SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavara munayE nama:
avathArikai (Introduction)
prahlAdhan was a follower of emperumAn, who did not desire anything other than emperumAn himself. AzhwAr once again refers to annihilation of prahlAdhan’s enemy, in this pAsuram. Also, he speaks about how emperumAn made himself as a mendicant, for the sake of indhra, who was inferior to prahlAdhan, since he was desiring other benefits, as well as about how emperumAn protected samsAris, who are inferior to even that indhra, by keeping them in his stomach during the deluge. AzhwAr wonders as to who will know this quality of emperumAn by which he helps everyone in times of danger.
varaththinil siraththai mikka vALeyiRRu maRRavan
uraththinil karaththai vaiththu ugirththalaththai UnRinAy
iraththi nI idhenna poy irandha maN vayiRRuLE
karaththi un karuththai yAvar kANa vallar kaNNanE
Word-by-Word Meanings
kaNNanE – Oh krishNa!
varaththinil – in the boons granted by brahmA
siraththai mikka – having lot of faith
vAL – like a knife
eyiRRu – one who has canine teeth
maRRavan – hiraNyan, the enemy of your follower (prahlAdhan)
uraththinil – on the chest
karaththai – divine hands
vaiththu – kept
ugir thalaththai – the region of your nails
UnRinAy – you firmly anchored and killed
nI – you, who are omnipotent and without unfulfilled desires
iraththi – begged mahAbali for earth
idhu – this act of seeking earth as alms from mahAbali
enna poy – what an amazing lie!
irandha – taking as alms from mahAbali
maN – earth
vayiRRuLE – in the divine stomach
karaththi – you hid and protected
un karuththai – your thoughts
yAvar kANa vallar – who is capable of seeing?
Simple Translation
Oh krishNa! hiraNyan, the enemy of your follower, with his canine teeth like knives, had lot of faith in the boons granted by brahmA. You placed your divine hands on the chest of that hiraNyan, firmly anchored your nails and killed him. You, who are omnipotent and without unfulfilled desires, begged mahAbali for earth. What an amazing lie is this act of yours, seeking alms from mahAbali! You hid the earth, which you took as alms from him, in your stomach, and protected. Who is capable of knowing your thoughts?
vyAkyAnam (Commentary)
varaththinil siraththai mikka – one who kept lot of faith in the boons granted to him by brahmA. hiraNyan fought with the creator of brahmA, while keeping faith on the boons granted by brahmA. Didn’t hiraNyan ask his son, prahlAdhan, just as it has been mentioned in SrI vishNu purANam 1-17-21 “kOyam vishNu: sudhurbhudhdhE yam pravIshi puna: puna: l
jagathAm ISvarasyEha puratha: prasabham mama ll” (Oh fool! I am ISvaran (one who controls) for all the world. In my presence, you keep talking again and again about vishNu. Who is he?) He firmly believed the boons which he had sought, not realising that you are capable of taking a form negating all the boons that he had obtained.
vALeyiRRu – one who had his teeth, like sword. Here, reference to the strength of his teeth is symbolic of the strength of his shoulders, thus referring to his bodily strength. He did not realise that just as emperumAn had taken a form transcending his boons, he, who is omnipotent, was also capable of destroying his bodily strength.
maRRavan – one who is the enemy. While both prahlAdhan and hiraNyan had the same relationship with emperumAn, the reason for referring to hiraNyan as the enemy is because he is the enemy of his follower, prahlAdhan.
uraththinil – on the chest. Just as those who eat meat would dig out and discard decayed part of meat, emperumAn dug out the chest of hiraNyan who had a terrible ego.
karaththai vaiththu – your hands were desired by akrUra, just as it has been mentioned in SrI vishNu purANam 5-17-28 “apyEsha prushtE mama hastha padhmam karishyathi SrImadh ananthamUrthi: l yasyAnguLi sparSa hathAkilAgai: avApyathE sidhdhirapAsthathOshA ll” (All the sins in people are removed through contact with the divine fingers of the divine hands of emperumAn and they attain mOksham (SrI vaikuNtam). Will krishNa, whose form is without an end, keep his divine lotus-like hands on my back and shower his mercy on me?). nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi 10-3-5 says “adichchiyOm thalaimisai nI aNiyAy” (You should keep (your lotus-like divine hand) on our heads, your servitors). Thus, you kept your divine hand, which is the means for uplifting your followers, and which is sweet to them as well, on the firm chest of one who had evil nature.
ugirththalaththai UnRinAy – transcending his boon of not being killed by any weapon, you annihilated him effortlessly with the region of your nails, which are the means to kill him. The word thalam refers to both region and petal. Here, it means region.
iraththi nI – unlike hiraNyan, mahAbali, who came in his clan, had the quality of magnanimity. Hence, instead of destroying him, you made yourself as a mendicant and carried out your work.
iraththi nI – being omnipotent and having all your desires fulfilled, you begged with the hand which is used to giving only, as has been praised by thirumangai AzhwAr in his thirunedundhANdakam 6 as “alamburindha nedum thadakkai” (long and huge divine hand that keeps giving). For hiraNyan, you changed your divine form. For the sake of indharan, you changed your unique nature of magnanimity.
idhenna poy – your seeking alms will be termed as true only if you sought something which did not belong to you. Only if mahAbali gave something which belonged to him as alms, will his magnanimity be termed as true. Since you sought as alms something which belonged to you, your seeking is not true. This is the implied meaning here. Instead of saying idhu poy (this is false), saying idhenna poy (what a falsity is this) implies that this cannot be termed as true or false. In other words, while narrating the deed of thrivikrama which happened the moment vAmana was granted what he had sought, vEdham says as in yajur – ashta 2-8-16 “thRiNi padhA vichakramE” (thrivikrama occupied (the world) with his three steps). SrI vishNu purANam 5-17-30 says “yathrAmbu vinyasya balir manOjgyAn avApa bhOgAn vasudhAthalastha: l thathAmarathvam thridharAdhipathyam manvantharam pUrNamapEthaSathru: ll” (With which divine hand, mahAbali gave the dhAna jalam (water as symbolic of giving alms) and attained all the pleasures in this word itself, and in a similar manner attained the status of being a celestial entity, the status of being dhEvEndhran (lord of celestial entities) and pUrNamanvanthra kAlam (long, complete longevity) after getting rid of his enemies …), confirming that mahAbali attained the position of indhra as the benefit for this magnanimity. Thus, looking at pramANams (authentic texts) this cannot be termed as false. Since vAmanan sought his own worlds, treating them as mahAbali’s, and since mahAbali treated emperumAn’s possessions as his own and donated them, this cannot be termed as true too. Hence, AzhwAr says idhenna poy – what sort of falsity is this!
irandha maN vayiRRuLE karaththi – Since it was your possession which you had painstakingly obtained as alms, when it encountered the danger of deluge, you hid it in your divine stomach and protected it.
un karuththai yAvar kANa vallar – who can understand your divine mind? There was a huge difference among prahlAdhan, who considered you alone as the benefit, indhra, who considered other worldly pursuits as the benefit and samsAris who did not even bother about you. However not considering the difference, you had protected them all, since they were all your possessions. Who could know this thought of yours?
kaNNanE – you had come down from paramapadham to thirvAyppAdi (SrI gOkulam) as kaNNan, incarnating amidst herd-people who did not know the difference between left hand and right hand. You made them incapable of living without you. You rendered yourself to be tied down and beaten up by them. You have to give the answer to this doubt yourself.
Next, we will take up the 26th pAsuram of this prabandham.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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