Thiru mAl irum soLai - part 2 - thiru maL('s thOL) seen as azhagar malai

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This is a series of posts on thirumAlirunchOlai. Several more are to

follow. I have attempted my best to extract information from couple

of vyAkyAnams and as well assemble some of my own intuitive analysis

in this post. Thanks to Sri SadagOpan for his encouragement (he has

read this before and encouraged me to continue this thread).

Please forgive me for any mistakes and feel free to provide any

additional information you may have "on this pAsuram"

other than the mantric meanings delivered by Sri periya vAchchAn

pillai ( I do have those references of Sri PV pillai myself.

However I would currently submit to all the learned bAgwathALs

of this forum that I am trying to provide all the other meanings

possible than those inner most meanings). Srimath azahgiya singar, the

45 th jeer's 70 th thirunakshathiram is coming on 21 Nov and is to

be celebrated at thirumalai in the newly built (being completed

currently) ahobila muth complex in thirumalai thiruppathi. Few moths back,

Sri Jagan as President of Ahobila muth North America had requested

all bAgawathALs to assist the muth in helping raise funds for this

and other ahobilamuth projects in India suitably. I submit this post

on thirumAlirunchOlai at the feet of our achAryAL

and request all the interested readers who may want to participate, to join and

send their contributions for the projects requested By Sri Jagan.

 

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thirumAlirunchOlai,the manifestation of thirumaal or Lord

Vishnu as kaLLazhagar : This hill is considered to host maal

or thirumaal or lord vishnu. The tamil literature "

paripAdal" says that people used to worship at the

direction of this hill from wherever they are, believing

that such worship is directed to worshipping and reaches

Lord Vishnu who is living here and as this hills HIMself.

People believed that Lord Vishnu is permanently residing in

this hill and hence worshipped from all the remote places

around this hill and wherever they are, just by looking at the

direction of this hill. They were worshipping so, hoping that

Vishnu at the center of these worship will accept their

worship from this hill and bless them. This is conveyed as

 

"mAyON oththalin nilaiththE

senRu thozhugal seer kaNdu paNi manamE ..."

 

i.e. considering this nilai or hill station AS equivalent

to mAyOn or thirumaal and nilaiththE senRu thozhugal is

worshipping towards such direction (nilaththE is both at

the direction and as the hill station used twice but written

once). thus believing that this hill is mAyOn people

worshipped at the direction this hill was situated from where

ever they are.

 

 

AndAL delivered 10 pAsurams in nAchiyAr thirumozhi on this

kshEthram praising Lord kaLLazhagar. Among his HIS various

manifestations, it is also believed that Lord Vishnu is in

the form of this hill. This is conveyed earlier in

paripAdal explicitly. In Srimath Bagwath geetha Lord Krishna

says that among kunRu's or hillock he is in the form of

mEru. AndAL expresses this sentiment in her first pAsuram on

thiru mAl irum chOlai kaLLazhagar.

 

 

 

cinthurac cempodipOl

thirumaaliruNY chOlaiyenkum,

inthira kOpankaLE

ezhunthumparan^ thittanavaal,

mantharam naattiyanRu

mathurakkozhuNY caaRukoNda

suntharath thOLudaiyaan

chuzhalaiyinin RuythunkolO! (2) 1 nAchchiyaar

thirumozhi

 

 

"thirumaaliruNY chOlaiyenkum"

- in thirumAlirun chOlai (azhagar malai) where

ever you look

 

"inthira kOpankaLE"

- the butterflies or in tamil pattup poochchi (

they have so many colors

that will resemble the colors that represents the sentiments )

 

"sem"

- reddish

 

"cinthura podipOl"

-similar t centhoora podi or the chenthoora powder

(chenthooram is similar to kumkumam)

 

"ezhunthu"

-raises

 

"paran^ thittana"

-spread out

 

"aal"

-alas or anthO in tamil

 

"anRu"

-the day "day" dEvas churned the ocean to get the amirtham,

surrendered to you

 

"mantharam"

-the manthara malai or mEru malai (the mEru hills that was

used

to churn the ocean as an agitator)

 

"naati"

-placed and used as maththu or agitator for churning in the

pARkadal

 

"kozhu mathuram"

-very pleasant

 

"saaRu"

-the piraati who is similar to the essence of nectar or

amirtha rasam

 

"koNda"

- you who took possession of such piraati

 

"sundarath thOLudaiyaan"

- the Lord who has the most beautiful shoulders

 

"suzhalaiyil ninRu"

- though we stand at this life cycle and are

caught up in this whirl pool

 

"uythum kol"

- shall we survive this ?

 

There are also other deeper meanings in this pAsuram:

We would like to atleast see HIS shoulders (in the form

of this azhagar malai) that saved the dEvas when surrendered

the other day (aNdAL compares this hill to the shoulders of

the Lord who saved dEvAs by supporting the mEru hill on HIS

shoulders in his koorma avathAram). (is it possible that she

was always making garland for the Lord such that She can put

it only on the most suitable and MAJESTIC shoulders of THIS

perumaal). But the butterflies with their red color spread

out and hovered over this hill makes it invisible to my

sight. Oh what is this misfortune ? In certain tamil

ilakkiyam (literature) it is commonly said that " avan

naatil kunRum kodiyavO onRum thOnRaa?" when thalaivi (the

female) goes out to see the thalaivan to his country but

fails to see him. However "thalaivi" or the female would

like to see a kunRu or hillock that would have seen him last ?

In this case aNdAL touches that sentiment as she goes around

to several kshEthrams and is unable to see her thalaivan the

Lord and when she hears that HE is present in this hill, she

came here and is unable to see him but she would have felt

happy to see the hill that hosts him. She is unable to see

the hill also as they are covered by the butterflies

allover. It is also observed in an another way that the

hill looks like a mad elephant (so strong and tall and

majestic). It is customary to apply senthooram on the

foreheads of mada yAnai or mad elephant. aNdAL compares the

red blanket provided by the butterflies as the senthooram

applied to the strong hills that is standing similar to a

mad elephant. This hill ia also known as vrishabAthri and

the details are discussed in part 4. Periyaazhwaar

comparess "sinthura milangath than thiruneRRimEL" in his

pasuram and comapres the senthuram as applied to Lord'S

thiru neRRi or fore head.

 

They (dEvars) brought the "manthara malai" with the help of

Sri Garudan to the thirup pARkadal and placed it in the

centre of thirup pARkadal or nucleus of the whole universe

(the whole universe is considered thirup pARkadal by *many*

yogis, and scholars (both srivaishnava faith and non

srivaishnava faith) and for symbolising this the count in

manthra japam, counting is routed through the 10 peripheral joints

of the 4 fingers considering them as the periphery of the

universe and excluding the middle joints of the long

finger and ring finger as they are representing the position of

mEru malai in an universe. It is believed that no one must

cross over mEru malai as a mark of respect and one can only

go around it. mEru malai is always considered to be the

nucleus of the universe by *these* souls (as per science it

is nothing but dense particles or a black hole that is in

the centre of this universe and no physical object can

possibly cross it) As a respect for the malai none (dEvas)

will cross it even while they are traveling or doing

japam, while counting gAyathri japam. Same way while *many*

ahObila mutt followers do "ashtAksharam" as a part of their

nitya karmA they also count the 10 external joints of

the fingers and exclude the two middle joints of long finger

and ring finger considering them as perumal and pirAtti in an

anushtAnam that one goes around in pradhakshinam of the divya

dampathis. The hill that was so strong and powerful and that when

such hill was used as the agitator, it churned the sea in such a

way that the sea by itself will bring out and surface

its rich contents. It is also conceived that HE agitated

the unagitable philosophies and brought the best out of them

through HIS charam slOkam of varAha avathAram and that HE

alone can do so with HIS supreme nature and that all the

philosophies are born out of HIM only. It is also contented

that the amirtham is nothing but the extract of the thirup

pARkadal while the precious and sweet extract (madhura

kozhunchAru) was the piraati HERself who went to perumal.

A thought comes to the mind that amirtham might have got its

properties due to its association with piraati in the ocean

bed ? This is also summarized by thirumangai on Lord

Oppiliappan as "viNNAvar amuthuNNa amuthil varum

peNNamuthuNda emperumAnE" ie the comparison is such that

though the dEvas thought that they got the best out of

churning the ocean it is still the Lord who got the best out

of the thirup pARkadal ie the piraati and that

piraati's presence with HIM glorifies HIS opulence. It is

thus submitted as an indirect observation from this ocean

churning, that whatever action one will or a group will do, it is

done so, to serve the purpose of Sriman nArAyana only.

 

One can also summarise and read the meaning

collectively as "Lord Azhagar with HIS thiN thOL (or

majestic shoulders that helped dEvAs churn the ocean but then

served HIM ultimately (by bringing piraati on board with HIM

in offering HIS divya darsaNam to us) yielded me. Thus with

his opulence HE also spreads out his trap for me & also at the

same time hides and denies me the sight (or divya darsanam)

of HIM as the "thirumalai" by using the butterflies to

blanket and cover them. I am saddened by this oodal and

will I ever get to survive this separation ?

 

AT the outset AndAL also compares this hill to the Lord

thirumaal (and his shoulders) or vishnu HIMself as

similar to the belief summarised in "paripadal" and longs

for meeting this Lord.

 

 

AndAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam

anathasayanan samEthara sridEvi sundaravalli thaayaar

kaLLazhagar thiruvadikaLE saraNam

 

Sampath Rengarajan