Thiru arimEya viNNagaram - kudamaadu kooththu - oru siriya viLakkam - part 3 of 3

[Guest guest]

Having quoted all the references from paasurams I want to take the

liberty in quoting Nammaazhwaar's paasuram

 

3315:

soozhkaN taayen thollai vinaiyai

aRuththun adisErum

oozhkaN tirundhE, thooraak kuzhithoorththu

enainNaaL aganRiruppan?,

vaazhthol pugazhaar kutandhaik kitandhaay!

vaanOr kOmaanE,

yaazhi NnisaiyE! "amuthE! aRivin

payanE! ariyERE!" 5.8.6

nammazhwaar in thiruvaaymozhi

 

in which he said "amuthE !aRivin payanE!" ie the ultimate use (payan)

for our knowledge (aRivu) is to seek the Lord in everything we do.

Though it is wonderful to dwell in the sweet meanings of the paasurams

and their poetical style beauty etc, I wanted to use my limited Tamil

Knowledge in playing around with these two words (kooththaadu) that

prompted these posts and seek to explain that though these words

directly mean entertainment dance, they also have an inner meaning in

it.

 

kooththaadu can be split as koottu + aadu wherein koottu can be meant

as a sum of people or a group of people summed up in some fashion as

described by Sri Badri in a circle and hands joined. There is one type

of aadidravidar dance practiced even this day among certain tribal

population of nilgris. The other meaning can be derived when this word

is split as koodu + aadu. This is like koodi aadu that is join hands

and dance and this can be just suitable for two people dancing. The

third such meaning which I think is very much meant here by aazhwaars

and also practiced by many Krishna worshippers who are also the

followers of Lord Chithanya mahaaprabu and till date some gaudiya mutt

followers and others also believe in this tradition which is *part* of

their goal called as krishna prEma. Koodu + aadu = koodu is unite or

seek union in aadu is dancing with Sri Krishna. This is seeking to serve

SriKrishna and in turn when Sri Krishna is pleased, one is also

blessed by SriKrishna to also dance in union with Sri Krishna in an

escalated emotional sense which is tuned into this mode of eternal

cosmic dance of Sri Krishna. I may be wrong in use of words in

explaining this tradition and supreme goal (I seek the forgiveness of

the members and the krishna worshippers around for this enthusiastic

attempt of mine,) but I request Sri Jagannath if he may explain this

little bit more clearly and enlighten the philosophy of sri krishna

prema.

 

It is important for us to know because it is considered by some

of us that such Krishna prema (example aazhwaar himself seeks to it) is

to be in par with our (srivaishnavaas of most southern school) state of

mOksham. In other words it can be said that this is what is their

destiny they seek. Thus by saying the first word kudamaadu is the

maargam which is dwell (dwell or live can be equated to aadu or dance)

under the unique shadow of the umbrella provided by Sri Krishna (by

which one will simply be loyal only and only to SriKrishna and practice

what ever Sri Krishna preached in Srimath Bagwath Geethaa) and

kooththaadu ie seek to (serve and) dance in union with Sri Krishna in

the elevated emotional and eternal cosmic dance. Thus the first word

(kudamaadu) can be treated as the maargam and the second word

(kooththaadu) can be treated as the destiny. It is said that when

SriRaama and annchnEyaa crossed the ocean there was a symbolic message

embedded in it for all the samsaarins to understand. Similarly it is

also said that when SriKrishna provided the govardana as umbrella there

was a hidden message covered up in this episode as well and that such

hidden meanings are some what touched by my above split and play of

tamil words.

 

 

Sri amrith kada valli thayaar samEthara kudak kooththaadi perumal

sri sathurbuja goPalan thiruvadikaLE saraNam

 

Sampath Rengi

 

note for Badri: As an aside, I am sure you will also appreciate

this reference from one of the songs of 80's. I am assuimg that

as you are also from Tamil Nadu and would have

followed the same song. One of the great cinema poet

and lyrics writer kavignar "Kanna"daasan wrote in one of his movie

philosophical song

 

"aattuviththaar yaaroruvar aadaatharO kanaa

aasaiyennum thottililE aadaathaarO kannaa

nee nadaththum naadagaththil ...." where in he captured these very sentiments

by saying Krishna is the controller who makes us all dance in this samsaaram

and

we seek to serve and dance with him.