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AndAl - tiruvAdippUram utsavam.

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Velukkudi Krishnan • August 15, 1999 


Fm: Velukkudi Krishnan
15th Aug 99.

Dear bhAgavatOttamas,

Andal - the only female alwar. The greatness of Andal is explained in many 
ways by our preceptors. Let me share with you some of them.

Andal was only a 5 year old child. Can we take her words as an authority ?

She is a female,one who are not supposed to learn the vedas. Can she ever 
deliver the meaning of vedas in her verses.

She has sung only in Tamil which is not a dEva bhAsha. Can it give the 
essence of veda/vedanta ?

These are all some of the often repeated questions on Andal. If we know a 
little about the cause for Andal's birth , we would be cleared of all these 
doubts.

BhUmAdEvi was submerged in the ocean by an asura called Hiranyaksha. Lord 
SrimannArAyana took the incarnation of a big boar (varAha) and went into the 
ocean to uplift up BhUmAdevi. She was lifted up and made sit in the lap of 
the Lord. Still bhUmAdEvi was shivering. Lord asked her for the reason. She 
replied politely :" O ! my nAthA! You have protected me . But still I am not 
satisfied, because our children in the samsArA are helpless. They cannot 
practice Gnana or karma or Bhakti yoga as preached by you in the vedas with 
their limited knowledge. So you must be kind enough to show them a simpler 
way to reach you " Lord understood the affection of bhUmAdEvi towards her 
children and gave a fitting reply:

"The simplest way to reach me is 'swasya ca kIrtanam, prapadanam, swasmai 
prasUnArpanam' " This means that with all three organs of senses(karanam) 
viz. manas , vAk and kAyam (speech, action and thought)we must surrender to 
the Lord. Think only about him, act only for his pUja, and speek only in 
praise of Him.This teaching is known as "sUkaram Sonna sukarOpayam". SUkaram 
= boar , sukarOpayam = easy way. Immediately bhUmipiratti grasped this easy 
means to reach the Lord and thought it fit to be preached to us in this 
samsAra.

So she incarnated as AndAl and descended in this world. Andal is none else 
but BhUmAdEvi herself. Swami manavAla mAmunigal says "emakkaga anro ingu 
andAl avatarittaL ". It is for us she neglected her eternal bliss in 
paramapada and descended to this wretched world. Can we now question that 
she is only a girl or 5 years old or she has sung in tamil ?

The preachings of VarAha is enscribed in the 5th verse of tiruppavai 
"vAyinAl pAdi , manatinAl cindikka, tUmalar tUvi tozhudu" . This is the same 
as surrender with the 3 organs.

Can AndAl's verses be taken as pramAna (source of knowledge)? Why not ? Let 
us take an example. VAlmIki's itihAsa Sri RAmayana is nothing but vEda. 
(vEda pracedasadAsIt sakshAt ramAyanAtmana) No one question's its authority. 
Who is VAlmIki? - one who took birth from valmikam - an ant hill. Ant hills 
are the ears of Mother Earth - bhUmadEvi. Now , could you notice a subtle 
point here ? ValmIkam, which is a only a part of Mother Earth, gave birth to 
VAlmIki. His verses are unquestioned pramAna. If this is the case, when 
Mother Earth herself incarnates as AndAl , can we question the authenticity 
of her works ?

Thus we revere tiruppavai as "vedamanaitukkum vithu". Where are the meanings 
of vEdAnta embedded in tiruppavai? Swami Periavachan pillai and Nayanar 
beautifully explain all the hidden vEdantArthAs in each verse of tiruppavai.

adiyEn would continue with it in the next posting.

AndAl tiruvadigale Saranam.


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