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THIRUP PALLAANDU- 1

From the Bhakti List Archives

L&T-ECCG-Buildings & Factories • December 30, 1999 


Dear Sri vaishnava perunthagaiyeer, 

In accordance with the commendation and in deference to the wishes of Sri
Sadagopan, I offer my contribution on ThiruppallaaNdu in this and subsequent
posts. The main part of the kainkaryam of translating and giving word by
word meaning for the thaniyan, main paasurams etc will be carried out by Sri
Sadagopan. 

"PallaaNdu pallaaNdu pallaayiraththaaNdu pala kOdi nooraayiram mallaaNda
thiNdOL maNivaNNaa un sEvadi sevvith thirukkaappu"--- 1
Why thOl and sEvadi in the first paattu?
1.	The lord Sriman naaraayaNan appeared in the garuda vaahanam before
Sri Vishnu Chiththar. He immediately started singing  pallaaNdu. To talk
about proportions of size, when the lord appeared in garudan, the bird's
size cannot be small as we see garudan today. To carry the weight of the
Lord, garudan has to be of large size. The speed of the bird is also a
criterion. When Lord rushed to the rescue of gajendra the elephant, in his
garuda vaahanam, the carrier, he almost instantaneously appeared in front of
gajendra. So the speed of garudan is super. 

2.	If a huge bird carrying the lord appears in the sky, the striking
part for a person standing on the ground, or a catch at the first sight,
will be the outer frame of the person seated on the bird and the hanging
legs on the sides. His chest his dress full frame etc will be seen
subsequently only. So that is why aazhvaar kaappittaar the shoulders and
feet first. 

"mal aaNda thiN thOL"-
1.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL"- on this word, the urai aasiriyar elaborates
"Sri krishnaa fought with the wrestlers, sent by his uncle kamsan, named
chaaNooran and mushtikan, and these two were conquered by krishna in his
young age itself. So krishnaa's shoulders are "mallargaLai vezhththiya
thiNmai udaiya thOlgaL". 

2.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL"- In another periyaazhvaar paasuram "kaaLiyan
poigai kalangap padinthittu avan neeL mudi ainthilum ninRu nadam seithu
meeLa avanukku aruL seitha viththagan thOL vali veeramE paadip paRa,
thoomaNi vaNNanai paadip paRa"- the thOl vali- the shoulder power is not
only exhibited by kaNNan in his wrestlers leelai but also in kaaLiyan
episode. Krishna was rounded by the long length of kaaliyan's body, so as to
crush krishnaa. kaaLiyan thought he can crush krishnaa like a python
crushing its prey by encircling the prey's body. With his shoulder power he
removed the body of kaaLiyan and made him subdued and then had a dance on
kaaLiyan's 5 heads. So he has such a powerful shoulder. So "thiN thOL".   

3.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL" - Poet Kamban describes in his "raamaayaNam",
Sri raaman's shoulder beauty by the words "thOL kaNdaar thOLE kaNdaar, thaaL
kaNdaar thaaLE kaNdaar'. This quote is very famous.  The shoulders of Sri
raaman seen by the city folks, in the streets of king janakaa's vidheha
desam, is described as above, while he came along with sage visvaamithra,
for seeing the siva dhanus. 

	Meaning: those who looked at the shoulders of Sri raaman were so
attracted, that they cannot remove their eyes from the shoulders and move
over to other parts of raaman's body. Those who have seen the feet were
attracted so much, that they cannot move their eyes to other parts of his
body. Such is the beauty of raaman's shoulders. So this thiN thoL can be
equally considered as raaman's also. 

4.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL" - "Aajaanu baahum aravindha dhaLaayadhaaksham"
is the slokam recited at the beginning of the daily routine of "raamaayaNam
sEviththal" - so raaman's shoulders beauty is described as mal aaNda thiN
thOL in this.

5.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL" -In the colloquial language also, we say, when
two persons are fighting, "hey, avanOdu Endaa mallukku nikkara"- meaning
-why you want to pick up quarrel with him? So "mal" has a meaning- a fight.
When we are fighting this samsaara vaazhkkai- this real life, He comes to
our rescue, who calls him for his help, gives solace to our sufferings. So
he rules over our mal and thus becomes "mal aandavan".

6.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL"- Generally swimmers have a well-built
shoulders. The hands serve as oars and the shoulders are the fulcrum points.
The fulcrum has to be strong for the efficient functioning of the lever. The
swimmer who goes to rescue the drowning people in the waters, usually lift
and carry them in their shoulders to safety. When we, poor creatures, swim
in the samsaara saagaram, get mostly drowned. we realise the drowning at
some stage and shout for help by surrendering unto him, the Lord rescuer
comes and lift us using his strong shoulders and lands us in the safe shores
of his Sri vaikuntham. So naturally the rescuer Lord must have thiN thOLgaL
so that he carries all of us to the safe shores of Sri vaikuntham.

7.	"mal aaNda thiN thOL" -In the vow given to Sri Bhoomi Piratti, when
she prays to Lord Sri Varaaha moorthy, Lord Vishnu in Boar form, Lord
varaaha, [considered as varaaha charma slokam] says "When a person, when his
faculties are under control of him, performs archana and dear to me, during
his last days, in the death bed, I will come and give refuge to him and take
him to my abode, i.e. Vaikuntam. Nobody need to have any doubt on this. So
he confirms that his mallaaNda thiN thOL's capacity in this charama slokam
again.

Other points we will see in next post
Dasan Vasudevan M.G.