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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram - Introduction

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • January 15, 1999 


                            SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

      nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram - Introduction 


A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise 

In spite of godai's constant pleas to call her kaNNan, the 
cuckoo totally ignores her.  godai's sorrow increases beyond 
limits. kaNNan now feels sorry for her plight and out of 
compassion, bestows a pleasant dream on godai, who is sleeping 
after crying for a long time.  In this divine dream, He shows 
her the scenes happening to them in the wedding between
Him and godai.  ANDAL in her ecstasy, describes her dream 
to her friends and thus emerges the sixth tirumozhi.

This tirumozhi, which starts with "vAraNam Ayiram" is a 
very well-known tirumozhi.  Even today, this sixth tirumozhi 
is being sung in all the vedic weddings during the time 
called "paccai pUSUdal".  It is a belief that due to the 
conducting of this routine, the newly wedded couple's lives
will for ever remain sweet. godai herself has declared 
that those chant this tirumozhi will beget children with 
brahma g~nAnam and sAtvIka guNam.

The wedding scenes that godai describes are full of beauty, 
superb in imagination and have a divine vedic flavor.   
SrImAn SaDagopan has summarized the aspects of a
vedic wedding in his previous postings.   These can be 
found in  

http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0063.html
<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0063.html> 
http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0083.html
<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0083.html> 
http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0088.html
<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0088.html> 

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

1. The stages of para bhakti, para j~nAna, and param bhakti:

ANDAL is at the stage where she cannot continue to live 
without Him.  It is not that He does not know this.  But 
still He is not coming.  Why not?

SrI PVP explains that BhagavAn leads the jIva through stages 
of para-bhakti, para-j~nAna, and parama bhakti, and then 
only unites the jIvAtmA with Him. This is what he did to 
nammAzhvAr, who had the j~nAnam and bhakti (mayarvaRa madi 
nalam aRuLinan - tivAimozhi 1-1-1) even when he started
the first pASuram, but who was awarded vIDu (paramapadam) 
only in the last pASuram of tiruvAimozhi (avAvaRRu 
vIDu peRRa kurugUr Sadagopan - tiruvAimozhi 10-10-11).  
SrI PVP compares this to applying the dye to a white 
cloth in several steps and gradually.

2. The blessing of svapna anubhavam for ANDAL:

In the case of ANDAL, perumAL does not come, and this 
tortures her to the point that she won't be able to keep 
living.  Her suffering is so intense that now if BhagavAn 
presents Himself to her in a hurry she may not be 
able to bear the shock of this also.  So He decides to appear 
in her dream and give an anubhavam (namely that of marrying 
Him) that will make her happy and make her live for a 
while, so that He can take her to His abode at the
appropriate time.

3. sItA pirATTi's and ANDAL's experiences: 

SrI PVP observes that in this anubhavam, ANDAL was 
more blessed than even sItA pirAtti, who also suffered 
like ANDAL but who was not blessed even with a dream of 
union with Lord rAma.    

svapnEpi yad-yaham vIram rAghavam saha lakshmaNam |
paSyEyam yadi jIvEyam svapnOpi mama matsarI ||
(rAmAyaNam sundara kaNdam 34-21)

(I will live at least if I get to see rAma and 
lakshmaNa in my dream, but even the dream has become my enemy).

One can ask:  How did sitA pirATTi continue to keep herself 
alive in the absence of the anubhavam of svapna?  
BhagavAn blessed sitA pirATTi with a different kind of 
anubhavam, which would not have worked in the case of ANDAL.
sItA pirATTi is blessed with the words of consolation from 
trijaTA, hanumAn, etc., which is what her alive.  But
godai will not just listen to someone's consoling words 
and live; so, emperumAn blesses her with the svapna 
anubhavam instead.

Thus, this tirumozhi talks about the dream anubhavam that 
He gave her.

4. ANDAL's svapna anubhavam vs. others' svapna anubhavam:

In the case of ordinary mortals, bhagavAn gives some 
dream experiences based on their karma so that they can 
have this experience as a reward of their karma-s.
The svapna anubhavam of ANDAL is not in this category 
viz,. karma phala.  In her case, since she wishes to 
have the anubhavam of BhagavAn Himself, He gives
her an anubhavam in the dream that is complete in every 
sense including all the steps involved in their marriage, 
and ANDAL in turn rejoices in narrating this experience to 
her friends and continues to be alive in the hopes of this
dream.


sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
(kkrishnamachari@lucent.com  )