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Thiru arimEya viNNagaram - kudamaadu kooththu - oru siriya viLakkam - part 3 of 3

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • May 7, 1996 


Having quoted all the references from paasurams I want to take the
liberty in quoting Nammaazhwaar's paasuram

3315:
soozhkaN taayen thollai vinaiyai
  aRuththun adisErum
oozhkaN tirundhE, thooraak kuzhithoorththu
  enainNaaL aganRiruppan?,
vaazhthol pugazhaar kutandhaik kitandhaay!
  vaanOr kOmaanE,
yaazhi NnisaiyE! "amuthE! aRivin
  payanE! ariyERE!"	5.8.6
                             nammazhwaar in thiruvaaymozhi

in which he said "amuthE !aRivin payanE!" ie the ultimate use (payan)
for our knowledge (aRivu) is to seek the Lord in everything we do.
Though it is wonderful to dwell in the sweet meanings of the paasurams
and their poetical style beauty etc, I wanted to use my limited Tamil
Knowledge in playing around with these two words (kooththaadu) that
prompted these posts and seek to explain that though these words
directly mean entertainment dance, they also have an inner meaning in
it.

kooththaadu can be split as koottu + aadu wherein koottu can be meant
as a sum of people or a group of people summed up in some fashion as
described by  Sri Badri in a circle and hands joined. There is one type
of aadidravidar dance practiced even this day among certain tribal
population of nilgris. The other meaning can be derived when this word
is split as koodu + aadu. This is like koodi aadu that is join hands
and dance and this can be just suitable for two people dancing. The
third such meaning which I think is very much meant here by aazhwaars
and also practiced by many Krishna worshippers who are also the
followers of Lord Chithanya mahaaprabu and till date some gaudiya mutt
followers and others also believe in this tradition which is *part* of
their goal called as krishna prEma.  Koodu + aadu = koodu is unite or
seek union in aadu is dancing with Sri Krishna. This is seeking to serve
SriKrishna and in turn when Sri Krishna is pleased, one is also
blessed by SriKrishna to also dance in union with Sri Krishna in an
escalated emotional sense which is tuned into this mode of eternal
cosmic dance of Sri Krishna. I may be wrong in use of words in
explaining this tradition and supreme goal (I seek the forgiveness of
the members  and the krishna worshippers around for this enthusiastic
attempt of mine,) but I request Sri Jagannath if he may explain this
little bit more clearly  and enlighten the philosophy of sri krishna
prema.

	It is important for us to know because it is considered by some
of us that such Krishna prema (example aazhwaar himself seeks to it) is
to be in par with our (srivaishnavaas of most southern school) state of
mOksham. In other words it can be said that this is what is their
destiny they seek. Thus by saying the first word kudamaadu is the
maargam which is dwell (dwell or live can be equated to aadu or dance)
under the unique shadow of the umbrella provided by Sri  Krishna (by
which one will simply be loyal only and only to SriKrishna and practice
what ever Sri Krishna preached in Srimath Bagwath Geethaa) and
kooththaadu ie seek to (serve and) dance in union with Sri Krishna in
the elevated emotional and eternal cosmic dance. Thus the first word
(kudamaadu) can be treated as the maargam and the second word
(kooththaadu) can be treated as the destiny. It is said that when
SriRaama and annchnEyaa crossed the ocean there was a symbolic message
embedded in it for all the samsaarins to understand.  Similarly it is
also said that when SriKrishna provided the govardana as umbrella there
was a hidden message covered up in this episode as well and that such
hidden meanings are some what touched by my above split and play of
tamil words.


Sri amrith kada valli thayaar samEthara kudak kooththaadi perumal
sri sathurbuja goPalan thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Sampath Rengi

note for Badri: As an aside, I am sure you will also appreciate
this reference from one of the songs of 80's. I am assuimg that
as you are also from Tamil Nadu and would have
followed the same song. One of the great cinema poet
and lyrics writer kavignar "Kanna"daasan wrote in one of his movie
philosophical song

"aattuviththaar yaaroruvar aadaatharO kanaa
aasaiyennum thottililE aadaathaarO kannaa
nee nadaththum naadagaththil ...." where in he captured these very sentiments
by saying Krishna is the controller who makes us all dance in this samsaaram
and
we seek to serve and dance with him.