nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu - Introduction

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu - Introduction

 

 

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise

 

godai does not get any response from the great pA~ncajanya

AzhvAn in spite of all the praise that she heaped on him. Month

after month passes ending in rainy season with the associated

lightning and dark clouds. The dark, blue-hued clouds remind

godai of kaNNan and cause even more pain in her heart. At the

time of vastrApaharaNam, He had made a promise to her that He

will come back to her during the rainy season and disappeared

from her sight. Now, ANDAL is suddenly sad that He has not kept

His promise. She decides to tell her plight to the clouds and send

them as her messenger to gOvindan, who is stationed in tirumalai.

 

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

 

In the introduction to this tirumozhi, SrI PVP describes his

anubhavam of ANDAL's progression from conversing with the

pA~ncajanyam to appealing to the clouds to be her messenger. He

also discusses the natural advantage that ANDAL has in being able

to express her extreme love towards bhagavAn in the role of a

nAyaki, whereas the other AzhvAr-s have to assume this role

which is not natural to them by their birth.

 

In this tirumozhi, ANDAL declares her love for tiruvEnkaTam

uDaiyAn and sends the clouds as her messenger. In the previous

tirumozhi, she conversed with SrI pA~ncajanyan. This suggests

the natural progression of a devotee whose thoughts are drawn

closer and closer to bhagavAn as time progresses. The very

utterance of His name is sufficient to result in the maturity of a

devotee such that the devotee is drawn closer to Him.

 

The progression from pA~ncajanyam to the clouds can be also

seen as a step up in the sense that the Sa~nkham has as its only

reason for prominence its being associated with Him. It is only a

means to Him, like dharma being only the means to the dharmI

who is the object to be attained through dharma. SrI

pA~ncajanyan is only a SeshabhUtan, as he is dependent on

emperumAn, and emperumAn is the dharmi (prAkAri) without

whom the Sa~nkham does not have any existence or appearance.

 

There is also a similarity between the clouds and the conch that we

see in the mudal tiruvanTAdi by the mudal AzhvAr (poigai

AzhvAr) - " kAr kODu paRRiyAn kai ". One meaning for the

word kAr is clouds, and one meaning for the word kODu is conch.

SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcArya svAmi interprets kArkODu as

referring to tiruvEnkaTa Hills (kAr = dark or black, kODu = hill) in

the context of the pASuram. But he also points out a possible

alternative interpretation for the phrase as "One who holds in His

hand the conch (kODu) that makes the great sound like the dark

clouds (kAr)", thus establishing a relationship between the two.

 

In tamizh literature, there is a stage of separation between the

nAyakan and nAyaki where the former promises the later that he

will be back during the rainy season, and the nAyaki suffers from

separation when the nAyakan does not show up as promised.

ANDAL is in this stage of separation from kaNNan who left her at

the time of vastrApaharaNam, and now she sees the clouds but not

kaNNan. The color of the clouds reminds her of kaNNan, and

their garjanai reminds her of the pA~ncajanyam in His hand. So

she thinks her kaNNan has come, but lo! Her kaNNan is not there.

She asks the clouds about emperumAn. Of course, they do not

respond to her. She becomes very sad and insists on sending them

as her messenger since the clouds have a relationship with

tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn by virtue of their living in the same

mountain.

 

In rAmAvatAram, sItA sends hanumAn, who knew five

vyAkaraNams and was a great scholar, as her messenger to rAma.

Since in vibhavAtAram the Lord could talk, embrace, etc., this

made sense. Now, in arcAvatAram, godai sends the clouds as her

messenger, without even thinking that clouds cannot talk, and

without realizing that all she can do is worship the arcAmUrti but

not expect Him to embrace her etc. How do we explain ANDAL's

actions? PuttUr SrI kr*shNasvAmi aiye~ngAr svAmi quotes a

passage from meghadUtam (1.5) " kAmArthA hi prakr*ti

kr*paNAS cetanA'cetaneshu " which says that those who are

scorched by love are unaware of their actions and try to send

messages to their partners through animate or inanimate objects

such as the cloud etc.

 

Then the question arises : "How is it that a person like ANDAL

subjects herself to kAmam like wordly people?" We should

understand that in ANDAL's case it is her extreme bhakti to Him

that expresses itself in this form. Just as ordinary mortals who are

in love cannot bear to live when separated from their loved one,

the bhakta cannot live in the absence of bhagavAn.

This being the case with pirATTi, the AzhvArs who were born

men assumed the role of pirATTi and express their devotion in

their pASuram-s. ANDAL is doing nothing different, expect she

does not have to assume any new role to be a nAyaki. By birth she

is a woman, and she can naturally express her devotion to Him in

the role of a nAyaki.

 

SrI kr*shNasvAmi aiye~ngAr describes this in the following

terms: "Expressing the bhakti towards emperumAn using the

language of a nAyaki is like "paLLa maDai" for ANDAL;

the love of the AzhvArs who try to use girl talk to

emperumAn to show their extreme bhakti is like " meTTu maDai".

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari

(kkrishnamachari <kkrishnamachari )