SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
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Introduction
Previous pAsuram talked about how she recovered consciousness as she heard the parrot saying the divine names , and thanked the parrot and appreciated it. In this pAsuram – improving from the stage of only listening to the divine names from the parrot, she herself said the divine names and sang them along with playing the veeNA instrument. As she touched the veeNA when singing, it reminded her about her singing about the nature of herself and of Himself using the veeNA, when they were together earlier. Through that veeNA she visualized His divine body, and imagining the veeNA to be Him, she did with veeNA what she would do when she is together with Him. Mother is getting afraid thinking ‘what is going to befall her when she realizes that this is only a veeNA and not Him’.
kalluyarndha nedu madhiL sUzh kachchi mEya
kaLirenRum kadaRkidantha kaniye! enRum
alliyampU malarp poygaip pazhana vEli
aNiyazhundhUr ninRugandha ammAn enRum
solluyarndha nedu veeNai mulai mEl thAngith
thUmuRuval nagai iRaiyE thOnRa nakku
mel viralgaL sivappeydhath thadavi AngE
menkiLi pOl miga mizhaRRum en pEdhaiyE. 15
Word by word meaning
kal uyarndha nedu madhiL sUzh – Constructed using rocks, and surrounded by big towering walls,
kachchi mEya – being present in such kAncheepuram’s thiruppAdagam
kaLiRu enRum – O emperumAn who is like a must elephant, and,
kadal kidandha kaniyE enRum – who is like a fruit sleeping in the divine ocean of milk, and,
ammAn enRum – who is the lord
ninRu ugandha – who is happy standing in
aNi azhundhUr – the beautiful dhivya dhESam thiruvazhundhUr
alli am pU malar poygai – that is having ponds with beautiful and fragrant flowers pregnant with pollen, and
pazhanam – agricultural fields,
vEli – as the surrounding fences, (saying these),
thAngi – propping
mulai mEl – upon her breast
veeNai – the veeNA instrument that is
sol uyarndha – high in tone
nedu – long in harmonic range,
thU muRuval – she with pure smile,
nagai – and with her well set teeth
iRaiyE thOnRa – being visible a little,
nakku – is laughing, and
thadavi – caressing the veeNA,
mel viralgaL – (that her) thin fingers,
sivappu eydha – become reddish,
AngE – and after that,
en pEdhai – my daughter,
men kiLi pOl – like a small parrot,
miga mizhaRRum – makes melodies in many ways.
kal uyarndha, etc.- Divine name is helpful when in danger, it helps revive, and is also enjoyable. In pAsuram 13, she talked about it being helpful; in pAsuram 14 about how it is helping revive oneself. In this pAsuram she is talking about its enjoyability.
kal … – Qualities of the surrounding wall shows the greatness of the elephant being protected inside. Is it possible to be caring when in separation? It is not of concern whether she is with Him or separated. Her true nature is to care for Him. The ever-present greatness of a devotee is to create greatness for the master. The wall is having such height that it is not possible for the enemies to get in, and at the same time it is having enough space inside for the free movement of the elephant inside.
kachchi mEya kaLiRu – (elephant) is the lord pANdava thUdhan inside the dhivya dhESam of thiruppAdagam. He is sitting inside like a must elephant because like the elephant He too is ever-refreshing even if seeing Him all the time, and having the independence that cannot be controlled by anyone. Even though it is said that He is dictated by sEnai mudhaliyAr and periya thiruvadi, they are doing so based on His wishes and as a service to Him, and not as His masters.
He who is lovable by everyone is not showing His face to me who loves Him. He who does not have any one to control if He loves me, is One who is not showing His face to me – laments parakAla nAyaki.
kadal kidantha kaniyE enRum – This is talking about the place of incarnation of this elephant. She says – Oh You who are sweet like a ripe fruit lying down in the divine ocean of milk that is unreachable for the adversaries! Fruit is eagerly eatable, and gets destroyed when it does not find anyone to eat it. Likewise, He too searches for anyone who would enjoy Him, and He would be lost when not getting anyone to enjoy Him.
Oh He who looks for devotees to enjoy Him, is not showing His face to me!
alliyampU … – She is talking about the place where that elephant is standing, having roamed around independently. The place (thiruvazhundhUr) that is surrounded by ponds and water bodies having flowers that are pregnant with pollen, fragrant, and beautiful. Place that is hard for enemies to reach (as the ponds would attract such people towards themselves and prevent them going to emperumAn), and for the amicable ones it removes their fatigue.
ninRugandha – Standing so that the people of the world can surrender to Him, and if they get involved in the beauty of His standing there, and in His qualities that are the reason for that beauty, and so go to Him, then He would be the one happy about it. He becomes one who wished to reach them, and being happy for reaching them. Getting an AthmA to reach Him is His gain.
ninRugandha – As the reason for His standing becomes fruitful, He is being happy. Reason for that is the following.
ammAn enRum – Since He is the owner, He is the One who makes the efforts, and (after attaining the property), He is the one who becomes happy as well. The lordship of the lord got fulfilled in these dhivyadhESams (not in paramapadham, since He got them after coming here and standing). The jeevas who are subservient get their subservience fulfilled in these dhivya dhESams only, is how thirumangai AzhvAr thinks about this. The way thirumazhishaip pirAn enjoyed in ‘ninRadhu endhai Uragaththu irundhadhu endhai pAdagaththu anRu vehkaNaik kidandhadhu ennilAdha munnelAm [thiruchchandha viruththam – 64]’, this parakAla nAyaki is enjoying these three dhivya dhEsams in this thirunedunthANdakam.
solluyarndha nedu veeNai – volume being more, and music being lengthy in this compared to regular veeNA or flute; music being lengthy is about the individual letters of the song melting and only the music is present; Or,
nedu veeNai – being memorable for a long time for those who heard it and they would say ‘that, that song’.
veeNai mulai mEl thAngi – As she touched the veeNA, she saw in front of her eyes how the veeNA was played with the song that announced about the sweetness of herself and the sweetness of emperumAn when her hero that is emperumAn was with her earlier; and she saw directly in her mind the hand that caresses it, and saw the shoulder that holds that hand, and saw in her mind the divine body of that shoulder, and like embracing Him in her chest when together with Him, she embraced the veeNA by her chest.
Is it possible to think of this veeNA as emperumAn? As said in ‘gruheethvA prEkShamANA sA Bharthu: karaviBhUshaNam | BharthAramiva samprApthA jAnakee mudhithA Abhavath [SrI rAmAyaNam – sundhara kaNdam – 36-4]’ (seethA took (from hanuman) the ring that decorated her husband and became happy as if her husband himself came), seethA pirAtti enjoyed as if that ring itself is perumAL, and enjoyed like she saw perumAL Himself.
This SlOka is described now.
“gRheethvA” – getting it, she started seeing it with great interest as if seeing relatives who had gone abroad; “prEkShamANA” – was seeing it without taking her eyes off of it. “sA” – she who was afraid upon seeing hanuman thinking that it is rAvaNan who has come, is now enjoying with interest; “Bharthu: kara viBhUshaNam” – (saw the) ring which pressed against her fingers when she had joined hands with Him; or, when He and She were together, due to excess of enjoyment would love-quarrel and not see each other’s face; the ring that got them back together then; that is –looking straight at each other and talking would be wished by them; but since there would be no body else there to get them back together, perumAL would remove the ring from His hand and let it fall on the floor; at that time He would instigate Her to say “oh, see you have let the ring fall down” and so create a conversation – it is that ring; so it is said as one that got them together; “BharthAramiva samprApthA” – as She got the divine ring from hanuman, She thought about perumAL; then about the shoulder that the ring belongs to, and the form that the shoulder belongs to; like embracing Him when He is present, she hugged the ring; “BharthAramiva” – she thought of it as perumAL Himself; seeing that in his mind, he (vAlmiki maharishi) says ‘like husband’. “jAnakee mudhithA aBhavath” – Divine daughter of king janaka got happiness; what would be the consequence (when she realizes it is just the ring [not SrI rAma himself]) – vAlmiki rishi is afraid so.
thAngi – instead of saying ‘kept’, it is saying ‘upheld’ the veeNA – because when together, as said in “apUrvavath vismayam AdhaDhAnaya [sthOthra rathnam – 38]” (She gives amazement like new), when He was immersed in her enjoyability and lost Himself, she took Him in her arms and held Him – thinking about that now, thinking of veeNa as Him, she is holding the veeNa close to her breasts.
thUmuRuval – This is talking about the smile that came due to the happiness of touching emperumAn, and due to the happiness of defeating Him (by her beauty);
nagai iRaiyE thOnRa nakku – laughing with just enough of the row of teeth be visible, and with the smile mentioned earlier, she could not stop with that, and so she laughed opening her mouth further. It is said too as “kAnthasmithA lakShmaNa jAthahAsA [SrI rAmAyaNam – AraNya kANdam – 63-12]” (Hey lakshmaNa, in this rock, together with me, seethA dhEvi being generous (in giving her body to me), having sweet smile, and sitting on all sides of the rock (by quickly changing her position), and getting a big laughter, she addressed you with a lot of words).
mel viralgaL sivappeydhath thadavi – talking about her thinking about putting nail marks in the back of her hero when enjoying together with Him, and so caressing the string of veeNA.
mel viralgaL – the fingers are so delicate , you see!
sivappeydhath thadavi – during the time of union, it would be tolerable when such fingers suffer due to putting nail marks on His back.
sivappeidha – fingers that are naturally red, became even more reddish due to caress.
AngE – meaning for this could be taken as ‘after that’, or ‘in that state’.
men kiLi pOl miga mizhaRRum – spoke very sweetly like a young parrot. Since she has heard the divine names from the mouth of the parrot, the mother is talking about the even better softness and youth of her daughter by saying miga.
miga mizhaRRum – even though she is of young age, is talking like a mature lady when together with Him, it cannot be described by me, says the mother. She laughing at perumAL who lost (in playing game with pirAtti), as said in ‘thvAmaha seethA bahuvAkyajAtham [SrI rAmAyaNam – AraNya kANdam – 63-12] (addressing you lakshmaNa, seethA spoke many words (when playing on top the big rock, like described the same SlOka earlier)), “aren’t we ladies, aren’t we delicate and not have any strength, aren’t you man”, and so on, there is no count of words she talked in this manner, says vAlmeeki maharishi. As said in “nayva mA kinchith abraveeth [SrI rAmAyaNam – ayOdhyA kANdam – 58-35]” (seethA who has never before undergone suffering, and who is a famous princess, did not say any word to me, but was crying due to the sorrow (that happened to Her husband) (says sumandhrA to dhaSarathA after leaving them in the forest), as she could only express Her feeling with tears at that time, now at this time of enjoying the sweetness of enjoyment, losing the state of holding together Her divine mind, showing Her victory, she talks like a mature lady.
en pEdhaiyE – Where did this little girl, who was born from my stomach, learn all these? At this young age, where did she learn the mature ways of exchanging loving words? Her age, and time are not enough to teach her these. It must be Him. emperumAn holding the big world in His small stomach is His smartness of doing the impossible (aGatithaGatanA sAmarThyam]. Another such smartness is being a vibhu (all-pervading), at the same time being present with His full form inside AthmA that is the smallest particle. This smartness of changing this girl like this is beyond those smartness! – says the surprised mother.
men kiLi – en pEdhaiyE – youth by age, and maturity by speech, how are these both present in the same person!
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Translation by raghurAm SrInivAsa dhAsan.
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