nAcciyAr tirumozhi IX - Sindurac cempoDi 3

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi IX - Sindurac cempoDi

pASuram 9.3 (ninth tirumozhi - pAsuram 3 karuviLai oN malargAL)

 

en kai vaLai paRittuc cenRu vittArE

 

karuviLai oN malargAL! kAyA malargAL! TirumAl

uru oLi kATTUginrIr enakku uy-vazhakku onRu uraiyIr

tiruviLaiyADu tiN tOL tirumAlirumSOlai nambi

varivaLaiyil pugundu vandi paRRum vazhakku uLadE

 

A. Meaning from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

godai addresses the beautiful kAkkaNam and kAyAm flowers:

"Your hue reminds me of the color of the tirumEni of

emperumAn who is always with pirATTi. You have to

tell me a way for me to hold on to my life. Is it fair

that this azhagar of tirumAl irum Solai with the

beautiful and strong shoulders which are the sporting

grounds of periya pirATTi, enters my house and

confiscates my beautiful bangles by force?

 

B. Additional thoughts from SrImAn Sadagopan:

 

ANDAL is telling these queens of flowers, the kAkkaNam

and the kAyA malargaL, that the injustice that has

been caused to her was committed by none other than

sundarabAhu, the nAthan or Chief of the "kulamalai

kOlamalai kuLir mAmalai koRRa malai, nilamail nINDa malai

tirumAlirumcOlai malai".

 

C. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

 

TirumAl uru oLi kATTUginrIr: "You are reminding me

of emperumAn's hue that appears when He and periya

pirATTi are together".

 

An instance from the itihAsa-s is given by SrI PVP

to illustrate how emperumAn gets His greatness from

association with pirATTi. He gives the example of

how Lord rAma, the cakravartit-tirumagan, got His greatness

by being the son of the great daSaratha.

 

"During nanjIyar's time, there was a king named

sundara pANDiya tEvar. He used to ask nanjIyar his

doubts in SrI rAmAyaNam. One day, there was a discussion

about the slokam in AraNya kANDam 1-9:

 

sa hi vIryOpa pannaSca rUpavAn anasUyaka: |

bhUmAvanupamas sUnur guNair daSaratopama: ||

 

"(That rAman is valorous; He is very beautiful; He has

no jealousy; He has none equal to Him in this world;

He resembles His father, daSarathan in His attributes)".

 

The key phrase here is "guNair-daSarathopamah". How

can emperumAn be compared to daSaratha in character?

 

NanjIyar's aRuLic ceyal was : "emperumAn was born as

rAmapirAn and had His own guNa-s such as svabhAva paratvam

etc; but, His having even half of daSaratha cakravarti's

guNa-s would have been enough to call rAma the 'cakravarti

tirumagan". Two reasons are given in support of this:

1. rAma Himself said: "AtmAnam mAnusham manyE rAmam

daSarathAtmajam (rAmAyanam yuddha kANDam 120-11);

It is perumAL's tiruvuLLam that He feels pride in being

the Son of daSaratha viz. This is adding to His Greatness.

2. "guNair daSarathOpama:" - Here Lord rAma is compared

to daSaratha, not the other way round, suggesting that

daSaratha's association only adds to rAma's greatness.

The analogy here is that, just as perumAL gets His

Greatness because of His being daSarathan's son,

perumAL gets His Greatness (here signified by

"beautiful hue") because of association with periya pirATTi".

 

enakku uy vazhakku onRu uraiyIr: "Even though you have

been created by Him just to make me suffer, you can try

and help me too, instead of always remaining His loyal

servants and torturing me. When two of us are involved,

shouldn't you at least feel sorry for me since I am suffering?"

 

Why are these flowers so intent on making her suffer?

The flowers, as His creation, were just following their

dharma, that of following His tiru uLLam. It is His

Will that she should be tortured, and they are just doing that.

 

An example of why these flowers just followed perumAL's

tiru uLLam irrespective of the consequences, is again

given by SrI PVP based on the conversation from SrI

nanjIyar and sundara pANDiyan. The discussion centered

around vibhIshaNa AzhvAn. Sundara pANDian thought it

inappropriate that vibhishaNa abandoned his brother when

the latter was in danger. NanjIyar's explanation was:

"when an elder brother and father (here referring to

emperumAn in the form of Lord rAma, who is the Father

of all) have differences, a younger brother must follow

only the father, not the elder brother. Since rAmapirAn

is sarvalOka pitA, as declared in mahA bhAratam,

sarveshAmeva lokAnAm pitA mAtA ca mAdhavah, the only

appropriate action for vibhIshaNa was to join Him".

 

So these beautiful karuviLai and kASA malargaL were

doing their duty of following His tiru uLLam, and did

not have any problem torturing ANDAL.

 

uy vazhakku: ANDAL appeals to these flowers: "All

you seem to know is how to finish me off; Why don't

you learn to tell me how to live? Why don't you tell

me that you will keep away from my sight and stop

contributing to my misery? You have come as flowers

(pU in tamizh), but you are performing the job of a

tiger (puli)".

 

onRu uraiyIr: ANDAL is pleading to these flowers -

just utter one word to me on which I can anchor and

hold on to my hope that He will come to me one day.

 

tiru viLaiyADu tiN tOL: These strong shoulders of

emperumAn are the place of sporting for peria pirATTi -

godai is aware that this is not the emperumAn who is

unkind to His nAyaki. So she is wondering aloud why

He is being unkind to her now.

 

tirumAlirum Solai nambi: In the ancient days, when

the southern part of India was just a wild forest,

daNDakAraNya, occupied by the asura-s, it was looked

down upon by the Aryans from the north as the mleccha

bhUmi. But the tirumAlirum Solai nambi in the form of

azhagar, showed His soulabhyam by sharing His presence

even in the midst of the malaik kuRavargaL. periyAzhvAr

sings about His souSIlyam in periyAzhvAr tirumozhi

5-3-3: "inak kuRavar pudiyaduNNum ezhil mAlirum SOlai

endAi - You who accepts gladly the prasAdam offered to

you by the kuRavargaL of tirumAl irum Solai".

 

vari vaLai il pugundu: ANDAL's feeling of separation

from Him is overpowering her. She is telling these

flowers: "It is not as if I went to His place and

got into trouble with Him. If this was the case, at

least it may be justifiable for Him to torture me and

make me suffer. I am just sitting in my place, and

He is coming and occupying my mind and making me

suffer like this. Is this justified?"

 

vandi paRRum: "Without our seeking Him, He is

coming and taking a hold of me and my vaLai (here

symbolically used to refer to our life or soul). I am

holding on to this vaLai because I know it is dear to

Him, and He is now taking it away and making it His own

involuntarily; Now you flowers! Tell me an alternate

way of surviving, now that He has taken hold of my life".

 

D. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

 

SrI PBA nicely depicts the scene of the "conversation"

between ANDAL and the kAyA and kAkkaNam flowers. The

color and beauty of these flowers reminds ANDAL of

emperumAn, and is destroying her even more. She is

asking them if the only thing they know how to do is

destroy her, and instead asking them to tell her a

way of survival. They are asking her what it is that has

happened to her so bad that she has to come and ask them

for a way to continue to live. She says she does not

mind Him offering His tiN tOL only to peria pirATTi and

enjoying Himself in the process; all she was doing

was deriving consolation by holding on to her

vaLaiyal-s that He liked very much the last time He

was with ANDAL, and now He has forcibly come into her

house and taken away that also. She is asking these

flowers whether this is justified, fair, decent, proper.

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari

 

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