nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram - Introduction

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram - Introduction

 

 

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise

 

In spite of godai's constant pleas to call her kaNNan, the

cuckoo totally ignores her. godai's sorrow increases beyond

limits. kaNNan now feels sorry for her plight and out of

compassion, bestows a pleasant dream on godai, who is sleeping

after crying for a long time. In this divine dream, He shows

her the scenes happening to them in the wedding between

Him and godai. ANDAL in her ecstasy, describes her dream

to her friends and thus emerges the sixth tirumozhi.

 

This tirumozhi, which starts with "vAraNam Ayiram" is a

very well-known tirumozhi. Even today, this sixth tirumozhi

is being sung in all the vedic weddings during the time

called "paccai pUSUdal". It is a belief that due to the

conducting of this routine, the newly wedded couple's lives

will for ever remain sweet. godai herself has declared

that those chant this tirumozhi will beget children with

brahma g~nAnam and sAtvIka guNam.

 

The wedding scenes that godai describes are full of beauty,

superb in imagination and have a divine vedic flavor.

SrImAn SaDagopan has summarized the aspects of a

vedic wedding in his previous postings. These can be

found in

 

http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0063.html

<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0063.html>

http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0083.html

<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0083.html>

http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0088.html

<http://www2.be.com/~mani/bhakti/archives/apr98/0088.html>

 

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

 

1. The stages of para bhakti, para j~nAna, and param bhakti:

 

ANDAL is at the stage where she cannot continue to live

without Him. It is not that He does not know this. But

still He is not coming. Why not?

 

SrI PVP explains that BhagavAn leads the jIva through stages

of para-bhakti, para-j~nAna, and parama bhakti, and then

only unites the jIvAtmA with Him. This is what he did to

nammAzhvAr, who had the j~nAnam and bhakti (mayarvaRa madi

nalam aRuLinan - tivAimozhi 1-1-1) even when he started

the first pASuram, but who was awarded vIDu (paramapadam)

only in the last pASuram of tiruvAimozhi (avAvaRRu

vIDu peRRa kurugUr Sadagopan - tiruvAimozhi 10-10-11).

SrI PVP compares this to applying the dye to a white

cloth in several steps and gradually.

 

2. The blessing of svapna anubhavam for ANDAL:

 

In the case of ANDAL, perumAL does not come, and this

tortures her to the point that she won't be able to keep

living. Her suffering is so intense that now if BhagavAn

presents Himself to her in a hurry she may not be

able to bear the shock of this also. So He decides to appear

in her dream and give an anubhavam (namely that of marrying

Him) that will make her happy and make her live for a

while, so that He can take her to His abode at the

appropriate time.

 

3. sItA pirATTi's and ANDAL's experiences:

 

SrI PVP observes that in this anubhavam, ANDAL was

more blessed than even sItA pirAtti, who also suffered

like ANDAL but who was not blessed even with a dream of

union with Lord rAma.

 

svapnEpi yad-yaham vIram rAghavam saha lakshmaNam |

paSyEyam yadi jIvEyam svapnOpi mama matsarI ||

(rAmAyaNam sundara kaNdam 34-21)

 

(I will live at least if I get to see rAma and

lakshmaNa in my dream, but even the dream has become my enemy).

 

One can ask: How did sitA pirATTi continue to keep herself

alive in the absence of the anubhavam of svapna?

BhagavAn blessed sitA pirATTi with a different kind of

anubhavam, which would not have worked in the case of ANDAL.

sItA pirATTi is blessed with the words of consolation from

trijaTA, hanumAn, etc., which is what her alive. But

godai will not just listen to someone's consoling words

and live; so, emperumAn blesses her with the svapna

anubhavam instead.

 

Thus, this tirumozhi talks about the dream anubhavam that

He gave her.

 

4. ANDAL's svapna anubhavam vs. others' svapna anubhavam:

 

In the case of ordinary mortals, bhagavAn gives some

dream experiences based on their karma so that they can

have this experience as a reward of their karma-s.

The svapna anubhavam of ANDAL is not in this category

viz,. karma phala. In her case, since she wishes to

have the anubhavam of BhagavAn Himself, He gives

her an anubhavam in the dream that is complete in every

sense including all the steps involved in their marriage,

and ANDAL in turn rejoices in narrating this experience to

her friends and continues to be alive in the hopes of this

dream.

 

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari

(kkrishnamachari <kkrishnamachari )