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nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIV paTTi mEyndOr kArERu -General Introduction

From the Bhakti List Archives

Kalyani Krishnamachari • April 8, 2003 


                                                      
   SrI:
             SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr
tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

                  General Introduction to nAcciyAr
tirumozhi XIV – paTTi mEyndOr kArERu

A.	From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

So far gOdai has used the nAyaka-nAyaki bhAvam to show
that the sole purpose in life is for the jIvAtmA to
seek union with the paramAtmA and attain brahmAnandam
only after reaching paramAtmA.  She has outlined in
detail the sorrow that the jIvAtmA goes through until
this union happens.  This is the only and the supreme
goal.   Sri SadagOpan quotes SrImAn Justice rAmAnujam:
“All the wealth in nature are God’s blessings; these
are meant to be used by people as fertilizers in
growing the bhakti in the society” -  (i.e., to be
used in His service and nothing else).  That is what
ANDAL is pointing out  through her aRuL mozhigaL.  
gOdai  who showed us that the only goal of life is to
be united with emperumAn, sang the praise of “Ongi
ulagaLanda uttaman” and got the greatness of being
permanently united with Him. To show that reaching His
kaimkarya sAmrAjyam is a herculean task, she sang the
first one hundred and thirty three pASurams of
nAcciyAr tirumozhi depicting the viraha bhakti
(tApam), UDal (fight representing the temporary
frustrations) etc.  In the last 10 pASurams, she
describes with great glee how her kaNNan, who was
playing hide and seek with her, finally showed Himself
up and gave her a sight where He revealed Himself to
her and her friends in AyarpADi and removed all their
despair. Thus ends the viSlesham (the separation and
the longing associated with it), and the samslEsham
(the brahmaAnda anubhavam associated with realizing
Him) is attained.

B.	Additional thoughts based on SrI PVP and the
commentary of puttUr SrI kRshNasvAmi aiyeÂ’ngAr:  

gOdai started with the realization and declaration: 
“nArAyaNanE namakkE paRai tariuvAn” in the first
pASuram of tiruppAvai.   Here, nArAyaNanE refers to
the upAyam or means, and “namakkE paRai taruvAn”
refers to kaimkaryam as the benefit to be attained. 
Since she had not succeeded  in attaining this, she
proceeded in nAcciyAr tirumozhi with falling at the
feet of kAman (1), performing SiRRil (2), resorting to
observances such as taking bath before dawn in the
river (3), playing kUDal game (4), and conversing with
the cuckoo and desiring to see Him in person (5).  
Since she did not succeed yet, she tried to live with
just the dream of her marriage with kaNNan (6).  Since
the dream anubhvam was not enough, she asked
pAÂ’ncajanya AzhvAn for the means to attain Him (7), 
then she was reminded of Him by the clouds because
their color resembled His nIla mEni (8), and used them
as messengers just like sItA pirATTi sent word through
hanumAn to Lord rAma.   Being reminded of His
soundaryam because of the things she saw in the rainy
season, she started losing herself (9).   She starts
the tenth tirumozhi with further expression of her
intense pain of separation from Him, and in pASuram
10-4, she expresses her losing faith in His word “na
tyajEyam” (I will not forsake My devotees). She then
starts feeling that even her AcArya sambandham
(association with periAzhvAr who was very dear to Him)
was not sufficient for her to reach Him.  But by the
end of the 10th tirumozhi (10.10), she reaffirms that
even if His words (na tyajeyam) turn out to be false,
her AcArya sambandham will definitely yield the result
without fail.  By the end of the 11th tirumozhi, ANDAL
again declares that His words cannot after all be
untrue, because priAzhvAr trusts in His words;  even
otherwise, if He decides not to keep His word, who is
there in this universe who can question Him any way? 
But neither her trust in her sambandham with her
AcAryan, nor her trust in His words, have yielded the
result as yet.  She is becoming weaker every second,
and she decides to try to reach Him by her own
efforts; and since she is too weak to undertake any
effort by herself, she asks her elders to take her and
leave her in any place which has His sambandham (12). 
In tirumozhi 13, she pleads with her elders that if
they cannot do that, then they should at least bring
any material that has had association with Him, and
establish a connection of that object with her self,
so that she can sustain her life (13).   

Thus, ANDALÂ’s life was one of being born in a prapanna
kulam that had nArAyaNa as the sole object to be
attained and to be worshiped, and nArAyaNa as the
means to be attained as well as the end to be
attained.  Even so, she could not just sit around for
Him to unite her with Him, and she resorted to all
means at her disposal to attain Him, and could not
sustain her life until she attained Him.  

While ANDAL was thus going through intense pain
because of her separation from Him, emperumAn wished
to transform her love for Him into parama bhakti – the
stage where bhakti overflowed beyond limit and she
could not see herself alive without Him even for a
second any more,  and then only He wanted to reveal
Himself to her.  The bliss of this union with Him is
such that the person who is not prepared to receive it
will not be able to enjoy that experience.  Just as
food given to persons suffering from indigestion might
result in danger to their life,  the great bliss of
union with Him might not be digestible if a bhakta has
not matured to the stage of parama bhakti.  Now that
ANDALÂ’s devotion to Him is at its ultimate limit, He
decides to shower this great bliss of union with Him
on her.   Just as nammAzhvAr (tiruvAimozhi ) received
a blessing “en avAvaRac cUzhndAi”,  gOdai also is
showered with His Grace.  Finally, gOdaiÂ’s kaNNan
ennum kAdalan, her kaNNil ADum mAyavan, her “kuRai
onRum illAda gOvindan”, shows Himself to her. 

Since the parama bhakti that is needed for reaching
Him, and the pErinbam that results from reaching Him,
are both limitless and beyond description by any one
individual, ANDAL captures this anubhavam by
presenting these two aspects through pASurams
involving  conversation between two sets of people. 
It can also be said that it is difficult to find a
cEtanan who has both parama bhakti and also the
pErimba experience at the same time in this world. 
For this reason also, one can say that the pAsurams of
this current tirumozhi (paTTi mEyndu) are presented in
two parts – in the form of a conversation between two
sets of people. The first part starts with the
question from the seekers asking whether they have
seen emperumAn – this represents the seekers’ ‘parama
bhaktiÂ’;  the second part is the response of those who
have had the pErAnandam of having attained Him – this
represents the ‘pErinbam’ of those that have attained
Him after seeking Him with parama bhakti.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

For all the suffering that ANDAL went through as
conveyed from “tai oru ti`ngaL” up to “kaNNan ennum”,
she now concludes with the great blessing that she
received from kaNNan by His appearance to her.  This
is analogous to the experience of nammAzhvAr in “en
ava aRac cUzhndAyE”.  Unlike nammAzhvAr who describes
his realization in first person, ANDAL chooses to
present her realization in the form of a dialog
between two groups of gopi-s.  

D.	Additional thoughts from SrI UV:
gOdai decides to forsake all her own efforts “ciru
mAniDivar  nAm Seyvaden” and leaves it all to her
father “villipuduvai viTTucittar tangaL dEvarai valla
pariSu varuvipparEl adu kANDumE” (NT 10.10).  When
vishNu cittar understands through gOdaiÂ’s folks her
pitiful plight of pining for her gOvindan, he decides
to bring Him to her using his prabhAvam. To show that,
gOdai uses the term “viTTu cittar viyan gOdai” (NT
13.10). In order to please periyAzhvAr, kaNNan shows
Himself to her with His parivAram in brindAvanam.
Becoming ecstatic with the sight, gOdai shares her
delight with all her friends and composes this last
tirumozhi to describe that event.

There are three interpretations for the way the
pASurams are arranged with “kaNDIrE” in the first half
and “kaNDOmE” in the second half.

First interpretation: the tirumozhi is a dialog
between two groups of gopi-s – one set representing
the overflowing prama bhakti towards Him and the
resulting search for Him, and the other set
representing the resulting anubhavam on attaining Him.
 This is the way that SrI PVP has interpreted the
tirumozhi. 

Second interpretation:  In the first two lines of each
pASuram, seeing kaNNan and being excited by His sight,
she asks the gopi-s around her whether they are seeing
Him the way she is seeing Him, and then in the next
two lines, she describes what she is seeing – her
anubhavam.

Third interpretation:  ANDAL had pleaded with her
elders to bring anything that belongs to Him and
associate them with her so that her grief will be
removed.  Now she has found kaNNan, and she is showing
Him to those surrounding her, and confirming that they
see Him also, so that they will believe her at least
now.  In order to ensure that all those surrounding
ANDAL trust her and heed her words in future, kaNNan
reveals Himself to them also.   She is repeating their
responses in the affirmative – that they are also
seeing kaNNan in bRndAvanam in their midst, in the
last two lines of each pASuram.   This is similar to
kaNNan showing His viSva rUpam to the deva-s also, in
addition to showing the viSva rUpam to arjuna, to
ensure that the deva-s will treat arjuna with the
proper respect.  

This third interpretation gains credibility because
mostly in the first two lines of most pASurams, we
find the words that refer to ANDAL (“ennai” etc.),
whereas the last two lines invariably end with
“bRndAvanattE kaNDOmE”.  The reference to bRndAvanam
here confirms that the gopi-s are not really in
bRndAvanam, but that kaNNan is showing Himself to them
along with bRndAvanam, with all the specialities of
brindAvanam.  

In NT pASuram 10.10 (‘nalla en tOzhi’), we see the
reference to “kANDumE” – in plural.  The intent is
that because of the blessing of, and association with,
periAzhvAr, not only ANDAL but all the other gopi-s
are blessed with His appearance.  What gOdai wants to
stress here with the plural of “adu kANDumE” is – with
just her way alone, even she cannot see Him; but, if
the same is a present from vishNu cittar, everyone can
see Him. 

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

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

aDiyAL,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

(Articles on nAcciyAr tirumozhi are available at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/7673/azhwars/nachiyar.html
maintained by SrI VenkaT aiyengAr of SrI villiputtUr)


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