puLLinvaayk keeNdaanai pollaa arakkanai

[Guest guest]

A couple weeks back, Sri. Krishnaswaamy wrote on puLLinvaayk keendaanai

:

 

----begin quote

 

3. Various commentaries on Thiruppavai that I have come across so far

explain that the phrases 'Pullin vai keendanai pollaa arakanai killi

kalandhanai' refer to Lord Krishna who destroyed , by splitting the

beak,

of the evil asura who took the form of a bird.

 

4. I am curious to know whether any commentaries by scholars exist

which

interpret the meaning of the phrase under reference on the lines noted

in

paragraph 2 above. I will be much grateful for a response from you, Sri

 

Dileepan and others interested in the subject.

 

------end quote

 

By no means can I claim to be knowledgeable in the prabhandham, and

certainly

not in the various commentaries of our aachaaryaas on the prabhandham.

However,

that does not stop me from attempting to share what little I came across

in

my readings on thiruppaavai. I beg your indulgence for any mistakes in

the following.

All mistakes are mine and are due to my lack of understanding of the

vyaakhyaanams.

 

Thiruppaavai, as most of you know, has a number of commentaries written

on it.

The following are the major ones:

moovaayirappadi - periyavachchaan piLLai

aaraayirappadi - azhagiya maNavaaLap perumaaL naayanaar

eeraayirappadi, naalaayirappadi - aay jananyachaariaar.

There are a lot of svaapadEsha vyakhyaanams on thiruppaavai, the most

well known

being the ones by suddhasathvam dhoddachaariaar and by ponnadikkaal

jeeyar

(Raamanuja jeeyar), the founding jeeyar of the vaanamaamalai madam.

 

 

I will attempt to share the meaning of the paasuram in two parts - in

the first part,

the general 'on the surface' meaning, and in the second part, I will

interlace

the svaapadEsha vyaakhyanam with the 'on the surface' meaning that will

enable us

to understand the paasuram a little bit better.

 

In the thirteenth paasuram, all the girls is aayarpaadi wake up the girl

who

does not want to come out of her house. This girl has extraordinarily

beautiful

eyes (pOdharik kaNNinaay.. - eyes that resemble a flower, the eyes of a

deer).

Having such beautiful eyes,this girl thinks that there is no need for

her to go

to where the Lord is. She expects the Lord to come to where she is.

 

The girls of aaypaadi try to wake her up by inviting her to join them to

sing the

praise of the Lord.

 

puLLinvaayk keeNdaanai - the one who tore apart the mouth of the bird

(the crane, here)

This refers to the krishnaavathaaram, where Krishna tears apart the beak

of

bakaasuran who comes in the form of a crane. Periyaazhvaar refers to

this incident

so beautifully in his akkaakaai paasurams -

paLLaththil mEyum paravai urukkoNdu

kaLLavasuran varuvaanaiththaan kaNdu

puLLidhuvenRu podhukkOvaayk keeNditta

piLLaiyai vandhu kuzhalvaaraay akkaakkaay pEymulai uNdaan

kuzhalvaaraay

 

akkaakkaay.

here podhukkO = with ease and speed, podhukkena..without any effort.

 

pollaa arakkanaik kiLLik kaLaindhaanai - The one who destroyed the polla

(evil) asuran,

like a gardener who tears apart a leaf with a worm in it and throws it

apart.

Now, a qestion may arise here - Aren't all arakkans (rakshasaas) evil?

Why should

there be a qualifier 'pollaa' here? All our aachaaryaas mention

vibheeshanan here.

vibheeshana was not an evil rakshasa. (viBheeshanasthu dharmaatma).

Hence the qualifier

to exclude Him.

--

 

Now, the important thing for us to consider is why should aandaaL use

the above

two incidents in this paasuram?

 

aaraayirappadi & the svaapadEsha vyaakhyaanams help us here.

 

The girl who is still inside, that the other girls are trying to get to

join them,

is inside because of her realising her swaroopagnyaanam. What is

beautiful for

the aatma? swaroopagnyaanam - the knowledge of its swaroopam. The girl

inside

is described as beautiful because of her gnyaanam. She is not coming out

because

she knows that there is nothing that she, a jeevaatma, can do to attain

Him.

She is afraid of the various paapams that she has accumalated as a

jeevaatma.

She knows that the she can only accumalate more paapams, she can never

get rid of

even a single paapam. She is afraid beacuse of that and refuses to come

out.

 

The girls of aayppaadi are trying to get her to join them to perform

kainkaryam to

Him. They use the krishnaavathaaram - bakaasuran - episode to give her

confidence.

Just as the Lord so effortlessly destroyed bakaasuran by tearing apart

the beaks of

the crane, He will destroy all our paapams and our virOdhis. So, there

is nothing to

worry about. He will destroy anything that stands in the way of His

jeevaathmaas

attaining Him. {Many aachaaryaas refer to raamaavathaaram, where He

destroys the bow

that stood in the way of Him and piraatti. Similarly, He will destroy

anything and

everything that stands between Him and us, His belongings}.

 

Since the people of ayarpaadi may think that the girls are singing about

the same

one again and again, the use iraamaavathaaram too.

Just as raama effortlessly destroyed raavaNa, He will destroy all out

paapams and

all the virOdhis so that we, His belonging, can reach Him.

Sudhdhasathvam dhoddaachariar, in his svaapadEsha vyaakhaanam, says that

the Lord

removes the jeevaathmaa's ahankaaram just as He removed (destroyed)

RaavaNan.

 

 

Aazhvaar emperumaanar jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

 

Varadhan