nAcciyAr tirumozhi - kAmanai vENDudal

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi - kAmanai vENDudal.

 

There are a total of 14 tirumozhis contained in nAcciyAr tirumozhi. The first

tirumozhi has the title 'kAmanai vENDUdal' - it means "Praying to kAman

(The Lord of Love)". This tirumozhi has 10 pASurams.

 

kAmanai vENDUdal - pASuram 1:

 

A. The translation from SrImAn SaDagopan's tamizh treatise.

 

Throughout mArgazhi month (mid-Dec to mid-Jan), ANDAL has conducted the

pAvai nOnbu through Her tiruppAvai pAsurams, to get kaNNan as Her husband.

She has not yet been blessed with the anubhavam of joining Him. She becomes

heart-broken. How will Her wishes come true, how can She acquire what She

desires? She thinks and thinks. Then She has this idea: "Manmathan or

kAman (love fairy) is said to have the power of joining lovers together by

aiming his flower arrows at them; why not try praying to him? Throughout

the month of tai (mid-Jan. to mid-Feb.), every day let me purify the place

where I am going to worship kAmadEvan and draw beautiful kolams (drawings).

Then in the first half of mAsi month (second half of Feb.), I will fill the

street on which he is going to walk over to come and bless me, with smooth

sand so that he will not feel any roughness on his feet. After he comes

to my house and sits on the seat arranged for him, I will pray to him

and to his brother, sAman, together. Both of them will be compassionate

to me and bless me with the great opportunity to personally serve

tiruvEnkaDamuDaiyAn, who is carrying in His hand the cakrAydam which

is emanating hot fire sparks".

 

In Her first pAsuram of nAcciyAr tirumozhi, Godai submits Her request

to kAmadEva thus:

 

"tai oru tingaLum tarai viLakki

tan maNDalam ittu mAsi munnAl

ayya nuN maNal koNDu teru aNindu

azhaginukku alangarittu ananga dEvA!

uyyavumAnkolO enru Solli

unnaiyum umbiyaiyum tozhudEn

veyyaDOr tazhaL umizh cakkarakkai

vEnkadavaRku ennai vidikkiRRiyE"

 

Thus having decided to pray to kAmadevan for the privilege of being

able to do antara~nga kaimkaryam to tiruvEnkatamuDaiyAn, godA proceeds

to outline her plans for her vrata anushTAna-s towards this objective

in the next pASuram.

 

B. Some additional thoughts.

 

There is reference to godA involving herself in cleaning the floor and

decorating the place etc. SrI tirukkaNNa mangai ANDAn, the

author of the first taniyan of nAcciyAr tirumozhi that we started

with, was also one who did this kaimkaryam to BhagavAn. SrI

periavAccAn piLLai points out this similarity.

 

One could legitimately ask the question - how come godA worships

kAman? Is this not improper? She is only worshiping kAman with

the objective of getting BhagavAn. She has no other goal in life.

It is her desperation to reach Him that is causing her to do

whatever it takes to get to Him. It is as if this is her sthala-

Suddhi in order to perform kaimkaryam to Him ultimately.

 

Her praying to kAman and sAman together reminds us of the phrase

"namOstu rAmAya salakshmaNAya".

 

The reference to manDalam is the period of 45 days for which some

vrata-s performed for attaining benefit from them.

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari

kkrishnamachari