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thiruppavai day twenty one song twenty one

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 4, 2003 


TIRUPPAVAI  - DAY TWENTY ONE - SONG TWENTY ONE
Transliteration
ERRAk kalangaL ethirponki mIthaLippa
mARRAthe pAl coriyum vaLLal perum pacukkaL
ARRap pataiththAy makanE aRivuRAy
UkkamutaiyAy periyAy ulakinil
thORRamAy ninRa cutarE thuyilezAy
mARRAr unakku vali tholainthu un vacaRkaN
ARRAthu vanthu un ati paniyumARu pOlE
pORRi yAm vanthOm pukaLnthElOr empAvAy.

Translation

Son of Nantakopa whose many munificent cows
Yield brimming pots full of frothy milk! Wake up!
The Zealous in saving the devotees and the Noble!
The Unmistakable Light for the world! Wake up!
Like your vanquished foes sans their might
Surrender at your feet, right at your doorsteps,
We have reached your abode
Hailing you by your fame.

Songs 21-23 make up a cluster in which Nappinnai joins the maids and invokes
God.
Abundance at the abode of God, the zeal, nobility and unmistakability of God
and the attitude of total surrender on the part of the maids are brought
together in the densely packed song. In a way, the three songs can very well
be said to sum up the Vaishnavite concept of Divinity and the proper
attitude of the devotee as well as the ultimate goal of bhakthi.
The twenty-first song celebrates the first two of the three. The abundance
of the household of Nantakopa is implied in a graphic evocation. Pots are
already full with milk. There is yet more milk in the udders of the cows. So
pots already used for holding milk are used again
to displace the froth and accommodate more milk. Thus the addition of milk
and the spilling over of the froth have both been presented right at the
beginning of the song. God was praised in the name of NantakopanÂ’s son
earlier in the seventeenth and eighteenth songs. Identifying Krishna in the
name of Nantakopa has a specific intention. Descending into the clan of the
herdsmen in the form of Krishna is the manifestation of an intention on GodÂ’
s part – to redeem the maids. How could Krishna then indulge in sleep even
as the maids have sought him for succour? Therefore to repeatedly call him
the son of Nantakopa is to bring out the intention behind the manifestation.
The cows by extension become personifications of the spiritual teachers
called the gurus. They initiate the devotees into the path of God and their
abundant affection for the devotees is identified with milk. The picture
given is as follows. Once the herdsman lays his fingers on the udders, the
cows keep on pouring milk and do not stop when the pot is full. It is such
abundant concern for the devotee that gets celebrated here. Traditional
interpretation will cite an illustration from Vishnupurana. Maitreya sought
Parasara for instruction into the spiritual. Parasara poured forth much more
than Maitreya had sought. It is such profuse pouring forth that makes the
cows munificent – vallal perum pacukkal.
Traditional interpretation will also expand on ‘arivuray’ which has been
inadequately translated into ‘wake up’ at the second line. The word, rightly
translated, will read, “become aware” in which case it can be taken for
imploring GodÂ’s grace. Though there is no urgent business to Krishna as the
son of Nantakopa to attend to so early in the morning, the intention of the
manifestation is to grace the pavai observance with his august presence and
redeem the maids. So, though the son of such a rich person like Nantakopa,
Krishna as the manifestation of Narayana has to attend to the urgent
business of clinching the pavai observance with assured redemption to the
maids.
The next attribute to Krishna is being the Zealous. It is the translation of
the word ‘ukkamutaiyay’. The word can be read in two ways. In the first
reading it may mean that God in His manifest form is the meaning of the
Vedas. Without God, the Vedas become hollow. It is God who makes the Vedas
meaningful. The second reading refers back to the twentieth song in which
God is said to dispel the distress of the devas.
‘Soulapya’, the condescending grace of God is one of the basic attributes of
God in the Vaishnava concept. So the word ‘ukkamutaiyay’ is better
understood as referring to GodÂ’s earnestness as expressed in condescending
grace. Manifestations of God acquire their significance only in the context
of this attribute to God. In the Gita also Krishna comes out with the
explicit assurance that whenever injustice prevails, He will appear to
establish justice.
‘The Noble’ in the translation, again, is an inadequate version of ‘periyay’
in the original. It shall be read to mean as follows: The greatness and
nobility of God are so great that even all the extant Vedas and those to
come hereafter cannot adequately comprehend His greatness. He has a
greatness that transcends the greatness as experienced and explained in the
Vedas.
The first line in NammalvarÂ’s Tiruvaymoli has expressed the idea succinctly:
‘uyarvu ara uyarnalam utaiyavan’ – the greatness of God is so great that
even the greatest greatness understood is lesser by far. The point of
interest is that God of such transcendent nobility has chosen to condescend
in all His grace into the most easily accessible form to the maids. And yet,
the greatness is in no way to be missed. Therefore immediately follows the
next address: ‘torramay ninra cutare’ – the light that stood out
unmistakably. It is this concept of God who is at once far and near to the
devotee that makes the concept of God in Vaishnavism so endearing.
There is a Christian parallel too. Hopkins wrote a sonnet titled ‘God’s
Grandeur”. He begins the poem asserting that the world is charged with the
grandeur of God. He says that such grandeur will shine forth like shining
from shook foil. Reflected light from a silver paper will strike even the
closed eye with its brightness. So also even the most insensitive to GodÂ’s
presence in the world cannot escape the awareness of God in the world.
The concluding part of the song is also highly suggestive. Even the most
egoistic had to finally surrender to God. Such is the greatness of GodÂ’s
valour. And once the fiercest foe surrenders, God extends His grace so very
spontaneously. There is the story of the crow that offended Sita in the
Ramayana. Rama sent his arrow that followed the crow wherever it flew.
Finally, with nowhere to go, the crow fell at RamaÂ’s feet. Rama ordered the
arrow to take away one eye of the crow and leave it alive.
There is also another interesting story, again in the Ramayana about GodÂ’s
abundant grace. When Rama had to leave his bow and arrow to go to the pond
to take bath, he stuck an arrow in the ground to lean his bow and sling
against. Unfortunately the arrow stuck into the ground had pierced a frog.
Rama, on his return, found the wounded frog. He became terribly sad. He
asked the frog why he did not give a call in warning, as the arrow was about
to pierce him. Then the frog is supposed to have said that whenever it was
in danger, it used to call Rama for protection. But when RamaÂ’s arrow itself
came to wound him, whose name was it to call for protection? Such is the
greatness of GodÂ’s arms like the discus and the arrow that makes the
greatest egoistic to understand the futility of pride in valour and
ultimately surrender to God.
The maids however are not egoistic in that sense. Their egoism and surrender
is of a different kind. It is the total negation of the Self which in
Nammalvar’s words will be ‘nir numatu enru ivai ver mutal mayttu’ – to
negate considerations of ‘you’ and ‘yours’ by their roots. Nammalvar will
implore such negation as follows: ‘parrilaiyay avan murril atanku’ – with no
attachment, converge into Him. In such a context, the inevitability of
surrender is not because of the irresistible might of God but because of the
realisation of His essential Divinity.
This idea of negation of the self at the point of surrender to God is
further reinforced if we take the prayer in the previous song into account.
The maids had prayed for the fan and mirror in the previous song – ‘ukkamum
tattoliyumÂ’. The fan is identified with driving away all kinds of
attachments. The mirror is synonymous with jnana – wisdom. Thus the prayer
in the previous song was a prayer for a certain attitude – an attitude of
negation of the self through giving up all attachments and realisation of
the essential nature of the Divine.
Thus the twenty-first song can be said to have philosophic implications that
go far beyond the obvious in the Vaishnavite pantheon.





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