Sri Srinivaasa Vaibhavam- AndAL anubhavam on ThiruvEnkatam- Nacchiyaar Thirumozhi- eight decad-8.4

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

 

Dearest all,

 

After PeriyAzhwAr anubhavams, let us now continue on

his darling daughter GodhA PiraaTTi’s Naacchiyaar

Thirumozhi verses... on ThiruvEnkatam… [Extracted

from the most wonderful translation of Smt Kalyani

Krishnamachari based on Sri Sadagopan Swamin’s

treatise and acharyas’ commentaries.] Today's verse

is Naachiaar Thirumozhi 8.4

 

minnAgattu ezhuginRa mEga~ngAL! vEnkaTattut

tannAgat tiruman~gai ta~ngiya SIr mArvarkku

ennAgattu iLam ko~ngai virumbittAm nAL tORum

ponnAgam pulgudaRkku en purivuDaimai SeppuminE 8.4

 

Translation (meaning) from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh

treatise:

 

Godai decides that it might not be enough if she does

gOvindanAma sa~nkirtam and pleads with the clouds: " Oh

clouds, who have lightning as part of your bodies! My

emperumAn has periya pirATTi seated on His chest and

hence named SrInivAsan. Please tell Him this: godai is

waiting with her heart and soul to be embraced by you

and is waiting for your arrival withthe greatest

love " .

 

Additional thoughts from SrimAn SaDagopan:

 

Agattu min ezhuginRa mEga~ngAL: periya pirATTi, who

looks radiant like a lightning, is seated on the chest

of emperumAn, who is dark-hued. This can be compared

to the lightning that the dard-hued clouds bear. So,

He has a lot of liking for them.

 

Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

Agattu min ezhuginRa mEgangAL: Literally, Agattu -

from your body or chest, min - lightning. Because

periya pirATTi is seated on bhagavAn's chest and

shines like a lightning, ANDAL is reminded of Him when

she sees the lightning in the dark clouds. The clouds

resemble His tirumEni just as ubhaya vEdams point out:

 

" nIlatOyada madhyastA vidyullekheva bhAsvarA "

(taittrEya upanishad nA. 11 - paramAtmA's tirumEni is

radiant like the lightning adopted by the blue

clouds).

 

" nIlam uNDa minnanna mEnip perumAn " (tiruviruttam 29).

When ANDAL is separated from Him, the clouds are

making sure that she doesn't forget Him. Now she is

appealing to the clouds to unite them together.

 

Another way of interpreting minnAgattu ezuginRa

mega~ngAL is: min -lightening, nAgam - sky; and so the

reference is to the clouds which rise in the sky with

lightening, or the clouds which reveal their existence

because of the lightning in the sky. Similarly,

bhagavAn's tirumEni gets its importance because of the

presence of periya pirATTi in His vaksha sthalam. It

is as if bhagavAn's dark hued tirumEni is revealed by

the lantern in the form of mahAlakshmi, just as the

dark clouds are revealed bythe lightning.

 

vEnkaTattutu: Unlike HanumAn who had to cross the

Ocean to give Lord rAma's message to sItA, or fight

with enemies in the process, these clouds don't have

to go through any of these ordeals in delivering

ANDAL's message to tiruvE~nkaTamuDaiyAn. She is not

asking the clouds to go to SrIvaikuNTham

( " kalan~gApperunagaram " mUnRam TiruvandAdi 51) to

deliver her message. All she is asking them to do is

to go to the easily-reachable, mangul tOi SennivaDa

vE~nkaTam.

 

tannAgat tiruman~gai ta~ngiya SIr mArvarkku:

BhagavAn's vaksha sthalam has the greatness in several

ways: - This is the place chosen by maA lakshmi to

reside, without which she can't bear to live.

- Periya pirATTi resides there, and even then She

emphatically declares, lest She has to leave this

place for some reason at some time - agalagillen

iRaiyum - There is no way I will leave this place to

go back to the lotus flower (SrI V. N. vedAnta deSikan

in his vyAkhyAnam for nammAzhvAr's tiruvAimozhi).

 

- Periya PirATTi permanently resides on His vaksha

sthalam just so She is within reach whenever She is

needed for the purushakAratvam for His devotees.

ANDAL is rhetorically asking the clouds - If peria

pirATTi who always resides on His vaksha sthalam can't

live away from it, how can anyone expect ANDAL who is

new to this experience to survive and cling to life

being away from this tirumEni? en Agattu iLam ko~ngai

virumbi - ANDAL wants to be united with Him just as

periyAa pirATTI is, permanently united with Him

inseparably, so that she does not have anything of

herselfexcept for Him.

 

SItAppirATTi tells hanumAn :

 

" yathA tam purushavyAghram gAtrai: SokAbhikarSitai: |

samspr*Seyam sakAmA'ham tathA kuru dayAm

mayi " (rAmAyanam sundara kANDam 40-3 )

" Do whatever is needed so that I will be able to

embrace my Lord with my body which has become weak

because of separation from Him " .

 

godai does not want to have another birth to get this

union with emperumAn; She wants to get this desire

fulfilled in thisbirth itself.

 

nAL tORum - This bhagavad-anubhavam that ANDAL so

intensely desires is not something that is a one-time

incident; she wants this anubhavam to be

permanent,irreversible, and forever.

 

pon Agam - The Golden tirumEni of emperumAn.

 

purivuDaimai: puri means desire. purvuDaimai here

refers to ANDAL's having the desire to be united with

Him. When godai and kaNNan were together, it was

natural for Him to tell her how much He loved her, and

as a woman she naturally listened to all this and

enjoyed it. But as is consistent with feminine nature,

she did not express outwardly that she was equally

desirous of union with Him. But now He has forced her

into this state where she has to send a messenger to

Him. It is normal for the owner to desire to have

something he owns; but it is not normal for the

" something " to desire to belong the owner. Godai is in

such an awkward situation here; she is sending a

messenger to let Him know of her pangs of separation.

 

So, she says: " tell Him that both our svarUpams have

become destroyed " . This is contrary to

rakshya-rakshaka bhAvam. This why ANDAL is asking the

clouds to " go and tell Him " - SeppuminE, since He does

not seem to understand thisobvious situation.

 

From SrI Kr*shNasvAmi aiyengAr:

The purport of this pASuram is that godai is sending

her plea to tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn with due respect to

pirATTi, who isour purushAkAram. SeppuminE: According

to tAtparya ratnAvaLi 3, ( " dESikAstatra dUtA: " ),

clouds etc. that are sent as messengers denote

AcArya-s in svApadESam. So, godai tells the

pururshAkAra bhUta-s, " please rectify my separation

from Him by telling Him what my state of affairs is " .

 

Additional Thoughts:

Note the beautiful poetic use of the word Agam here in

all four lines of the pASuram: min Agam - the sky with

lightning; tan Agam - bhagavAn's tirumEni; en Agam -

my SarIram; pon Agam - either BhagavAn's golden

tirumEni, or ANDAL's beautiful tirumEni.

 

what a wonderful anubhavam of ANdAL! How beautifully

Smt KalyaNi Krishnamachari has written the above..

Thanks to her for sharing her article

AndAL ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan