Srinivaasa Vaibhavam - NammAzhwAr's divine anubhavams- Thiruviruttham- 15th verse-did any of you see an elephant?

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SrI:

SRImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest all,

 

Let us continue with NammAzhwAr's divine anubhavams on

ThiruvEnkatam- Today's Thiruviruttham verse is 15th.

 

kayalO numakaNgaL?' enRu

kaLiRu vinavin^iRRIr,

ayalOr aRiyilu mIdhenna

vaarththai, kadalkavarndha

puyalO dulaamkoNdal vaNNan

punavENG kadaththemmodum

payalO viliir,kollaik kaakkinRa

naaLum palapalavE. 15

 

The master and the lady leave after being together for

some time… Later, the man wishes to see the lady and

comes searching for her and her friend as if he goes

hunting in the forest. The girl and her friend under

the pretext of taking care of the grains that were

getting dried under the hot sun, were actually

expecting him to appear and be there. He sees them in

the backyard and asks them, “did any of you see the

elephant? this is termed as vEzham vinavudhal..

[asking for elephant] in ahatthuRai ilakkaNam [in

Tamil literature].

 

This verse is in the words of the friend to the man

[who comes to see the damsel] and speaks as below:

 

Oh master! You act as if you are following the temple

and appear to ask: Did you see an elephant? If the

talk stops with that, it is fine. Taking that as an

excuse, you have enquired as to whether her eyes are

the pair of fishes. [kayalO numa kaNNgaL] admiring her

beautiful eyes. While talking also, your legs do not

stand firm on the ground and shake; If neighbours hear

this, what would they think- they will wonder as to

why he asks two different queries.. Asking about the

elephant and if the eyes are the beautiful fishes..

Then they will also suspect if we had come with a

different purpose and not for taking care of these

grains.

 

We have come to take care of these grains in this huge

mountain of ThiruvEnkatam “ where the Lord resides.

The Lord is of dark hue like the rain laden black

clouds that drink the waters from the ocean; Do not

act as if you are our long lasting friend of ours “

who have come to take care of the grains only here; It

appears you have desired for befriending us..

 

This is the meaning of this verse: Two points are

explicit here: (i) The girl and her friend also like

him; (ii) they [the girls] fear that neighbours will

become aware and hence refuse to entertain him..

 

AzhwAr ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan