nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII– kaNNan ennum karum deyvam 9

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI ra’ngamannAr

tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIII– kaNNan ennum

karum deyvam

 

pASuram 13.9(thirteenth

tirumozhi-pAsuram 9 kommai mulaigaL

 

oru nAL kaNNan uNmai SolvAnA?

 

kommai mulaigaL iDar tIra gOvindaRkOr kuRREval

immaip piRavi SeyyAdE inip pOic ceyyum tavam tAn en?

Semmai uDaiya tiru mArvil SErttAnElum oru nAnRu

meimmai Solli mugam nOkki viDai tAn tarumEl miga

nanRE

 

 

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

What is the greatness in performing kaimkaryam in SrI

vaikuNTham after reaching there through the arcirAdi

mArgam, if I cannot do intimate kaimkaryam to Him in

this birth right here and now by embracing Him with

all the desire that I have for Him? His sacred vaksha

sthalam is meant only for being embraced by His close

and intimate devotees. If He accepts me and takes me

into His arms and embraces me, well and good.

Otherwise, if He looks at me straight at my face and

speaks truthfully: “I don’t want to have anything to

do with you”, that is fine with me as well. (All He

has been doing is lying to me: He always said “I will

not leave you, if I ever leave you, I shall die”; it

will be good if He can at least speak the truth once).

 

B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

 

ANDAL’s folks ask her why she is resorting to serious

thoughts like plucking her breasts and so on, instead

of pursuing other spiritual observances to realize the

Supreme Soul that is the antaryAmi of her soul that

supports those breasts. To that gOdai responds that

her sole desire is to serve Him here and now with the

current physical body, and not wait to go to SrI

vaikunTham, take a different body (of Suddha sattva

material) , and then do kaimkaryam there.

 

kommai mulaigaL iDar tIra : These breasts of mine,

which are like fully grown kids who pester their

mother saying “give me food, give me food”, keep

pressing me and asking: “Show me govindan’s vaksha

sthalam which is the only thing for which we exist”.

Unless I show them His tirumArbu, the suffering they

undergo will not subside.

 

gOvindaRkOr: These are not for SrI vainkuNTha nAthan;

they are for gOvindan, who roams after the cows.

 

Or kuRREval: Intimate kaimkaryam. Here it refers to

the kaimkaryam that men folks cannot do; this

kaimkaryam through the tight embrace that ANDAL wants

to perform, can only be done by women folks. How can

one say embracing Him with this intimacy is a

kaimkaryam? kuRREval (literally menial service), is

interpreted by SrI PVP as “antara’ngamAna kaimkaryam”

- intimate kaimkaryam - kaimkaryam that can be

performed with whatever means one has at one’s

disposal.

 

immaip piRavi SeyyAdE inip pOic ceyyum tavam tAn en?:

If I cannot get to embrace kaNNan in this birth with

this body of mine now, and if instead I have to wait

to go to paramapadam, get another body and then hope

to embrace paramapada nAthan, it is like the effort of

the rishis that do tapas in the midst of pa’ncAgni

(fire on all four sides and the scorching sun

overhead) to accomplish something. sItAdEvi wanted

to have the same kind of experience of embracing rAma

with the current body:

 

“yathA tam purushavyAghram gAtrai: SOkAbhikarSitai: |

samspRSEyam sakAmA’ham tathA kuru dayAm mayi ||”

(rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 40-3)

 

(“hanuman, help me in such a way that I can embrace

with love that narasrEshTan rAmapirAn with all parts

of my body that are suffering because of separation

from Him”).

 

Semmai uDaiya tiru mArvil: His vaksha sthalam that

will not refuse anyone who wants to embrace Him.

 

Semmai uDaiya tiru mArvil SErttAnElum (nanRu): “It

would be nice if He will accept my embrace with His

vaksha sthalam which is meant for accepting the loving

embrace of those that are dear to Him. However …. “ -

the word “Elum: denotes that she has some doubts that

this will materialize.

 

oru nAnRu meymmai Solli : “If only He utters truth at

least once – one day”. He is “ElAppoigaL uraippAn”

(NT 14-3). Even though He is used to lie all the time,

He could say the truth at least one time, right? Let

Him speak the truth at least one day. The usual lie

that He says is: “I will not leave you; if I have to

leave, I shall not live”. Unlike this lie, He can say

the truth.

 

Oru nAnRu meimmai Solli, mugam nOkki, viDai tAN

tarumEl,

miga nanRE : If only He could look at me straight in

my face once and say “I do not love you; I forsake

you; leave me”, that will be even better.

 

SErndAnEl nanRu, viDai tAN tarumEl miga nanRE: “If

He embraces me with love, that will be good; instead,

if He says “I don’t love you; go away” looking

straight at my face, that is even better”. How does

this work? Even if He embraces me now as I desire, I

will have to be separated from Him after that embrace,

and my cycle of sorrow will continue. Instead, if He

drives me away saying that He does not love me, I can

leave this life and end my sorrow. This second

situation is just like what sItApirATTi went through

the second time of separation when rAma left His

pregnant wife in the forest after listening to what

the washerman said: sItA’s lament in uttara kANDam 48

and final departure in uttara kANDAm 97 – “tathA mE

mAdhavI dEvi vivaram dAtumarhati” – 97.14-16 – “I do

not know any one except rAma, so the earth-goddess may

grant space to me”.)

 

viDai tarumEl: If He permits my being separated from

Him. (Comments from SrI T. S. Rajagopalan)

 

C. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

 

gOdai’s folks tell her that everyone in the world

should be trying to surrender his/her AtmA to Him and

not consider the body as important; but, gOdai is

trying to give importance to her body, and throw her

body at Him and not worry about her soul. Instead,

they are advising her to undertake austerities and

penance, and attain Him over several births if that is

what it takes. gItA says “bahUnAm janmanAmantE

jn~navAn mAm prapadyatE” (gItai 7-19 “At the end of

many births, the man of knowledge directly reaches me,

realizing “vAsudEvA is all” ). In response, gOdai

reaffirms to them that her immediate desire is to

perform immediate kaimkaryam to Him in this birth with

whatever means is available to her.

 

The purpose of doing penance is to get some phalan or

blessing either in this birth or in future births.

But in the case of ANDAL, she is not looking for

phalan such as svargam in the next birth. She is

looking for kaimkaryam to Him right now. Kaimkaryam

can be performed in this birth, in the next birth, in

SrI vaikunTham, or anywhere for that matter. Why

should we leave the opportunity for kaimkaryam that we

have right here, and instead go after it in another

place? “erAr muyal viTTuk kAkkaip pin pOvadEn?”

(SiRiya tirumaDal-4). Because I have not married Him

in front of everyone, there are those who talk ill of

me and you. But He has already come and married me in

my dream. I need to prove this to you. So, He needs to

come here for sure at least once.

 

What is the penance that I have to do for this? At the

end of taittriya upanishat, it is declared that

prapatti or nyAsam is the best form of penance, and is

much superior to all other forms of penance such as

satyam, mAnasam or bhakti yOgam, and is a dEva

rahasyam. Even in that prappati, it says

“siddhir-bhavati vA nEti samSayo’cyuta sEvinAm; na

samSayo’tra tad-bhakta paricaryAratAtmanAm” – “it is

better to surrender to emperumAn through elders rather

than by oneself”. I have been wanting to get to Him

only through my father – “viTTucittar tangaL dEvarai

valla pariSu varuvipparEl adu kANDumE” (NT 10.10). He

is the most respected elderly person for me. There is

no better prize than this that he can give me. So,

there is no point in going after a penance in another

world or birth.

 

viDai tAn tarumEl miga nanRE: He married some girls

in mathurA, and He has let them stay with Him.. But,

He left the AyarpADi girls, who were totally dependent

on Him, in lurch, after being with them for a few

days. Later, when they came to meet Him in

kurukshEtram, He told them that it is better that He

is separated from Him. In the same way, He can tell me

the same too. By using the terms “miga nanRE”, gOdai

is saying that she is not interested in ciRRInbam.

 

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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