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vAzhn^dhE pOm n^IrE ...

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Vijay Triplicane • August 12, 1999 


--
Vijay Triplicane



Dear thirumaN^gai mannan abhimAnIs,
	Sri MadhavakkaNNan has given us such a great treat through AzhvAr's
in^dhaLUr pAsurams. I cannot keep my mind off from these pAsurams. Just
to extend the anubhavam of being immersed in these kaliyan oli mAlai,
allow me to blabber some little things that interest me in these
pAsurams. 

	The fourth pAsuram is one of His best. AzhvAr is so upset that
perumAL didn't show His face to him. He is disappointed and that
disappointment slowly turns into strong words. He feels that he has
the "right" to see emberumAn's thirumEni. HAving been denied his due right,
he bursts out. One should note the ease with which he talks to
emberumAn. He very casually even curses the emberumAn. That IS his
beauty. The flow of the pAsuram, the choice of words, the nativity
that it provides... None other than our dearest thirumaN^gai mannan
could give this effect. 

	Let me break up the words so that it is easier to understand. 

aasai vazhuvAdhu Eththum emakku iN^gu izhukku Ayththu
adiyORku thEsam aRiya umakkE ALAyth thirikinROmukku
kAsin oLiyil thigazhum vaNNam, kAttIr emberumAn!
vAsi vallIr inthaLUrIr! vAzhn^dhE pOm n^IrE!

	Sri mAdhavakkannan has provided an excellent translation for this
pAsuram. AzhvAr is basically angry at emberumAn. In the first 3 lines,
he expresses his disappointment. In the last line he bursts out. He
first addresses Him as indhLUrIr, that itself is kinda sarcastic in a
colloquial sense. Instead of calling His name, he uses His place and
with an extra sarcastically respectful suffix "Ir". (Hello Mr."respectful"
person from indhaLUr!). 

	And then he curses emberumAn so nicely. He says "vAzhn^dhE pOm 
n^IrE!". This literally means "May you live longer". But the tone, 
the delivery suggests such a sarcasm and anger.
This is a great euphemism. It expresses AzhvAr's anger in a
superficially sweet way. Sri periyavAcchAn piLLaii's vyAkyAnam could
roughly be translated as this: "Go ahead, live longer peacefully, all by
yourself. We love you and your thirumeni so much. We thought it
belongs to us or atleast we have a right to see that. If you don't
think so, OK, go ahead. Have it for yourself and enjoy all alone. 
you don't need me... then I don't need you... (Please don't take these 
way too literally and pounce on me as if I've committed blasphemy. I
am just adding little colour by way of translation to Sri PVP's
commentary.) 

Another interesting thing that I have heard in kAlakshEbhams about the
6'th pAsuram:
sollAdhu ozhiyagillEn. aRin^dha sollil 
num adiyAr ellArOdum okka eNNi irun^dhIr adiyEnai

	"I am not going to leave this unsaid. This is what I feel. Did you
consider me as one among your ordinary adiyArs? Am I not special?
Don't you realize this? You could've done this to somebody, not me!"

	An interesting question arises here as to who he refers to as
ordinary adiyArs. We would think  that he was referring us here. But
No. He refers to svAmi n^ammAzhvAr and hints that he is better than
n^ammAzhvAr 

	Sri periyavAcchAn piLLai explicitly cites the name of Sri nammAzhvAr
here. While Sri n^ammAzhvAr with his willpower could sit under a tree 
without food or water for so long, our dear Sri thirumaN^gai AzhvAr
being so very tender hearted couldn't bear the separation from the
emberumAn in his archa form even for a moment and came running. 
This shows our AzhvAr's sowkumAryam. isn't he special? 

(This again is just to poetically bring out the greatness of 
thirumaN^gai mannan and not to show any disrespect to our dear 
prapanna jana kootasthar, sri nammAzhvAr.  Ask Sri periyavAcchAn
piLLai for any clarifications! :-) )


After going through all these and having a better understanding of
AzhvAr's mood, if we read the first pAsuram again, we get a different
interpretation.

"n^ummai thozhudhOm numtham paNi seydhirukkum num adiyOm"

	"n^ummaith thozhudhOm" literally means, "I offered prayers to you."
But the interpretation in thamizh goes like this, "unnai pOy
thozhudhEnE! " (A loose translation: Why did I ever pray to you?)
This again is from what I heard in an upanyAsam by Sri vELukkudi
svAmi. I don't have the vyAkyAnam for this paththu with me. Probably
his son, Sri vELukkudi KrishNan swami could provide better
explanantion. 

AzhvAr emberumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE SaraNam
adiyEn irAmAnusa dhAsan
"Viji" Triplicane