Thiruppavai3-Ongiulagalandha

[Guest guest]

Pasuram 3.-

Ongiulagalandha

 

Ongi ulagaLandha

uththaman perpaadi

naangaL nampaavaikku

saattri neeraadinaal

theenginri

naadellaam thingaL mummaari peydhu

Ongu perumsennel

oodu kaylugaLa

poonkuvaLaippOdhil

porivaNdu kaNpaduppa

thengaadhe

pukkirundhu seerththa mulai patri

vaangakkudam niraikkum vaLLaL perum pasukkaL

neengaadha selvam

niraindhelOrempaavai

 

Translation

 

When

we sing the glory of the Lord who measured the whole universe with one foot,

and proceed to do our ritual by bathing in His grace the whole country will be

blessed with rains three times a month and the paddy crop will grow tall and

the fish will swim in the water that surrounds it and the bees will sleep

inside the kuvalai flowers that grow in the water. The aayppadi will become

prosperous with the cows filling the pots by mere touch of the udder.

 

Audio

version in Tamil

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ysrf7w

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/26gnpg

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/uztx0t

 

 

commentary

 

The Lord is referred to as Utthaman.

The particle `thama' is added to words to show the superlative degree. `

Uth' denotes mukthas the realized souls, uththara the nityasuris,

the ever-free souls like Garuda, Ananta etc.

and uththama the Lord.

 

 

 

Ongi ulagaLandha Uththaman –Ongi

means rising high and ulagalandha

means measuring the world. This has reference to the Vamanaavathaara when the

Lord came as a midget brahmin youth and asked Mahabali three feet of ground as dhaana. When Mahabali

started to give it the Lord grew in size and covered the whole earth with His

foot and the heavens with the second and challenged Mahabali to give him the ground

for the third foot and when Mahabali offered his head for the Lord to put His

third foot He sent Mahabali to Paathaalaloka and being pleased with his

devotion the Lord also positioned Himself as his guard. He is Uththama because He destroyed only the

pride of Mahabali but gave him in return

His bhakthi samrajya. When He covered the earth with His foot He placed it on

all irrespective of their merit to deserve it. He will give rain, which stands

for His grace, unasked and hence He is Uththama.

 

Mahabali acquired the post of Devendra

for a short duration due to his merit and he gave away all the riches of Indra

to the saptarshis and as a consequence was born as Mahabali and became arrogant of his power and

confiscated the heaven from Indra . When Aditi the mother of devas prayed to

the Lord , He came down as her son Vamana and punished Mahabali.

When the Lord raised His foot to heavens

Brahma washed His feet with the water from his kamandala, holy pot, but it was

not sufficient.

 

Then the Lord tore open the cosmic shell and the

waters beyond the universe, aavaraNajala poured through and washed His feet and

that was Aakaasaganga, the heavenly Ganges

which later Bhagiratha brought to earth.

 

The whole creation belongs to the Lord

as He is the seshi and all the rest are seshas. Mahabali thought that the world

belonged to him and performed the sacrifice feeling proud that all his wealth

and thought that he is capable of bestowing anything to anybody. The Lord

killed only this arrogance but otherwise showered His grace on Mahabali.

Similar to Mahabali we also think that our soul, atman, belongs to us whereas not only our soul

but nothing else belongs to us. Even our

children are born through us into this world but not born to us. The story

of Mahabali illustrates only this .

 

Nammazvar asks, ` When the Lord covered the whole earth with

his first foot where was the space for His second foot?'

 

 

So Mahabali gave on enough land for only one

foot !

 

Even when He came as

Vamana, Lakshmi was in His chest. He covered His chest with His upper garment

so that her glance should not fall on Mahabali lest He could not take away the

possessions of Mahabali.

 

PErpadi – Singing His name is enough to secure His grace.

The nama is even greater than the nami. It was the nama that came to the rescue

of Draupadi. So Andal here praises the name which is enough to give them rain.

nangaL

nampavaikku saatri neeraadinaal - Neeraadal or taking bath implies

engrossed devotion. We bathe for cleansing ourselves of impurity . Here the

inner and the outer purity is intended as Purandaradasa said, `manasu kuliyabeku krishnaanadhiyalu

thirthamaadi,' the mind should be cleansed, and not the mere body, by

bathing in river

of Krishna, the Lord. Saatri

neeraadal means doing everything as

a service to the Lord, bhagavatkainkaryam.

 

theenginri

naadellaam thingLl mummaari peydhu

- theenginri means without obstacles. The rain should come

three times a month, maadham mummaari, to the whole country naadellaam.

In ancient days when people lived adhering to dharma, there were three showers

a month, nine days of sun and one day of rain. This ensured that there were no

excessive rain, athivrishti, or anaavrishti, draught. When for

instance the reading of virata parva of Mahabharatha was going on, not only

that region but the whole country got rain.

 

The word mummaari, according to the

commentators, implies the three streams of water, the water poured by Mahabali

in the hand of the Lord giving dhaana, the water from the kamandalu of Brahma

to wash His feet and the water of the Ganges created by Him by tearing open the

cosmic shell and bringing down the Avaranajalam.

 

Ongu

perum sennel – The paddy crop,

sennel, grew high and big giving bountiful harvest after the birth of Krishna.

 

Oodu

kayalugaLa - The water level was high likewise and the

fish were seen running through it.

Commentators see a reference to Matsyavathara and take the word kayal, fish. to

refer to the Lord Himself.

 

poonguvaLaippodhil

porivaNdu kanpaduppa – The beautiful black bee, porivandu, which has entered the kuvalai flower to

drink the honey became drowsy and slept inside as in a cradle rocked by the

fish going to and fro. The Lord Himself , who enters the heart of a devotee

and rests there rocked by the loving

hand of devotion could be imagined as

the bee here.

 

Thengaadhe pukkirundhu

seertha mulai patri

vangakkudam

niraikkum vaLLal perum pasukkal –

The cows of aayarpadi were big,

perumpasukkal, bountiful, vallal generous and do not withhold their milk,

thengaadhe , and fill the pot, kudam niraikkum, when the cowherds touched their

udder pukkirundhu seertha mulaipatri vanga. When the cow is ready to give all

she has if one is not able to milk her fully, it is not the fault of the cow

but due to the inefficiency of the cowherd or insufficiency of the pot.

Similarly the Lord is like a generous cow, ready to give everything if we ask

him for trifles it is our fault.

 

The acharyas are likened to vaLLalperum pasukkal as they are ready

to impart all their wisdom to the disciples. But how much the disciple is able

to grasp depends on the vessel he

carries, namely the amount of faith, his thirst for knowledge and his

intellectual capacity, more than anything else his karma and the grace of the

Lord.

 

In

this context the mummaari, the three showers are, the resolve of the

devotee who surrenders to the Lord to accept Him alone as his master, to desist from seeking any other means of

salvation except the devotion to the Lord and

not to look for any other end than to attain Him. The word is also taken

to refer to the three types of serving Him, namely, to write about Him, to tell

others about His glory and to serve Him in the form of Archavathara , idol to

be worshipped.

 

Onguperum sennel , the tall crop

of paddy is the growth in the number of

devotees who surrender to Him which makes Him sleep peacefully in their hearts

like a Porivandu, a black bee with spots. The

spots

described here could be His ornaments as Azvar said' palappalave aabharanam,

His ornaments are numerous or by a stretch of imagination one can be reminded

of the sloka of Kulasekhara, ` `Ksheerasaagaratharngasheekaraasaarathaarakilachaaru

moorthaye' the body of the Lord is

speckled with the drops from the milky ocean like the sky shining with stars.

 

To the devotee whatever he sees will

remind him of the Lord. The gopis thought only of Krishna

when they saw anything tall and beautiful. To Parasara bhattar and Alavandar,

the lotuses grown in the water of the paddy fields and the tall full grown

stalk of paddy bending downward, brought the picture of the Lord and His

devotees.