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

[Guest guest]

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.]

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu – these ten

verses are on ThiruvEnkatam.

 

Introduction: GodhA PiraaTTi does not get any response

from the great pA~ncajanya AzhvAn in spite of all the

praise that she heaped on him. Month after month

passes ending in rainy season with the associated

lightning and dark clouds. The dark, blue-hued clouds

remind godai of kaNNan and cause even more pain in her

heart. At the time of vastrApaharaNam, He had made a

promise to her that He will come back to her during

the rainy season and disappeared from her sight. Now,

ANDAL is suddenly sad that He has not kept His

promise. She decides to tell her plight to the clouds

and send them as her messenger to gOvindan, who is

stationed in tirumalai.

 

B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):

In the introduction to this tirumozhi, SrI PVP

describes his anubhavam of ANDAL's progression from

conversing with the pA~ncajanyam to appealing to the

clouds to be her messenger. He also discusses the

natural advantage that ANDAL has in being able to

express her extreme love towards bhagavAn in the role

of a nAyaki, whereas the other AzhvAr-s have to assume

this role which is not natural to them by their birth.

In this tirumozhi, ANDAL declares her love for

tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn and sends the clouds as her

messenger.

 

In the previous tirumozhi, she conversed with SrI

pA~ncajanyan. This suggests the natural progression of

a devotee whose thoughts are drawn closer and closer

to bhagavAn as time progresses. The very utterance of

His name is sufficient to result in the maturity of a

devotee such that the devotee is drawn closer to Him.

The progression from pA~ncajanyam to the clouds can be

also seen as a step up in the sense that the Sa~nkham

has as its only reason for prominence its being

associated with Him. It is only a means to Him, like

dharma being only the means to the dharmI who is the

object to be attained through dharma. SrI pA~ncajanyan

is only a SeshabhUtan, as he is dependent on

emperumAn, and emperumAn is the dharmi (prAkAri)

without whom the Sa~nkham does not have any existence

or appearance. There is also a similarity between the

clouds and the conch that we see in the mudal

tiruvanTAdi by the mudal AzhvAr (poigai AzhvAr) - "

kAr kODu paRRiyAn kai " . One meaning for the word kAr

is clouds, and one meaning for the word kODu is conch.

SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcArya svAmi interprets kArkODu

as referring to tiruvEnkaTa Hills (kAr = dark or

black, kODu = hill) in the context of the pASuram.

 

But he also points out a possible alternative

interpretation for the phrase as " One who holds in His

hand the conch (kODu) that makes the great sound like

the dark clouds (kAr) " , thus establishing a

relationship between the two. In tamizh literature,

there is a stage of separation between the nAyakan and

nAyaki where the former promises the later that he

will be back during the rainy season, and the nAyaki

suffers from separation when the nAyakan does not show

up as promised. ANDAL is in this stage of separation

from kaNNan who left her at the time of

vastrApaharaNam, and now she sees the clouds but not

kaNNan. The color of the clouds reminds her of kaNNan,

and their garjanai reminds her of the pA~ncajanyam in

His hand. So she thinks her kaNNan has come, but lo!

Her kaNNan is not there. She asks the clouds about

emperumAn. Of course, they do not respond to her. She

becomes very sad and insists on sending them as her

messenger since the clouds have a relationship with

tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn by virtue of their living in the

same mountain.

 

In rAmAvatAram, sItA sends hanumAn, who knew five

vyAkaraNams and was a great scholar, as her messenger

to rAma. Since in vibhavAtAram the Lord could talk,

embrace, etc., this made sense. Now, in arcAvatAram,

godai sends the clouds as her messenger, without even

thinking that clouds cannot talk, and without

realizing that all she can do is worship the arcAmUrti

but not expect Him to embrace her etc. How do we

explain ANDAL's actions? PuttUr SrI kr*shNasvAmi

aiye~ngAr svAmi quotes a passage from meghadUtam (1.5)

" kAmArthA hi prakr*ti kr*paNAS cetanA'cetaneshu "

which says that those who are scorched by love are

unaware of their actions and try to send messages to

their partners through animate or inanimate objects

such as the cloud etc.

 

Then the question arises : " How is it that a person

like ANDAL subjects herself to kAmam like wordly

people? " We should understand that in ANDAL's case it

is her extreme bhakti to Him that expresses itself in

this form. Just as ordinary mortals who are in love

cannot bear to live when separated from their loved

one, the bhakta cannot live in the absence of

bhagavAn. This being the case with pirATTi, the

AzhvArs who were born men assumed the role of pirATTi

and express their devotion in their pASuram-s. ANDAL

is doing nothing different, expect she does not have

to assume any new role to be a nAyaki. By birth she is

a woman, and she can naturally express her devotion to

Him in the role of a nAyaki. SrI kr*shNasvAmi

aiye~ngAr describes this in the following terms:

" Expressing the bhakti towards emperumAn using the

language of a nAyaki is like " paLLa maDai " for ANDAL;

the love of the AzhvArs who try to use girl talk to

emperumAn to show their extreme bhakti is like " meTTu

maDai " .

We will start with the first of these ten verses from

tomorrow.

 

AndAL ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan