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thiruch chandha viruththam - an interesting piece!!

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Triplicane • November 20, 1996 


Hello,
I was listening to thiruppaavai kaalakshEbam by vELukkudi Sri KrishNan. He
referred to this very interesting paasuram  which caught my attention.

thiruch chanNdha viruththam
---------------------------

koNdaikoNda kOthaimeethu
thEnulaavu koonikoon,
uNdaikoNda rankavOtti
yuLmakizhntha naathaNnoor,
naNdaiyuNdu naaraipEra
vaaLaipaaya neelamE,
aNdaikoNdu keNdaimEyu
manthaNeera rankamE. (2)    (49)


thirumazhisaiyaazvaar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

The first four lines talk about Sri Raamaar's childhood. It describes how he
used to play and make fun of kooni by shooting arrows on her bent back!
(Apparently this is one of the very few incidents in raamaayaNam which talks of
HIS pranks as a kid).
The most interesting part is the remaining 4 lines. On a cursory look it can
be translated as follows:
naNdai uNdu - After eating the crab
nNaarai pEra - the crane (not sure what pEra is? probably looking for some
more food or resting???)
vaaLai paaya - A kind of fish called "vaaLai" jumps about trying to escape
keNdai - Another kind of fish called "keNdai" 
neelamE aNdai koNdu mEyum - swims by the side of a Blue flower
anthaNeer araNGgamE - the land of sriraNGgam with brahmins.

It looks like a description of a pond where there is a crane eating crabs
and 'vaaLai' and keNdai' and the BlueFlower are also described. OK! But how
does it get connected to the brahmins living in sriraNGgam????

Looking at it more closely, nNaarai (the crane) represents the ahaNGgaaram.
nNaNdu (crab) which was eaten by the crane represents the ordinary humans:
they were eaten by their ahaNGgaaram.
The 'vaaLai' fish is said to jump here and there trying to escape from the
crane. It is afraid that the crane might eat him next and it jumps here and
there trying to escape (vaaLai paaya).
The other fish 'keNdai' takes the refuge of the BlueFlower and is not at all
bothered by the crane and is totally happy!! It doesn't even try to escape
even though it knows that the crab was eaten by the crane and is looking
for more food. 
vaaLai represents people who are good but are misled and they adopt
upaayaanthram (non-prescribed means of attaining the goal?- ) and they think
that by 'trying' to escape they, by themselves could take care of them. This
is not a 'complete surrender' to HIM. 
But the keNdai represents people who have completely surrendered themselves
to HIM and are not at all bothered by any of these cranes(in general any
evil).
The BlueFlower actually represents the LORD under whom the keNdai takes
refuge. 
sriraNGgam is filled with anthaNars (brahmins) of this 'keNdai' kind.

The usage of neelam'E' aNdai koNdu (with an Ekaaram, nedil) has so many
inner meanings. It stresses on the parathvam of the LORD. Another reference
to such an usage is in thiruppaavai " naaraayaNanE namakkE paRai tharuvaan"
This stresses at two places naaraayaNan'E' and namakk'E' . ONLY naaraayaNan
can save us. And if at all he is saving anybody He will save ONLY us!!! (the
bhakthaas). 

isn't this so wonderful and appealing!!! 

Thought of sharing this with others in the group. I don't have any
vyaakyaanam for this. If somebody could provide more info please post. 

rukmiNI samEdha Sri paarthasaarathi swaami thiruvadigaL'E' charaNam

-Viji
(Vijay Triplicane)