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idu or arpudam keleer- part 3

From the Bhakti List Archives

L&T-ECCG-Buildings & Factories • September 8, 1999 


Dear Sri Vaishnava perunthagaiyeer,

Sri lakshmi nrusimha divya paadukaa sEvaka SrivaN satakOpa Sri Vedaanta
desika yateendra mahaa dEsikaaya namah:

Again a very big thanks to Srimaan Madhvakkannan swamy and Srimaan Sadagopan
swamy on their responses to part 2 of this topic. 

In the previous postings we saw how periyaazhvaar identified KaNNan with
thirumaal, how he described the entire world was tied down by his divine
music thru the paasurams (without the meanings of the paasurams), certain
points on observations of bagavathaas. Now let us see the meanings in detail
for first two in this post.

First two paasurams concern the human level (manithargaL paRRi):
3.6.1.	kOvalar sirumiyar iLankongai kudhukalippa udal uL avizhnthu engum
kaavalum kadanthu kayiru maalaiyaagi vanthu kavizhnthu ninRanarE.

		When Govindan, the boy Lord started playing the flute in
Brindaavan forests the aayar paadi young girls (kOvalar sirumiyar) heard the
music. Is it really music? No it is kuzhal Osai only. Sound from the flute.
The girls heard this and started running towards kaNNan. 

		Periyaazhvaar says here 'kovalar sirumiyar iLankongai
kudukalippa'- means the breasts of these young girls shook or danced in the
speed of running- usually no lady will like another person see shaking of
her breasts, let it be a female or male. Particularly young girls will
definitely NOT like it - but periyazhvaar is very firm in saying 'sirumiyar
ilam kongai kudukalippa' - here these young girls have no shame - naaNam-
they run towards Kannan - a male. 

		Next word of periyazhvaar removes / clears all the bad
intentions, if any, cropping up in the minds of ordinary mortals like us. 

		'udal uL avizhnthu'- have to consider udal and uL
separately- udal avizhnthu, uL avizhnthu.

		udal avizhnthu means the faculty of balanced sense
concerning the body is lost - here it means the dress sense is lost -in the
hurry to reach Kannan, the dress of these girls became loose [and might have
slipped in the running, on the way (which is confirmed in next paasuram)]-
so udal avizhnthu. 

		Focus of mind is on the kuzhal Osai - uL avizhnthu- means
uLLam avizhnthu -the mind loosened or lost its control on what was happening
around except the music -balance of senses on the external surroundings etc
had gone in the rhythm of KaNNan's music. So no worry, no shame, no control.


		When mind is not worrying about other worldly subjects,
naturally no worry about the body also, since body has to follow where the
mind goes -whether dress is loose or tight, whether they are there or not in
position, - no worry - focus is kaNNan's music- when such is the case, are
they going to worry about shaking of breasts - definitely not. 

		Are they going to listen to restrictions imposed by their
parents 'do not to go there' do not meet that particular person' etc, when
mind is already fixed on something and they are not worried about the dress
etc, - No - so kaavalum kadanthu.

		Kayiru maalaiyaagi - these young girls were doing house-hold
chores like thayir kadaithal - churning the curd, etc, and helping their
mothers. The rope for churning was in the hands of these girls. When they
heard the music, simply they started- did not care to put the pots etc in
order, ropes in their places. Result - when dress is loose or missing, these
ropes became the thuppatta - mElaakku - top garment for covering the breasts
- so kayiru became maalai- when mind was absorbed or was lost in the music,
they did not realise how a rope can become a thuppatta.

		They reached where Kannan was playing the music. They were
in such rapt attention that their heads bowed down and eyes were focussed on
Kannan. So vanthu kavizhnthu ninRanarE. 

		Can music do such a magic? Delve deep- you nod your heads-
shake the body- shed tears - is it not? What happens to your senses? Why are
you nodding? Why tears rolling down the cheeks? That is the power of music -
we describe it as dEva gaanam for mortals music, similar in quality and
nature to us - when KaNNan himself is playing, imagine the quality of music.

		So, this is the first scene of the arpudam caused by
KaNNan's music as described by periyaazhvaar.

3.6.2	MadamayilkaLOdu maan piNaipOlE mangaimaar malarkkoonthal avizha udai
negizha oru kaiyaal thugil paRRi olgiyOdarikaNaada ninRanarE.

		In the second verse the God's beautiful creations are
brought in comparison with each other. MadamayilgaL -the peacocks have
beautiful thogai with glittering eye like portions in the center. 

		The peacocks dance when the clouds appear on the horizon and
it is about to rain with their thogai spread in an array beautifully. Are
they going to benefit from the rain directly. No, in spite of it they dance-
that is why it is mada mayilgaL. 

		Here the cloud coloured Kannan has appeared in brindaavan
and started singing. The music makes their dress and hair to float when
these girls were running - both are compared very nicely - cloud and
peacock, cloud coloured krishna and floating haired girls. (just a cross
reference on colour of krishna -neeradha sama neela krishna of oothukkadu
venkatasubbaiyer).

		While running these girls are looking shyly sideward to
check who are all the others coming like us - this is similar to running of
deer with their shy looks and beautiful eyes. PiNai is the lady deer- the
male deer and female deer are both running. The deer's beautiful eyes are
brought in comparison with eyes of these young girls of aayar paadi- both
shyly looking sideward and running.

		It is but natural the dress get loosened and slip while
running- so udai negizha- (negizha means slip)- but in previous paasuram -
udal avizhnthu - the dress loosened - here slipping- next action is to hold
the dress with one hand - and continue running - olgi - vetkappattu -
because of slipping dress- some shyness - but priority is music- odarikkaNN
-with a shy glittering eyes towards kaNNan (kadaikkaN paarvai) -aada
ninRanarE - these girls stood in front of KaNNan in rapt attention. 

		First it is udal and uL avizhnthu, here it is udai negizha
and olgi - but with all these, the attention on the music is not lost. That
is the point to be observed here. Here the arpudam is the comparisons.
		  
Let us just turn towards Kulasekara azhvaar who says

		"Mangala nan vana maalai maarvil ilanga mayil thazhaip peeli
soodi
		PongiLa vaadai araiyil saththi poonkoththuk kaadhir puraip
peithu
		Kongu naRunkuzhalaargalOdu kuzhainthu kuzhal inithu oothi
vanthaai
		EngaLukkE orunaaL vanthootha un kuzhal innisai pOdharaathE" 

on this 'flute playing' episode of Kannan leelaigaL.

We can also have "peyazhvaar's paasuram on this flute playing episode which
is in 3rd thiruvanthaathi and reads

		KOvalanaai aanirai meiththuk kuzhal oothi 
		maavalanaai keeNda manivaNNan mEvi
		ari uruvaagi iraNiya thaagam
		theri ugiraal keendaan sinam   (paasuram 42)

Smt. Ambujam krishnaa a contemporary poetess has a full song on this flute
episode of krishna leelai (which is set in raaga maalika)

gaana mazhai pozhiginraan kaNNan 
yamuna theeraththilE yaadava kulam sezhikka - (gaana)

aanandhamaagavE aruL perugavE
munivarum mayangidum mohana roopan - vENu (gaanamazhai)

theenchuvai idhazhil vEinkuzhal vaiththE
thigattaa amudhaai dEvarum virumbum - vENu (gaanamazhai)

kuyilinam koovida mayilinam aadida
aavinam karainthida anchugamum konja
kOvalar kaLiththida gopiyar aada
gOvindan kuzhal oothi - (gaanamazhai)

Ambaram thanilE thumburu naaradar 
arambaiyarum aadal paadal maranthida
achchuthan aanandan aayar kula thilakan
ambuja naabhan aarvamudan - muraLi (gaanamazhai)

Hope bhagavataas can read this song with periyaazhvaar's paasurams and
realise to what extent 'kaNNanil karainthu' this poetess has written this
song. Explanations on these 3 and other paasurams will be dealt with in next
posting.

Daasan Vasudevan M.G.