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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu 2

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • May 3, 1999 


			SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII -  viNNIla mElAppu
      pASuram 8.2 (eighth tirumozhi - pAsuram 2 mAmutta nidhi Sorium)


mAmutta nidhi Sorium mAmugilgAL! vE~nkaTattuc
 cAmattin niRam koNDa tALALan vArttai ennE?
kAmattI uL pugundu kaduvap paTTu iDaik-ka~ngul
 Emattu Or tenRalukku i~ngu ilakkAi nAn iruppEnE

A. Translation (meaning) from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

Oh clouds, who rain blessings on everyone without even being asked!  
Did the blue-hued, tiruvEnkaTamuDaiyAn send any message for me 
through you?  The fire of kAmam I have for Him is torturing me 
inside out and I am being tortured also by the so-called sweet breeze 
during midnights.

B. Additional thoughts from SrimAn SaDagopan:

vArttai ennE?: ANDAL is suffering from viraha tApam and is enquiring the 
clouds : "did vittakan vE~nkaTavANan tell you when He is coming here?" 
Did "niccalum tImaigaL Seyyum nIL tiruvEnkaTattu nIlamEga vaNNan" send a 
message for me that He would come soon, knowing that I am suffering 
from love for Him?

Even though she is taking after her father and blabbering: "vEdapporuLE, 
en vE~nkaTava, vittaganE in~gE pOdarAyE", her vEnkaTavan is not coming 
to her and is staying put in tirumalai, totally ignoring her. Hence 
her sympathetic appeal to the clouds.

C. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

nidhi Sorium: The clouds are used to giving all the time and that 
too not waiting for anyone to ask, and not expecting anything in 
return.  In fact, when the clouds can't shower like this, their 
body becomes all pale (white).

tiruvaLLuvar praises this greatness through the following 
tirukkuRaL - "kaimmARu vENDAk-kaDappADu mAri mATTennARRunkollO 
ulagu" - the world does not think of repaying the favor given to them
by the raining clouds; that is how service to others must be given
- without expecting anything in return (from SrI kr*shnasvAmi iyengar).

VenkaTattu - The thought here is that the clouds share this same 
place with tiruvE~nkaTamuDaiyAn, and so they are very familiar 
with Him.  Since they live in the same place as He does, they 
should know.

SAmattin niRam koNDa: The word SAmam here stands for the samskr*t 
words SyAmam, meaning "dark-blue".  The clouds not only share the 
place with Him, but they also resemble Him in color [["Uzhi mudalvan 
uruvam pOl mey karuttu" - tiruppAvai]]. 

tALALan:  Refers to His Greatness, viz. those who surrender at His 
Feet are unconditionally given moksham irrespective of any sins they 
might have committed.   

SrI T.S.rAjagopAlan observes that tALALan also refers to His having 
a SarIram for Himself that is really held by Him only for the sake 
of His devotees.  SrI PVP refers to the jitante stotram 1.5 - "na 
te rUpam na cAkAro nAyudhAni na cAspadam  | tathA'pi purushAkAro 
bhaktAnAm tvam prakASase  ||".  

In this sense, bhagavAn has the greatness that the mA-mugil lacks, 
viz. He bears this tirumeni for the sake of others, but keeps 
aloof from them till they come seeking Him;  He does not go and 
embrace everyone irrespective of their disposition to Him, unlike 
the clouds which shower for everyone.

vArttai ennE?:  Even though He didn't come here, if He felt that 
it is His own loss not to have responded to ANDAL's prayers, he 
must have said something to the clouds, and ANDAL is asking the 
clouds for this information.  For instance, He could have felt 
bad that He did not come and help ANDAL by fulfilling her prayers, 
and told the clouds:  

1. Find out what godai is doing and let me know.
2. I cannot live without ANDAL for even a second, just as rAma 
could not live without sItai even for a second -  
"na jIveyam kshaNamapi" (SrImad rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 66-10).
3. I don't even know that a girl named ANDAL is related to me - as 
dushyantan said about SakuntalA.

godai is hoping to survive just listening to His words. How can 
words be enough to survive? SrI PVP quotes arjuna's words in 
gItai, where arjuna was able to carry on just listening to bhagavAn's 
words: "nashTO mOha: s*mrtir labdhA tvatprasAdAn mayA'cyuta | 
sthitosmi gatasandeha: karishye vacanam tava" - gitA 18-73.
(acuta! My moham got destroyed; I attained true knowledge; my 
doubts are all cleared; I will do as you said).  Additionally, 
SrI kr*shnasvAmi iye~ngAr quotes nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 4-7-3 
to point out that even negative words from bhagavAn could have made 
him continue living: "pAvi nI enRu onRu SollAi pAviyEn kANa vandE" - 
nammAzhvAr wishes to at least listen to some chiding words from 
emperumAn - "Call me a great sinner, that is fine, as long as you 
come and talk to me".

Even though godai kept asking the clouds what His words were, 
they keep quite and so becoming depressed, she continues her 
outbursts. 

kAmat-tI uL pugundu: ANDAL wonders: Maybe He thinks that the 
kAmat-tI or fire of intense love towards Him is like the ordinary 
fire of this world.  Think of naraka agni, which is several times 
more intense than the ordinary agni of this world.  The kAmat-tI 
by which ANDAL is being tortured longing for Him is several times 
more intense than the naraka agni also.   This agni first scorched 
her external appearance, and now is finding its way to scorch her 
AtmA.  Since the fire of this kAmat-tI originated from her AtmA to 
start with anyway, it is not wonder that it is now troubling the AtmA. 

kaduvappaTTu:  This fire of longing for Him is not only scorching her 
inside out, but now it is catching fire and burning her.  

iDaikkan~gul Emattu: this can construed in 2 ways: 1. ka~ngul 
iDai yAmattu - During the middle of the night; 2. iDaik-ka~ngul - 
in the middle of the night, Emattu - with a lot of security in a 
lonely surrounding.  Even though she is longing to be with Him all 
alone, now she is all alone without Him and with no one to even 
console her.
 
Or tenRalukku: ANDAL is wondering if He really is unconcerned 
because He does not realize how severe the effect of this breeze 
is on her.  But then again, the fact that the tenRal (sweet breeze) 
is torturing to lovers who are separated is nothing new to Him.  He 
knows exactly how it feels: 
padma sougandhi kavaham Sivam SOka vinASanam   |
dhanyA lakshmaNa! SevantE pampOpavana mArutam  ||
(kishkindA 1.105) "Oh lakshmaNa! Only bhAgyavAns will enjoy this pure
breeze which brings the sweet smell of the lotus
flowers, and which comes floating over the groves in
the banks of pampA river".  rAma, when He was separated
from pirATTi could not bear the breeze and felt tortured.
And since He knows this personally, should He not have come and 
offered His protection to her under His Feet?  He should know that 
the only way the severity of this breeze will subside is if the 
two were united and together.

SrI PVP explains in detail how Lord rAma describes this tenRal 
that is killing Him:  Sivam - Auspicious (since it will 
destroy Him who is separated from sItA pirATTi); Soka vinASanam - 
relieve Him of His misery  (by destroying Him once for all without 
slowly torturing Him); pampovana mArutam - the breeze from the 
pampo vanam (which in His case is like fire from an agni kuNDam).   

nan illakkAi:  ANDAL is wondering why she has been targeted for 
this suffering.  Is it because He thinks she should also suffer like 
Him or that she is also capable of bearing this torture as He did? 
She is the type who trembles when she encounters breeze, and she won't 
live long under these circumstances.  Or, does He want to live after 
she is gone?  


sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari