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nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIV paTTi mEyndOr kArERu 3

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • May 6, 2003 


                                                      
   SrI:
             SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr
tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

                 nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIV – paTTi
mEyndOr kArERu

pASuram 14.3 (fourteenth tirumozhi-pAsuram 3 mAlAip
piRanda nambiyai)

garuDanadu Ciragin kIzh varuvAnaik kaNDOm

mAlAip piRanda nambiyai mAlE Seyyum maNALanai
ElAp poygaL uraippAnai iÂ’ngE pOdak kaNDIrE?
mElAl paranda veyil kAppAn vinataic ciRuvan ciRagu
ennum
 mElAppin kIzh varuvAnai virundAvanattE kaNDOmE


A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

“Did you see the one who is the embodiment of Love,
the one who entices all the girls with His soundaryam,
the one who is meant to be my maNALan and the one who
goes around throwing lie after lie, go this way?”
“We saw a wonderful sight; we saw that kRshNan playing
in vrindAvanam. vinataiÂ’s son, garuDan was flying up
and down following His path just so that
rAja-vENUgOpAlan will not be affected by the hot sunÂ’s
rays”. (For a change, instead of SenrAl kuDaiyAm
AdiSEshan being an umbrella for Him, here, periya
tiruvaDi – garuDan feels happy that He gets to do this
kaimkaryam at least now, because AdiSEshan has made
His avatAram as balarAman).

B.	Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

mAlAip piRanda: mAl = love.  He was born as the
incarnation of love (towards the girls of AyarpADi). 
The Sruti declares that in SrI vaikunTham, bhagavAn is
of the form of satyam, j~nAnam, etc., as we see in the
following mantra from taittirIya AraNyaka 1.1:

  “satayam j~nAnam anantam brahma  |
  yo vEda nihitam guhAyAm paramE vyOman |
  soÂ’Snute sarvAn kAmAn saha brahmaNA vipaScitEti || 

{Whoever sees in his heart-cave, the Brahmam that has
the form of truth and knowledge and is endless, that
person enjoys in paramapadam, the association with
that sarvaj~nan with all His kalyANa guna-s.)  Thus,
while the vEda declares that He is of the form of
satyam, j~nAnam, etc. in SrI vaikunTham, , ANDAL
declares that He is of the form of pure love in His
incarnation here.  She called Him “mAlE” in
tiruppAvai-26 too. 

 nambiyai :  The word nambi literally means “a person
who is eminent among men”, and is used as a reference
to bhagavAn.  By referring to Him as “mAlAip
piRandavan”, ANDAL only covered one attribute or guNa
of kaNNan.  Since He is full of endless kalyANa
guNa-s, she now adds the word nambi. 

 mAlE Seyyum:  One who was dedicated to showering His
love on others.  Lord rAma was known for showering His
affection and love on all people of all age groups,
young and old, men and women, spontaneously first, and
this generated their love towards Him. 

“sarvEshAm hi sa darmAtmA varNAnAm kurutE dayAm
  caturNAm hi vayassthAnAm tEna tE tamanuvratA: “
(ramAyaNam ayodhyA kANDam 17-16) 

Our kaNNan similarly showered His love on the AyarpADi
girls first, and thus ensured that it generated their
love towards Him!  

maNALanai:  He is the only maNavAlan who can rule over
my feminine charm. 

 ElAp poygaL uraippAnai : He says lies which do not
make sense. One gOpi saw kaNNan having turmeric and
sandalwood on His tirumEni one time and asked Him
“From which girl did you get these marks?”  He lied
through His teeth “Would I have gotten these from
anyone else but you? Do I even know any other girl?”
If one wants to listen to truth, one has to go to rAma
avatAram. He is “priyavAdI ca bhUtAnAm satyavAdI ca
rAghava: “ (rAmAyaNam ayodhyA kANDam 2-32). rAman will
speak very sweetly to all beings and He will speak
only the truth. 

perumALÂ’s words always reveal the truth and does good
for everyone. Since rAma always spoke the truth, His
words were always internally consistent, and were true
even as they were uttered.   kaNNanÂ’s words were
always contradicting each other and always appeared as
lies. But, His lies also ended in good for everyone,
and had the same effect as truths. Thus, for devotees,
truth was the refuge in rAma avatAram and lie was the
refuge in kRshNa avatAram.  

rAma protected His devotees by coordinating His mind,
body and words; kaNNan protected His devotees by
lessening His own greatness and lying, if only it
could protect His devotees. He said that He will not
take up any weapon during the war, but took it anyway;
He made day time appear like night time, and protected
the pANDavas by revealing to them the secret for
killing duryOdhana and other enemies. 

poygaL uraippAnai:  it is not just one or two lies; He
has said hundreds of thousands of lies, and made them
all sound like truth. 

iÂ’ngE pOdak kaNDIrE?:  Did you see this great liar go
this way?  ANDAL considers that His characteristic of
lying should be obviously noticeable to everyone as a
great way to identify Him! 

Now comes the reply from the respondents.

mElAl paRanda veyil kAppAn vinataic ciRuvan ciRagu
ennum
mElAppin kIzh varuvAnai : garuDan was spreading his
wings in the sky in such a way that kaNNan will be in
the shadow of his wings and not be affected by the
direct rays of the sun. SrI nampiLLai used to enjoy
the words “vinatai ciRuvan” used by ANDAL:
1.	ANDAL has chosen the word “ciRuvan” to refer to
garuDan in a very meaningful way, clearly revealing
that garuDan is Seshan for her also.   (“What a
wonderful choice of words by ANDAL!” – nampiLLai used
to exclaim and enjoy).  One who serves as the umbrella
for Him is by birth a dAsan for her also.  
2.	mahAbhAratam talks about kadru (garuDanÂ’s step
mother), who  made vinatai (garuDanÂ’s mother) her
servant and made her stand in the direct sunlight. 
garuDan protected her at that time from the direct
sunlight by giving her shade by spreading his wings in
the sky.  gOdai might be referring to that also by
‘vinatai ciRuvan’ – the ‘child’ of vinatai, who cared
for his mother.

mElAppin kIzh varuvAnai virundAvanattE kaNDOmE: Just
as sampAti protected his younger brother jaTAyu from
the direct sunlight by spreading his wings, garuDan
also made his wings into an umbrella and gave kaNNan 
shade from the sun. We saw kaNNan as He was playing
under those spread wings in bRndAvanam. 


C.	Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

mAlAip piRanda nambi – He is the incarnation of love
and affection to His devotees without distinction;  He
showered His love and affection even to the uneducated
and simple folks of AyarpADi (Our AcArya-s describe
these folks as ‘ones who do not even know the
difference between the left and the right hands – such
simple people).  Thus this term is an indication of
His guNa paripUrNatvam.  

poygaL uraippAnai:  Sri UV indulges in this phrase
with enjoyment.  A ‘good liar’ will lie such that it
seems like he/she is telling the truth.  All that is
said should be internally self-consistent, so that the
whole story sounds true.  If someone is trying to go
up a coconut tree and if he is asked “why are you
going up the tree?”, and if he says “I am trying to
get some grass from the top of the tree for my calf”,
anyone can definitely determine that he is lying, and
that his intent is to steal the coconuts. No one will
believe him. Our kaNNan is a skillful elder brother to
this kind of a liar (“avanukku aNNan ikkaNNan”).  If
kaNNan was going up the coconut tree, He can also say
that He is looking for grass;  and if asked to explain
how He is looking for grass on a coconut  tree, He
would say “coconut trees are tRNa-vRksha (the name for
a coconut tree in samskRt), and where else will tRNam
(the term for grass in samskRt), if not on a
tRNa-vRksham?  kaNNan would skillfully play with
words, will sound with all sincerity and feign
truthfulness.  If kaNNan is caught while stealing
butter from the pot, and if asked “what are you
looking for in the pot?”,  kaNNan will say “I am
looking for my lost
calf”.  If somebody asks Him how a calf be found in
the pot, He would say “I am not looking for the calf
in a small pot; I am looking for it in a big pot which
looks like a cave”. If some gOpi confronts Him and
asks Him why He is torturing her like this, He would
say “the woman who is on my chest is making me torture
you like this; what can I do?”. 

Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV  = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

aDiyAL,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

(Articles on nAcciyAr tirumozhi are available at:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/7673/azhwars/nachiyar.html
maintained by SrI VenkaT aiyengAr of SrI villiputtUr)


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