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amalanAthipirAn - 2

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Venkatesan Ananth • Fri Aug 18 2000 - 14:00:04 PDT 


sri:
srimathE irAmAnujAya nama:
srimath ananthArya mahAguravE nama:

--

amalanAthipirAn - iraNdAm pAsuram

uvantha vuLLaththanAy ulakamaLanthu aNdamuRa
nivarnEENmudiyan anRu nErnthanisAsararaik
kavarntha venkaNaikkAkuththan kadiyArpozhil
 arangaththammAn arais
sivanthavAdaiyinmEl senRathAmenasinthaniyE

--

Meaning:
My Lord who with a happy mind, measured all (three)
worlds, by growing as tall as the heavens, with a
crown that reaches the heavens, who once as Rama 
took the lives of the opposing asurAs using fierce 
arrows, and who now rests in arangam of the fragrant 
forests, upon Him my mind has settled.

--

Essence: 
In the first song, thiruippANAzhvAr talked about 
emperumAn coming after him - His feet on their own 
came and glowed inside AzhvAr. In this song, AzhvAr 
talks about how his mind not settling for His feet 
alone is now pushing AzhvAr to go after His dress 
("vanthunathadiyEn manampukunthAy pukunthaRpin 
vaNangum en sinthanaikkiniyAy").

A cow that has given birth to a calf, realizes that 
the calf does not know her scent and pushes the calf
toward her udder. Once the calf catches on to the 
mother's scent, it will on it's own return to the 
mother. Thus, emperumAn's feet had to go AzhvAr (in 
the first song); once that happened, AzhvAr's mind 
returned on it's own to Him.

How did AzhvAr's mind which started at the feet end
up on the dress (thiruppariyattam)? When one's mind
is on to a sweet thing, it does not settle for one
sweet thing alone. It's passion for the sweet thing
grows.

Compare to a piece of wood caught in the ocean near 
a beach. It does not come back to the beach 
immediately; instead, it climbs from one wave to the 
other, and tries measure the entire ocean. Such is 
the state of thiruppANAzhvar's mind.

--

uvanthavuLLathan - Emperuman's mind is happy because
His feet ended in AzhvAr's mind (eyes). It is us who
should be delighted that His feet are on our head
(when He measured the worlds). Yet, His mind is
happy like that of a mother who delights in her 
child getting milk to drink.

sri dEsikar's comment: indrA and other dEvAs
begged emperumAn to retrieve their lost kingdom 
from mahAbali; with great affection for them, He 
went to mahAbali and instead of destroying him asked 
him for land and showed his anugraham even to him. 
He also showed his anugraham to prahalAda even 
though he was born in the asura tribe. Thus He shows 
His affectionate heart toward everything. Here sri 
dEsikar is using the phrase as  "ug(v)antha 
uLLaththanAy".

ulakamaLanthu - Without differentiating anyone, He 
put His feet on everyone's head. Thus, both the
Bhakthas and the sinners ended up living as equals.
While the asurA mahAbali thought he had given a 
limited amount of land, He measured all the 
(limitless) worlds.

andamuRa - His swaroopam reaches the entire universe 
(grew to the heavens).

nivarntha - Flowering.

neeNmudiyan - The high point for the crown is being 
that even for the other world. ubayavibhoothi 
nirvAhagaththvam is brought out here. 

sri dEsikar's comment: by defining the thrivikrama 
avathAram here, thiruppANAzhvAr has talked about how 
the indrAthi dEvas became servants (begging for His 
help), how brahma worshipped His feet and became a 
bhakthA (ArAthakan), and how rudrA obtained theertha 
prasAdam and became purified (bhoothan).

anRu - anRu is not the time when He (Rama) reached 
janasthAnam (which He reached after leaving 
dandakAraNya) where the Rishis asked for His 
help in defeating the asurAs. anRu refers to when 
He as the protector (rakshakan) looked at His 
subjects (rakshyavarkkam) - "neeNmudiyan".

nErntha nisAsarar - Instead of singing pallANdu to His
beauty, these asurAs that cannot even show their
faces,
are opposing Him. AzhvAr is disgusted with these 
asurAs who, when they had the opportunity to see Him 
in person, instead of praising Him (mangalasAsanam), 
chose to oppose and be crushed by Him. They are 
opposing Him like small insects attacking a fire.

kavarntha - Start with modesty and yet when they reach

the target they fall upon them like hounds. After 
defeating mArica and subAhu, Rama did not face any 
battle. So, when these asurAs opposed Him, His arrows 
went after them like a snake after its prey.

venkaNai - His arrows are like Him; when launched they
leave like an arrow; when they reach the target they 
are like fire (kAlAgni).

kAkuththan - Born in the kAkuthsa vamsam.

--

"uvanthvuLLathanAy ulakamaLanthu aNdamuRa nivarntha 
neeNmudiyan" - talks about his seela guNam.

"anRu nErntha nisAsararaik kavarntha venkaNaik 
kAkuththan" - refers to his veera guNam.

--

AzhvAr started with His feet ("ulakanamaLanthu") - 
vikramam, and ended at His divine shoulders 
("kavarntha venkaNaik kAkuththan") - parAkramam.

kadiyAr pozhil arangathammAn - To rest from 
having measured the worlds and defeating the asurAs 
at janasthAnam, He came and rested His feet and 
His shoulders at Arangam of the fragrant forests.

arangathammAn - To save everyone who could not be 
there when He was Rama, He is now resting at
Srirangam.

araissivanthavAdaiyinmEl senRathAm - Like the mind of 
an hungry man going after food, so does AzhvAr's mind 
go after His thiruppeethAmbaram.

enasinthanai - AzhvAr spoke of thought ("sinthanai") 
to stress the importance of our thoughts always being
on emperumAn. AzvAr says his thoughts that for so
long chased after small matters and got caught up 
in them (their dress), having reached His feet are 
now forever caught in His dress.

--

First Song: "kamalpAtham vanthu" - sAthanAbhAvam
Second Song: "senRathAM" - athikAriswaroopam

First Song: "neeNmathiLarangam" - rakshagathvam
Second Song: "kadiyAr pozhilarangam" - bhOkyathvam

First Song: "nimalan ninmalan" - He helps us without
expecting anything in return and He considers it His
profit when He attains us. AzhvAr wondered if it was
possible to reach such a being.
Second Song: AzhvAr found that it is indeed possible

--

thiruppANAzhvAr thiruvadigaLE sarNam
sri periyavAccAn piLLai, sri azhagiya manavALap
perumAL nAyanAr, sri vEdAntha dEsikar thiruvadigaLE
saraNam

--

adiyEn madhurakavi dhAsan
T.C.A. Venkatesan

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