Thiruppavai -17 and 18-ambarame, undhumadha

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Pasuram 17-ambaramE thaNNeerE

 

ambarame thaNNeerE

sorE aram seyyum

emperumAn nandagopAlA ezundhirAi

kombanArkkellAm l kozyundhE kulaviLakkE

emperumAtti yasOdhAi arivurAi

ambaram oodarutthu

Ongi ulagalandha

umbarkOmAnE urangAdhezundhirAi

semporkazqladichelvA baladhEva

umbiyum neeyum urangElorempAvai.

 

Lord Nandhagopala,

who gives clothes, water and food to all, wake

up. Yasodha, the best among beautiful

slender women, the light of the clan, wake up.Oh

Lord, who is the God of gods, and who pierced the sky and measured the whole

world, do not sleep, wake up. Balarama, with golden

anklet do not be sleeping with your brother.

 

Nandhagopa is known for giving ambaram, clothes, thaNNeer, water

and annam

food to all. Likewise he is asked to give them Krishna also because as Nammazvar

has said, uNNumsoru, parugumneer,

thinnum vettrilai ellaAm Kannan for these

girls.

 

aRamseyyum-aRam is charity done with righteous attitude, dharmabuddhi. That is why it is called Rram,

which means dharma in Tamil. To expect something in return is only a business.

To do it as one's duty is dharmam. Of all the dhAnas annadhAna is supposed to

be the best because one who gets it goes away satisfied.

 

YasOdha means giver of yasas

which normally means fame and in the vedas it means

Brahman. Since she gave us the Brahmam in form of Krishna she is called Yasodha.

yasaH dhadhaathi ithi yaSodhaa.

 

The word ambaram has many meanings such as clothes, sky etc.

The first ambaram means the clothes while the second

denotes the sky. But the scholars take it that to translate ambaram

in 'ambaramE thaNNeerE, sOre' as akasa, the word may

be taken to refer to the Lord Himself. The basis for

this is the upanishadic statement that Brahman, who

was one and only without a second willed to become many and created the

elements. Akasa being

the first and later followed fire, air, water and earth. As the earth is

denoted by the word annam

the same order given here refers to the Lord from whom everything origiinated. Also ambaram meaning

clothes is mentioned first as it is essential for human beings only, among all

the creatures and only after wearing clothes after bath one eats food or drinks

water. Lord Krishna was also the donor of ambara , garment to Droupadi and

water to the horses in the battle by piercing the rock by his staff, used to

tend cattle.

 

ambaramoodarutthu refers

to the piercing of the cosmic shell to bring water from the outer region as

mentioned in the upanishad as 'thripAdhasyAmrtham

dhivi,' that is the whole cosmos pervaded by the

Lord is only a quarter of His form and the remaining three quarters are outside. It is said that Brahma wanted to wash the feet of

the Lord when it reached his loka by the water of his

kamandalu but found that it was not enough when

Thrivikrama pierced the cosmic shell by His foot and

brought the water which became the akasaganga,

celestial Ganges which was later brought to earth by Bhagiratha.

 

selva baladeva- his sempoR kazal is a veerakkazal.as he killed asuras

and dragged the whole Hasthinapura into the Ganges by

his plough when Duryodhana insulted him and diverted Yamuna to where he was, for his jalakreeda.

Being the incarnation of adhisesha he cleaned the

womb of Devaki to make it divine for Krishna, his Lord. As Devaki

lost her six children Sesha entered her womb to clear

the sarpa dosha, causing

death of sons of Devaki and he stepped into the world

to guard Krishna from evil forces. Sesha follows the Lord wherever He goes.as

azvar says, 'senral kudaiyam,' he serves the Lord in all His states. Sesha and the seshi, bhagavan are not two but one. That is why Valmiki refers to

Lakshman who was the incarnation of Sesha as bhairgatha praaNa of Rama, the

life force of Rama manifest outside..

umbiyum neeyum urangelorempavai- Sesha

being the couch they entreat him to wake up as when he moves the Lord will be awakened. They call Krishna his younger brother implying

that Krishna will listen to him if he takes

mercy on them and recommend their case.

In the pasurams 16,17 and

18 Nandhagopa is mentioned as being the master (nayakanAi) charitable, (aRam

seyyum) valourous (undhumadhakalittran OdAdhathOlvaliyan).Desika in his Yadhavabhyudhaya

says that Nandhagopa excelled the wish-giving

jewel, chinthamani and the celestial wish-

fulfilling tree, kalpatharu and the rain-bearing clouds in his generosity at the birth of

Krishna.

The ashtakshara manthra is referred to by this pasuram.

Ambaram=pranavam, sOru =narayana sabdha and thaNNeer=namah

Ambaram meaning AkAsa denotes

the pranava in which all sabdhas

are included as everything exists in AkAsa.

Upanishad says 'annam brhmEthi vijAnAth' therefore soru=Narayanasabdha, the Brahman of visishtadvaitha

thaN neer - cool water is namah

sabdha since it is the means of life eternal. Through prapatthi,

surrender, the devotion attains its culmination and like by the cool

water the jiva is refreshed from the heat caused by samsara.

 

aram seyyum- The acharya gives BhagavAn, the seshi to the sesha , the jiva and vicevesa which is the aram

..

 

kombanSrkkellAm kozundhu is the ashtakshara which

is the best of manthras as it shows the Lord. It is

like Yasodha who has Krishna

and the manthra is the source of jnana

(aRivuRAi)

 

ambaram oodarutthu indicates the all- pervasiveness of the Lord.

 

umbiyumneeyum urangelorempAvAi-Bhagavtseshatnvam and bhAgavathaseshathvam.

It is equally important to worship the bhagavathas as

it is to worship BhagavAn, who will be pleased more

by the propitiation of His devotees as a father will be more pleased by fondling of his son rather than honouring himself. The sleep here is the lack of

awareness of this fact.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ejbskx audio files url for Pasurams 17 and 18

Pasuram18-undhumadhakaLittran

 

undhumadhakaLittran OdAdhathOLvaliyan

 

nandhagopAlan marumagalE

nappinnAI

gandham kamazum kuzalee kadai thiravAi

vandhengum kOzi azaithana

kAN

mAdhavi

pandhalmEl palkAl kuyilinangaLkoovina

kAN

pandhAr virali un maitthunan

pEr pAda

senthAmaraikkaiyAl seerAr vaLai

olippa

vandhu thiravAi magizndhElOrempAvai

 

NappinnA, of fragrant hair, the daughter- in- law of the valiant elephant-like Nandhagopa,

who never flees from battle, come and open the door.

See the cocks are crowing and the cuckoos

are singing on the madhavi creeper. You who has

ball in your fingers come and open the door with your lotus hand with jingling bangles when we sing the glory of your

Lord.

To get the favour of the Lord one needs the grace of Lakshmi. So here she is awakened. With the glance of Sitadevi while she passed by the rsyamooka

hill Sugreeva attained his kingdom.

Hanuman went as Ramadhootha and after being

graced by the glance of Sitadevi became Ramadasa and had the great fortune of being hugged by Rama. It is significant that she never looked at Ravana while talking to him. On the other hand the Kakasura whose offense to her was even worse than that of Ravana escaped death because of her glance.

The word nappinnAi is also explained as

nal=pinnAi,

meaning Sita devi, the good

one who followed (pin thodarndhaval) Rama to the forest.

 

The word

marumagal, normally means daughter- in

-law, is also explained to mean Lakshmi herself as

she abides in the chest of the Lord in the form of a maru,

mark in which case the Lord himself is the undhumadah-----nandhagopalan. Marumagal is

also explained as maruvum magal,

the one who is embraced by the Lord. Nappinnai is not

only the daughter-in-law but also marumagal,

niece of Nandhagopa,

since she is the daughter of his sister.

 

vandhengum-----koovina kAN-

The cocks are everywhere but the cuckoo is only

found on the madhavicreeper. The sweet sounds and

words are rare to find.

 

pandhAr virali- she was playing with Krishna

with ball and slept with it in her hands. This

signifies that all the beings are the leela -kandhuka, play-balls for the Lord and Devi.

This pasuram

is the 18th. The number 18 is very significant. Gita

has 18 chapters, Mahabhartha war went on for 18 days,

Bhagavatha purana has 18000

slokas etc. The sum of 1=8

is 9 a changeless number which when added or subtracted or multiplied by , the

sum is 9 only. and this denotes Lakshmi

who never changes her form while the Lord took a female form as Mohini. She always remained her merciful self in all avatharas.

 

kadai thiravAi, vandhu thiravAi-she is requested to come and remove the lock, that

is , our sins ,which are the barrier between us and the Lord.

 

vandhengum kOzi azatthanakAN-Like

the cock which examines the garbage and takes what it wants we are also taking

the essence of bhakthi by following you everywhere.

 

madhavi----Kuyilinangal koovina- kuyilinam, cuckoos may refer to the sages like Valmiki and Sukha who gave

out the sweet song of the Lord taking the essence of the vedas.

 

pandAr virali-To Him we are only play- things but due to the

grace of the divine mother we will become objects

of His enjoyment.