Thirumangai Mannan's Paasurams on ThiruviNNagarappan:PeriyaThirumozhi(PTM) : 6.1.1

[Guest guest]

SrI :

 

Dear BhakthAs of Sri BhUmi Devi SamEtha Oppilaa Appan :

 

Today , adiyEn will start with the first of Thirumangai's

captivating thirty ThiruviNNagaram Paasurams :

 

vaNDuNu anumalariNDaikoNDu , paNDai namm vinai keDavenRadimEl

thoNDarum amararum paNiya ninRangu aNDmODahilidam aLanthavanE

AaNDay Unnaik-kANpathOr aruLennakkaruLithiyEl

vENDEn manai vaazhkkayai ViNNaharmEyavanE ---Periya Thirumozhi: 6.1.1

 

(Meaning) : Oh Sri VaikuntanAtha ,who has joyously elected to reside at

the dhivya dEsam of ThiruviNNagar ! When the oppressed DevAs and

the faithful servants of Yours who have chosen Your sacred feet as their ultimate

refuge arrived at Your Sannidhi with the fragrant flower garalnds , prostrated

before You and begged for the destruction of their ancient sins , You responded to

them with alacrity . You incarnated as Vaamanan and changed right before

their eyes into the gigantic Thrivikraman , measured both the immense earth

and vast upper worlds with two of Your spreading steps . Through that benovolent

act , their heads had the sambhandham of Your most sacred foot and all their sins

were destroyed. Their prayers were thus answered by You . Oh Lord who has blessed

adiyEn with all auspiciousness and corrected me from vipareetha AchArams ! adiyEn will

cut asunder all my links to this samsAric world filled with every kind of affliction ,

if You could grant me the boon of gaining the difficult-to-obtain darsana soubhAgyam of

Yours at ThiruviNNagar

 

( Special Notes ) : Vinnagar MeyavanE : Oh Lord who chose with elan to arrive at

ThoiruviNNagar and rsides there joyously ! You elected happily to arrive at this

forest of gardens on a Panguni SravaNam day to seek the hand of BhUmi Piraatti ,

the daughter of MarkaNDEya Maharishi and reside with Her to bless Your bhaktha

kOtees .

 

Amararum ThoNDarum , vaNDu uNUm naRu malar maalai koNDu paNiya =

When You chose and settled down at ThiruviNNagar by the side of AhOrAthra

PushkaraNi , the assembly of DevAs and the throngs of Your devoted servants ,

who have taken refuge at Your sacred feet arrived in hordes at Your sannidhi

carrying in their hands garlands with fragrant flowers with honey desired by

the bees . They placed the garlands at Your charaNa kamalam , prostrated before

You .

 

Namm PaNDai vinai keda yenRu paNiya : They prayed then for the total destruction of

their ancient sins .

 

How did you rspond to their prayers ? You took on Thrivikrama avathAram

to fulfill their manOraTam

 

angu ninRu aNDamODu ahal idam aLanthavanE ! = You hurried to the Yaaga Saalai

of the haughty MahA Bali as Vaamana Moorthy and stood there , transformed right

before their eyes into the rapidly growing Thrivikrama Moorthy to measure every inch

of the ocean-girdled Earth and vast skies and the upper worlds . By that act , every

chEtanam and achEtanam had the bhAgyam of contact with Your sacred feet

celebrated by the VedAs . All their sins were destroyed as a result .

 

AzhwAr's fondness for ThrivikramAvathAram : Thirumangai was the last of

the 12 AzhwArs .The AzhwArs , who preceded Thirumangai have celebrated

the ThrivikramAvathAram in their paasurams with great joy . For instance , ANDAL

addresses Thrivikraman as " Ongi UlhaLantha Utthaman " . Why is He addressed

as Utthaman here ? Rest of the avathArams are for Saadhu ParithrANam( protection

of the BhakthAs) or for Dushta Nigraham ( destrcution of the enemies of His adiyArs).

Thrivikrama avathAram is not for one or both of the above two purposes . It was for

the upliftment of all entities of His creation through contact with His sacred feet

worshipped by the VedAs and to lead them through uttama maargam to His supreme

abode after destroying their Paapams and PuNyams . He is Sarva lOka suhruth .

Sarva Jana Priyan . He is apavarga pradhan (grantor of Moksham). As Thrivikraman

( TaaDALan) , he uplifted all chEtanams and achEtanms en masse . Swamy NammAzhwAr

wonders about this avathAram in his ThiruviNNagara Paasuram : " KaaNminkaL

ulaheer yenRu KaNNmuhappE nimirntha TaaLiNai " ( For the benefit of all the world

to witness , the pair of feet of the Lord growing and spreading in all directions

right before their very eyes . He invited them , nay , comanded the people of

His world to see what is going to happen just before their eyes) .

 

Swamy NammAzhwAr enjoys this Thrivikrama avathAram and its uniqueness in so many

of his paasurams . In one paasuram , he admires : " sEyOn yellA

uyirukkum disaikaL yellAm ThiruvadiyAl ThAyOn ". He alone is the

rakshakan for all jeevans . He related to the avathy

( sorrows and struggles of the Bhaddha Jeevans) and as Rakshakan responded quickly.

Once the water fell on His little palm in His Vaaman Svaroopam , He grew and grew .

Swamy NammAzhwAr describes the immense and instaneous growth in the Thiruviruttham

paasuram (58) :

 

" Kazhal talamonRE nilamuzhthAyiRRu , oru kazhakl pOy

nizhal taravellA visumpum niRainthathu , neeNDavaNDatt-

thuzharalar Jn~Anacchudar viLakkAi uyarnthOraiyillA

azhaRalar ThAmaraikkaNNan , yennOvinkaLikkinRathE

 

(Meaning according to Dr. V.N.VedAntha Desikan ) : " The Thrivikrama

incarnation made no distinction between those who had resorted to Him

and who had not. He set His foot on all

heads uniformly . It was an implication that all are SeshAs (lieges)

to Him , the Sarva Seshi

( the Lord of all ) . By protruding one foot in to the heavens , He showed if there be a necessity

to show it , that He is the Superlord having sole suzeranity over all the worlds . How did He

measure the Universe , if at all He did it ? One measures a distance by alternating one's steps;

but He did not do it this way ! What more has He to scale ? When the measured thing did not

measure up to the size of His foot , how can He ( once again)

consider measuring the world !

That ( Lotus eyed Lord ) is His glory ! ".

 

In this avathAram , there is no distinction between aasrithar ( those who sought His refuge)

and anAsrithar ( those who did not seek it ) . He practised SarvalOka rakshaNam and kept

all of them under the cool shade of His Thiruvadi .He comforted them through the removal

of thier Taapams and aasvAsam resulted for them . His krupA here is nirhEthukam

 

Other AzhwAr Paasurams celebrate this avathAra mahimai following the path of the Vedam:

" threeNi padhA vichakramE " . Examples are : "PaaraLavum ohradi vaitthu " ( Poygai AzhwAr) ,

" ninRathOr paadham nilam puthaippa " ( BhUthatthAzhwAr) and " ANDamum

nilamum adi onRinAl koNDavan varil (Andal'd Koodal KuRippu Paasuram

in NaacchiyAr Thirumozhi ).

 

AaNDAi : Thirumangai addresses the Lord as His ruler , Sarva Swamy . All VedAnthic thoughts are

condensed in this one salutation . He is the sole cause of the

Universe (" Ulahu padaitthu uNDa Yenthai ) , He is in all and in

every thing ( " Karanthengum ParanthuLan " -Swamy NammAzhwAr) ,

Sarvam khalvidham Brahma according to Upanishad . He is " infinite in His Bliss and

infinite in His splendour of KalyANa guNams ( Veevil inbham and Veevil

seeran --Swamy NammAzhwAr : 2460) ; He is PanchAvathAran with Para ,

VyUha , Vibhava, ArchA and

antharyAmi roopan . He is Tatthvam , Hitham as well as PurushArtham . He is Aadhi Bhagavan ;

He is adhvitheeyan ; He is apramEyan ( unmatched in glories and splendour ). He is anavadhyan

( without any dhOsham) ; He is ParamOdharan ( Supremely generous) ; He is SarvalOka SaraNyan;

He is the dearest to Bhagavath PravaNars ( Soely attached to BhagavAn

) and virOdhi for Vishaya PravaNars ;He is Our PraTama Guru ( First

AchAryan) ; He is PrApakan ( adaivippavan ); He is

Svatantran ; He is Souseelyan ; Soulabhyan; He is our Father and Master ; He is Yennappan ,

Ponnappan , MaNiyappan , Mutthappan and ThiruviNNagar sErntha Appan ;

He is AaNDAi

 

Thirumangai Mannan concludes this Paasuram with the Tani Makudam ( refrain) , which will

resonate sweetly in our ears in this Patthu

ThiruviNNagrappan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

Srimath Azhagiya Singar Thiruvadi ,

Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan