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amalanthipirAn - 8

From the Bhakti List Archives

Venkatesan Ananth • November 7, 2000 


Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

--

amalanAthipirAn ettAm pAsuram

pariyanAgivantha avuNanudalkeeNda amarark
kariyavAthippirA narankaththamlan mugaththuk
kariyavAgippudaiparanthu miLirnthu sevvariyOdi
neeNdavap
periyavAyakaNgaLennaip pEthamai seythanavE

--

Meaning:

He who ripped apart the large body of Hiranya who came

at Him, who is unattainable even to the dEvAs, who is 
the origin of everything, who helps us all, who
resides 
in Srirangam, who is most pure, His eyes that foam
with
His grace and which are dark, wide, and having red
lines, 
have made me a fool.

--

Essence: 

His divine eyes have made AzhvAr loose his mind.

His eyes were watching AzhvAr say in the previous song

that His red lips stole his mind ("seyyavAyaiyO ennais

sinthai kavarnthathu"). His eyes are saying that the 
lips only have the red color, but that it has the
colors 
red, black and white. Only after He turns His eyes 
toward anyone do they truly become liberated. His look

(eyes) is the shine in His words. Also, His lotus eyes

is the shine in His grace ("anaiththulagumudaiya 
aravinthalOcanan"). Everyone turns to His eyes for 
protection ("puNdariikAksha raksh mAm"). His eyes 
showing their importance are thus pulling AzhvAr away 
from His mouth.

In an earlier song, AzhvAr had said that He had
removed 
his ancient sins without looking at his drawbacks 
("pAramAya pazhavinai paRRaRuththu"). When the doubt 
came that would He remove such sins, AzhvAr used the 
example of Rudra to show that He will. When doubts
came 
whether He would do to us what He did for Rudra,
AzhvAr 
answered them in the previous song. In this song,
AzhvAr 
addresses one further issue. The only way that such
sins 
and karmAs will be removed so that they do not arise 
again is to remove the avidhyA that is their source.
This 
avidyA will prevent those associated with it from
truly 
becoming His devotees and attaining liberation. The 
comparison is to Hiranya who like the avidhyA tried to

prevent Parahalada from becoming His devotee. Hiranya
is 
the physical form of all the tamO guNAs ("tamO 
hiraNyaroopENa pariNAmamupAgatham"). He ripped this 
Hiranya as Narasimha with His divine hands and AzhvAr 
says that similarly He will shred the avidhyA with His

knowledge hands ("gnyAnakkai").

--

pariyanAgivantha:
Unlike those who are always thinking of Him, who 
understand His grace, and who love Him, Hiranya had a 
large body such that He had to come as Narasimha.
By understanding that there is a soul, that He is the 
owner of that soul and reaching Him is that soul's 
purpose, a person would melt physically as well as 
mentally. Or, wanting to reach Him and having not 
attained Him one's bhakthi grows even more and his
body slims down ("ninpAlanbAyE adiyEnudalam neerAy
alainthu karaiyavurukkukinRa nedumAlE"). Instead, due 
to his false pride, Hiranya had grown his body to a 
large extent.
Just like kings would feed and grow some pigs as
guards, 
the dEvAs fed Hiranya with boons and grew him to be
the 
target for Narasimha.
Hiranya came against Him as if he is the collection of
all the tamas in all the worlds.

vantha:
AzhvAr is worried that even now Hiranya is around and 
going against Him.

avuNanudalkeeNda:
Hiranya's body that was big enough that it might even 
have to be attacked by His chakra, was ripped to
shreds 
just by looking at Narasimha's face and looks.
Hiranya charged like a large mountain and He ripped
him
in two like a plantain leaf.

udalkeeNda:
He ripped the body which is the source of ahangAram 
("kiLLik kaLainthAn"), while saving the soul which 
belongs to Him.

amararkkariya:
He is unattainable even to Brahma, Rudra and the
dEvAs. 
Yet, He was easily approachable to Prahalada.
He is approachable to His devotees even in His fierce 
mood.
AzhvAr is saying that He is approachable to him even 
though He is unattainable to the dEvAs. That is, He is

letting AzhvAr enjoy Him completely by removing his
sins 
and karmAs fully and taking him over.
While Prahalada was able to approach and enjoy Him,
the
devAs who were created and protected by Him could not 
see that He (Narasimha) is the origin, the cause and
the 
most helpful, and were unable to approach Him.

Athi:
He is the origin and the cause for everything.
Like a father who has several sons but is most kind to

his weaker son, He is the origin of all worlds and yet

He is kind to us who are weak.
He is the cause, He is the origin and He is the
primary.

amararkkariyavAthippirAn:
He is pirAn not because He was helpful to AzhvAr; He
is
that because while being unattainable to the dEvAs He
went and defeated Prahalada's enemy.

AthippirAn:
Prahalada said that He is the cause of all and when
Hiranya
asked if that cause of everything would be in a
pillar, 
Prahalada said that He is within the soul of
everything and
therefore would be inside that pillar as well. And
when
Hiranya broke that pillar, He came out as Narasimha,
ripped 
Hiranya's chest ("ponpeyarOn vAythakarththu
mArpidanthAn"),
and proved Prahalada's statements. Thus, He estalished
that
He is the cause and He is the Lord of everything.
AzhvAr
is remembering that here.
Azhvar finds it helpful to him that He is unattainable
to
Brahma, Rudra and the Devas, yet He is approachable to
Prahalada.

arankaththamalan:
As Narasimha, He came once upon a time, inside one
pillar 
and defeated the enemy of one person (Prahalada). In 
Srirangam, He is resting between two pillars, for all
time, 
to defeat the enemies of everyone.
Prahalada as soon as he got the attachment to Him,
started
speaking of Him and praising Him under all
circumstances.
For that and because he had gnyAnabhakti, He helped
him.
Here, periya perumAL is resting to help the whole
world
without discrimination ("EzhaiyEthalan keezh makan
ennAthiranki").
He is lying here facing south to fulfill His promise
to
Vibeeshana that He would never give up His friendship
to him. But, He is also here to save even the lowliest
of all beings.
He is resting in Arangam where He cuts the karmAs and 
saves everyone who surrenders at His feet
("aNiyArpozhil 
soozharanganagarappa, thuNiyEnini
ninnaruLallathenakku").

amalan:
Whoever looks at His divine face loose their avidyA
and
become purified.
He purified AzhvAr by associating him with Loka
Saranga
Muni.
His purity is enhanced by resting in Srirangam to help
everyone for all time, rather than one time such as in
an 
avatar.

mugaththu:
Here AzhvAr is specifically refering to His face ("un 
mugam mAyamanthiranthAn kolO", "sakhya: pashyat
krushNasya 
mukham"), to separate from His lips that he had talked
about in the previous song.
His face is like the moon in which two lotuses (eyes)
are
present.
His face is like a lotus in which two lotuses (eyes)
are
present.

kariyavAgi:
Contrasting the whiteness around it are His dark eyes.
His eyes are dark due to the anjanam around them.
Dark also represents cool, showing that everyone's
thAbam 
(heat from their karmAs) will be removed the moment
they 
see His eyes.

pudaiparanthu:
His eyes are like ponds made out of an ocean.
His wide spread eyes.

paranthu:
The large extent of His eyes come from His grace in 
removing our avidhyA and saving us.

miLirnthu:
Because His eyes are brimming with His grace
("krupai"),
it is like an ocean with foaming waves.
More than AzhvAr's interest in seeing His eyes, is His
interest in seeing AzhvAr.

sevvariyOdi:
The redness that comes from His sriya:patitvam and 
vAtsalyam.

neeNda:
His long eyes that reached all the way to AzhvAr.
His divine eyes that are spread up to His ears.
His eyes are the same as the ones that show 
themselves to the nithyasooris, that showed 
themselves briefly to different people during His
avatars and that are periya perumAL's who is
refusing to leave here until He has saved everyone.
One has to wonder, should He not have eyes all over 
His body in providing this much grace to us?

apperiyavAya kaNkaL:
His eyes are without any limit.
AzhvAr had described the limitless physical stature 
of His eyes with the words "paranthu" and "neeNdu". 
Here he is talking about the limitless sweetness
of His eyes.
His eyes are like the Sun and the Moon ("thingaLum
Adiththiyanum ezhunthARpOl ankaN iraNdum").
His eyes are like just bloomed lotuses due to His 
love for His devotees.
His eyes show His delight in supporting everyone that
surrenders to Him.

apperiya:
His eyes have more than what AzhvAr has seen in them
at this time.

ennai:
AzhvAr says his mind was like a stone. His eyes have
now melted his mind and given him liberation.

pEthamai seythanavE:
AzhvAr had said before that He stole his mind's
essense
("ennais sinthai kavarnthathuvE"). Here he is saying 
that He has stolen his mind itself.
It should be that when He looks at someone they should
be able to see everything clearly; instead, His eyes 
have destroyed AzhvAr's mind.
Having seen and absorbed in His eyes, AzhvArs says 
that he has lost his ability to be involved in
anything
else in this world.

--

In the previous song AhzvAr had seen Sri Vaikunta 
Nathan in periya perumAL. In this song, he sees 
Narasimha avatar in Him.

--

thiruppANAzhvAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam
srI periyavAccAn piLLai, srI azhagiya maNavALap 
perumAL nAyanAr, srI vEdAntha dEsikar thiruvadigaLE
saraNam

--

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
T.C.A. Venkatesan

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