nAcciyAr tirumozhi III-kaNNan's vastrApaharaNam 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

• August 9, 1998


                                         SrI:
                SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

                   nAcciyAr tirumozhi III-kaNNan's vastrApaharaNam 
              pAsuram 3.2 (third tirumozhi - pAsuram 2 vaNDamar pUnkuzhalAr)


A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

"Our ArAvamudhe! Oh, gOpAlA, who danced merrily on kALiyAn and destroyed 
his pride! Why do you come to the pond at this early hour and disturb us?  
How did you know that we came to this particular pond (we even erased our 
footsteps as we came)?  O The Great Treasure of AyarpADi, with the tuLasi 
garland filled with the smell of honey!  You who are filled with such 
wonderful powers that normally do not co-exist viz. your greatness and 
at the same time your soulabhyam or easy accessibility!  Since we have 
not reached total anugraham (blessings), we cannot merge with you as you 
like.  I have heard my father (SrI vishNucittar) do ma~ngaLASasanam as follows,
based on the gOpikA vastrApaharaNam in SrImad bhAgavatam.

"vaNDamar pUnkuzhalAr tugil kaikkoNDu, vIN tOy marattAnAl inRu muRRum 
vENDavum tArAnAl inRu muRRUm" (peiyAzhwAr tenth tirumozhi pasuram 2)

Today, you are enacting the same incident to me and my friends in this 
pond.  kaNNA! maNi vaNNA! One with such delightful deeds!  One who 
danced on the hoods of the venomous serpent kALIya!  Please do not belittle 
us by keeping our clothes on the kurundai tree!  Listen to our prayers, and 
please give back our clothes".

idu en pugundadu I~ngu andO! ip poygaikku evvARu vandAi?
 maduvin tuzhAi muDi mAlE!  mAyanE! e~ngaL  amudhE!
vidi inmaiyAl adu mATTOm, vittagap-piLLAi! viraiyEl
kudi koNDu aravil naDittAi! kurundiDaik kURai paNiyAi


B. Some additional thoughts:

bhagavAn is known to be a stava-priyah - stavyah stava-priyah stotram 
stutih etc.  Here the girls are praising Him as amudhe, mAyane, mAle, 
vittagappiLLAi, aravil naDittAi, etc., hoping to please Him and persuade 
Him to give back their vastra-s.  

The reference to "How did you come to this particular pond" is enjoyed 
by Sri PeriavAccAn PiLLai by remembering the incident of gajendra crying 
for help from a pond, or the enemy crocodile being present in the pond, 
or the pond where kaLIya is polluting the water with his venom.  
So the girls are asking Him why He came to this pond now, given that 
none of the above things are true now.

The term "mAyan" is interpreted by SrI PVP as referring to the vaikunTHa 
nAthan being now available and easily accessible to everyone in the 
yAdava race, and intermingling with the those who are subject to 
karma-s, even though He is above the influence of karma-s. 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
(kkrishnamachari@lucent.com)