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thirup pAvai - part 27 - "kArmEni"

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Sampath Rengarajan • January 8, 1999 


thirup pAvai - part 27 - "kArmEni"

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Dear bAgawathAs,
 	
      The AchArya thatthuvam and mantra upadEsam have been dealt
in the previous postings. The inner meaning of current  line  is  
one of the end result of the mantra siddhi discussed earlier. ie
"prathayakasha darshanam" or nEtra darsanam. Prior to discussing 
that  we  will deal the meanings of the tamil words used in this 
line.

	It is important to know the gunams or characters  of the
bridegroom.  It  is  also  important  to have  a  glimpse of HIS 
physical appearance. In olden days the woman will  not  directly 
look into the eyes of the bridegroom prior to marriage.  However
the friends or "thozhis" of the bride will tell  her  all  about  
the enchanting beauty of the bride groom. ANDAL  expresses  here  
such beauty of the "bride  groom" (the  Lord),  after  narrating 
about HIS  elegibilities through the word "iLam singam" earlier.
 
	     The tamil word "kAr" means karumai or that which is 
black. The word kAr is derived from "karumAi".  However the word 
"kAr" also is referred to the clouds or mEham. The clouds are so
dark and black in their color that the word "karumai" or "black" 
is itself derived from this. ie., the clouds made ilakkanam  for
the color black. However there are several clouds that  are  out
and up there that one may want to know. It is important to  know
about clouds as the reference to clouds here directly points  to
one of the most important kalyAna gunam of the Lord.  The clouds 
are made of millions of tiny water droplets or ice  crystals  in 
the air. There are several kinds of clouds.   The highest clouds
where the air is made of ice crystals is called "cirrus" clouds.
The largest clouds are called "cumulonimbus" or "thunder" clouds.
These  largest  clouds  bring rains. There are other clouds that 
are silvery in their color and are known as cumulus and stratus.

	The cloud referred here is the tropical cloud  known  as
thunder cloud. We will deal more of this in "Azhi mazhai" patham.
This is the largest of all the clouds and contains  millions  of 
water droplets in it. It is also darkest and black in color. Our
Lord Sri krishnan is also dark in color as similar to this color.
This patham  reminds  one  of  "pacchai  mA  malai  pOl mEni" of 
thondar adip podi AzwAr, ie., the   "green"   color    that   is  
referred  for  "pasumai"  in  Lord  Sri  RanganAtha's  thirumEni 
and the "kulircchi" (cooling  nature)  that  the  "green"  color 
will  bring into one's eyes when they look at the  greenary.  In 
this reference  the  tamil word "kAr" referring to the thirumEni
of Lord Sri Krishna is referring to his "neermai" gunam at   the
inner level. ie  As  similar to  clouds  being  made of  several 
millions of water droplets, or kAr mEni of  Lord  Sri Krishna is
also referred  to as one that is embodiement of several millions kalyAna 
gunAs. The another meaning is the nature  of   this "kAr 
mEni is to represent a heavy down pour of rains.  The  rain   is 
often referred to "karuNai" or mercy and  that  the Lord  who is 
addressed as kAr mEni is an embodiment  of "karunai" as well. In 
addition the  reference  to   clouds  always  mean the nature of 
their content "water" or "neer" ie.,  HE is  so easy  to  obtain  
as  similar to obtaining water, ie., He is "sowlabyan". The word neermai 
refers to several other pathams as well.

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam 
Sampath Rengarajan        

note:   I  was  attending  the  "adyOyana  sevai" at  Aurora Sri 
Venkateswara temple Chicago, (dec 29- jan 3) at   the request of 
Sri Ragavan and Smt Chitra, Smt and Sri Krishnaswamy of  Chicago 
and was  hosted by Smt and Sri Krishnamchari. The last one  week  adiyEn 
faced with severe challenges  due  to  nature's  fury (28 
inches of snow! both in Chicago  and  enroute to Annarbor and at 
AnnArbor) and was  unable  to  post  this  from 1st Jan to 6 Jan 
due   to  logistics.  adiyEn  apologises  for the interruptions. 
adiyEn   has  received  numerous  mails from here and from India 
requesting  to continue this  effort on  thirup pAvai.  It  will 
take a  few years to do it.  adiyEn will try my  best to attempt 
it and pray to   Lord  Sri  Ranganatha  and Sri Krishna and  Sri 
ANDAL to help  us  in  this endeavour.

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