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thiruppavai day twenty five song twenty five

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 8, 2003 


TIRUPPAVAI  - DAY TWENTY FIVE- SONG TWENTY FIVE

Transliteration

oruththi makanAyp piRanthu Oriravil
oruththi makanAy oliththu vaLarath
tharukkilAnAkith thAn thInku ninaintha
karuththaip piLaippiththuk kancan vayiRRil
neruppenna ninRa netumAlE unnai
aruththithu vanthOm paRai tharuthiyAkil
thiruththakka cEvakamum celvamum yAm pAti
varuththamum thIrnthU makilnthElOr empAvAy.


Translation

Born the son of the best one, overnight
You became the son of another best,
To be brought up in stealth.
Unable to bear with your Being,
Kancan thought of the evil.
Great Lord! You scorched him
Like fire from within.
Grant us our prayers, come abegging for You!
We will sing in praise of your wealth and our service,
Get rid of our distress and become happy.

The twenty-fifth song is again a prayer in the true Vaishnavite spirit.

The first part of the song refers once again to the childhood of Krishna and
KamsaÂ’s evil but fruitless designs to exterminate Krishna. Krishna was born
in the prison as the son of Devaki, KamsaÂ’s sister and overnight was taken
to Yeshodha to be brought up as her son.
Both Devaki and Yesodha are called ‘orutti’ literally meaning ‘one woman’
and ‘another woman’.

But traditional interpretation will look at the word to mean the especial
one – the woman who gave birth to Krishna is an especial one and so also is
the one that brought him up. The significant word is ‘olittu’ which means
brought up in stealth. Change of one letter will give us a different meaning
which will not be commensurate with the attributes of the Divine. Had it
been ‘olintu’ it would have meant ‘grew up in stealth’. There is no
necessity for God to grow up in stealth in His manifest form. But the foster
parents knew not that it was the Divine that they were fostering. It was
their concern for the child that made them bring up the child in stealth.
Krishna was held back from going to the fields along with the others to tend
the cattle, afraid of harms to him. Parental concern is a very significant
aspect of the Hindu society. A babe in arms will not be taken out during
dusk because that is the time for both forces good and evil to roam about.
Lest the baby should be under the spell of both the angelic and the
devilish, the baby will be held withindoors. That is but one example of the
concernful protective ring around babies and children in the Hindu society.
Thus Krishna was brought up under the zealous concern of Yesodha.

Kamsa could not bear with the fact that his potential terminator was growing
up. So he despatched several monsters to kill Krishna but to no avail. What
is more significant in the context is the simile, ‘neruppenna ninra netu
male’. A literal translation would read, ‘Great Lord! You stood like fire in
the stomach of KanchaÂ’ which in effect can be understood to refer to the
scorching presence of the awareness of Krishna being brought up safe from
his evil designs. That anxiety is a scorching force is well brought out by
the simile. The Tamil idiom ‘vayirrile neruppaik kattikontu iruttal’
describes an intensely anxious state of mind and Andal has very effectively
exploited a turn of speech in this context.

Traditional interpretation is more interesting. Anxiety which scorched the
maids when they could no more bear with separation from God was altogether
collected and thrown into KamsaÂ’s self. Further, as a child, Krishna was a
blessing in DevakiÂ’s womb and was at the same time scorching fire in KamsaÂ’s
stomach. Though a little far fetched, the traditional interpretation makes
quite some sense to the mind that is trained in the Vaishnava pantheon and
Tamil interpretation.

Perhaps the most significant message of the song lies in the later half. “If
you were to grant us our prayers, O Lord, we will sing in praise of your
wealth and our service. And when we sing so, dispelled is our distress.” The
Tamil word in the song is ‘varuttam’ which can be variously translated as
sadness, grief, difficulty, pain, distress. The last is chosen in the
context in spite of the complementary antonym that follows it – makilntu.
When grief is dispelled, happiness need not necessarily fill its place as a
natural corollary. The meaning of Andal is ‘distress at separation from God
is dispelledÂ’. That is to say there is no more separation. When there is no
more separation, there is an unimpeded communion with God. And it is the
bliss of unimpeded communion with God that is the happiness as opposed to
the distress in the second half of the poem.

Logically too, this interpretation falls in place. Subsequent to the
twenty-third song, God appeared in all His splendour and grandeur as praised
in the twenty-fourth song. Naturally, the twenty-fifth song is in the form
of a submission to God. The submission is ‘It is not a brief moment of Your
august presence as obtaining now but an ever and ever presence amidst us
that we pray forÂ’. Such eternal blessing of GodÂ’s presence is the boon that
can dispel the distress of separation. Certain songs earlier had been a
declaration of eternal commitment to God on the part of the maids. The
twenty-ninth song, the penultimate one in the series of the thirty, also
reiterates this longing for constant communion with God. Erraikkum elel
piravikkum untannotu Urreme avom unakke nam atceyvom. ‘Forever and for seven
times seven births, we will be in communion with You and remain Your
devotees.Â’



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