nAcciyAr tirumozhi Conclusion PART I
From the Bhakti List Archives
• July 4, 2003
SrI:
SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr
tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
nAcciyAr tirumozhi –
Conclusion – PART I
Part II will be posted next and will conclude this
series.
This series was started on 15, 1998, and the write-up
has been slowly moving during the past five years, and
we have come to the end of the first phase. By the
Grace of asmad AcAryan, aDiyAl has been blessed with
enjoying the SrI sUktiÂ’s of gOdai nAcciyAr. The first
half of the series needs rework, partly because
initially no reference books with detailed
explanations were available, and partly because of
aDiyAlÂ’s relatively greater inexperience in the
earlier stages. The first five tirumozhi-s will be
re-visited and updated as the next phase. The current
“Conclusion” is to formally conclude the first phase.
The motivation for this whole effort stemmed solely
from SrImAn SaDagOpan, without whose initiation and
encouragement this would not have even embarked upon.
He provided the only copy of his hand-written tamizh
vyAkhyAnam (that is unpublished) to be translated
into English, and that has been the basis for this
series. But when aDiyAL took the liberty of including
details of pUrvAcAryasÂ’ vyAkhyAnams, he encouraged
this initiative and gave ample opportunity for freedom
and independence. His support was typical of that of
a great guide and motivator. He had distilled all the
pUrvAcAryasÂ’ anubhavam-s in his original write-up.
Some of the experiences of the great pUrvAcAryasÂ’
anubhavams in some detail and some word for word
translations were added as additional thoughts in this
series. The anubhavam-s of SrI periyavAccAn pillai,
SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcArya svAmi, SrI P.B.
aNNaÂ’ngarAcArya svAmi, and SrI T.S. rAjagopAlan have
been used to a large extent to form the basis for all
the postings (including this conclusion).
With that prelude, this conclusion section is being
used to share with the readers some of the thoughts
based on the learning experience over the past five
years. These are all purely random thoughts that come
to mind, and will reflect a lot of misunderstanding
(on aDiyALÂ’s part) of the teachings of nAcciyAr
tirumozhi. bhagatOttamas of this forum are requested
to please feel free to comment on these so that aDiyAL
can learn and refine these thoughts.
The sequence of topics chosen below is purely
arbitrary.
1. Development of a devotee from bhakti to parama
bhakti:
SrI PVPÂ’s anubhavam is that bhagavAn is subjecting
gOdai to extreme suffering because He wants to develop
her bhakti all the way to the stage of parama bhakti
before revealing Himself to her. He comments that if
bhagavAn reveals Himself to a person who is not yet at
the stage of parama bhakti, this person may just not
be able to take the sudden shock of this extreme
delight (refer to the vyAkhyAnam for fourteenth
tirumozhi - paTTi mEyndOr kArERU). The parama bhakti
stage is described as that stage where the devotee is
unable to live without bhagavad anubhavam even for a
moment. It is at that stage that bhagavAn chooses to
reveal Himself to His devotee. This is illustrated
nicely in the sequence of events in ANDALÂ’s
experience. She starts off with several attempts such
as praying to kAman, kUDal izhaittal, sending messages
through the cuckoo and through the cloud, trying to go
divya deSam-s, etc. Gradually her intensity of
devotion keeps increasing, up to the point in
tirumozhi 13, where she is clearly at a stage where
she wonÂ’t be able to sustain her life anymore unless
there is some form of union with Him. It is then and
only then that kaNNan reveals Himself to her.
The lesson for us mumUkshu-s is that we should realize
that whatever ‘suffering’ we are undergoing in this
life, is all because He considers it in our best
interest, so that He can lead us to His Feet. Through
our sufferings and ordeals in this samsAra, we should
never loose faith in our ultimate and only goal,
namely the nitya kainkaryam at His feet here and
hereafter (ingum, angum, eppOdum, ekkAlattum).
2. ANDALÂ’s avatAra rahasyam:
The question arises: Why does ANDAL, who is bhU devi
herself, have to go through this kind of experience?
The answer lies in an understanding of the avatAra
rahsyam of ANDAL.
bhagavAn and pirATTi take incarnations in this world
among us for several reasons. The main reasons given
for the incarnations are to protect the good and
destroy the evil – paritrANAya sAdhUnAm vinASAya ca
dushkRtAm, to be easily available for the jIva-s to
approach Him (e.g., His arcA incarnations), etc. In
His vibhava incarnations, where He has taken a human
form, one of the ‘by-products’ of His incarnations is
that He shows us humans how to lead our life according
to the sanAtana dharma. Even though in these
incarnations He retains all His powers in full, He
still does not use these powers during these
incarnations, but leads a life as if He is just a
human (AtmAnam mAnusham manyE), and shows us in the
process how to lead a life according to the SAstra-s,
following the dhArmic path like doing nitya karmAs.
His activities in this world during His vibhava
incarnations are like His putting on a ‘robe’ during
an act, at the end of which He returns to SrI
vaikunTham.
ANDALÂ’s incarnation in this world was meant for the
purpose of showing us – the bound souls, how to live a
life of dedication to Him and attain Him through pure
devotion. So it was an incarnation she took for our
benefit, and at the end of fulfilling her role, she
returned back to emperumAn - kEsava nambhiyaik kAl
piDIkka. SrI maNavALa mAmunigaL aptly extols
gOdai’s avatAram– “emakkAga anRO ingu ANDAL
avadarittAL”.
SrI perukkAraNai svAmi gives the gist of ANDALÂ’s
avatAra rahasyam in terms of varAha purANam. When
bhUdevi was stolen and taken to the bottom of the
ocean by the asuran, she was retrieved by varAha
bhagavAn; at that time, she asks Him to tell her the
laghu upAyam (an easy way ) for the jIva-s to please
Him and attain Him. He reveals three means to her:
by singing about Him, saying His nAma, and worshipping
Him with flowers.
This is precisely what bhUmi devi is revealing to us
through her tirumozhi. She does this with
a. Singing her pAmAlai - “innisaiyAl sonna mAlai” –
NT 3.10
b. Saying His nAmam: kEsava –2.5, nArAyaNa –2.1,
mAdhava –2.5, gOvinda –2.9, madhusUdhana –6.6,
trivikrama –12.9-ulagaLandAn , vAmana –4.2, srIdhara
–2.1 , hRshIkEsa – 5.6 , vAsudEva – 7.3, dAmodara
–7.4, tirumAlirumcOlai nambi- 9.6, tiruvarangar –
11.1, vAmananAr – 11.4, kaNNan – 13.1 are just a few
examples.
She waxes eloquent and calls her nAthan affectionately
in many places providing a special nAmAvaLi for Him –
anRu bAlakan Agi Alilai mEl tuyinRa em Adi, guNDu
nIruRai kOLarI, Seyya tAmaraik kaNNinAi, peyyumAmugil
pOl vaNNa, ceRRu ilangai pUsal Akkiya Sevaka, Uzhi
ellAm uNarvAne, engaL amude, kOmaLa Ayar kozhundE,
mannu perum pugazh mAdhavan, vimalan, karumANikkam,
koLari mAdhavan, gOvindan enbAn Or kALai, madurak
kozhum cARu koNDa sundarat tOLuDaiyAn, en arangattu in
amudar, kuzhal azagar, vAi azhagar, kaN azhagar,
koppUzhil ezhu kamalap pUvazhagar, emmAnAr, tiru
arangac celvanAr, ArAvamudan, mAdhavan en maNi etc.
c. Submitting flowers to Him, both in the form of the
flower garland that she wore on herself, and also in
the form of the sweet pASuram-s; she is gOdai – “sUDik
kodutta suDark koDi”, “sUDik kodutta nAcciyAr”; she is
“mAlAkArar magaL” (SrI PVP).
Another anubhavam for ANDALÂ’s incarnation among us is
also provided by SrI perukkAraNai cakravartyAcArya
svAmi. After taking several incarnations and trying
to unsuccessfully teach the jIva-s the true purpose of
their having been given a body, emperumAn felt that
His patni will be able to accomplish what He could not
successfully accomplish; the upadEsa inimai and soft
spoken advice coming from a woman will certainly go a
long way in bringing salvation to His children. He
chose bhUmi devi for this task. And this is why she
took birth amongst us, and showed us how to devote our
thought, word and deed to His kainkaryam.
3. anya devatA worship issue:
An interesting episode in nAcciyAr tirumozhi is
ANDALÂ’s worship of kAmadevan for attaining emperumAn
as her consort (the first tirumozhi). Some tend to
quote this as an example of the ‘practice of anya
devatA worship” by ANDAL. This is a total
misunderstanding of the concept of ‘anya devatA
worship. ANDALÂ’s anaÂ’nga deva worship is not to be
viewed as ‘anya devatA worship’, but as the extreme
desire of a devotee to attain Him at any cost. It is
the extreme feeling of urgency (tvarai), the extreme
desire for union with Him, that drives a soul truly
interested in reaching Him, to struggle like a fish
out of water to get back into the water one way or the
other. ‘anya devatA worship’ refers to the situation
when a person worships the lesser devatA-s for lesser
benefits in life, that will lead to being reborn and
repeatedly toiling in the ocean of samsAra. ANDALÂ’s
prayer to anaÂ’nga devan is for reaching Him as the
only desire, and is not anywhere in the category of
‘anya devatA worship’. Her action is a superb example
of doing everything one does only for Him, and to
attain Him so that one is irreversibly united with Him
in nitya kainkaryam.
SrI PVP quotes examples of nammAzhvAr, hanumAn, etc.,
who have also resorted to calling on anya devatA-s in
order to realize Him or to assist in His kainkaryam
(note: not for their selfish benefits of enjoyment).
HanumAn prays to rudran, indran, yaman vAyu etc before
attempting to look for sItai in aSOka vanam.
nammAzhvAr, in the state of a love-lorn lady
suffering from separation from emperumAn, calls all
gods “deyvangAL! en SeygEn” tiruvAimozhi 5.4.8.
SrI UV gives the view of svAmi deSikan on this issue.
svAmi deSikan describes ANDALÂ’s worship of kAmadevan
as: “nAcciyAr kRshNanaip peRugaikkAkagap paNNina
kAmadEvArcanam sRÂ’ngAra samAdhyanuguNa kRshNa
rUpAntara vishayam”. She undertook the ana’nga deva
vratam in order to speed up the attainment of bhagavAn
as her consort before she became of age, as prescribed
by the SAstra-s.
4. nindA stuti (pirATTiÂ’s right):
In several places, gOdai indulges in nindA stuti -
tImai Seyyum sirIdara (2.1), irakkamE onRum ilAdAi
(3.4 ), masimai ilI (3.9), peN koDiyai vadai SeydAn
(8.9), “pAmbaNaiyArkkum tam pAmbu pOl nAvum iRaNDu
uLa” (10.3), peNNin varuttam aRiyAda perumAn (13.1),
koDiya kaDiya tirumAl ( 13.6 ), vEmbu (13.7), allal
viLaitta perumAn (13.10), ElAp poygaL uraippAn (14.3),
darumam aRiyAk kuRumban (14.6), puRam pOl uLLum
kariyAn (14.7) etc.
The question naturally arises: Why would a supreme
devotee like gOdai indulge in calling Him “names”?
This can be very easily understood by an understanding
of the role of pirATTi in our tradition.
PirATTiÂ’s role in our sampradAyam is one of
purushakAratvam – recommending to emperumAn to forgive
our immense sins, and instead look at even the
smallest good deeds we might have done, and based on
that, to give us His protection. svAmi deSikan nicely
describes how bhUmi devi controls Him purely by the
indications of her displeasure towards Him through the
movement of her eyebrows if He does not forgive her
children irrespective of their sins –
“gOde guNair-apanayan praNatAparAdhAn
bhrUkshepa eva tava bhoga rasAnukUla: |
karmAnubandhi phala dAna ratasya bhartu:
svAtantrya durvyasana marma bhidA nidAnam || “
(gOdAstuti – 25).
ANDALÂ’s nindA stuti is the result of her impatience at
her Consort for not bestowing His protection to the
jIva-s right away, and instead waiting for developing
their devotion to parama bhakti stage etc.. ANDAL
knows only too well how few of us will develop the
kind of parama bhakti that He waited for in her. In
gItA, Lord kRshNa Himself declares how few people can
realize Him:
manushyANam sahasrEshu kascid yatati siddhayE |
yatatAm api siddhAnAm kascin mAm vetti tattvata: ||”
(gItA 7.3)
“Among thousands of men, some one strives for
perfection; even among those who strive for
perfection, some one only knows Me; and among those
who know Me, some one only knows Me in reality”.
bahUnAm janmanAm ante j~nAnavAn mAm prapadyate |
vAsudEva: sarvamiti sa mahAtmA sudurlabha:
|| (gItA 7.19)
“At the end of many births, the man of knowledge finds
refuge in Me, realizing that “Vasudeva is all”. It is
very hard to find such a great-souled person”.
5. AcArya bhakti of ANDAL:
The importance of AcArya sambandham in attaining
emperumAn is stressed over and over again by gOdai
throughout nAcciyAr tirumozhi. She refers to herself
proudly as “viTTu cittan gOdai” in the concluding
pAsurams of all the tirumozhi-s except the 4th and the
9th. An example of the pride and devotion with which
she considers the importance of AcArya sambandham in
her accomplishing her goal of attaining Him is NT
pASuram 13.10, where she describes herself as “villi
puduvai nagar nambi viTTu citta viyan kOdai”.
This very important teaching, that our AcAryan is to
be worshipped by us as bhagavAn Himself, is
elaborately described by svAmi deSikan in nyAsa
vimSati (Slokam 2). SrImad nammANDavanÂ’s (SrI
tErazhundUr ANDAvan) vyAkhyAnam for svAmi deSikanÂ’s
pAdukA sahasram (in simple tamizh for our benefit)
repeatedly emphasizes this point also. Our Mother
gOdai gives us this important instruction through her
tirumozhi-s and through her life on this earth.
“What can we do in the big universal scheme (siRu
mAniDavar nAm Seyvadu en? tangaL dEvarai valla pariSu
varuvipparel adu kANDume” (NT 10.10) - Our only hope
is for us to surrender to our AcAryan, and he will
definitely bestow his blessings on us and take us to
our perumAL
SrI PVP also emphasizes this point in his vyAkhyAnam
for pASuram 10.10. He notes that paramAtmA abides by
the recommendation of the AcAryas. A cEtanan must
fully realize that AcAryan is the sole means to reach
emperumAn. Even though emperuman and cEtanan have the
SEshi-Sesha sambandham, the reason why the cEtanan has
not yet reached emperumAn is because of the absence of
a proper AcAryan. AcAryan should be thought of as
purushAkAram to reach emperumAn; this is the teaching
of our Sastra-s. Instead of just stopping with the
understanding that the AcAryaÂ’s role of one of
purhsakArattvam, there are some great souls like
madurakavi AzhvAr who consider their AcArya to be
their only God “dEvu mArru aRiyEN” (kaNNi – 2).
ANDAL falls in that group - “tangaL dEvarai” – which
emphasizes her relationship with periyAzhvAr as the
only upAyam to attain Him. It is only because
periyAzhvAr considered emperumAn worthy of worship,
she also prays to Him.
6. nAcciyAr tirumozhi in everyday life:
1. Used in sARRumuRai in tiruppati:
tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn who is extolled as “agalagillEn
iraiyum enRu alarmel mangai uRai mArban” is the
kaliyuga pratyaksha daivam. After His tirumaÂ’njanams
are held every Friday, during SARRumuRai, the last two
pAsurams of the 14th tirumozhi (paTTi mEyndor kArERu)
are being recited from early days on till today. The
term “vETTaiyADi varuvAnai” is taken to denote
emperumAn going for hunting and finding padmAvati
tAyAr, then marrying her and residing in tirumalai as
SrInivAsan.
II. vAraNam Ayiram (NT 6):
This tirumozhi is a class by itself and has occupied
a permanent, special place in all SrI vaishNava
weddings. It has embedded in it various siddhAnta
vishayams, and these are discussed in detail by SrI UV
in his vyAkhyAnam for nAcciyAr tirumozhi.
a) gOdai describes in detail her dream of her marriage
with kaNNan in this tirumozhi. SrI UV points out
that according to our siddhAntam, just as what we see
in the real world with our physical eyes is true, what
we experience in our dreams is also true. The effects
of puNyam and pApam come as experiences in the dream
and thus they are related to the body. If oneÂ’s dream
involves committing a sinful act, when one wakes up,
prAyascittam is prescribed for that pApam. Thus, what
happens in svapnam is as true as what happens in the
waking state, according to our siddhAntam. Since
emperumAn has come and married godai in her dream, and
since He is aware of that, from now on, they can both
think and behave as if they are husband and wife.
It is our siddhAntam that experiences in the dream are
a form of our phalan for our good and bad deeds, and
are just as real as are the experiences in the real
world.
The poet Sri Harshan describes in his work naishadha
kAvyam, that according to the viSishTAdvaita
siddhAnta, people will have anubhavams of special
dreams according to their individual bhAgyam-s, just
as they have anubhavams in their waking state.
b) The steps and sequences involved in the vedic
marriage of today are not any different from the
marriage ceremony that ANDAL describes in
vAraNamAyiram. Arrival of the bridegroom for
niscitArttam, mappiLLai azhaippu, the actual function
of niscitArttam, bridegroomÂ’s sister making the bride
wear the kURaip puDavai, prOskhaNam, rakshA bandhanam,
chanting of vEda mantrams, mattaLam playing, women
welcoming the bridegroom, pANigrahaNam, ammi midittal,
saptapati, lAja hOmam or pori iDal are all wedding
rites that have been followed from vedic times onwards
till today.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the sacred
ceremony of marriage has retained its vedic aspect
unchanged for several centuries now (unlike many other
practices such as sandhyAvandanam, dress habits, sikhA
etc.).
SrI UV points out that while mAÂ’ngaLa sUtram is just a
sign that the girl is married, the true vedic rite of
importance in marriage is the pANi grahaNam
(“kaittalam paRRak kanAk kaNDEn”). (“pANi grahaNAt tu
sahattvam karmasu tathA puNya phaleshu”; “ saha dharma
carI tava, pANim gRhNIshva”).
For a more detailed description of vAraNamAyiram, the
readers are referred to the following URL (this was
not posted as part of the regular postings in the
bhakti list, and so the web site referenced is the
only source for this write-up at this stage).
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/7673/azhwars/varanam.html
III. nURu taDA veNNai, nURu taDA niRainda akkAra
aDisil:
Every SrI vaishNava housewife offers prasAdam to
perumAL in the house every day by chanting NT 9.6
pASuram: “nURu tADavil veNNai vAi nErndu parAvi
vaittEn , nURu taDA niRainda akkAra aDiSil SonnEn”.
As we all know, ANDAL made this grand promise, but
reached union with Him before getting a chance to
fulfil this promise. Our beloved emperumAnAr, also
known as tiruppAvai jeeyar, fulfilled godaiÂ’s wish by
offering nURu taDA veNNai and nURu taDA akkAra aDiSil
in golden vaTTilÂ’s to tirumAl irum SOlai perumAL. We
also recall that the title “perumpUdUr mAmunikkup
pinnAnAL” for ANDAL comes about because ANDAL came out
of her arcA form and called out to emperumAnAr as “en
aNNA”, and thus ANDAL herself has declared emperumAnAr
is her “elder brother” because of his concern and love
for her.
7. The Ultimate Goal To be achieved, The Ultimate
UpAyam, The rahasya-s etc.
As an incarnation in the form of an AzhvAr, as a
paramaikAntin, as an AcArya in the line of succession
next to emperumAn, and as Our Mother who is giving us
instructions on how to attain Him without fail, ANDAL
is conveying the message of nArAyaNa parattvam, the
SaraNAgati SAstram, the three rahasya-s, etc., through
her tirumozhi to us. Just a few instances are given
below:
ANDAL reminds us of the message of SrI varAha carama
Slokam in the eleventh tirumozhi -“tAm ugakkum 8 –
“pASi tUttuk kiDanda pAr magaTkup paNDoru nAL … pESi
iruppanagaL perkkavum perAve “.
In NT5.11, gOdai extols the ultimate bliss
that we should strive to attain: “namo
nArAyaNAya enbArE”.
That nArAyaNan is the sole parampurushan to be
worshipped is a point that ANDAL has stressed over and
over in her nAcciyAr tirumozhi. As our Mother, she
has shown as how to live like a fish out of water when
separated from emperumAn and the fervor with which we
should all try to obtain His attention and attain His
grace. She strengthens our faith by proclaiming
“immaikkum ezhezh piRavikkum paRRAvAn nammai uDaiyavan
nAraAyaNan nambi” (NT6.8).
nArAyaNan is our “marundu” (NT 14.10); He is our
“oushadam” for our samsAric life.
This is what gOdai has been striving to inculcate into
our brains, so that jIvAtmas like us can use this
marundu to be rid of the disease in the form of our
repeated “piRappu” and become united with our
emperumAn.
The above is just a short list of the enormous chain
of thoughts coming to mind on the greatness of this
sacred tirumozhi. Let us all benefit by meditating on
gOdA pirATTi for her purushakArattvam on our behalf.
This write-up will be concluded with Part II of
“Conclusion” which will follow.
End of Part I of Conclusion.
Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr
sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.
SrI ANDAL, SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDIgaLE SaraNam.
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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