Thiruppavai 29 and 30-sittram sirukale , vahgakkaldal

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Pasuram-29-sitram sirukAlE

sitramsirukAlE

vandhunnai sEvitthun

pottramarai adiye

pottrum poruL keLAi

pettram meitthuNNum kulatthil pirandhu

nee

kuttrEval engaLai koLLAmal pOgAdhu

ittraipparai koLvAn anru kAN gOvindA

ettraikkumEzEzu piravikkum unthannOdu

uttrEmE AvOm unakkE nAm AtseivOm

mattrai nam kAmangal mAttrElOrempAvAi

Hear why we have come in the early morning and worship your

lotus-like feet. Being born in the clan of cowherds you cannot refuse our

service to you. We have not come here just ask for the requisites for this

vratha but to pray that we should belong to you for all the lives to come and

should serve you alone. remove all the other desires of ours.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8z0b2o sittram sirukale part1

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bb2aq5 Sittram sirukale part2

sitram sirukAle-kAle means the time when the gopis start

their work such as churningthe milk. sirukAle

is the time before that when they wake up and sitramsirukAle denotes the brAhmamuhurtha when yogis and

ages wake up and start their worship.

This word is also interpreted thus:

siru+am+siru kAl-siru kAl the small feet of young Krishna

which is am,beautiful

and siru, seen a

little outside.

The time when we go to see the Lord is the early morning., sirukAle. In the temples even if the

gate is opened at noon the suprbhatham is recited. It is mentioned as sitram siru kAl because the time we see

the Lord in the temple is much less than that spent in other activities.

The time Krishna is found in

Gokula is short because (i) as soon as the day breaks he will go to the forest

to tend cattle (ii) soon he will leave for Madura.

To a devotee the time he acquires the knowledge of the Lord is the

early morning because till then it was night spent in sleeping due to

ignorance. From the time he leaves this body and attains the Lord his day

starts.

vandhunnai sEvitthu-What Andal means is this:

without expecting that you will come to us as you did in the case of Gajendhra

we ourselves have come to you.

pottrAmarai adiyE- They

did not want anything else like gold or worldly pleasures but wanted only to

serve the Lord and therefore leaving everything have come to Him as Vibheeshana

said 'thyakthva puthrAmscha dhArAmscha rAghavam SatraNam gathah' that is, "leaving my

sons and wives I have surrendered to Rama."

Petram

meitthuNNum----pOgAdhu- Vedanta

Desika in DayaSathakam calls the Lord a krsheevala, farmer who is intent on His

harvest of prapannas.(DayaSatakam-108) So like a farmer who protects his crop

and stays on his field overnight too at the harvest time to guard against

thieves and birds etc. from taking away or destroying his crop, the Lord also

comes down to earth in the form of His incarnations to safeguard the interests

of His devotees. Hence after having been born in the clan of cowherds Andal

says that it is His responsibility to save us.

ittrai----unnakkEnam

AtseivOm- It is not their intention to get the

accessories for their vrata, Parai

koLvAn anru but it was only a pretext to approach him and ask him to

give them the opportunity to do his service.

uttrOmE AvOm- The Lord is the only real relation to us for all our

lives ( seven times seven) , because others belong to one life only. 'mAthA mE Laksmeedevee pithA dhEvO

janArdhanah;bAnDhavAh vishnubhakthAscha vasudhaiva kutumbakam,' is

the attitude of a prapanna.

The upanishad says, 'na

vA arE pathyuh kAmAya pathih priyO bhavathi, Athmanasthu kAmAya.'(Brhd.2-4-5) The worldly

relationships are selfish-motivated. The self is the dearest of all and the

Lord is the self of all.

unakkEnAm AtseivOm- kuttrEval means the kainkryam

to the best of one's ability and according to the will of the Lord. This

denotes Anukulya sankalpam and

prAthikulya varjanam, the first two angas of prapatthi mentioned in the

previous pasuram. By saying kutrEval

engalAu ikkoLlAmal pOgAdhu indicates mahavisvasam

and the line uttrOmE AvOm unakkE nAm

AtseivOm implies gOpthruthva

varaNam at the exclusion of others. mattrai nam kAmangaL mAttrElorempAvAi-While the previous lines imply svarupa samarpaNam and phalasamarpaNam, by saying we belong to

you(uttrOmE AvOm) and we expect only

the kainkarya as the phala, this line is by way of bharasamarpaNam, placing the burden of saving us on the Lord

Himself. We are incapable of controlling our mind as Arjuna said, 'chanchalam hi manah krishna pramAThi

balavaddhrDam thasyAham nigraham manye vAyOriva sudhushkaram,' the mind

is fickle and very agitated and powerful and to control it is as

difficult as controlling the wind. Hence Andal places the responsibility

on the Lord himself by saying 'mattrai

nam kAmangal mattrElorempAvai, remove all other desires from our mind ' The

Lord creates vairagya in the mind of the one who surrenders and make him

completely engrossed in Himself.

 

Pasuram 30-Vangakkadal kadaindha

Vangakkadal kadaindha

mAdhavanai kesavanai

thingaL thirumugatthu

sEyizaiyAr senrirainji

angapparaikonda Attrai

aNipudhuvai

PaingamaltthaNtheriyal

bhattarpirAn kOdhai sonna

sangatthamizmAlai

muppadhum thappAme

ingipparisuraippar

eerirandu malvaraitthOL

thingaL thirumugatthu

selvatthirumAla

engum thiruvaruL

pettru inburuvar empavai

This work describing the entreaty of the girls with faces like

moon and eyes like lotuses. to the Lord Kesava, of lovely locks, the Madhava,

Lord of Lakshmi, who helped in the churning of the beautiful milky ocean, in

order to acquire the necessary requirements for their pavai nonbu, is the

composition of Godha of Srivlliputthur, the daughter of Vishnucchittha,

(Periazvar) who wears the garland of lotuses and thulasi. Those who recite this

30 pasurams which are equal to sangatthamiz, will get happiness through the

Lord's grace.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/cwfj41

 

vangakkadal-This is not the Bay of bengal,

as it may appear to the superficial reader but the word vanga means beautiful, and refers to the milky ocean. It is

so called because it is associated with the Lord, and it gave out all the

precious things and the amrtha in the end.

kadaindha Madhavan-Madhavan means the Lord (Dhava)

of Lakshmi(ma) He is mentioned here

as the one who churned the ocean not only because He was instrumental in doing

so by helping the devas by carrying the manthara mountain and dropping it

into the ocean and supported it as koorma, but because he helped at every step,

by churning it with them and lastly through His mohini avathara. As a result He

also became maadhava, the Lord of

Lakshmi.

yamunacharya says in his Sthothra ratna that the Lord took

all the trouble to churn the ocean in order to obtain Lakshmi as He bridged the

ocean later for her sake(to retrieve Sita )'yadharTham ambOdDHih amanTHi

abanDHi cha.'

But if one starts thinking about the reason for His wish to get

Lakshmi, for which the ocean was churned as Yamuna says, it appears that He

wanted her to make His hrdhaya her abode so that it will be full of mercy. So

He wanted her not for Himself but for the world which will be benefited by her

dhaya influenced by which alone the Lord shows His grace without minding our

sins. This explanation looks appropriate especially when Andal

calls Him as Madhavan, mAyah Dhavan- lord of Lakshmi.He not only churned

the milky ocean but also churned the ocean of milk and curd in Gokula by his exploits

of stealing butter, curd etc., and causing a great furore among the gopis,

perhaps as a practice to churn the great ocean of army later the

Mahabharatha war.

kEsavan- kEsa is hair and as Krishna

has beautiful locks of hair he is called Kesava. It also

means the slayer of the demon Kesi. Another meaning of Kesava is that ka is Brahma , isa means Siva and the particle va means the one who have them

both in Him as Lord Naryana, synonymous with the Brahman of the Upanishads

whose manifestations are the trinity. Kesava is also the adhishtana devatha of

the month of Margazi. This is the end pasuram of Thiruppavai which started as paraman adi pAdi and ends with kesavanai which resembles a pAdhadhikeSAntha sthothra.

paingamalatthaNtheriyal

bhattarpiran-Periazvar.

as Vishnucchittha, the father of Godha was known as, used to wear the garland

of lotuses and thulasi leaves. The former symbolises the Sridevi and the latter

is of the Lord Narayana.

Kodhai sonna

sangatthamizmalai-Kodhai in

Tamil means garland and godha in sanskrit

means gAm dhdhAthi ithi- or goDHa which means gAm dhaDHathE-one who give good words. Periazvar was proficient in

both the languages and with foresight, he must have chosen the name which

became appropriate.

Her words are extolled as being equal to the ancient Tamil works

at the time of Tamil sangam and hence it is referred to as sangatthamiz mAlai.

Sangam also means group, attachment and beauty. This work has to be enjoyed

together in a group of devotees and without attachment to the worldly objects and

also it is full of beauty.

ingipparisuraippAr- ingu

is this world and the word parisu

means the reward in the form of kainkarya.

eerirandumAlvaraitthOL- eerirandu, two and two ,that is four arms like mAlvarai, mountainous.

chengaNthirumugatthu- His eyes are like red lotuses ( not fully red but

streaked with redness)

selvatthirumAl-He is

rich with His auspicious qualities and association with Sri(thiru)

engum thirivaruL

pettruinburuvar

-blessed with His

grace always and be happy. Those who learn this work will be happy in this

world and the next till they unite with the Lord.

Thus ends the Thiruppavai of Sri Andal

which have been explained by me to the best of my knowledge and ability

following the commentaries of scholars and devotees of the past. The audio

files were the lessons from my class on Thiruppavai which supplement the

written commentary and it is in free conversational Tamil which I hope the

devotees will enjoy. Please download all the files soon as any file not

downloaded for a month will be deleted by the website.