved to countries, tattooed pierced & injected our bodies, ran behind lust (lusting behind humans and even animals these days), ingested drugs, alcohol, killed animals and plants, and have tried so hard to fit in with the society, kicked others to climb the corporate ladder of success, squeezed ourselves to generate tons of money, spent it in a way others can see that we have it all -- all in search of happiness. I don’t know if we can look around and see if there’s anyone who’s truly achieved happiness at the end of it all. We are living in an age where iconic people are falling into depression, committing suicide and dying a lonely death. We have to admit, as a human race, we really don’t know how to be happy.

So, this piece in Parimelazhagar’s introduction touched me because here we have way that guarantees 100% never ending happiness. Not ordinary happiness but a never ending one. It seems too good to be true. But, these are words of a Yogi, not some random person on the road, words that have stood the test of time. These are the kind of people who will not let even an iota of lie in their lives. Their ordinary words itself carries lot of truth. When they say “uruthi” they really mean it. They lay it down as an instructional guide for our life that will work for all. That, to me, is science.

If this doesn’t make us pick up the book and read, I don’t know what else can save us.