nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII– kaNNan ennum karum deyvam 7

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI ra’ngamannAr

tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII– kaNNan ennum

karum deyvam

 

pASuram 13.7(thirteenth tirumozhi-pAsuram 7 veRRik

karuLak

koDiyAn )

 

ennaik kaNNanuDan iNaiyungaL

 

veRRik karuLak koDiyAn tan mImIdu ADA ulagattu

veRRa veRidE peRRa tAi vEmbE Aga vaLarttALE

kuRRam aRRa mulai tannaik kumaran kOlap paNait tOLODu

aRRa kuRRam avai tIra aNaiya amukkik kATTIrE

 

 

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

This kaNNan with garuDan on His victorious flag is

declared by the veda-s as the One whose Will cannot be

violated by anything in this Universe. We were led to

believe that yaSodA really gave birth to Him when we

saw her feeding Him her milk, being harsh to Him when

He stole butter, etc. But after all she was not His

real mother, and she failed miserably in bringing Him

up, with the net result that He is useless for anyone

and causes only harm to everyone. Thus it is all her

fault that He is like this. Unlike Him, I am

blemishless, and have kept my body and my life only so

that this youthful kaNNan with His broad and

magnificent shoulders can embrace it. Even though He

refuses to come and embrace me who belongs to Him,

please take me and tightly bind me to Him so that He

will be united with me who belongs to Him.

 

B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

 

Even though He is not like rAman who declares “na

jIvEyam kshaNamapi (“rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 66-10),

and so would not come and embrace me on His own,

please take me and tie me up tightly with Him so that

He is united with me.

 

veRRik karuLak koDiyAn tan mImIdu ADA ulagattu: He has

garuDak koDi (His flag which has gauDan in it) to

announce to the world His victory and sovereignty

over everything in it. He is doing things to just keep

proving His svAtantryam (independence) and my

pAratantrayam (subservience to Him); He never does

anything to show His ASrita pAratantrayam (His

subservience to His bhaktas) or His praNayitvam (being

controlled by sheer love from His devotees).

 

But, since He is sarvEsvaran, His rule governs me even

though I love Him, just as parA~nkusa nAyaki said in

tiruviruttam 33 (“agal viSumbum nilanum iRuLAr vinai

keDa Sen’kOl naDAvudir IngOr peNpAl poruLO enum

igazhvO ivaRRin puRattAL enReNNO”) – “O Great

emperumAn! You protect the worlds of the devas and

this world from all darkness and evil deeds. Is it

not a disgrace that You don’t protect this parA~nkuSa

nAyaki of Yours? Or, do You think that she is outside

Your domain of control?”

 

In fact, nothing can function out of His control

anyway, including the wind, the sun, etc. The

taittirEya upanishad (Anandavalli 8-1) declares that

the wind blows out of fear of Him, the sun rises and

sets on time out of fear of disobeying Him, and agni,

indra and yama perform their assigned duties without

flaw out of fear of Him.

 

“bhIshAsmAt vAta: pavate bhIshOdeti sUrya: |

bhIshAsmAt agniScendraSca mRtyur dhAvati pa’ncama

iti ||”

 

The SAstra-s also proclaim that the appearance of

clouds, rising and subsiding of the ocean waves, the

display and disappearance of the lightening, the blow

of winds, the waxing and waning of the moon, the

passage of the sun etc. are all vishNu’s mAyai-s.

 

“mEghOdayas-sAgara sannivRttir-

vidyud-vibhan’gah sphuritAni vAyoh |

indOr-vibhAgo gatamushNa-raSmer-

vishNOr-vicitrAh prbhavanti mAyAh ||”

 

mImIdu ADA ulagattu: the phrase ‘mImIdu’ should be

read as mIdu mIdu; the first mIdu denotes greatness;

the second mIdu denotes ‘on top of’. Thus, the phrase

means that nothing can operate over garuDakkoDiyAn’s

greatness.

 

veRRa veRidE peRRa tAi : a mother getting a son for

no benefit for anyone, but only to harm others.

 

peRRa tAi : gOdai blamed His father (“nandagOpan

magan”) in the previous pASuram; now, she is blaming

His mother. On second thoughts, ANDAL feels that it

may not be fair to blame nandagopan for the spoilt

child, and the blame for the rotten behavior of this

child rests squarely on yaSodA. After all, nandagOpan

has the responsibility to look after a lot of cows,

bulls, AyargaL etc. Just as we failed in our

responsibility to set Him right when we were indulging

in His anubhavam and had Him with us, nandagOpan is

also indulging in rakshaNa kAryam and could not

correct kaNNan. But, such is not the case with yasOdA;

she has no other work except to bring Him up as a nice

boy. We all thought she was the birth mother when we

saw her tie Him up, beat Him up, feed Him her breast

milk etc. But from the way she has brought Him up, it

is very clear that she is just a stepmother who

adopted Him. So, “peRRa tAi” is used sarcastically

here by the frustrated ANDAL.

 

vEmbE Aga vaLarttALE: instead of making Him a mixture

of vEmbu (bad) and karumbu (good), she brought Him up

as vEMbE Aga (pure, unadulterated vEmbu – bad only).

So it is not His fault that He turned out to be so

bad; it is all her fault.

 

gOdai’s folks say: “Let Him not come. The loss is only

yours; why are you insulting His mother who is in

between? He is not coming because may be you have some

faults”.

 

kuRRam aRRa mulai : What fault do I have? Even though

He is vEMbu, I am like the “vEmbin puzhu” – the worm

of the vEmbu tree that won’t feed on anything but the

vEmbu. “vEmbin puzhu vEmbanRi uNNAdu” (periya

tirumozhi 11-8-7). My breasts know none but Him.

“avaraip pirAyam toDa’ngi enRum Adarittu ezhunda en

taDa mulaigaL tuvaraip pirAnukkE sa’nkalpitut tozhudu

vaittEn” (NT 1-4). And they are for none but gOvindan

(kongait talamivai nOkkik kANIr (NT 12-4).

 

SrI PVP comments that her devotion to kaNNan has as

its basis His natural role as our svAmi or Lord

(svrUpa-kRta-bhakti), and not based on how He treats

her or what His character has been (guNa-kRta-bhakti).

Again he draws the analogy between sItA pirATTi and

ANDAL in this aspect. He narrates the following

incident, showing that sIta had the same view as the

basis for Her devotion to Lord rAma, even though in

rAma’s case, there was no issue with His treatment of

Her. atri maharishi’s wife anasUyai tells sItai,

when she comes to the Asramam : “a woman’s para deyvam

is her husband”. sItai responds: “since My husand is a

great guNasAli, everyone thinks that I consider Him as

My para deyvam because He is a guNasAli. I have a

natural love for Him because He is My Lord, which has

nothing to do with His being a guNA-SAli; but, He is

an exemplary guNa-Sali, and so, people think that My

love of Him is because of His guNam-s. It is My loss

that because He is of such exemplary character, people

do not recognize My natural love to Him that is not a

function of His character”.

 

kuRRam aRRa mulai: mulai has kuRRam if it is waiting

patiently for Him to come whenever He comes. Mine are

not patient like that. They are suffering immensely.

 

When her folks ask her “ what should we do to ease

your pain”, she continues further.

 

kumaran : He is the ‘kumaran’ – kALai – the one with

youthful age for these mulaigaL.

 

kOlap paNait tOLODu: Shoulders that are beautiful, and

that are like the branches of a kaRpaka vRksham. Even

though His mother brought Him up like vEmbu and His

heart is full of lies, His shoulders did not lose

their beauty. I cannot sustain my life if I do not

embrace them. kaNNan has brought her to this condition

– even when she is angry with Him, she is still

talking about His “beautiful shoulders like the

branches of the kaRpaka vRksham”, because this is how

He has handled her before, embraced her before, and

mesmerized her.

 

aRRa kuRRam avai tIra: Even though my mulaigaL are

physically part of my body, they really belong to His

shoulders. So they are His, and belong on His

shoulders. This separation from Him is a blemish for

them. You have to see to it that this blemish for

them is removed.

 

aNaiya amukkik kATTIrE: Even if He refuses, make my

mulaigaL embrace His shoulders with force. Isn’t there

someone to imprison my breasts with His shoulders

together just as bANAsuran handcuffed and imprisoned

his daughter ushai and kaNNan’s grandson aniruddhan

togther?

 

Why would her folks, who were trying to separate her

from kaNNan so far, tie her with kaNNan? Even though

they are trying their best to separate them, now, she

is in a position where she might not live anymore

without Him; so, it will become their responsibility

to make her live by tying her with Him.

 

 

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

 

veRRi veRidE, vEmbAgavE: “oruvarkkum payan inRiyE,

payan illai enkira mAttiramEyO!, vEppa’m kAi pOl

kaikkum paDiyAgavE) - Not only has yaSodA brought Him

up as “good for nothing, useless, waste”, but also

“patently distasteful to everyone”.

 

kumaran – “yauvanattODu tOL tINDiyAna ap-perumAn”) -

He Who embraces His devotees with His rejuvenating,

youthful form.

 

yaSodA is completely at fault for this totally ruined

child – “a’njavurappAL aSOdai ANADa viTTiTTirukkum”

(NT 3.9)– She enjoyed watching Him go berserk as if He

is the only male being around, and He is roaming

around totally uncontrolled.

 

D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

 

We saw earlier that SrI PVP’s anubhavam was that ANDAL

felt that yaSOdA failed in bringing Him up properly

because after all she was not the natural mother. SrI

UV gives the anubhavam that ANDAL feels that because

yaSOdA thought that she was the natural mother, she

ruined Him by giving Him freedom beyond limits,

thinking that this was the way to bring up the child

with affection. Also, because He revealed Himself to

her as the Supreme Lord, she just was overwhelmed with

the pride of having given birth to Him, and did not

feel any responsibility to bring Him up properly, and

ended up making a “vEmbu” out of Him.

 

But in this pASuram, ANDAL gives the remedy for this

problem. If the elders make sure that her flawless

breasts are brought into contact with the shoulders of

this “vEmbu”, the flaws of this vEmbu will all be

removed. The flawless breasts of mine will transfer

their flawlessness to Him, and the “vEmbU’ will turn

into “karumbu”.

 

kuRRamaRRa mulai: Flawless breasts. Those that do

not have any flaw right from the time of birth. The

sthanam that conforms to all the lakshaNa-s

(sAmudrikA lakshaNa-s?), and also that which does not

feel the slightest sense of excitement on the thought

of anyone but Him.

 

kumaran: That One Who is of nitya yauvanam – Eternal

youth, who does not age (a-jarah, a-marah, etc.).

 

aRRa kuRRam avai tIra: The kuRRam referred to here is

the vyasanam because of the separation from Him. If

this kind of vyasanam continues in one, it can have

the effect of turning one against Him also (prAtikUlya

buddhi); but the very sight of the paramAnanda

svarUpam of the Lord will remove all traces of the

feelings of prAtikUlyam completely. It is considered

that this is how the mukta-s never have any thoughts

of their past, before they became mukta-s.

 

 

Abbreviations:

------------------

PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai

PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr

UV = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

aDiyAL,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

 

(Articles on nAcciyAr tirumozhi are available at:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/7673/azhwars/nachiyar.html

maintained by SrI VenkaT aiyengAr of SrI villiputtUr)

 

 

 

 

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