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nAcciyAr tirumozhi XI tAm ugakkum 6

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • July 27, 2000 


                                                      
                          SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

                           nAcciyAr tirumozhi XI – tAm
ugakkum

pASuram 11.6(eleventh tirumozhi - pAsuram 6 kaip
poruLgaL )

nAn maRaiyin SoRporuLAi ninRAr anRO avar

kaip poruLgaL munnamE kaik koNDAr kAviri nIr
 SeippuraLa ODum tiru araÂ’ngac celvanAr
epporutkum ninru Arkkum eidAdu nAn maRaiyin
  SoRporuLAi ninRAr en meip poruLum koNDArE

A. Meaning from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

tiru araÂ’ngam is  made wealthy by the waters of the
river kAvEri which cause a rich growth of all kinds of
crops.  The Lord of this place makes Himself easily
available to the lowliest of the devotees, and at the
same time is unreachable even for the highest among us
who try to reach Him by our own efforts.  He is the
essence of all the vedas.  He has already taken away
all my belongings, and now He has taken over my body
as well. 

B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:  

kAviri nIr SeippuraLa ODum tiru araÂ’ngac celvanAr:  
Even the waters of cauvery which have no intelligence
of any kind, flow of their own accord to offer
sustenance and enrichment to the crops in this
kshetram.   Why is it that tiru  araÂ’ngap perumAL who
has everything He needs, and who lives in this kind of
great kshetram where even the acetana vastu is
offering protection to other things, still takes away
everything that belongs to me (instead of protecting
me)?  

epporutkum ninru:  He is a great saulabhyan to His
devotees – He made Himself easily available to a
hunter-woman like Sabari, a monkey like SugrIvan and
an iDaicci like yasOdai.  However, see the next
sequence of words.

Arkkum eidAdu:  He is unreachable even by those who
have great knowledge and strive to reach Him through
their own efforts. In the phrases “Arkkum eidAdu” and
“epperutkum ninRu”, gOdai is reflecting what
nammAzhvAr said : “ArumOr nilaimaiyan ena aRivariya
emperumAn, ArumOr nilaimaiyan ena aRiveLiya emperumAn”
(tiruvAimozhi 1-3-4).  

nAn maRaiyin SoRporuLAi ninRAr: He stood as the One
meaning of all the words in the four vEdams (“vEdaisca
sarvairahamEva vEdya:”  “I am the one who is known by
all the vEdams”– gItai 15-15).  gOdai’s father also
said in periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-3-11 “vEdAnta
vizhupporuLin mEl irunda viLakku”.

en meyp poruLum koNDArE: He took away my AtmA and the
body that belongs to it. 

What follows is a vyAkyAnam that SrI PVP quotes from
another source:

“kaip poruLgaL munnamE kaik koNDAr”:  “munnamE” can
signify “right from her early childhood”, even when
she was the age of being breast-fed. PeriyAzhvAr
inculcated the love for emperumAn in her even when she
was a baby.   

There is similarity between the way lakshmaNa was
brought up by sumitrA, and the way ANDAL was brought
up by periAzhvAr – both were brought up with emphasis
on service to perumAL as their lifeÂ’s objective. 
sumitrA kept instructing lakshmaNa right from his
childhood:

	“sRshTas-tvam vana vAsAya svanuraktas-suhRj-jane    |
               rAme pramAdam mA kArshIh putra! PrAtari
gacchati  || (ayodh. 40-5)

	“My child!  You are born only to live in the forest; 
you are deeply attached to your brother rAma;  serve
Him well….”.  

sumitrA was feeding rAma bhakti to lakshmaNa side by
side with the milk that she was feeding him.  In bAla
kANDam 18-27, we have sage vAlmIki declare that
lakshmaNa was deeply attached to rAma from the early
childhood – “bAlyAt prabhRti susnigdho sakshmaNo
lakshmivardhanah  |  rAmasya loka rAmasya
bhrAtur-jyeshThasya nityaSah  “.

Analogously, even as ANDAL was appearing in this
world, she probably had already lost her bangles
because of her separation from Him.

kAviri nIr SeippuraLa ODum tiru araÂ’ngac celvanAr: 
The vyAkhyAna kartA draws a great analogy between the
mercy of the water in voluntarily going to the crops
and making them grow, and the Mercy of tiru araÂ’ngan
which automatically flows to His devotees with no
reason that justifies His Mercy.  The waters of tiru
araÂ’ngam reach the crops on their own and make them
grow without any effort whatsoever on the part of the
crops;  similarly  tiru araÂ’ngap perumAn bestows His
blessings on the deserving souls for no reason other
than that He will not stop short of blessing the
devotee.  Those who may resort to their own effort to
reach Him do not necessarily achieve Him in the end,
and so it is not their effort which gets them to Him;
it is His own Mercy that gets Him to them.  “kAviri
nIr Seip puraLa Oduvadu” reminds one of all these
qualities of emperumAn.

tiru araÂ’ngac celvanAr:  The mahimA of the kshetram is
such that it is as if perumAL gets His greatness
because He lives there, not the other way round. 

epporuTkum ninRu:  The extent to which emperumAnÂ’s
soulabhyam goes is illustrated by the fact that He
puts Himself in a position where He surrenders to
sugrIva, and seeks Him as His master, while the truth
is the other way round.  

As sage vAlmIki says in kishkindAkANDam,


  esha datvA ca vittAni prApya cAnuttamam yaSa: |
  lOkanAtha:  purA bhUtvA sugrIvam nAthamicchati ||  
(kishkindA. 4-18)

  pitA yasya purA hyAsIt SaraNyo dharmavatsalah   |
  tasya putrah SaraNyaSca sugrIvam SaraNam gatah   ||
(kishkindA. 4-19)


(This rAmapirAn who bestowed His blessings on others
infinitely, and who had the highest kIrti and was the
leader of the whole lOkam, today wishes to have
sugrIvan as His nAthan). 

emperumAn has both pAratantriyam and svAtantriyam; it
might appear that the two do not go with each other;
but, His svAtantriyam is such that He makes His
pAratantriyam a great quality in Him. If one who does
not have any leadership qualities stoops low, does it
make it a great quality in him? No. So, svAtantriyam
and pAratantriyam in the right quantities will always
go together.  He is one who does not have a nAthan
(because He is the nAthan for everyone); it is common
for one to crave for something one does not have; so,
He craved for a nAthan for Himself and aspired to have
sugrIvan as His nAthan.  He made Himself so simple
that He let Himself beaten and tied up by the farm
girl yasOdai [[“kaNNi nuN ciruttAmbinAl kaTTuNNap
paNNiya perumAyan” avan]]. He let a forest girl like
Sabari do antaranga kaimkaryam to Him (like iLaiya
perumAl is always doing).  All these are shown by the
phrase “epporutkum ninRu”.

One time, emperumAnAr was explaining paratvam –
mEnmai, and soulabhyam – eLimai. embAr, who was
listening to it, was so involved that he was full of
tears. emperumAnAr blessed him saying “when people
find out His eLimai, they think that He is too low,
ignore Him and keep away from Him;  you, on the other
hand are thinking – that great an emperumAn is this
easily approachable”.

Arkkum eidAdu:  While He is so easily accessible to
His devotees, He is totally inaccessible even to the
likes of brahma and Siva: 

 “peNNulAm SaDaiyinAnum piramanum unnaik kANbAN eNNilA
Uzhi Uzhi tavam SeydAr veLgi niRpa, viN uLAr viyappa
vandu Anaikku anRu aruLai Inda kaNNaRA!” - toNDar aDip
poDi AzhvAr in tirumAlai 44.
.

epporutkum ninru Arkkum eidAdu: An alternate
interpretation is that since He is the antaryAmi in
all the things,  He cannot be known by anyone. 

en meyp poruLum koNDArE: That paramAtmA, who is
praised by vEdams, appeared before my eyes, and with a
great loving relationship, took away my body. Just as
His devotees who are trying to enjoy His svarUpam and
guNam end up appreciating His tirumEni, He also does
the same in respect to His devotees.  Just as gOdai
longs for the union with His tirumEni, He also wants
her body and so takes it away.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI UV: 

meip poruL:  This term can be interpreted to refer to
the soul instead of body:  The poruL or the support
behind the mei or the body, or the object that is
behind the body or residing in the body etc.

epporTkum ninRArkkum eidAdu:  Instead of looking at
this collection of words as “epportuTkum ninRu, Arkkum
eidAdu”, as SrI PVP interpreted it, SrI UV looks at it
as given here, and gives the meaning “epporuTkum
ninRarkkum – the likes of brahma and rudra who stand
as the abhimAna devatA-s for all objects around us”,
eidAdu – unreachable for these devatA-s.

Alternatively, epporuTkum ninRu can mean that He is
the one who bestows everything to anyone who wishes it
– koLLak kuRaivilan vENDiRRellAm tarum.     

Is He suffering from poverty? He has the most
prosperous tiru araÂ’ngam with the river cAvEri flowing
everywhere and making all lands rich. pirATTi is
always with Him, thus making Him very wealthy.  He is
one who is unreachable even for dEvas, who claim that
they bestow boons to mankind.  He has uncountable
aiSvaryam even in His nitya vibhUti. He is above all
things and all demi-gods. That is how all the vEdams
extol Him; they all claim that He is the antaryAmi in
all cEtana acEtanams. He is the meaning of all vEdams
too.

With all this wealth, He had to come and take away all
my wealth, and my soul too, without even asking me. 
My soul became a big thing for Him, even though He is
the wealthiest.  In a sense it is meaningless for me
to grieve that I lost my bangles, when I do not even
possess a healthy body.

D. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

epporuTkum ninRu – Being the antarAtmA in everything; 
Arkkum eidAdu – not accessible to anyone.  
 
Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV  = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyeti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri




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