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nAcciyAr and SrImad bhAgavatam

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • March 5, 1998 


Dear bhakti members!  

I was reading nAcciyAr tirumozhi - karuppUram nArumo and was impressed with 
the seventh slokam:

sengamala nAN_malar mEl tEn ugarum annam pOl
sengaN karumEni vAsudEvanudaiya
am_kaittalam ERi annavaSam Seyyum
sangaraiyA!  un selvam sAla azhagiyadE

(my rough traslation:  The white swan tastes the nectar on the just
blossomed lotus flower; just like that, O pAncajanyamE! you, who is the 
best of all sankhams, get on to the beautiful hand of vAsudEva, who has
red eyes and dark tirumEni; your wealth is the greatest.)

Two days back, I happened to listen to srI krishNapremi's bhAgavatam 
upanyAsam (tape), where he was describing a similar comparison.  In SrImad
bhAgavatam first skandam, adhyAyam 11, slokam 2, sage vyAsar says:

sa uccakASE dhavaLOdara: darOpi urukramsYa adhara SONa SONimA |
dAdhmAyamAna: karakancasampuTe yathAbjashaNdE kaLahamsa utsvana: ||

(Even though the sankham that vAsudEva blows has a 
whiteness in the middle, it gets a redness from vAsudEva's red lips and 
shines on the lotus-like hand like the rAja hamsam that hums amidst lotus
flowers.)

Thus both in nAcciyAr tirumozhi and in SrImad bAghavatam, vAsudEva's hand is
compared to the lotus flower and the white sankham is compared to a 
beautiful white annam.

I thought I will share my anubhavam of these passages with you all.

adiyEn,
kalyani Krishnamachari