Amalanadipiran - Song NIne

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AMALANATIPIRAN - Song Nine - Translation and notes by Satyamurthi Ayyangar

Swamin

 

Song Nine:

 

Preamble: [The destruction, wrought by the conventional arms, deployed,

one by one or piecemeal, is very much limited, as compared with the

wholesale destruction of an entire region, wrought by a single nuclear

bomb].

 

Hitherto, the Lord pressed into service the missiles, one by one, in the

shape of His limbs, but now, He throws His entire weight, the sum-total of

the several regiments (members of the body, with the characteristic

ornaments, worn by each) by exhibiting His enthralling Form, as a whole. The

bewildered Pan Perumal exclaims, in this song, that, alas ! he has lost now

his earlier composure, swept off his feet by Lord Ranganatha's flooding

beauty. The overall charm of His enchanting person and dazzle of His bluish

complexion, of incomparable excellence.

 

Text:

 

Alamamarattinilaimel oru palakanay

Jnalamelumundan Arangattaravinanaiyan

Kolamamaniyaramum muttuttamamum mutivillador elil

Nilameni aiyo ! nirai kontatuennencinaiye ! ||9||

 

Translation:

 

The endless charm of the peerless chains with sparking

pearls and rubies set

And the bluish tint, in glorious blend, of my Lord on

serpent-bed

At Arangam, who did once the worlds seven mouth and rest

As Babe unique on a tender leaf of the banyan tree vast,

Has the poor me thrown into awful disarray, distraught !

 

Notes: Alamamarattin ilai mel oru palakanay jnalam elum undan: Wonderful

and unimaginable it was. What ? A tender babe [in comparison with whom

Yasodha's babe (Krsna) could be deemed a mature elder] devoured the worlds,

one and all, with all their enormous contents, and rested on an equally

tender leaf, plucked from a huge banyan tree, for millions of years (the

entire duration of 'mahapralaya' - the great Deluge). The whopping stuff,

gulped down by the unique Babe, however, occupied just a corner of the

Babe's belly ! Had they all got jumbled, huddled together ? No, far from it.

Layer by layer, they remained, in tact, their contours and configuration

were not disturbed, in the least - so the texts say. One might question

whether anyone has seen such a Babe and peeped inside the belly, so as to

vouchsafe the veracity of seemingly hyperbolical statements, as above. A

pertinent question indeed ! Well, sage Markandeya did, according to his own

admission in Srimad Bhagavatam and Mahabharata, of unquestionable veracity,

personally verify and testify. In the 'Aranyaparva' of Mahabharata, Sage

Markandeya narrated to Yudhistira the marvelous deeds of (breath-taking

exploits) of Lord Vishnu, when he beheld Him reclining, as a tender Babe,

on a tender leaf of the banayan tree over the huge expanse of the furious

waters of the Deluge. He said, "O King ! I was awe-struck when I saw all the

worlds in that infantile bowel of the Lord. With His special permission to

this solitary observer, long after, I was inside His body, looking around

for a hundred years and still I could not see the farthest limit of the

bowels, at any time. Baffled that I was, I could not but exclaim, 'Ha !

where and how does this infant lie !"

 

Arangattaravinanaiyan: Why beat about the bush ? The Lord, now reclining

on the serpent-couch at Srirangam, is the same as the One, who secreted,

inside His bowels, all the worlds with all their things and beings, thereby

protecting them all from the fury of the swirling waters of the Deluge, out

to devour them. In earlier songs, Lord Ranganatha was similarly identified

with Lord Trivikrama, Rama, Krsna and Narasimha.

 

When the Lord lay on a small piece of leaf on the watery expanse, there

was none around to worry about His personal safety, whether such a tiny bed,

with little or no space to roll about, was not fraught with the risk of His

falling down and getting drowned in the deep waters, the more so, because of

the heavy load inside His belly. But the milieu here is entirely different.

He is resting on the spacious, cushiony bed, the silken-soft bosom of

'Adisesa' (Ananta) who also zealously guards Him against any possible

danger. Of course, the Lord is potent enough to take care of Himself,

unaided. And yet, it is Adisesa's inordinate devotion which makes him

apprehensive of the Lord's personal safety, as did Perialvar and other Alvar

saints of the same ilk.

Kolamamani aramum muttu tamamum mutivillator elil nilameni: Elegant rows

of necklaces of infinite charm, inset with priceless gems of exceptional

radiance like 'Koustubha' and sparkling pearls, keeping the Lord's

cloud-hued person, cool and refreshing are referred to here.

 

Aiyo nirai kontata ennencinaiye: This points to the loss of the Alvar's

erstwhile stability and composure, in toto. Those traits had sustained him

and made him feel elated and elevated while imbibing the exquisite charm of

the limbs of the Lord, step by step. But now, by exhibiting the overall

charm of His cloud-hued person, full and flooding, well-bedecked, the Lord

has unsettled the Alvar to such an extent as to make him apprehensive of the

safety of One, so charmimg and alluring besides pining for ocular perception

as well, unable to brook separation from Him, any longer.

 

(To be continued)

 

 

 

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