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amalanAthipirAn - 4

From the Bhakti List Archives

Venkatesan Ananth • September 13, 2000 


srI:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:

--

amalanAthipirAn nAngAm pAsuram

sathuramAmathiL soozhilangaikkiRaivan thalaipaththu
uthiravOtti OrvenkaNaiyuyththavanOtha vaNNan
mathuramAvaNdupAda mAmayilAdarangaththammAn
 thiruvayiR
Ruthara panthamennuLLaththuL ninRulAkinRathE

--

Meaning:
He who is residing in Srirangam, which has bees
singing sweetly and grand peacocks dancing, who
sent one fierce arrow to drop the ten heads of
the lord of Lanka which is surrounded on all four
sides by lofty walls, whose color is that of the
cool ocean, His ornament that He wears around His
waist ("utharapantham") has now entered my inner
heart and settled there.

--

Essence: 
AzhvAr now enjoys the thiruvutharapantham that is
associated with the thirunAbeekamalam. 

In the third song, AzhvAr said his mind had been 
pulled by His navel. His navel just has the 
beauty and importance of being the home of Brahma. 
His stomach however holds everything in this 
universe and the ornament that surrounds it, is now 
pulling AzhvAr's mind to itself.

In the second and third song, the origin of Brahma,
Rudra and others was explained. In the fourth song,
the rejection of Ravana who had obtained boons from
Brahma and Rudra is used to show their lower powers 
and also to show that His stomach holds them and 
everything else. AzhvAr is showing his amazement
that the ornament that is on the outside (of His
stomach) is now residing inside his mind.

He stayed with pirAtti (Sita) and iLaya perumAL
(Lakshmana) at janasthAnam with the permission of
the rishis dwelling there. And when the asurAs
came against Him being there, He rejected them.
Similarly, He said He will enter our minds with
our permission and reject the impure that dwells
there. The mind is like the fortress with the ego
being its lofty walls. Just as He destroyed the
asurAs at janasthAnam and their chief Ravana at
Lanka, so will He destroy these walls.

--

sathuramAmathiL - Holding everything within; has 
the ocean as its moat, and lofty walls built over
forests and mountains.
Made of lofty walls that even the guardians of the 
eight directions cannot look over.
Standing as an axample for all durgams 
(Durgaththrayam: jaladurgam, giridurgam and 
vanadurgam).

mAmathiL - The walls that stood even against Him.
The people who took these walls as protection and 
fought Him were destroyed. Vibeeshana who rejected 
these walls and went to Him and took His shoulders 
as protection lives forever.

ilangai - The place where people who hurt othere
took refuge. If a person is good, then all good
things would themselves come to his side. Here, the
opposite is true.

ilangaikkiRaivan - Like a lion lying in its den.
Just as srIman nArAyaNA rules srI vaikuNtam, so
does Ravana rule Lanka. A place that impressed even 
Hanuman, who had rejected all things in this world.

thalaipaththuthiravOtti - Ravana had kept our father
and mother separated. He had committed such poor
deeds both against Him and His devotees using the
boons he had obtained. He removed such a Ravana's 
heads like a wind removes ripe fruit from a tree.
Even after hearing His glories from Hanuman and 
Vibeeshana, Ravana fought against Him, lost his army, 
lost his first direct battle and yet without shame 
showed his face to his womenfolk, lost his brother
and son and still came back to fight Him. perumAL 
decided that the only recourse left was to remove 
such a person's head and not wanting to have his 
heads keep growing back when removing them separately,

took all ten out with one arrow.

OrvenkaNaiyuyththavan - As perumAL ket removing
Ravana's heads they kept growing back and the 
dEvAs were afraid if this fight was ever going to 
end. perumAL then finally removed his head by
using the one arrow (brahmAstharam) He had kept 
for that purpose, by shooting it at his heart
which was the root of all his heads.

--

When AzhvAr said "uthiravOtti", that was about
defeating Ravana and chasing him away from the 
battlefield; when he said "OrvenkaNaiyuyththavan"
that was about destroying him with one asthra.

--

OthavaNNan - thiruppANAzhvAr compares Him to the 
ocean because He rejected Ravana, but did not 
destroy Lanka and handed it over to Vibeeshana.
Describing His power and beauty (veerasree) after 
He defeated Ravana and gave Lanka to Vibeeshana, 
while Brahma and other dEvAs stood worshipping Him 
with flowers and stOtrAs.
He is like an ocean and upon seeing Him anyone will
lose their sins and lowly passions.
This also refers to periya perumAL. 
With this AhvAr shows that those who stand against 
Him are destroyed by arrows while those who are 
His devotees are destroyed by His beauty.

mathuramAvaNdupAdamAmayilAda - Gave place to song
and dance being without anything impure. 
If some sing, then some must dance.
As vaikuNtanAthan became periya perumAL, so did
the nithyasooris become bees and peacocks.
After He defeated Ravana, Brahma and other dEvAs
sang His praise while the apsarAs danced.

mAmayil - If one peacock spreads its feathers, 
then that itself is an ornament for the garden.

arangaththammAn - He rested in arangam for us
after leaving paramapatham. AzhvAr is praising
His glory in doing that.

thiruvayiRRutharapantham - The ornamaent that
surrounds His stomach which gave birth to everything.

ennuLLaththuLninRulAkinRathE - Pulling AzhvAr's mind
from His dress, and His navel, this ornament now 
stands inside his heart like a proud elephant.

--

thiruppANAzhvAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam
srI periyavAccAn piLLai, srI azhagiya maNavALap 
perumAL nAyanAr, srI vEdAntha dEsikar thiruvadigaLE
saraNam

--

adiyEn madhurakavi dhAsan
thirumalai cunnapAkkam anandANpiLLai venkatEsan

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