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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram 1

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • January 26, 1999 


			SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram
      pASuram 6.1 (sixth tirumozhi - pAsuram 1 vAraNam Ayiram)


A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

In the very first pASuram of  "vAraNam Ayiram", godai starts 
describing beautifully to her friend, the divine dream that she 
just had before waking up.

"Oh my dear sakhi! I had this wonderful dream; I saw nAraNan (SrI
ranganAthan), surrounded by thousands of elephants, going around  
SrI villiputtUr.  My father,  periyAzhwAr, and the citizens of 
the village are ready to extend a grand welcome to Him with 
pURNa kumbhams placed on their heads.  The whole village is 
decorated with tOraNams (streamers) to mark the festive occasion."

vAraNam Ayiram SUzha valam Seidu
 nAraNan nambi naDakkinRAn enRedir
pUraNa poRkuDam vaittup puRam e~ngum
 tOraNam nAttak kanAk kaNdEN tOzhi nAn

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

ANDAL is not just looking for the pleasure of His nearness after 
He comes to her;  she wants to have the anubhavam of the scene of 
His coming to her, and so she sees in her dream all the preparations 
and decorations in the town to receive Him.

vAraNam:  tiru AyppADi has only cows and calves; where do the 
elephants come from?  SrI PVP explains that vasudevar had these 
elephants as part of his army to defend against enemies -
ANDAL herself says in tiuppAvai 18 "unDu maDakkaLiRRan".
Since nandagopan ane vasudevan were close friends, they shared 
each other's wealth very freely.  Their friendship was like that 
between rAma and sugrIva -
"ekham duhkam sukhama canou -you are my very close friend; 
we will share our pleasures and sorrows alike"
 rAmayaNam kishkindA kAndaM 5-18).  Also, kaNNan gets the 
wealth of both His natural father and His father who brought Him up.

vAraNam Ayiram: why a thousand elephants? As periyAzhwAr 
said in tirumozhi 3-1-1, "tannErAyiram piLLaigaLODu taLar 
naDai iTTu varuvAn" - kaNNan has these thousand friends, and 
will not bear to see any of them in any way less comfortable than 
Him.   So here are the thousand elephants, one for each so
that they can also ride the elephant with Him.  emperumAn's 
soulabhyam is such that He will keep His devotees who reach 
Him in an equivalent position as He is (periya tirumozhi 
11-3-5 - "tammaiyE nALum vaNa~ngit tozhuvARkku tammaiyE 
okka aRuL Seyvar").

valam Seydu:  godai is guessing that He is coming around 
the village, from the sound coming from the vAdya gOshTi 
(nAdaswaram, drums etc.) that are preceding Him.

nambi nAraNan - nArAyaNa who is brimming with 
Supreme qualities.  When kaNNan (the king of mathurA and tiru 
AyppADi) is walking, it is like nArAyaNan (ubhaya vibhUti nAthan) 
walking.  His supreme qualities are expressly visible only in 
avatAra kAlams, when He has to mix with imperfect and deficient 
samsAri-s. His soulabhyam (the ease with which He can be
approached), His SouSilyam (the ease with which He mixes with 
others), and His Arjavam (open-heartedness) cannot be noticed 
in a setting like paramapadam where only the Realized great 
nitya mukta-s live. These great qualities of empirAn shine like 
the lamp in a dark room only when He gives Himself to the 
samsAri-s of the world.

naDakkinRan:  Just as hanumAn's word that rAma was approaching 
ayodhyA was sufficient to keep bharata alive,  ANDAL is able to 
keep herself alive even by the thought that kaNNan was in town and 
walking towards her with his vAraNa-s (from SrI T.S. rAjagopAlan).    
Also, in the case of rAma, viSvAmitra had to bring Him to sItA;  
in ANDAL's case, kaNNan is coming by His own free will, and 
so this is special.

tOraNam nATTa:  When people from bhUlOkam go to paramapadam,  
the residents of paramapadam welcome them with tOraNams 
(decorate with streamers) - "tOraNam niraittu en~gum 
tozhudanar" - tiruvAimozhi 10-9-2).  Similarly, when paramapada 
nAthan comes here, the people of this world are welcoming 
Him with tOraNams.

kanAk kaNdEn:  For sItA, trijaTA had to first see Lord rAma 
coming to sItA, and she had to then communicate that dream to 
sItA pirATTi.  In ANDAL's case she did not have to depend on 
her tozhi or some other well-wisher to communicate their dream 
to her.  She did not have to depend on her indriya-s to get 
this anubhavam, and it was all her experience through her own heart,
to the extent that she could now communicate it to her tozhi.


sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari