SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> First Centum >> Ninth Decad
avathArikai (Intriduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that thiruvAyppAdi [SrI gOkulam} was agitated that butter was getting stolen. When the herd-folk complained to yaSOdhAp pirAtti, she told them, without blaming the child, “Keep your respective material safely, in your houses, inside pots kept in an uRi [uRi is a network of ropes, suspended from a hook in the ceiling], out of his reach”. Guessing that he could steal the materials using a mortar, they hid the mortars too, safely. Looking everywhere for the mortar, a discarded mortar with a hole at the bottom, got caught in his fortunate vision. Such swAmy will come and embrace me, says AzhwAr.
poththa uralaik kavizhththu adhan mEl ERi
thiththiththa pAlum thadAvinil veNNeyum
meththath thiruvayiRu Ara vizhungiya
aththan vandhu ennaip puRam pulguvAn AzhiyAn ennaip puRam pulguvAn
Word-by-Word Meanings
poththa uralai – with a mortar which had a hole at the base
kavizhththu – inverting it (under the uRi)
adhan mEl ERi – standing atop that mortar
thadAvinil – kept safely inside pots
thiththiththa – being sweet
pAlum – concentrated milk
veNNeyum – and butter
thiru vayiRu – divine stomach
meththa Ara – to be completely filled up
vizhungiya – one who ate
aththan – one, who is my swAmy, will embrace my back
AzhiyAn – one, who is fully immersed in mischievous activities, will embrace my back
Simple Translation
Keeping a discarded mortar, which had a hole at the base, under the hooped network of ropes, krishNa got on top of that mortar. He ate the sweet milk concentrate as well as butter such that his divine stomach was completely full. Such kaNNan, who is my lord, will come and embrace my back. One, who is immersed in mischievous activities, will embrace my back.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
poththa … – krishNa entered houses with the intention of stealing materials such as milk, butter etc. People in those houses, thinking “Let us keep them safely, outside his reach”, kept them inside pots, in hooped network of ropes. Sighting a mortar, which had a hole at its base, which had been discarded by all since it was of no use, krishNa rolled it under the uRi upside down and got on top of that mortar. Thinking that people would come looking for it if he had taken a good mortar, he located the mortar with a hole.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that poththa would refer to a hole; it would also refer to one which is apt. That mortar would be apt for krishNa. He says that the term mortar here refers to prapannars [those who have surrendered to emperumAn]. Just as the mortar would be of use only to krishNa and to no one else, prapannars would be ananyArha SEshabhUthars [servitors only for emperumAn and not for anyone else]. For such people, who exist only for emperumAn and do not having any desire for anything other than emperumAn, the divine feet of emperumAn will be attained. Just as his divine feet came on their own, on top of the mortar with the hole, for these prapannars too, emperumAn’s divine feet will come on their own, without their expressing any desire for those divine feet. Even if they have other abhimAnam (pride) [for example, making someone to become emperumAn’s follower through one’s effort and feeling proud about it], but are without svAbhimAnam (pride in themselves, coming out of ahankAram (ego), svAthanthryam (depending on oneself and not on emperumAn) and dhEhAthbimAnam (mistaking body for self)), they will be bhOgyabhUthars for emperumAn (enjoyable entities).
thiththiththa … – Tasteful, sweet milk, which had been concentrated and kept inside pots, and butter, which too had been kept inside pots. The term thadA (pot) should be added to both the terms [milk and butter]. Since the term vizhungiya (swallowed) has been used [and not kudiththa, which would refer to the action of drinking], the milk should be considered as concentrated milk and not normal, liquid milk.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the term veNNey refers to one who knows SEshathvam (being a servitor to emperumAn) and is willing to attain mOksham (SrI vaikuNtam); the term thiththiththa pAl refers to one who is without svAbhimAnam and other avenues of desire (desiring anything other than emperumAn). Just as it has been said in thiruviruththam 71 “nAzh ivaLO ennum” (this girl is clever) and in periyAzhwAr thirumozhi 3-7-4 “seydha sUzhchchiyai yArkku uraikkEn” (to whom would I tell the mischief carried out), this type of pride is acceptable to emperumAn and he recognises such a person. This pride is a cause for his angIkAram (recognition). Those who desire to have dharSan of emperumAn in SrI vaikuNtam are more distinguished than all the others and are referred to as veNNey. Just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 2-8-8 “ellA ulagum Or thuRRARRA ”(even if he consumes all the worlds, emperumAn’s divine stomach will not get filled up), his stomach will get filled up and he will feel happy only if he sees such an entity [as described here]. In chathurthi [the hidden fourth case Aya which is present on the first syllable a of thirumanthram], though SEshabhUthan (being a servitor to emperumAn) is evident, emperumAn desires only ananyArha SEshabhUthan (one who is servitor only to emperumAn and not to anyone else) which is present in the middle term u of praNavam (first syllable of thirumanthram). It is this person, who is referred to as veNNey here. prapannan should be like achith (one without any thinking power), like the mortar.
meththa … – when he went to consume these, due to his overflowing desire to eat, he consumed them such that his divine stomach was completely filled up.
aththan – one, who is my swAmy [lord]. It is a word mentioned out of happiness of the activity narrated above. He will come and embrace my back.
AzhiyAn – one, who is fully immersed in mischievous activities. This would also refer to one who has the divine disc in his divine hand. The meaning implied here is that one, who is holding the divine disc in his divine hands, is the one who engaged with such a lowly act of stealing. He will embrace my back.
We shall next consider the 8th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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