Thiruppavai - 5th verse- Maayanai mannu vada mathurai mainthanai

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

Let us enjoy the fourth verse of ThiruppAvai…

 

maayanai mannu vatamathurai main^thanaith *

thUya perunIr yamunaith thuRaivanai *

aayarkulaththinil thOnRum aNiviLakkaith *

thaayaik kutal viLakkam ceytha thaamOtharanaith *

thUyOmaay van^thu naam thUmalar thUvith thozhuthu *

vaayinaal paati manaththinaal cin^thikkap *

pOya pizhaiyum pukutharuvaan ninRanavum *

thIyinil thUcaakum ceppu ElOr empaavaay. 5.

 

This pasuram speaks of ways to remove all sins. One of

Andal’s friends says, “We are going to observe a festival. But are

you sure we will not have any impediments that will prevent us

from observing the nombu. It is said that a good deed has a

thousand impediments while a bad one has none. It was sage

Vasishtar who had fixed a day for the crowning ceremony of Sri

Rama, All His subjects prayed to their ishta devathai (favored God)

for the ceremony to go without any impediment. Even Sri Rama

and Sita prayed to Lord Aranga throughout the night. But still, the

crowning ceremony never took place. Why?â€

Another friend of Andal says, “Good things begin to happen if

the Lord is contemplated upon always. Bad things begin to distance

themselves farther. It is similar to drinking thick pure cow’s milk

that gives great pleasure and at the same time drives away pittam.

If Paraman is prayed with all sincerity, not only can we finish our

nombu but also the impediments in its way will automatically get

driven away. But then how come Sri Rama’s crowning ceremony

was stopped? Sri Rama never heeded to his own interests. Maayan

is very strange. He stopped his own crowning ceremony

(pattabhishekam) so that the crowning ceremonies for his devotees

namely, Padukai, Sugreevan and Vibhishanan can be done. All His

deeds and actions are strange. He converted a stone to a woman

(Ahalya episode). Even as a crawling baby, He killed

Shakataasuran. He made the waters consecrated by His feet

(padateertham) as the sacred Ganga. He created Parikshit in

Uttara’s womb. He is a person performing strange lilas.

Not only this. He was born in Mathura (vada madurai) one of

the seven kshetrams like Kanchi, which provide Mukti to aspirants.

He joyfully took dips in the holy river Yamuna and sanctified it and

would play happily on its banks enjoying the food given to Him by

His mother. Our devotion increases towards Him after hearing to

His playful lilas with Gopis there.

When Vasudevar was taking Kannan to Gokulam, Yamuna

gave him way having known who, Kannan was and His greatness

as well. Just to get Bhaagavatha thiruvadi sambandham, Yamuna

had a small amount of water flowing in the way. Kannan out of

mercy allowed Yashoda to tie Him up with a rope. It left marks on

His stomach. These marks vouched that their bearer was Kannan,

the son of Yashoda. If such great a Lord were to be worshipped

with purity of mind, soul and body, and with pure fragrant flowers

and thulasi, by singing His names and contemplating on His glories

and by surrendering ourselves at His lotus feet, then all the sins

committed by us till today, the sins that we are committing now

and the sins that shall be committed by us in future shall

disappear similar to the way a piece of cotton gets burnt in the fire.

We also get the fruit of our bhakti. Our nombu will also get

completed without any impedimentsâ€.

Our mind, body and words should always mean the same

thing. That is one who thinks of something in His mind and speaks

of the same and does the same thing with his hands is called a

mahatma or a noble soul. At the same time one who thinks of

something, says some other thing and does something else is called

a duratma or an evil one. Tradition says that Paraman should be

contemplated upon in the mind, praised in words and worshipped

with hands. If this tradition is not followed, then after

contemplating on the Lord, during the singing of His glories or

during worshipping Him, our mind tries to get diverted and starts

thinking of something else. This can be experienced. Andal has

shown us a way to avoid this. Having said “thoomalar thoovit thozhudhu†-

worshipping with pure fragrant flowers, depicting our act of worshipping,

“vaayinaal paadi'†- singing verbally, depicting our verbal praise and

“manatthinaal sindhikka - contemplating on Him through our mind, depicting our

mental contemplation of the Lord. But why does she say so? That is because Andal

feels that if one can get

associated with the Lord by work and words, then a mental

association with the Lord follows automatically.

 

These English translations for were written by Sri CG Balaji Swami of Bangalore

on the discourses by asmadhacharyan His Holiness Srimad Paravakottai Andavan

Swami broadcast in AIR, Trichy. Out of Swamy’s infinite mercy, His Holiness

had assented to give a series of concise and succinct lectures on the topic of

the most delectable Thiruppavai of Andal. These lectures were broadcast on Radio

Trichy. The same was later brought out in a printed edition from the illustrious

house of ‘Sri Kanchi Perarulalan’. This tamizh treatise was released during

the occasion of Swamy’s shathabhishekam during Vikrama- Panguni-Rohini, year

2001. Our profound thanks to Sri CG Balaji Swami for his efforts in translations

for the benefit of all of us.

 

Andal ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan