Search:
Bhakti List Archives

siRiya thirumadal...

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Triplicane • December 3, 1998 


"pEdhai n^enjE! inRaip perumai aRin^dhilaiyO! ..."
    This is how Sri maNavALa mAmunigaL starts while singing about my
dearmost AzhvAr Sri thirumaN^gai mannan's thirunakshathram.  Once you
start, you can never stop talking about our "mAyOnai vAL valiyAl
man^dhiraN^koL maN^gaiyarkOn".  What a versatile poet!  What an
inspiring story!! Maan! nam kaliyan is Great...

    Lemme just briefly talk about an interesting portion from siRiya
thirumadal. (It is in fact very difficult to 'select' a beautiful
portion from siRiya thirumadal. )
Some background:
    SiRiya thirumadal is a special style of poem where our AzhvAr
assumes the role of the n^Ayaki madly in love with the perumAL. Here,
She sends her heart as a messenger to perumAL. A lot of poets have dealt
with this. But nam kaliyan is so very special.

"ArAnum onnAdhAr kELAmE sonnakkAl
ArAyumElum paNi kEttu AdhanRenilum
pOrAdhozhiyAdhE pOn^dhidu n^I enRERkuk
kArAr kadal vaNNan pin pOna n^eNJamum
vArAdhE ennai maRan^dhadhudhaan..."

ArAnum onnAdhAr kELAmE sonnakkAl - While you go and tell him about me
you should very carefully look around to see if there is anybody who
might influence him badly. You should avoid such enemies. You should
whisper in His ears so that nobody listens to it.

ArAyumElum  kEttu paNi - On seeing you, if He gets very concerned about
me and enquires ,"How is she? is she alive? If I leave rightaway would I
be able to see her and unite with her? Could I get her?...", listen to
all his enquiries and then let him know about my status.
Here, She wants Him to enquire about her. She wants Him to feel restless
about her.

AdhanRenilum paNi - By chance if he doesn't even recognize me and like
dhushyanthan if he disowns me, even then you should let him know my
status. Don't feel bad and return rightaway. Make sure you explain Him
my status.
Look how she, very logically analyzes every situation and teaches her
heart to react properly.

pOrAdhozhiyAdhE - But don't keep waiting there, trying to elaborate my
situation.

pOn^dhidu n^I - Even if He forgets me, you shouldn't. You must come back
whatever He says.
She makes this point emphatically in another place too, just few lines
before this section. "sIrAr thiruththuzhAy mAlai n^amakku aruLi, thArAn
tharumenRu iraNdaththil orRadhanai..."
She is very particular that her heart should return back to her whatever
be the message.

enRERku - I took so much pain to explain in such great detail to my dear
heart, that he should not stay there. But alas! It look like I have made
a negative influence on my heart. On listening to my repeated stress on
not stay back, my heart probably realized that it is a great blissful
feeling to stay with Him. And so it did! :-(
( Here enters our parama kAruNIgar Sri peiyavAccAn piLLai with his
imaginative style of commentary. He gives an analogy. A rich landlord
had a servant to look after his paddy fields. The problem was that he
used to hide bags of rice in a corner and would take them home.  One day
the landlord caught him redhanded and fired him. He hired a new servant
and the first thing he told him was," Hey man, you should not hide the
rice in a corner like the old servant did. OK? " You know what happened
with the new servant. The landlord himself taught him a way to steal.
Likewise She herself taught her heart to stay back. )

kArAr kadal vaNNan pin pOna neNJamum
vArAdhE ennai maRan^dhadhu dhaan -
    My heart went behind the dark coloured kaNNan and never came back.

What a sorry state! paavam nam kaliyan...

thirumaN^gai AzhvAr thiruvadigaLE SaraNam
adiyEn
-Viji
(Vijay Triplicane)




--
Vijay Triplicane