Poetic heights in tiruppavai

[Guest guest]

With the blessins of H.H jeeyar swamiji this is a

small attempt to bring out the beauties in this unique

composition. Please bear with me.

 

POETIC HEIGHTS IN TIRUPPAVAI

 

Tiruppavai the hymns sung by Andal are not just

devotional songs but a nut shell of Upanishad essence

that spills out divine nectar.

 

Ask not what is there in Tiruppavai, but rather

ask what is not there in it. Fable, fancy, allegory,

imagery, divine charm, devotion, terrestrial charm and

especially transmigration breaking through the

domestic walls of time and place, concern for

redeeming humans from physical bonds and human welfare

are some of the salient traits of this unique

composition, The halophyte that is propounded in the

Vedas is being capsulated by andal in her beautiful

little songs. Each one of these songs flash with

beauty fragrance melody and a repast to the five

senses. Occidental poets like keats and their

oriental counterparts like kalidasa have many things

to learn from goda, the poetess of pets, besides, this

composition has the credit of touching the most innate

and intricate depths of atma paramatma samB andha.

There is absolutely no doubt that andal our divine

mother has come down to modify and magnify our lives.

She paves for us a path so clear and clean that can

lead us into everlasting bliss and diva ananda.

Tiruppavai is an ocean. Then moment we enter into it,

we find at every step, something new, something deep

and something mystic.

 

Go to Tiruppavai if you want to modify your

lives, go to tiruppavai if you want to dive yourselves

into the Upanishad depths, go to tiruppavai if you

want to comprehend krishnavaibhava and its tatva, go

to tiruppavai if you want to appreciate poetic

glories. Every other poetic composition should stand

miles away from tiruppavai in every respect. Should

tiruppavai be considered the essence of Upanishads or

vice versa is like the proverbial riddle whether the

seed is from the tree or the tree sprang out of the

seed.

 

Vishistadvaita propounds that the trio paramtma,

jheevatma and prakriti coexist and are lined up with

paramatma. It is HE the chief force that drives these

flowers through the green fuse. Bharateeya tatva

links up achetana prakriti with paramatma tatva and

appreciates everything in that light. Tiruppavai

bears witness to it.

 

This is a humble attempt to touch some of the

naturistic beauties so beautifully and contextually

incorporated by Goda into these devotional hymns

Poetry spills out of Andal as naturally as flight

comes to a bird or swimming to a fish.

 

The outward fable is palatable even to the common

rut. Andal wants to win the hand of Ranganadha, the

universal lord of Srirangadhamam. At the behest and

with the blessings of her god-father Perialwar she

undertakes to perform Katyayani Vrata in her unique

style. In her fancy, everything gets transformed.

Sri Villibuttor is not mere villibuttoor but

Nandavraja. Her playmates become gopikas and herself

the leader of them all. The temple in the village is

nothing but Nandagopa Bhavan, the residence of

Krishna. Thus they move about in the streets of

vrepalle. Can there be a better imagination. They

say that she so transforms herself that she gets the

gopika style of speech, dress and even their smell

 

Turuppavai can be conveniently divided into three

parts. /the first five hymns relate to us the vrata

vidhana and servce as in invocation to the presiding

deity parjanya. The result aimed at is terrestrial

prosperity, at its face value. The subsequent ten

hymns are songs through which ten seemingly sleeping

gopis are being woken up. The final fifteen nymns

serve as the uttara peethika in which these gopikas go

in a group and offer their prayers to dwara palaka and

kheshetra palaka, Nanda gopa, yasoda, Balaam neeladevi

and finally Krishna their beloved.

 

As regards the poetic charms contained in this

divine prabhandam.

 

The very initial stroke touches us like a flash of

light Margali tingal madi nirayinda nannalal speaks

of the greatness of the month of margaseersha. It is

hailed as a season of mellow fruitfulness. /this

fruitfulness also has am under current indicating the

ripened Krishna Prema, Krishna is referred to as the

cub of lion in the presence of yasoda while he is

addressed to as the son of nandagopa. This contrast is

drawn to show that Krishna has duel behavior, that of

an obedient son of his father and a libertine in the

presence of his mother.

‘

 

The much celebrated pastrami Onega speaks of the

vrataphala that people reap as a result of this vrata.

Natural beauty and fertility is very beautifully

interwoven. The tall paddy shoots with strong base

rise up to the sky. There is knee deep water at the

base and so the fish that are in water not finding

place in the paddy base start jumping in the fields.

In the water there are also beautiful red lotuses with

bees inside. These bees are bellyful and they get

drowsy and after waking up, start quarrelling with

each other for not waking them up.

 

In the fourth hymn, comparing the clouds to

Krishna’s bodily complexion we come across another

poetic flash. Usually poets compare the lord to a

black cloud mistaking that it is proper to introduce

the unknown through the known. Correct yourselves

instructs Andal. It is not proper to compare a

superior thing to an inferior one. So she compares

Parjanya’s complexion to that of her lord Krishna.

Andal instructs him that he should flash like the

charka in the hands of their lord and sound like the

conch in his hands. This kind of comparison serves a

double purpose. Parjanya is flattered and the Lord is

placed on a higher plane.

 

In the ten hymns from 6 to 14 Andal provides our

five senses with a feast. Bharadwaja birds chirp with

each other. We find buffaloes moving out for their

first round of repast. Sounds of the gopikas

preparing butter, the sweet aroma of their hair is

spread, the sounds of the sanyasis going to open the

temple gates all these are very beautifully described.

Again it should be noted that these are not just

descriptions for their own sake but they contain an

endless meaning in a narrow span of a song, important

incidents from Ramayana and Bhagavata are incorporated

very naturally to suit various contexts.

 

In the 11th pasuram Kattukkaravai Andal is seen

dwelling on the poetic heights. The beauty of the

Gopikas up surging hair is compared to the fan of a

dancing peacock in its native place and the beauty of

the gait with her swinging buttocks to that of a

moving hood of a cobra. Nowhere in literature have we

found such unique comparisons.

 

In the hymn Ungalporikkudai the opening petals of

a lotus on seeing the raising sun and closing petals

of a black lotus at the same time are shown as the

indications of the on coming dawn. These flowers

again have a comparison to the eyes of the Lord, the

red lotus and the eyes of the gopi , the black lotus

as an undercurrent.

 

We find a dramatic scene with dialogue in the

15th hymn Elle: Illam: Killiye.

 

Krishna, the lord is woken up in the 22nd of these

hymns. Andal instructs the Lord as to how he should

open his eyes. She says that he should open them in

such a way that they should resemble the half opened

bell from which the bead inside is seen i.e., he

should gradually open his eyes. If not these gopikas

cannot withstand the power of the eyes. After

comparing the eyes to the bell she feels that the

comparison is odd as her Lord’s eyes are not hard and

so she jumps to compare them to a red lotus. After

opening his eyes she says that they should represent

both the sun and the moon.

 

Next, she instructs HIM as to how he should rise

up from his bed. She compares HIM to a ferocious lion

sleeping the caves, during the rainy season. He is

all capable but is sleeping. She attempts to rise him

up. He should open his eyes, look both the sides,

stretch his body both forward and backward, role on

his sides yielding forth the peculiar odor of his

romas and walk majestically and slowly towards the

throne meant for him and adorn it.

 

Then follows the grand finale. The gopikas pay

benedictions to their lord. The lord is praised for

all his heroic deeds. Then Andal and her concert

reveal their heart’s desires. All these desires look

like normal wishes of a young girl but they have an

underlying vedantic meaning. But finally they address

him with his favorite name Govinda. They confess that

all this that they have done is only a pretext and

they want nothing but the LORD himself. He is both

upaya and upeyam for them and finally they surrender

themselves at his lotus feet.

 

Thus at every step Tiruppavai shows flashes of

divine touch. It is indeed our good fortune that we

belong to the lineage of Andal, the divine mother with

the eternal light in her hands to guide us.

 

There is no doubt that Tiruppavai is a passport to

our final destination.

 

ANDAL TIRUVADIGALE SARANAM

ACHARYA TIRUVADIGALE SARANAM

[Guest guest]

Very nicely put....

 

We were wondering if you wrote it yourself

or if you had borrowed the article from some

other source. If so, what is the source of

this article?

 

Regards,

S.R.Sudarshan Iyengar

 

-

mvv jam

Poetic heights in tiruppavai

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> POETIC HEIGHTS IN TIRUPPAVAI

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[Guest guest]

SrimathE RAmAnujAya Nama:

 

Dear devotee,

 

It was beautiful and spellbound. Especially

your last statement touched me so much that

it will be in my mind and heart till my last

breath.

 

"kOdai thamizh iinthumainthum aRiyAtha mAnidarai

vaiyyam sumappathum vambu"

 

AzhwAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar TiruvadigaLE saraNam

nallan chakravarthy gita

 

> There is no doubt that Tiruppavai is a

> passport to our final destination.