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nAcciyAr tirumozhi - kAmanai vENDudal

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • June 19, 1998 


				SrI:
                SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

                      nAcciyAr tirumozhi - kAmanai vENDudal.

There are a total of 14 tirumozhis contained in nAcciyAr tirumozhi.  The first 
tirumozhi has the title  'kAmanai vENDUdal' - it means "Praying to kAman 
(The Lord of Love)".  This tirumozhi has 10 pASurams.

kAmanai vENDUdal - pASuram 1:
 
A. The translation from SrImAn SaDagopan's tamizh treatise.
             
Throughout mArgazhi month (mid-Dec to mid-Jan), ANDAL has conducted the
pAvai nOnbu through Her tiruppAvai pAsurams, to get kaNNan as Her husband.
She has not yet been blessed with the anubhavam of joining Him.  She becomes
heart-broken. How will Her wishes come true, how can She acquire what She 
desires?  She thinks and thinks.  Then She has this idea: "Manmathan or
kAman (love fairy) is said to have the power of joining lovers together by 
aiming his flower arrows at them; why not try praying to him?  Throughout 
the month of tai (mid-Jan. to mid-Feb.), every day let me purify the place 
where I am going to worship kAmadEvan and draw beautiful kolams (drawings).  
Then in the first half of mAsi month (second half of Feb.), I will fill the 
street on which he is going to walk over to come and bless me, with smooth 
sand so that he will not feel any roughness on his feet.  After he comes 
to my house and sits on the seat arranged for him, I will pray to him 
and to his brother, sAman, together.  Both of them will be compassionate 
to me and bless me with the great opportunity to personally serve 
tiruvEnkaDamuDaiyAn, who is carrying in His hand the cakrAydam which 
is emanating hot fire sparks".

In Her first pAsuram of nAcciyAr tirumozhi, Godai submits Her request
to kAmadEva thus:

    "tai oru tingaLum tarai viLakki
       tan maNDalam ittu mAsi munnAl
     ayya nuN maNal koNDu teru aNindu
       azhaginukku alangarittu ananga dEvA!
     uyyavumAnkolO enru Solli
       unnaiyum umbiyaiyum tozhudEn
     veyyaDOr  tazhaL umizh cakkarakkai
       vEnkadavaRku ennai vidikkiRRiyE"

Thus having decided to pray to kAmadevan for the privilege of being 
able to do antara~nga kaimkaryam to tiruvEnkatamuDaiyAn, godA proceeds
to outline her plans for her vrata anushTAna-s towards this objective
in the next pASuram.

B. Some additional thoughts.

There is reference to godA involving herself in cleaning the floor and 
decorating the place etc.  SrI tirukkaNNa mangai ANDAn, the 
author of the first taniyan of nAcciyAr tirumozhi that we started
with, was also one who did this kaimkaryam to BhagavAn.  SrI
periavAccAn piLLai points out this similarity.

One could legitimately ask the question - how come godA worships 
kAman?  Is this not improper?  She is only worshiping kAman with 
the objective of getting BhagavAn.  She has no other goal in life.
It is her desperation to reach Him that is causing her to do
whatever it takes to get to Him.  It is as if this is her sthala-
Suddhi in order to perform kaimkaryam to Him ultimately.

Her praying to kAman and sAman together reminds us of the phrase 
"namOstu rAmAya salakshmaNAya".

The reference to manDalam is the period of 45 days for which some
vrata-s performed for attaining benefit from them. 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
kkrishnamachari@lucent.com