vAzhn^dhE pOm n^IrE ...

[Guest guest]

--

Vijay Triplicane

Dear thirumaN^gai mannan abhimAnIs,

Sri MadhavakkaNNan has given us such a great treat through AzhvAr's

in^dhaLUr pAsurams. I cannot keep my mind off from these pAsurams. Just

to extend the anubhavam of being immersed in these kaliyan oli mAlai,

allow me to blabber some little things that interest me in these

pAsurams.

 

The fourth pAsuram is one of His best. AzhvAr is so upset that

perumAL didn't show His face to him. He is disappointed and that

disappointment slowly turns into strong words. He feels that he has

the "right" to see emberumAn's thirumEni. HAving been denied his due right,

he bursts out. One should note the ease with which he talks to

emberumAn. He very casually even curses the emberumAn. That IS his

beauty. The flow of the pAsuram, the choice of words, the nativity

that it provides... None other than our dearest thirumaN^gai mannan

could give this effect.

 

Let me break up the words so that it is easier to understand.

 

aasai vazhuvAdhu Eththum emakku iN^gu izhukku Ayththu

adiyORku thEsam aRiya umakkE ALAyth thirikinROmukku

kAsin oLiyil thigazhum vaNNam, kAttIr emberumAn!

vAsi vallIr inthaLUrIr! vAzhn^dhE pOm n^IrE!

 

Sri mAdhavakkannan has provided an excellent translation for this

pAsuram. AzhvAr is basically angry at emberumAn. In the first 3 lines,

he expresses his disappointment. In the last line he bursts out. He

first addresses Him as indhLUrIr, that itself is kinda sarcastic in a

colloquial sense. Instead of calling His name, he uses His place and

with an extra sarcastically respectful suffix "Ir". (Hello Mr."respectful"

person from indhaLUr!).

 

And then he curses emberumAn so nicely. He says "vAzhn^dhE pOm

n^IrE!". This literally means "May you live longer". But the tone,

the delivery suggests such a sarcasm and anger.

This is a great euphemism. It expresses AzhvAr's anger in a

superficially sweet way. Sri periyavAcchAn piLLaii's vyAkyAnam could

roughly be translated as this: "Go ahead, live longer peacefully, all by

yourself. We love you and your thirumeni so much. We thought it

belongs to us or atleast we have a right to see that. If you don't

think so, OK, go ahead. Have it for yourself and enjoy all alone.

you don't need me... then I don't need you... (Please don't take these

way too literally and pounce on me as if I've committed blasphemy. I

am just adding little colour by way of translation to Sri PVP's

commentary.)

 

Another interesting thing that I have heard in kAlakshEbhams about the

6'th pAsuram:

sollAdhu ozhiyagillEn. aRin^dha sollil

num adiyAr ellArOdum okka eNNi irun^dhIr adiyEnai

 

"I am not going to leave this unsaid. This is what I feel. Did you

consider me as one among your ordinary adiyArs? Am I not special?

Don't you realize this? You could've done this to somebody, not me!"

 

An interesting question arises here as to who he refers to as

ordinary adiyArs. We would think that he was referring us here. But

No. He refers to svAmi n^ammAzhvAr and hints that he is better than

n^ammAzhvAr

 

Sri periyavAcchAn piLLai explicitly cites the name of Sri nammAzhvAr

here. While Sri n^ammAzhvAr with his willpower could sit under a tree

without food or water for so long, our dear Sri thirumaN^gai AzhvAr

being so very tender hearted couldn't bear the separation from the

emberumAn in his archa form even for a moment and came running.

This shows our AzhvAr's sowkumAryam. isn't he special?

 

(This again is just to poetically bring out the greatness of

thirumaN^gai mannan and not to show any disrespect to our dear

prapanna jana kootasthar, sri nammAzhvAr. Ask Sri periyavAcchAn

piLLai for any clarifications! :-) )

 

 

After going through all these and having a better understanding of

AzhvAr's mood, if we read the first pAsuram again, we get a different

interpretation.

 

"n^ummai thozhudhOm numtham paNi seydhirukkum num adiyOm"

 

"n^ummaith thozhudhOm" literally means, "I offered prayers to you."

But the interpretation in thamizh goes like this, "unnai pOy

thozhudhEnE! " (A loose translation: Why did I ever pray to you?)

This again is from what I heard in an upanyAsam by Sri vELukkudi

svAmi. I don't have the vyAkyAnam for this paththu with me. Probably

his son, Sri vELukkudi KrishNan swami could provide better

explanantion.

 

AzhvAr emberumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE SaraNam

adiyEn irAmAnusa dhAsan

"Viji" Triplicane