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KANNA PIRAN PERRA VENNAIK KALVI- 12

From the Bhakti List Archives

L&T-ECCG-Buildings & Factories • February 11, 2000 


Dear srivaishnava perunthagaiyeer

Mothers are always tolerant about her children doing mischief. Mothers are
also proud of such naughty children and talks with that pride with others in
the neighbourhood. But when too many complaints pour in about the children's
naughty pranks, same tolerant mothers get angry. We have seen mother of
krishna saying "I don't have time to reply to all complaints and pacify the
complainants". So she decides to punish the child, at least once, so that
the child realises the effect of mischief / nuisance he creates to others.
We have also seen mother saying "anchaadhu adiththEn". But the stealing and
creating trouble to the girls continued. Whether krishna felt shy in doing
the butter stealing and getting beaten by mother. See the answer.

BaaNaa vaNdu muralum koonthal aaichchi thayir veNNai naaNaathu uNdaan naamam
sollil namO naaraayaNamE- 6-10-3 thrumangai aazhvaar

Meaning: The aaichchi had her hair nicely dressed and adorned the hair dress
with flowers. These flowers invited the bees to surround them, for sucking
honey they had. The aaichchi kept curd and butter in rope hangers. Krishna
stole these butter and curd WITHOUT ANY SHYNESS. The person who did the
stealing without any shyness, if you want to say his name, it is "namO
naaraayaNa" says aazhvaar. 

These aaichchiyar came and complained stating that "namo naaraayana" ate the
butter and curd. Mother felt doubly happy. She already knows her son is not
an ordinary person. When somebody comes and say that he is "naaraayaNa"
himself she felt at the top of the world. So she says with pride, kaNNanai
chellamaaga konji -
 
Puttiyil sERum puzhuthiyum koNdu vanthu atti amukki agam pukku aRiyaamE
sattith thayirum thadaavinil veNNaiyum uN pattik kanRE 1-6-5 periyaazhvaar

Meaning: Hey my son, you are the oork kaaLai- you have dust, mud and slush
in the dress in your waist because you roam so much. You enter any house by
pressing the door gently. Without the inmates knowing you are entering, you
eat the curd kept in small pots butter kept in big pots. 

See her comparison. Since she is an aaichchi the comparison also rounds on
cow and its near ones. Generally the person who is not easily controllable
and highly naughty is called oork kaaLai. [note: the bull given or left in
the temple for rearing is called oork kaaLai or koil kaaLai, and no body can
claim ownership of that bull but everybody feeds this bull. Generally this
bull is used for procreation]

When such complaints continued even after beating the young krishna mother
thought next punishment is to tie him with rope. When she did that she
closed his eyes and remained silent. That pacified the mother's anger. See

Harthum kumbhE vinihithikara: svadhuu haiyangaveenam
Dhrushtvaa dhaamagrahaNa chatulaam maatharam jaatha roshaam!
Paayaadheeshath prachalitha padhO napagachchan na thishtan
Mithyaa gOpa: sapadhi nayanE meeliyan visva gOpthaa!! 5 gopaala vimsathi

On this Sri Madhavakkannan Swamy has given a good account and I may not be
able to supplement more.

A doubt may arise whether Mother was successful in tying him down with ropes
because he is naughty. Confirmation for this is- 
MaNNundum pEichchi mulaiyuNdum aaRRaadhaai
VeNNai vizhunga vegunda aaichchik kaNNik 
KayiRRinaal kattath thaan kattuNdirunthaan
VayiRRinOdaaRRaa magan - 91- 3m thiruvanthaadhi

Meaning: The son is struggling with his stomach. Even after eating many
things, he has no power to remove his hunger. See what all he ate. 
*	He ate mud (or earth). 
*	He drank the poisonous milk from breasts of the asura women (mulai
uNdaan).
*	These did not satisfy his hunger. So he ate butter. 
Mother got angry and tied him with ropes, which had small knots (on the word
kaNNi- also see below). He accepted tying and ate the binding (kattu
uNdaan).

Another confirmation is
"KaNNi nuN siruththaambinaal kattuNNappaNNiya perumaayan" Madhuara kavikaL. 

[This is a very beautiful line. H.H. Sri Azhagiyasinger in his tele
upanyaasams has given lot of description. I am not fortunate to listen to
these talks. So I give whatever is known or read by me elsewhere].

The very first word kaNNi has more than one meaning. 
kaNNi means a lady with beautiful eyes azhagiya kaNgaLai udaiyavaL. 
kaNNi also means a type of tamil song like pann, viruththam, keerthanai etc-
example Subramaniya bharathi's kiLik kaNNi (parrot song). 
kaNNi also means knots 
kaNNi also means symbols, points, imprints or objects looking alike eyes on
any object. 
It also means an instrument to kill -refer land mines kaNNi vedigal.

NuNN means sharp, minute or focussed, microscopic (nuNNiya arivuththiRan
kondavan - one who has sharp intellect). 
SiRu means small. 
Thaambinaal means using a rope. 
KattuNNa means the person who is tied with or made to eat the pain of having
been tied with the rope.
Panniya means having done either for self or on others.

Perumaayan can be split as perum + aayan meaning periya aayan or the aayar
thalaivan means the leader of cowherds (idaikkulaththOr). Who else, it can
be, except my beloved Sri Krishna. 
Another meaning for perum aayan is perumai uLLa or perumaiyana or perumai
porunthiya aayan. Again who else it is except Sri krishna. 
The same word can also be split as peru + maayan meaning periya maayan, a
person capable of doing lot of maayam viz. wonders, maayam purivathil
mannan. 

The same word can also be split as peruma + ayan and reverse the order to
read as ayan peruma namely bigger than ayan or the brahma. Who can be bigger
than brahma except the creator of brahma namely the aadhi moolame of
gajendraazhvan. (Refer the kings are addressed as peruma by pulavars and
others those days, as found in literature, meaning oh king, great man, big
man or my lord.) 

It is usually elaborated as giving meaning "the maaya krishna who is made,
by the beautiful eyed (kaNNi) yasodha, to eat the pain of being tied with
the small rope with lots of knots or joints". This is because when she
brought a piece to join the length was always short of 4 fingers width-
viral aLavu. So she has to join a number of pieces. When she was tired and
the Lord also desired that we have given enough trouble to the mother, He
then allowed himself to be tied with the rope what the mother made. Then it
was of enough length. So the rope had lot of knots. hence kaNNi nuN siru
thaambu. Also since azhagiya kaNNai udaiya yasothai kattiyadhaal kaNNi nun
siru thaambu. (first it was not enough and she joined lot of pieces also it
was not of enough length. so it is siRu thaambu. After he okayed it was long
thaambu and enough to tie him). 

When he was tied by mother what is the reaction of krishna. See the answer 
VeNNai thaanamudhu seyya vegundu maththaaichchi ochchi kaNNiyar
kurunkayiRRaal katta vettenrirunthaan 5-9-7 thirumangai aazhvaar.
He kept idle when mother tied him says kaliyan. 

See another verse saying "what a wonder for the tying with ropes".
Silappadhikaaram- madhuraikkaaNdam- 

Vadavaraiyai maththaakki vaasukiyai naNaakki
Kadal vaNNan paNdorunaaL kadal vayiru kalakkinaiyE
Kalakkiya kai asothaiyar kadaik kayiRRaal kattuNkai
Malarkkamala unthiyaay! MaayamO marutkaiththE!

Meaning: O krishnaa, you, who has the Kadal vannam -the deep blue colour of
the ocean, in yonder time churned the milk ocean (ksheeraabdhi) using 
the meru mountain, (which is in the north direction), as the churning rod, 
the rope you used for churning was vaasuki the snake, 
churning was done in the stomach of the ocean in the presence of you. 
The hands you used to churn the ksheerabdhi are the same which were tied by
mother yasodhai using the rope for churning butter milk to get butter. 
Hey krishnaa, you who has the lotus flower emanating from the navel
(stomach- unthi)- What is this wonder. It is quite surprising and
exhilarating.

But mother had a doubt. If she ties simply with ropes as usual, krishna can
do some trick, and go away, to continue the butter stealing, along with the
ropes tied on him. So she wanted to tie him some heavy or fixed objects like
the mortar or the churning post. 

Or perhaps krishna himself wanted to be tied with mortar, because he had a
cause to serve? Or is it that he is throwing a challenge to the mother- oh
mother please do it and see the result for yourself? See
Meyyenru solluvaar sollaik karuthith thoduppundaai veNNaiyai enRu 
kaaiyaip pidiththu karai uralodu ennai kaaNavE kattiRRilaiyE! 
periyaazhvaar 2-3-9

So she decides that she will tie him with the rope to the wooden post or the
weighty ural- mortar. But again he continues to do the tricks with mother.
See swami desikan in yadhava abhyudhayam 4-34

aneethamagrE nijabanDhanaartha dhaamaakhilam samhithamapya poorNam/
nireekshya nirviNNaDhiyO jananyaa: sankOchasalthyaa sa baBhoova bandhya://
meaning: The naughty krishna first made his waist is always bigger than all
the sizes of ropes, mother brought to tie him. Even when she knotted these
ropes together, the joined length of the rope was not enough for even half
round around his body. Seeing his mother thus suffering, suddenly he made
his body narrow enough to accept whatever size of rope mother was having and
thus helped mother to tie him down to the mortar.

So it is certain and without any iota of doubt that, when he decides only
things will take place. That is amply proved even in this small episode. 

In srimad bhaagavatham the sargam dealing with this tying with mortar is
called "Gopi prasaadham" see dhasamaskandham 9th sargam. [We will see few
slokams from this part in subsequent posts]. While gopis say nama naaraayaNa
ate butter and thus the balance butter became krishna or naarayaNa
prasaadham. When he ate the tying [took] (kattu uNdaan allavaa)- on this
kattu it is said gopi prasaadham. 

Oh what a connection between the lord and the gopees. May be that is why
bhakthaas say "brindhaavanaththil kaNNan vaLarntha antha naaLum
vandhidaathO"- let those days come again when krishna was being brought up
in brindhaavan.

Let us continue this theme of "uraLodu kattinathu" in the next post also

Dasan 

Vasudevan M.G.