thiruppallANdu 1 – pallANdu

srI:
srImathE satakOpAya nama:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srImadh varavaramunayE nama:

Full Series

krishna-wrestlers

Introduction for this pAsuram

periyAzhwAr  on seeing bhagavAn with most beautiful form which reveals his auspicious qualities such as saundharyam (beauty), etc., in this world which is controlled by kAlam (time), out of great fear starts thinking “what bad might happen to him?” and performs mangaLAsAsanam (well-wishing thoughts) to emperumAn‘s divine and beautiful form to stay like that forever.

pAsuram

பல்லாண்டு பல்லாண்டு பல்லாயிரத்தாண்டு
பலகோடி நூறாயிரம்
மல்லாண்ட திண்தோள் மணிவண்ணா!
உன் செவ்வடி செவ்வி திருக்காப்பு

pallANdu pallANdu pallAyiraththANdu
palakOti nURayiram
mallANda thiNthOL maNivaNNA
un chEvadi chevvith thirukkAppu

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word-by-word meanings

mal – mallars (wrestlers) like chANUran, mushtikan
ANda – one who controlled and killed them
thiN – strong and most powerful
thoL – shoulders
maNivaNNA – one who has the color of dark gem
un – your
chEvadi – reddish feet’s
chevvith – beauty
pallANdu – many (countless) years (denotes year count in human)
pallANdu – many (countless) years (denotes year count in dhEva)
pallAyiraththANdu – many (countless) years (denotes year count in brahmA)
palakOti nURayiram – many years of countless brahmAs
thirukkAppu – let there be protection

In the first pAsuram, periyAzhwAr expresses let there be protection for all auspiciousness to bhagavAn’s reddish lotus feet for countless years. AzhwAr starts with human years and then moves on to dhEva’s (dhEvathAs – celestial beings) years and for one brahmA’s years and then countless bramhAs’ years!

Highlights from periyavAchchAn piLLai’s commentary:

  • pallANdu – AzhwAr is saying ANdu (years) instead of days. The reason is that years denote one’s age/life-time.
  • pallANdu (long live), jitham (let there be victory), nama: (I am for you, I surrender unto you), thORROm [thiruvAimozhi 2.1.7] (you have won), pORRi [thiruppAvai, etc] (long live) are all synonyms.
  • pallANdu – AzhwAr is again saying owing to AzhwAr’s swarUpam (not stopping with once) and Iswara’s swarUpam (on seeing Iswara’s beauty, one cannot say this just once) as well. Also, just like a thirsty person will say “water, water” again and again until his thirst is quenched, AzhwAr will repeat “pallANdu” until his fear is eliminated.
  • One big question arises here – it is normally seen that elders/superiors wish well and bless the younger/inferior ones. But when there is too much love and affection towards someone, even if they are superior to one, one could bless them for their well-being.
  • On seeing that AzhwAr started fearing for Him and performing mangaLAsAsanam, perumAL thought of removing AzhwAr’s fear and showed his strength, similar to the rAmAyana incident. When sugrIva mahArAjar feared for perumAL and did not want to take vibIshaNAzhwAn, perumAL explained his strength and that removed mahArAjar’s fears. So, here, perumAL shows his strong shoulders using which he killed chANUra and mushtika in kamsa’s court.
  • But this increased AzhwAr’s fears, similar to a mother who always worries for her brave son who could easily get into fight with others. AzhwAr started fearing that if dhEvathAs surrender to Him worrying about demons, He will go near the demons to win over – AzhwAr worries that going near such demons could harm perumAL.
  • chevvadi – Contrasting/beautiful colors – divine blackish body and reddish lotus feet – Whenever a sEshabhUtha (servant) sees his sEshi (master), he always looks at the thiruvadigaL (lotus feet).
  • This pAsuram is like a preface for the rest of the pAsurams.

adiyEn sArathy rAmAnuja dAsan
adiyEn sudharsana rAmAnuja dAsan

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0 thoughts on “thiruppallANdu 1 – pallANdu”

  1. Great explanation! Brought tears to my eyes reading how much Azhwar had loved Perumal! And your explanation brings out this emotion so beautifully. Thank you very much

    Reply
  2. Beautiful explainations.
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