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nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII maRRu irundIrgaTku 4

From the Bhakti List Archives

Kalyani Krishnamachari • February 26, 2001 


                                                      
                         SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

                           nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII–
maRRu irundIrgaTku 

pASuram 12.4 (twelfth tirumozhi – pAsuram 4 am-kait
talattiDai)

yamunaik karaikkE ennaic celuttungaL

am kait talattiDai Azhi koNDAn avan mugattanRi
vizhiyEn enRu
Sem kaccuk koNDu kaNNADai Arttu Siru mAniDavaraik
kANil nANum
koÂ’ngait talam ivai nOkkik kANIr govindanukku allAl
vAyil pOgA
iÂ’nguttai vAzhvai ozhiyavE pOi yamunaik karaikku ennai
uyttiDumin

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

Every part of my body belongs to Him and to no one
else.  As evidence of that, even my breasts, which are
covered with dark red clothes, shrink at the very
thought of my having to look at any lowly human being,
but rise with joy when the thought of govindan goes
through my mind.  I donÂ’t belong to anyone except
emperumAn who has the cakra in His beautiful hand. 
Instead of my having to live in the midst of the
current conditions, please take me to the banks of the
yamunA river and leave me there. 


B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

(In this pASuram, ANDAL conveys her deep feelings for
Him by attributing all her thoughts and feelings
poetically and figuratively to her breasts, and
presenting them as cetana-s endowed with intelligence.
 She talks of their refusing to look at anyone other
than govindan, closing their eyes tightly with dark
red clothes so that they donÂ’t see anyone else,
feeling proud and rising at His very thought and
shrinking with shame at the thought of anyone else. 
Sri PVP presents them in the position of the suffering
children of godai, and presents her as pleading with
the mothers that at least for the sake of her
suffering children, the mothers should take godai and
leave her where govindan is.  Keep this poetic simile
in mind as you read the vyAkhyAnam).  

am kait talattiDai Azhi koNDAn avan mugattanRi
vizhiyEn:  This is a figurative description of how
every part of ANDAL feels at the thought of emperumAn
vs. the thought of anyone else.  gOdaiÂ’s mulaigaL seem
to behave like cetana-s endowed with intelligence and
seem to say they will not look anywhere else but
emperuman who has tiruvAzhi in His hand.   They seem
to say that they are particular about Him so much that
they will welcome Him only if He comes with His Azhi
in His hand, but may not be welcome without His Azhi. 

am kait talattiDai Azhi:  Even His bare hands are
beautiful enough to deserve dRshTi parihAram. Just as
a kaRpaga tree would look exquisitely more beautiful
if it also blossoms, if He holds triuvAzhi in His
handsome hand,  no words can describe that beauty.  
The beauty of His bare hands are enough to destroy
gOdai; if He also holds tiruvAzhi in His hand, then
His beauty increases many-fold, and causes even more
longing in her for Him.  It looks like His Azhi kills
His enemies by going out of His hand, and kills His
devotee (ANDAL) by remaining in His hand!  Either way,
it is a killer! 

Siru mAniDavaraik kANil nANum:  The term “Siru
mAniDavar” denotes samsAri jIva-s.  This suggests that
puroshOttaman is peru mAniDavar.  How can He be called
“mAniDavar”?   Lord kRshNa provides the support in the
gItA (mAnushIm tanum ASritam param bhAvam – 9.11) – He
takes the body of a human being without losing His
Greatness.  

kANil nANum:  They will shrink with shame.  SrI PVP
compares this “shrinking with shame” to a scene in
SrImad rAmAyaNam.  When lakshmaNa sees bharata
approaching citra kUTam, first he becomes angry at
bharata, and declares to rAma that he will kill
bharata (for the injustice of having accepted the
kingdom).  Lord rAma tries in vain to reason with
lakshmaNa and tell him that bharata is innocent;  when
he fails in convincing lakshmaNa of the innocence of
bharata, He gives up and tells lakshmaNa:  “All right,
I will just tell bharata to give the kingdom to you
since you are so interested in it, and bharata will be
delighted to get rid of it like unloading a heavy load
from his head.  On hearing this, lakshmaNa shrinks
with shame at his incorrect assessment of bharataÂ’s
devotion to rAma (lakshmaNah praviveSeva svAni gAtrANi
lajjayA – SrImad rAmAyaNam ayodhyA. 97-18, 19).  

SrI PVP enjoys here the fact that normally in the
world, brothers would fight for the kingdom; in the
hands of these brothers, the kingdom is being balled
{“ivargaL kaiyilE paDugira pADirE idu!”).

koÂ’ngait talam ivai nOkkik kANIr:  just as sItA
pirATTi wanted to embrace rAma 
with her sorrow-stricken body (sundara kANDam 40-3
“yathA tam purushavyAghram gAtrai: SokAbhikarSitai: |
samspRSEyam sakAmA’ham tathA kuru dayAm mayi ||”),
gOdai wants to embrace emperumAn with her
sorrow-stricken body. She tells her mothers, just like
a mother who pleads on behalf of her starving
children: “Look at how even my breasts are suffering
and reacting at the very thought of Him; they are like
my children crying.  At least for their sake, try and
get me to Him”.  

govindanukku allAl vAyil pOgA: These are meant only
for gOvindan who went after cows and who kept doing
mischief after mischief; they are not even for the
cakravartit tirumagan who was the ekapatni vratan.

pOgA: “Even if I wish otherwise, they won’t have it
any other way”.    SrI PVP gives the example of the
horses of sumantran when he took Lord rAma to the
forest, and when he returned without rAma after
leaving Him in the forest.   sumantra is an expert in
controlling horses as he willed, and they always
behaved as he wanted them to behave.  They were very
much under his control in rAmaÂ’s presence, but when he
returned without rAma, the horses started shedding
warm tears and started behaving erratically, and
sumantra could not control them at all.  godaiÂ’s body
is totally out of her control without govindan, just
as sumantraÂ’s horses were out of his control without
rAma.

 “mama tvasvA nivruttasya na prAvarttanta vartmani  |
  ushNamasru pramujjantO rAmE samprasthitEvanam || “ 
(ayodh.  69-1)

iÂ’nguttai vAzhvai ozhiyavE pOi yamunaik karaikku ennai
uyttiDumin:  I am not really satisfied with this life
of imagining His lotus feet from here;  I want to be
where I can actually see His lotus feet and enjoy
them.  So take me to the shores of yamunA and leave me
there”.  It is the same yamunai that gOdai called
earlier “tUya peru nIr yamunai” (tiruppavai – 5). 
Maybe she is imagining about having jala krIDA with
Him in yamunA!

C. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

ciru mAniDavar:  those who were born as men because of
their karmA are ciru mAniDavar according to gOdai.
kaNNan was special and different even though He
appeared in human form in His incarnation.

vAyil:  SrI UV gives an alternate interpretation to
this term.  This could be taken to mean vAi = mouth,
and so it could mean that except for govindanÂ’s mouth,
no one else will have her anubhavam.  

Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV  = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyeti samarpayAmi.

aDiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri


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