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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.

 

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 and 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 !

 

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.

 

 

Pasuram-4

 

AazimazaikkaNNa onru nee kaikaravel

aaziyul pukku mugarndhu kodaarththeri

oozimudhalvan uruvampOl meikaruththu

paaziyamthOludai padmabnaabhan kaiyil