baalakaaNdam

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Sree:

SreemathE raamaanujaaya nama:

 

dhivyaprabandhap paasurappadi raamaayaNam

 

 

baalakaaNdam

============

 

thirumadandhai maNmadandhai irupaalunthigazh

 

With Sridevi and Bhoodevi on either side

 

(thiru - sri, maN - denotes the whole earth

madandhai - woman. According to tholkaappiyam, young women are

classified into 7 stages according to their age group. 'madandhai'

is one of those stages.

irupaalum - on the two sides

thikazha - to remain majestically.)

 

nalam andham illadha Or naattil,

 

in the city blessed with endless good qualities

 

(nalam - loosely, all that is good. In particular, here it refers

to wealth, health, association with good people, and

the opportunity to see Lord Rama in person - what more can

one ask for?

andham illadha - without an end, infinite

nattil - in that country

 

illadhOr can be taken to mean two things.

illadha + Or (Or = oru), or illadhOr = illaadhavar - referring to the

people of that country. But since the next line is directly referring

to the people in the country, the former line must refer merely to

the city. Why should there be a distinction at all?

 

The city itself is endowed with all that is good - be it wealth or

various other things for the earthly people to enjoy. There could

be several people who fall prey to the earthly enjoyments. But it is

not them who are around Him, but only those who are interested in

enjoying the "infinite bliss", the mokhsha itself! Hence the

distinction.)

 

andham il pEr inbaththu adiyarOdu

 

with devotees immersed in infinite bliss around

 

(andham il == andham illaadha - endless

pEr inbam - denotes the blissful state of the devotee

completely immersed in worshipping the Lord

adiyar Odu - with the devotees.

 

Ezhu ulakum thanikkOl sella

 

ruling all the 7 worlds with His sceptre

 

(Ezhu ulakum - all the 7 worlds. Traditional vedic conception of

the universe.

thanikkOl - this very clearly insists on the vishnu parathvam

kOl - sceptre. thanikkOl implies that there is no question of

sharing the rule with someone else. He rules alone, with

no one to challenge. thani - alone

sella - this rule is continuing, there is no danger of this

being replaced anytime)

 

veeRRu irukkum

 

one who is sitting

 

(veeRRu - to sit

reminds me of that wonderful thiruppaavai paasuram - maari malai

muzhainchil. I am still trying to finish up typing azhagiya singar's

discourse on this paasuram. When aaNdaaL requests Him to look into

her demands, He consents. Asks her what He should do. She says

that is not the way for a king to grant boons. A king derives his

power from his sceptre and his throne and his crown! Therefore, she

asks him to sit on top of the 'seeriya singaasanam' and then carefully

examine the request (yaam vandha kaariyam aaraayndhu aruLi!) before

granting it! It is not a light matter to just give 'paRai' to

someone who asks for it. Where is the sense of His propriety?

 

Likewise, here 'ayarvarum amararkaL adhipathi' should first be sitting

atop His throne, with a sceptre in hand, His consorts on either side,

his court full of the right people. Only then should He be ready to

accept calls for help or any other demands! Sometimes you wonder how

difficult these aazhvaars can get to please:-)

 

ayarvu aRum amararkaL adhipathi aana

 

who is He? He is the king of Devas, and He is [the only one] capable

of destroying the nescience and fill you with the knowledge!

 

(ayarvu - sOrvu - nescience

aRum - aRundhu pOkum - to destroy

amararkaL - the heavenly beings

adhipathi - the Lord and Master. He is not just a king who rules

over them. He actually owns them)

 

aNi aar pozhil soozh aranga nagar appan

 

Here what you see is a blatant parochialism of the aazhvaar and

periya vaachchaan piLLai :-) They see aranga nagar appan everywhere!

 

(pozhil - little ponds

aar - azhakiya - beautiful

aNi - yet another adjective here! a word to describe enhancement

as I mentioned in a previous posting

soozh - surrounded by

 

The city of Sri Rangam is surrounded by little ponds)

 

alai neerk kadaluL azhundhum naavaay pOl aavaar

 

people, [here Devas] like a little ship sinking in deep sea

 

(kadal - sea

alai neerk kadal - sea full of huge tidal waves

uL azhundhum naavaay

naavaay - a small ship, or rather a largish boat that carries

mostly commerical goods

uL azhundhum - if there is a little hole somewhere at the

bottom, the ship starts sinking.

uL - gives a measure of the depth.

azhundhum - we talk about a "sinking feeling". It is something that

is very difficult to explain. I have personally felt this

once as I slipped in mossy pond steps during bathing in

thiru naagai temple tank. Somewhat akin to what your

mind goes through when you slip on a banana peel and you

are going down. You know you are going to fall, and you

are helpless. You can't even shout. The brain simply

doesn't respond. But you have this terrible feeling that

something very bad is going to happen to you. That fraction

of a second seems too long for you. You feel something

stirring in your stomach, something seems to be caught

in your throat, you gasp for air, your tongue is like a

dry parchment! There... that is the best I can describe.

 

This is a beautiful analogy to describe those who are caught in the

samsara sagara. This one appears quite often in the thamizh classics.

 

pOl aavar - those who are like this ship sinking too fast into the

deep sea)

 

Or thuNai

 

as their only help, solace etc.

 

(thuNai - help is a very loose and probably a very bad translation.

It actually means 'accompaniment'. vazhiththuNai - someone

who comes along with you and help you drive away your fear

when you are crossing a difficult and arduous path, all alone.

Thus, you don't go to Him to get you out of your current

situation but you want Him to be with you all the way,

to accompany you to your final destination.

Or - one. This one person will do, and ONLY this person will do!)

 

enRu thuLangum

 

You exist thusly. thuLanguthal == viLangudhal. The root word

also means to explain, or to take away the doubt etc. Thus

the fact that 'He is the only one capable of getting you

out of trouble and also accompanying you to take you to your

final goal' is rather self-explanatory.

 

nal amarar thuyar theera,

 

to put an end to the hardships of the good Devas

 

(nal amarar - indicates that the truth is on the side of Devas, hence

'nal' meaning good. contrast this with the adjective given

to the asuras - 'val' meaning strength. This is yet

another classical portrayal of what Bharathiyar says

in paanchaali sabatham: 'dharumaththin vaazhvudhanai

soodhu kavvum'. The Rakhshasas, with their strength

always trouble the good minded Devas. Devas then endure

hardships. They then go to Him. He then destroys the

evil... so repeats the story again and again.

 

thuyar = varuththam - hardships

theera - to get over)

 

val arakkar vaazh ilangai paazh padukka eNNi,

 

decided to destroy the city of Lanka where the strong

Rakshasas live

 

(val arakkar - see above

vaazh - live

ilangai - Sri Lanka

paazh padukka - to obliterate

eNNi - thijnking thusly)

 

see the 'muRan thodai' nal-val (in a loose way), vaazh-paazh

coming in addition to the 'edhukaith thodai' simultaneously.

 

======

 

People talk about the free form of poetry as something that Indians

borrowed from the Westerners. I wish they just have a look at the

gadyams of Sri Ramanuja and this paasurappadi raamaayaNam of piLLai

before making such statements. Even the GitaBhashya of Sri Ramanuja

is an example of a prose poem!

 

--badri