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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO 1

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • February 27, 1999 


			SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO
      pASuram 7.1 (seventh tirumozhi - pAsuram 1 karuppUram nARumO)

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

In the first pASruam of the seventh tirumozhi, godai asks 
pAncajanyam, with great longing for kaNNan's adharAmr*tam:  
"Oh, white conch, who has the blessing of getting the 
sambandham of kaNNan's beautiful lips.  I would like
to ask you this: please tell me how the taste of the 
adhara-s (lips) of kaNNapirAn (who killed the elephant, 
kuvalayApIDam, by breaking its tusks) is, since you are 
the most experienced one in this regard.  Does the
fragrance of bhagavAn's mouth resemble that of kaRpUram 
(paccaik kaRpURam in tamizh)? Or, is it like the sugandham 
emanating from blossomed lotus flower? Do the mugil vaNNan's 
red lips taste sweet like rock candy? Please explain
to me clearly how His mouth tastes and how it smells, for 
I am longing for the anubhavam of these."

karuppUram nARumO kamalappU nARumO
 tiruppavaLa SevvAi tAn tittittu irukkumO
maruppu oSitta mAdhavan tan vAic cuvaiyum nARRamum
 viruppuRRu kETkinREn Sol Azhi  veN San~ge

B. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

karuppUram nARumO kamalappU nARumO: the smell of kaRppUram 
(paccaik kaRpURam) is stinging and has a hotness (kAram in tamizh); 
lotus flower always smells cool. kaNNan's tiruppavaLa SevvAi's 
smell will not have any of the defects of these two objects, 
but will have only the good aspects.  He is described in the veda-s
as sarva-gandhah sarva-rasah - (chAndogya 3.14.2).  These lips 
and mouth that ANDAL is longing for are the part of this 
great tirumEni. 

tiruppavaLac-cevvAi tAn tittittu irukkumO: ANDAL gave two 
alternatives when she was asking about the smell of His 
tiru-adharam, but is now giving only one choice when it came 
to asking about the taste of bhagavAn's mouth.  It
is as if the person who is immersed in water can't think 
of anything else.  Now godai is already lost in His 
anubhavam, and is not able to think of several things.  
So she is not asking whether His mouth tastes like honey or 
rock candy or etc.  In fact, the minute she saw His red 
lips, she has not been able to concentrate on anything else. 
He is the abode of the best of the sapta sparSa rUpa rasa 
ganda-s and so He is the food for all the indriya-s. (Note
that He is hr*shIkeSa or hr*shIkAnAm ISah - He controls our 
indriya-s as He wishes).  

maruppu oSitta mAdhavan - When rAma destroyed several rAkshasa-s 
including kara and dUshNa single-handedly, sItA pirATTi could 
not control her great joy, and embraced rAma and hugged Him.  

"tam dhrushtvA satrujantAram maharshINam sukAvaham |
 babhUva hrushtvA vaidEhI bhartAram parishasvajE ||"  
(rAmAyaNam AraNya kANDam 30-40).

Here ANDAL has the same feeling and wants to embrace closely 
her kaNNan for His brave act of destroying kuvalayApIDam.  

viruppuRRu kETkinREn:  In gItA 9.1, bhagavAn tells 
arjuna that the reason He is teaching the great secret about 
bhakti yoga and the knowledge to free oneself from all evil,
because he is free from asUyA - because he sees the
qualities of bhagavAn as they are meant to be seen - 
as kalyANa guNa-s, and not find faults or defect in them 
instead.  In gItA 18.67, Lord kr*shNa tells arjuna that the 
SAstra that has been taught to him should never be
revealed to anyone who is not austere, not a devotee, or 
does not wish to listen to the knowledge about Him, but 
certainly not to one who analyzes His qualities and finds 
faults in them.  This last category is a definite NO-NO
(idam te nAtapaskAya). In the case of ANDAL, she does not 
need to be told that first she has to accept His guNa-s without
finding fault with them, and then only desire to know His qualities.
She does not have to first get rid of her "jealousy" and 
then develop a love, thereby prolonging the time to get to 
emperumAn. One doesn't have to tell her about loving Him.  
godai doesn't have to be told, because she already has great 
love towards Him and thus she is proceeding to the next
step viz. asking the Sa~nkam for the knowledge about bhagavAn.

Azhi  veN San~ge:   The veN-Sa~ngu is huge in shape; ANDAL 
says that now the conch has to behave in a broad-minded way, 
and respond to her questions.  The Sa~ngu was born in the 
Ocean which serves to support a multitude of life-forms;  
ANDAL expects the conch to now tell her all about bhagavAn so
that it can continue to live listening to these.  The bright 
white color of the veN Sa~ngu is so striking that it registers 
in ANDAL's mind; she now expects the response from the conch 
such that it really registers in her mind and pleases her.

veN San~ge: SrI PVP gives another explanation also:  
The Sa~ngu keeps getting whiter and whiter (i.e., paler and 
paler) in spite of being constantly associated with Him (meaning 
Sangam is having viraga tApam and is becoming whiter and paler 
from love, even though it has the constant accompaniment of 
emperumAn); so, the veN Sa~ngu should certainly understand
ANDAL's pining in love for Him.

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari