nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu 2

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu

pASuram 8.2 (eighth tirumozhi - pAsuram 2 mAmutta nidhi Sorium)

 

 

mAmutta nidhi Sorium mAmugilgAL! vE~nkaTattuc

cAmattin niRam koNDa tALALan vArttai ennE?

kAmattI uL pugundu kaduvap paTTu iDaik-ka~ngul

Emattu Or tenRalukku i~ngu ilakkAi nAn iruppEnE

 

A. Translation (meaning) from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

Oh clouds, who rain blessings on everyone without even being asked!

Did the blue-hued, tiruvEnkaTamuDaiyAn send any message for me

through you? The fire of kAmam I have for Him is torturing me

inside out and I am being tortured also by the so-called sweet breeze

during midnights.

 

B. Additional thoughts from SrimAn SaDagopan:

 

vArttai ennE?: ANDAL is suffering from viraha tApam and is enquiring the

clouds : "did vittakan vE~nkaTavANan tell you when He is coming here?"

Did "niccalum tImaigaL Seyyum nIL tiruvEnkaTattu nIlamEga vaNNan" send a

message for me that He would come soon, knowing that I am suffering

from love for Him?

 

Even though she is taking after her father and blabbering: "vEdapporuLE,

en vE~nkaTava, vittaganE in~gE pOdarAyE", her vEnkaTavan is not coming

to her and is staying put in tirumalai, totally ignoring her. Hence

her sympathetic appeal to the clouds.

 

C. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

 

nidhi Sorium: The clouds are used to giving all the time and that

too not waiting for anyone to ask, and not expecting anything in

return. In fact, when the clouds can't shower like this, their

body becomes all pale (white).

 

tiruvaLLuvar praises this greatness through the following

tirukkuRaL - "kaimmARu vENDAk-kaDappADu mAri mATTennARRunkollO

ulagu" - the world does not think of repaying the favor given to them

by the raining clouds; that is how service to others must be given

- without expecting anything in return (from SrI kr*shnasvAmi iyengar).

 

VenkaTattu - The thought here is that the clouds share this same

place with tiruvE~nkaTamuDaiyAn, and so they are very familiar

with Him. Since they live in the same place as He does, they

should know.

 

SAmattin niRam koNDa: The word SAmam here stands for the samskr*t

words SyAmam, meaning "dark-blue". The clouds not only share the

place with Him, but they also resemble Him in color [["Uzhi mudalvan

uruvam pOl mey karuttu" - tiruppAvai]].

 

tALALan: Refers to His Greatness, viz. those who surrender at His

Feet are unconditionally given moksham irrespective of any sins they

might have committed.

 

SrI T.S.rAjagopAlan observes that tALALan also refers to His having

a SarIram for Himself that is really held by Him only for the sake

of His devotees. SrI PVP refers to the jitante stotram 1.5 - "na

te rUpam na cAkAro nAyudhAni na cAspadam | tathA'pi purushAkAro

bhaktAnAm tvam prakASase ||".

 

In this sense, bhagavAn has the greatness that the mA-mugil lacks,

viz. He bears this tirumeni for the sake of others, but keeps

aloof from them till they come seeking Him; He does not go and

embrace everyone irrespective of their disposition to Him, unlike

the clouds which shower for everyone.

 

vArttai ennE?: Even though He didn't come here, if He felt that

it is His own loss not to have responded to ANDAL's prayers, he

must have said something to the clouds, and ANDAL is asking the

clouds for this information. For instance, He could have felt

bad that He did not come and help ANDAL by fulfilling her prayers,

and told the clouds:

 

1. Find out what godai is doing and let me know.

2. I cannot live without ANDAL for even a second, just as rAma

could not live without sItai even for a second -

"na jIveyam kshaNamapi" (SrImad rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 66-10).

3. I don't even know that a girl named ANDAL is related to me - as

dushyantan said about SakuntalA.

 

godai is hoping to survive just listening to His words. How can

words be enough to survive? SrI PVP quotes arjuna's words in

gItai, where arjuna was able to carry on just listening to bhagavAn's

words: "nashTO mOha: s*mrtir labdhA tvatprasAdAn mayA'cyuta |

sthitosmi gatasandeha: karishye vacanam tava" - gitA 18-73.

(acuta! My moham got destroyed; I attained true knowledge; my

doubts are all cleared; I will do as you said). Additionally,

SrI kr*shnasvAmi iye~ngAr quotes nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi 4-7-3

to point out that even negative words from bhagavAn could have made

him continue living: "pAvi nI enRu onRu SollAi pAviyEn kANa vandE" -

nammAzhvAr wishes to at least listen to some chiding words from

emperumAn - "Call me a great sinner, that is fine, as long as you

come and talk to me".

 

Even though godai kept asking the clouds what His words were,

they keep quite and so becoming depressed, she continues her

outbursts.

 

kAmat-tI uL pugundu: ANDAL wonders: Maybe He thinks that the

kAmat-tI or fire of intense love towards Him is like the ordinary

fire of this world. Think of naraka agni, which is several times

more intense than the ordinary agni of this world. The kAmat-tI

by which ANDAL is being tortured longing for Him is several times

more intense than the naraka agni also. This agni first scorched

her external appearance, and now is finding its way to scorch her

AtmA. Since the fire of this kAmat-tI originated from her AtmA to

start with anyway, it is not wonder that it is now troubling the AtmA.

 

kaduvappaTTu: This fire of longing for Him is not only scorching her

inside out, but now it is catching fire and burning her.

 

iDaikkan~gul Emattu: this can construed in 2 ways: 1. ka~ngul

iDai yAmattu - During the middle of the night; 2. iDaik-ka~ngul -

in the middle of the night, Emattu - with a lot of security in a

lonely surrounding. Even though she is longing to be with Him all

alone, now she is all alone without Him and with no one to even

console her.

 

Or tenRalukku: ANDAL is wondering if He really is unconcerned

because He does not realize how severe the effect of this breeze

is on her. But then again, the fact that the tenRal (sweet breeze)

is torturing to lovers who are separated is nothing new to Him. He

knows exactly how it feels:

padma sougandhi kavaham Sivam SOka vinASanam |

dhanyA lakshmaNa! SevantE pampOpavana mArutam ||

(kishkindA 1.105) "Oh lakshmaNa! Only bhAgyavAns will enjoy this pure

breeze which brings the sweet smell of the lotus

flowers, and which comes floating over the groves in

the banks of pampA river". rAma, when He was separated

from pirATTi could not bear the breeze and felt tortured.

And since He knows this personally, should He not have come and

offered His protection to her under His Feet? He should know that

the only way the severity of this breeze will subside is if the

two were united and together.

 

SrI PVP explains in detail how Lord rAma describes this tenRal

that is killing Him: Sivam - Auspicious (since it will

destroy Him who is separated from sItA pirATTi); Soka vinASanam -

relieve Him of His misery (by destroying Him once for all without

slowly torturing Him); pampovana mArutam - the breeze from the

pampo vanam (which in His case is like fire from an agni kuNDam).

 

nan illakkAi: ANDAL is wondering why she has been targeted for

this suffering. Is it because He thinks she should also suffer like

Him or that she is also capable of bearing this torture as He did?

She is the type who trembles when she encounters breeze, and she won't

live long under these circumstances. Or, does He want to live after

she is gone?

 

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari