nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram 1

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VI - vAraNam Ayiram

pASuram 6.1 (sixth tirumozhi - pAsuram 1 vAraNam Ayiram)

 

 

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

In the very first pASuram of "vAraNam Ayiram", godai starts

describing beautifully to her friend, the divine dream that she

just had before waking up.

 

"Oh my dear sakhi! I had this wonderful dream; I saw nAraNan (SrI

ranganAthan), surrounded by thousands of elephants, going around

SrI villiputtUr. My father, periyAzhwAr, and the citizens of

the village are ready to extend a grand welcome to Him with

pURNa kumbhams placed on their heads. The whole village is

decorated with tOraNams (streamers) to mark the festive occasion."

 

vAraNam Ayiram SUzha valam Seidu

nAraNan nambi naDakkinRAn enRedir

pUraNa poRkuDam vaittup puRam e~ngum

tOraNam nAttak kanAk kaNdEN tOzhi nAn

 

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

 

ANDAL is not just looking for the pleasure of His nearness after

He comes to her; she wants to have the anubhavam of the scene of

His coming to her, and so she sees in her dream all the preparations

and decorations in the town to receive Him.

 

vAraNam: tiru AyppADi has only cows and calves; where do the

elephants come from? SrI PVP explains that vasudevar had these

elephants as part of his army to defend against enemies -

ANDAL herself says in tiuppAvai 18 "unDu maDakkaLiRRan".

Since nandagopan ane vasudevan were close friends, they shared

each other's wealth very freely. Their friendship was like that

between rAma and sugrIva -

"ekham duhkam sukhama canou -you are my very close friend;

we will share our pleasures and sorrows alike"

rAmayaNam kishkindA kAndaM 5-18). Also, kaNNan gets the

wealth of both His natural father and His father who brought Him up.

 

vAraNam Ayiram: why a thousand elephants? As periyAzhwAr

said in tirumozhi 3-1-1, "tannErAyiram piLLaigaLODu taLar

naDai iTTu varuvAn" - kaNNan has these thousand friends, and

will not bear to see any of them in any way less comfortable than

Him. So here are the thousand elephants, one for each so

that they can also ride the elephant with Him. emperumAn's

soulabhyam is such that He will keep His devotees who reach

Him in an equivalent position as He is (periya tirumozhi

11-3-5 - "tammaiyE nALum vaNa~ngit tozhuvARkku tammaiyE

okka aRuL Seyvar").

 

valam Seydu: godai is guessing that He is coming around

the village, from the sound coming from the vAdya gOshTi

(nAdaswaram, drums etc.) that are preceding Him.

 

nambi nAraNan - nArAyaNa who is brimming with

Supreme qualities. When kaNNan (the king of mathurA and tiru

AyppADi) is walking, it is like nArAyaNan (ubhaya vibhUti nAthan)

walking. His supreme qualities are expressly visible only in

avatAra kAlams, when He has to mix with imperfect and deficient

samsAri-s. His soulabhyam (the ease with which He can be

approached), His SouSilyam (the ease with which He mixes with

others), and His Arjavam (open-heartedness) cannot be noticed

in a setting like paramapadam where only the Realized great

nitya mukta-s live. These great qualities of empirAn shine like

the lamp in a dark room only when He gives Himself to the

samsAri-s of the world.

 

naDakkinRan: Just as hanumAn's word that rAma was approaching

ayodhyA was sufficient to keep bharata alive, ANDAL is able to

keep herself alive even by the thought that kaNNan was in town and

walking towards her with his vAraNa-s (from SrI T.S. rAjagopAlan).

Also, in the case of rAma, viSvAmitra had to bring Him to sItA;

in ANDAL's case, kaNNan is coming by His own free will, and

so this is special.

 

tOraNam nATTa: When people from bhUlOkam go to paramapadam,

the residents of paramapadam welcome them with tOraNams

(decorate with streamers) - "tOraNam niraittu en~gum

tozhudanar" - tiruvAimozhi 10-9-2). Similarly, when paramapada

nAthan comes here, the people of this world are welcoming

Him with tOraNams.

 

kanAk kaNdEn: For sItA, trijaTA had to first see Lord rAma

coming to sItA, and she had to then communicate that dream to

sItA pirATTi. In ANDAL's case she did not have to depend on

her tozhi or some other well-wisher to communicate their dream

to her. She did not have to depend on her indriya-s to get

this anubhavam, and it was all her experience through her own heart,

to the extent that she could now communicate it to her tozhi.

 

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari