SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Second Centum >> First decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that the one with great strength is showing appUchchi
padhaga mudhalai vAyppatta kaLiRu
kadhaRik kaikkUppi en kaNNA! kaNNA! enna
udhavap puLLUrndhu angu uRu thuyar thIrththa
ádhagan vandhu appUchhi kAttuginRAn ammanE! appUchchi kAttuginRAn
Word-by-Word Meanings
padhagam – being cruel
mudhalai – crocodile
vAy – in its mouth
patta – got caught
kaLiRu – SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn [elephant]
kadhaRi – uttering a loud cry
kai kUppi – performing anjali (salutation)
en kaNNA! kaNNA! enna – as it called out many times “Oh, one who is my controller!”
udhava – to help during that time of danger
puL – garuda
Urndhu – conducting him to go fast
angu – in that pond
uRu – suffering of SrI gajEndhran in the mouth of the crocodile
thuyar – sorrow
thIrththa – one who removed
adhagan – one who is strong, is showing appUchchi
ammanE! – oh, my! He is showing appUchchi
Simple Translation
Elephant SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn was caught by the cruel crocodile in its mouth. He cried out aloud, saying “Oh, one who is my controller!”, saluting emperumAn. In order to help him, emperumAn rode on garuda rapidly to that pond and removed the sorrow of SrI gajEndhran who suffered inside the mouth of the crocodile. Such krishNa is showing appUchchi. Oh, my! He is showing appUchchi.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
padhagam – cruelty of the crocodile, as mentioned in periya thirumozhi 5-8-3 “kodiya vAy vilangu” (animal with a cruel mouth). This mentions about the cruelty by hurting SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn, as mentioned in thiruppaLLiyezhuchchi 2 “adhan vidaththinukku anungi azhungiya Anai” (gajEndhrAzhwAn who was hurt by the crocodile’s poisonous teeth). Alternatively, the long syllable in pAdhagam has got shortened as padhagam. This then refers to the crocodile which had grievous sin. In other words, this crocodile, being stricken with a curse, was lying in the pond. Since it knew that the elephant was the one which will liberate it from its sin, it gripped the elephant’s leg firmly, without letting go of it, in order to fulfil its wish.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that SrI gajEndhran is a follower of emperumAn. Which is the grievous sin for the crocodile? Is it catching hold of SrI gajEndhran’s leg or is it the curse of the sage due to which the crocodile has taken its present form? He says that it is the original curse of the sage due to which the crocodile was in its present form and to clear which it had to hold the foot of the elephant, which was the grievous sin for the crocodile. Otherwise, the grievous sin would get transposed to the sage since the crocodile grabbed the divine foot of emperumAn’s follower [which is the antidote for the curse].
vAyp patta kaLiRu – the elephant, which got caught in the mouth of the crocodile. Since water is not its natural habitat, it got caught by the worm in the water. Had it been its natural habitat of land, the crocodile wouldn’t have come anywhere near the elephant.
kadhaRi … – once the elephant got caught by the crocodile, it thought “I can reach the bank on my strength itself”, as mentioned in vishNu dharmam 69-46 “gaja AkarshathE thIrE grAha AkarshathE jalE” (SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn was pulling the crocodile towards the bank and crocodile was pulling towards water). The crocodile was trying to pull the elephant towards water while the elephant was trying to pull the crocodile towards land. This went on for a thousand celestial years [one earth year is one day for celestial entities. Thus, 360 earth years will be one celestial year]. Since water is natural habitat for crocodile, since its desire [of getting liberated] was going to be fulfilled, just as it has been mentioned in periya thirumozhi 5-8-3 “muzhuvali mudhalai” (crocodile with its full strength), the strength of crocodile was waxing, while for the elephant, since water was not its habitat, since its desire was not getting fulfilled, its strength was waning. Its trunk was almost getting into water. The elephant thought “There is nothing that we could do now”. Just as it has been mentioned in vishNu dharmam 69-47 “paramApadhamApannO manasA chinthayath harIm” (having been caught in critical danger, elephant thought of hari, emperumAn), it thought of sarvESvaran [lord of all] as its protector. It took out its hand [trunk], performed anjali and manifesting its anguish, called out several times to emperumAn “Oh, one who is my controller!” thirumangai AzhwAr, in his siRiya thirumadal said “nArAyaNA! O! maNivaNNA! nAgaNaiyAy! vArAy!” (Oh, nArAyaNa! Oh, one who has a divine complexion like a gemstone! Oh, one who is reclining on AdhiSEshan! Come immediately). periyAzhwAr says in this pAsuram that gajEndhrAzhwAn called out to emperumAn as “en kaNNA! kaNNA!”. paurANikars [those who are experts on purANams] said that gajEndhran had called out to emperumAn as “mUlEthi muktha padhamAlApathi dhvipEndhrE” (during the time when gajEndhran had called out to emperumAn as mUlamE (one who is the origin of all)). What is common among all these? Since gajEndhran had thought of emperumAn who is together with distinguished form, AzhwArs had referred to him with similar meaning terms; hence, all these refer to the same.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai asks here: why is it said “kadhaRi”? [the elephant had cried out emperumAn’s divine name]. The elephant is not qualified to recite emperumAn’s divine name. What is its qualification? It should call out to the dhEvathA [divine entity] which is residing in its heart and through that dhEvathA, the antharyAmi [indwelling soul, emperumAn]. Or, svAntharyAmi – emperumAn who is residing as the indwelling soul inside every entity. Since the elephant called out to emperumAn directly, AzhwAr refers to it as kadhaRi. Just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 3-1-9 “mazhungAdha gyAnamE padaiyAga nIngum” (If you had removed the distress of SrI gajEndhran through your sankalpam (divine will) would that action not have reduced your great radiance?), not wishing to use your divine will, you were waiting for a long time [for the elephant to realise its pArathanthryam (being totally dependent on you) and to call you out). Sage viSvAmithra had realised that his strength as a king was inferior to the strength of sage vasishta when he had waged a battle on vasishta [when viSvAmithra was still a king) by saying “dhikbalam kshathriya balam” (the strength of a king is inferior). In a similar manner, considering that bhakthi mArgam (attaining emperumAn through the path of devotion) is inferior to prapaththi mArgam (the path of attaining emperumAn through the act of surrendering), even before the cry of kaNNA kaNNA [by the elephant] could be completed, emperumAn showed himself up, before the elephant, rejecting the supporting hand of sEnai mudhaliyAr, making his divine consorts to wonder as to what had happened, not considering the umbrella and chowry [fly-flapper], sandals etc, not waiting for garuda to decorate himself, imploring garuda to go faster, and upon reaching the bank of the pond, he took the flower from the hand of elephant and accepted it, making the pUrva bhakthi [devotion shown by SrI gajEndhran] as sAdhya bhakthi [carrying out kainkaryam [servitude] as the benefit of having surrendered.
udhava … – As soon as emperumAn heard this cry of anguish from gajEndhrAzhwAn in his divine ears, he got out of his divine mattress in a flurry, did not hold the hand of sEnai mudhaliyAr (vishvaksEnar) when he tried to give his hand, as mentioned in SrI rangarAjasthavam uththara Sathakam 57 “athanthritha chamUpathi prahithahastham” (not considering the helping hand of sEnai mudhaliyAr), did not put on his divine sandals too and took steps on the floor. Seeing this, his divine consorts were perplexed wondering “What has happened?” He did not wait for garuda to prepare himself for carrying emperumAn through decorations, focussing on “We should help for that anguish”, imploring garuda to go even faster. Once he reached the bank of the pond, he removed the sorrow of SrI ganjEndhran. What was gajEndhran’s sorrow? Just as it has been mentioned in vishNu dharmam ”nAham kaLEparasyAya thrnArtham madhusUdhana! karastha kamalAnyEva pAdhayOrarpithum harE:” (Oh, madhusUdhana! It was not for protecting my physical form, but I am calling in order to proffer the reddish lotus flower in my hand at the divine feet of hari), it was for proffering the fresh lotus flower in his hand at the divine feet of emperumAn that gajEndhrAzhwAn called out.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that for the verse “angu uRu thuyar thIrththa”, the term angu refers to the place where the crocodile had grabbed. uRu thuyar – the sorrow of the elephant as well as his [emperumAn’s] sorrow. Even when the elephant’s trunk was getting drowned, emperumAn came there and touched his divine disc, as mentioned by thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumozhi 2-3-9 “niNru Azhi thottAn” (emperumAn reached the pond and touched his divine disc), wondering whether the elephant would go back to its previous state of choosing the path of devotion [over SaraNAgathi, act of surrendering]. Even in the act of surrendering, if one does not remove the thought that it was due to the act of surrendering that they had attained emperumAn, it would cause immense sorrow. The strength which the elephant had all along, had to be destroyed for him to surrender today. If emperumAn had to offer a benefit for the act of surrendering, a miniscule part of his sankalpam (divine will) was sufficient. However, he came in person to the pond, making [parASara] bhattar to mercifully say “bhagavathasthvarAyai nama:” (I bow down to the speed with which you came to the bank of the pond). If he had not come to the pond with such urgency, as confirmed by a disciple siRRAtkoNdAr, his radiance would have got diminished [reference here is to nammAzhwAr’s thiruvAimozhi pAsuram 3-1-9 when nammAzhwAr had asked whether his radiance would not have lessened if he had removed the elephant’s distress through his sankalpam]. uRuthuyar thIrththa adhagan – the hugely powerful entity who removed the sorrow through the proper means. Alternatively, by making his mercy to take precedence [by going in person to the pond and removing the elephant’s sorrow] and his svAthanthryam supported by his sankalpam to lie low, he is the powerful entity who came and showed appUchchi.
adhagan – one who is powerful. This speaks about the distinguished power with which he protected his follower. With such divine hand, he is showing appUchchi. Oh, my! He is showing appUchchi.
We shall next consider the last pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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