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thirup pAvai - part 7 - thaniyangaL

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • December 22, 1998 


Dear bAgawathAs,                        mArgazhi sravanam, day 7
                                                         5:00 AM 
              There are 3 thaniyans for thiruppAvai.  One is  in
Sanskrit, by Sri. Paraasara Bhattar. Two  are  in Tamizh, by Sri 
uyyakkondaar. Sri  PiLLai lOkam jeeyar has  written  vyAkhyAnams  
for the above thaniyans.

----------------------------------
paraasara bhattar aruLicheydhadhu:
----------------------------------

neeLaa thunga sthana giri thadi padi suptha mudhbOdhya krishnam
paaraarthyam sthvam sruthi sada siras sidhdham adhyaa bhayanthee|
svOchchishtaayaam sraji nigaLidham yaabalaathkruthya bungthE
gOdhaa thasyay nama idamidham bhooya Evaasthu bhooya: ||


Meaning:

Let this namaskaaram to ANDAL, the one who has  awaken  the Lord, 
who  is  resting  on  the breasts  of nappinnai, and the one who 
enjoys the Lord through her pArathantriyam (that is the  essence 
of the vEdAs and upanishads) be for all time to come.

neeLA thunga sthanagiri thadee suptham - the one (krishnan)  who 
is  resting  on  the  breasts of nappinnai.  neeLaa = nappinnai.  
there are numerous references in the prabhandham and  the  works  
of our poorva AchAryAs regarding the greatness of "neeLA"

(i) neeLaa kulEna sadrusee, - sundara bahusthavam 107
(ii)  nandagOpaalan marumakaLE nappinnaai (thiruppaavai 18)
(iii)  kulavaayar kozhundhu - thiruvaaymozhi 5-6-11
(iv) the beauty of nappinnai - thOLi sErpinnai - thiru vAy mozhi 
4-2-5
(v) AyanAkiyar mangai vEyathOl    virumbinaay -   thiruch chanda 
viruththam 41

      On the breasts of such a woman does the Ayanukku Ayan Lord 
Sri Krishnan rests his head and sleep.  Sri PiLLai  lOkam jeeyar 
compares Lord Sri krishnan resting on Sri nappinnai to the dazed 
state of a person who has taken poison;  This  basically denotes 
the bOkthruthvam (enjoyment) of nappinnai by the Lord.

thungam  denotes loftiness, the superlative. PiLLai lOkam jeeyar 
says thungam  enradhAlE  aLaviRandha  BOgyathA dhishayam   sollu 
kiRathu'- boundless enjoyment.

sva uchchishtAyAm -soodik  kaLayappatta -  worn  and removed (by 
Sri ANdAL), sraji - garland, nigaLitham  - handcuffed.

She basically handcuffed Him with the garland  that was worn  by  
her and  after  that  worn  by the Lord. Sri PiLLai lOkam jeeyar 
says ' The one who cuffs everyone with karma gets  cuffed by the  
garland   that  was worn by this girl'' - an example of  His swa
tantriyam.

In Srimadh rAmAyan,  when  lord  Lord  Sri  Rama  let  the "nAga 
bHshanam"  set out by Indrajit wound both HIm and ilaya perumAL,   
Sri Garudan came to the  rescue  and  wondered,  "how come  this  
could  happen  oh, Lord you  are  the one who  release  everyone 
from  their bandham (windings due to samsAram), it is a surprise 
that you yourself let  yourself in such bandham now." It is said 
that  Sri Rama  wished  to  let it  wound simply  in  HIS  leela 
vaibavam to honour the weapon that Sri BrahmA had created.    It  
would  not take a fraction of a second for the Lord to take   it 
off.   Yet  our  Lord has HIS own  thiru uLLam  in letting  such 
things happen.  (there  are  other possible narrations available 
for this episode).


krishNam - Krishna
udhbOdhya - waking from sleep (thiruppaLLi uNarththuthal)
sruthi  satha siras sidhdham  -  the  'head' of  all vEdzss and 
upanishads, the essence.
pArArthyam - the  pArathanthiyam that is the essence of all the 
vEdAs and upanishads.

adhyApayanthee -  tell  everyone  (about  her   pAra thantriyam 
towards  the Lord, in thirup pAvai)
yAbalAkruthya  bunkthE gOdA -  gOdhA, who is enjoying the Lord, 
(with the force of the pArathantriyam, forcing her enjoyment of 
Him)

      The above thaniyan is said to be composed by Sri parAsara
bhattar,  on the request of Sri nanjeeyar, when  both  were  in 
thirukkOshtiyoor.  It is said that Sri Nanjeeyar could not bear  
the separation  from  Lord  Sri RenganAthan,  and  hence he had  
asked   Sri bhattar,  to mitigate  His  longing, to compose two 
slOkas - one on Sri ANdAL, and  the  other  on  the rest of the 
AzhvArs. The latter is

'bhootham saraschcha mahadaahvaya pattanaadha
sree bhatisaara kulasEkara yOgivaahaan
bhajtaangirirEnu parakaala yateendra mishraan
sreemath praankusa munim prathOsmi nithyam'

                  which we recite at the beginning of any divya 
prabhandham recitation.

----------------------------
Sri uyyakkondaar arulicheydhathu
----------------------------

anna vayal pudhuvai aandaal arangaRkup
pannu thiruppaavai palpadhiyam -  innisayaal
paadik koduththaaL naRpaamaalai poomaalai
soodik koduththaaLaich chollu.

Recite the name ANdAL,  who was born in srivillipuththur (where
swans  roam  the  fields),  and  who  adorned Renganaathar with 
a garland of pAsurams  (pAmaAlai - thirup paavai), and garlands 
of flowers.

          Our poorva AchAryAs  interpret  that in this thaniyan 
Sri uyyakkondaar delivered  that reciting  the  name "ANDAL" is  
better than reciting her paasurams.

  It is well conceived in adiyEn's anubavam that in thiruppAvai, 
Sri ANDAL mainly talks about Lord Sri Krishnan. Then how is  it 
possible  that  Sri  uyyakkondAr  refers to Sri  ANDAL adorning 
Sri RengnAathar with  pA mAlai (garland  of "pA" or pAsurams or 
poems) and poo mAlai   (garland  of  flowers) ?   In  nachhiyAr  
thiru mozhi,  the  11th paththu -  starting  with  the  pasuram 
"thAmukakkum", Sri AndAL  delivered us 11 paasurams, all on Sri 
RenganAthan.

  It is said that Sri ANDAL has five heroes whom she adorned as 
her lover. ie five forms of Lord.

1. Sri vadfa patha sAyee
2. Sri Azhagar
3. Sri RenganAthar
4. Sri Venkadan
5. Sri Krishnan

 It is said that everyday morning all these five Lords will wait 
at the entrance of her illam  (house)  and    seek   to  receive 
the garlands that She will provide  them.  There  is  a  special  
anubavam related to this that prompted adiyEn last year to write 
on thirup pAvai that will be reflected in the coming parts.


----------------------------
uyyakkondaar aruLicheythathu
----------------------------

soodikkoduththa sudarkkodiyE tholpaavai
paadi aruLavalla palvaLaiyaay - naadinee
vEnadavaRkku ennai vidhiyenra immaaRRam
naankadavaa vaNNamE nalgu.

    Oh the one who gave garlands to the Lord after wearing them ! 
Oh GodhA, who gave us pure "nOnbu"  towards  the  Lord    through  
thirup pAvai ! Just as you asked  Sri kAmadEvan (Lord for "Love") 
to join  you with Sri thiru vEngadam  udayAn, let us  not  forget 
that and go beyond that.

    In nachchiyaar thirumozhi 1st paththu thaiyoru thingaLum, Sri 
ANDAL requests Sri kAmadEvan to unite her and Sri  Kanna  piraan. 
In the first paasuram, ANDAL requests Sri kAma dEvan to unite her 
with  Sri thiru vEngadam udayaan -

("veyyathu  Or  thazhal  umizh  chakkarakkai vEngada varkku ennai 
vidhi kiRRiyE").

This  thaniyan  basically  is us requesting ANDAL to create in us 
her  "Sri  bhagavath  prEmam" or  "Sri bagwath kAmam" and help us 
reunite  with our Lord. Just as similar to YOU wedding  the  Lord  
and reuniting with the Lord, we request you to help  us  re-unite 
with our Lord through sarangathi.   (baranyAsam is interpreted as 
the marriage of jivAtmA with the Lord).

    This part was origianlly presented by Sri Varadhan in a joint 
effort with adiyEn. More references are added and   modifications 
are carried out by adiyEn.

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLe saraNam
Sri ANDAL samEtha Sri krishnan thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Varadan
Sampath Rengarajan



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