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thirup pAvai - part 14 - A marriage invitation

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • December 24, 1998 


part 14 - "pothuminO nErizhaiyeer" -  a marriage invitation

Dear bAgawathAs,                           mArgazhi day 9, 5:15 AM

        ie., Without Lord Sri Krishna's desire nothing happens. He 
chooses  those  who must surrender in this birth. HE HIMself gives 
them the "pakkuvam" (mArgazhi thingaL). HE sets the stage  HIMself 
(mathi niRaintha nan nAL). HE comes to our mind and invite  us  to 
do  this  nOnbu  or  "little effort"  known  as  prapatti  or self 
surrender.  jIvAtma has nothing in its control (only a  surrendred 
soul realises this).  Everything is  done  by  HIM   and  this  is 
symbolised here by Sri ANDAL, (HIS patthini) by  going  herself to  each  
jiVAtmA's (agam) house and awaken them (AWAKEN THE SOUL) and bring them 
to the main stream to perform  the  "nOnbu" (prapatti).

            The word "nEridaiyAR", here can mean the chOsen one's. 
ie.,  She  is  inviting  those  who  are the chOsen ones with some 
specific charecteristic and mindset.  Such  "chosen ones" are also 
viewed as rich in their realisation of the nature of their jiVatma 
swaroopam.   ie the jivAtma swaroopam is such that it is owned  by 
the Eswaran eternally and its role is to serve the  Lord  and  His 
Consort eternally.  

The word "nEr" means "straight" but here it is the  short  form of 
"nErththiyAna"  ie.,, "vilai uyarntha"   ie., "athika mathippuLLa" 
ie.,  very  extraordinary and  precious   priceless  (jewels)  and  
the  word  "izhai" is addressed  for  their  "anikalan"  known  as 
jewellery. Once the jivAtmA  realises such "Athma sambandam"  (the 
konwledge  of its swa swaroopam), it is supposed to be  possessing
the  most   precious  treasure or  jewelery  with  it. ie.,   Such 
realisation is in itself the priceless and most precious  thing  a
jivAtmA  can   attain   after   several  birth/death  cycle.  Such 
realisation relieves them from this karmic  cycle and  and reunite 
them with the Lord. Hence "nEr iZhiyeer" means those who are given  
the knowledge that they must do prapatti surrender to the Lord. It
can be said that they are the "chosen ones" to surrender  in  this 
birth.  

This pAsuram has several different concepts (*). 

The main few of them are 

[1] pakkuvam of jivatma (knowledge on swaroopam) and 
    (mArgazhi thingaL)
[2] Emperuman's    parApOkAram ie., the *FOREWORD* that HE HIMself 
          initiates all these into the minds of chEthanan referred 
          by the word "pOthuminO". It is  an invitation to all the 
          jivAtmAs to surrender and such invitation is   presented 
          by none other than pirAtti HERself. 
[3] AchArya thathuvam, (nandagOpan kumaran) 
[4] manthra upadEsam, and the (yasOdai ilam singam)
[5] prAbhAvam (upAyam) and (nArayananE namakkE paRai tharuvAN)
[6] prabyam  (upEyam) and (nArayananE namakkE paRai tharuvAN)

The sequence itself clearly states  the  ladder  that  the jivAtma 
will  climb  in  its  ascendance to path for seeking eternal union 
with Lord.

        (gOthai) pirAtti not  only  invites  but also demonstrates 
HERself as to how one may surrender  observing  this  nOnbu  known 
as prapatti. It is customary also to invite  "suRRam"  or  friends 
and  realtives  to  one's  nOnbu  (here  the nOnbu  is  itself the 
marriage or eternal  union  through   "saranAgathi").  Speaking of 
invitation,  it  is  to be noted that, this pAsuram itself is also 
resembling a traditional marriage invitation.

In Tamil the follwing "format" is somewhat a replica of a marriage 
invitation

ie.,"nigazhum mArgazhith thingaL powrnami nan nAL, seer izhai Ayar 
sirmiyarrukkum erArntha iLam kanni  maRRum  koorvEl kodunthizhilan 
nantha gOpan  thiruk   kumArAN   kANNan   (Sri   Krishnan)  engiRa    
narAyananukkum  avan thiruvaruLaLE nichchaiyikkappattu, nArAyanAna 
avnAlEyE  saranAgathi  ennum thiruk kalyANa nONbu  (saranagathi or 
surrender or  prapatti  termed  here  as paRai  tharuvaan) nammOdu 
nadaththap  padukiRathu. pArRor anaivarum pugazhnthuEl or empAvAi". 

ie.,  We  welcome   you  the  folks of  this  earth, to "JOIN" the 
(marriage) nOnbu (paRai) of (the most beautiful)    Aychchiyars of 
AyarpAdi  and the son (koor vEl kulaththOn) of Sri Nanda gopan and 
Smt  yasodha,   Sri Krishnan  alias  Sri  nArAyanan  On the coming 
mArgazhi month, powrnami day.
        
        saraNagathi performed as "baranyAsam"  is  also considered 
as an eternal wedlock with the Lord and jivAtma.  Certain  aspects 
of  baranyAsam  symbolise  this.  These are only to be told by the 
AchAryAL at the time  of baranyAsam and hence it is refrained here 
from discussing such. 
        
Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sampath Rengarajan

        (*) Though Several refernces can be written for this, only 
some brief and core concepts are presented to help understand  the 
fundamental and follow the flow of the article.



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