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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO - Introduction

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • February 23, 1999 


                            SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

      nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO - Introduction 


A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise 

In the sixth tirumozhi, ANDAL described to her friend, 
her dream about marrying the "kUDArai vellum SIr gOvindan" 
and being happy with Him.  The sleep is over and the dream 
is over too. When she wakes up from svapna anubhavam, she 
has a question now: who is the best authority on telling her
about kaNNan's adarAmr*tam.  She remembers:

"vishNOr mukhottAnila pUritasya yasya dhvanir-dAnava darpa hantA |
 tam pA~ncajanyam SaSikoTi Subhram Sa~nkham sadA'ham SaraNam prapadye || "

(SrI pa~ncAydha stotram).  She gets an answer to her question: 
the big and famous Sa~nkham (conch - pAncajanyam), which is 
always decorating kaNNan's left hand, will know the taste and 
smell of His mouth. She then determines to ask this pAncajanyam, 
which is whiter than the whiteness of  thousands of moons.


B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

SrI PVP compares godai's and sItA pirATTi's experience;  
sitA asked hanumAN, whom she had never seen or known before, 
"What does rAma look like? What is His build like? How are 
His hands?  What does lakshmaNa look like?" (rAmAyaNam sundara 
kANDam 35-4). godai's bhAgyam is much better; In order to 
attain emperumAn, she gets to ask pAncajanyam, who is like a
dESikar - showing the way to reach Him. 

In her dream about the  wedding between kaNNan and herself,  
godai had His adarAmr*tam only for a brief time.  BhagavAn 
interrupted this experience in order to increase ANDAL's 
Arti or intense anguish because of not attaining Him.  
What she experienced in her dream is very small like a firefly 
flying; it will not be staying in her heart for ever.  But, at 
the same time, since the dream is a divine one involving 
emperumAn, it is not possible to forget Him also. Hence, she 
is asking SrI pA~ncajanya AzhvAr about the anubhavam that
she is now missing, namely enjoying kaNNan's adaram.

Why is godai choosing SrI pAncajanyam, when there are the 
other nitya sUris like garuDan, vishvaksenar etc?  SrI PVP gives 
seven reasons for this:

1. When an emperor is alone with his nAyaki behind the 
curtain, certain people like aged hunchbacks, short ones etc, 
are allowed to be inside. Just like them, pAncajanyam is 
always in emperumAn's hand.

2. Just like ANDAL, His nAyaki who enjoys His vAyamudam, 
pAncajanyan is enjoying the flavor of His mouth, by being 
very close to it.

3. Unlike her, who can mingle with Him only once in a 
while, pAncajanyam is always having His sambandham.

4. Even though cakkarattAzhvAn is always seated on one 
of His hands, if the need arises, he leaves His hand and 
goes after the target "karudum iDam porudu kai ninRa 
cakkarattan" (tiruvAimozhi 10-6-8).
But, pAncajanyan will never leave His hand; instead, 
when occasion arises, he will start drinking His vAyamudam.

5. emperumAn likes to show Himself with Sankhu and cakkaram 
to the girls who love Him; As His Sankhu, he goes and sits 
on His tiruppavaLa vAi (mouth) and makes a huge noise, the 
loudness of which destroys all the enemies.  The only time 
the Sankhu disappears from  emperumAn's hand is when He is
requested to make His appearance without the four hands 
to hide His identity from the likes of kamsa by devaki. 

"upasamhara sarvAtman! rUpam Etat caturbhujam |
   jAnAtu mA'vatAram tE kamsOyam diti janmaja: || "
(vishNu purANam 5-3-13)

6. When everyone is enjoying empirAn's dark-hued tirumEni, 
pAncajanyam with his extremely white color adds beauty to His 
black charm; so, it is only proper that he is to be enjoyed 
along with emperumAn.  pAncajanyan has Suddha svabhAvam along 
with his extreme whiteness. That is why godai is
always thinking about pAncajanyam - "tAmugakkum tam kaiyil 
SangamE pOlAvO" (nAcciyAr tirumozhi 11-1), "veLLai viLi Sangu 
iDa~nkaiyil koNDa vimalan" (nAcciyAr tirumozhi 5-2 kuyil 
pASuram), "pAlanna vaNNattu un pAncajanniyamE pOlvana 
SankangaL" (tiruppAvai 26).  

7. The sound of pA~ncajanyam is very sweet like emperumAn's 
words.

Because of these seven reasons, ANDAL asks pA~ncajanyam 
instead of going to the other nitya sUris.

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
(kkrishnamachari@lucent.com  )