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nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu 4

From the Bhakti List Archives

Kalyani Krishnamachari • May 13, 1999 


                        SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII -  viNNIla mElAppu
      pASuram 8.4 (eighth tirumozhi - pAsuram 4 minnAgattu ezhuginRa)

minnAgattu ezhuginRa mEga~ngAL! vEnkaTattut
 tannAgat tiruman~gai ta~ngiya SIr mArvarkku
ennAgattu iLam ko~ngai virumbittAm nAL tORum
 ponnAgam pulgudaRkku en purivuDaimai SeppuminE

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

Godai decides that it might not be enough if she does gOvindanAma
sa~nkirtam and pleads with the clouds: "Oh clouds, who have
lightning as part of your bodies!  My emperumAn has periya
pirATTi seated on His chest and hence named SrInivAsan.
Please tell Him this: godai is waiting with her heart and soul
to be embraced by you and is waiting for your arrival with
the greatest love".

B. Additional thoughts from SrimAn SaDagopan:

Agattu min ezhuginRa mEga~ngAL: periya pirATTi, who
looks radiant like a lightning, is seated on the chest of
emperumAn, who is dark-hued. This can be compared to the lightning
that the dard-hued clouds bear. So, He has a lot of liking for them.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

Agattu min ezhuginRa mEgangAL: Literally, Agattu -
from your body or chest, min - lightning.  Because periya
pirATTi is seated on bhagavAn's chest and shines like a
lightning, ANDAL is reminded of Him when she sees the
lightning in the dark clouds.   The clouds resemble His
tirumEni just as ubhaya vEdams point out:

"nIlatOyada madhyastA vidyullekheva bhAsvarA"
(taittrEya upanishad nA. 11 - paramAtmA's tirumEni is radiant
like the lightning adopted by the blue clouds).

"nIlam uNDa minnanna mEnip perumAn" (tiruviruttam 29).

When ANDAL is separated from Him, the clouds are making sure
that she doesn't forget Him.  Now she is appealing to the
clouds to unite them together.

Another way of interpreting minnAgattu ezuginRa mega~ngAL
is: min -lightening, nAgam - sky; and so the reference is
to the clouds which rise in the sky with lightening, or
the clouds which reveal their existence because of the
lightning in the sky.  Similarly, bhagavAn's tirumEni gets
its importance because of the presence of periya pirATTi
in His vaksha sthalam.  It is as if bhagavAn's dark hued
tirumEni is revealed by the lantern in the form of
mahAlakshmi, just as the dark clouds are revealed by
the lightning.

vEnkaTattutu: Unlike HanumAn who had to cross the
Ocean to give Lord rAma's message to sItA, or fight with
enemies in the process, these clouds don't have to go
through any of these ordeals in delivering ANDAL's
message to tiruvE~nkaTamuDaiyAn.  She is not asking the clouds
to go to SrIvaikuNTham ("kalan~gApperunagaram" mUnRam
TiruvandAdi 51) to deliver her message.  All she is asking
them to do is to go to the easily-reachable, mangul tOi Senni
vaDa vE~nkaTam.

tannAgat tiruman~gai ta~ngiya SIr mArvarkku:
BhagavAn's vaksha sthalam has the greatness in several ways:

- This is the place chosen by maA lakshmi to reside, without
which she can't bear to live.
- Periya pirATTi resides there, and even then She emphatically
declares, lest She has to leave this place for some reason
at some time - agalagillen iRaiyum - There is no way I will
leave this place to go back to the lotus flower (SrI V. N.
vedAnta deSikan in his vyAkhyAnam for nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi).
- Periya PirATTi permanently resides on His vaksha sthalam
just so She is within reach whenever She is needed for the
purushakAratvam for His devotees.

ANDAL is rhetorically asking the clouds - If peria pirATTi
who always resides on His vaksha sthalam can't live away from
it, how can anyone expect ANDAL who is new to this experience
to survive and cling to life being away from this tirumEni?

en Agattu iLam ko~ngai virumbi - ANDAL wants to be united
with Him just as periyAa pirATTI is, permanently united with
Him inseparably, so that she does not have anything of herself
except for Him.

SItAppirATTi tells hanumAn :
"yathA tam purushavyAghram gAtrai: SokAbhikarSitai: |
samspr*Seyam sakAmA'ham tathA kuru dayAm mayi"
(rAmAyanam sundara kANDam 40-3 )
"Do whatever is needed so that I will be able to
embrace my Lord with my body which has become weak because
of separation from Him".

godai does not want to have another birth to get this union
with emperumAn; She wants to get this desire fulfilled in this
birth itself.

nAL tORum - This bhagavad-anubhavam that ANDAL so
intensely desires is not something that is a one-time
incident; she wants this anubhavam to be permanent,
irreversible, and forever.

pon Agam - The Golden tirumEni of emperumAn.

purivuDaimai: puri means desire.  purvuDaimai here refers to
ANDAL's having the desire to be united with Him.  When godai and
kaNNan were together, it was natural for Him to tell her how
much He loved her, and as a woman she naturally listened to
all this and enjoyed it.  But as is consistent with feminine
nature, she did not express outwardly that she was equally
desirous of union with Him.  But now He has forced her
into this state where she has to send a messenger to Him.

It is normal for the owner to desire to have something he
owns; but it is not normal for the "something" to desire
to belong the owner. Godai is in such an awkward situation
here; she is sending a messenger to let Him know of her pangs
of separation. So, she says: "tell Him that both our svarUpams
have become destroyed".  This is contrary to rakshya-rakshaka
bhAvam.  This why ANDAL is asking the clouds to "go and tell
Him" - SeppuminE, since He does not seem to understand this
obvious situation.

D. From SrI Kr*shNasvAmi aiyengAr:

The purport of this pASuram is that godai is sending her plea
to tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn with due respect to pirATTi, who is
our purushAkAram.

SeppuminE: According to tAtparya ratnAvaLi 3, ("dESikAstatra dUtA:"),
clouds etc. that are sent as messengers denote AcArya-s in
svApadESam. So, godai tells the pururshAkAra bhUta-s, " please
rectify my separation from Him by telling Him what my state of
affairs is".

E. Additional Thoughts:

Note the beautiful poetic use of the word Agam here in all
four lines of the pASuram:  min Agam - the sky with
lightning; tan Agam - bhagavAn's tirumEni; en Agam - my
SarIram; pon Agam - either BhagavAn's golden tirumEni,
or ANDAL's beautiful tirumEni.

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
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