tiruppavai

[Guest guest]

Dear Members,

I humbly submit here an interpretation for the 28th paasuram of

"Tirupavai"

"karavaigal pinn chendru kAAnam serndunbOOm

arivonrum illAAdha AAykulathu undannai

piravi perundhannai punniyam yAAmudaiyom

kurai onrum illadha Govinda undhannodu

uravEl namakingu ozhikka ozhiyAAdhu

ariyAAdha pillaighalum anbinAAl undhannai

siru pEAr azhaithanavum seeri arulAAdhe

iraivAA nEE thAARai paraielor embAAvAAi

 

In this pasuram Aandaal assumes the garb of an Aaichiyar penn &

addressess Lord Krishna-

 

"karavaigal pin chendru kaanam serndunnbom- once we get up in the

morning we will move out with our cows.

karavaigaLLodu selvOOm- karavaigal piNNodu selvOOm- we do not lead the

cows- instead the cows lead us into the forest once into the forest we

eat toghether-serndunbOOm. Getting up in the Ushad kaalam, praying to

the Lord, doing Aatma vicharam, performing our karma in the yogic

dhaarmam- well, well all these are not for us, why - because, "arivu

onrum illadha Aaikulam- arivu illadha- no knowledge, onrum- utter

ignorance.

 

Aaikulatthu undhannai piravi perunthannai punniyam yaamudaiyom- we the

Aaichiyars may be ignorant & be so dumb as to allow the cows to lead

us,but we can afford all such stupidity for we have in our midst the

Lord Himself. Our great Aacharyas have taught us that life is but a

journey of the soul forever seeking Him & attain His lotus feet

thereafter. The noble deeds of all our ancestors enabled us to have Him

as our folk leader. So moodargalaaga naanngal irundhum engkalai uivikka

Kannan irukkum patchathill- we are totally carefree. Indeed how lucky

are we- do you all know Who we have in our midst -"kurai ondrum illaadha

Govinda(N).-the one who is not only Perfection(nirai) but impeccable

Perfection(kuraiye illaadha nirai)

 

Now the bond between You &our clan is inseperable- so "ariyaadha

pillaighalum anbhinaal undhannai chiru paer azhaithanavum seeri

arulaathe"- time& again I repeat we the Aaichiyars are "moodargal" & we

have been trivial, silly, stupid in our treatment meted out to You. We

bid You all sorts of jobs, called You by all mean, abominable names- but

do You know that the motivating factor behind all our actions was

nothing but Love- yes Love for You.The Love of the Aaichiyar women has

been glorified by our Aachaaryas.Their's was the unconditional Love-Love

in it's pure, pristine form It was Yashoda's Love of Krishna that bind

Him to a tree & by allowing Himself to be bound by a rope that the Lord

got His thirunaamam-Damodaran. The Gopa sthrees had such infinite Love

for Him, it is termed as "idakkai -valakkai ariyaa aaichiyar bakthi" &

it seems the Lord desired to have His incarnation unto this fold. In

this folk- everybody is lovelorn- but it's a strange craving- the

children don't desire to be with their play mates, the wife doesn't

really wish to be in the company of her husband &neither do the plants,&

birds want to flock together- for they all have their Love(life) fixed

on Krishna- nothing is going to deter them. So, please do not forsake

us- "seeri arulaadhe". In our daily life we can see that our children

sometimes drive us crazy- they are bent on having something & however

much we deny their obstinacy finally wins. Then we will say "take this &

get lost".Aandal takes the stance of this child & pleads to the Lord

that He should overlook all their misdeeds & Bless(arul) them. She tells

"seeri arulaadhe- iraivaa nee tharaai parai" -grant us the eternal

bliss.

This paasuram along with the 27th is considered by ourAchAAryaas as

containing the quintessence of 'Saranagathi". We the mortal beings are

compared to the Gopastrees- arivonrum illai, unbudhum, karavaigal pOl

thirivadhum- kandadhe kaatchi, kondadhae kOlam enru iruppadhumm- we are

all groping in the darkness of 'aghyaanam".Born unto our midst is our

great Achaaryan, which is our"piravi punniyam" & He will establish

through Prapatti our bondage to the "kurai onrum illadha Govindan".We

are loitering like the cows & our Acharyan brings us all under His

guidance just as the sheperd does & initiates into the "Saranaghdi".Once

this mission of life is accomplished Andal asserts it's celebration that

ensues.

At the outset Andal says, since we are observing the Nonbu- "neyyunnOm,

pAlunnOm, malarittu mudiyom,"& will pray-"iraivAA nEE thAArAAi parai" &

She doesn't want -"seeri arulal".Andal says ,we bid You

do so many mean jobs, called You by silly names for we are the 'siru

pillaigal' ,so don't give us the 'parai' out of frustration Andal

pleads- all we want is 'undhannOdu ozhikka ozhiyAAdha uravu'-&once the

Lord accepts the plea we are revelling- the Nonbu is over-'choodagam,

tholvalai, thodu, sevipoo,palkalanum anivOm'&countless are the things

bestowed on us because of His blessings.So Andal has taken us

all(arivonrum illAdha) to the 'kurai illAdha Govindan' through the

grace of the AchAryan whom we have as our 'piravi peru------yOm' which

ofcourse is SaranAgathi at it's culmination.

I pray Lord Almighty that His blessings be with all our members who

have been meticulously participating in the activities of this group,

through out this holy month.

Regards,

SubadraVasudevan.

Your comments & suggestions are welcome at-aurum