Sri Srinivaasa Vaibhavam- AndAL anubhavam on ThiruvEnkatam- Nacchiyaar Thirumozhi- eight decad-8.1

[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 – starts with viNNIla mElAppu

– these ten verses are on ThiruvEnkatam. Let us enjoy

the first verse today..

 

viNNIla mElAppu virittARpOl mEga~ngAL

teNNIr pAi vEnkaTattu en tirumAlum pOndAnE

kaNNIrgaL mulaik kuvaTTil tuLi Sorac cOrvEnaip

peNNIrmai IDazhikkum idu tamakku Or perumaiyEn 8.1

 

Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan Swami’s tamil

treatise:

 

Oh clouds who cover the whole sky like a blue carpet!

Did my emperumAn, who is stationed in tiruvEnkaTam

full of beautiful clear water falls, come along with

you? His not coming with you is making me shed tears

because of my suffering. Is destroying my femininity a

great act of pride for tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn?

 

Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

 

viNNIla mElAppu virittARpOl: SrI PVP's anubhavam is

that godai feels that the wide-spread clouds form a

canopy for her and her nAyakan to be seated together

in the wide open space under this canopy. She sees

that one of the reasons for His creating the Universe

is so that He can be seated with her under this

beautiful canopy. For perumAL and pirATTi, the

paramapadam (nitya vibhUti) and this world

(leelAvibhUti) are meant to be for their enjoyment.

 

mEga~ngAL: Note the plural here. sitA pirATTi had only

one messenger (hanumAn) to send to rAma; godai is not

constrained like that, and has many clouds to send as

messengers. SrI PVP makes one other observation on the

reference to " clouds " by ANDAL. Among all the

thousands of vAnara-s who were searching for sItA,

hanuman was the only one who had the bhAgyam of

finding sItA and having her darSanam. In the case of

the clouds, a lot of clouds can convey the message to

bhagavAn in ve~nkaTam Hills. In rAmAyaNam sundara

kAnDam 30-3, hanumAn says:

 

" yAm kapInAm sahasrANi SubhahUnyayutAni ca

dikshu sarvAsu mArgantE SeyamAsAditA mayA "

 

(I found the one person, who is being looked for by

thousands and ten thousands of vAnara-s in all the

directions). HanumAn is sad in one sense that those

other vAnara-s who wanted to find Her, did not get the

bhAgyam to see Her; only he got that bhAgyam. Here, in

godai's case, all the clouds are going to get to see

emperumAn.

 

When kings go for jala-kr*TA (water sports), a set of

people called " mEkar " precede him and do jalakrITA

with him. In the case of the clouds (megham), it is

godai's thought that these " mEga~ngAL " did jalakrITA

with emperumAn and because of His making them wet,

they are now the water-bearing clouds. teN-NIr pAi

vEnkaTattu: The waterfalls in tiruvEnkaTam are pure

(not muddied), because of the sAnnidhyam of emperumAn

stationed in tiruvEnkaTam.

 

Unlike this, by comparison, in the place where ANDAL

is right now, the rivers etc. have become dry because

of the absence of emperumAn ( " tirumAlum pOndAnE " ).

This is what happened when Lord rAma left for the

forest - " upataptOdakA nadya: palvalAni sarAmsi ca

pariSushka palASAni vanAnyupavanAni ca " (rAmAyaNam

ayodhyA kANDam 59-5)

 

en tirumAlum pOndAnO - SrI PVP points out the incident

in SrImad rAmAyaNam where Lord rAma follows sItA

pirATTi when they walk in the forest - " yadi tvam

prasthito durgam vanamadyaiva rAghava agratastE

gamishyAmi mr*dnatI kuSa kaNtakAn " (rAmAyaNam ayodhyA

kANDam 27-6) Now she hopes that He has followed the

clouds, and so asking the clouds whether Her tirumAl

has followed them. The usage of the word " en tirumAl "

shows her relationship to Him as His pirATTi and also

her purushAkAram.

 

kaNNIrgaL mulaik kuvaTTil: ANDAL has posed the

question to the clouds - Has my tirumAl come with you?

- and expects a response without realizing that they

are acetana. She thinks that they are not responding

because He did not come with them. And tears start

welling in her eyes. When sItA pirATTi's eyes started

filling with tears because of her separation from Lord

rAma, at least she had hanumAn to notice her tears:

 

" kimartham tava nEtrAbhyAm vAri sravati Sokajam

puNDarIka palASabhyAm viprakIrNam ivodakam (rAmAyaNam

sundara kANDam 33-4)

 

( " pirATTi! Why are your eyes shedding sorrowful tears

which resemble water falling out of lotus leaves? " )

Since there is no one to notice godai's tears, she

sympathizes with herself.

 

kaNNirgaL mulaikkuvaTTil: emperumAn is never leaving

tirumalai because the clouds stationed on the mountain

are always sprinkling water droplets (like the

sweet-smelling pannIr); godai is simulating tirumalai

on her own self here; just as rain water collects and

falls over mountain tops in the form of waterfalls,

tears from her eyes are collecting and falling over

her chest. tuLi SOrac-cOrvEnai - As the tear drops

(tuLi) are falling (SOra), godai is becoming tired

(SOrvEnai). She is not feeling tired just because

tears are falling, but it is because of the tears that

are falling like sparks of fire.

 

peN nIrmai Idazhikkum: When hanumAn offers to carry

sItA pirATTi on his shoulders right and then there

back to Lord rAma from lankA, sItA pirATTi tells

hanumAn that it is befitting to rAma if He Himself

comes and gets her after destroying the rAkshasa-s.

Saraistu sa~nkulAm kr*tvA la~nkAm para balArdanah |

mAm nayet yadi kAkutsthah tat tasya sadr*Sam bhavet ||

(sundara kANDam 39-30) This should be the nature of

strIttvam.

 

It is feminine nature to wait for emperumAn's grace

instead of using own power. Here bhagavAn is making

ANDAL violate all this natural femininity and forces

her to take the initiative of sending the clouds as

her messenger etc., which is quite unnatural for a

strI. So He is destroying her femininity. ANDAL's

femininity is such that she will not live if she is to

be associated with any other human - " mAniDavaRku enRu

pEccuppaDil vAzhagillEn " (nAcciyAr tirumozhi 1-5); she

will not bear to live if there is any anya sambandha

prastAvam. Such is the limit of ANDAL's pAratantr*yam.

His masculinity is such that His own paraphernalia,

namely, vishvaksEnar, AdiSEshan, catram, cAmaram,

ornaments, weapons, jn~Anam, Sakti, SrI vaikuNTham,

His own mangaLa vigraham etc, etc are made by Him

purely for the benefit of His devotees. Such is the

limit of His svAtantr*yam. But in ANDAL's case He is

not exhibiting his masculinity that way;

 

He is making godai say " tirumAlum pOndAnE " and making

her send the clouds as messengers, thus destroying her

femininity. tamakkOr perumaiyE - ANDAL is conveying to

the clouds: BhagavAn has His greatness because He is

Sriyah-pati. His tejas is because of His being with

janakAtmajA or SrI - yasya sA janakAtmajA aprameyam hi

tat-tejah. ANDAL, periAzhvAr's own divine daughter, is

an aspect of SrI, a part of SrI, and not different

from SrI (avaLODu ananyarAi iruppAr), and here He is

making her suffer. This is not greatness for Him, it

can only be considered a deficiency instead. Only He

can rectify this deficiency of His, and no one else

can. [Thanks to Smt Kalyani Krishmachari again for her

permission to make use of her sweet translation of

GodhA’s anubhavam. ]

AndAL ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan