This iraNDAm tiruvandAdi is in the third Ayiram and second in iyarpa as arranged by Sreeman nAdamunihaL.
poihai AzhwAr’s prabandha is called mudal tiruvandAdi and boodattAzhwAr’s is called iraNDAm tiruvandAdi as this follows next.
The three states of Bakti are called paraBakti, parajnAna and parama Bakti. paraBakti is the state where one has a strong desire to see Him (sAkShAtkAra). The fulfillment of the desire i.e. the real sAkShAtkAra is called parajnAna.
The thirst to have this vision without any break is called paramaBakti. (or)
paraBakti—When one feels happy when He is near and sad when He is away.
parajnAna—the complete sakShAtkAra.
paramaBakti—To feel like fish out of water on getting separated from Him. (or)
‘darSanam paraBaktih syAt parajnAnam tu sangamah puvar viSlEShaBeerutvam paramA Bakti ruchyatE’.
paraBakti—darSanam (to see Him)
parajnAnam—sangamah (samslESha with Him)
parama Baktih—fear of viSlESha.
Even though all the three AzhwArs had all these three states in each one of them one will be predominant that the other two.
poihai AzhwAr has more paraBakti than parajnAna and paramaBakti.
boodattAzhwAr had more parajnAna than paraBakti and paramaBakti.
pEyAzhwAr has more of paramaBakti than paraBakti and parajnAna.
This statement does not in any way discriminate their love towards emberumAn. This is revealed through their prabandhas and interpreted by our AchAryas.
One should not argue about whose Bakti is greater than whose. Everything is Bagavat sankalpa alone. Though these states occur during mukti only BagavAn’s nirhEtuka kaTAkSha on AzhwArs makes this possible. Some AchAryas may request emberumAn to give them these states as Sree rAmAnujAchArya did in his SaraNAgati gadyam. ‘paraBakti parajnAna parama Baktyaika swaBAvam mAm kuruShva’.
tiruppoihai AzhwAr in his mudal tiruvandAdi had sAkshAtkAra of emberumAn’s swaroopa, roopa, guNa, viBooti etc. in his paraBakti dAsa through the grace of emberumAn’s nirhEtuka kaTAkSha. samsAris feel this jeeva is independent and jagat gives permanent pleasure etc. due to their ajnAna. So AzhwAr lights a lamp made up of Boomi etc. This light revealed the truth that emberumAn, the Lord of uBaya viBootis, is the SEShee; the swaroopa of Atma is to remain as SESha to Him. Further it sheds light on the fact that kainkarya at His tiruvaDi alone is the paramapuruShArtha and the upAya is He alone.
Both boodattAzhwAr and pEyAzhwAr were present when poihai AzhwAr lighted the lamp. Because of that prakASa he developed parajnAna in which he had sAkShAtkAra of His swaroopa, roopa etc. He sings these prabandhas in order to make the samsAris understand and experience the same.
taniyan
enpriravi teera irainjinEn innamudA
anbE tahaLi aLittAnai nanpuhazh SEr |
seedattAr muttukkaL sErum kaDanmallai
boodattAr ponnangazhal ||
He says I worship the AzhwAr’s tiruvaDi in order to get rid of samsAra which involves repeated births and deaths ‘toNDarkku amuduNNa son mAlaihaL sonnEn’—tiruvAimozhi. bootdattAzhwAr has sung nectar-like prabandha (innamudA).
‘nan puhazh sEr’ and muttukkaL SErum’ are adjectives qualifying tirukkaDan mallai.
nanpuhazh sEr—The divya dESa became famous because of the presence of kaDan mallai talaSayana perumAL and the birth of boodattAzhwAr.
muttukkaL SErum—There are three types of pearls—1. The real pearl in the sea, 2. The emberumAn residing there ‘vAnavarAl vaNangappaDum muttu’—iraNDAm tiruvandAdi 3. The muktas like boodattAzhwAr.
The name boodattAzhwAr comes from the root Boo—sattAyam—to exist. He felt his existence is due to his singing the Lord.
iraNdAm thiruvandhAdhi
anbE tahaLiyA ArvamE neyyAha
inburuhu Sindai iDutiriyA nanburuhi |
jnAna suDarviLakkETTrinEn nAraNarku
jnAna tamizh purinda nAn || One ||
AzhwAr says he lights a lamp made up of anbu; Arvam as vil and inburuhu Sindai as the wick. anbu, Arvam, inbu are words denoting different states of Bakti with small differences between each. AzhwAr is happy that due to His anugraha he had the experience of all these states of Bakti. Therefore he wants to do kainkarya of lighting a paramajnAna suDar viLakku.
The essence of this pASura is these stages of love grow steadily in him till it gets overflowed in the form of this prabandha. He lights this lamp in order to illuminate the Atma swaroopa and paraswaoopa.
nanburuhi—nanbu here means Atma, because it has jnAna and Ananda and also because it is ananyArha SEShaBoota to emberumAn.
tadguNasArattvAttu tadvyapadESah prAjnavat’—brahmasootra.
jnAna tamizh purinda—is used in the past tense. Since BagavAn is satyasankalpa and AzhwAr has firm sankalpa to write this prabandha, he feels the task is almost completed before he starts it.
jnAnattAl nanguNarndu nAraNantan nAmangaL
tAnattAl maTTravan pEr sATTrinAl vAnattu |
aNiyamarar AkkuvikkumaKdanrE nangaL
paNiyamarar kOmAn parisu || Two ||
AzhwAr says he is going to get paramapada by chanting His names through this prabandha. emberumAn puts those Baktas who chant His names among the nityasooris like tiruvanandAzhwAn, garuDAzhwAn, viSwaksEnar and so on whose permanent abode is paramapada.
nAraNan tan nAmangaL—Some of the names describe His tirumEni such as puNDareekAkShah, peetAmbarah, SreevatsavakShah, sArangee, chakrapANi etc.
maTTravan pEr—Some names describe His viBooti such as lOkAdhyakShah, surAdhyakShah, jagatpatih, etc.
parisu narumalarAl pArkaDalAn pAdam
purivAr puhapperuvar pOlAm purivArhaL |
tollamarar kELvi tulangoLiSEr tOTTrattu
nallamarar kOmAn nahar || Three ||
AzhwAr says those who are attracted by His guNas, sing His glories, offer flowers fresh and fragrant at His tiruvaDi get paramapada. He lies in tiruppArkaDal only to hear the woes of indrAdi dEvas who cannot enter paramapada since they are anyaprayOjanas. They have only heard about it but have not seen it (amarar kELvi). They do not take Him as upAya but resort to japa, tapa, etc. ‘yad brahma rudra pururhootamupair durApam nityam nivritti nirataih sanakAdiBirvA’—Sree vaikuNTha stava. ‘kETTamarar vETTu taLarvAhum andarattAn’—piLLai perumAL aiyangAr in tiruvEngaDamalai ‘atyarkAnala deeptam tatsthAnam viShNOrmahAtmanah’— viShNu’s paramapada is more brilliant than sun and fire. Therefore AzhwAr says ‘tulangoLi SEr tOTTrattu’.
naharizhaittu nittilattu nANmalarkoNDu AngE
tihazhum maNi vayiram sErttu niharillA |
paingamalam Endi paNindEn panimalarAL
angam valangoNDAn aDi || Four ||
AzhwAr says ‘I have installed Him in my heart with great love and worship Him.’
naharizhaittu—The capital city where the kings stay is called ‘nahar’. Similarly the Lord of all, emberumAn stays in the hearts of Baktas. Since boodattAzhwAr is a gem of all AzhwArs He stays in his heart.
If one wants to meet a king he would take a special gift with him. Similarly AzhwAr takes a golden lotus whose petals are pearls and gems and whose pollens are diamonds to offer at His tiruvaDi. (niharillA paingamalam Endi paNindEn).
The SAstra mentions 8 kinds of flowers to be offered to Him. They are ahimsa (non violence), indriya nigraha (control of senses), sarva Boota dayA (compassion to all creatures), porumai (patience), jnAnam (knowledge), tapas (austerity), dhyAnam (meditation), satyam (truth). ‘ahimsa prathamam puShpam indriya nigrahah paraBoota dayA puShpam kShamA puShpam viSEShatah jnAnam puShpam tapah puShpam dhyAnam puShpam tathaiva cha satyam aShTavidham puShpam viShNoh preetikaram BavEt’ snEham, sangam, kAmam are all stages of Bakti symbolized as parts of a flower.
nittilam—is the tamizh version of nistalam meaning pearl. ‘adhi vidrumamasta nistalALeerucham’ — Sree koorattAzhwAn uses the word nistala to mean pearl in Sree varadarAja stava.
aDimoonril ivvulaham anraLandAi pOlum
aDimoonru irandu avani koNDAi paDininra |
neerOda mEni neDumAlE ninnaDiyai
yArOda vallAr arindu || Five ||
AzhwAr begged three feet of land in order to measure the three worlds. But instead of doing it He measured all the upper worlds with one tiruvaDi and all the lower worlds with another tiruvaDi, where to keep the third one? He placed it on mahAbali’s head and pushed him to pAtALa lOka.
Oh! emberumAn! It would be fair if You had measured the three worlds Boo lOka, antarikSha and swargalOka with Your tiruvaDi after begging three feet of land. But did You measure them? No. What You intend to do was one thing and what You did is another! Why? Well! Nobody can find an answer since You are swatantra.
In truth BagavAn accomplishes what He desires. He would have decided to do it even before He begged. But AzhwAr puts this question only to show the fact that no one can really know Him.
arindu aindum uLLaDakki Aimalar koNDu Arvam
serinda manattarAi sevvE arnindavan tan |
pErOdi Ettum perundavattOr kANbarE
kArOda vaNNan kazhal || Six ||
Bagavad viShaya is more enjoyable than worldly viShaya; the former leads to mOkSha while the latter leads to samsAra; the former gives permanent Ananda while the other gives temporary and meager pleasures—thus if one analyses and discriminates what to take and what to leave he will certainly choose the first and turn away from the worldly pleasures. He will have no difficulty in controlling the indriyas from wandering among worldly pleasures. He will collect the most beautiful fragrant flowers to offer at His tiruvaDi and worship with pure love. ‘SeNbaha mallihaiyOdu sengazhuneer iruvATchi enbahar poovum koNarndEn’—periyAzhwAr. He will always chant His names and meditate on His guNa chEShTitas. Such fortunate men shall certainly reach His tiruvaDi.
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘ninnaDiyai yArOda vallAr arindu’. Now he says only those who are like those described above know Him, not the others who are averse to Bagavad viShaya.
kazhaleDuttu vAimaDittu kaNsuzhanru mATTrAr
azhaleDutta sindaiyarAi anja tazhaleDutta |
pOrAzhi EndinAn ponmalar sEvaDiyE
OrAzhi nenjE uhandu || Seven ||
AzhwAr tells his mind to seek His tiruvaDi and meditate on them.
Sreeman nArAyaNa took vAmana avatAra and begged 3 feet of land from mahAbali. When mahAbali gave Him the land He started measuring them with trivikrama form. namuchchi, the son of mahAbali, came running to Him and said ‘What is it that You are doing? He caught hold of His tiruvaDi and prevented Him from measuring.
BagavAn—‘Oh! namuchchi! Leave Me! Why do you prevent Me form measuring what I have received as dAna?
namuchchi—‘But You are cheating!’
emberumAn—‘so do you deny the dAna given by your father to a poor brahmachAri?’
namuchchi—‘My father has fallen in to the trap without knowing Your intention’.
emberumAn—‘Then why should You call Me a cheat?’
namuchchi—‘If You are really good, measure the land with the form in which You begged and received the dAna’.
emberumAn—‘Well! Every moment the body changes. It is now, in this moment, is different from what it was the previous moment! If it is so how can I measure with my previous Sareera?’
Still namuchchi did not leave His tiruvaDi. emberumAn lifted His tiruvaDi with namuchchi, whirled him in the air and dropped him down. ‘ennidu mAyam ennappan arindilan munnaiya vaNNamE koNDaLavAi enna mannu namuchchiyai vAnil suzhaTTriya minnu muDiyanE’—periyAzhwAr. What periyAzhwAr said boodattAzhwAr expressed briefly in this pASura.
mATTrAr—namuchchi and other foes. They trembled when they saw Him biting lips and rolling eyes.
tazhaleDutta pOrAzhi EndinAn—When the most charming brahmachAri lad begged him sweetly the Boomi mahAbali could not refuse him. But his guru SukrAchArya found out who this lad was, warned the king not to give the dAna. But the king did not pay heed to his words and started poring water into His hands. The AchArya entered the hole and blocked it. vAmana took the darBa grass and pierced the hole (eyes). SukrAchArya became blind. mahAbali gave Him the piece of land. ‘Sukkiran kaNNai turumbAl kiLariya chakkarakkaiyan’—periyAzhwAr. karudumiDam porudu kainninra chakkarattan’—tiruvAimozhi. Whenever emberumAn comes down to earth chakrAyudha comes with Him, and whatever He does chakrAyudha helps Him. koorattAzhwAn in sudarSana Sataka says ‘kruta nayana nayavyAhatir BArgavasya----chakradhArA’—the chakrAyudha that blinded SukrAchArya. Therefore AzhwAr says ‘tazhaleDutta pOrAzhi EndinAn’.
kaN Suzhanru—emberumAn rolled His eyes out of anger (or) namuchchi’s eyes rolled out of fear.
uhandu unnai vAngi oLi nirangoL kongai
ahanguLira uNNenrAL Avi uhandu |
mulaiyuNbAi pOlE muninduNDAi neeyum
alai paNbAlAnamaiyAl anru || Eight ||
kamsa was afraid kriShNa, dEvaki’s son, would kill him. So he sent many rAkShasas to kill Him. One of them is pootana who came to AyarpADi disguised as yaSOda pirATTi. She took kaNNa on her lap and gave her breasts to suck. kriShNa sucked her life along with milk and killed her.
Since she came disguised as yaSOda, she imitated her motherly love too (uhandu) ‘oru mulaiyai vAi maDuttu oru mulaiyai neruDikkoNDu iru mulaiyum murai muraiyA Engi Engi iruduNAyE’— periyAzhwAr.
‘nandan perappeTTra nambee! nAnuhandu uNNum amudE! endai perumAnE! uNNai en ammam sEmamuNNAyE—periyAzhwAr. ‘uruhi en kongaiyin teembAl OTTandu pAindiDuhinra maruvi kuDangAlirundu vAi mulai uNNa nee vArAi’—periyAzhwAr. pootana imitated the love of yaSOda; kaNNan imitated the love of a child and happily drank ‘uhandu mulai uNbAi pOlE’. alai paNbAl—paNbu-guNa; alai paNbu—the overflowing guNa—i.e. kAruNya, soulaBya etc. How can killing pootana be called paNbu? Sree rAma said ‘mitra BAvEna sampvAptam na tyajEyam kathanchana—Even if he feigns friendship I shall not abandon him. In this case pootana feigned His mother’s love but kriShNa does not say ‘na tyajEyam’. Instead He kills her! The reason is by killing one jeeva He saves Himself which in turn gives existence to all.
anradukaNDanjAda Aichchi unakkirangi
ninru mulai tanda inneermaikku anru |
varan muraiyAl neeyaLanda mAkaDal soozh jnAlam
perumuraiyAl eidumO pErttu || Nine ||
When yaSOda saw the huge sprawling figure of pootana on the floor she knew what had happened. Immediately she picks up her child and feeds Him her milk (instead of feeling an aversion after witnessing the scene).
‘pEichchi mulaiyuNDa pinnai ippiLLaiyai pESuvadanjuvanE’—tirumangai AzhwAr. But she was not afraid of Him. Instead she gave Him her breasts with even more love ‘pEichchi pAluNDa perumAnai pErndeDuttu Aichchi mulai koDuttAL anjAdE’—moonrAm tiruvandAdi.
When I compare her act and Your act of measuring the worlds, I feel hers is greater than Yours.
By this AzhwAr says yaSOda’s love towards emberumAn has no comparison.
varan muraiyAl nee aLanda—varam—great becomes varan in tamizh. What is so great about His measuring the worlds?—His swa swAmi sambandha. He took possession of what is His i.e. He is the swAmi and the jeeva and jagat are His property. That is the reason He begged the asura taking a dwarf form.
If Your achievement and yaSOda’s act are placed in two pans of a balance, hers weighs more.
pErttanai mAsahaDam piLLaiyAi maNNirandu
kAttanai palluyirum kAvalanE Ettiya |
nAvuDaiyEn poovuDaiyEn ninnuLLi ninramaiyAl
kAvaDiyEn paTTa kaDai || Ten ||
Of all the viBavAvatAras AzhwArs like kriShNAvatAra and trivikrama; of all the archA moortis they like tiruvEngaDanAtha.
kaNNan kicked the huge cart haunted by an asura sent by kamsa to kill Him. The cart was shattered to thousand pieces and the asura fell down dead.
I may not have as much love towards You as yaSOda pirATTi has but I seek Your tiruvaDi alone as rakShaka since I have total trust in You. I am carrying fresh chosen flowers to seek You and worship Your tiruvaDi. I am sure You will shower Your anugraha on me. Please save me from worshipping dEvatAntara (any other gods), and seeking upAyAntara (any other means) and from desiring prayOjanAntara (any other fruit than Your kainkarya).
kaDai ninru amarar kazhal tozhudu nALum
iDai ninra inbattarAvar puDai ninra |
neerOda mEni neDumAlE ninnaDiyai
yArOda vallAr avar || Eleven ||
AzhwAr feels sorry for the samsAris who worship dEvatAntaras (other than Sreeman nArAyaNa) and get meager Pala like swargAnanda which is both alpa (small) and asthira (temporary).
kaDai ninra—kaDai also mean gate. The statement means those fools who stand at the gate of the dEvatAntaras get meager Pala (or) kaDai means ‘low’—those small gods whom they worship for the sake of meager Pala.
iDai ninra inbattar Avar—iDai ninra—the Ananda of paramapada is the uppermost limit whereas the Ananda of BoolOka is the lowest limit. In between is the swarga lOka where the AnandAnuBava is in between. Those who worship dEvatas get swargAnanda anuBava.
avarivarenrillai aravaNaiyAn pAdam
evarvaNangi EttAdAr eNNil pavarum |
sezhungadirOn oNmalarOn kaNNudalOn anrE
tozhundahaiyAr nALum toDarndu || Twelve ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said people do not gain anything by worshipping dEvatAntaras. In this pASura he states even those dEvatas worship Him alone. So they are like any other jeevas like us. The fruit that one gets by worshipping small dEvatas are meager whereas the worship of Sreeman nArAyaNa fetch them mOkSha Pala.
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘neDumAlE! ninaDiyai yArOdavallAr’? Now he says ‘aravaNaiyAn pAdam evar vANangi EttAdAr?’ These two statements appear contradictory. But it is not so. The idea expressed in this pASura is though it is difficult to understand Him this difficulty need not prevent anyone from worshipping Him. In fact He alone is to be worshipped and all are eligible to worship Him. But the pity is they don’t worship Him but worship other gods! Oh! Men! Just think it over and you will see that the gods like sun, indra, rudra, brahma etc. worship Him alone. Well! Why don’t you follow this example and worship Him?
toDareDutta mAlyAnai soozh kayam pukkanji
paDareDutta paingamalam koNDu anru iDaraDukka |
AzhiyAn pAdam paNindanrE vAnavarkOn
pAzhitAn eidiTTru paNDu || Thirteen ||
On the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘pavarum sezhungadirOn oN malarOn kaNNudalOnanrE tozhum tahaiyAr nALum toDarndu’. One may have a doubt ‘He can be worshipped only by such great souls as indra, brahma and so on. How can I, a mere human being, a slave of my own karmas, worship Him? To remove this doubt AzhwAr says even an elephant worshipped Him and went to paramapada.
There was a king called indradyumna, a great viShNu Bakta. When he was once engaged deeply in his daily pooja, agastya muni came to see him. The king did not notice his arrival and continued his pooja. The riShi thought the king out of his arrogance fails to notice him and duly honour him. He cursed the king to be born as a proud elephant. Because of his viShNu pooja done in his previous birth the king now born as gajEndra still had that viShNu Bakti vAsana. He would collect 1000 lotus flowers everyday to offer them at His tiruvaDi. Once he entered a lotus pond to pick flowers for Him when he was caught by a crocodile. When he cried ‘AdimoolamE’ BagavAn came on garuDa at once, killed the crocodile and saved His Bakta.
Once there was a gandharva called hoohoo who dragged the leg of a riShi called dEvaLa when he was standing in water doing tapas. The riShi cursed him to be born as a crocodile. This crocodile caught hold of gajEndra’s legs and was killed by BagavAn’s chakrAyudha.
AzhwAr here wants to say that no one is barred from worshipping Sreeman nArAyaNa.
panDi perumpadiyai Akki pazhipAvam
koNDu ingu vAzhvArai koorAdE eNDiSaiyum |
pErtta kara nAnguDaiyAn pErOdi pEdaihAL
teertta kararAmin tirindu || Fourteen ||
AzhwAr declared that all men irrespective of their differences in birth, mArga etc. can worship Him. Now he advices the samsAris ‘Oh! Fools! Why do you do sins knowingly and unknowingly to fill the stomach that swallows everything, growing big like a huge city? Instead go to divya dESa, chant His names, worship and meditate on Him. you not only purify yourselves but purify the places where you stay. Do not go behind those rich fellow (to gain something) whose only job is to fill their stomach. Do not worship those stupid fellows for small gains.
paNDu ipperumpadiyai Akki—paNDu-since a long time; ipperumpadiyai—in this city of samsAra; Akki—you grow
pazhi—the pApas committed unknowingly
pAvam—those committed knowingly
In the first half AzhwAr tells us what not to do and in the second half tells us what one should do.
Oh! Men! Chant His names ‘kaNDiyoor arangam meyyam kachchi pEr mallai enru maNDinAr uyyalallAl maTTraiyArkkuyyalAmE’—tirukkurundANDaham. Then you will become pure and purify the world too. ‘tillai nahar tiruchchittirakkooDam tannuL talai vaNakki kai koopppi EttavallAr tiridalAl tavamuDaittu daraNidAnE’—kulaSEkarAzhwAr.
‘nAdanai narasinganai navinrEttuvArhaL uzhakkiya pAdadooLi paDudalAl ivvulaham bAkkiyam seidadE’—periyAzhwAr.
tirindadu venjamattu tErkaDavi anru
pirindadu seedaiyai mAnpinpOi purindaduvum |
kaNpaLLi koLLa azhahiyadE nAhattin
taNpaLLi koLvAn tanakku || Fifteen ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr asked the samsAris to roam in divya dESas chanting His names. But nobody paid any heed to his advice and were running after food, clothes, women and pleasure (uNDiyE uDaiyE uhandODum—kulaSEkarAzhwAr) Seeing them so crazy about these mundane pleasures AzhwAr speaks with feeling ‘Why should emberumAn undergo so much sufferings in rAmAvatAra and kriShNAvatAra for the sake of these fools who never know His real value.
kaNNa pirAn as pArthasArathi drove the chariot of arjuna, obeyed his commands, drove it swiftly here and there, bore the arrows discharged by foes on His bare chest (for He did not wear armours). In rAmAvatAra He went to the forest to obey His father’s words, roamed here and there in all kinds of weather, slept on bare ground, lost seeta by the trick played by mAreecha, suffered from her separation, searched for her, built a bridge, waged war with the rAkShasas and won her at last.
‘mellaNai mEl mun tuyinrAi inru ini pOi viyan kAna marattin neezhal kallaNai mEl kaN tuyila kaTTranaiyO kAkutta kariyakOvE’—kulaSEkarAzhwAr. All these avatAras are for the sake of jeevas to teach the mOkSha mArga.
Does He deserve all these sufferings, He who deserves the cozy soft bed of anandAzhwAn? Should He torture His sukumAra tirumEni for these worthless creatures?
tanakkaDimai paTTadu tAnariyAnElum
manattaDaiya vaippadAm mAlai vanattiDarai |
EriyAm vaNNam iyaTTrumidu vallAl
mAriyAr peihirpAr maTTru || Sixteen ||
This pASura gives the sakala SAstrArtha. We are not born a stone, a tree or a clot of mud. We are given chaitanya to think and act. Using this let us seek Him who is waiting for us and who takes all kinds of avatArAs for our sake. We need not take much strain to reach Him. What is required of us is to desire Him, and the rest is taken care of by Him.
tanakkaDimai paTTadu tAnariyAnElum manattaDaiya vaippadAm mAlai—There are many interpretations. It is impossible to make Him come to our hearts by our own efforts. Any amount of tapas and sAdhana cannot achieve this. Since He is sarva swatantra He should make sankalpa to reside in our hearts. One thing rests in the jeeva i.e. he should have a ‘desire’ to have Him. It is not necessary that he should possess swaroopa jnAna etc. etc, The simplest thing he should have is the strong desire to have Him. That is all.
or
This jeeva may not know he is SESha and emberumAn is SEShee; he may not have even vivEka or ruchi (desire) to possess Him. Still ‘yadyadAcharati SrEShThah tattadEvEtarO janAh’—Bagavat geeta. Let him simply meditate on Him in his heart as his elders did. He will come to stay.
AzhwAr explains this with a beautiful example. There is a rocky surface and a man digs this to collect rain water. The act of digging will not cause rain; but can store the water. Why should he dig if it can cause no immediate result? because if it is not kept ready the water will not be stored when it rains. Similarly any amount of sAdhana will not procure His grace. But the jeeva should prepare his mind to ‘receive’ the grace when it showers. The preparation of the mind is nothing but ‘to have a desire for Him’.
The desire less mind is compared to vanattiDar the desiring is compared to EriyAm vaNNam iyaTTruhai BagavAn’s entry—mAri peihai.
All the good deeds (sukrutas) that a jeeva does do not produce nirhEtuka kaTAkSha but help in receiving the kaTAkSha. ‘nAm seyyum sukrutangaLellAm nirhEtukamAha uNDAhira Bagavat viShayeekArattai tAngi koLvadarkku mAttiram uruppAhumE ozhiya Bagavat viShayeekArattai nirbanda paDutta uNDAkkuvadarkku uruppAha mATTAdu enru chEtana krutyangaLin anupAyatvam stApikka paTTadAyiTTru ippATTil’.
‘If the chEtana krutya is not an upAya why should chEtana do anything? If He has the mind to shower His grace He will do it anyway’—one may argue—but this is not so. One should follow the injunctions of SAstra and perform all the karmas without any expectation of Pala but do it with a Bagavad ArAdhana buddhi. All these karmas are not upAyas to reach Him or means to forcefully receive His grace. They are BagavAn’s instruction and they should be followed unquestioningly. This is the opinion of all AzhwArs and AchAryAs. ‘ennanri seidEnO ennenjil tihazhvaduvE’—tiruvAimozhi. Even prapatti is not an upAya.
One day a fishermen caught a diamond in his net. He did not know its real value. He sold it to a jeweler at a very low price. The jeweler who knew the real value of the stone sold it to a king at its real value. The king however, did not sell it to anyone but wore it on his crown and enjoys.
A jeeva who barters prapatti for cheaper gains like aiSwarya or kaivalya is like that fisherman. He is adhamAdhikAri. He who barters the prapatti (as an upAya) to gain mOkSha is like the jeweler who did not underestimate its value. He is madhyamAdhikAri. He who thinks prapatti as swayam prayOjana (it being the fruit) and enjoys it is like the king who dies not lose it to gain anything else. He is uttama adhikAri. He knows prapatti itself if puruShArtha.
‘ratnam dheevara hasta laByam adhamam moolyam samAsAdhayEt
tadvatnam vaNijO vaSamvadamatha prApnOti moolyam bahu|
ityEtadyadi sArvaBouma vaSatAm prApya swayam BogyatAm
nityam BooShaNatAmupaiti tadayam nyAyah prapattAvapi ||’ --sampradAya siddhanjana.
A man who eats and enjoys the taste of mangoes is much better than he who sells the fruits for money.
It is normally said that one has to know swaswaroopa (Atma swaroopa) and paraswaroopa; then he should go by the paths of mOkSha like jnAna, Bakti or prapatti etc. But here AzhwAr says ‘let us not waste time in learning all these things and doing sAdhana. Let us simply have advESha (i.e. desire to seek Him). It makes emberumAn to come to our hearts and stay there. Many doubts may arise regarding this statement. Arguments and counter arguments will only lengthen the explanation. Therefore fearing the elaborate network of arguments let us simply accept the AzhwAr’s theory as the essence of all SAStras.
mATTrAr iyalAvAr vAnavarkOn mAmalarOn
suTTrum vaNangum tozhilAnai oTTrai |
piraiyirunda senjaDaiyAn pin senru mAlai
kuraiyirandu tAn muDittAn koNDu || Seventeen ||
As said in the previous pASura emberumAn alone is the ASrayaNeeya. The other gods do not have the capacity to protect us, for they themselves get into trouble and seek Him alone to solve their problems.
indra, who prides himself as the king of 3 worlds, and brahma who prides himself as the creator have no guts to stand facing Him. They stand at a distance when they come asking His help. They are however, far better than Siva, who stands behind Him begging piteously to remove his brahmahatya dOSha.
oTTrai pirai irunda senjaDaiyAn—chandra (moon god) was cursed by daksha prajApati to wane. He sought the help of Siva who put him on his matted hair.
koNDadu ulaham kuraLuruvAi kOLariyAi
oNDiralOn mArvattuhir vaittadu uNDaduvum |
tAnkaDanda EzhulahE tAmaraikkaN mAlorunAL
vAnkaDandAn seida vazhakku || Eighteen ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said He alone is sarvarakShaka and He alone is sarva SaraNya. Now He says as a rakShaka and SaraNya He does not hesitate to take any form (vAmana, narasimha, varAha, etc.) for the sake of His Baktas. In the fact no one likes to be a dwarf as it is laughed at by everyone. But He happily took a vAmana roopa and even begged a piece of land from an asura in order to help indra. No one likes to be half man and half animal. But BagavAn took a narasimha (half man and half lion) in order to protect His Bakta prahlAda. No one likes to eat what is touched by foot. But He ate all the worlds which He touched by His feet as trivikrama. Why should He do these things? Because He is the swAmi and the jeevas are His property. It is His duty, He feels, to protect His property. vAn kaDandAn seida vazhakku—these are actions proper for Him as rakShaka.
or
Is it proper for Him to beg with a small form and measure with a huge form? Is it proper for Him to take a form neither man nor animal to kill a rAkShasa? Is proper for Him to eat what is stamped by foot? No. Certainly not! Thus AzhwAr says He does all these improper acts for the sake of Baktas. That is His vAtsalya guNa.
vAn kaDandAn—Can be taken to mean He who measured the upper worlds.
vazhakkanru kaNDAi valisahaDam seTTrAi
vazhakkenru neemadikka vENDA kuzhakkanru |
teeviLavin kAikkerinda teemai tirumAlE
pArviLanga seidAi pazhi || Nineteen ||
AzhwAr says the acts of kicking the huge cart, the throwing of calf holding His hind legs on the huge tree are all acts which are not proper for His soft hands and tiruvaDi. He is atisukumAra (very tender) that even periya pirATTi touches His tiruvaDi they become red. How can You do such acts which suit an asura, not You? Oh! emberumAn! Even though You do these things as a rakShaka i fear for Your safety. Therefore AzhwAr says ‘vazhakkenru nee madikka vENDA’, ‘pAr viLanga teemai seidAi’ and ‘pazhi seidAi’.
pazhipAvam kaiyahaTTri palkAlum ninnai
vazhivAzhvAr vAzhvarAm mAdO vazhuvinri |
nAraNantan nAmangaL nanguNarndu nangEttum
kAraNangaL tAmuDaiyAr tAm || Twenty ||
There are two interpretations for this pASura. Those who resort to other means (upAyAntara niShThas) and those who resort to You alone as upAya (ananyOpAyakas)—both these types of men reach You.
or
It can be read as ‘vazhuvinri nAraNan tan nAmangAL nanguNarndu nangEttum kAraNangaL tAm uDaiyarAhi pazhi pAvam kaiyahaTTri palhAlum ninnai vazhi vAzhvAr vAzhvArAm’. Here AzhwAr talks about one type of adhikAri only i.e. prapannas.
Those who don’t commit pazhi and pApa and keep chanting His names alone seek His tiruvaDi and worship Him. Such men reach Your abode.
The word mAdO has no meaning.
periyavAchchAn piLLai reads the last line as ‘dhAraNangaL tAmuDaiyAr’ which means those who have firm determination.
tAmuLarE tammuLLam uLLuLadE tAmaraiyin
poovuLadE Ettum pozhuduNDE vAman |
tirumaruvu tALmaruvu senniyarE SevvE
arunaraham sErvadaridu || Twenty One ||
poihai AzhwAr in mudal tiruvandAdi says ‘nA vAyiluNDE namO nArANAyavenru OvAdu uraikkum uraiyuNDE moovAda mAkkadikkaN sellum vahai uNDE ennoruvar teeggadikkaN sellum tiram’. This pASura too expresses the same idea.
All the things—chaitanya, manas, indriyas, flowers, heads, time etc. etc.—are already very much available. So there should not be any difficulty to worship Him. Yet people are ready to do so. They, in fact, deliberately go in search of pleasures encountering so many difficulties and problems and walk through the way that leads to naraka and samsAra. Why should they do so? AzhwAr is baffled by the ways of samsAris. ‘Oh! Men! you are endowed with chaitanya; a manas inside your body; flowers everywhere; plenty of time at your disposal, heads to bow and mouth to sing. But you use your chaitanya to do deeds harmful to you and others; you let your mind wander everywhere except Him; you pluck flower to give them to your lovers and wives; you waste your time in useless talks and seeking worldly pleasures. Thus you misuse all your faculties and finally end up in naraka.
kulaSEkarAzhwAr says in mukunda mAla stOtra ‘jihvE keertaya kESavam muraripum chEtO Baja Sreedharam’, ‘nArAyanEti SabdOsti vAgasti vaSavartinee tathApi narakE GOrE patanteeti kimadButam’—a purANa SlOka.
ariyadeLidAhum ATTralAl mATTri
peruha muyalvArai peTTrAl kariyadOr |
veNkOTTu mAlyAnai venru muDittanrE
taNkOTTu mAmalarAl tAzhndu || Twenty Two ||
Know Him to be sarvaSakta who bears our loads (of responsibility) on His shoulders and jealously does everything for us. If only we keep quiet without interfering in His plans, everything is accomplished easily. AzhwAr explains this with an example—as long as gajEndra was making all efforts to extricate his legs from the mouth of the crocodile, emberumAn was a mere witness. When he stopped all efforts and put all the responsibility (of his rescue) on Him He came at once on garuDa and saved him by killing his enemy.
ATTralAl mATTri peruha muyavArai peTTrAl ariyadu eLidAhum—If one gets Him who is sarvaSaktimAn by surrendering to His tiruvaDi what is difficult to achieve is achieved in no time.
tAzhndu varam koNDu takka vahaihaLAl
vAzhndu kazhivArai vAzhvikkum tAzhnda |
viLanganikku kanrerindu vETTruruvAi jnAlam
aLandaDikkeezh koNDa avan || Twenty Three ||
AzhwAr says He not only removes the obstacles but also blesses us with what we want (aiSwarya, kaivalya or Bagavat kainkarya). He who took vAmana avatAra and begged from mahAbali the land is the one who destroys our enemies. Isn’t He who killed vatsAsura and kapittAsura?
vETTruruvAi—He who is the Srih pati became vAmana brahmachAri or He who was a vAmana brahmachAri when He begged mahAbali became trivikrama when He measured.
avan kaNDAi nannenjE yAraruLum kEDum
avan kaNDAi aimbulanai ninrAn avankaNDAi |
kATTruttee neervAn karuvaraimaN kArOda
SeeTTrattee AvAnum senru || Twenty Four ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said He gives everything those who seek Him. He alone is the one who gives ‘sat’ (existence) to all the worlds. Hence it is but natural that He should care for them. He alone is the creator of all Bootas, the Sareera, the indriyas, manas, etc. He alone is the cause of samsAra and also He alone is the upAya to cross it. He alone is the goal to be reached after crossing the ocean of samsAra. He alone is the cause of mAya and He alone is the one who leads them to cross the mAya. ‘mAmEva yE prapadyantE mAyAmEtAm taranti tE’—Bagavad geeta.
senra ilangai mEl sevvEtan SeeTTrattAl
konradu irAvaNanai koorungAl ninraduvum |
vEyOngu taN sAral vEngaDamE viNNavartam
vAyOngu tolpuhazhAn vandu || Twenty Five ||
‘eeSwaran avadarittu paNNina Anai tozhilhaLellAm BagavatApachAram porAmai enru jeeyar aruLi seivar’—Sree vachana BooShaNam. BagavAn has infinite Sakti. He can create or destroy anything by His mere sankalpa. Yet He comes down to earth taking various avatAras, undergoes lots of suffering as ordinary mortals; kills rAvaNa and other rAkShasas after waging war. All these He does because He cannot bear to see His aDiyArs suffer. Even though mere sankalpa would have accomplished these acts or even chakrAyudha would be capable of doing these things He does them Himself because He desires satisfaction in personally coming and helping the Baktas. If He had said ‘Basmee Bavatu rAvaNah’ rAvaNa would be burnt to ashes that very moment. But He is born every now and then as He Himself says in Bagavadgeeta ‘paritrANAya sAdhoonAm vinASAya cha duShkritAm dharmasamsthApanArthAya samBavAmi yugE yugE’. He takes avatAra to accomplish 3 things—sAdhu paritrANa, to save His aDiyArs, to destroy their enemies and to establish dharma. Of these three sAdhu paritrANa alone is important, the other two serve this purpose alone. The sAdhus always desire to see Him, touch Him, speak to Him and to worship Him. Hence He takes avatAras to fulfill and to worship Him. Hence He takes avataras to fulfill their wishes. These cannot, however, be accomplished by His mere sankalpa.
viNNavar tam vAyOngu tol puhazhAn—can be taken to mean He who was eulogized by brahmAdi dEvas after He killed rAvaNa.
vandittavanai vazhininra aimboodam
aindum ahattaDakki ArvamAi undi |
paDiyamarar vElaiyAn paNDamararkku eenda
paDiyamarar vAzhum padi || Twenty Six ||
AzhwAr said in the last pASura ‘ninraduvum vEyOngu taN sAral vEngaDamE’. Still the thought lingered in his mind. Now he talks more about tirumalan. In two and a half lines he describes kSheerAbdhinAtha. The dEvas, controlling their senses and mind, come here to worship Him. They push each other to have a darSan of Him in tiruppArkaDal. In tirumalai He gives them an opportunity to worship Him freely. ‘taNNaruvi vEngaDamE vAnOrkkum maNNOrkkum vaippu’—tirumazhisai AzhwAr. ‘mandi pAi vaDa vEngaDa mA malai vAnavarhaL sandi seyya ninrAn’— tiruppANAzhwAr. Therefore this tirumalai is not only for the men on earth but also for the nityasooris and dEvas to come and worship.
padiyamaindu nADi paruttezhunda sindai
madiyurinji vAnmuhaDu nOkki kadimihuttu|
angOl tEDiyODum kozhundadE pOnradE
mAltEDiyODum manam || Twenty Seven ||
AzhwAr was enjoying vEnkaTanAtha in the last 2 pASuras. He wanted to have direct samlESha with Him which he could not get in rAmakriShNAdi avatAras due to the time lag. His mind now seeks paramapadanAtha. He tells his mind to run fast from the top of the tirumala hill, go past the moon region, cross the upper limit of the sky and reach paramapada. AzhwAr says his mind first went to tirumala, searched for Him everywhere but could not find Him. Therefore to satisfy its desire it went and up to finally reach paramapada. He shows this with an example—like a creeper which climbs up a tree.
manattuLLAn vEngaDattAn mAkaDalAn maTTrum
ninaippariya neeLarangattuLLAn enaippalarum |
dEvAdi dEvan enappaDuvAn munnorunAL
mAvAi piLanda mahan || Twenty Eight ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘kOl tEDi ODdum kozhundadE pOnradE mAl tEDi ODum manam’ expressing his insatiable desire to seek Him. Now he says his mind is fully occupied by tiruvEngaDamuDaiyAn, azhahiya maNavALan, tiruppArkaDalnAthan and paramapadanAthan.
The paramapadanAtha who is dEvAdi dEva first comes to tiruppArkaDal for jagat rakShaNa. Then He comes down to AyarppADi as kriShNa or to ayOdhya as rAma and so on. He thinks ‘I should not be coming and going for it does not help the samsAris in any way. I should stay permanently in a place where they can easily seek Me’. Therefore He stays in tirumalai and tiruvarangam. He feels even these places are very remote from AzhwAr. Hence He has come to stay for ever in his mind.
Even though ‘manattuLLAn’ is the first word, it should be taken as the last word to suit the meaning.
mAvAi piLanda—kamsa sent kESi, an asura to kill kaNNapirAn. He took the form of a huge horse and came running towards Him. But kriShNa caught him, shattered his teeth with a punch, split open his mouth and killed him at last.
mahanAha koNDu eDuttAL mANbAya kongai
ahanAra uNban enruNDu mahanaittAi |
tErAda vANNam tiruttinAi tennilangai
neerAha eidazhittAi nee || Twenty Nine ||
AzhwAr’s thoughts are still in kriShNAvatAra and chEShTitas. After speaking of the killing of kESi, he now talks about the killing of pootana. She came to AyarpADi sent by kamsa disguised as the loving mother to feed Him only to kill. She gave Him her poison-smeared breasts. He too sucked them as a baby and sucked her life too. From that day onwards yaSOda had a fear whether to love Him as her child or fear Him as dEva.
tennilangai neerAha eidazhittAi—kousalya did have no fear of rAma. He destroyed the rAkShasas only when He was a young man.( not like kriShNa who started killing them even as a baby).
neeyanrulahaLandAi neeNDa tirumAlE
neeyanrulahiDandAyenbarAl neeyanru |
kArOdam munkaDaindu pinnaDaittAi mAkaDalai
pErOda mEni pirAn ||Thirty ||
AzhwAr speaks with pleasure His chEShThitas like measuring the worlds lifting the Boomi, building a bridge etc.
kArOdam kaDainda—Once a vidyAdhara damsel went to viShNu lOka, saw periya pirATTi, sang the praise of her. The dEvi was pleased at her and gave her a garland. The divine damsel placed it on her veeNa and was coming past brahmalOka. She saw doorwAsa maharShi and gave him the garland as a mark of respect. The riShi in turn gave it to indra who was proudly driving on his airAvata. He took the garland and placed it on the elephant out of arrogance. The elephant, however, threw it on the ground and stamped it. Enraged at his attitude the riShi cursed indra that all his aiSwarya would vanish under the sea. indra, pleaded at mahAviShNu to rescue the lost aiSwarya. the Lord promised to help him asked him to take the help of asuras in churning the sea. They took vAsuki as the cord and mandara mountain as the rod to churn the sea. As they churned, the mountain started to sink under the ocean. Immediately He took the form of a tortoise to support the weight of the mountain. Still the dEvas and asuras could not churn. Hence He took one form and stood near the dEvas, took another form to stand near the asuras. He Himself churned the ocean holding the head on one end and the tail on the other end.
mA kaDalai aDaittAi—viBeeShaNa told rAma that He should build a bridge to enable His army to cross the ocean. He also asked Him to request samudra rAja to help in building the bridge. Therefore rAma lay on the bed of darBa grass fasting for 3 days. Still samudra rAja gave no sigh of reply. Sree rAma took His bows and arrows to discharge them at the samudra rAja which would dry up the ocean.
The rAja at once surrendered to Him and said he would allow Him to build a bridge. He also said naLa had the boon that of He throws stone in the water they should float. Hence he said BagavAn can take the help of naLa and cross to the other side to reach lankApuri. rAma did so, reached lanka, waged war with the rAkShasas, killed them all, and got back seeta pirATTi.
pErOda mEnippirAn------kArOdam mun kaDaindu—It suggests emberumAn who Himself is like the sea churned the sea.
pirAnenru nALum perumpulari enrum
kurA nal sezhumpOdu koNDu varAhattu |
aNiyuruvan pAdam paNiyumavar kaNDeer
maNiyuruvam kANbar mahizhndu || Thirty One ||
Those who offer flowers like SheNbaga, mallihai , sengazhuneer, iruvATchi etc. at His tiruvaDi and worship Him with love will see His divya mangaLa vigraha and enjoy the bliss.
‘ajnarAna manuShyarhaL vALA tandAn enriruppArhaL; jnAnavarhaL inrennai poruLAkki tannai ennuL vaittAn—ennanri seidEnO ennenjil tihazhvaduvE-naDuvE vandu uyyakkoLhinra nAdan—ariyAdana arivitta attA nee seidana aDiyEn ariyEnE—poruLallAda ennai poruLAkki aDimai koNDAi—ennai tee manam keDuttAi—maruvi tozhum manamE tandAi—enru eeDupaDA nirpArhaL’—Sree vachana BooShaNam. Those who worship Him remembering His help will see Him. ‘Oh! pirAn! I had been undergoing births and deaths which seem to have no end. I had been running after ‘uNDiyE uDaiyE’ and was feeling happy at the meager pleasures of this world. But You showered Your anugraha on me and made me seek Your tiruvaDi. I can never forget Your upakAra (help)’.
perumpulari enrum—‘pazhudE pala pahalum pOyina’—thus did I spend my earlier days. I did not try to seek Him. But today is a different day when I have started to take interest in Bagavad viShaya. kamsa asked his minister akroora to bring kriShNa to His court (where he planned to kill Him). akroora says ‘adya mE saPalam janma supraBAta cha mE niSA! yadunnidrAbyapatrAksham viShNOrdrakShAmi aham muKam’. ‘(Ah! How fortunate i am! i am, who is working under wicked kamsa now going to meet kriShNa. Today is my best day and i feel my janma has been very fruitful. ANDAL says ‘mArhazhi tingaL madi nirainda nannALAl’—tiruppAvai.
kurA nal sezhum pOdu—kurA can mean fragrant or it can be the name of a flower.
mazhindadu sindai tirumAlE maTTrum
mazhindadun pAdamE pOTTri mazhinda |
tazhalAzhi sangamavai pADi ADum
tozhilAham soozhndu tuNindu || Thirty Two ||
AzhwAr says his three karaNas—body, mind and speech are happy.
sindai mahizhndadu—samsAri’s mind feels happy when it is involved in worldly matters; whereas my mind feels happy when it thinks of You and periya pirATTi.
maTTru—means ‘and then’. Here it suggests ‘speech’ since what the mind thinks the mouth speaks. A samsAri feels happy when he talks worldly matters whereas mine feels happy when it speaks about You. My body dances with ecstasy when my mouth sings Your glory, I think this is the duty of a dAsa.
tuNindu sindai tuzhAyalangal angam
aNindavan pEruLLattu palhAl paNindaduvum |
vEipirangu sAral viralvengaDavanaiyE
vAitirangaL solllum vahai || Thirty Three ||
‘yad hi manasA dhyAyati tadvAchA vadati tat karmaNA karOti’—vEda. AzhwAr said in the last pASura how his 3 karaNas are engaged in the Bagavad viShaya. Now he says the karaNas do not follow the order. He says the body (indriyas) act as the mind thinks. Each indriya hastens to do its job first. In this pASura the order is manas (mind) angam (body) and vAi (mouth).
viral—has several meanings as greatness strength victory etc.
tiram-- means swaroopa, guNa, Sakti, Strength.
vahaiyAl avani irandaLandAi pAdam
puhaiyAl narumalarAl munnE mihavAinda |
anbAkkiyEtti aDimaipaTTEn unakku
en bAggiyattAl ini || Thirty Four ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said all His karaNas (manas, vAi and angam) go towards Him only. He now explains why it is so. Sreeman nArAyaNa took vAmana avatAra, begged from mahAbali and measured all the worlds by placing His tiruvaDi on all including him. (AzhwAr)
vahaiyAl—Somehow mahAbali was similar to rAvaNa in his rAkShasa guNa but he has the guNa of not saying no to anyone who begs him. Therefore He killed rAvaNa but spared the life of mahAbali. By measuring the world He achieved two things simultaneously—to defeat him and give back the land to indra.
vahaiyAl—also means beauty, prattle, a good act etc.
enbAggiyattAl—should not be taken to mean ‘my fortune’.
There were many vaiShNavas gathered near the periya maNDapa of Sreerangam waiting for the perumAL to come in procession. One of them observed ‘Oh! We had been waiting endlessly at the doorstep of so many rich fellows to gain some petty things. Now out of the puNya that we have we are now waiting for the BagavAn’. There ensued a discussion as to what is the reason for such BAgya. Some said ‘it is due to yAdruchchika sukrutam (a puNya karma done with some other motive) and some said ‘it is ajnAna sukrutam’ (a puNya done unknowingly). kiDAmbi AchchAn said ‘there is no such thing as yAdruchchika sukruta or ajnAna sukruta. All we resort to is Bagavat viShaya alone’. To him tirunaraiyoor araiyar said ‘ I think the word sukruta means Bagavat viShaya only’.
Really speaking ‘Our BAgyam’ is what emberumAn does in the form of creation, avatAra etc. for our sake. It is nothing but Bagavat kaTAkSha . In rahasya traya sAra Sree vEdAnta dEsika says ‘upAyah swaprAptEh upaniShadadheetassa BagavAn prasattyai tasyOktE prapadana nididhyAsana gatee. tadArOhah pumsAm sukrutaparipAkEna mahatA nidAnam tatrApi swayamaKhilA nirmANa nipuNah’ ‘edir soozhal pukku enaittOr pirappum enakkE aruLhaL seyya vidi soozhndadAl enakkEl ammAn tirivikkramanaiyE’— nammAzhwAr tiruvAimozhi. (emberumAn became a sarvalOkavyApi only to make me His dAsa).
inidenbar kAmam adanilum ATTra
inidenbar taNNeerum endAi inidenru |
kAmaneer vELAdu ninperumai vETparEl
sEmaneer Ahum siridu || Thirty Five ||
Oh! emberumAn! When You are there as dhAraka, pOShaka and BOgya (support, nourishment and enjoyment) as nammAzhwAr said ‘uNNum SOru, paruhum neer, tinnum vettilai ellAm kaNNan’, people go after SabdAdi viShayas. I detest their activities. I seek You alone.
SabdAdi viShayas are called viyShayAntaras—like going to drama, listening to music, dressing up well, smearing sandal paste, wearing flowers, spraying scents etc. They foolishly believe these are acts of enjoyment. Some others who call themselves sanyAsins seek food and wastes. The ananyaprayOjakas not only renounce worldly pleasures but also desire to eat and drink. They seek You alone as ‘amudattilum ATTra iniyan’, ‘kannalangaTTi tannai kaniyai innamudam tannai’, ‘enakku tEnE pAlE kannalE amudE’. They desire You alone as parama BOgya. Such a desire alone protects them. Those who think ‘vasudEvah sarvam’, kriShNa says such mahAtmas are sudurlaBas (difficult to get)—Bagavad geeta.
siriyAr perumai siridinkaN eidum
ariyArum tAmariyArAvar ariyAmai |
maN koNDu maNNuNDu maNNumizhnda mAyanenru
eNkoNDu en nenjE iru || Thirty Six ||
AzhwAr criticized the samsAris in the previous pASura. Now he addresses his mind ‘Oh! Mind! Let the samsAris behave as they like! And perish if they want! Let us meditate on Him, His guNas and chEShTitas alone’.
siriyAr perumai siridin kaN eidum— If there are men who have something to brag about talk highly of themselves in exaggerated terms, let them do so. We can excuse them saying they have something to brag about. But those who have nothing to boast about but talk highly as if there is none equal or higher to them, establish their own smallness by doing so. Let them do what they like.
(or)
It can be interpreted as—those who worship brahma and other dEvatas (siriyAr perumai) will go down the lane of samsAra alone (siridin kaN eidum).
ariyArum tam ariyAr Avar— The worse kind are those men who are really ignorant but pose themselves as high intellectuals are fools who are ignorant about their ignorance. They neither know anything nor listen to anything.
This world is full of such siriyAr and ariyAr. Therefore Oh! mind! Do not join their group.
irundaN kamalattu iru malarinuLLE
tirundu disaimuhanai tandAi porundiyanin |
pAdangaLEtti paNiyAvEl palpirappum
EdangaLellAm emakku || Thirty Seven ||
All the janmas, of whatever nature, are waste if they are not useful in attaining Him. He gives us many janmas to give us a chance to worship Him (instead of roaming in worldly affairs). He longs to obtain us if not in this janma, at least in some other janma. If the jeeva does not relaise this fact but simply spends his life in enjoying the pleasures of the world the janma becomes a waste.
pal pirappum EdangaL ellAm namakku— It can also be interpreted as—my janmas should be spent in worshipping You. But if I don’t do so all the duhKas of all the creatures in all the janmas shall be mine. Here EdangaL is taken to mean duhKa.
irundaN kamalattu iru malarinuLLE tirundu disai muhan tandAi---periyavAchchAn piLLai— AzhwAr calls Him padmanABa who is sought after by mumukShus. This interpretation is done on the basis of the upaniShadik statement—yO brahmANam vidadhAti poorvam……mumukShuvai SaraNam aham prapadyE’ (i, a mumukShu, seek Him who has created brahma).
AzhwAr uses the adjective tirundu to disaimuhan because BagavAn teaches him the vEdas in order to teach him the creation. Hearing it just once he does his job perfectly.
emakkenru irunidiyam EmAndirAdE
tamakkenrum sArvam arindu namakkenrum |
mAdavanE ennum manam paDaittu maTTravanpEr
OduvadE nAvinAl Ottu || Thirty Eight ||
People who are rich think ‘we are very wealthy which would save us and our children for many generations’. They forget to worship Him but spend their time in counting their money. AzhwAr sings this pASura keeping them in his mind. nammAzhwAr expresses the same idea in his pASuras starting from ‘oru nAyahamAi’.
Money is called ‘selvam’ which literally means ‘let us go’. The very nature of money is to move from one to the other. Therefore to think ‘we have lots of money’ is simply foolishness. It will not save anyone nor will give happiness. It can leave you any moment. Therefore do not be proud of your wealth. Think of ways to attain ‘permanent wealth’ (BagavadanuBava). After discrimination you will know ‘tirumahaL kozhunan (Srih pati) alone is our treasure. Chant His names.
Ottin poruLmuDivum ittanaiyE uttaman pEr
Ettum tiram arimin EzhaihAL Ottadanai |
valleerEl nanradanai mATTeerEl mAdavan pEr
solluvadE Ottin Surukku || Thirty Nine ||
Oh! men! Listen to me! i am going to say what the essence of vEdas is. If you are able to chant them do it. The chanting of vEdas is nothing but chanting His names. ‘vEdAkSharANi yAvanti paThitAni dwijAtiBih tAvanti hari nAmAni keertitAni na samSayah’ (As many words of vEdas chanted by brAhmaNas so many BagavAn nAmas chanted) If you are not able to do it chant His names kESava, gOvinda, mAdhava, hari and so on. The essence of all vEdic teachings is to chant His names in some form or other.
‘dhyAya krutE yajan yajnaih trEtAyAm dwAparE archayan yadApnOti tadApnOti kalan sankeertya kESavam’—the Pala obtained by meditation in krutayuga, by yajna in trEta yuga and by archana in dwApara yuga is achieved by mere nAma sankeertana in the kali yuga. This is what the SAstras say. Therefore AzhwAr says ‘Ottin poruL muDivum ittanaiyE’, ‘mAdhavan pEr solluvadE Ottin Surukku’.
There are many dEvatas as indra, varuNa, vAyu and so on described and eulogized in the vEdas. Then how can we say all the vEdic words are His names? The answer is—since He is the antaryAmi of all, all the names denote Him only. If you know this fact and chant the vEdas you chant His names alone. ‘vEdaiScha sarvaih ahamEva vEdyah’—kriShNa says in the Bagavad geeta. This is the vEdatAtparya (essence of vEdas). If you lack this jnAna, you can simply call His names, mAdhava! kESava! gOvinda! and so on. you get the same result.
surukkAha vAngi sulAvininru aiyAr
nerukkAmun neerninaimin kaNDeer tiruppolinda |
AhattAn pAdam arindum ariyAda
bOhattAl illai poruL || Forty ||
AzhwAr addresses those who roam in the worldly pleasures ‘Oh! Fools! There is no use seeking such pleasures. Think about the tiruvaDi of emberumAn who is lakShmee pati. Don’t even think it is too early to do such things. Don’t think there is plenty of time ahead. Don’t postpone Bagavad viShaya. Don’t you know about the nature of this dirty body? (azhukkuDambu). All of a sudden the phlegm will trouble the body and choke your throat. you will not be able to think of Him, then how can you chant His names? ‘prANa prayANa samayE kaPa vAta pittaih kaNThAvarOdhana vidhou smaraNam kutastE’ asks the saint in mukunda mAla stOtra. Before it is too late think of His tiruvaDi. The SabdAdi viShayas are so dangerous that they enchant not only the ignorant but also those who know a little about Bagavad viShaya. This is the power of mundane viShayas. Therefore, beware! Be wise and be alert! Think about Him when you are hale and healthy.
poruLAl amarulaham pukkiyalal AhAdu
aruLAn aramaruLumanrE aruLAlE |
mAmaraiyOrkkeenda maNivaNNan pAdamE
neemaravEl nenjE ninai || Forty One ||
In the last pasura AzhwAr criticized the kAma puruShArtha (viShaya BOgas are desires. Hence they are called kAma) In this pASura he criticizes artha puruShArtha. Those who desire artha puruShArtha earn money through difficult means. They perform yAga yajnas to attain swarga etc. AzhwAr says ‘poruLAl amarulaham pukkiyalal AhAdu’. Do not have higher lOkas as your goal and do not earn for that sake alone.
aruLAl aram aruLumanrE—If you want to get such lOkas why do you resort to earning etc; simply pray our swAmi; He will give you what you want. He alone will fulfill all your desires-whether it is aiSwarya in this lOka or BOga of the other lOkas. Therefore desist from making your own efforts. Worship Him, pray Him, ask Him. He will do everything for you.
nenjE nee maravEl—AzhwAr never forgets Him even for a moment. So when he addresses his mind not to forget, the pleading is for the samsAris. nammAzhwAr too says ‘SaraNamAhira nAn marai noolhaLum sArAdE maraNam tOrum vAn piNi mooppenru ivai mAittOm’---here too AzhwAr says for us samsAris.
mAmarai yOrkku—There are two different spellings. One suggest singular and the other plural. If it is singular it means mArkaNDEya muni; if it is plural it suggests many riShis like Suka, vAmadEva etc.
Some commentators interpret as—amarulaham and aram mean mOkSha; poruLAl means self effort. So the meaning is--don’t make any effort to attain mOkSha. Only have the desire to attain mOkSha. He will do the rest for you to take you there showing His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha.
ninaippan tirumAlai neeNDatOL kANa
ninaippAr pirapponrum nErAr manaippAl |
pirandAr pirandeidum pErinbamellAm
turandAr tozhudAra tOL || Forty Two ||
AzhwAr says those who renounce all the samsAra BOgas and seek His tiruvaDi alone are able to eschew janmas.
tirumAlai neeNDa tOL kANa ninaippan—people worship Him for getting aiSwarya or santAna (children). But I am not like them. I don’t put forth such petitions before Him. I simply want to worship Him, admire His beautiful arms etc. I don’t have any other desires. Thus those who enjoy His divyAtma swaroopa get birthlessness. ‘ponninra jnAnamum pollA ozhukkum azhukkuDambum inninra neermai iniyAmurAmai’.
Those who worship His beautiful tOL (tOL kaNDAr tOLE kaNDAr—kamba rAmAyaNa) not only get birthlessness but also refuse to indulge in the mean pleasures of this world. They spit on such pleasures which the foolish samsAris run after.
The last two lines can be read in two different ways ‘attOL tozhudAr manaippAl pirandAr pirandeidum pErinbamellAm turandAr’ and ‘manaippAl pirandAr pirandeidum pErinbamellAm turandAr attOL tozhudAr’ ‘those who worship His arms detest all the mean pleasures of samsAris’ and ‘those who detest all the mean pleasures of samsAra worship those beautiful arms’.
pErinbam—AzhwAr calls SiTTrinbam (of samsAra) as pErinbam from the point of view of samsAris.
Once Sree rAmAnujar was performing mAdhyAhnika on the banks of river kAvEri in Sree rangam. He saw a powerful man with his young beautiful wife walking along in the hot sun. He was holding an umbrella for her and was doing all kinds of upachAra to her. Sree rAmAnujar asked him ‘why do you do so much upachAra to this woman? What is so special about her?’ He replied ‘i am her husband. She has so beautiful eyes that i am her slave. ‘i do all these upachAras to her since i love her and her eyes.’ Sree rAmAnujar asked him ‘haven’t you seen more beautiful eyes than hers?’ ‘No. i have not’. ‘Then what will you do if you happen to see them? ‘Well! i will do all these and more upachAras to that person.’ Sree rAmAnuja took the couple to the Sree rangam temple, placed them before the sannidhi of Sree ranganAtha and showed them His lotus like beautiful eyes. From then on the couple became the dAsas of both emberumAn and emberumAnAr . The last lines of this pASura reminds us of this episode.
tOLiraNDu eTTu Ezhum moonrum muDiyanaittum
tALiraNDum veezha sarandurandAn tALiraNDum |
ArtozhuvAr pAdamavai tozhuvadanrE en
SeerkezhatOL seyyum sirappu || Forty Three ||
AzhwAr said to worship His tiruttOL alone is the puruShArtha for Him. Now he says ‘worship His tiruttOL or not. But you should certainly worship the tiruvaDis of those aDiyArs who worship His tiruvaDi alone. This is the real puruShArtha’. Even the SAstras says ‘it is a better puruShArtha to worship the tiruvaDi of BAgavatas than to worship BagavAn’s tiruvaDi’. ‘siddhir Bavatai vA tadBakta paricharyA ratAtmanAm’ one’s wishes may or may not get full filled if you worship Him. But a BAgavata Baktas’ wishes are always fulfilled.
AzhwAr does not say tOLirubadum (20 arms) but says ‘tOLiraNDu eTTum Ezhum moonrum’ to say how Sree rAma killed rAvaNa by cutting off his hands one by one.
en seer kezhu tOL seyyum sirappu—All men have hands which they use to grab others properties, to kill good souls and so on. But my hands are not engaged in such wicked acts but do me good by worshipping His BAgavatas.
sirandArkezhutuNaiyAm sengaNmAl nAmam
marandArai mAniDamA vaiyEn arantAngum |
mAdavanE ennum manam paDaittu maTTravan pEr
OduvadE nAvinAl uLLu || Forty Four ||
sirandAr—Great men whom kriShNa calls as ‘jnAni to Atmaiva mE matam’ (the jnAnis are my very life—Bagavad geeta). They sustain their lives by chanting His names only. It is our duty to do so. i pity those men who fail to do so. i shall not consider them human beings at all. ‘AnviDai Ezhu anru aDarttArku ALAnAr allAdAr mAniDavar allar enru en manattE vaittEnE’—tirumangai AzhwAr — periya tirumozhi.
AzhwAr asks his mind to think constantly about Him who said ‘samBavAmi yugE yugE dharma samsthApanArthAya’.
uLadu enru irumAvAr uNDillai enru
taLardal adanaruhum sArAr aLavariya |
vEdattAn vENgaDattAn viNNOr muDi tOyum
pAdattAn pAdam payinru || Forty Five ||
AzhwAr talks about the greatness of BAgavatas. They worship Him who is revealed by all the vEdas, who stands in tirumalai worshipped by the nitya sooris. These BAgavatas are never proud of their wealth neither are they worried if they lose it the next day. They never lose their equilibrium. nammAzhwAr says ‘kaLippum kavarvum aTTru’ ‘muniyAr tuyarangaL mundilum inbaNgaL moittiDinum kaniyAr manam------engaL rAmAnujanai vandu eidinai’ ---rAmAnuja nooTTrandAdi.
uNDillai enru—normally poor people born poor do not worry about lack of money. But on the other hand if rich men become poor they find everything is lost. Even in such situations BAgavatas maintain the same state of mind.
aLavariya vEdattAn—vEda itself says it is infinite ‘anantA vai vEda;’ In kriShNa yajurvEda there is a story—once BaradwAja riShi prayed indra and asked him to give him 300 human years so that he would have enough time to read all the vEdas. indra granted the boon. After 300 years of gurukula vAsa he became old and yet had not finished the reading of vEdas. indra appeared before him and asked what he would do if he gives Him 100 more years. The riShi answered he would study the vEdas. indra created 3 mountains made of vEdas and said ‘Oh! maharShi! These mountains are vEdas. Look at the handful of grains that i have taken from those mountains. In all the human years what you have studied about vEdas is this much. These heaps of mountains remains still unread.’
payinradarangam tirukkOTTi pannAL
payinraduvum vEngaDamE pannAL payinradu |
aNitihazhum sOlai aNi neer malaiyE
maNitihazhum vaNtaDakkai mAl || Forty Six ||
AzhwAr talks about some of the divya dESas where He resides in order to correct the foolish samsAris and lead them to mOkSha. There is no limit to the number of the divya dESas.
aNi tihazhum sOlai--can also be taken to mean tirumAlirunjOlai or as an adjective to tiruneermalai
mAlai ariyuruvan pAdamalar aNindu
kAlai tozhudezhumin kaikOli jnAlam |
aLandiDandu uNDumizhnda aNNalai maTTrallAl
uLam kiDanda ATTrAluNarndu || Forty Seven ||
AzhwAr advises us to get up early in the morning, meditate on Him who resides in divya dESas, do archana with flowers and do anjali. ‘SiTTranjiru kAlE vandunnai SEvittu un poTTrAmarai aDiyE pOTTrum’ says ANDAL in tiruppAvai.
emberumAn resides in divya dESas in viBavAvatAra tirumEni—as rAma and kriShNa. To cite one AzhwAr mentions narasimhAvatAra. ‘ariyuruvan’. We should worship Him since it is our swaroopa to do so. We should also remember His guNas which make us His dAsas. (as lakShmaNa says ‘guNair dAsyamupAgatah’ and also the help He has rendered at all times. AzhwAr says ‘jnAlam aLandu iDandu uNDu umizhnda aNNalai’ meditate on Him thus—He has subdued the pride of mahAbali and measured the worlds placing His tiruvaDi on all alike; He killed the asura hiraNyAkSha and saved the Boomi by lifting her; He protects all the jeevas placing them in His tiruvayiru during praLaya and manifests them again so that they can again try to get mOkSha.
He not only does upakAra to all jeevas but to me in particular ‘maruvittozhum manamE tandAi’ ‘ennai teemanam keDuttai’ (tiruvAimozhi). Also meditate on His chEShTitas ‘ettiram! uralinODu iNaindu Engiya eLivE’ ‘pirandavArum vaLarndavArum’ (tiruvAimozhi).
uNarndAi marainAngum OdinAi needi
maNandAi malarmahaLtOL mAlE maNandAi pOi|
vEyirum sAral viyaliru jnAlam Soozh
mAyirum sOlai malai || Forty Eight ||
AzhwAr further elucidates the statement of the previous pASura ‘uLam kiDandATTrAl uNarndu’ emberumAn asks him ‘Oh! AzhwAr! You say the Baktas do not forget my help. I don’t know what upakAra I do to them.’. ‘AzhwAr replies—‘Oh! BagavAn! How can i explain the mahOpakAras done to us? You brought forth the vEdas which is an act of opening the eyes of a blind. Then You brought out the itihAsas, purANas, dharmaSAstras through riShis in order to explain the vEdas. You never leave periya pirATTi even for a minute who does puruShakAra to us; You stay in the divya dESa like tirumalai for us to worship. Thus there seems to be no end to Your upakAra.
uNarndAi marai nAngum— Even some learned vaidikas say BagavAn created vEdas. They give the reason—since it is said He teaches them to brahma after creation they don’t exist before that. But it is not so. vEdas are created even by Him. After creation He teaches brahma the condition of the lOkas as existed before. Then brahma continues the act of creation. Again in the next creation BagavAn teaches him the conditions existed before the praLaya. Thus it goes on. AzhwAr suggests this meaning by ‘marai nAngum uNarndu’. ‘samskAram prati sancharEShu nidadhat vEdAh pramANam tatah’—Sree rangarAja stava.
mAlirunjOlai malai—Can mean either tirumAlirumSOlai or tirumalai.
malaiyEzhum mAnilangaLEzhum adira
kulai Soozh kuraikaDalhaLEzhum mulai Soozhnda |
nanjurattu peNNei navinruNDa nAvanenru
anjAdu en nenjE azhai || Forty Nine ||
Oh! Mind! Didn’t you hear about the mahA upakAras that He did for us which i just told You? After listening to them should you keep quiet? No. Say loudly the names, chEShTitas, guNas of emberumAn as loudly as to make the 7 parvatas , 7 dweepas and 7 oceans to tremble. Let them shudder and reverberate with the sound. ‘malaiyEzhum mAnilangaLEzhum kulai soozh kurai kaDalhalEzhum adira azhai’. AzhwAr says ‘viNNellAm kETka azhudiTTAi’. Do not feel shy to do nAmasankeertana loudly.
malai Ezhum—himAlayas, mandara, kailAsa, vindhya in the north, niShada, hEmakooTa and neelagiri.
mAnilangaLEzhum—nAvalam, irali, kusai, krauncha, sAlmali, tengu, puShkara.
kurai kaDalhaLEzhum—salt, sugarcane juice, honey, ghee, curd, milk and water.
navinruNDa nAvan—Babies normally prattle while drinking milk. pootana came to AyarpADi disguised as yaSOda. Hence kaNNan drank milk as He would do at His mother.
azhaippan tirumAlai AngavarhaL sonna
pizhaippil perumpeyarE pEsi izhaippariya |
vAyavanE yAdavanE enravanai yAr muhappum
mAyavanE enru madittu || Fifty ||
AngavarhaL—In the last pASura AzhwAr was talking about ‘mulai soozhnda nanjurattu peNNai navinru uNDa nAvan’. So here avarhaL is taken to mean as AyarpADi folks.
pizhaippil perum peyarhaL—The AyarpADi people called Him ‘kaTTrinam mEittavan’ (shepherd). ‘veNNei tiruDan’ (butter thief). ‘tAmbAl AppuNDavan’ (bound by a cord) ‘uraliDai kaTTuNDavan’ (bound to a mortar) etc. Are these perum peyarhaL? (great names). No. Definitely not! But AzhwAr says they are! The avatAras are meant to show the simplicity, soulaBya guNas. Therefore the avatAra names like gOvinda, navaneeta chOra etc. are called perum peyarhaL. In tiruppAvai the gOpis call Him nArAyaNa in many pASuras and finally say ‘siru pErazhaittanavum seeri aruLAdE’ and beg His pardon. The names that give Him pleasure are indeed great names. ‘divattilum pasu neerai mEippu uvatti senganivAi engaL Ayar dEvE’. (tiruvAimozhi)
pizhaippil perum peyarE—‘orutti mahanAi pirandu Oriravil orutti mahanAi oLittu vaLara (tiruppAvai). He is born in yadu kula hence (yAdava!) and brought up in AyarpADi hence ‘AyavanE’.
madikaNDAi nenjE maNi vaNNan pAdam
madikkaNDAi maTTravan pErtannai madikaNDAi |
pErAzhininru peyarndu kaDal kaDainda
neerAzhi vaNNan niram || Fifty One ||
Though AzhwAr addresses his mind alone (nenjE) it should be taken to mean the 3 karaNas—body, mind and speech. The word ‘madi kaNDAi’ repeated three times corresponds with 3 karaNas. ‘yan manasA dhyAyati tadvAchA vadati tat karmaNA karOti’—vEda. The 3 karaNas are associated with each other—what the mind thinks the mouth speaks; what the mouth speaks the indriyas do. ‘Oh! Mind! Think of the neerAzhi vaNNan niram. Oh! Speech! Speak the tirunAmas of maNivaNNan! Oh! My head! Bear the tiruvaDi’s of maNivaNNan!’
pErAzhi ninru peyarndu kaDal kaDainda ariduyil alai kaDal naDuvE Ayiram SuDar vai aravaNai tuyinrAn’— periya tirumozhi of tirumangai AzhwAr. Thus He lies on tiruppArkaDal on tiruvanandAzhwAn. The dEvas instead of enjoying and appreciating His beauty ‘ErAr kOlam tihazha kiDandAi kaNDEn emmAnE’ and ‘ammAmalar kaN vaLarhinrAnE ennAn en seihEnE’ (tiruvAimozhi) they bid Him to get up and churn the nectar from the pArkaDal. ‘pENam illA arakkar munneera perumpadi vAi neeNahar niLeivaittu aruLAi enru ninnai viNNOr tAL nilam tOindu tozhuvar nin moorti pal kooTTrilonru kANalumAngol enrE’—nammAzhwAr. The dEvas are more concerned about getting nectar than enjoying His beauty or His Seela guNa. Even when He was churning the sea, they were intently looking and eagerly waiting for the nectar to come out of the sea. They never appreciated the excellent tirumEni of emberumAn. They would not notice how the fragrant tuzhasi mAla dangling from His neck swinging at every moment of His hands looked charming! ‘Oh! Mind! Think of His beauty! Oh! Mouth! Speak of His charm! Oh! Head! Bear His tiruvaDi on you.
nirangariyan seyya neDumalarAL mArvan
aramperiyan Aradu arivAr maram purinda |
vALarakkan pOlvanai vAnavarkOn tAnattu
neeLirukkaikku uittAn neri || Fifty Two ||
He who is kALa mEGa tiruvuruvan and who has Sree in His tirumArbu has this guNa called ‘AnruSamsya’ i.e. to be compassionate even to His enemies. Though He is sarvaBoota suhrut (a friend to all) He considers the enemies of His dAsas as His enemies. Sree kriShNa tells duryOdana ‘you are my enemy because you are the enemy of my dear pANDavas’. Likewise mahAbali who snatched away the kingdom of His Bakta dEvEndra, became His enemy. He could have easily killed him as He did rAvaNa, but spared his life by sending him to pAtALa lOka since he had the udAra guNa of a giver. AzhwAr says emberumAn who spared his life is the greatest giver no one to excel Him.
vAnavar kOn tAnattu—This literally means swarga, but here contextually mean pAtALa lOka.
neriyAr kuzhal kaTTrai munninru pin tAzhndu
ariyAdu iLangiri enru eNNi piriyAdu |
poongoDihaL vaihum poru punal kunrennum
vEngaDamE yAm virumbum verpu || Fifty Three ||
Sree kulaSEkara AzhwAr desired to have any kind of janma in tirumalai. He said ‘veriyAr taN sOlai tiruvEngaDa malai mEl neiryAi kiDakkum nilaiyuDaiyEn AvEnE’. Similarly the Baktas coming to tirumalai to have His darSan, stay somewhere in the mountain itself as they find those places very charming and do not climb to the top. They sit and meditate in a place without showing any sign of breathing or movement. The creeper think they are rocks, climb and grow on them. They don’t recognize them as men even though they have hair on their heads. It is said the termites built an ant hill on him when vAlmeeki maharShi was doing penance. AzhwAr says he likes this tiurmalai because it has Baktas like them.
verpu enra irunjOlai vEngaDamenru ivviraNDum
nirpenru neemadikkum neermaipOl nirpenru |
uLam kOyil uLLam vaittuLLinEn veLLattu
iLangOyil kai viDEl enru || Fifty Four ||
emberumAn resides in the hearts of those aDiyArs who desire to live in the divya dESas where He happily resides. Hence there is no doubt He will come and reside in the AzhwAr’s heart since AzhwAr wants to stay in tirumAlirunjOlai and tirumalai (tennanuyar poruppum dieva vaDamalaiyum) It is said in Sree vachana BooShaNa—‘kallum kanai kaDalum engirapaDiyE idu siddittAl avaTTril Adarum maTTamAyirukkum. iLangOyil kaiviDEl enru ivan prArtikka vENDumpaDiyAi irukkum’. The author has this pASura in his mind.
‘Oh! emberumAn! i know You like to reside in tirumalai and tirumalirunjOlai with the same amount of liking, You like to reside in my heart too. But i request You not to leave Your tiruppArkaDal to come to my heart, ‘veLLattiLangOyil kaiviDEl’. The meaning of this pASura is –tiruppArkaDal is called the root and bulb of all the avatAras.
‘yESha nArAyaNah SreemAn kSheerArNava nikEtanahnAgaparyankam utsriya hyAgatO madhurAm pureem’— (Sreeman nArAyaNa left tiruppArkaDal and AdiSESha to come to madura). The vaidikas say rAma kriShNAdi avatAras and archAvatAras come from tiruppArkaDal. That is why tiruppArkaDal is called iLangOyil or pAlAlayam. (When a temple is renovated the deity is placed in milk. This place is called pAlAlaya kOyil) Before entering the divya dESa like tirumalai and the minds of aDiyArs BagavAn lies in tiruppArkaDal. Hence AzhwAr calls it iLangOyil. After entering the perungOyil He will not have the mind to go back to iLangOyil. So, AzhwAr says, after entering my perungOyil (mind) He may not go back to iLangOyil (tiruppArkaDal). Therefore AzhwAr says ‘pirAn! avviLangOyilil nee Adarattai kuraittu koLLalAhAdu. en uLLattil vandu sErvadarku avviDam poorvAngamai irundadanAl adu tannil aDiyEn nanri pArATTa kaDavanAdalAl anda nanriyarivin kAriyamAha prArttikkirEn avviDattai nee orunALum kaiviDalAhAdu!
AzhwAr says He like to leave tiruppArkaDal to live in his mind as periyAzhwAr says ‘panikkaDalil paLLikOLai pazhaha viTTu ODi vanden manakkaDalil vAzha vanda mAya maNALa nambee’.
‘prasaktasyairahi pratiShEdhah’ By AzhwAr’s statement it is evident emberumAn wants to quit pArkaDal.
enrum marandariyEn Ezhpirappum eppozhudum
ninru ninaippozhiyA neermaiyAl venri |
aDalAzhi koNDa arivanE inba
kaDalAzhi neeyaruLi kAN || Fifty Five ||
‘emberumAn! In this iruL tarum mA jnAlam (this world that leads you to ignorance) it is not easy to remember You. But I am able to do so only because You remember me. In fact You tried hard in my several janmas to take me somehow to Your tiruvaDi. ‘edir soozhal pukku enaittOr pirappum enakkE aruLhaL seyya vidi soozhndadAl enakkEl emmAn tirivikramanaiyE’ (tiruvAimozhi), yet i am not satisfied at this. i ask You to give me one more thing—give me the ocean of bliss. ‘adamil pErinbattu aDiyArODirundamai’ (tiruvAimozhi).
inbakkaDalAzhi—inbakkaDal means ocean of bliss. The word Azhi added to it suggests the infinity. Take me, who is always thinking of Your tiruvaDi, to You.
ninru ninaippozhiyA neermaiyAl—emberumAn is always thinking of AzhwAr (or) it can be interpreted as me, who is always thinking of Him.
venri aDalAzhi koNDa arivanE— sarvaSaktah, arivanE—sarvajnah. Since You are sarvaSakta and sarvajna You can give me what I ask.
kANakkazhi kAdal kaimikku kATTinAl
nANa paDumenrAl nANumE pENi |
karumAlai ponmEni kATTAmun kATTum
tirumAlai nangaL tiru || Fifty six ||
Why should AzhwAr pray (in the last pASura) ‘inbakkaDalAzhi nee aruLikkAN’? Why AzhwAr, whose very nature is to be paratantra, should ask Him to reveal His form instead of waiting for His nirhEtuka krupa? This pASura clears the doubt.
The pAratantrya of a jeeva will remains so until the thirst stays with in its limit. If it transcends that limit, his control over the swaroopa pAratantrya gets lost. (nANappaDum enrAl nANumE). He, whose thirst stays within that limit, will stay quiet. On the other hand, if the thirst crosses the limit he will go mad running after Him.
‘Even if the thirst crosses its limit, what is the use? Can You see Him just because of that reason? It is indeed the nirhEtuka krupa which makes Him reveal Himself. Didn’t You say ‘vanattiDarai EriyAm vANNam iyaTTrum iduvallAl mAriyAr peihirpAr maTTru?’ ‘Well! He may not reveal Himself now. But there is periya pirATTi, our jaganmAta, who never punishes anyone; who always does anugraha only and who pacifies emberumAn whenever He gets angry about our sins and who does puruShakAra . Therefore i am positive He will reveal Himself to me because of her anugraha ‘karumAl tirumEniyai akkarumAl kATTAmun nangAL tiru kATTum’.
tirumangai ninraruLam deivam nAvAzhttum
karumam kaDaippiDimin kaNDeer urimaiyAl |
EttinOm pAdam irundaDakkai endaipEr
nATTrisaiyum kETTeerE nAm || Fifty Seven ||
He is the paratatva whom Sree mahAlakShmi seeks. This is the vEdAnta sAra. ‘vEdAntah tatva chintAm murabiduras; yatpAda chinnaih taranti’—so says BaTTar in Sree guNaratnakOSa. (The vEdAntas were uncertain about who the paratatva is. Then after seeing Sree mahAlakShimi’s tiruvaDi mark on His tirumArbu decided that Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is paratatva). In fact the Lord gets His glories because of her sambandha. AzhwAr says ‘let us make our duty to sing His glories at all times’. One who advises others should follow the same in his life. The last two lines reveals he puts this in practice. He further says all the people should understand and follow this (nATTrisaiyum kETTeerE).
nAm peTTra nanmaiyum nAmangai nannenjattu
Ombiyirundemmai Oduvittu vEmbin |
poruLneermai Ayinum ponnAzhi pADenru
aruLneermai tanda aruL || Fifty Eight ||
To great mahAns emberumAn is parama BOgya as nammAzhwAr says ‘enakku tEnE pAlE kannalE amudE tirumAlirunjOlai kOnEyAhi’ (tiruvAimozhi). But to me, who is a mahApApi, He is as bitter as neem. Yet BagavAn made me sing Him through saraswati who was asked by Him to sit in my tongue. This is the kind of anugraha He shows.
aruLpurinda sindai aDiyArmEl vaittu
poruLterindu kANguTTra appOdu iruLirindu |
nOkkinEn nOkki ninaindEnadu oNkamalam
OkkinEn ennaiyum angu Orndu || Fifty Nine ||
AzhwAr continues to talk about His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha. Like parents who are very fond of their children He is very affectionate towards us. Therefore He makes us worthy. Till no this anAdi sambandha between Him and me i was not aware. His kaTAkSha removed the ajnAna and made us realise our swaroopa. Because of this swaroopa jnAna i desire to seek His tiruvaDi and offer my Atma to Him.
poruL terindu—is sometimes integrated as—understanding the artha panchaka—paramAtma swaroopa, jeevAtma swaoopa, upAya swaroopa, puruShArtha swaroopa and virOdhi swaoopa. After understanding these, my ajnAna vanished.
Oruruvan allai oLiyuruvam ninnuruvam
eeruruvan enbar irunilattOr Oruruvam |
AdiyAm vaNNam arindAravar kaNDeer
neediyAl maNkAppAr ninru || Sixty ||
AzhwAr remembers how He, without any trace of paratva, exhibits the soulaBya guNa and by the effulgence that arises out of this guNa made him His dAsa and a worthy one at that. AzhwAr understands BagavAn renounces His swatantra to become ASrita paratantra.
It is a dialogue between BagavAn and AzhwAr.
AzhwAr—SAstras say You are paratatva swaroopi. But I say Your form is simply paratva. (nee oruvan allai).
BagavAn—If paratatva is not My form what do you think of My form?
AzhwAr—‘oLiyuruvam ninnuruvam’—Your soulaBya guNa which is like a bright light in a dark room is Your form. You are not swatantra; but are paratantra.
BagavAn—Oh! AzhwAr! you say I have ASrita pAratantrya. Is that your conclusion or is the opinion of all?
AzhwAr—‘eeruruvam enbar irunilattOr’—All those who are devoid of jnAna say You are paratatva swaroopa. (eer here does not mean 2 but means big, huge, great etc) Those who have realized and experienced Your soulaBya are really great men in this world.
This pASura is interpreted differently—‘Oruruvanallai’—You take different avatAras (not one) in different species in order to help Your Baktas. ‘uyiraLippAn enninra yOniyumAi pirandAi imaiyOr talaiva’. Therefore You are not paravAsudEva alone. You are rAma, kriShNa etc. ‘oLiyuruvam ninnuruvam’—even if You are born as varAha, matsya etc. Your form is always Sudda satva only. They are always tEjOroopa. ‘eeruruvan enbar irunilattOr’—Therefore people say You have asAdhAraNa vigraha (paravAsudEva) and avatAra vigraha (rAma, kriShNa etc) (Here ‘eer’ means 2).
But the essence of this pASura is to understand the avatAra vigraha is greater than to understand His asAdhAraNa vigraha.
ninradOr pAdam nilampudaippa neeNDatOL
senraLandadu enbar tisai ellam anru |
karumANiyAi iranda kaLvanE unnai
piramANittAr peTTra pEru || Sixty One ||
AzhwAr enjoys BagavAn’s ASrita pAratantrya as revealed in His vAmanAvatAra. ‘Oh! emberumAn! You were standing with Your 2 tiruvaDis firmly on the ground when You were begging for 3 feet of land from mahAbali. After he gave You the dAna by pouring water, one of Your tiruvaDi occupied the whole span of earth. Before You could lift Your second tiruvaDi Your arms which spread and grew in all directions measured all the upper worlds. People say this act of Yours is done for the sake of indra. But I feel this is done not for indra alone but for all the ASritas. How? Your dAsas have now faith in You that You will do anything for them as You did for indra. Hence it is an act to induce faith in all.
periyavAchchAn piLLai Sree sookti—‘unnai pENAdE unnuDaiya viBootiyai avan (mAvali) tannadenna, avan pakkalilE irandayAi vanjittAyAi seidadu indrian oruttanukku seidadEyO? ‘ASrita viShayattil tannai azhiya mAri vanjikkum—toodupOm-sAratyam paNNum-ellAm seidu rakShikkum’ enru unnai pramANittavarhaL mArvilE kai vaittu urangumpaDi paNNinAi attanaiyanrO’.
pEronrum munnariyEn peTTrariyEn pEdaimaiyAl
mArenru solli vaNanginEn Erin |
perutta eruttam kODosiya peNNasaiyin pin pOi
eruttu irutta nallAyarEru || Sixty Two ||
i seek Him who is ASrita paratantra. He is the one who can kill my enemies (pApas) and make me attain the puruShArtha. Didn’t He kill the 7 strong bulls with huge humps and tusks in order to marry nappinnai pirATTi? Similarly He will kill all my pApas and take me near Him. I bow to His tiruvaDi. At last i, who was an avivEki, have understood that He alone is my rakShaka.
ErEzhum venru aDartta endai eri uruvattu
ErEri paTTa viDu sAbam pArEri |
uNDa talai vAi niraiya kODu angai oNkurudi
kaNDa poruL sollil kadai || Sixty Three ||
AzhwAr in the last pASura said he seeks Him alone as his refuge. Here he says ‘not only me but also brahmAdi dEvas and rudras seek Him as the only ASraya.’ To elucidate this point he recounts the story of Siva who wandered with the kapAla stuck to his hand begging everywhere.
Once paramaSiva plucked one of the 5 heads of brahma as he was jealous that brahma too had five heads as his. The kapAla stuck to his hand and will not leave it. The dEvas and riShis said ‘go and beg with this kapAla when it gets filled it will leave your hand’. From then on Siva was wandering all the lOkas. At last he went to badarikASrama where Sreeman nArAyaNa poured the blood from His chest. The kapAla left his hand.
viDu sAbam—The curse was pronounced (viDu) by brahma ‘kapAli tvam BaviShyash’ (or) the curse which no one would remove.
pAru—The birds that eat the carcass.
kadaiyum perum poruLum kaNNA nin pErE
idayamirundavaiyE Ettil kadaiyin |
tirumozhiyAi ninra tirumAlE unnai
parumozhiyAl kANa paNi || Sixty Four ||
The itihAsas and purANas speak of You alone—Your guNas and chEShTitas. When i read them i am chanting Your names only. Living in this viBooti I do nAma sankeertana. But my grand desire is to sing ‘hAvu hAvu’ ‘ahamannam, ahamannam, ahamannAdO, ahamannAdO ahamannAdah’ along with the nitya sooris in the paramapada. i like to have this poorNAnuBava.
The common word ‘kadai’ (story) refers to itihAsas and purANas. Sree rAmAyaNa and Sree mahABArata are the itihAsas; viShNu purANa and pAdma purANas are the sAtvika purANas. Even when read without understanding, or if read with understanding or if the meanings are meditated, when their essence is grasped—all of them are Your names only (kadaiyin tirumozhiyAi ninra tirumAlE). All the letters and words are You alone. Therefore chanting, understanding, analyzing etc. of all the SAstras amount to chanting Your names. I am, however, not satisfied with this. I want to join the chorus of nitya sooris who chant in the paramapada ‘hAvu, hAvu’ etc. Please bless me to have this experience.
paNindEn tirumEni paingamalam kaiyAl
aNindEn un sEvaDimEl anbAi tuNindEn |
purindu Etti unnai puhaliDam pArttu AngE
irundi Etti vAzhum idu || Sixty Five ||
The first two lines speak of what he has done. The last 2 lines speaks of what he wants to gain.
tirumEni paNindEn—i fell at His tiruvaDi like an uprooted tree after seeing Your divya mangaLa vigraha.
anbAi un sEvaDi mEl kaiyAl paingamalam aNindEn-- My love is so great that I would cease to exist if i don’t do kainkarya to You. With such a love i offer beautiful lotuses at Your lotus like tiruvaDi. By doing so I feel my hands have done the right act for which they are born.
emberumAn—‘Oh! AzhwAr! I think, by doing kainkarya such as you are doing now, in this Boo lOka, you are satisfied. Why don't you continue to do so staying here?’
AzhwAr—‘emberumAn! Life is short and uncertain. These kainkaryas may end when my life ends. How long i am able to do i can't say. My life is like a tree standing on the banks of a river i.e. it may fall at any time. Therefore i want to go to paramapada which is the final destination. i shall go there, join the nityasooris in doing mangaLASAsana like ‘pallANDu pallANDu, paramAtmanai soozhndu irundu Ettuvar pallANDE’ (periyAzhwAr)
puhaliDam—The place which is the final destination (or) the place which is reached by Him after every avatAra is over.
idu kaNDAi nannenjE ippiraviyAvadu
idukaNDAi ellAm nAmuTTradu idukaNDAi |
nAraNan pErOdi narahattaruhaNaiyA
kAraNamum vallaiyEl kAN || Sixty Six ||
AzhwAr takes each dOSha of samsAra and addresses his mind.
nal nenjE uTTradu ellAm idukaNDAi—Oh! My mind! Do you know this samsAra alone is the sole cause of all the suKa duhKas which come alternatively.
nal nenjE ippiraviyAvadu idukaNDAi—Oh! Mind! Do you know this is the nature of samsAra where jeevas are born and die again and again?
nAraNan pErOdi narahattaruhaNaiya kAraNamum idu kaNDAi—The reason for my hatred towards samsAra is the dOShas that it has. i prefer to stay in a remote corner of this earth, spend my time in chanting His names, meditating on His guNa chEShTitas, worshipping His tiruvaDi and singing His glories. This Boomi is a virtual naraka. I shall not enter it and suffer!
vallaiyEl kAN—Oh! Mind! I should explain these dOShas in detail if they are not perceptible. But, lo! These dOShas are very obvious to everyone with a thinking mind! Hence see for yourself, analyze the facts and try to get away!
kaNDEn tirumEni yAn kanavil Angavan kai
kaNDEn kanalum suDarAzhi kaNDEn |
urunOi vinaiyiraNDum OTTuvittu pinnum
marunOi seruvAn vali || Sixty Seven ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr was explaining the dOShas of samsAra.
emberumAn—‘Well! There are many AzhwArs who praise this leela viBooti and prefer to be here rather than going to paramapada ‘emmA veeTTu tiramum seppam’ (tiruvAimozhi) ‘ ichchuvai avira yAn pOi indira lOhamALum achchuvai perinum vENDEn arangamA naharuLAnE’ (toNDaraDippoDi AzhwAr) ‘ennamudinai kaNDa kaNgaL maTTronrinai kANAvE’ (tiruppANAzhwAr) ‘vaikuNTha vAsEpi na mE aBilAShah’ (vEdAnta dESikas-varadarAja panchASat). But this AzhwAr does not relish the stay in this viBooti. Perhaps if he has the vision of my divya mangaLa vigraha, he may change his mind.’ So thinking He reveals His tirumEni to AzhwAr’s mind.
kanavu—mAnasa sAkShAtkAra (mental vision) The first two lines briefly state what pEyAzhwAr says ‘tirukkaNDEn pon mEni kaNDEn tihazhum arukkan aNi niramum kaNDEn- serukkiLarum ponnAzhi kaNDEn puri sangam kai kaNDEn ennAzhi vaNNam pAl inru’.
uru nOi vinai iraNDum—Both puNya and pApa are called karma. They disappeared as soon as he had mAnasa sAkShAtkAra.
OTTuvittu—Both the karmas bring punar janmas. puNya karmas take one to swarga and pApa karmas to naraka. After enjoying the suKa and duhKa in those respective places they are born in the BoolOka again. Hence both of them are virOdhis to mOkSha. ‘tadA vidvAn puNya pApE vidhooya niranjanah paramam sAmyamupaiti’—vEdas.
pinnum maru nOi seruvAn—vAsanas are subtle impressions of karmas. They remain even if the karmas get exhausted. They cause further germination of karmas. They should be burnt to make them ineffective.
vali mikka vALeyiTTru vALavuNar mALa
valimikka vALvarai mattAha valimikka |
vANAham suTTri maruha kaDalkaDaindAn
kONAham komboSitta kO || Sixty Eight ||
emberumAn takes trouble to fulfill the wishes of His dAsas who desired not His kainkarya but mere amruta.
Once a vidyAdhara damsel received a beautiful garland from mahAlakShimi for her service rendered to her. She gave this garland to durvAsa muni who in turn presented it to indra when he as proudly riding on airAvata. indra took the garland with contempt and placed it on the elephant. The animal threw it down and stamped on it. The riShi cursed all the dEvas should lose their aiSwarya which would hide under the sea. They requested Sreeman nArAyaNa to get back the lost aiSwarya by churning the sea. emberumAn too did the same using mandara mountain and vAsuki serpent. When the mountain sank due to weight He took koormAvatAra and bore the weight on His back. Thus He obtained the nectar for them.
Sree kriShNa was brought to mathura to see the dhanuryAga performed by kamsa. The elephant kuvaLayApeeDa was placed in front of the gate in order to kill kriShNa. But our swAmi killed the elephant and the mahout by plucking its tusk and using it as a weapon.
kOvAhi mAnilangAttu nangaN muhappE
mAvEhi selhinra mannavarum poomEvum |
sengamala nABiyAn sEvaDikkE Ezhpirappum
taNkamalam EindAr tamar || Sixty Nine ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said the dEvas got what they desired by worshippig Him. Here he says not only dEvas but also the great emperors and kings got their positions and status by worshipping Him in many janmas.
The great kings who rule over the vast Boo maNDala and proudly ride on horses have acquired this status by worshipping Him, offering beautiful lotuses at His tiruvaDi in many janmas.
EindAr tmar—can also be interpreted as—they become such kings by doing kainkarya to BAgavatas who are Bagavad Baktas.
tamaruLLam tanjai talaiyarangam taNkAl
tamaruLLum tANporuppu vElai tamaruLLum |
mAmallai kOval madiLkuDandai enbarE
Evalla endaikku iDam || Seventy ||
AzhwAr lists some of the divya dESas where He dwells. They are, to name a few—‘Baktas’ hearts, tanjai mA maNikkOyil, tiruvarangam—the greatest of all the divya dESas, tiruttaNkAl, tirumalai, tiruppArkaDal, tirukkaDanmallai, tirukkOvaloor, tirukkuDandai etc. These are upalakShaNa for all the places where emberumAn resides. The first and foremost of such places is the heart of a Bakta.
iDangai valamburi ninrArppa erikAnru
aDangAr oDunguvitta Azhi viDangAlum |
teevAi aravaNaimEl tOnral tisaiyaLappAn
poovAr aDi nimirtta pOdu || Seventy One ||
AzhwAr describes how the two AzhwArs (SanKa and chakra) were very much excited when He, as trivikrama, measured the worlds. emberumAn took a ‘maN kuraL’ form, went to mahAbali, and begged 3 feet of land. When mahAbali agreed to give the dAna and poured water SukrAchArya prevented it by blocking the hole of kamaNDala. When He started measuring the given land (as trivikrama) namuchchi and others prevented him from doing so. ‘enridu mAyam ennappan arindilan munnaiya vaNNamE koNDaLavAi’ (periyAzhwAr). Conquering all these obstacles He accomplished His mission successfully. SanKa made thunderous noise and chakra spit fire glowing brightly to celebrate the victory.
AzhwAr expresses his concern for Him who deserves to lie on a soft bed as ananta, should be taking a dwarf form begging from an asura a small piece of land and fighting all the foes who stand in the way. Why should He place His flower-like soft tiruvaDi (poovAraDi) on hills, rocks, rivers and valleys when He measured? Such is His vAtsalya towards His aDiyArs.
iviDam kAlum teevAyaravu—The nitya sooris like AdiSESha who never hand ajnAna at any time fear the safety of their master out of greatest love for Him. This is called asthAnE Baya SanKA. The nitya sooris and muktas sing sAma vEda in the parama pada ‘hAvu, hAvu’ etc. tiruvanandAzhwAn mistakes the sound as the cry of asuras. Hence he spits venom (viDam kAlum teevAyaravu) and fire to threaten them. ‘Angu AravAramadu kETTu azhalumizhum poongAraravu’—tirumazhisai AzhwAr.
pOdarindu vAnarangaL poonjunai pukku Angalarnda
pOdarindu koNDEttum pOdu uLLam pOdu |
maNi vEngaDavan malaraDikkE sella
aNivEngaDavan pErAindu || Seventy Two ||
AzhwAr says even the animals in tirumalai worship Him. The monkeys of the mountains get up early in the morning, dive in to the ponds full of flowers, pluck the finest flowers, go to His temple, offer them at His tiruvaDi, pray in their own language and worship Him. Oh! Mind! Why don’t you too get up early, take bath, gather flowers etc, ‘chant His names and bow to Him?
The word ‘pOdu’ is repeated 4 times. The first one means ‘time’ the second and the third means ‘flowers’ and the fourth means ‘let us go’.
Ainduraippan AyirampEr Adi naDu andivAi
vAindamalar toovi vaihalum Einda |
piraikOTTu SengaN kari viDutta pemmAn
iraikku ATpaDa tuNinda yAn || Seventy Three ||
AzhwAr says ‘i shall at all times gather flowers whatever and from wherever I could get, offer them at His tiruvaDi with love and chant His sahasra nAma. Thus I shall worship Him who saved gajEndra from the mouth of the cruel crocodile. We should be a dAsa like that elephant if we have to get His anugraha.
Adi naDu andivAi—morning, noon and evening i.e, at all times.
vAinda malar—Any flower that i can get. They are fit to worship Him if they are offered with love. The idea on seeing any flower that ‘it is nice to place it His tiruvaDi’ will suffice. He is pleased by the Bakti not by the kind of flower.
Einda pirai kODu—Ana kaLiyAnai tan kombizhandu kaduvAi madam sOra tan kai eDuttu koonar pirai vENDi aNNAndu nirkum gOvardanam ennum koTTrakkuDaiyE’ (periyAzhwAr)
SengaN kari—gajEndra did not have natural red eyes but became so due to His anger & duhKa.
kari viDutta pemmAn—kari—elephant, viDutta—to kill. Hence it can also mean kuvaLayApeeDa which He killed.
yAnE tavam seidEn Ezhpirappum eppozhudum
yAnE tavamuDaiyEn emberumAn yAnE |
irundamizh nanmAlai iNaiyaDikkE sonnEn
perundamizhan allEn peridu || Seventy Four ||
Majority of the people of this world go behind food, clothes etc. (uNDiyE uDaiyE uhandu Odum—kulaSEkara AzhwAr) and other BOga viShayas. Fortunately I am not foolish like them seeking the mean pleasures. My mind always seeks Him, my mouth speaks Him and my indriyas run after Him. AzhwAr is very much pleased about His BAgya. ‘illai enakkedir illai enakkedir illai enakkedirE’. Such ahankAras are not born of ego but out of his joy over Bagavad anugraha which made Him what he is now.
tavam—tapas. ‘kAyilai tinrum kAnil uraindum teeyiDai ninrum poovalam vandum tirihinra silar tangaLai mahA tapasvihaLAha eNNuhinranar’—Some eat raw fruits and leaves living in forests doing tapas in the midst of 5 agnis (fire on four sides and sun above) or go from place to place. They think this is the tapas. But aDiyEn feel to think and meditate on Him, to sing His names and guNas—is tapas.
First he says ‘yAnE tavam seidEn’. Then he feels he has, in fact, not done anything by self effort. In fact He got the fruits of the tapas. Hence he feels ‘ i have not performed any tapas as men normally do; i simply chant His names and sing pASuras on Him. However i have received the fruits of this tapas.
There are many AzhwArs and Baktas who sing beautifully in tamizh. i am pleased by the songs and He is pleased too. ‘yAnE irundamizh nan mAlai iNai aDikkE sonnEn perundamizhan nallEn peridu’.
peruhu mada vEzham mAppiDikku munninru
irukaNiLa moongil vAngi aruhirunda |
tEn kalandu neeTTum tiruvEngaDam kaNDeer
vAn kalanda vaNNan varai || Seventy Five ||
AzhwAr praised himself in the last pASura saying ‘perundamizhan nallEn peridu’.
emberumAn—’AzhwAr! Please sing a beautiful poetry for me’. AzhwAr sings this pASura.
He describes in beautiful words the tirumalai.
There is an elephant form whom the rut flows. This wild elephant sees a she elephant. To please her he plucks a tender bamboo shoot, dips it in honey found nearby and offers it to her with love. This is the tirumalai where resides emberumAn who pleases His consort SreedEvi as does the elephant. ‘varai sei mAkkaLiru iLavedir vaLar muLai aLai mihu tEn tOittu pirasa vAri tan iLavu piDikku aruL seyyum piridi senru aDai nenjE’—tirumangai AzhwAr.
varai sandanakkuzhambum vAn kalanum paTTum
viraipolinda veN mallihaiyum niraittukkoNDu |
AdikkaN ninravarivan aDiyiNaiyE
Odi paNivadu urum || Seventy Six ||
‘rikta hastastu nOpEyAd rAjAnam deivatam gurum’—one should not go with an empty hand when one meets the king, god and guru’. Hence we should take sandal paste, beautiful ornaments, costly silk dresses, fragrant mallihai flowers to offer all of them to Him when we go to worship Him.
azhahiya maNavALa jeeyar interprets it--Baktas who go to worship Him should not go with dirty clothes disheveled hair or empty handed. They should go in a befitting manner smearing sandal paste on them (‘meyyiDa nallaDOr sAndamum’), wear beautiful ornaments (‘kazhutukku pooNODu kAdukku kuNDalamum’) like hAra, finger rings, ear studs etc. and clean silk clothes (‘uDuttu kaLainda nin peetahavADai uDuttu’) wearing scented flowers like mallihai etc. (‘toDutta tuzhAi malar sooDi kaLaindana sooDum ittoNDarhaLOm’)—(all the quotations are from periyAzhwAr’s pASuras)
It is said BaTTar used to go to tiruvarangam temple everyday dressed in this manner.
urum kaNDAi nannenjE uttaman narpAdam
urum kaNDAi oNkamalam tannAl urum kaNDAi |
Etti paNindavan pEr eerainnooru eppozhudum
sAtti uraittal tavam || Seventy Seven ||
Oh! Mind! You are good (nal nenjE) since you listen to what I say. you obey my words. I shall tell you what is good for you. Listen carefully. He is puruShOttama who is equal to all having no friends nor enemies. Consider His tiruvaDi’s alone as your refuge. To offer beautiful fresh lotuses at His tiruvaDi is your swaroopa. To sing and bow to Him, chant His sahasranAmas alone is the tapas.
tavamseidu nAnmuhanE peTTrAn daraNi
neevandaLappa neeTTiya porpAdam sivanda tan |
kaiyanaittum Ara kazhuvinAn gangaineer
peidanaittu pEr mozhindu pin || Seventy Eight ||
When emberumAn lifted His tiruvaDi to measure the worlds brahma washed it by pouring water from his kamaNDalu. He, by thus doing, has achieved the fruit of his tapas. ‘kurai koNDu nAn muhan kuNDihai neer peidu marai koNDa mandirattAl vAzhtti karai koNDa kaNDattAn sennimElEra kazhuvinAn aNDattAn sEvaDiyai Angu’—tirumazhisai AzhwAr.
gangai neer peidu—It is said the water which washed His tiruvaDi flowed as ganga. Here AzhwAr says brahma poured ganga water. AzhwAr wants to convey that as soon as the water touched His tiruvaDi it became the pure ganga.
pinninru tAyirappa kELAn perumpaNaittOL
munninru tAnirappAL moimalarAL solninra |
tOLnalattAn nErillA tOnral avanaLanda
neeNilandAn attanaikkum nEr || Seventy Nine ||
Sree rAma was getting ready to go the forest. His mother kausalya dEvi and wife seeta pirATTi tried to prevent Him by explaining the dangers that await Him there. But He would not listen to them. He was intent on obeying His father’s words and also did not like to lose the opportunity of killing the foes of the riShis of that forest. There is no comparison to rAma’s guNas. If at all a comparison should be made it is with the act of trivikrama only. When He placed His tiruvaDi on all He did not discriminate between vasiShTas and chaNDALas.
AzhwAr wants to stress the point that He can be compared to only Him. Like the moon can be compared to a moon alone, a sea to a sea alone, His guNas can be compared to His guNas alone. He has no equals to make comparisons. ‘peridu peridu buvanam peridu’. Like wise His guNas cannot be confined within boundaries.
nErndEn aDimai ninaindEn adu oNkamalam
ArndEn un sEvaDimEl anbAi Arnda |
aDikkOlam kaNDavarkku en kolO munnai
paDikkOlam kaNDa pahal || Eighty ||
‘nErndEn aDimai ninaindEn adoNkamalam ArndEn un sEvaDimEl anbAi’—AzhwAr talks about His great love on His lotus-like tiruvaDi. Why should AzhwAr has so much Adara towards His tiruvaDi? Isn’t His whole tirumEni enjoyable? He says compared to His tiruvaDi His tirumEni is less attractive.
oN kamalam—Instead of saying His tiruvaDi is like a beautiful lotus AzhwAr says ‘this lotus’— roopakAtisayOkti alankAra.
un sEvaDi mEl anbAi ArndEn—AzhwAr does not say he has love but says he is love.
Arnda aDikkOlam kaNDavarkku munai paDaikkOlam koNDa pahal en kol—When He measured the worlds the people of BoolOka and upper lOkas had the vision of His tiruvaDi whereas those of the middle lOka had the vision of His tirumEni. Hence AzhwAr says the former were more fortunate than the latter.
pahal kaNDEn nAraNanai kaNDEn kanavil
mihakkaNDEn meeNDavanai meyyE mihakkaNDEn |
oontihazhu nEmi oLitihazhum sEvaDiyAn
vAn tihazhum sOdi vaDivu || Eighty One ||
AzhwAr is very happy that he had emberumAn’s sAkShAtkAra. The common men takes it as a day when the sun shines and as night when it sets. But to a jnAni it is a day when he has His sAkShAtkAra and night when he does not have that. AzhwAr says ‘pahal kaNDEn’ i.e., he had His vision. Again to make it very clear he sys ‘nAraNanai kaNDEn’.
periyavAchchAn piLLai—(‘pahal kaNDEn) kALa rAtriyAi sellAdE viDiya kaNDEn, vaDuhar vArttai pOla terihiradillai; engaLukku teriyumbaDi solleer enna (nAraNanai kaNDEn) astamiyAda Adittanai kaNDEn’.
Then men near him ask ‘Oh! AzhwAr! You keep saying ‘pahal kaNDEn’ ‘nAraNanai kaNDEn’ and also say ‘kanavinil kaNDEn’. When we ask you about what you saw you say you saw Him in your mind. Now what do you mean by ‘pahal kaNDEn?’ AzhwAr says ‘This time i had real sAkShAtkAra. i saw Him as the nityasooris see Him in paramapada. ‘sadA paSyanti soorayah’-vEda.
vAntihazhum –is also interpreted as I saw His effulgent form which is dark like cloud.
vaDi kOla vALneDungaN mAmalarAL sevvi
paDikkOlam kaNDahalAL pannAL aDikkOli |
jnAlattAL pinnum nalampurindaden kolO
kOlattAlillai kurai ||Eighty Two ||
AzhwAr in the last pASura said ‘nAraNanai kaNDEn’. Now he says this nArAyaNa is the loving consort of Sree dEvi and BoodEvi. periya pirATTi, born of a lotus, is always immersed in His charm. Therefore she does not want to leave Him even for a minute. She is tossed by the waves of His beauty. If this is the state of even periya pirATTi what to talk of mine-should be the thought of Boomi pirATTi. She should in fact try to go away from Him. But no. She too feels she must have the same experience as periya pirATTi. Why? AzhwAr given the reason—‘kOlattAl kurai illai’—in this world no two persons like to enjoy the same object since the object itself is limited in nature and the pleasure too is shared between them. Every one likes to have monopoly over the object of enjoyment. If there is a mug of water not many can share it. If there is a flood of water in a river all may like to share it at the same time and still find the water aplenty. Similarly Bagavad viShaya gives room for infinite number of people to enjoy infinite Ananda simultaneously. Boomi pirATTi wants to enjoy emberumAn as periy pirATTi for this same reason.
periyavAchchAn piLLai Sree sookti—‘tannil miDukkanAnavan azhundapukkAl karaiyilE nirkiravan puhAdE pOhavanrO aDuppadu; ellArilum aLavuDaiya periya pirATTiyAr kumizh neeruNNum viShayamAnAl ivaL ahalappArAdE ahappaDuhaikku hEtuven ennil; hElu solluhiradu (kOlattAl ityAdi). nirAr ninra nilaihaLilE ahappaDa vENDum azhahu kuraivaTTru irukkaiyAlE engai itara viShayangaL iruvarkkum anuBavikka pOrAmaiyAlE SeerupArengiradu; kiNNahattil izhiyumA pOlE ellArum tiraLa anubavikka vENDum parappu uNDAhaiyAlE ivviShayattai anubavippArkku piriyamE uLLadu’.
vaDikkOla vAL neDungaN—vaDi—sharp; kOla—beautiful; aDikkOli—periyavAchchAn piLLai interprets it as ‘ahala pArittu’ or’ ilaiyahala pArittu’ i.e., the imagination of eating good food as ‘i shall eat this first’ ‘i shall eat this in large amount’ ‘i shall add ghee to this to add to the taste’ etc. before one actually sits before the plate. Similarly Boomi dEvi has such imaginations about enjoying Him which AzhwAr says ‘aDikkOli’.
kuraiyAha venjorkaL koorinEn koori
marai Angu ena uraitta mAlai iraiyEnum |
eeyungolenrE irundEn enaippahalum
mAyankaN senra varam || Eighty Three ||
In pASura 74 AzhwAr was very glad that he had the skill in writing poetry on Bagavad viShaya ‘yAnE irundamizh nan mAlai iNaiyaDikkE sonnEn, perundamizhan nallEn peridu’. In the last pASrua he had the vision of Him and the two pirATTis. Now he feels sad he had not had the skill to describe the ‘sErttiyazhahu’ (their togetherness) Alas! i feel sad that i did not sing well! i used harsh and inappropriate words in my poetry. i did write very imperfectly too. And I thought I was going to receive a prize for what i did! How foolish i was! marai Angena uraitta mAlai—There are two types of means of knowledge—pratyakSha (direct through the senses) and parOkSha (indirect through hearing, guess etc) pratyakSha is said to be immediate and near where as parOkSha is something far off when vEdas talk of Him it is parOkSha ‘yatO vAchO nivartantE aprApya manasA saha’. ‘avan paDihaLai uLLapaDi tarai kaNDu pESa orupaTTa vEdangaLAnavai adu enru sollumittanai pOkki ‘idamittham’ enru parichEdittu solla mATTAda perumaiyai uDaiya sarvESwaranai’—wise say so.
mAyan kaN senra varam iraiyEnum eeyungol enrE irundEn—Alas! i foolishly thought that emberumAn’s anugraha will shower on me for my poetry! AzhwAr has regrets about 2 things—1. he is not able to write suitable poetry 2. he desire a fruit in return for his song which at first he found very good but later found to be faulty. The first two lines express the first point and the rest express the second point.
varamkarudi tannai vaNangAda vanmai
urangarudi moorkkattavanai naram kalanda
singamAi keeNDa tiruvanaDiyiNaiyE
angaNmAjnAlattamudu || Eighty Four ||
‘Oh! AzhwAr! If you say you cannot sing well (kuraiyAha venjorkaL koorinEn) and regret for having sung so imperfectly, why don’t you stop? Do it now!’—so say people around him. AzhwAr replies ‘i cannot sit quiet. i can’t remain silent when He is there like nectar (‘angaNmA jnAlattu amudu’) Hence i continue to sing! In this pASura he sings about narasimhAvatAra—how He killed the cruel hiraNya who become puffed up with pride about his boom, might, valour and power.
amudenrum tEnenrum AzhiyAnenrum
amudanru koNDuhandAnenrum amudanna |
solmAlai Etti tozhudEn solappaTTa
nanmAlai Etti navinru || Eighty Five ||
In the 83rd pASura he said ‘kuraiyAha venjorkaL koorinEn’ when asked if it be so why should he sing again and again he replied i cannot but do so since He is a nectar. Now he says since He is like nectar the words themselves become palatable (i.e. they become nectar even though they are actually not so).
amudanna sol mAlai— emberumAn has several names like chakrapANi, mAdhava etc. Similarly the words like tEn, pAl, amudu, kannal etc. are His names only. ‘rasO vai sah’—vEda . AzhwArs also sings ‘tEnai nan pAlai kannalai amudai’ ‘enakku tEnE pAlE kannalE amudE tirumAlirunjOlai kOnEyAhi ninrOzhindAn’.
amdudu anru koNDu uhandAn—When the dEvas request Him to do anything for them and when He successfully accomplishes them He is more pleased than they because He has fulfilled their desire (uhandAn).
‘amudenrum tEnenrum AzhiyAn enrum anru amudu koNDu uhandAn enrum solapaTTa nan mAlai amudanna son mAlai (koNDu) Etti Etti navinru tozhudEn’—is the prose order.
navinruraitta nAvalarhaL nANmalarkoNDu AngE
payinradanAl peTTrapayanenkol payinrAr tam |
meittavattAl kANbariya mEhamaNivaNNanai yAn
ettavattAl kANban kol inru || Eighty Six ||
Many men try to get Him by resorting to their own effort (sAdhanAnuShThAna). AzhwAr says such effort will not get any fruit. His sankalpa to reveal Himself by nirhEtuka kaTAkSha alone can fetch His vision. AzhwAr says he has not resorted to any self effort, like nAma sankeertana, offering of flowers, tapas, etc. In spite of his not doing anything he has His vision since it is emberumAn’s wish to do so.
inrA arihinrEn allEn irunilattai
senrAngaLanda tiruvaDiyai anru |
karukkOTTiyuL kiDandu kaitozhudEn kaNDEn
tirukkOTTi endai tiram || Eighty Seven ||
The pASura is the continuation of the last one. Here too he speaks of His anugraha. ;’His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha fell on me even when I was in the womb. He revealed His swarooa, roopa, guNa, viBootis. ‘jAyamAnam hi puruSham yam paSyEt madhusoodanah sAtvikah sa tu vijnyEhah sa vai mOkShArtha chintakah’—vEda.—he who gets the kaTAkSha of emberumAn even when he is in garBa becomes a sAtvika and mumukShu. Now I enjoy tirukkalyANa guNas and do upadESa to others too. Since I know Him even from the womb-life I am not new to Him nor He to me.
iru nilattai senru AngaLanda tiruvaDiyai—He Himself went to each place on the earth to measure (senru aLanda) and took possession of them. Similarly He Himself searched for me and took me as His dAsa.
periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘avan aLakkira iDattilE Boomi senradO? Boomi kiDanda iDamellAm tAnE senru aLandAnittainaiyanrO’.
karukkOTTiyuL kiDandu—It is said AzhwAr is born of a flower (kurukkattippoo). Then how can He talk of garBavAsa? The answer is the word is not understood in its literal sense of ‘teeNDA azhumbum senneerum seeyum narambum seri tasaiym vENDA nATTram mikkirukkira garbam’. The flower from where He is born is called karukkOTTi. The true sense of this pASura is AzhwAr received His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha before he is born. ‘nAn ivviruL tarum mA jnAlattil vandu tOnruvadarku munnamE emberumAnuDaiya kaTAkSham peTTravar’—is the jist of this pASura. ‘anru nAn pirandilEn piranda pin marandilEn’—tirumazhisai AzhwAr.
tirambiTTru ini arindEn tennarangattendai
tirambAvazhisenrArkallAl tirambA |
seDinarahai neekkittAm selvadanmun vAnOr
kaDinahara vAsar kadavu || Eighty Eight ||
Those who understand that emberumAn Himself is the upAya and upEya enter the great paramapada where dwell the nityasooris. To the others who try to do go there with their own efforts the door is shut.
kadavi kadansiranda kanjanai mun kAindu
adavippOr yAnai oSittu padaviyAi |
pANiyAl neerETTru paNDorukAl mAvaliyai
mANiyAi koNDilaiyE maN || Eighty Nine ||
Oh! emberumAn! If You once decide to help Your dAsas, however much difficult the task may be, You easily do it. AzhwAr cites many examples to stress the point. kamsa was an enemy of BAgavatas. ‘sAdu sanattai naliyum kanjan’ (tiruvaimozhi). Therefore You killed him. You killed kuvaLayApeeDa because You, who were the life of BAgavatas, were attacked by it. You begged the land from mahAbali for the sake of indra.
maNNulaham ALEnE vAnavarkkum vAnavanAi
viNNulaham tannahattu mEvEnE naNNi |
tirumAlai SengaN neDiyAnai engaL
perumAnai kaittozhuda pin || Ninety ||
AzhwAr in the last pASura gave instances where emberumAn helped His aDiyArs. Now He asks him ‘Oh! AzhwAr! You were talking about what I did to others. What do You want me to do You now? Tell me!
AzhwAr replies—‘Oh! perumAn! i have achieved all the puruShArthas as soon as i sought You—Now i enjoy both this Boomi (earth) and that Boomi (paramapada) i.e. i am the Lord of both the viBootis. What more do i want from You?
pinnAl aru naraham sErAmal pEduruveer
munnAl vaNanga muyalminO pannool |
aLandAnai kArkkaDal soozh jnAlattai ellAm
aLandAnavan sEvaDi || Ninety One ||
Starting from this AzhwAr gives advice to the samsAris in 4 pASuras. ‘Oh! Men! Your very behaviour shows You are sure to go to naraka if at all there are men present here who fear going to naraka and who want to find a way out, i tell them one thing—try to worship His tiruvaDi. It will definitely save You from narakavAsa.’
AzhwAr does not say ‘sEvaDiyai vaNanguminO’ but says ‘vaNanga muyalminO’. The addition of the word muyalmin suggests mere trial is enough more than the act.
aDiyAl kanjanai seTTru amararEttum
paDiyAn koDimEl puLkoNDAnai neDiyAntan |
nAmamE EttuminhaL EttinAl tAm vENDum
kAmamE kATTum kaDidu || Ninety Two ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said those who refuse to worship His tiruvaDi go to naraka and those who ‘desire’ to worship Him (but may not actually do so) do not enter naraka. In this pASura he says those who do nAma sankeertana get their desires fulfilled.
kanjanai SeTTru—kamsa was sitting on the thorne when kaNNan dragged him and pulled him down by the hair, knocked His crow off, kicked him with His tiruvaDi and killed him finally. The dEvas praised Him for His act. AzhwAr asks the men to sing His glories who kills the enemies of Baktas and says if you do so He will fulfill all Your desires.
kaDidu koDu naraham pirkAlum seihai
koDidu enradu kooDA munam vaDisangam |
koNDAnai koondal vAi keeNDAnai kongainanju
uNDAnai EttuminO uTTru || Ninety Three ||
Oh! Men! The very word ‘naraka’ will bring to Your mind the horrors of it and make you shiver out of fear. The yama BaTTas will inflict terrible pain on the narakavAsis. Before experiencing such pains, make haste to sing His glories and chant His names.
koondal vai keeNDAnai—‘koondal’ in tamizh is ‘kESa’ in Sanskrit (hair) ‘kESa’ reminds us of ‘kESi’. Hence ‘koondal’ here refer to ‘kESi’. This type of derivation is called ‘lakShita lakShaNa’. In villiputtoor Baratam written by villiputtoor poet, we can find such expressions. For example, he uses the word ‘tingaL sEr peyarinAn’ for ‘buddhisEna’ tingaL=moon=madi=buddhi. Thus ‘tingaL sEr peyarinAn’ means ‘buddhisEna’.
kESi is a rAkShasa sent by kamsa to kill kriShNa. He came in the form of a horse whom kriShNa killed.
uTTru vANangi tozhumin ulahEzhum
muTTrum vizhungum muhil vaNNan paTTri |
porundAdAn mArviDandu poompADahattuL
irundAnai Ettum en nenju || Ninety Four ||
He stays in tiruppADaham after accomplishing great and difficult acts like swallowing all the worlds after praLaya and killing the asura hiraNya by splitting open his chest. In fact He resides here as if to take rest. i worship Him. i ask you samsAris to worship Him too.
pADaham—is the divya dESa in periya kAncheepuram. It is also called pANDava toodar sannidhi. pADu+aham—the place where He stands exhibiting fully glories as viSwaroopi.
kaNNan went to duryOdana as a messenger of pANDavas. duryOdana wanted to kill Him by trickery. He arranged an underground cellar where huge powerful mallas were kept ready with arms. The entrance to the cellar was covered by bamboos. An Asana was placed on the bamboo sticks. kriShNa was asked to sit on the seat. As soon as He sat the cover collapsed sending Him right in to the cellar. But kriShNa took a huge form and killed all the armed men there. ‘aravu neeL koDiyOn avaiyuL Asanatai anjiDAdE iDa adarku periya mA mEni aNDam ooDuruva perudiSai aDangiDa nimirndOn’— periya tirumozhi of tirumangai AzhwAr.
ennenjam mEyAn en senniyAn dAnavanai
vannenjam keeNDa maNivaNNan munnam sEi|
oozhiyAnoozhi peyarttAn ulahEttum
AzhiyAn atti oorAn || Ninety Five ||
In this and the next pASura AzhwAr does mangaLASAsana on EraruLALan of tiru hastagiri who is ‘perumAL kOyil hastiSaila SikarOjvala pArijAtah’.
He who mercilessly split open the chest of hiraNya, prahlAda’s Bakta paripAlana, and He who exists without birth, old age and death for anAdi kAla; He who created all the objects both sentient and insentient including the kAla He who lies in tiruppArkaDal is sung by He dEvas, riShis and muktas. He resides in tiruhastagiri. He is in my heart and on my head.
In tiruvAimozhi nammAzhwAr says in the pASura ‘ivaiyum avaiyum uvaiyum’ that He stays in all his avayavAs. Here too AzhwAr says He is in his heart and on his head which are upalakShaNas for all the avayavas like eyes, mArbu, tOL etc.
There is Lord narasimha’s sannidhi in hastagiri. Therefore AzhwAr says ‘tAnavanai vannenjam keeNDa maNi vaNNanai’.
munnam SeyoozhiyAn—He who exists for anAdi kAla.
oozhi peyarttAn—here too oozhi means kAla. There is no kAla in paramapada. Hence the word oozhi suggests leelA viBooti. oozhi peyarttAn –He created kAla. i.e. He created everything including kAla.
ulahEttum AzhiyAn—can also be interpreted as ‘He who carries chakra and who is praised by all’.
attiyoorAn—hasti (elephant) becomes ‘atti’ in tamizh. ‘dingnAgaih architah tasmin purA viShNuh sanatanah tatO hastagirir nAma KyAtirAseen mahAgirEh’- (hastagiri mahAtmyam) This place is called hastagiri since the elephants in this region used to worship Him.
attiyoorAn puLLaiyoorvAn aNi maNiyin
tuttisEr nAhattin mEl tuyilvAn muttee |
maraiyAvAn mAkaDal nanjuNDAn tanakkum
iraiyAvAn engaL pirAn || Ninety Six ||
AzhwAr does mangaLASAsana to pEraruLALa perumAn in hastigiri. He says pEraruLALan is ‘puLLai yoorvAn’. Hence even today the garudOtsava of this divya dESa is very famous.
nAhattin mEl tuyilvAn—He who lies on tiruvanandAzhwAn in tiruppArkaDal is the one who is in tiruhastagiri. Sree kooraTTAzhwAn in varadarAja stava says ‘ananta sayam tvAm’, ‘Panipati SayaneeyAt uthitastvam praBAtE varada satatam antarmAnasam sannidhEyAh—Sree vEdAnta dESikar’s divya sookti.
muttee maraiyAvAn—can be split as mutteeyAvAn (who is worshipped by trEtAgni) and maraiyAvAn (who is worshipped through vEdas and who is revealed by the vEdas). There is another version—muttee maraiyAvAn—mutti-mukti; maraiyAvAn—He who is revealed by the vEdas which speak about mOkSha puruShArtha.
engaL perumAn imaiyOr talaimahan nee
SengaN neDumAl tirumArbA pongu |
paDamookkinAn AyiravAi pAmbaNaimEl sErndAi
kuDamookkil kOyilA koNDu || Ninety Seven ||
Oh! emberumAn! You come and reside in kumbakONam only to reveal Your excellent form to aDiyArs like me.
kuDamookku—kuDa—kumba; mooku-kONa. Oh! swAmi! You are the loving consort of periya pirATTi; are the Lord of nitya sooris in paramapada; are so beautiful that they are not satisfied even after seeing You all the time. You come to tiruppArkaDal for the sake of dEvas and to kumbakONa for the sake of aDiyArs.
koNDu vaLarkka kuzaviyAi tAn vaLarndadu
uNDadu ulahEzhum uLLoDunga koNDu |
kuDamADi kOvalaNAi mEvi ennenjam
iDamAha koNDa irai || Ninety Eight ||
AzhwAr tells some of His chEShTitas who is His swAmi. He took birth in the shepherd race and behaved like the boy of that clan playing kuDakkoottu etc. To take rest He has come to my mind and stayed there for ever. He does astonishing acts like swallowing the worlds even when He was a tiny baby! What wonderful mAya!
koNDu vaLarkka kuzhaviyAi—A small child to be carried and tended by the elders. Such a small one should swallow all the worlds and protect them in His tiruvayiru! Astonishing indeed!
kuDamADi—Placing 2 or 3 pits one over the other on His head and similar number on His shoulders and perform jugglery with 2 or 3 pots in His hands.
irai emberumAn aruL enru imaiyOr
murai ninru moimalarhaL toova araikazhala |
sEvaDiyAn SengaN neDiyAn kuraLuruvAi
mAvaDivin maNkoNDAn mAl || Ninety Nine ||
Out of the many avatAras of emberumAn AzhwAr favours trivikrama and kriShNAvatAra. This is revealed in many of his pASuras.
The brahmAdi dEvas have ahankAra about their eeSwaratva and powers. After witnessing His trivikrama avatAra and His wonderful act of measuring all the worlds they felt they are very insignificant and prayed ‘Oh! emberumAn! Please show us a little bit of mercy’. Then they offered fragrant fresh flowers at His tiruvaDi and bowed to Him. He who is thus worshipped by brahmAdi dEvas is our rakShaka and asylum.
mAlE neDiyOnE kaNNanE viNNavarkku
mElAviyan tuzhAi kaNNiyanE mElAl |
viLavinkAi kanrinAl veezhttavanE enran
aLavanrAl yAnuDaiya anbu || One Hundred ||
emberumAn! Your upakAra (help) to those who are after anyaprayOjana (fruits other than You) is beyond my words. You take lot of pains to help them who worship You for their selfish goals. perumAn! You need not take any such trouble for my sake. My love for You is so much that it fills me and over flows. i request You to kindly bring it under my control. That is all the prayOjana i want of You.
From this AzhwAr says His Bagavat Bakti is immeasurable. He also says those who read this prabandha will experience the same. ‘Sittamum sevvai nillAdu en seihEn teevinaiyEn pattimaikku anbuDaiyEnAvadE paNiyAi endAi’— tirukkurundANDaham of tirumangai AzhwAr.
emberumAn alone has the Sakti to give whatever you desire and remove whatever you hate. He alone is to be loved with all my heart.
iraNDAm tiruvandAdi muTTriTTru
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