nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII kaNNan ennum karum deyvam 7
From the Bhakti List Archives
• March 17, 2003
SrI:
SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr
tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII– kaNNan ennum
karum deyvam
pASuram 13.7(thirteenth tirumozhi-pAsuram 7 veRRik
karuLak
koDiyAn )
ennaik kaNNanuDan iNaiyungaL
veRRik karuLak koDiyAn tan mImIdu ADA ulagattu
veRRa veRidE peRRa tAi vEmbE Aga vaLarttALE
kuRRam aRRa mulai tannaik kumaran kOlap paNait tOLODu
aRRa kuRRam avai tIra aNaiya amukkik kATTIrE
A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:
This kaNNan with garuDan on His victorious flag is
declared by the veda-s as the One whose Will cannot be
violated by anything in this Universe. We were led to
believe that yaSodA really gave birth to Him when we
saw her feeding Him her milk, being harsh to Him when
He stole butter, etc. But after all she was not His
real mother, and she failed miserably in bringing Him
up, with the net result that He is useless for anyone
and causes only harm to everyone. Thus it is all her
fault that He is like this. Unlike Him, I am
blemishless, and have kept my body and my life only so
that this youthful kaNNan with His broad and
magnificent shoulders can embrace it. Even though He
refuses to come and embrace me who belongs to Him,
please take me and tightly bind me to Him so that He
will be united with me who belongs to Him.
B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:
Even though He is not like rAman who declares “na
jIvEyam kshaNamapi (“rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 66-10),
and so would not come and embrace me on His own,
please take me and tie me up tightly with Him so that
He is united with me.
veRRik karuLak koDiyAn tan mImIdu ADA ulagattu: He has
garuDak koDi (His flag which has gauDan in it) to
announce to the world His victory and sovereignty
over everything in it. He is doing things to just keep
proving His svAtantryam (independence) and my
pAratantrayam (subservience to Him); He never does
anything to show His ASrita pAratantrayam (His
subservience to His bhaktas) or His praNayitvam (being
controlled by sheer love from His devotees).
But, since He is sarvEsvaran, His rule governs me even
though I love Him, just as parA~nkusa nAyaki said in
tiruviruttam 33 (“agal viSumbum nilanum iRuLAr vinai
keDa SenÂ’kOl naDAvudir IngOr peNpAl poruLO enum
igazhvO ivaRRin puRattAL enReNNO”) – “O Great
emperumAn! You protect the worlds of the devas and
this world from all darkness and evil deeds. Is it
not a disgrace that You donÂ’t protect this parA~nkuSa
nAyaki of Yours? Or, do You think that she is outside
Your domain of control?”
In fact, nothing can function out of His control
anyway, including the wind, the sun, etc. The
taittirEya upanishad (Anandavalli 8-1) declares that
the wind blows out of fear of Him, the sun rises and
sets on time out of fear of disobeying Him, and agni,
indra and yama perform their assigned duties without
flaw out of fear of Him.
“bhIshAsmAt vAta: pavate bhIshOdeti sUrya: |
bhIshAsmAt agniScendraSca mRtyur dhAvati paÂ’ncama
iti ||”
The SAstra-s also proclaim that the appearance of
clouds, rising and subsiding of the ocean waves, the
display and disappearance of the lightening, the blow
of winds, the waxing and waning of the moon, the
passage of the sun etc. are all vishNuÂ’s mAyai-s.
“mEghOdayas-sAgara sannivRttir-
vidyud-vibhanÂ’gah sphuritAni vAyoh |
indOr-vibhAgo gatamushNa-raSmer-
vishNOr-vicitrAh prbhavanti mAyAh ||”
mImIdu ADA ulagattu: the phrase ‘mImIdu’ should be
read as mIdu mIdu; the first mIdu denotes greatness;
the second mIdu denotes ‘on top of’. Thus, the phrase
means that nothing can operate over garuDakkoDiyAnÂ’s
greatness.
veRRa veRidE peRRa tAi : a mother getting a son for
no benefit for anyone, but only to harm others.
peRRa tAi : gOdai blamed His father (“nandagOpan
magan”) in the previous pASuram; now, she is blaming
His mother. On second thoughts, ANDAL feels that it
may not be fair to blame nandagopan for the spoilt
child, and the blame for the rotten behavior of this
child rests squarely on yaSodA. After all, nandagOpan
has the responsibility to look after a lot of cows,
bulls, AyargaL etc. Just as we failed in our
responsibility to set Him right when we were indulging
in His anubhavam and had Him with us, nandagOpan is
also indulging in rakshaNa kAryam and could not
correct kaNNan. But, such is not the case with yasOdA;
she has no other work except to bring Him up as a nice
boy. We all thought she was the birth mother when we
saw her tie Him up, beat Him up, feed Him her breast
milk etc. But from the way she has brought Him up, it
is very clear that she is just a stepmother who
adopted Him. So, “peRRa tAi” is used sarcastically
here by the frustrated ANDAL.
vEmbE Aga vaLarttALE: instead of making Him a mixture
of vEmbu (bad) and karumbu (good), she brought Him up
as vEMbE Aga (pure, unadulterated vEmbu – bad only).
So it is not His fault that He turned out to be so
bad; it is all her fault.
gOdai’s folks say: “Let Him not come. The loss is only
yours; why are you insulting His mother who is in
between? He is not coming because may be you have some
faults”.
kuRRam aRRa mulai : What fault do I have? Even though
He is vEMbu, I am like the “vEmbin puzhu” – the worm
of the vEmbu tree that wonÂ’t feed on anything but the
vEmbu. “vEmbin puzhu vEmbanRi uNNAdu” (periya
tirumozhi 11-8-7). My breasts know none but Him.
“avaraip pirAyam toDa’ngi enRum Adarittu ezhunda en
taDa mulaigaL tuvaraip pirAnukkE saÂ’nkalpitut tozhudu
vaittEn” (NT 1-4). And they are for none but gOvindan
(kongait talamivai nOkkik kANIr (NT 12-4).
SrI PVP comments that her devotion to kaNNan has as
its basis His natural role as our svAmi or Lord
(svrUpa-kRta-bhakti), and not based on how He treats
her or what His character has been (guNa-kRta-bhakti).
Again he draws the analogy between sItA pirATTi and
ANDAL in this aspect. He narrates the following
incident, showing that sIta had the same view as the
basis for Her devotion to Lord rAma, even though in
rAmaÂ’s case, there was no issue with His treatment of
Her. atri maharishiÂ’s wife anasUyai tells sItai,
when she comes to the Asramam : “a woman’s para deyvam
is her husband”. sItai responds: “since My husand is a
great guNasAli, everyone thinks that I consider Him as
My para deyvam because He is a guNasAli. I have a
natural love for Him because He is My Lord, which has
nothing to do with His being a guNA-SAli; but, He is
an exemplary guNa-Sali, and so, people think that My
love of Him is because of His guNam-s. It is My loss
that because He is of such exemplary character, people
do not recognize My natural love to Him that is not a
function of His character”.
kuRRam aRRa mulai: mulai has kuRRam if it is waiting
patiently for Him to come whenever He comes. Mine are
not patient like that. They are suffering immensely.
When her folks ask her “ what should we do to ease
your pain”, she continues further.
kumaran : He is the ‘kumaran’ – kALai – the one with
youthful age for these mulaigaL.
kOlap paNait tOLODu: Shoulders that are beautiful, and
that are like the branches of a kaRpaka vRksham. Even
though His mother brought Him up like vEmbu and His
heart is full of lies, His shoulders did not lose
their beauty. I cannot sustain my life if I do not
embrace them. kaNNan has brought her to this condition
– even when she is angry with Him, she is still
talking about His “beautiful shoulders like the
branches of the kaRpaka vRksham”, because this is how
He has handled her before, embraced her before, and
mesmerized her.
aRRa kuRRam avai tIra: Even though my mulaigaL are
physically part of my body, they really belong to His
shoulders. So they are His, and belong on His
shoulders. This separation from Him is a blemish for
them. You have to see to it that this blemish for
them is removed.
aNaiya amukkik kATTIrE: Even if He refuses, make my
mulaigaL embrace His shoulders with force. IsnÂ’t there
someone to imprison my breasts with His shoulders
together just as bANAsuran handcuffed and imprisoned
his daughter ushai and kaNNanÂ’s grandson aniruddhan
togther?
Why would her folks, who were trying to separate her
from kaNNan so far, tie her with kaNNan? Even though
they are trying their best to separate them, now, she
is in a position where she might not live anymore
without Him; so, it will become their responsibility
to make her live by tying her with Him.
C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:
veRRi veRidE, vEmbAgavE: “oruvarkkum payan inRiyE,
payan illai enkira mAttiramEyO!, vEppaÂ’m kAi pOl
kaikkum paDiyAgavE) - Not only has yaSodA brought Him
up as “good for nothing, useless, waste”, but also
“patently distasteful to everyone”.
kumaran – “yauvanattODu tOL tINDiyAna ap-perumAn”) -
He Who embraces His devotees with His rejuvenating,
youthful form.
yaSodA is completely at fault for this totally ruined
child – “a’njavurappAL aSOdai ANADa viTTiTTirukkum”
(NT 3.9)– She enjoyed watching Him go berserk as if He
is the only male being around, and He is roaming
around totally uncontrolled.
D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:
We saw earlier that SrI PVPÂ’s anubhavam was that ANDAL
felt that yaSOdA failed in bringing Him up properly
because after all she was not the natural mother. SrI
UV gives the anubhavam that ANDAL feels that because
yaSOdA thought that she was the natural mother, she
ruined Him by giving Him freedom beyond limits,
thinking that this was the way to bring up the child
with affection. Also, because He revealed Himself to
her as the Supreme Lord, she just was overwhelmed with
the pride of having given birth to Him, and did not
feel any responsibility to bring Him up properly, and
ended up making a “vEmbu” out of Him.
But in this pASuram, ANDAL gives the remedy for this
problem. If the elders make sure that her flawless
breasts are brought into contact with the shoulders of
this “vEmbu”, the flaws of this vEmbu will all be
removed. The flawless breasts of mine will transfer
their flawlessness to Him, and the “vEmbU’ will turn
into “karumbu”.
kuRRamaRRa mulai: Flawless breasts. Those that do
not have any flaw right from the time of birth. The
sthanam that conforms to all the lakshaNa-s
(sAmudrikA lakshaNa-s?), and also that which does not
feel the slightest sense of excitement on the thought
of anyone but Him.
kumaran: That One Who is of nitya yauvanam – Eternal
youth, who does not age (a-jarah, a-marah, etc.).
aRRa kuRRam avai tIra: The kuRRam referred to here is
the vyasanam because of the separation from Him. If
this kind of vyasanam continues in one, it can have
the effect of turning one against Him also (prAtikUlya
buddhi); but the very sight of the paramAnanda
svarUpam of the Lord will remove all traces of the
feelings of prAtikUlyam completely. It is considered
that this is how the mukta-s never have any thoughts
of their past, before they became mukta-s.
Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr
sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.
aDiyAL,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri
(Articles on nAcciyAr tirumozhi are available at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/7673/azhwars/nachiyar.html
maintained by SrI VenkaT aiyengAr of SrI villiputtUr)
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
http://platinum.yahoo.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
- SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
- Next message: Kalyani Krishnamachari: "NT 6 - vAraNamAyiram posting updated in the web (with SrI UV's comments)"
- Previous message: sadagopaniyengar: ""Crime and Punishment""
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]