This is by tirumazhisai AzhwAr, the fourth AzhwAr. This is placed as the fourth prabandha in the III series called iyarpA as proposed by Sreeman nAdamunihaL.
This prabandha starts with ‘nAn muhanai’. Hence it is called nAn muhan tiruvandAdi. Similarly the prabandha by tiruppANAzhwAr is called ‘amalanAdipirAn’ and that of Sree madhurakavi AzhwAr is called ‘kaNNinuN siruttAmbu’.
Since this comes after the three andAdis of the mudalAzhwArs this can also be called nAngAm tiruvandAdi. But it is popularly called ‘nAn muhan tiruvandAdi’.
The direct experience of the mudalAzhwArs were sung in the 3 andAdis. Similarly the fourth AzhwAr tirumazhisaippirAn too had direct experience of His guNas, roopa, swaroopa, etc. All AzhwArs declare uniformly this experience is not due to there efforts but because of the nirhEtuka kaTAkSha of emberumAn. He had the darSan of pirATTis who have the experience of His swaroopa, roopa, guNa, viBooti etc. without break; of the nityasooris who enjoy doing nitya kainkarya; of the nitya viBooti where they all reside and of the leela viBooti where he had the BagavadanuBava like sage mArkaNDEya. He lived on this earth for many hundreds of years in order to correct the samsAris who run after the worldly pleasures and to teach them the right way for mOkSha. He also feels sorry for them who worship other dEvatas not knowing Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is the paradEvata; who are led astray by the kudruShTi matas.
Therefore, out of parama krupa, AzhwAr gives us this prabandha wherein he establishes the paratva of Sreeman nArAyaNa and the angatva of all other dEvatas including brahma and Siva.
taniyan
nArAyaNan paDaittAn nAnmuhanai, nAnmuhanukku
ErAr sivan pirandAn ennumsol seerAr |
mozhi seppi vAzhalAm nenjamE! moipoo
mazhisai paranaDiyE vAzhttu ||
If ever we are desirous of salvation we should learn this tiruvandAdi by heart. If we have to do that we should at first seek the anugraha of tirumazhisaippirAn for which let us seek His tiruvaDi’s alone.
nAn muhan tiruvandAdi
nAn muhanai nArAyaNan paDaittAn nAn muhanum
tAn muhamAi sangaranai tAn paDaittAn yAnmuhamAi |
andAdi mEliTTu arivittEn Azh poruLai
sindAmal koNmin neer tErndu || One ||
There was a great need to correct people of his period who were worshipping dEvatAntaras (other than Sreeman nArAyaNa) as the Supreme god. Therefore he stresses this point in the very beginning of his prabandha and ends it by saying ‘ini arindEn eeSarkum nAn muharkum deivam ini arindEn emberumAn unnai’. In the middle too in severa pASuras he talks about the ‘apoorti’ (finitude) of other dEvatas and the ‘poorti’ (infinity) of paramapuruSha. therefore it is very clear his intention is to establish without doubt His paratva.
nAraNan nAn muhanai paDaittAn—Sreeman nArAyaNa created everything as manifested objects and beings which were lying without nAma roopa inside His tiruvayiru. This He did by His mere sankalpa alone. 'bahusyAm prajAyEyEt’ syas the upaniShad. This is called samaShTi SruShTi. Then He appointed brahma as the creator to further the vyaShTi SruShTi. ‘uyya ulahu paDaikka vENDi undiyil tOTTrinAi nAn muhanai’—says periyAzhwAr.
nAn muhan—brahma is called nAnmuhan—he who has four faces. In order to create he needs 4 vEdas and to chant them He has 4 faces.
nAn muhanum tAn muhamAi sangaranaittAn paDaittAn—nAn muhan, the created jeeva created Siva (sangaran) the samhAra dEvata. When the son goes astray it is the duty of the father to confine him in a place and correct him and put him in the right path. sankaran does this job by destroying the men who go astray and provides them again with janmas whereby they are given chances to correct themselves. Therefore AzhwAr calls him sankaran (sam karOteeti sankarah—one who does good) instead of rudra.
Thus Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is the utpAdaka (creator) and the rest including brahma, Siva, etc are utpAdyas (created). If this truth is well understood one will have a definite notions about who paradEvata is and who are not. Then they can worship Him alone and no one else. But ignorant people waste their janmas by worshipping small dEvatas. AzhwAr with great krupa writes this prabandha in order to instill the truth in their minds. This truth should be engraved in their minds like the inscriptions on a rock. AzhwAr says ‘let me declare these truths to you all through these prabandhas. Analyze well the and the samsAra anartha. Let all of you engrave them in your minds and seek the way to mOkSha.
AzhwAr says ‘arivittEn Azh poruLai’. ‘arivittEn’ is a past tense verb. How can AzhwAr say so even before he starts his sermon? The reasons are—what AzhwAr says is the words of emberumAn alone. AzhwAr acts as His mouthpiece. Therefore they are already revealed to AzhwAr which in turn are repeated for the sake of people. Moreover, BagavAn is satya sankalpas whose sankalpa never fails. Hence the result is declared even before the teachings begin. Thirdly, AzhwAr has already declared that he would reveal the truth through these prabandhas and there is no going back. This kind of expression is called kAlavazhuvamaidi in tamizh grammar.
periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘brahmAdihaL samsArattai pravarttippikka pradhAnarAnAr pOlE tannivrittikku pradhananAnEn nAn engirAn’—Sreeman nArAyaNa does creation and brahma also does some more creations. Thus these two try to promote samsAra vritti whereas AzhwAr tries to cut off the samsare tree through this prabandha.
tErungAl dEvan oruvanE enru uraippar
Arum ariyAr avan perumai Orum |
poruL muDivumittanaiyE ettavam seidArkkum
aruL muDivadu AzhiyAn pAl || Two ||
AzhwAr talked about Sreeman nArAyana, nAn muhan, Sankara in the last pASura. Apart from them there are many other gods worshipped on this earth. But Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is the Supreme Lord. All the other gods are angAs to this paramapuruSha. ‘angAnyanyA dEvatAh’ (vEda) ‘tatvam jignAsamAnAnAm hEtuBih sarvatO muKaih tatvamEkO mahAyOgee harir nArAyanah smritah’ AzhwAr follows this idea and says ‘tErungAl dEvan oruvanE enruraippar’.
Some say brahma is the Supreme Lord quoting the vEdavAkya ‘hiraNya garBah samavartatAgrE Bootasya jAtah patirEka Aseet’.
Some say Siva alone is the Supreme god by quoting ‘nasannachAsachchiva Eva kEvalah’. All these arguments sand on one side called poorvapakSha (hypothesis); Sreeman nArAyaNa alone stand son the side of siddhAnta (conclusion).
avan perumai AruamriyAr—The greatness of emberumAn lies in the guNas like paratva, soulaBya, souSeelya, vAtsalya, swAmitva etc. etc. Even emberumAn who is sarvajna Himself does not know the end of it; then how can the others know? ‘tAm tam perumai ariyAr’—tirumangai AzhwAr.
To reach Him who has such glories, there are ways like jnAna, karma, Bakti, etc said in the vEdas. But these sAdhanas alone do not fetch Him who is sarva swatantra. His nirhEtuka krupa alone will accomplish it. This is the essence of all SAstras. ‘ettavam seidArkkum muDivadu AzhiyAn pAl aruL’.
koorattAzhwAn in varadarAja stava says ‘swakair guNaih swaischaritaih swavEdanAt Bajanti yE tvAm tvayi BaktitOthavA kareeSa tEShAmapi tAvakee dayA tathAtvakritsaiva tu mE balam matam’ expressing the same idea.
Thus AzhwAr says two things in this pASura—Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is paradeiva and His nirhEtuka krupa alone will get Him.
pAlir kiDandaduvum paNDarangam mEyaduvum
Alil tuyinraduvumarivAr jnAlattu |
oru poruLai vAnavar tam meipporuLai appil
aruporuLai yAnarinda vAru || Three ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr asked ‘ArarivAn avan perumai’? Now he explains it further who has ever really known Him who lies in tiruppArkaDal, in tiruvarangam and on a banyan leaf?
The meaning is—has anyone experienced the joy of His beauty as He lies on tiruvanandAzhwAn in tiruppArkaDal as I do? ‘tan tALum tOLum muDihaLum samanilAda pala parappi tiruppArkaDlail sayanittaruLum azhahilE nAn eeDupaTTirukkum vaNNamAha eeDupaTTiruppAr Arumillai’. AzhwAr says ‘akkiDaiyil vyAmOhittiruppavan yAn oruvanE’ nammAzhwAr too says ‘pAlAzhi nee kiDakkum paNbai yAm kETTEyum kAlAzhum nenjazhiyum kaN suzhalum’
‘When i think of You as lying in tiruvarangam between two kAvEri’s I feel You are sarvasulaBa. i wonder! What a wonderful soulaBya! What a matchless beauty!’ tiruppANAzhwAr says ‘ennamudinai kaNDa kaNhaL maTTronrinai kANAvE’. The eyes gaze at Him and is reluctant to look at anything else. ‘akkuNangaLai vAi veruvuvavan nAn oruvanE!’—says AzhwAr.
‘Your aGatita GaTanA Sakti is beyond my words! Oh! swAmi! How is it possible for You take a small form after swallowing all the worlds and lie on a tiny banyan leaf! ‘anda Sakti viSEShattai mechchubavan nAnoruvanE’—says AzhwAr.
jnAlattu oru poruLai—‘EkamEva adviteeyam’ says vEda. You are the only one without a second; You are sarvakAraNa of the kAryaroopa prapancha (world) (or) You are the one without a second who come to this world as rAma, kriShNa and so on. This You do simply out of compassion for Your aDiyArs.
vAnavar tam meipporuLai—He lets the nityasooris to enjoy the beauty of His tirumEni without any break.
appilaru poruLai—‘ap’ in Sanskrit means jala (water) (or) ‘ambu’ in Sanskrit which means water becomes ‘appu’ in tmaizh. ‘apa Eva sasarjAdau’ (vEda) ‘nanmai punal paNNi’—tiruvAimozhi. He first created water and lay on it on a tiny banyan leaf.
AzhwAr is very happy that because of His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha he is able to understand Him as no one else does.
Aru saDaikkarandAn aNDarkOn tannODum
kooruDaiyan enbaduvum koLhaittE vEroruvar |
illAmai ninrAnai emmAnai epporuTkum
sollAnai sonnEn tohuttu || Four ||
Alas! People say out of ignorance that Sreeman nArAyaNa and Siva are equal. They don’t know what they are saying. They are deluded by false words. Where is our emberumAn who is dEvAdi dEva! and where is Siva who is but a jeeva! In fact Siva became pure only after receiving the SreepAda teertha of our swAmi! SastrajnAs will not accept this equality since they analyze SAstras well.
Aru saDai karandAn—karandAn means one who hides something. What did Siva hide/ He hid river ganga inside his matted hair. Siva who was impure becomes pure after wearing ganga which washed the tiruvaDi of Sreeman narayna. This itself shows both of them are not equal. ALavandAr in his stOtra ratna says ‘kasya pAdOdakEna sa sivah swaSirOdhrutEna’.
aNDarkOn—aNDar can mean both dEvas and shepherds. The term may mean Sreeman nArAyaNa, the Lord of dEvas or gOpAla kriShNa, the leader of AyarpADi.
kooru uDaiyan—Siva claims eeSwaratva and says he is equal to emberumAn.
koLhaittE—Is it agreeable to any SAstrajna? No. He who is adviteeya cannot be described to anyone. What can one finally say is ‘He is paradeiva’. That is all. That is what I too say (tohuttu sonnEn).
kriShNa says in Bagavadgeeta—‘aham kritsnasya jagatah praBavah praLayasthatha mattah parataram nAnyat kinchidasti dhananjaya’. (Oh! arjuna! There is no one who is above me) AzhwAr says ‘vEroruvar illAmai ninrAnai’.
epporuTkum sollAnai—vEdAnta uses the term ‘aparyavasAnavritti’ which means all the words denoting all the objects in the world denote Him finally since He is the antaryAmi of all the objects and all the words denoting the objects.
tohutta varattanAi tOlAdAn mArvam
vahirtta vaLaiyuhirttOL mAlE uhattil |
orunAnru neeyuyartti uLvAngi neeyE
aru nAngumAnAi ari || Five ||
This pASura further explains the previous one where he said ‘vEroruvar illamai ninrAnai’ and ‘epporuTkum sollAnai’.
Oh! emberumAn! Your acts of creation, maintenance and destruction are all Your play. ‘karudariya uyirkkuyirAi karandengum paranduraiyum oru tani nAyaham nee’
tohutta varattanAi tOlAdAn—hiraNya asked boons that ‘He should not be killed by anyone created by brahma (therefore He took narasimhAvatAra that He Himself created, not by brahma); not killed by any astra and SAstra (He used His nails to split his chest); not inside nor outside, neither in the sky nor in the Boomi (He sat on the threshold placed Him on His lap); not in daytime and not in the night (He was killed in sandhyA). ‘surAsurar munivar narar kaiyil pAril suDar vAnil pahal iravil uL purambil, peru paDaiyil tAn sAhA iraNyan tannai prahlAdan tarikkittu uNDenra tooNil narahariyAi pozhudu puhu nErandannil nADiyudittuyar vAsarpaDi meedEri, iraNiyanai toDai miSai vaittu uhirinAlE iru pilavAkkinai ariyE embirAnE’.
uhattil—At the end of yuga i.e. praLaya.
uyartti—refers to creation
uLvAngi-- refers to samhAra.
nAngum AnAi—refers to sthiti
aru—‘aroopi’ of sanskrit becomes aru in tamizh.
He is the antaryAmi in all objects and gives sattA (existence) ‘irAmaDam ooTTuvArai pOlE uLLE padi kiDandu sattaiyE piDittu nOkkikkoNDu pOrum’—mumukShuppaDi.
ariyAr samaNar ayarttAr bavuttar
siriyAr sivappaTTAr seppil veriyAya |
mAyavanai mAlavanai mAdavanai EttAdAr
eenavarE AdalAl inru || Six ||
AzhwAr feels very sad that the ignorant men go behind kShudra dEvatas (inferior gods), fail to follow the path of SAstra and fall in samsAra again and again. ‘tarka samaNarum sAkkiya pEihaLum tAzh saDaiyOn sol kaTTra sOmbarum’. AzhwAr says ‘How sad! They are not aware of the supremacy of Sreeman nArAyaNa and also not aware that His worship alone will give mOkSha’.
samaNar ariyAdAr—‘syAdasti syAnnAsti’. They simply utter some words which means nothing. They have no clear notion of the truth. They say this jagat is sat and asat Eka and anEka. Since they say contradicting truth they are called avivEkis (ariyAr).
avuttar ayarttAr—They say jnAta, jnEya are also kShaNika (temporary). There is no sthira tatva (permanent tatva) called Atma which is also kShaNika, according to their theory. Thus their argument is contrary to vEda pramANa.
sivappaTTAr chiriyar—Siva is like any other created jeeva. He is not an eeSwara but thinks himself so. The worshippers of Siva worship Him as the Supreme Lord. Therefore they go down the lane of samsAra and fall in the well of misery.
Why should he mention them individually? So he says all of them are neechar (eenavarE). ‘AnviDai Ezhu anru aDarttArku ALAnArallAdAr mAniDavar allavenru en manattE vaittEnE’—tirumangai AzhwAr.
veriyAya—‘veri’ means parimaLam (fragrance) vEda calls Him ‘Sarvagandhah’.
inrAha nALaiyEyAha inisiridu
ninrAha ninnaruLen pAladE nanrAha |
nAnunnai anriyilEn kaNDAi nAraNanE
neeyennai anri ilai || Seven ||
BagavAn—‘Oh! AzhwAr! you call all of them who follow other religions are foolish. What makes you think you are great?’
AzhwAr—‘Don’t You know? Are You not aware of our sambandha which is like ‘i cannot be without You and You cannot be without me’? i know i am the recipient of Your anugraha in full measure. You too know it is so’.
‘perumAn! Your poorNa anugraha is showered upon me. Perhaps it is today or tomorrow or any day, but certainly it is going to happen sooner of later’.
You may wonder what makes me say so? Listen ‘nAn unnai anri ilEn; nee ennai anri ilai’ You are always eagerly waiting for a suitable pAtram to shower Your anugraha; and I am eagerly waiting for You to do it on me. You have no one but me and i have no one but You. There fore ‘ninnaruL en pAladE’. ‘tadaham tvadrutE na nAthavAn madrutE tvam dayaneeyavAn na cha vidhi nirmitamEtaduBayam Bagavan pAlaya mAsma jeehapah’—ALavandAr. ‘niharinri ninra enneechadaikku ninnaruLin kaN anri puhalonrumillai aruTkumakdE puhal’—tiruvarangattu amudanAr.
There is another way of interpretation—‘nArAyaNa! You are called so as You are the abode of all nAras. i am one of the nAras. If i am not there You are no more a nArAyaNa; if You are not nArAyaNa i am not there. Therefore it is paraspara (mutual dependence). If You call yourself a SEShee there should be SESha; and I call myself SESha when only You are there as SEShee.
ilaituNai maTTren nenjE eesanai venra
silai koNDa sengaNmAl sErA kulai koNDa |
eeraindalaiyAn ilangaiyai eeDazhitta
kooramban allAl kurai || Eight ||
AzhwAr tells his mind—‘Oh! Mind! Listen! There is no other rakShaka except emberumAn who wields a bow only to protect us’.
eesanai venra silai koNDa sengANmAl—Once viSwakarma made 2 great bows which He gave to Siva and viShNu. brahma and other wanted to know which one is more powerful. They asked Siva and viShNu to prove the fact. In the encounter Siva’s bow broke in a corner. He gave it to the king of janakakula called dEvarAta from whom it came to king janaka finally. King janaka kept the bow as ‘kanyASulka’ and gave it to Sree rAma who broke it. viShNu in turn gave His bow to rchika muni from whom it came to jamadagni and to paraSurAma, his son. When Sree rAma was returning to ayOdhya after marriage He took the bow from paraSurAma along with the tapah Pala that he had earned.
‘eesanai venra silai’ means the viShNu dhanus which was with paraSurAma. adanai koNDa sengaNmal is Sree rAma pirAn. He killed rAvaNa who refused to seek Him as rakShaka.
eesanai venra—Can also be taken to mean to defeat of Siva by kriShNa during bANAsura yuddha.
koorambanallAl—periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘emberumAnAr SreepAdattai ASrayittavarhaL achEtanamAna kriyA kalAbattinuDaiya koormaiyai viSvasittiruppArhaL; ivarhaL chakravartti tirumahan ambin koormaiyai tanjamAha ninattiruppAhaL’.
The meaning of this pASura is –a Sree vaiShNava does not depend on tapas etc. but wants only His kaTAkSha.
kurai koNDu nAnmuhan kuNDihai neer peidu
marai koNDa mandirattAl vAzhtti karai koNDa|
kaNDattAn sennimEl Era kazhuvinAn
aNDattAn sEvaDiyai Angu || Nine ||
AzhwAr in the last pASura said ‘ilangaiyai eeDazhtta koorambanallAl ilai tuNai maTTru’. How can AzhwAr say so when there are so many gods worshipped by so many people? AzhwAr replies—‘yes. these gods whom the ignorant men worship, themselves worship Him. While doing to they remember how “low” they are (kurai koNDu) and how ‘great’ He is. To illustrate this he takes tirvikrama avatAra. When emberumAn lifted one tiruvaDi above which went past even brahma lOka, brahma washed it with his kamaNDalu jala. This ganga jala fell on the bent head of Siva and purified Him.
kurai koNDu—Thinking ‘neechanEn nirai onrumilEn’ as AzhwAr says.
karai koNDa kaNDattAn—Siva swallowed the kAlakooTa poison that came out when the pArkaDal was churned to get amruta. his throat became blue because of the poison. Hence he is called karai koNDa kaNDan.
Angu AravAram adu kETTu azhalumizhum
poongAr aravaNaiyAn ponmEni yAm kANa |
vallamE allamE mAmalarAn vArsaDaiyAn
vallarE allarE vAzhttu || Ten ||
There are two interpretations for this pASura.
1. Angu—paramapda, AravAram—the sAma gAna sung loudly by the nityas and muktas ‘Etat sAma gAyan AstE, hAvooooo, hAvooooo, hAvoooo, ahamannAdO ahamannAdO, ahamannAdah’—upaniShad.
tiruvanandAzhwAn on hearing this noise , out of great love for Him, fears it is the cry of asuras and rAkShasas. So he hastens to protects His master by spitting venom from His thousand mouths (azhal umizhum) ‘snEhAd AsthAna rakShA vyasaniBih aBayam sArnga chakrAsi muchyairAnandaikAraNavam Sreer Bagavati yuvayOrAhuh AsthAna ratnam’—BaTTar. tiruvanandAzhwAr fears for His safety even when he fully knows about His sarvaSaktitva. This is called ‘asthAnE Baya SankA’
AzhwAr asks ‘can we not worship Him who is sung by muktas in paramapada? Yes! We can! This is not difficult as we have received His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha’. ‘Does it mean anyone can see Him there?’ ‘No. It is difficult for those proud dEvatas who call themselves eeSwaras.
1. another interpretation is---In the last pASura AzhwAr talked about trivikrama avatAra. Here ‘Angu’ can be taken to mean ‘during that avatAra’.
AravAramadu kETTu—When emberumAn lifted His tiruvaDi to measure it went right upto brahmalOka and even went past it. All the people of all the upper worlds were wonderstruck at it and loudly sang mangaLASAsana. tiruvanandAzhwAn too joined the chorus and sang. When He did so He was spitting venom.
vAzhttuhavAi kANha kaN kETka sevi mahuDam
tAzhtti vaNanguminhaL taNmalarAl soozhtta |
tuzhAimannu neeNmuDiyen tollaimAl tannai
vazhAvaNhai kooppi madittu || Eleven ||
AzhwAr does upadESa to others that they should employ their indriyas at Him alone. They are created for such purpose only. ‘Let your mouth sing His pallANDu; Let your eyes see His divya mangaLa vigraha; Let your ears hear His divya nAma, guNa, chEShTita etc; Let your heads bow at His tiruvaDi; let your hands offer flowers at His tiruvaDi and make anjali. He alone is the sarvESwara and sarva rakShaka who has vowed to protect His subjects. As a mark of this He wears tuzhasi mAla on His crown. He has vowed long time ago to make us His dAsas. Therefore you should employ your indriyas at His vyApAra only.
madittAipOi nAgin madiyArpOi veezha
madittAi madikOL viDuttAi madittAi |
maDukkiDanda mAmudalai kOLviDuppAn Azhi
viDarkiraNDum pOyiraNDin veeDu || Twelve ||
AzhwArs sometimes speak to the world, sometimes to their minds and sometimes to BagavAn Himself. Here AzhwAr addresses BagavAn.
madittAi pOi nAngin madiyAr pOi veezha—There are two interpretations.
1. madiyAr—Those who don’t worship You; nAngil pOi veezha—To take many janmas in the 4 categories, dEva, manuShya, triyak (animals) and sthAvara (plants) madittAi—Thus You make sankalpa.
2. nAngin—With the help of vEdas; madiyAr—These non-Baktas; pOi veezha—To beget a janma in asura kula; madittAi—You decided.
madi kOL viDuttAi—You removed the curse of the moon god.
iraNDum pOi iraNDin veeDu madittAi—iraNDum pOi—the curse on both gajEndra (who was a king in the earlier janma and who was cursed by sage agastya to be born as an elephant) and the crocodile (who was a gandharva cursed by riShi dEvala) were removed by You. iraNDin veeDu madittAn—You gave both of them mOkSha sAmrAjya.
veeDAkkum peTTri ariyAdu meivarutti
kooDAkki ninruNDu koNDu uzhalveer veeDAkkum |
meipporuL tAn vEda mudarporuL tAn viNNavarkku
narporuLtAn nArAyaNan || Thirteen ||
brihadAraNya upaniShad says ‘yajnEna dAnEna tapasA anASakEna BrAhmaNa vividiShanti’—the vaidika brAhmaNas perform yAga, dAna, tapas and fasting in order to get mOkSha. AzhwAr addresses these men and says ‘Oh! men! When you perform such tapas eating very little (kAyODu neeDu kaniyuNDu veeDu kaDungAl nuharndu’ (periya tirumozhi) ‘veezh kaniyum oozhilaiyum ennumivaiyE nuharndu uDalam tAm varundi’ (peirya tirumaDal) causing the body to dry up lie a nest made up of bones. Even small errors and omissions is such karmas result in the lack of Pala to mOkSha—i.e. seek Sreeman nArAyaNa as upAya and upEya. When such an easy rosy path is available why should you, like fools, seek the most difficult and uncertain path? (veeDAkkum peTTri ariyAdu).
Chant the dwaya mantra ‘Sreeman nArAyaNa charaNam SaraNam parapadyE’ and sing His glories. ‘kAyilai tinrum kAnil uraindum kadi tEDi teeyiDai ninrum poovalam vandum tiriveerhaL tAyilum anban poomahaL naNban taDanAhappAyan mukundan kOyilarangam paNiveerE’—tiruvaranga kalambaham.
nAraNan ennai ALi narahattu
sErAmal kAkkum tirumAl tan pErAna |
pEsapperAda piNachchamayar pESa kETTu
AsaippaTTAzhwAr palar || Fourteen ||
AzhwAr feels sad about the religious leaders who are bAhyas (who don’t accept vEdic pramANas) and kudruShTis (who misinterpret the vEdic statements). Not only are they so, but they try to convert others (who lack discrimination) to follow their paths. These leaders who are ‘living dead’ would have certainly uplifted themselves as well as other if only they had followed the right path (i.e. worship Sreeman nArAyaNa alone) Instead they worship dEvatAntaras (gods other than emberumAn) and follow upAyAntaras (upAya other than His tiruvaDi). They not only fall into a pit but also take their followers too there. Well! Our sane words do not fall into their ears! What to do! These ignorant men are simply attracted by flowery glossy languages and words!
paladEvar Etta paDikaDandAn pAdam
malarEra viTTirainji vAzhtta valarAhil |
mArkaNDan kaNDa vahaiyE varungaNDeer
neerkaNDan kaNDa nilai || Fifteen ||
mArkaNDEya, the young son of mrugaNDu maharShi was playing in the street when parents were watching him proudly. Suddenly an asareeri was heard saying their son would die soon. the parents were very much alarmed and worried. The son, however, pacified them saying he will conquer death by doing penance. He prayed to Siva and asked him to protect him from yama. Siva thought ‘this boy out of ignorance thinks i am rakShaka. i shall tell him the truth that Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is the rakShaka. If i keep quiet i shall be misleading him'. ‘My child! You think i am the rakShaka. It is not so. Both you and me are protected by Him alone. He alone is the sarva rakShaka, Therefore you pray Him to fulfill your desires’. Siva then took the boy to emberumAn and requested Him to do anugraha to his Bakta. emberumAn gave him long life. ‘ pukkaDimaiyinAl tannai kaNDa mArkaNDEyan avanai nakka pirAnum anru uyyakkoNDadu nArAyaNan aruLE’ (tiruvAimozhi) ‘mArkaNDEyanum kariyE’ (tiruvAimozhi) ‘kaNDum teLindum kaTTrAr kaNNarku Alanri yAvarO vaNDuN malar tongal mArkaNDEyanukku vAzhu nAL iNDai saDaimuDi eesanuDan koNDu usAchchella koNDangu tannODum koNDu uDan senradu uNarndumE’ (tiruvAimozhi) ‘mannu nAn marai mAmuni peTTra maindanai madiyAda vengooTTran tannai anji nin Saran ena saraNAi tahavil kAlanai uha munindozhiyA pinnai enrum nin tiruvaDi piriyA vaNNam eNNiya pEraruL’. (periya tirumozhi).
In some purANas you may find that Siva himself gave aBaya to mArkaNDEya. But in the mahABArata araNya parva it is said ‘pitru BaktOSi vipraShE mAm chaiva SaraNangatah’ clearly says he sought the protection of Sreeman nArAyaNa. In Sreemad BAgavata 12th skanda it says—‘ArAdhyan hriSheekESam jigyE mrutyum sudurjayam’.
paDi kaNDAn pAdam—‘ulahaLanda perumAnuDaiya tiruvaDihaLil puShpangaLai paNimAN pallANDu pADa vallarAnAl neerkaNDan kaNDa nilai mArkaNDan kaNDa vahiayE varum kaNDeer’ The meaning is –mArkaNDEya did not ask for mOkSha from paramaSiva. he simply wanted long life. Siva, however, could not grant even this small boon (then what to talk of giving mOkSha!) Incapable of granting even this small boon, he takes him to Sreeman nArAyaNa who gave him the boon. Therefore it is clear that dEvatAntaras (other gods) are rakshakas indirectly. Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is the rakShaka directly. If you worship Him directly (not like mArkaNDEya who went through Siva) you would save the trouble of going round about way. mArkaNDEya understood the limitations of dEvatAntaras. (neer kaNDan kaNDa nilai)
periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘mArkaNDEyan mahAdEvanai mOkShArttamAha senru ASrayikka, mOkShapradan eeSwaranE enru kATTumiduvE uLLadenru rudran kATTakkaNDu iduvE ivanukkuLLadenru mArkaNDEyan kaNDa vahaiyE siddikkum; avyavahitamAha sarvESwaran tiruvaDihaLai ASrayikka vallavarAhil mArkaNDEyan kaNDa vahaiyE siddikum’. The word mOkSha in this vyAKyAna does not mean paramapada but means long life. (jarA maraNa mOkShAya -Bagavadgeeta) mArkaNDEya does not seem to wish mOkSha but what he wants is only not immediate death but long life. ‘mannu nAnmarai mA muni peTTra maindanai---pinnai enrumnin tiruvaDi piriyA vaNNam eNNiya pEraruL’ (periya tirumozhi). To this pASura periyavAchchAn piLLai comments ‘mArkaNDEyan mahAdEvanai mOkShArttamAha senru ASrayikka’. Here too the word ‘mOkShArttamAha’ is used ironically. ‘Asif he is mahAdEva! as if he is sought by a boy for mOkSha! Not capable of giving even long life he takes him to Sreeman nArAyaNa’.
neer kaNDan—neer is neelam (blue) because of the poison in his throat (or) neerkaNDan—viShajala.
nilai mannu en nenjam annAnru dEvar
talaimannar tAmE mATTrAha palamannar |
pOrmALa vengadirOn mAyapozhil maraiya
tErAzhiyAl maraittArAl || Sixteen ||
‘my mind is always unsteady. But when I hear the story of Him who toils for the sake of His aDiyArs i feel i am His dAsa. i need, therefore, have no fear or anxiety. Now my mind is at rest ‘annAnru … … … ..tErAzhiyAl maraittArAl ennenjam nilai mannum’—is the prose order.
dEvar talai mannar—‘rAjAdi rajah sarvEShAm’ ayarvarum amararhaL adhipadi’.
tAmE mATTrAha—emberumAn does not think duryOdhana and others as the enemy of pANDavas but as His own enemy. Once when He went as a messenger to duryOdana He went to vidura’s place to take food. duryOdana says ‘BeeShma drONA vatikaramya mAm chaiva madhusoodana kimatham puNDareekAkSha Buktam vruShala BOjanam’ (kriShNa! Why should You eat in the house of a servant when BeeShma drONa and I am here?’) kriShNa replies ‘dviShadannam na Boktavyam dviShantam naiva bOjayEt pANDavAn dviShasE rAjan mama prANA hi pANDavAh--- (one should not eat in the house of an enemy; and one should not feed His enemy too. You are my enemy because you hate pANDavas who are my very life. Therefore I don’t eat in your house’) Thus BagavAn considers ASritas’ enemies as His enemies (tAME mATTrAha).
pala mannar pOr mALa—‘malai purai tOL mannavarum mAradarum maTTrum palar kulaiya nooTTruvarum pattazhiya pArttan silai vaLaiya tiN tEr mEl munninru’’ vengadirOn mAya pozhil maraiya tErAzhiyAl maraittAn.—jayadratha killed aBimanyu, the son of arjuna, on the 13th day of the battle. To revenge his death arjuna made a Sapatha (vow) to kill jayadratha before sunset and would kill himself if he fails to do so. duryOdana made jayadratha stay safely inside the huge battle arrow waiting for the suset. kriShNa asked His chakrAyudha to hide the sun. The enemies thought the day was over. jayadratha came out shouting cries of victory. kriShNa immediately withdrew the chakra from the sun. arjuna killed his enemy at once fulfilling his vow.
Ala nizharkeezh araneriyai nAlvarkku
mElai uhatturaittAn meittavattOn jnAlam |
aLandAnai Azhi kiDandAnai AlmEl
vaLarndAnai tAn vaNangumAru || Seventeen ||
AzhwAr says “It is not me alone who talk the paratva of emberumAn. Siva too did the same in the previous yuga to his 4 SiShyas—agasthya, pulastya, dakSha and mArkaNDEya sitting under a banyan tree. ‘Alamara neezhal aram nAlvarkku anru uraitta Alam amar kaNDattAn’—poihai AzhwAr.
But how come Siva who prides himself as eeSwara because of his tAmasic nature, come to know the paratva of emberumAn? AzhwAr says ‘meitavattAn he performed sincere tapas in order to acquire jnAna. What was his upadESa? ‘tAn vaNangumAru’—i.e. i too worship the tAmarai tiruvaDi of Sreeman nArAyaNa. He is the one who has all the worlds under His tiruvaDi. He is the one who does Arta rakShaNa lying on tiruppArkaDal (yOga nidra). He is the one who swallows all the worlds and keeps them in His tiruvayiru to protect them from getting destroyed by praLaya. He lies on a tiny banyan leaf as a small babe.
mArAya dAnavanai vaLLuhirAl mArviraNDu
koorAha keeriya kOLariyai vErAha |
Etti iruppArai vellumE maTTravarai
sAtti iruppAr tavam || Eighteen ||
BAgavata Bakti is far greater than Bagavat Bakti. This is the sakala vEda sAra (essence of all vEdas. BagavAn, who is sarva swatantra, looks at our karma and gives samsAra or He may shower His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha and give mOkSha. Thus Bagavat Bakti can give either mOkSha or samsAra. But BAgavata Bakti can never lead on to samsAra. It definitely gives mOkSha Pala alone. ‘siddir Bavati vA nEti samSayOchyuta sEvinAm, na samSayOsti tad Bakta paricharyA ratArmanAm’. mOkSha is a chance to those who worship Him but it is a certainty to those who seek BAgavatas. SatruGna, Sree madhurakavi AzhwAr, vaduha nambihaL are examples of BAgavata Bakti.
Starting from ‘mArAya tAnavanai’ upto ‘EttiyiruppArai’—explains Bagavad Baktas. To Him prahlAda was His very life. Therefore He considered hiraNya as His enemy. That is why He took narasimha avatAra to kill him. ‘andiyampOdil ariyuruvAhi ariyai azhittavanai pandanai teera pallANDu pallAyirattANDu enru pADudum’ (periyAzhwAr) . Those are the Baktas who sing pallANDu to emberumAn. Such Baktas are sought after by BAgavatas. Such BAgavatas Bakti is far superior to Bagavad Bakti. ‘maTTru avarai sAtti iruppAr tavam vellum’.
tavam seidu nAn muhanAl peTTra varatti
avam seida AzhiyAi anrE uvandemmai |
kAppAinee kAppadanai AvAi nee vaihundam
eepayum evvuyirkkum nee || Nineteen ||
asuras like hiraNya, rAvaNa perform alpa tapas (small tapas) on brahma who, extremely pleased at it gives them whatever they ask without considering the consequences. Finally they themselves get in to trouble, wring their hands not knowing what to do, shed tears when their positions are threatened and plead at emberumAn to somehow save them. emberumAn kindly agrees to save them, takes avatAras, kills the enemies and saves His aDiyArs. Thus He kills them who receive boons and saves them who give them boons.
neeyE ulahellAm ninnaruLE nirpanavum
neeyE tavadEva dEvanum neeyE |
erisuDarum mAl varaiyum eNDisaiyum aNDattu
iru suDarum Aya ivai || Twenty ||
ulahellAm neeyE—means You are the controller of all that is created by You. You are the sun and the moon, the mountains, the fire etc. In short You are the eeSwara of all the gods, dEvatas. You are the Supreme Lord and the only one without a second. ‘yAm kaDavuL enrirukkum ivvulahil kaDavuLarkkum Am kaDavuL nee’.
ivaiyA pilavAi tirandu eri kAnra
ivaiyA eri vaTTa kaNhaL ivaiyA |
eri pongi kATTum imaiyOr perumAn
ari pongi kATTum azhahu || Twenty One ||
The kAla of narasimhAvatAra is much before AzhwAr’s period. Yet, he feels it happened now right in front of him. This is due to AzhwAr’s BavaprakarSha.
BagavAn’s angry look so more wonderful than His SAnta. tirandu eri kAnra pila vAi ivaiyA—As He emerged form the pillar His anger knew no bounds. His cave-like wide-opened mouth was spitting fire. Is this that mouth spat fire?
eri vaTTa kaNgaL ivaiyA—‘tooyAi suDar mAmadi pOl uyirkkellAm tAyAi aLikkinra taNDAmarai kaNNA’ (peirya tirumozhi) His eyes are always cool and full of compassion. This is so when He see His aDiyArs. But when He sees His ASrita virOdhis they blaze like burning torches rolling with anger. AzhwAr feels the anger in His eyes is seen even now in His vigraha.
eri pongi kATTum imaiyOr perumAn—Thus His tirumEni shone with rage (or) the phrase can be interpreted as eri—agni dEvata; pongi-goes up when the Ahuti is poured in the sacrificial fire; kATTum—takes the offerings to the particular dEvata. Thus it becomes an adjective to the ‘imaiyOr’. He is the Lord of these ‘imaiyOr’.
ari pongi kATTum azhahu—Even though His form terrorizes the foes, is very pleasing to His dAsas. Hence AzhwAr says ‘azhahu’.
azhahiyAn tAnE ariyuruvan tAnE
pazhahiyAn tALE paNimin kuzhaviyAi |
tAnEzhulahukkum tanmaikkum tanmaiyanE
meenAi uyiraLikkum vittu || Twenty Two ||
He creates the world out of Himself (being upAdAna kAraNa as mud to a pot) then He protects the worlds which He had created by taking matsyAvatAra during the manvantara praLaya, and by taking the form of a baby lying on a banyan leaf during avAntara praLaya. He protects His Baktas (like prahlAda) by taking roopas like narasimha. Thus He alone is the rakShaka at all times. Therefore, Oh! men! Seek His tiruvaDi.
In the last pASura he said ‘ari pongi kATTum azhahu’. Now he says ‘azhahiyAn tAnE ariyuruvam tAnE’.
pazhahiyAnFrom anAdi kAla He had been doing rakShaNa kArya which we are not aware of ‘tanmai’ means guNas. ‘tanmaiyan’ is guNi—the object which has guNas. ‘tanmaikkum tanmaiyan’ means He is the ASraya for all the guNas that qualify and the object. He is the ASraya for fire that has the quality called roopa.
vittum iDa vENDum kolO viDaiyaDartta
pattiyuzhavan pazhampunattu moittezhunda |
kArmEham anna karumAl tirumEni
neervAnam kATTum nihazhndu || Twenty Three ||
AzhwAr says BagavAn is always on the look out for an opportunity to do good to us whether we know it or not. Therefore we need not do any sAdhana.
A father who may have many sons living with Him except on who is abroad, always thinks of Him alone who is far away. Similarly emberumAn has many nityasooris and muktas who are always with Him doing all kinds of kainkarya. But His thoughts are always fully occupied by the memory of samsAri’s by SravaNa, manana etc. He has given us 5 jnAnEndriyas and 5 karmEndriyas, manas etc. Yet , we being egoistic, dod not think of Him who is the kAraNa, but wander in this world proudly saying ‘it is we who do everything’ we won't know Him even if He comes and stands in front of us reveling Himself to us. We won't see Him and recognize Him. Therefore He is present inside us an antaryAmi; and takes care of everyone of us like a mother who hugs her sleeping baby and puts him on her shoulder patting Him with love and affection. As antaryAmi He is the cause of our very existence. He is indifferent when we commit sins. He is always eager to find some good in us whether it is voluntary or involuntary if a man runs after His love, a whore, following her whenever she goes may go to temple if she is found there. BagavAn writes this act of visiting the temple as a puNya karma in his account. Even if a man goes after a cow with a cane to beat it which has strayed into His field and goes behind it round and round a deity, He take sit as pradakShiNa done by Him. If a man scolds and blames Him like siSupala He takes it as nAma sankeertana. These acts are considered by Him as puNya karma which help them to get a better janma next time.
These acts are called yAdruchika, prAsangika and AnuSangika and gives puNya Pala to them. What do they mean?—When a man utters the names of many places which really have no meaning like kuruvimalai, parangimalai and adds tirumalai to list (not knowing the greatness of that name) BagavAn is happy that His man has uttered the name of a divya dESa.
Some BAgavatas were walking along a forest. Some thieves were following them to rob of their belongings. A soldier who was walking along (and who was in no way connected with the BAgavatas) for some other purpose was seen by the robbers who fearing Him go away without doing any harm to the BAgavatas. BagavAn is pleased at the solider and gives Him the puNya Pala of saving the BAgavatas.
A certain farmer was irrigating his drought hit field from a distant well. there were some BAgavatas going to a divya dESa passing though the field. They drank the water and quenched their thirst. BagavAn takes it as a good act done by the farmer to His Baktas (even though the farmer was not aware that they drank the water).
A man had built a resting place in front of His house to gamble and gossip with His friends. Some BAgavatas who were passing by took rest in the place for sometime and proceeded further on their journey. BagavAn is happy this man has given shelter to His aDiyArs.
BagavAn says ‘en oorai sonnAi, en pEria sonnAi, ennaDiyArai rakShittAi, avarhaL viDAyai teerttAi, avarhaLukku oDunga nizhalai koDuttai’, These good actions which they do unintentionally or with some other intention are taken by Him as yAdruchika, prAsangika and AnuSangika.
patti uzhavan enru—AzhwAr gives a name ‘patti yuzhavan’ to emberumAn. A farmer who has a bit of fertile land need not toil much like digging, ploughing etc. The seeds fallen on the soil after the harvest grow into crops again without His taking much trouble. Similarly BagavAn creates the jeevas, gives them karaNas etc (indiryas etc) and gives them Sukruta etc, takes them as puNya and give them Pala too. Thus He takes care of everything. If only we know this we won't make any effort on our won. What we need to do is not to interfere in His plan and keep quiet trusting Him fully.
O.K He is ‘pattiyuzhavan’ and He does everything for us; we need not do any sAdhana. But the question is what are we to do with the time given to us? The answer is—we should remember Him whenever we find similarities in this world. ‘poovaiyum kAyAvum neelamum pookkinra kAvi malar enrum kAN tOrum pAviyEn mellAvi mei mihavE poorikkum avvavaiyellAm pirAn uruvE enru’—periya tiruvandAdi ‘mEhangaLO uraiyeer tirumAl tirumEni okkum yOhangaL ungaLukku evvAru peTTreer?’ tiruviruttam ‘okkum ammAn uruvam enru uLLam kuzhaindu nANALum tokka mEha pal kuzhAngaL kANundOrum’—tiruvAimozhi.
periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘ruchi piranda pinbu prAptiyaLavum nAm darikkaikku avan tirumEnikku pOliyuNDengai’.
vittum iDavENDum kolO—tiruvaLLuvar uses the same words in his tirukkuraL ‘vittumiDavENDum kollO virundOmbi michchin misaivAn punam’—in virundOmbal adihAram.
nihazhndAi pAl pon pasuppukkAr vaNNam nAngum
ihazhndA iruvaraiyum veeya puhazhndAi |
sinappOr suvEdanai sEnApadiyAi
manappOr muDikkum vahai || Twenty Four ||
In krita yuga the people are endowed with satva guNa. They like white colour. Therefore He takes white colour. Similarly in trEta and dwApara yugas He takes red and green, the colour which they like (according to their guNa). In kaliyuga none is interested in BagavAn and His guNa. Hence He remains in His original black colour. ‘pAlin neermai sempon neermai pAsiyin pasumpuram pOlu neermai porpuDaittaDattu vaNDu viNDulam neela neermai enrivai nirainda kAla nAngumAm’— tirumazhisai AzhwAr in tiruchchanda viruttam.
iruvaraiyum veeya ihazhndAi—You killed the two asuras madhu and kaiTaba (or) kollA mAkkOl kolai seidu bAradappOr ellAchchEnaiyum irunilattu avitta endAi’ (tiruvAimozhi) You destroyed the kings on both sides of the BArata yuddha. Except the 5 pANDavas and 2 or 3 kourava side all were killed in the battle.
puhazhndAi sinappOr suvEdanai—arjuna said he won't fight the war since he would be forced to kill his own near and dear on the other side. ‘uTTrArai ellAm uDan konru arasALa peTTrAlum vENDEn perum selvam’. But kriShNa did geetOpadESa made him understood the realities and encouraged him to fight the war which is his swadharma.
suvEdan—His chariot is drawn by white horses—swEtavAhana. ‘veLLai puravi kurakku vel koDi tEr miSai munbu ninru’—periyAzhwAr.
vahaiyAl madiyAdu maNkoNDAi maTTrum
vahaiyAl varuvadonruNDE vahaiyAl |
vayiram kuzhaittuNNum mAvali tAnennum
vayira vazhakkozhittAi maTTru || Twenty Five ||
AzhwAr says whatever He does is only for the sake of His aDiyArs, not for Himself. What does He gain by them? What can He gain which He does not have?
madiyAdu vahaiyAl maN koNDAi—He never thought once, whether He, the Supreme Lord, can go to mahAbali, a rAkShasa, to beg a piece of land as a pauper. His one and only thought was ‘I should somehow get back the land for indra’.
vaihaiyAl vayiram kuzhiattu uNNum—It is said they used to melt the diamond by some herbal treatment and drink it to gain physical strength. mahAbali did this and become very powerful. BagavAn curbed the pride of such a man.
maTTrum vahaiyAl varuvaduNDE—Does He gain anything for Himself? No. They are done for the sake of His ASritas only.
maTTru tozhuvAroruvaraiyum yAn immai
kaTTrai saDaiyAn karikkaNDAi eTTraikkum |
kaNDukoL kaNDAi kaDal vaNNA yAn unnai
kaNDu koLhirkku mAru || Twenty Six ||
AzhwAr prays he should be blessed by Him that he can always do ananya Bakti. ‘emberumAn! You know very well people do dEvatAntara Bajana alone (worship other dEvatas) i am not like them. i never worship anyone else than You. kaTTrai saDaiyAn alone knows this (he was the witness. Siva too worships You alone!)
Once tirumazhisai AzhwAr was meditating on Sreeman nArAyaNa in his place called tirumazhisai. paramaSiva and pArvati were going in the sky over this place. pArvati asked him who this mahAnuBAva who is deeply in meditation. rudra answered ‘he is the one who was once worshipping me alone but now has changed his mind and worships Sreeman nArAyaNa alone. ‘pArvati said ‘let us do anjali to this great riShi and give him some boons’. So they came down where AzhwAr was now stitching an old cloth with a needle and thread. Though he know they were standing near him he didn’t take any notice but continued to stitch. Siva was hurt at his attitude and asked him how he can be so indifferent to him who is eeSwara. AzhwAr answered “rudra! There is nothing you can do for me! Why should i care for you?’ ‘AzhwAr me coming here should not go waste. Therefore ask for some vara, i shall be very pleased to give you'. ‘O.K if you are very particular to grace me with anything please give me paramapada’. Siva replied ‘i cannot give paramapada, only Sreeman nArAyaNa can do that. Ask something else. AzhwAr said ‘All right give me long life so that i can do lots of tapas to gain mOkSha’. ‘AzhwAr! Life and death are decided by karma. I cannot do anything about it. Ask something which i can give’. AzhwAr said ‘Siva! you want to give what you can. Well! When I draw th needle le the thread also come’. Hearing this sarcastic words Siva got angry and said ‘AzhwAr! i burn you with my third eye as i did to manmatha’. So saying he opened his third eye. A kAlAgni with fire and smoke came out. AzhwAr was not the least disturbed. He opened his eye on his toe which spat out smoke and fire more powerful than rudra’s. Siva at once asked the clouds on his head to smother fire. Unmindful totally of what is happening AzhwAr again went into samAdhi. Siva was very pleased at His Bakti and jnAna and called Him ‘Bakti sAra’.
This is the episode AzhwAr refers to when he says “kaTTrai saDaiyAn kari kaNDAi’. kari—sAkShi (witness).
‘sAkkiyam kaTTrOm samaNam kaTTrOm sangaranAr Akkiya Agama nool ArAindOm”. AzhwAr followed many schools of thoughts and found them all are incomplete. He finally came to Sree vaiShNava sampradAya and found peace and fullness there. He decided he would not go to any other sect. Still a little bit apprehensive whether his mind would change again, he prays BagavAn should do anugraha that he should stay there. ‘enraikkum kaNDu koL kaNDAi kaDal vaNNA! yAnunnai kaNDukoLhirkumAru’.
mArAn puhunda maDa nenjam maTTraduvum
pErAha koLvanO pEdaihAL neerADi |
tAnkANa mATTAda tArahala sEvaDiyai
yAn kANa vallErkkidu || Twenty Seven ||
AzhwAr speaks about his resolutions and the reason behind it. Different people have different puruShArthas like aiSwarya, kaivalya etc. i don’t want any of them. i seek Him who has Himself entered my mind to do nityavAsa. He has this determination come to Him? (ivvAzhwAruDaiya nenju namakku iruppiDamAha kiDaikkumA?) ‘neerADi tAn kANamATTAda tArahala sEvaDiyai yAn kANa vallErkidu’. Siva performed long tapas to see His tiruvaDi. ‘peNNulAm saDaiyAnum piramanum unnaikkANbAn eNNilA oozhi oozhi tavam seidAr veLhi nirpa’. But to me who have performed no tapas You reveal Yourself without me asking or seeking. Therefore i decided that these tiruvaDi’s alone are my refuge.
idu vilangai eeDazhiya kaTTiya sEdu
iduvilangu vAliyai veezhttadu idu ilangai |
tAnoDunga vilnuDanga tan tAr irAvaNanai
oonoDunga eidAn uhappu || Twenty Eight ||
viBeeShaNa tells Sree rAma that He should seek the help of samudra raja for the army to cross over to lanka. He lay, accordingly, on darBAsana for 3 days without any food. Yet samudra raja did not oblige. Angered at his attitude Sree rAma took His bow and said ‘let the army walk the distance i shall dry up this ocean’. At once samudra raja came and saluted Him. He said let naLa throw big boulders on my water. They will float (because of a boon from his father) and the army can cross the ocean’. Though this happened in an earlier yuga AzhwAr speaks as if it is happening now in from of Him.
idu vilangu vAliyai veezhttadu—rAma promised to help sugreeva and the latter promised to help rAma to get His wife. rAma asked sugreeva to go and challenge vAli for a fight. sugreeva did so. But rAma could not kill vAli this time since He did not know who was vAli and who was sugreeva (both looked alike). The defeated sugreeva ran back to his hiding place. rAma asked him to wear a garland this time and challenge vAli again for a duel. This time He killed vAli with an arrow. vAli asked him to take care of tAra, sugreeva and angada. rAma promised to do so and made sugreeva the king of kiShkinda. AzhwAr has the vision of building bridge, killing vAli and rAvaNa because of his Bakti praBAva.
uhappuruvan tAnE oLiyuruvan tAnE
mahappuruvan tAnE madikkil mihappuruvam |
onrukkonru OsanaiyAn veezha oru kaNaiyAl
anrikoNDu eidAn avan || Twenty Nine ||
AzhwAr speaks about embeurman’s divya mangaLa vigraha.
uhappuruvan tAnE—He has the tirumEni which pleases the eyes of those who see Him. ‘tOL kaNDAr tOLE kaNDAr toDu kazhar kamalamanna tAL kaNDAr tALE kaNDAr taDakkai kaNDArum akdE’ (kamba rAmayaNa) or He has a Sareera in viBavAvatAra not born out of karma (as ours) but taken by His free will (ichchA griheetABimatOrudEhah)
oLiyuruvan tAnE—‘kuzhumi dEvar kuzhAngaL kai tozha sOdi veLLattinuLLE ezhuvadOruru’ He has tEjOroopa Sareera.
mahappuruvan—‘mahAdButam’ becomes ‘mahappu’ in tamizh i.e. very wonderful marvelous form .
puruvam onrukkonru OsanaiyAn—kumBakarNa had such a huge body that the gap between the two brows is nearly one yOjana.
avan ennai ALi arangattu arangil
avanennai eidAmal kAppAn avanennadu |
uLLattu ninrAnirundAn kiDakkumE
veLLattu aravaNaiyin mEl || Thirty ||
This emberumAn has left tiruppArkaDal etc. to enter my heart where He sometimes stands and sometimes sits. He has made me His dAsa by revealing His form in tiruvarangam periya kOyil. ‘kuDatisai muDiyai vaittu kuNa tisai pAdam neeTTi vaDa tisai pinbu kATTi ten tisai ilangai nOkki’—This is the beauty of His SESha Sayana tirukkOlam. He protects me from entering the samsAra aranga (stage) Not only that He has taken my mind as His permanent residence will He ever go back to tiruppArkaDal? i don’t think so arangil—‘rangam’ means drama stage which becomes ‘arangam’ in tamizh. Heare a man wears different attires and plays different parts in the stage; similarly a man takes different births in different species and plays his part. ‘piravi mA mAyakkooottu’—tiruvAimozhi.
mEl nAnmuhan aranai iTTa viDusAbam
tAn nAraNanozhittAn tArahaiyuL vAnOr |
perumAnai EttAda pEihAL pirakkum
karumAyam pEsil kadai || Thirty One ||
There are many fools who don’t worship Him whose greatness is known to all. AzhwAr calls them ‘pEihAL’ (EttAda pEihAL).
nAn muhan aranai iTTa viDu sAbam nAraNan ozhittAn— Formerly brahma had 5 faces. Siva too had 5. Out of jealousy Siva cut off one head of brahma which stuck to his hand (because of the sinful act). riShis and dEvas told him it will leave his hand if it gets filled up by alms. So he wandered all the worlds begging with the kapAla. But it did not get filled, and did not leave his hand . Once he went to badarikASrama, worshipped Sreeman nArAyaNa and prayed to be saved. Sreeman nArAyaNa gave him BikSha and said ‘akShayam’. The kapAla left his hand immediately. Thus Sreeman nArAyaNa can save one from guru pAtaka (sin committed towards one’s guru) also.
pirakkum karu mAyam pESil kadai—If You don’t sing His glories and guNas You will certainly be born again and again endlessly in all kinds of species and suffer endlessly. If iI start talking about the duhKas that you will have to experience then it becomes a long story like mahABArata.
tArahaiyuL— ‘dharA dharitree dharaNih’—is the name of Boomi. ‘dhAraka’ is one of her names which is pronounced as ‘tArahai’ in tamizh.
kadaiporuLtAn kaNNan tiruvayiTTrinuLLa
udaippaLavu pOdupOkkinri vadaipporuL tAn |
vAinda guNattu paDAdadu aDaiminO
Ainda guNattAn aDi || Thirty Two ||
Those men who do not enjoy Bagavad guNas are mere jaDa vastu (insentient objects). In fact by His mere sankalpa BagavAn gives existence to everything.
kadai poruL tAn kaNNan tiruvayiTTriluLa—kadai—to utter by mouth. Here it contextually means all vyavahAras (happenings) occur by His sankalpa alone.
udaippaLavu pOdu pOkkinri—vadaippaLavu—Time taken to bat an eyelid or to snap ones fingers. It means always without break. This phrase can be used with aDi aDaimin which will give the meaning — without delay seek His tiruvaDi.
vAinda guNattu paDAdadu vadaipporuL tAn—‘asannEva s aBavati asadbrahmEti vEdachEt’ — one who says brahman does not exist is an insentient object. Therefore those who don’t engage themselves in singing Him are jades. AzhwAr advices the people not to follow such ‘jaDas’.
aDi chchahaDam sADi aravu ATTi yAnai
piDittoSittu pEi mulai nanjuNDu vaDippavaLa |
vAipinnai tOLikkA valETTru eruttu iruttu
kO pinnum AnAn kurippu || Thirty Three ||
emberumAn by His very nature is eeSwara (His swaBAva is eeSwaratva). Yet during avatAra kAla He had to establish them through His chEShTitas.
aDichchahaDam SADi—When yaSOda placed Him under a cart when she went away to take bath in river yamuna the SakaTa became hunted by an asura and tried to kill kriShNa, however, kicked and killed him.
aravu ATTi—When grazing the cattle kriShNa went to a place which the other shepherd boys asked Him not to since there was a venomous serpent kaLiya living in the pond making it poisonous. He killed whoever coming near the pond making it poisonous. kriShNa climbed up akaDamba tree jumped on his hoods, danced on him catching its tail. The wives of kALiya pleaded at kaNNan to release him and spare his life. He ordered the serpent to leave the pond and move to an ocean with his family.
yAnai piDittu oSittu---The wild elephant kuvaLayApeeDa was made to stand at the entrance of kamsa’s court to kill kaNNan. kriShNa, however, caught him, plucked his tusks and using them as weapons killed both the elephant and the mahout.
pEi mulai nanjuNDu—pootana was sent by kamsa to AyarpADi to kill kriShNa. She came like yaSOda, tried to feed Him with her poisoned smeared breasts. kriShNa killed her by sucking not milk but life.
vallEru eruttu iruttu—nappinnai pirATTi’s father had 7 powerful bulls which had kept as kanyA Sulka. kriShNa subdued them all and married nappinnai.
kurippenakku kOTTiyoor mEyAnai Etta
kurippenakku nanmai payakka veruppanO |
vEngaDattu mEyAnai meivinainOi eidAmal
tAnkaDattum tanmaiyAn tAL || Thirty Four ||
How can i ever forget Him who has come to stay permanently in tirukkOTTiyoor and tiruvEngaDam for my sake? i desire to sing pallANDu to Him who is sarvasulaBa. It will do good to my Atma if i meditate on Him without stopping. How can i ever remain without worshipping Him and His tiruvaDi since they protect me from all karmas and duKas?
tALAl ulaham aLandavasavE kol
vALA kiDandaruLum vAitiravAn neeLOdam |
vandalaikkum mAmayilai mAvalli kENiyAn
aindalaivAi nAhattaNai || Thirty Five ||
AzhwAr knows well the archA moortis don’t break their samAdhi state normally. Yet, out of Bakti, he feels He lies down on tiruvanandAzhwAn without uttering a word because He is very tired after measuring the worlds up & down, East and West.
nammAzhwAr says ‘koDiyAr mADa kOLoorahattum puLinguDiyum maDiyAdinnE nee tuyil mEvi mahizhndadutAn aDiyAr allal tavirtta asavO? anrEl ippaDittAn neeNDu tAviya asavO paNiyAyE’ — tiruvAimozhi.
‘kiDanda nAL kiDandAi ettanai kAlam kiDatti un tiru uDambasaiya toDarndu kuTTrEval seidu tollaDimai vazhi varum toNDarOrkkaruLi taDangoL tAmarai koN vizhittu nee ezhundu un tAmarai mangaiyum neeyum iDangOL moovulahum tozhla irundaruLvAi tiruppuLinguDi kiDandAnE’—tiruvAimozhi. tirumazhisai AzhwAr himself speaks in tiruchchanda viruttam ‘naDanda kAlhaL nondavO---------kAviri karai kuDandiayuL kiDandavAru ezhundirundu pEsu vAzhi kESanE’. Here too he says ‘Oh! perumAn! Are You tired after measuring the world by placing Your lotus like tiruvaDi in hard mountains, rivers, oceans, forests, rocks and thorns? Are You feeling tired even now? You appear so because You choose to lie down quietly on the shore of the sea in tiruvallikkENi near tirumayilai’.
In the puShkaraNi there used to be lots of alli flowers. Hence the name allikkENi. At the request of toNDamAn chakravarti Sree vEngaDanAtha came to give darSan as kaNNapirAn.
nAhattaNai kuDandai vehKA tiruvevvuL
nAhattaNai arangam pEranbil nAhattu |
aNai pAr kaDal kiDakkum Adi neDumAl
aNaippAr karuttanAvAn || Thirty Six ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘aindalai vAi nAhattaNai……….kiDandaruLum’. Now he gives a list of places where He is seen as SEShasAyee. Why should He lie in all these places? AzhwAr himself answers—He lies there thinking of ways to enter the hearts of Baktas. This is the list of divyadESas that AzhwAr gives—tirukkuDandai, tiruvehKA, tiruevvuLLoor, ten tiruvarangam, tiruppEr nahar, anbil, tiruppArkaDal.
vehKA—yathOktakAri sannidhi in tirukkachchi.
tiruevvuL—emberumAn asked SalihOtra muni which is the place suitable (evvuL) for Him to stay. Hence it is called evvuL (kimgraham in Sanskrit).
pEr—appakkuDattAn sannidhi.
aNaippAr karuttAnAvAn—aNaippAr—‘tEShAm satata yuktAnAm’ (Bagavadgeeta)—Those who desire to be with Him always; karuttan—in their minds; AvAn—to live there.
emberumAn likes to live in aDiyAr’s hearts more than in paramapada, tiruppArkaDal, tiruvarangam and tiruvEngaDam. Therefore He stands, sits and lies in the divyadESas very impatient to find a suitable time to enter their heats. To stay in divya dESas is an upAya and to enter their hearts is puruShArtha. In Sree vachana BooShaNa piLLai lOkAchArya has expressed this idea after this pASura
kalum kanai kaDalum vaihunda vAnODum
pullenru ozhindana kol E pAvam!
vella neDiyAn niram kariyAn uL puhundu neengAn
aDiyEndadu uLLattaham’—‘nammazhwAr in periya tiruvandAdi.
vAnulavu teevaLi mAkaDal mAporuppu
tAnulavu vengadirum taNmadiyum mEl nilavum |
koNDal peyarum disaiyeTTum soozhchiyum
aNDam tirumAlahaippu || Thirty Seven ||
The pancha Bootas, the luminaries in the sky, clouds, the sentient beings, the AvaraNas and the aNDas are all the creations of emberumAn (which are created out of His sankalpa) revealing His glories.
vAn—AkASa, tee-agni, vaLi—vAyu, kaDal—water, poruppu—earth—the 5 Bootas are mentioned.
ahaippu—the thought that comes in the mind i.e. sankalpa.
ahappil manisarai Aru samayam
puhaittAn porukaDal neervaNNan uhaikkumEl |
ettEvar vAlATTum evvAru seihaiyum
appOdu ozhiyum azhaippu || Thirty Eight ||
nammAzhwAr expresses the same idea in ‘avaravar tamatamadu arivari vahai vahai avaravar iraiyavar ena aDi aDaivarhaL avaravar iraiyavar kuraivilar iraiyavar avaravar vidivazhi aDaiya ninranarE’----people of different tastes desire different kinds of fruits (Pala) and they worship accordingly as their guNas permit them (satva, rajas and tamas). They worship different dEvatas like brahma, rudra, indra etc. These dEvatas too give the worshippers what they ask. They are able to do so because emberumAn is the antaryAmi in all. Because of His mAhatmya these dEvatas get Sakti (capacity) to give the boons. These ordinary dEvatas get Sakti because of the antaryAmi in them.
There are 2 ways of expressing a statement—anvaya and vyatirEka. For example If i get money i can be happy’ is anvaya (positive) ‘if i don’t get money i cannot be happy’ is vyatirEka (negative). The tiruvAimozhi pASura quoted above states it in anvaya and this pASura in the vaytirEka form. tiruvAimzhi—only by the AvESa (entry as an antaryAmi) of the emberumAn the dEvatas are able to give Pala.
nAn muhan tiruvandAi—‘if emberumAn’s AvESa is not there these dEvatas cannot give any Pala’. ahaippu il manisarai Aru samayam puhaittAn—The schools of thought are by sAkkiyar, ulookyar, akShapAdar, kShapaNar, kapilar and patanjali. emberumAn puts them in such bAhya and kudruShTi matas where they are not interested to seek the right path for mOkSha.’ pOTTri maTTrOrdeivam pENa purattiTTummaiyinnE tETTri vaittadu elleerum veeDu peTTrAl ulahil illai enrE’ — tiruvAimozhi.
uhaikkumEl—If He does not do AvESa in dEvatas
ettEvar vAlATTum—People says ‘brahma creates’ ‘Siva destroys’ ‘indra killed vruttAsura’ etc. All these great actions they are capable of because of the antaryAmi in them. Otherwise is anyone worth anything?
VAlATTum—The word denotes the ego of a proud person.
evvAru seihaiyum—The brAhmaNas pour havis (offering) into the sacrificial fire chanting ‘badrAya swAhA’ ‘sOmAya swAha’ etc. These offerings are given to the antaryAmi, not to the dEvata. If He is not present these swAhA has no meaning.
azhaippu—‘indrAgachcha hareera Agachcha mEdhAtithE ‘brahmANam AvAhayAmi, varuNamAvAhayAmi’—such AvAha mantras are useless if His antaryAmitva is not there.
azhaippan tiruvEngaDattAnai kANa
izhaippan tirukkooDal kooDa mazhaippEr |
aruvi maNi varinri vandizhiya yAnai
veruvi aravu oDungum verpu || Thirty Nine ||
AzhwAr says his strong desire is to see emberumAn in tirumalai and do nityavAsa in that mountain. Let people go in their own way. I shall not desist from my aim.
izhaippan tirukkooDal—kooDalizhaittal is a sort of seeing the oman . One should draw a circle and draw as many circles as one can inside thins circle. Then count the number of circles inside. If the number is even, the wish will be fulfilled and if is odd number there is failure. kooDal, kooDalizhaittal, kooDal vaLaittal, kooDarkuri etc. are the other names of this Sakuna. In nAchchiyAr tirumozhi ANDAL does the same (teLLiyAr palar pASuram). This is done when one has tvara (haste) to have Bagavat samSlESha.
azhahiya maNavALa jeeyar says ‘koodalizhaittal’ is done by ladies. So perhaps AzhwAr speaks this pASura in nAyaki BAva.
mazhaippEraruvi maNi varanri vandizhiya yAnai veruvi aravu oDungum—There are 2 interpretations—1. The glittering gems brought by the water fall is taken as burning torches by the wild elephants living in tirumalai. They run away fearing the brightness. The pythons too seeing the bright gems think it is lighting falling down, run and hide in the anthills. (yAnai veruvi oDungum, aravu oDungum). 2. The elephants mistaking the bright gems as flaming torches run helter-shelter and fall into the opened mouth of a python (yAnai veruvi aravu oDungum).
In tamizh literature such descriptions of (both types) are seen in several works.
‘kaDungaN yAnai neDungai sErtti tiDangoNDu araidal tiNNamenru anji paDangoL pAmbum viDaraham pukoom taDangoL uchchi tAzhvarai aDukkattu’—tiraiyan pATTu—afraid of the huge elephants the pythons hide themselves.
‘jnAl vAi kaLiru pAndaTpaTTena tunjA tuyarattu anju piDippoosal neDuvarai viDAhattu iyambum kadumAn pulliya kADirandOrE’—naTTriNai.
‘pariya kaLiTTrai aravu vizhungi marunga iruL koornda kariya miDaTTrar seyya mEni kayilai malaiyArE’—dEvAram. ‘iDikoL vEzhattai eyiTTroDum eDuttu uDan vizhungum, kaDiya mASuNam kaTTrarindavar ena vaDangi saDai koL senniyar tAzhvilar tAm midittEra paDikaDAmEna tAzhvarai kiDappanna pArAi’—kamba rAmayaNa. It is evident that pythons swallow elephants.
verpenru vEngaDam pADinEn veeDAkki
nirkinrEn ninru ninaikkinrEn karkinra |
noolvalaiyil paTTirunda noolATTikELvanAr
kAlvalaiyil paTTirundEn kAN || Forty ||
verpenru vEngaDam pADinEn—Once i playfully started to utter the names of mountains i know like ‘kuruvi malai, pachchai malai, pavaLa malai, parangi malai etc. Suddenly without any significance i uttered ‘tiruvEngaDa malai’. emberumAn, karuNA moorti took this act of mine as puNya karma and promised me mOkSha Pala!
veeDAkki nirkinrEn—My yAdruchchika utterance (accidentally mentioned) has brought me the great Pala of paramapada. ‘meeTchiyinri vaihunda mAnahar maTTradu kaiyaduvE’ ninru ninaikkinrEn — when i think of His act i am astonished and overwhelmed. i keep thinking about this and my wonder knows no bounds.
karkinra nool valaiyil paTTirunda noolATTi kELvanAr kAl valaiyil paTTirundEn— Since He is revealed by all the SAstras (nool) He is called noolALan. periya pirATTi is therefore called noolATTi (the feminine gender) ‘dEvi! Srutim Bagavteem prathamE pumAmSah tvatsadguNauGa maNikOSa grham grNanto tadvAra pATana paTooni cha sEtihAsa santarkaNa smruti purANa purassarAni’—Sree guNaratna kOSa of BaTTar. (Oh! periya pirATTi)! Wise men say vEdas and vEdAngas talk about Your kalyANa guNas alone). For this reason she is called noolATTi. noolATTi kELvan—emberumAn.
This emberumAn is caught in the net of SAstra i.e., He cannot be separated from SAstras. He canot be dismissed by any bAhya and kudruShTi philosophies. i am, however, caught in the net of His tiruvaDi, i.e. i cannot be separated from Him.
SAstras are net for emberumAn; emberumAn’s tiruvaDi’s are net for me! As He cannot be separated from them I cannot be separated from Him.
The word ‘tiruvENgaDam is uttered as a passing reference only. But He took it as mOkSha sAdhana. Mine is done with ‘ahrdaya’ and His is ‘sahrdaya’. Hence i fall at His tiruvaDi forever.
kANaluruhinrEn kallaruvi muttudira
Ona vizhavil oliyadira pENi |
varuvEngaDavA ennuLLam puhundAi
tiruvEngaDam adanai senru || Forty One ||
Oh! emberumAn! You have left tirumalai to reside in my heart. Yet I like to go to tirumalai since it was where You resided once.
kallaruvi muttudira—The bamboos in the tirumalai split open shedding the pearls which are carried by the streams and scattered as the water falls down.
There is a great tumultuous noise of water fall and the sound of vEdic chanting, mangaLASAsana (pallANDu pallANDu) by the Baktas, dacing etc. in the tiruvONa festival (oli adira) many Baktas from many places seek this tirumalai (pENi varu) i too seek this place to worship Him since it was where He resided happily. Even though He is well within my heart i like going there to have His darSan as well as those of the Baktas.
senru vaNanguminO sENuyar vENgaDattai
ninru vinaikeDukkum neermaiyAl enrum |
kaDikkamala nAnmuhanum kaNmoonrattAnum
aDikkamalam iTTEttum angu || Forty Two ||
AzhwAr addresses the Baktas—Oh! Baktas! Go to tirumalai which is a lofty mountain with tall peaks. You will see all the dEvas including brahma and Siva worshipping His tiruvaDi by offering fresh fragrant flowers in order to obtain highter positions and powers.
sEnuyar—very tall.
neermaiyAl—by its swaBAva (nature)
vEngaDam—vEm—pApas; kaTam—to burn.
Therefore the very name suggests its nature of burning the pApas of those who worship Him. ‘vEngoDumpAvangAL ellAm vendiDa seivadAl nal mangalam porundum seer vEngaDa malaiyAnadu enru’— a purANa SlOka.
mangul tOi senni vaDavEngaDattAnai
kangul puhundArhaL kAppaNivAn tingaL |
saDaiyEra vaittAnum tAmarai mElAnum
kuDaiyEra tAm kuvittu koNDu || Forty Three ||
brahma and rudra come everyday to tirumalai to do kainkarya like ‘tirukkAppu’. They carry ‘muttukkuDai’ , chAmara (fan) etc. to do ‘kAppu’ during the sandhyA kAla (dusk).
tingaL saDaiyEra vaittAnum—Because of the curse of dakSha the moon god waxes and wanes. He came to Siva and sought his help. To save him Siva placed him on his matted locks. Hence he is called ‘chandra mouli’, ‘naLir madi saDaiyan’.
puhundArhaL—is a past tense verb. Still it is taken in the present tense i.e. they go everyday to tirumalai to do this kainkarya. ‘viraivinnum mihavinum teLivinum iyalbinum pirazhavum peru mukkAlamum Erpuzhi’—the taimzh grammar allows this.
koNDu kuDangAlmEl vaitta kuzhaviyAi
daNDa arakkan talai tALAl paNDeNNi |
pOmkumaran nirkum pozhil vENgaDa malaikkE
pOm kumararuLLeer purindu || Forty Four ||
This incident mentioned in this pASura is referred also by poihaiyAzhwAr in his mudal tiruvandAdi ‘AmE amararkariya’ and by pEyAzhwAr in his moonrAm tiruvandAdi ‘Ainda arumaraiyOn’.
Once rAvaNa went to brahmalOka to get some boons from him. emberumAn hiding His real roopa lay on brahma’s lap as a small baby and counted rAvaNa’s heads with His tiruvaDi.
This episode is not found in itihAsas or purANas. Yet is told by AzhwArs. Similarly periyAzhwAr says in his tirumozhi ‘seemAlihan avanODu tOzhamai koLLavum vallAi, sAmAru avanai nee eNNi chakkarattAl talai koNDAi’ and ‘elliyam pOdu inidiruttal irundadOr iDavahaiyil mallihai mA mAlai koNDu angu Arttadum Or aDaiyALam’. These are not found in the works of vyAsa maharShi or vAlmeeki maharShi, but visible to AzhwAr’s vision alone.
emberumAn who counted rAvaNa’s heads lying on the lap of brahma does nityavAsa in tiruvEngaDam ‘Oh! Young men! Before you attain old age when you would not be able to walk, go to trumalai to see and worship Him.
purindu malariTTu puNDareeka pAdam
parindu paDukADu nirpa terindengum |
tAnOngi nirkinrAn taNNaruvi vEngaDamE
vAnOrkkum maNNOrkkum vaippu || Forty Five ||
emberumAn residing in tirumalai is the treasure to both the nityasooris of paramapada and the Sree vaiShNavas of this earth.
SreenivAsa of tirumalai does nityavAsa there having no mind to move away form that place like a felled tree that remains in the same place. He is worshipped by Baktas and nityasooris singing ‘pallANDu pallANDu’ and ‘jitantE puNDareekAkSha’. This tirumalai which contains cool fresh streams is the place resorted by nityas, muktas and samsAris.
parindu—‘asthAnE Baya SankA’—to fear where there is no need for fear—i.e. to do kAppiDal.
paDakADu nirpa—paDakADu—the felled trees.
nirpa—to stay put in the same place.
vaippu—nidhi or treasure hidden in the ground.
vaippan maNivaLakkA mA madiyai mAlukkenru
eppozhudum kaineeTTum yAnaiyai eppADum |
vEDuvaLaikka kuravar villeDukkum vEngaDamE
nADuvaLaittu ADudumEl nanru || Forty Six ||
AzhwAr describes tirumalai. An elephant living in this forest wants to catch the full moon to use it as nandAviLakku to SreenivAsa. Therefore with his outstretched hand it stands there trying to catch the moon. He does not know there are kuravas and hunters waiting fro him with bows and arrows.
The peaks of tirumalai is very high as to touch the moon. ‘nanajumizh nAham ezhundu aNavi naLir mA madiyai senjuDar nA vaLaikkum tirumAlirunjOlaiyadE’—periyAzhwAr tirumozhi.
mA madiyai mAlukku maNi viLakkA vaippan enru kai neeTTum yAnai— The elephant stands looking up stretching his hand to the moon. How does AzhwAr know it does so with the intention of using it as nandA viLakku? The answer is –all the animals and men in tirumalai will have such ideas only and they cannot entertain any worldly desires. Moreover AzhwAr’s always superimpose their own ideas on others as nammAzhwAr says ‘vAyum tiraiyuhaLum’ pASura.
nan maNi vaNNanoor ALiyum kOLariyum
ponmaNiyum muttamum poomaramum panmaNi |
neerODu poruduruLum kAnamum vAnaramum
vEDumuDai vEngaDam || Forty Seven ||
AzhwAr says he likes tirumalai, which is the dwelling place of tirumalaiyappan. All the things associated with this divya dESa too are liked by him—yALis, lions, precious gems, flowering trees, streams that bring navaratnas, the forests where streams flow, monkeys living on the trees, hunters who are after the animals etc. etc.
vEngaDamE viNNOr tozhuvaduvum meimmaiyAl
vEngaDamE mei vinai nOi teerppaduvum vEngaDamE |
tAnavarai veezha tannAzhippaDai toTTu
vAnavarai kAppAn malai || Forty Eight ||
nityasooris enjoy BagavAn all the time ‘sadA paSyanti soorayah’ yet they are not satisfied because only His paratva guNa can be experienced in paramapada. They want to enjoy all those guNas, which He shows to the ASritas like soulaBya, souSeelya, vAtsalya etc. Hence they come down to tirumalai to enjoy these guNas.
vEngaDamE—The tirumalai is called vEngaDam because vEm—pApas, kaTam—to destroy. ‘vEmityaSESha pApAni kaTasttaddAha uchyatE’. ‘vengoDum pAvangaL ellAm vendiDa seivadAl nal mangalam porundum seer vEngaDamalai Anadenru’—a purANa SlOka.
There is a story in brahmANDa purANa which goes like this—There was a chaste BrAhmaNa who was faultlessly following his varNASrama dharma. He had a son called mAdhavan who was once playing with his young wife in a forest. He happened to see a chaNDALa woman, who was very beautiful. He left his wife, started living with her. He left all his varNa dharmas, ate meat, drank liquour, lost all his wealth, started to steal and gamble, killed people for money. Thus he became a mahApApi who was finally chased out of the house by his wife because he had many diseases. He wandered everywhere like a mad man, finally came to tirumalai, worshipped Him and became pure again, cured of all diseases and reached paramapada in the end.
emberumAn kills His ASrita virOdhis with His chakrAyudha and protects the Baktas. Similarly He kills all our virOdhis (mental and physical ailments) and protects us.
malai Amai mEl vaittu vAsukiyai SuTTri
talai Amai tAnoru kai paTTri alaiyAmal |
peerakkaDainda perumAn tirunAmam
kooruvadE yAvarkkum kooTTru || Forty Nine ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘vAnavarai kAppAn malai’. Here he says how emberumAn helped the ‘vAnavar’.
Sage doorVasa gave a beautiful garland to indra which he threw with disregard. Angry at his act the sage cursed him that the dEvas will lose all their aiSwarya. Consequently they lost everything including their powers. The dEvas were about to face defeat in the war with asuras. They requested Sreeman nArAyaNa to churn the pArkaDal and obtain nectar for them. emberumAn too took mandara moutain as the churning rod, vAsurki as the cord and churned the sea holding both the ends of vAsuki and gave His back (koorma) to support the mountain.
Thus He helped His ASritas. Let us sing His divya nAmas.
kooTTramum sArA koDuvinaiyum sArA tee
mATTramum sArAvahaiyarindEn ATTrangarai |
kiDakkum kaNNan kaDal kiDakkum mAyan
uraikiDakkum uLLattu enakku || Fifty ||
Great AchAryas like Sreeman nAdamunihaL, ALavandAr, Sree rAmAnujar, BaTTar and others interpret this divya dESa (Arukarai kiDakkum kaNNan) as kapittalam on the banks of river kAvEri. This divya dESa is not directly mentions in this pASura. But the great men who are able to read the innermost idea of AzhwArs interpret it as kapittalam. Hence it is taken as true. This is the only pASura in the whole of nAlAyira diyva prabandha where this place is mentioned. Even piLLai perumAL aiyyangAr who lived before periyavAchchAn piLLai, in his nooTTreTTu tiruppadi andAdi says ‘kANiyum illamum kaipporuLum eenrOrum pENiya vAzhkkaiyum pEruravam sENir puvittalattil inbamum pongaravamEri kavittalattir kaN tuyilvOn kAl’.
He who lies in tiruppArkaDal in order to enable the ASritas to seek Him for help, lies in kapittala as kaNNa pirAn. The charama SlOka told by Sree kriShNa to arjuna in the Bagavad geeta still lingers in my mind. This will make me free of all my karmas, from death etc. BagavAn never goes back on His words (sarva pApEByO mOkShayiShyAmi) Hence He will certainly destroy all my pApas. Since i have renounced everything (sarva dharmAn parityajya) and seek Him alone (mAmEkam SaraNam vraja). There is no doubt He will be my rakShaka.
enakkAvAr AroruvarE emberumAn
tanakkAvAn tAnEmaTTrallAl punakkAyA |
vaNNanE unnai pirarariyAr en madikku
viNNellAm uNDO vilai || Fifty One ||
emberumAn! As You say in Your charama SlOka i have eschewed all other upAyas with their vAsanas and i seek You alone as upAya. i am therefore fearless and calm. i am proud to say there is no one who is equal to me in both viBootis?
enakku—One who wants to climb onto the elephant has first to step on to his legs and jump on his back. Similarly i seek Your tiruvaDi as upAya to reach You. i am so firm in my resolution that nothing can shake my belief.
AvAr AroruvarE—People believe in themselves efforts. Therefore they cannot be compared to me who put all my burden on You.
emberumAn tanakkAvAn tAnE maTTrallAl—emberumAn is sarva rakShaka. There is no other rakShaka. Hence there is no one who can equal Him. As for me i am a rakShya (protected). i am a SESha and paratantra. He is SEShee and swatantra. But to be SESha and paratantra is much admirable than to be a SEShee and swatantra. In that respect i am much superior to Him!
One may wonder how AzhwAr who calls himself His dAsa speak this way. The truth is, to be proud of oneself, to speak with ahankAra, to say even emberumAn is not equal to him—is an admirable quality ina SESha. ‘enakku ini yAr nihar neeNilattE’ ‘enakkArum ’—so speak others too.
punakkAyA vaNNanE unnai pirar ariyAr—Oh! swAmi! You are like the kAyAmpoo that grows in its soil. Who is there who can claim to know You well? No one! But i proclaim proudly and loudly i know You. That is why i seek Your tiruvaDi as upAya. As for others, who are ignorant about You, seek other upAyas to reach You or seek You as upAya to reach other puruShArthas. They don’t have time or mind to admire Your beauty. They are busy in running after their desires.
Well! The people of this world are like this. They don’t know You as upAya. The nitya sooris, on the other hand, know You as upEya only. Bit i know You both as upAya and upEya. Hence i boldly say i am superior to men of this world and nityasooris of the other world.
vilaikkATTpaDuvar visAdiyETTruNbar
talaikkATbalitirivar takkOr mulaikkAl |
viDamuNDavEndanaiyE vErA vEttAdAr
kaDamuNDAr kallAdavar || Fifty Two ||
vilaikku ATTpaDuvar—Who willingly do kainkarya to others for the sake of food, clothing, shelter, money and other conforts. They are mady even to sell themselves.
visAdi ETTru unbar—‘vyAdhi’ becomes ‘visAdi’ in tamizh. They are low creatures who are already suffering from many maladies like to load on themselves the diseases of others. Some men give dAna of buffalo to cure their diseases. Those who receive this dAna thinking it will fetch some money and comforts take their diseases too.
talaikku AL bali tirivar—There are people who pray to kShudra dEvatas that they would offer their heads if such and such a person survives. Sree vachana BooShaNa—‘aprApta viShayangaLilE saktanAnavan adu labikka vENumenru irA ninrAl prApta viShaya pravaNanukku solla vENDAvirE’. In maNavALa mA munihaL vyAKyAna—‘there is a story which goes like this—there was a whore who was very much loved by a man. One day she fell ill. The man prayed to a dEvata that he would offer his head as kANikkai if she recovered from her illness. And he did so when she became well.
Who are those who ‘vilaikku ATpaDuvar’, ‘visAdi ETTru uNbAr’, ‘talaikku AL bali tirivAr’? They are mahApApis who don’t worship emberumAn.
mulaikkAl viDamuNDa vEndanaiyE—rAkShasasi pootana was sent by kamsa to kill kaNNan. She came to AyarpADi disguised as a mother. kaNNan sucked not only milk form her poison smeared breasts but also her life.
The mahApApis take janmas only to experience duhKa. They are ignorant about emberumAn and hence do not worship Him.
kallAdavar ilangai kaTTazhitta kAkuttan
allAloru deivam yAnilEn pollAda |
dEvarai dEvarallArai tiruvillA
dEvarai tErElmin dEvu || Fifty Three ||
AzhwAr speaks about His resolution in the first two lines, and about giving up dEvatAntara sambandha in the last two lines. Though AzhwAr himself had earlier worshipped dEvatAntaras he now says he has given up all such thoughts and actions after becoming a pure Sree vaiShNava. he says he has become a rAma Bakta and never want to look even at other dEvatas and consider it as ignorance to think them as Supreme Lord.
kallAdavar ilangai—lankApuri was ruled by an asura and the subjects were asuras too. They were all ajnAnis whose model was rAvaNa, their king. viBeeShaNa, alone who was dharmAtma could not stay among the asuras and in the midst of adharma. Hence he comes out of lankA to seek Sree rAmachandra.
pollAda dEvarai—Siva who calls himself eeSwara lives in a burial ground, smears ashes all over his body, wears kapAla mala and has 3 eyes. Thus he is not fit even to look at.
dEvar allArai—Even if you bear with his appearance he should at least have eeSwaratva. But he himself seeks the rakShaNa of emberumAn on many occasions. He who seeks the rakShaNa of others how can he protect his seekers?
tiruvillA dEvarai—‘SraddhayA dEvO dEvatvamaSnutE’—vEda. emberumAn has dEvatva since He has pirATTi sambandha. Therefore the other gods do not have dEvatva.
AzhwAr in His tiruchchada viruttam says ‘kANilum uruppolAr sevikkinAda keerttiyAr pENilum varam tara miDukkilAda dEvarai AnamenraDaindu vAzhum AdarhAL emmAdipAl pENi num pirappennum piNakkarukkahiTTrirE’.
dEvarAi nirkumaddEvum addEvaril
moovarAi nirkum mudupuNarppum yAvarAi |
nirkinradellAm neDumAlenru OrAdAr
karkinradu ellAm kaDai || Fifty Four ||
All knowledge except the one which is the understanding that everything including brahmAdi dEvatas are SEShaBootas to Sreeman nArAyaNa, is a waste. ‘dEvarAi irukkum addEvum neDumAl; addEvaril moovarAi nirkum mudu puNarppum neDumAl; yAvarAi nirkinradellAm neDumAl’ enru—those who have this knowledge alone prosper. All other knowledge are waste.
dEvarAi nirkum addEvum—All the dEvas like agni, indra who are mentioned in karma kANDa of vEda and who are given offerings in yAgas are all angAs to emberumAn ‘angAni anyA dEvatAh’. They are SEShas where as He alone is SEShee. They are Sareeras and He is the antaryAmi, the Sareeri. The offerings given to the gods go to Him alone.
addEvaril moovarAi nirkum mudupuNarppum—‘madhyE virinchi SivayOr vihitAvatArah KyAtOsi tatsamatayA’—it is emberumAn who has taken the form of trimoortis.
yAvarAi nirkinradellAm neDumAl—‘sarvam Kalvidam brahma’ ‘sarva BootAtmakE tAta jagannAthE jaganmayE’—says prahlAda. Those who realise this are jnAnis, the rest are ajnAnis.
kaDaininru amarar kazhal tozhudu nALum
iDaininra inbattarAvar puDaininra |
neerOdamEni neDumAlE ninnaDiyai
yArOdavallAr avar || Fifty Five ||
AzhwAr feels sad that the people of this world seek the darSan of dEvatAntaras to get alpa Pala (meager benefits). They are ignorant that they can get mOkSha if you are sought by them. How sad!
kaDaininru amarar kazhal tozhudu—kaDai—door; They are satisfied by obtaining meager Palas from worshipping the dEvatAntaras after waiting for them for a long time (or) kaDai ninra—those dEvatas who belong to lower category.
iDaininra inbattar Avar—Those who worship the Supreme Lord get Supreme Pala i.e. mOkSha; those who worship kaDai ninra dEvar small transient Pala like swargAnuBava.
periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘samsAra suhamum inrikkE niratisayamAna mOkSha suhamum inrikkE swarga suhattai uDaiyarAvar’.
avar ivar enrillai anangavEL tAdaikku
evarum edirillai kaNDeer uvari |
kaDal nanjamuNDAn kaDanenru vANarku
uDaninru tOTTrAn orungu || Fifty Six ||
rudra and other dEvatas who can give boons to their Baktas cannot be always their rakShakas i.e. they are unable to protect them always.
avar ivar enrillai—avar—great gods like indra, rudra, brahma and other; ivar—samsAris. We cannot stand in front of Him; so also the other gods.
anangavEL tAdaikku --kriShNa is the father of manmatha. ananga—one who does not have a body. He became ananga when Siva burnt him when he tried to spoil his tapas.
kaDal nanjam uNDAn—Siva swallowed the poison that came out of pArkaDal when it was churned.
vANarku uDaninru tOTTrA—Once bANAsura played on mrudanga when Siva was dancing. Pleased at his performance Siva gave him 1000 arms and a fort made of fire. He also promised he would stand with all his family and retinue at his gate guarding the city.
orungu tOTTrAn—Siva ran away unable to fight kriShNa. He ran away with his family and retinue from the battlefield.
orungirunda nalvinaiyum teevinaiyumAvAn
perungurundam sAittavanE pEsil marungirunda |
vAnavartAm dAnavartAm tArahai tAn ennenjam
AnavartAm allAdaden || Fifty Seven ||
There is nothing in this world which is not controlled by Him. even puNya pApas are His sankalpas alone. ‘Esha Eva sAdhu karma kAryati yamEByO lOkEBya unnineeShati; ESha Eva asAdhu karma kAryati yamadhO nineeShati’—He makes them perform good karmas whom He blesses; He makes the others (who are not blessed) to do evil karmas. Thus all the karmas are under His control.
Those who do good karmas are born as dEvatas and the others as asura; those who do mixed karmas are born as human beings in this world. All these happens according to His sankalpa alone.
kurundam sAittavanE—kaNNan used to take away the clothes of gOpis when they were taking bath in yamuna and climb on to a kurunda tree with them. Once an asura sent by kamsa haunted the tree to kill Him. But kriShNa borke the tree and uprooted it killing him instead.
tArahai—Boomi. dhArA, dharitree, dharaNee are the names of Boomi. Similarly she is called by AzhwAr as dhAraka. Even in 1st pASura AzhwAr used the same word.
vAnavartAm tAnavartAn tArahaitAn en nenjamAnavar tAm perungurundam sAittavanE—The dEvas, asuras, Boomi and my mind are all Him alone who broke the perungurundam.
ennenjam mEyAn iruL neekki embirAn
man anja munnorunAL maNNALandAn ennenjam |
mEyAnai illAviDaiyETTrAn vevvinai teerttu
AyAnukku AkkinEn anbu || Fifty Eight ||
emberumAn removed the ajnAna andhakAra in my mind. He is my ApatrakShaka (one who protects me when i am in danger) Therefore my love to Him knows no limit.
en nenjam mEyAn—This is repeated twice in this pASura. The first time it means ‘He who is in my mind’; the second time it means ‘He who is trivikrama is in my mind’—maNNaLandAn en nenjam mEyAn.
But the riShaBavAhana (rudra) does not think of Him even though he was cursed by brahma and saved by emberumAn (of brahma hatya dOSha)
anbAvAi Aramudam AvAi aDiyEnukku
inbAvAi ellAmum neeyAvAi ponpAvai |
kELvA kiLar oLi en kEsavanE kEDinri
ALvAikku aDiyEn nAnAL || Fifty Nine ||
Oh! tirumAl! Those who seek dEvatAntaras are not protected by them. Not only that they encounter danger too. But i seek You who is a total rakShaka. i am fearless. i am Your dAsa.
anbu AvAi—You are an incarnation of love.
ellAm AvAi—All the Ananda that one gets from father, mother, children, wife etc. i get from You only. That is because You are lakShmeepati. pirATTi is described as ‘hiraNya varNAm’, ‘hiraNmayeem’.
AzhwAr calls her ‘pon pAvai’. Because of the proximity of periya pirATTi He is effulgent. ‘ponpAvai kELvA kiLaroLi’. ‘apramEyam hi tattEjO yasya sA janakAtmajA’. mAreecha says in Sreemad rAmAyaNa.
ALpArttu uzhitarvAi kaNDu koLenrum nin
tALpArttu uzhitaruvEn tanmaiyai kETpArkku |
arumporuLAi ninra aranganE unnai
virumbuvadE viLLEn manam || Sixty ||
AzhwAr calls Him ‘Oh! AlpArttu uzhitaruvAi!’. ‘sOnvEShTavyah sa vijijnAsitavyah’—smruti says we should go in search of Him. But AzhwAr says He is in search of possible dAsas. How is it? — emberumAn is sarva swAmi whose property is all chEtanas and achEtanas. If the property is lost, the property does not so in search of its master, but the master goes in search of it. Therefore AzhwAr calls Him ‘AlpArttu uzhitaruvAi’.
‘prAptAvum prApakanum prAptikku uhappAnum avanE’—Sree vahcana BooShaNa. ‘na cha parama puruShah satya sankalpah atyartha priyam jnAninam laBdhvA kadAchidAvartaya viShyati’—Sree BAShya of Sree rAmAnujar. The words ‘jnAninam laBdhvA’ are very significant.
AL pArttu uzhitaruvAi—BagavAn is wandering as this earth in search of those who would be caught in His net. Fortunately i; who was wandering in search of You,am caught in the net. You and i cannot be separated from each other. ‘nin tAL parttu uzhitaruvEn tanmaiyai enrum kaNDu koL’. You should bless me that i should always be like this (caught in Your net)
kETpArkku arum poruLAi ninra—‘nAyamAtmA pravachanEna laByO na mEdhayA na bahunA SrutEna’—upaniShad. Even by hearing SAstras, itihAsas, purANas it is difficult to understand Him without His grace. ‘nAn unnaiyE AsaippaTTirukkum tanmaiyai nenjil tavirAdirukkum paDiyAha neeyE katAkShittu aruLavENum’—in the essence of this pASura.
manakkEdam sArA madusoodan tannai
tanakkEtAn tanjamAha koLLil enakkEdAn |
inronri ninrulahai yEzh ANai OTTinAn
senru onri ninra tiru || Sixty One ||
I am very fortunate that I am the sole recipient of His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha. The one who worships the madusoodana will not be touched by karmas and the consequent suKa duhKas. I did not seek Him, but He Himself has sought me and now stays in my heart. It is my BAgya.
manakkEdam—‘manah Kedam’ the mental worries (or) manakku Edam —the problems of mind. Such expressions are found in tiruvAimozhi too. ‘manakku inbam paDa mEvum’. ‘mADakku chittiramum mA naharkku gOpuramum’—in some tamizh literature.
The first word ‘inru’ is read by some as ‘ninru’ periyavAchchAn piLLai—‘samasta lOkattaiyum viDAdE niru tan Ajnai sellumpaDi naDattinavan tAnE vandu abiniviShTanAna sampattu enakkE uLLadu; adu tAnum inru’. ‘inru’ alone is right; ‘ninru’ is wrong reading.
‘Ezhulahai onri ninru ANaiyOTTinAn senru onri ninra tiru inru enakkEdAn’—is the prose order.
tiruninra pakkam tiravidenrOrAr
karuninra kallArkku uraippar tiruvirunda |
mArvan sireedaran tan vaNDulavu taNDuzhAi
tAr tannai sooDi darittu || Sixty Two ||
Some fools calls themselves as gurus and do upadESa to other fools ‘that these men are paradEvatas’.
If You wear the prasada (tuzhasi mAla) on Your head You will know that only lakShmeepati is paradeiva. The others who are not as fortunate to get this prasAda. (vANDulavu taN tuzhAi tAr) do not know (tiru ninra pakkam tiravidu enru OrAr). ‘apAnga BooyAmsO yadupari parabrahma tadaBoot’—Sree guNa ratna kOSa of BaTTar.—He became parabrahma after receiving the kaTAkSha of periya pirATTi.
karu ninra—Who are born out of womb. The fools can teach only the other fools because they know they will be chased away if they approach the wise. (kallArkku uaraippar)
darittirundEnAhavE tArAgaNa pOr
viritturaitta vennAhattunnai terittezhudi |
vAsittum kETTum vaNangi vazhipaTTum
poosittum pOkkinEn pOdu || Sixty Three ||
Oh! emberumAn! i spend my time in meditation, in writing songs on You, reading what I have written, hearing what the others say about Your guNa chEShTitas doing namaskAra, kainkarya and archana. Why should I do all these? I don’t do all these as upAya to get You but I don’t exist I fail to do them.
tArAgaNa pOr virittu uraitta ennAhattu unnai—Some recent research scholars split the sentence as tArAgaNappOr virittu uraitta en Ahattu unnai—and say tirumazhisai AzhwAr had written a detailed book on astrology (jyOtiSha) which is not available today. periyavAchchAn piLLai and others take the sentence as ‘tArAgaNappOr viritturaitta vennAham’ and interpret as it it AdiSESha who has written a book on astrology. ‘baBAsE jyoutiShee vidyA yadupajnA dharAtalE tam anantam anantasya talpam sankalpyE hrdi’. It is He alone who spoke through the mouths of brahma, riShis, AdiSESha and so on. As antaryAmi He alone gave all the SAstras. pAncharAtra Agamas, itihAsas and purANas, and also jyOtiSha SAstra. Great men like Sreeman nAdamunihaL, ALavandAr, emberumAnAr, periyavAchchAn piLLai, maNavALa mAmunihaL etc. who know the innermost idea of AzhwArs agree with this interpretation. It is important to note that we should not interpret AzhwAr’s pASuras as we fancy.
pOdAna iTTiranji EttuminO ponmahara
kAdAnai AdiperumAnai nAdAnai |
nallAnai nAraNanai nammEzh pirapparukkum
sollAnai solluvadE soodu || Sixty Four ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said how he spends his time. Now he tells others how to spend their time.
pOdAna iTTiranji—It is not ‘pOduhaLai iTTu irainji’. But ‘pOdAna iTTu’ irainji. We should know the subtle difference between these expressions. ashwar does not not say ‘offer flowers’ but says ‘offer anything that look like flowers’. nammAzhwAr says ‘parivadil eeSanai pADi virivadu mEvaluruveer pirirvahai inri nanneer tooi purivaduvum puhia poovE’. puhai—Anything that gives smoke is dhoopa (it need not be ahil etc); anything that resembles a flower is a flower (poovE).
BaTTar while giving lecture on this pASura said ‘ahil puhai enrAvadu, karumuhaippoo, enrAvadu sirapittu sollAmaiyalE EdEnum oru puhaiyum EdEnum oru poovum emberumAnukku amaiyum; seduhai iTTu puhaikkalAm; kaNDa kAlippoovum sooTTalAm’. On hearing this his disciple nanjeeyar asked him this question—SAstras say ‘na kaNTa kArikkA puShpam dEvAya vinivEdayEt’ and periyAzhwAr says ‘senbaham mallihaiyODu sengazhuneer iruvATchi—eNbahar poovum koNarndEn’. How can AzhwAr say ‘anything resembling a flower’? BaTTar answered ‘SAstram maruttadu meitAn; kaNDakAlippoo emberumAnukku AhAdenru marukkavillai; aDiyArhaL appoovai parittAl kaiyil muL taikkumE enru BaktarhaL pakkal dayaiyinAl Sastram niShEdittadE anri emberumAnukku AhAda poo eduvum illai’.
‘atyanta BaktiyukAnAm na SAstram naiva cha krama;’—there is no restriction of SAstra injunctions to a great Bakta.
namEzh pirapparukkum sollAnai—The janma paramparA i.e. the chain of births that occur one after the other.
Ezh pirappum-Continuous janmas; (or) the janma which cause 7 duhKas—garBavAsa, the birth from the garBa, diseases, old age, agony of death, death itself and narakvAsa after death (or) 7 kinds of narakas—perungaLiTTru vaTTam, peru maNal vaTTam, eriyin vaTTam, puhaiyil vaTTam, iruLin vaTTam, perungeezh vaTTam, aripaDai vaTTam, aripaDai vaTTam (or) Ezhu is upalakShaNa for ‘many’.
soodAvadu en nenjattu eNNinEn sonmAlai
mAdAya mAlavanai mAdavani yAdAnum |
vallavA sindittiruppErku vaihundattu
illaiyO solleeriDam || Sixty Five ||
I feel that I should be always thinking about Him and sing such pASuras on Him, won't I get paramapada if I spent my life like this? Certainly I will! Oh!! men! you think you go to paramapada if You sit in a posture closing Your eyes doing prANAyAma. All such difficult upAyas will not fetch you anything. Just think about Him as much as you can. ‘SiTTra vENDA sindippE amaiyum kaNDeerhaL andO! --- --- - ----kuTTramil seer kaTTru vaihal vAzhdal kaNDeer guNamE’—nammAzhwAr.
Those who are able to think about Him however much they can get paramapada not others who resort to upAyAntaras.
mAdAya—mAdu—beauty ‘tOL kaNDAr tOLE kaNDAr toDukazhar kamalamanna tAL kaNDAr tALE kaNDAr taDakkai kaNDArum akdE’—kamba rAmAyaNa (or) mAdu—mother; one who is as affectionate as a mother.
iDamAvadu en nenjaminrellAm paNDu
paDanAhaNai neDiyamArku tiDamAha |
vaiyEn madisooDi tannODu ayanainAn
vaiyE ATcheyyEn valam || Sixty Six ||
BagavAn thought ‘Well! This AzhwAr likes to come to my abode where as I want to go to live in his heart’ So thinking He at once entered the heart of this AzhwAr.
emberumAn used to lie of tiruvanandAzhwAn who does all sorts of kainkaryas (senrAl kuDaiyAm …… …etc) before this day. Now as He has come to live in my heart it is going to be His dwelling place hereafter. When I am so fortunate as to get Him why should I pray and worship Siva (madi SooDi) and brahma (ayan)? I won't bend my head to these dEvatAntaras. I walk with my head up proud of having my sambandha with Srih pati.
vaiyEn—I will not consider. vaiyE—second time—vai—sharp i.e. me who is endowed with sharp intellect and discrimination.
valam can be added to ATcheyyEn. Then it means I shall not be their dAsa not do pradakShiNa to them.
valamAha mATTAmai tAnAha vaihal
kulamAha kuTTrandAnAha nalamAha |
nAraNanai nApadiyai jnAna perumAnai
seeraNanai Ettum tiram || Sixty Seven ||
I think it will give me good result and good birth if I always sing Him. Some say it will give bad result and nothing but worries. Let it give good or bad result. I don’t care because I don’t worship Him to gain anything.
valamAha—According to me worshipping Him always make you happy. But You think otherwise. What do I care? I feel the act of worshipping is the parama puruShArtha.
valamAha—kulamAha—‘kulam tarum selvam tandiDum’ ‘valam tarum maTTrum tandiDum’— tirumangai AzhwAr.
tirambEnmin kaNDeer tiruvaDi tan nAmam
marandum purandozhAmAndar irainjiyum |
sAduvarAi pOduminhaLenrAn namanum tan
tooduvarai koovi sevikku || Sixty Eight ||
There is a SlOka in Sree viShNu purANa—swapuruSham aBiveekShya pASahastam vadati yamah kila tasya karNamoolE parihara madusoodana prapannAn praBuraham anya nruNAm na vaiShNavAnAm’. This pASura repeats the SlOka both words and the meaning.
yama BaTTas were going somewhere carrying pASa in their hands to do their duty. yama calls them and utters these words in their ears secretly—‘Oh! dootas! Don’t go near viShNu Baktas. If you happen to see them move away after doing namaskAra and pradakShiNa. ‘avan tamar evvinaiyarAhilum engOnavan tamarE enru ozhivadallAl naman tamarAl ArAyappaTTariyAr kaNDeer aravaNai mEl pErAyarkku ATpaTTAr pEr’—poihai AzhwAr. ‘keDum iDarAyavellAm kESavA enna nALum koDuvinai seyyum kooTTrin tamarhaLum kuruhahillAr’—nammAzhwAr. ‘moovulahu uNDu umizhnda mudalvA! nin nAmam kaTTra AvalippuDaimai kaNDAi nAvaliTTu uzhitarhinrOm naman tamar talaihaL meedE’—toNDaraDippoDi AzhwAr. ‘Ette un sEvaDi eNNi iruppArai pArttirundu angu naman tamar paTTrAmal sOttam nAm anjudum enru toDAmai nee kAtti pOi kaNNapuratturai ammAnE’—tirumangai AzhwAr.
tirambEl min kaNDeer—Don’t transgress my orders. If you do so I will be in trouble.
tiruvaDi—‘aDi’ ‘aDihaL’ tiruvaDi—refers to BagavAn.
marandum puram tozhA mAndar—This has got deeper significance that it appears. One may be a dAsa or may not be a dAsa to Him. But one should not be a dAsa ot dEvatAntara. A wife may or may not love her husband but should not love another’s husband. In mumukShupaDi while explaining the ukArArtha the author says ‘anya SEShatvam kazhihaiyE pradhAnam dEvarhaLukku SEShamAna purOdAsattai nAikkiDumAppOlE’ eeSwara SEShamAna Atma vastuvai samsArihaLukku SEShamAkkuhai. Bagavat SEShatvattilum anya SEShatvam kazhihaiyE pradhAnam; marandum puram tozhA mAndar engaiyAlE’.
sAduvar—sAdhavah of Sanskrit.
enrAn namanum tan tooduvarai koovi sevikku—‘vadati yamah kila tasya karNa moolE’ (viShNu purANa SlOka) why should he not talk loudly so that all can hear what he says? periyavAchchAn piLLai— it is improper. ‘rAja mahiShiyiDattil kAmam koLLAdE enru oruvan oruvanukku kaTTaLaiyiDa vENDumAnAl idu yuktamAna vArttaiyE Ahilum ivvArttaiyai pirar sevipaDa sollalAhAdanrO; adupOla anda vArttaiyai tAn palarariya En sollalAhAdennil kENmin—rAja mahiShi iDattil kAmam koLLAdE ennumpOdu prasaktasyaiva hi pratiShEdah na hi aprasaktam pratiShidhyatE engira nyAyattAlE edirAL; rAja mahiShiyiDattil kAmam koNDadu veLippaDaiyAhumE; adu arasanukku eTTinAl talai pOmE’.
sevikku inbamAvaduvum sengaNmAl nAmam
puvikkum puviyaduvE kaNDeer kavikku |
niraiporuLAi ninrAnai nErpaTTEn pArkkil
marai poruLum attanaiyE tAn || Sixty Nine ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said Bagavad nAmas will keep away the yama BaTTas .Thus he spoke about the pAvanatva (purity) of His names. Now he says it is not only pAvana but also sweet. ‘tOLAda mA maNiyai koNDArkku iniyAnai kELA sevihaL seviyalla kETTOmE’—periya tirumozhi. ‘achyuta kathAh SrOtra dwaya tvam SruNu’—mukunda mAla of kulaSEKarAzhwAr. The names which speak of His guNas and chEShTitas are sweet to the ears.
puvikkum puvi—His divya nAmas are shades where samsAris should take rest ‘Booh’ Boomi of Sanskrit becomes ‘puvi’ in tamizh. The first ‘puvi’ means people and the second ‘puvi’ means place.
kavikku nirai poruLAi ninrAnai nErpaTTEn—I never put forth any effort to get Him but He comes to me Himself. I enjoy the taste of His tirunAmas because of His grace. ‘sevikku inbam Avaduvum SengaN mAl nAmam’.
pArkkil marai poruLum attanaiyE tAn—Not only did it occur yAdruchchika (accidental) but when I enquire the SAstras I find what is told there is true. ‘anyatvA tadguNouktirBagavati na taduTkarSha chauryEh parEShAm stutyavatvA’—Sree rangarAjastavam.
tAnoruvanAhi daraNiyiDandeDuttu
EnoruvanAi eyiTTril tAngiyadum yAnoruvan |
inrA arihinrEn allEn irunilattai
senrAngaDi paDutta sEi || Seventy ||
It is sarvalOka prasiddha (known to everyone) that He begged three feet of land from mahAbali as vAmana and measured them as trivikrama; and He took varAha perumAn avatAra to lift the Boomi from aNDaBitti.
tAnoruvanAhi—‘tAnoruvanAhi iru nilattai senru Angu aDippaDutta sEi EnoruvanAi daraNi iDandeDuttu eyiTTril tAngiyaduvum yAnoruvan inrA arihinrEn allEn’ is the prose order.
yAnoruvan arihinrEn allEn—Not only me but the whole world knows about it.
inrA arihinrEn allEn—Since long time it is known.
sEyan aNiyan siriyan mihapperiyan
Ayan tuvaraikOnAi ninra mAyan anru |
Odiya vAkkadanai kallAr ulahattil
EdilarAm meijnAnamil || Seventy One ||
tuvaraikOnAi ninra mAyan anru Odiya vAkku—kaNNa pirAn did upadESa to arjuna during mahABArata war. It was meant not only for him but to all the jeevas. Those who don’t know the significance of the charama SlOka are His virOdhis and those who know are His friends.
When arjuna refused to kill the kith and kin on the other side of the army kaNNan did upadESa in dEhAtma vivEka, karma yOga, puruShOttama vidya, avatAra rahasya etc. Then finally He tells the charama SlOka which expounds the prapatti mArga ‘aham tvA sarva pApEByO mOkShayiShyAmi mA suchah’. Those who are ignorant of this mArga are called ‘meijnAnamil EdilarAm’.
The word sEyan goes with mihaperiyan; aNiyan goes with siriyan.
Edalar- virOdhis. ‘tAnaham dwiShadah kroorAn samsArEShu narAdhamAn kShipAmi ajasram aSuBAn AsureeShvEva yOniShu’. The word dwiShadah in Sanskrit is Edalar in tamizh pASura.
illaram illEl turavaram illennum
sollaram allanavum sollalla nallaram |
Avanavum nAlvEda mAttavamum nAraNanE
Avadu eedu anru enbAr Ar || Seventy Two ||
The pASura poses difficulty in interpretation. The prose order should be taken as—‘illaram ennum sollum sol alla; illEl turavaram ennum sollum sol alla; illEl allana aram ennum sollum sol alla; nallaram Avanavum nAl vEda mA tavamum nAraNanE Avadu; eedu anru enbAr Ar?’
The first two lines says karma, jnAna, Bakti yogas are not upAyas. They give Pala only at the anugraha of Sreeman nArAyaNa. Hence why not directly take Him alone as upAya and get the direct Pala.
illaram ennum sollum sol alla—A grihastha should perform yajna yAgAdi karmas as his dharma. Therefore it becomes karma yOga. Since it is said in charama SlOka ‘sarva dharmAn parityajya’ ‘one need not go to the SAstra pramANa that speak of karma yOga.
illEl turavaram ennum sollum sol alla—turavaram normally means sanyAsa which is synonymous with jnAna yOga (as said in Bagavad geeta V chapter SlOkas 1,2 &6) sanyAsa should be adopted after renouncing kama yOga ‘jnAnAmritEna triptasya kritakrityasya yOginah’. The SAstras that speak of such jnAna yOga is useless to a prapanna.
allana aram ennum sollum sol alla—The yOgas other than karma and jnAna are Bakti, avatAra rahasya jnAnam, puruShOttama vidya, divya dESa vAsa, tirunAma sankeertana, lighting lamps, offering flowers and garlands etc. performed with an ‘upAya buddhi’ are meant by the word ‘allana aram’. These are also not upAyas. Therefore only emberumAn is upAya. ‘na dharma niShTOsmi na cha AtmavEdee na BaktimAn tvachcharaNAravindE akinchanO ananya gatih SaraNya tvatpAda moolam SaraNam prapadyE’—AlavandAn stOtra. ‘svakair guNaih svaiScharitaih svavEdanAt Bajanti yE tvAm tvayi BakttOtha vA kareeSa tEShAmapi tAvakee dayA tathAtvakritsaivatu mE balam matam’—Sree varadarAja stavam of koorattAzhwAn.
Whatever yOga is taken as upAya it fetches Pala ultimately by Bagavanugraha. If it be so, why resort to these upAyas difficult to perform? Why not seek Him as direct upAya, the easiest way?
eedu anru enbAr Ar—Since this is sakula SAstra sammata (approved by all SAstras) who will say it is wrong.
ArE arivAr anaittulahum uNDu umizhnda
pErAzhiyAn tan perumaiyai kAr serinda |
kaNDttAn en kaNNan kANAn avan vaitta
paNDai tAnattin padi || Seventy Three ||
‘avan upAyamAumiDattu vEroru upAyattaiyum edir pArAmal tAnE poorNOpAyamAi irundu koNDu kAriyam talaikaTTa vallavanAhum perumai’—BaTTar would say His ‘itara nirapEkSha upAyatva’ i.e. without seeking any external help He can Himself accomplish a tasj. He swallowed all the worlds during praLaya and created all of them again as before during creation—all these He does without any effort and help. Siva, who is of cause great as he swallowed the most venous poison, does not know Him fully. Similarly brahma with all his four heads and eight eyes does not know Him. As for emberumAn, He is sarvajna, sarva SaktimAn, who knows Siva and brahma and created them, gave them their positions and swallows them in praLaya like He does the other worlds. He is not only sarvajna and sarvaSaktimAn, He is sulaBa and has vAtsalya. That is why He taken the responsibility of their yOgakShEmas, bears their burden on His shoulders.
avan vaitta paNDai tAnattin padi kANAn— padi —mArgam (panthAh of Sanskrit) paNDaittAnam—nitya viBooti (paramapada) Those who follow the prapatti mArga as said in the charama SlOka find paramapada. Don’t Siva and brahma know this mArga? They don’t know the truth of Atma swaroopa which is to renounce all other mArgas except seek Him as upAya. Hence they are said to be ignorant (kAr serinda kaNDattAn en kaNNan kANAn).
padi pahaijnarku ATTrAdu pAi tiraineer pAzhi
madittu aDainda vALaravam tannai madittavan tan |
vallAhattu ETTriya mAmEni mAyavanai
allAdu onru EttAdu en nA || Seventy Four ||
AzhwAr says we should not become dAsas to others except Him who does Asrita rakShaNa. To illustrate thus he narrates the story of sumuKa.
mAtali was dEvEndra sArathy He had a beautiful daughter guNakESi. He went to all the lOkas with nArada maharShi in search of a suitable bridegroom. At last he came to pAtALa loka where he saw sumuKa, a nAgakumAra. mAtali wanted him as his son-in-law. He approached his grandfather Aryaka and told him about his intention. Though happy about it the old man looked worried and told him that both sumuKa and his father are going to die in a mother. garuDa has vowed to eat both of them. mAtali said he would take sumuKa with him and request his boss to help him. mahAviShNu was also present when mAtali met indra. indra gave sumuKa long life. sumuKa got married to guNakESi . On hearing this garuDa got angry. Fearing him sumuKa came running to tirumAl, wound round the leg of His throne asking for His protection. garuDa came there to catch sumuKa He challenged viShNu. ‘Oh! swAmi! You bear all the worlds and I bear You on my back. So I am greater than You’. To curb his pride BagavAn put His right arm on garuDa’s shoulder, unable to bear the weight garuDa fell down unconscious. After a while he got up and begged His pardon. BagavAn asked garuDa to wear sumuKa on his neck and give him protection. ‘aDutta kaDum pahaijnarku’—mudal tiruvandAdi and ‘nanju sOrvadOr venjina aravam’—periya tirumozhi this incident is quoted.
mAyavanukku—BagavAn’s sankalpa is –I shall not forgive my ASrita virOdhis and ‘I shall always protect my ASritas’. sumuKa is His ASrita virOdhi. Hence He does not directly protect him but since he became His ASrita He made garuDa to protect him. He is able to mantain His sankalpa.
nAkkoNDu mAniDam pADEn nalamAha
teekoNDa senjaDaiyAn senru enrum pookkoNDu |
vallavArEtta mahizhAda vaihunda
selvanAr sEvaDimEl pATTu || Seventy Five ||
The tongue is created to sing His glories with such a tongue I shall not sing the glories (if any) of human beings. Siva worships Him daily with all humility. Yet emberumAn does not feel proud about it. ‘I shall sing’ says AzhwAr ‘who is sarvESwara and sulaBa’.
The king who ruled at that time when tirumazhisai AzhwAr lived, wanted his siShya kaNikkaNNan to sing his glories. kaNikkaNNan refused to do so. If such is the pride of siShya what to talk of the guru who says ‘mAniDam pADEn’.
pATTum muraiyum paDu kadaiyum palporuLum
eeTTiya teeyum iru visumbum kETTa |
manuvum surudi marai nAngum mAyan
tana mAyaiyil paTTa tarpu || Seventy Six ||
In the last pASura AzhwAr said ‘vaihunda selvanAr sEvaDi mEl pATTu—nAkkoNDu mAniDam pADEn’. What is the reason for this declaration? He is the creator of all the names and forms and this creation is done by His mere sankalpa.
kETTa manuvum—‘yadvai kinnu manuravadat tadBEShajam’—taittireeya yajussamhita II kANDa and II question. ‘poorvE poorvEByO vacha Etadoochuh—Sruti.
mAyaiyir paTTa tarpu—mAya here means sankalpa jnAnam. ‘samBavAmi Atma mAyayA’— Bagavadgeeta. tatva of Sanskrit become tarpu in tamizh.
tarpennai tAnariyanElum taDangaDalai
karkoNDu toortta kaDal vaNNan Er koNDa|
vevvinaiyum neenga vilangA manam vaittAn
evvinaiyum mAyumAl kaNDu || Seventy Seven ||
AzhwAr says all his pApa karmas perish because emberumAn looks at him, thinks of him, consider only his guNas not dOShas.
kaDal vaNNan tAn ennai tarpu ariyAnElum—BagavAn does not really know one-says AzhwAr. The meaning is—‘emberumAn has all kalyANa guNas and no dOShas’. This is the truth about Him which a Bakta should know. This will give Bakti on Him. ‘This man is full of dOSha and has no good qualities in Him'—this is the truth of a man which emberumAn should know. This will make Him move away from us. But BagavAn, due to His vAtsalya guNa, does not look at our dOShas but considers only our good actions only. Hence AzhwAr says BagavAn does not know me truly.
Even though AzhwAr has no dOShas, he says so out of humility—‘en kuTTram kuraihaLai emberumAn terindu koLLAmaiyinAl mEl vizhuhirAn’.
kaNDu vaNanginArkku ennAngol kAmanuDal
koNDa tavattArkku umai uNartta vaNDalambum |
tAralangal neeNmuDiyAn tan peyarE kETTirundu angu
Ar alangal AnamaiyAl Aindu || Seventy Eight ||
Once paramaSiva was doing tapas, pArvati asked him ‘swAmi! All the people worship you and meditate You. Whom do you meditate on? Is there anyone on whom you can meditate? ‘kam tvam archayasE dEva! kim diva madhikam tava. japahOma namaskAriah tam vadasva mahESwara’. Siva answered her ‘pArvati! I meditate on Sreeman nArAyaNa. ‘Just on uttering the name of the Supreme Lord Siva’s face changed, he became very emotional, ‘kAlAzhum nenjazhiyum kaN suzhalum’ ‘uLLamelAm uruhi kural tazhuttozhindEn uDambelAm kaNNa neer sOra’—AzhwAr says so. Siva asked her to sing His divya nAma sankeertana. Her song pleased him very much. (umai uNartta Ar alangal Anamai)
alangal—To swing, garland. Here the word is taken to mean he drooped like a garland.
periyavAchchAn piLLai on nammAzhwAr’s pASura 8-7-3, writes—en seyyungolO—sollamATTAL, taviramATTAL, azhAdozhiyamATTAL enjnanE paDuhirALO? nammaiyum piraraiyum viTTu avan tirunAmangaLai anubavikkira pOdai azhahu kANappETTrOm; avan tannaiyE kaNDu anubavikkira pOdai azhahu kANappeTTrilOmE! anusandAna vELaiyir pOlanrirE kaNDAl pirakkumvihArangaL; ‘kAmanuDal koNDa tavattArku umai uNartta vaNDulambum tAr alangal neeN muDiyAn tan peyarE kETTirundu angu Aralangal AnamaiyAl—kaNDu vaNanginArkku ennAngol enrirE iruppadu’.
Aindu koNDu Adi perumAai anbinAl
vAinda manattirutta vallArhaL Einda tam |
meikundamAha virumbuvarE tAmumtam
vaihundam kANbAr viraindu || Seventy Nine ||
Those who have intense desire in BagavadviShaya and who like to enjoy emberumAn in paramapada will consider their body, which is a hindrance to mOkSha, as a disease. Those BAgavatas who always meditate on Him (Aindu koNDu) and want to keep Him in their mind (vAinda manattu irutta) do not like to stay quietly waiting for the time to go to parmapada. They want it ‘now’ and want to get rid of this body as one would of the disease.
kundam—disease.
virandaDaimin mElorunAL veLLam parakka
karandulaham kAttaLitta kaNNan parandulaham
pADina ADinakETTu paDunaraham
veeDina vAsar kadavu || Eighty ||
When the praLaya jala was rising submerging all the worlds BagavAn placed of of them in side His tiruvayiru and thus protected them until the time of creation. Oh! men! Seek Him fast who is your only rakShaka! If you do so the naraka lOka will cease to exist.
It is also interpreted as—since there are many BAgavatas who sing and dance in bagavadanuBava wandering the divya dESas, the naraka lOkas become extinct. ‘arivilA manisarellam arangam enru azhaipparAhil poriyil vAzh narahamellAm pullezhundu ozhiyumanrE’—toNDaraDippoDi AzhwAr.
ulaham—great men ‘ulaham enbadu uyarndOr mATTE’—tolkAppiyam.
kadavu manam enrum kANalAm enrum
kudaiyum vinaiyAvi teerndEn vidaiyAha |
naTTramizhai vitti ennuLLattai neeviLaittAi
kaTTramozhiyAkki kalandu || Eighty One ||
All the SAstras say ‘mana Eva mauShyANAm kAraNam bandha mOkShayOh’—the mind alone is the kAraNa for both removing the chains of samsAra and to attain mokSha. A samsAri experiences these two states when he is oppressed by his karmas he thinks the mind alone is the kAraNa for such samsAra bandhana. When he gets Bagavat BAgavata kaTAkSha he feels his mind is the instrument to attain mOkSha.
Neither viShaya sambandha nor Bagavat sambandha are steadily fixed in our minds. At one time we feel ‘manam bandha hEtu’ and at other times we feel ‘manam mOkSha hEtu’. But AzhwAr’s state is different. He is always clear in his thinking and feels ‘manas is mOkSha hEtu’ only kadavu manam enrum kANalAm enrum kudaiyum vinai Avi teerndEn—kadavu here means an obstacle, obstruction which prevents us from entering the mOkSha sAmrAjya. ‘I don’t have an oscillating mind which wonders whether the mind is a prati bandhaka or instrumental in Bagavat prApti. The reason for this is I know you are the object of all my words. You are jnAna and Sakti swaroopa. You sow in my heart the seeds called tamizh which grow into a crop called Bakti’.
kalandAnen uLLattu kAmavEL tAdai
nalandAnum eedoppadu uNDO alarndalarhaL |
iTTEttum eeSanum nAnmuhanum enrivarhaL
viTTEtta mATTAda vEndu || Eighty Two ||
No one has ever got what I have got. Nothing is greater than what I have achieved. Look! How He, who cannot be completely understood and worshipped by even brahma and rudra, has come to enter my mind and has become one with it losing His identity,
kAmavEL tAdai—kaNNa pirAn who is the father of pradyumna, an amSa of manmatha.
vEndarAi viNNavarAi viNNAhi taNNaLiyAi
mAndarAi mAdAi maTTrallAmAi sArndavarkku |
tannATTrAn nEmiyAn mAl vaNNan tAnkoDukkum
pinnAl tAn seyyum pidir || Eighty Three ||
emberumAn does all kinds of upakAras—like a king, like a relative, like a mother and like a well wisher. Yet He feels He has not doen enough. At las the gives Himself to them.
vEndanAi—‘na a viShNu: prithveepatih’—one who is not a viShNu amSa becomes a king. A king does everything for his subjects and protects them from enemies and natural calamities ‘tiruvuDai mannarai kANil tirumAlai kaNDEnE ennum’ tiruvAimozhi.
viNNavarAi—The dEvas like varuNa pour rains, give food etc. emberumAn does all these as antaryAmi.
viNNAhi—He also gives swarga lOka as the puNya Pala.
pidirum manamilEn pijnahan tannODu
edirvan avanenakku nErAn adirum |
kazharkAla mannanaiyE kaNNanaiyE nALum
tozhakkAdal pooNDEn tozhil || Eighty Four ||
AzhwAr says even rudra, who considered as jnAni, does not equal me because I take it as my nityAnuShThAna to worship His tiruvaDi alone.
pijnahan tannODu edirvan—Siva is considered as mahAjnAni. eeSAnAt jnAnam anvichchEt’— says vEda. Therefore he can be compared to AzhwAr, who is also mahAjnAni.
avan enakkku nErAn—AzhwAr he is not compared to him since AzhwAr’s state is to be a dAsa always where as Siva’s state is to feel he is a dAsa at one time and at other times feels he alone is eeSwara under the influence of rajas and tamas guNas.
tozhilanakku tollaimAl tannAmaEtta
pozhudenakku maTTraduvE pOdum kazhisinatta
vallALan vAnarakkOn vAli madanazhitta
villALan nenjattuLan || Eighty Five ||
My time is spent in doing divya nAma saneertana which is my nityAnuShThAna, where I find time for anything else? tirumAl,, who is in my heart, won't let me do anything else.
kazhisinatta vallALan—are adjectives for vAli. Why did, rAma make friendship with sugreeva who was leading a life of exile? Why didn’t He wisely chose vAli’s friendship? vAli was more powerful than sugreeva for he had once tied rAvaNa to His tail and roamed all the places. The answer is—vAli had already vowed friendship with rAvaNa. vAli vadha is only an anga to the main act of rAvaNa vadha. rAma, who is an incarnation of dharma whould not make friendship with vAli who did not lead a life of dharma. He had snatched his own brother’s wife, drove his brother away from kingdom, followed him to kill him. rAma, on the other hand, loved His brothers dearly, loved His wife alone (Eka patnivrata), gave the kingdom to His brother, asked even rAvaNa to go back and come next day (as he was unarmed and tired). It is but natural that rAma should like sugreeva rather than vAli.
Why should rAma kill vAli from behind a tree? ‘yadvA mrigam mrigayuvan mrigayApathEna channO jaGanta na tu SatruvadABimuKyAt; tadyuktamEva tava rAGava vam Sajasya tiryakShu naiva hi vipakShatyO—pachArah’—atimAnuSha stava of koorattAzhwAn.
If vAli also make SaraNAgati as sugreeva did, what was rAma to do? He won't dae break the earlier promise to sugreeva. He has to moreover, respect the boon that vAli has got from dEvas that the person standing opposite him will lose half of his power. There are many more reasons to justify rAma’s act which the interested readers might look into other books.
In short, BagavAn is sarvajna, sarva SaktimAn and sarva swatantra. We human beings are endowed with meager powers and intelligence. Hence we have no right to question the dharma sookShma of His actions.
uLankaNDAi nannenjE uttamanenrum
uLankaNDAi uLLuvAruLLattu uLan kaNDAi |
tannoppAn tAnAi uLan kAN tamiyErku
ennoppArkku eeSan imai || Eighty Six ||
tan oppAn—‘na tat samascha aByadhikascha driSyatE’—Sruti. There is no one who can equal or excel Him. Hence He is equal to Himself.
tamiyErku—amiyan is one who is alone, i.e. one who has no upAyas to support him, ‘nOTTra nOnbilEn nuNNarivilEn’; one who is called ‘akinchanan’.
To such a person emberumAn alone is all.
ennoppArkku—To those who are like me. It may be taken to mean all other AzhwArs and aDiyArs.
imaya perumalai pOl indiranArkku iTTa
samaya virunduNDAr kAppAr samayangaL |
kaNDAn avai kAppAn kAr kaNDan nAnmuhanODu
uNDAn ulahODu uyir || Eighty Seven ||
AzhwAr calls Him sarva rakShaka, when AyarpADi men made preparation for indra vizha conducted every year, kaNNan asked them to offer the pooja and prasAda to gOvardhana mountain, which gives green pastures and good rain, instead of indra. When they did so kaNNan Himself took the form the dEvata and ate the enormous quantity of food offered to the mountain. The angry indra poured heavy rains. kaNNan lifted the gOvardhana as an umbrella and protected all the AyarpADi men, women and animals.
imaya peru malai pOl—The huge amount of food heaped like himAlaya mountain. ‘aTTukkuvi sOTTru paruppadamum tayir vAviyum neyyaLavum’—periyAzhwAr tirumozhi.
samaya virundu—samaya means ‘as was the custom’
Who is the creator of vaidika matas? Who is the rakShaka of these matas against bAhya kudruShTi vAdins? Who removed the brahmahatyA dOSha of Siva? Who saved brahma when he lost the vEdas? Who saves all the worlds and jeevas (including rudra and brahma) by swallowing them during praLaya? He alone is the sarva rakShaka at sarvakAla.
kAr kaNDan—Siva who is neelakaNTha. The prose order can also be ‘kAr kaNDan nAn muhanODu ulahODu uyir uNDAn Ar?’ ‘anru ellArum ariyArO emberumAn uNDu umizhnda echchil dEvar’—periya tirumozhi of tirumangai AzhwAr.
uyir koNDu uDalozhiya ODumpOdODi
ayarvu enra teerppAn pErpADi seyal teera |
sindittu vAzhvArE vAzhvAr sirusamaya
pandanaiyAr vAzhvEl pazhudu || Eighty Eight ||
There are two kinds of adhikAris—pravrutta dharma niShThas and nivritta dharma niShThas. Those belonging to the former do enormous amount of karma with upAya buddhi and believe that will give mOkSha. AzhwAr says these karmas should be done not with an upAya buddhi but as swayam puruShArtha. Through this they get Bagavad anugraha and His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha . The other category of people do not do anything as upAya. They seek Him as upAya and upEya. ‘kAmbara talai siraittu un kaDaittalai irundu vAzhum sOmban’ –toNDaraDippoDi AzhwAr. ‘Bagavat pruvritti virOdhi swapravrutti nivritti niShThar’. They are called nivritti dharma niShThar. They are far superior than the former.
uyir koNDu—The yama BaTTas carry pASa kayiru in their hands, pull the Atma from the dying person, leave the body behind, and run away with the Atma. BagavAn and His tirunAmas remove the duhKa of this Atma. One should lead a life by doing nAma sankeertana with a dAsatva buddhi eschewing all upAyAntaras. Such a life alone is worth living.
pazhudAhAdu onrarindEn pArkaDalAn pAdam
vazhuvA vahai ninaindu vaihal tozhuvArai |
kaNDu irainji vAzhvAr kalanda vinaikoDuttu
viN tirandu veeTTriruppAr mikku || Eighty Nine ||
This pASura speaks of the parama rahasyArtha that it is always better to seek the BAgavata’s tiruvaDi rather than BagavAn’s tiruvaDi. In the 18th pASura too AzhwAr has expressed this idea. The difference between these two pASuras are very subtle and deep and should be heard from guru or vaiShNava peiryArs.
‘siddhir Bavati va nEti samSayO achyuta sEvinAm na samSayOsti tad Bakta paricharyA ratAtmanA’—there is a margins of doubt whether we get mOkSha or not if we seek the tiruvaDi of emberumAn. But there is absolutely no doubt about getting mOkSha if we seek the tiruvaDi of Bagavad Baktas. Since He is swatantra He can give either samsAra according to our karma Pala or mOkSha with His nirhEtuka kaTAkSha. But BAgavatas never give samsAra. They give mOkSha to all their seekers whoever they may be. Therefore AzhwAr says with certainity ‘pazhudAhAdu onru arindEn’.
Sree vachana BooShaNa—‘pazhudAhAdu onru arindEn engira pATTai poorvOpAyattirku pramANamAha anusandippadu nalla en tOzhi, mArAyadAnavanai engira pATTukkaLai ………idukku pramANamAha anusandippadu’.
The summary of this pASura is—‘pArkaDalAn pAdattai kaNDu irainjuhai anriyE pArkaDalAn pAdam tozhuvArai koNDu irainjumavar nal vAzhchchi peruvar’.
veeTTrirundu viNNALa vENDuvAr vEngaDattAn
pAl tirunda vaittArE panmalarhaL mEltirunda |
vAzhvAr varum madipArttu anbinarAi maTTravarkkE
tAzhvAi iruppAr tamar || Ninety ||
Those who worship Him offering flowers at His tiruvaDi no doubt attain paramapada. Those who are the dAsas of His dAsas also attains paramapada. But the latter are greater than the former. Those dAsas whom the BAgavatas feel as theirs are loved more dearly than His own dAsas.
varum madi pArttu anibinarAi—Those who know the inner thoughts of BagavAn and act accordingly are loved by Him.
tamarAvAr yAvarkkum tAmarai mElArkum
amararkkum AdaravArttArkkum amararhaL |
tAL tAmarai malarhaLiTTiranji mAl vaNNan
tAL tAmarai aDaivOm enru || Ninety One ||
The Sree vaiShNavas who seek His tiruvaDi as upAya and upEya are the Lord of all those in both the viBootis.
AdaravattArkum—Siva. Once Siva wanted to teach a lesson to the riShis of dArukavana who did not respect him. Also he wanted to test the pAtivratya of their wives. So he went to the vana disguised as a kAmuka puruSha. He entered each house of the riShis . hemade the wives who fell for his looks lose their chastity. The angry riShis made an aBichAra yAga and sent serpents, ghowls, deer, tiger etc that came out of the yAga agni to trouble him. But Siva wore the serpents as his ornaments, made the gaNas as his servants, killed the tiger and wore the skin, arrived the deer in his hand, stamped one foot on muyalaka. Thus he defeated all the efforts of riShis.
enrum marandariyEn ennenjattE vaittu
nirum irundum neDumAlai enrum |
tiruvirunda mArban siridaranukku ALAi
karuvirunda nAL mudalA kAppu || Ninety Two ||
I never forget Him as He is my rakShaka since my garBa vAsa.
It is a well known fact that this AzhwAr had earlier worshipped dEvatAntaras before he became a Sree vaiShNava. How can he say ‘karu irunda nAL mudalA’. The answer is---it is the swaroopa of all atmas to be the SESha of emberumAn. But this is forgotten in the middle. As periyAzhwAr says ‘alvazhakkonrum illA aNikkOTTiyarkOn abimAna tungan selvanaippOla tirumAlE nAnum unakku pazhavaDiyEn’. This dAsatva is anAdi. The brilliance of a diamond is its very nature; it may get diminished by dirt etc. but on the removal of this dirt, the diamond regains its brilliance. Thus the SEShatva is the very nature of all Atmas but it forgets its nature due to many reasons. It gains its original status after these pratibandAs are removed. AzhwArs say ‘azhudE pala pahalum pOyina enru anji azhudEn’ ‘pAviyEn uNarAdu ettanai pahalum pazhudu pOi ozhindana nALhaL’. This AzhwAr too says in tiruchchanda viruttam ‘anru nAn pirandilEn’.
ninrum irundum—prahlAda says –‘Are You going to lose Your head if You say nArAyaNa when You sit, stand, get up and walk?’
kAppu marandariyEn kaNNanE enriruppan
Appangozhiyavum palluyirkkum Akkai |
koDuttaLitta kOnE guNapparanE unnai
viDattuNiyAr meiteLindAr tAm || Ninety Three ||
kAppu marandariyEn—emberumAn! I shall never forget all that You have done to me as my rakShaka (or) I shall never forget to sing mangaLASAsana (kAppu) to You. Appu angu ozhiyavum palluyirkkum Akkai koDutta aLitta kOnE—Oh! Lord! You give the jeevas their Sareera when (during praLaya) they remains without bodies like wingless birds, You give them limbs and other avayavas so that they can try again to reach You. ‘achid aviSEShitAn praLaya seemani samsAratah karaNakaLEbaraih GaTayitum dayamAna manAh’—Sree rangarAja stava.
mei teLindAr tAm unnai viDa tuNiyAr—Those who really know Your tiruguNas and the sambandha between You and Your aDiyAr do not like to leave You. AzhwAr thus talks about himself.
meiteLindAr en seyyAr vErAnAr neerAha
kaiteLindu kATTi kaLappaDuttu paiteLinda |
pAmbinaNaiyAi aruLAi aDiyErkku
vEmbum kariyAhum Enru || Ninety Four ||
Oh! pirAn! I know I am a mean fellow. But You are great. Therefore You should do anugraha to me. Don’t think all sinners should be kept away as they don’t deserve anugraha. It is true that need leaves are bitter not to be eaten. But if someone wants to cook and eat it why not? Similarly do take me as Your dAsa even if I am bitter and sinful full of dOShas. Oh! swAmi! Either like me with all my dOShas or just ignore my dOShas and like me. Take me as Your dAsa.
EnrEnaDimai izhindEn pirappiDumbai
AnrEn amararkkamarAmai AnrEn |
kaDanADum maNNADum kaiviTTu mElai
iDanADu kANa ini || Ninety Five ||
EnrEn aDimai—Slavery to human beings and dEvatas are detested. But AzhwAr is proud to say he is a slave to emberumAn. lakShmaNa says ‘aham sarvam kariShyAmi’ with al enthusiasm. Similarly AzhwAr says he will do all sorts of kainkarya to emberumAn.
The samsAra duhKa (tApatraya) which act as hindrance to kainkarya prApti have disappeared. (pirappu iDumbai izhindEn). He feels the paramapada is ready for him (sidda) i.e. he is sure to go to paramapada.
amararkku amarAmaiAnrEn—As I am eligible to go to paramapada even brahmAdi dEvas feel shy to come near me.
kaDan nADu—swargAdi lOkas are called so because like a doubt which has to be repaid. These puNya karmas are repaid in the form of these lOkAnuBavas.
I am filled with parama Bakti which will definitely take me to paramapada leaving this karma Boomi which make me do puNya karmas and swarga Boomi which make me enjoy the alpa suKa.
iniyarindEn eeSarkkum nAnmuharkkum deivam
iniyarindEn emberumAn unnai ini arindEn |
kAraNan nee kaTTravai nee karpavai nee narkirisai
nAraNan nee nangarindEn nAn || Ninety Six ||
AzhwAr started the prabandha declaring the supremacy of nArAyaNa over all the dEvas like Siva and brahma. He is the sarva kAraNa. Then he proceeded to support his argument with Sruti, smrithi, itihAsa, purANas. He further established the fact by such signs as Srih patitvam etc. Now he ends this prabandha saying Sreeman nArAyaNa alone is paradeiva.
To remove the paratvaBrahma (delusion) on dEvatAntaras and to establish the paratva of Sreeman nArAyaNa is the subject matter of this prabandha.
nAn muhan tiruvandAdi muTTriTTru
tirumazhisai AzhwAr tiruvaDihaLE SaraNam
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