kannapiraan perra vennaik kalvi- part 14

From the Bhakti List Archives

• February 17, 2000


Dear Srivaishnava perunthagaiyeer,

Continuing meaning of naaraayaNa theertha song covered in the13th part, 
"Oh yasOdhaa- please note your son who is desirous of laughing sweetly. He
covets large quantities of butter and playfully dances to an incomparable
manner.He takes the human form playfully and enjoys  ball games. He the
master of us robs vessels containing curds. The sins of us get blinded
[meaning gets removed] in his presence which is more than equal to the rays
of 100 suns shining at the same time. He is the person who floated this
worldly egg in the water of maha praLayam. He is the assemblage of happiness
and nourisher of it. He is the fruit in the tree of nandha's and yaadhava
clan. His feet are of extremely vast size". Saint naarayaNa theertha says
all these.  

In part 12, we saw mentioning of srimad bhaagavatham sargam dealing with
tying krishna to the mortar is titled "Gopi prasaadham". While gopis say
"namO naaraayaNa" ate butter, the balance butter became krishna prasaadham
or naarayaNa prasaadham. When he ate the tying (kattu uNdaan allavaa)- this
kattu uNNal became the gopi prasaadham for him. 

On this prasaadham see kulasekara perumaaL KP -in aalai neeL karumbu 7-6 of
perumaaL thiumozhi- dEvaki the mother of sri krishna murmuring "I have
missed so much, yasOdhaa got all". 

Mother wants the balance of the food eaten by the child 'kuzhanthaip
prasaadham' or krishna prasaadham.. 
"vaNNach chen chiru kai viral anaiththum vaari vaaik koNda adisilin michchil
uNNap peRRilEn- O koduvinaiyEn" 

meaning: "krishna, my child ate sweet food (akkaara adisil), by immersing
all the five beautifully coloured small fingers in the sweet food and
putting all the food and fingers together in the mouth". 
This act of immersing the fingers both in the food and the mouth was
repeated. Some quantity of that food with the saliva from his mouth and the
taste of his hand was left over. 
"I did not have the fortune of eating that left over (prasaadham). Oh!  What
a fateful or ill lucked mother I am" laments dhEvaki.

While every body, including the mother dhEvaki, wants krishna prasaadham, or
naaraayaNa prasaadham, he was eager to have the gOpi prasaadham.  

The word "prasaadham" is still lingering in the mind and hence the link to
KP. Whenever KP's this padhikam is read, the impact is so heavy, that it
refuses to give way for other paasurams. 

In all previous posts, we enjoyed kaNNa piraan peRRa veNNaik kalvi from
aazhvaar's paasurams and other bhakthaas without touching the original
Srimad bhaagavatham. Now let us do some surfing on this navaneetha chouryam
baala leelai of sri krishna from that magnum opus of Sri sukhaachaaryaaL.

Thaam sthanyakaama aasaadhya mathnantheem jananeem hari:!
Gruheethvaa dhaDhimanthaanam nyashEDhan preethim aavahan!! 
Srimadh bhaagavatham dhasama skandham 9th sargam 4th slokam

Meaning: Desirous of having breast feed from mother yasOdha, Hari the
krishna, saw her mother carrying out churning of curd. He also started doing
the churning with lot of enthusiasm.

This directly has reference to kulasekara perumaaL saying "kaLLa
vizhiyai-meyyarivan naanE" resorting to churning, which we saw in part 5?

Vathsaan munchan kvachidh asamayE krOsa sanjaatha haasa: sthEyam
svaadhvanthyatha dhaDhi paya: kalpithai:  sthEya yOgai:!
Markaan BhOkshyan viBhajathi sa chEnnaaththi BhaaNdam Bhinaththi
Dhravya laaBhE sa gruha kupithO yaathyukrOsya thOkaan!! 

Srimadh bhaagavatham dhasama skandham 8th sargam 29th slokam

Meaning: This is a complaint to yasOdhaa "krishna releases calves in some
places when they are not required for milching. He seeks the curd milk etc,
kept in the pots and eats all, afterwards in playful mood or anger breaks
them. He produces big laughter in some places, goes with some girls and then
make them cry. Please call your son and censure him".

This bhagavatham slokam reminds Swami desikan. Just the slokam alone again
muhu: pravruththam navaneetha chouryE vathsaan vimunchantham adhoha kaalE/
ulookhalE kuthrachidhaantha puNyE banDhum sathaam banDhuBhiyEsha maathaa//
4-33 yadhavaabhyudhayam

Also does it remind the inspiration for this series, the lines of
periyaazhvaar
"VeNNai vizhungi verunkalaththai verpidaiyittu adhan Osai kEtkum kaNNa
piraan kaRRa kalvi  thannai kaakkakillOm un maganai kaavaai" - 
first two lines of 2- 9- 1 paasuram and ends with un maganai koovaai.

See another slokam:
Hasthaa graahyE rachyathi viDhim peetika ulookhalaadhyais chidhram hyantha
nirhitha vayuna: sikya BhaaNdEshu thadhvith!
GvaanthaagaarE Dhrutha maNi gaNam sva angam artha pradheepam kaalE gOpyO
yarhi gruha kupyEshu suvyagrachiththaa:!! 

Srimadh bhaagavatham dhasama skandham 8th sargam 30th slokam

Meaning: Krishna could reach the vessels containing butter kept in the woven
rope hangers even in the darkness, because his mind is completely engaged in
this work. He held back the jewels, he is wearing, so that they could not
make noise and announce to the gopees, the whereabouts of the person wearing
these.

Swamy desikan also airs similar lines.
thrasyan mukundhO navaneethachouryaath niBhugnagaathrO niBhrutham sayaana:/
nijaani ni:sabdhadhasaam yayaachE badhDhvaanjalim baalaviBhushaNaani// 4-29 
For meaning of this slokam please refer part 7 of this series.

Few more references only on this veNNaik kaLavu baala leelai- meanings of
these are more or less covered in one way or other and hence only the lines.

Giri yena ninaimin keezhmai seyyaadhE uri amar veNNai undavan koil-
thirumaal irum sOlai 2-10-6 thiruvaaimozhi of nammaazhvaar

NaaL iLan thingaLai kOl viduththu vEyagampaal veNNai thodu uNda aanaayar
thaanavanE 3-8-3 thiruvaaimozhi of nammaazhvaar

Aaichchiyargal veNNaigaL kaaNil avan unda veNNai eethennum 4-4-6
thiruvaaimozhi of nammaazhvaar

Eettiya veNNai uNdaan thirumookku enadhaaviyuLLe- 7-7-2 thiruvaaimozhi of
nammaazhvaar

Thaayaay vantha pEi uyirum thayirum izhthum udan uNda vaayaan -thirumangai
aazhvaar in periya thirumozhi 1-5-6 (izhuthu means ghee)
 
UNdaai urimEl naRunei amudhaaga koNdaai kuraLaai nilam eeradiyaalE-
thirumangai aazhvaar in periya thirumozhi 1-10-4 (kuralaai here means
vaamana roopam)

Aaiththaayar thayir veNNai amarntha kOvai anthaNar tham amudhaththai-
thrumangai aazhvaar in periya thirumozhi 2-5-4

ViLankaniyai iLankanRu koNdu uthira erinthu vEl nedumkaN aaichchiyargal
vaiththa thayir uLankuLira amudhu seithu - thirumangai aazhvaar in periya
thirumozhi 3-9-7

Vanchanaiyaal vanthavaL than uyirundu vaaiththa thayiruNdu veNNai amudhuNdu
3-10-9 thirumangai aazhvaar in periya thirumozhi

Thaai sera uLainthu thayirundu kudam aadu thadamaarvar 5-10-1 thirumangai
aazhvaar in periya thirumozhi

Let us see few more slokams from srimadh bhagavatham in next post and then
conclude this series.

Dasan Vasudevan M.G.