THIRUP PALLAANDU- 1

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri vaishnava perunthagaiyeer,

 

In accordance with the commendation and in deference to the wishes of Sri

Sadagopan, I offer my contribution on ThiruppallaaNdu in this and subsequent

posts. The main part of the kainkaryam of translating and giving word by

word meaning for the thaniyan, main paasurams etc will be carried out by Sri

Sadagopan.

 

"PallaaNdu pallaaNdu pallaayiraththaaNdu pala kOdi nooraayiram mallaaNda

thiNdOL maNivaNNaa un sEvadi sevvith thirukkaappu"--- 1

Why thOl and sEvadi in the first paattu?

1. The lord Sriman naaraayaNan appeared in the garuda vaahanam before

Sri Vishnu Chiththar. He immediately started singing pallaaNdu. To talk

about proportions of size, when the lord appeared in garudan, the bird's

size cannot be small as we see garudan today. To carry the weight of the

Lord, garudan has to be of large size. The speed of the bird is also a

criterion. When Lord rushed to the rescue of gajendra the elephant, in his

garuda vaahanam, the carrier, he almost instantaneously appeared in front of

gajendra. So the speed of garudan is super.

 

2. If a huge bird carrying the lord appears in the sky, the striking

part for a person standing on the ground, or a catch at the first sight,

will be the outer frame of the person seated on the bird and the hanging

legs on the sides. His chest his dress full frame etc will be seen

subsequently only. So that is why aazhvaar kaappittaar the shoulders and

feet first.

 

"mal aaNda thiN thOL"-

1. "mal aaNda thiN thOL"- on this word, the urai aasiriyar elaborates

"Sri krishnaa fought with the wrestlers, sent by his uncle kamsan, named

chaaNooran and mushtikan, and these two were conquered by krishna in his

young age itself. So krishnaa's shoulders are "mallargaLai vezhththiya

thiNmai udaiya thOlgaL".

 

2. "mal aaNda thiN thOL"- In another periyaazhvaar paasuram "kaaLiyan

poigai kalangap padinthittu avan neeL mudi ainthilum ninRu nadam seithu

meeLa avanukku aruL seitha viththagan thOL vali veeramE paadip paRa,

thoomaNi vaNNanai paadip paRa"- the thOl vali- the shoulder power is not

only exhibited by kaNNan in his wrestlers leelai but also in kaaLiyan

episode. Krishna was rounded by the long length of kaaliyan's body, so as to

crush krishnaa. kaaLiyan thought he can crush krishnaa like a python

crushing its prey by encircling the prey's body. With his shoulder power he

removed the body of kaaLiyan and made him subdued and then had a dance on

kaaLiyan's 5 heads. So he has such a powerful shoulder. So "thiN thOL".

 

3. "mal aaNda thiN thOL" - Poet Kamban describes in his "raamaayaNam",

Sri raaman's shoulder beauty by the words "thOL kaNdaar thOLE kaNdaar, thaaL

kaNdaar thaaLE kaNdaar'. This quote is very famous. The shoulders of Sri

raaman seen by the city folks, in the streets of king janakaa's vidheha

desam, is described as above, while he came along with sage visvaamithra,

for seeing the siva dhanus.

 

Meaning: those who looked at the shoulders of Sri raaman were so

attracted, that they cannot remove their eyes from the shoulders and move

over to other parts of raaman's body. Those who have seen the feet were

attracted so much, that they cannot move their eyes to other parts of his

body. Such is the beauty of raaman's shoulders. So this thiN thoL can be

equally considered as raaman's also.

 

4. "mal aaNda thiN thOL" - "Aajaanu baahum aravindha dhaLaayadhaaksham"

is the slokam recited at the beginning of the daily routine of "raamaayaNam

sEviththal" - so raaman's shoulders beauty is described as mal aaNda thiN

thOL in this.

 

5. "mal aaNda thiN thOL" -In the colloquial language also, we say, when

two persons are fighting, "hey, avanOdu Endaa mallukku nikkara"- meaning

-why you want to pick up quarrel with him? So "mal" has a meaning- a fight.

When we are fighting this samsaara vaazhkkai- this real life, He comes to

our rescue, who calls him for his help, gives solace to our sufferings. So

he rules over our mal and thus becomes "mal aandavan".

 

6. "mal aaNda thiN thOL"- Generally swimmers have a well-built

shoulders. The hands serve as oars and the shoulders are the fulcrum points.

The fulcrum has to be strong for the efficient functioning of the lever. The

swimmer who goes to rescue the drowning people in the waters, usually lift

and carry them in their shoulders to safety. When we, poor creatures, swim

in the samsaara saagaram, get mostly drowned. we realise the drowning at

some stage and shout for help by surrendering unto him, the Lord rescuer

comes and lift us using his strong shoulders and lands us in the safe shores

of his Sri vaikuntham. So naturally the rescuer Lord must have thiN thOLgaL

so that he carries all of us to the safe shores of Sri vaikuntham.

 

7. "mal aaNda thiN thOL" -In the vow given to Sri Bhoomi Piratti, when

she prays to Lord Sri Varaaha moorthy, Lord Vishnu in Boar form, Lord

varaaha, [considered as varaaha charma slokam] says "When a person, when his

faculties are under control of him, performs archana and dear to me, during

his last days, in the death bed, I will come and give refuge to him and take

him to my abode, i.e. Vaikuntam. Nobody need to have any doubt on this. So

he confirms that his mallaaNda thiN thOL's capacity in this charama slokam

again.

 

Other points we will see in next post

Dasan Vasudevan M.G.