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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Second Centum >> Tenth decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says, in his svApadhESam, that AzhwAr celebrates that even though emperumAn had his sankalpam [divine oath or pledge through which he carries out his orders], unable to tolerate the sorrows of his followers, he protected SrI gajEndhran [an elephant] on account of his purpose of activity and due to his overflowing mercy, though coming directly to protect gajEndhrAzhwAn may appear superfluous.
thAzhai thaNNAmbal thadam perum poygai vAy
vAzhu mudhalai valaip pattu vAdhippuN
vEzham thuyar keda viNNOr perumAnAy
Azhi paNi koNdAnAl inRu muRRum adhaRku aruL seydhAnAl inRu muRRum
Word-by-Word Meanings
thAzhai – (on the bank of the pond) screw-pine (a type of plant)
thaN Ambal – (inside the pond) cool, water-lily
thada peru – being huge
poygai vAy – in the pond
vAzhum – being present
mudhalai – crocodile
valai – in its net [mouth]
pattu – getting caught
vAdhippu uN – afflicted (vAdhippu – affliction)
vEzham – SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn’s
thuyar – mental agony
keda – to be removed
viNNOr – for nithyasUris
perumAn – being the controller
Ay – conducting periya thiruvadi [garuda]
Azhi – through chakrAyudham [divine disc] (severed the crocodile and released from that imprisonment)
paNi koNdAnAl – we will perish today, on account of the one who took the flower from gajEndhran’s hand [trunk] and placed it on his divine foot
adhaRku – for that gajEndhran
aruL seydhAnAl – we will perish today, on account of the one who showered his mercy like that.
Simple Translation
Crocodile was inhabiting a huge pond, which had screw-pines on its bank and water-lilies inside. SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn got caught in the net of that crocodile [net – crocodile’s mouth] and suffered. To remove the mental agony of that gajEndhrAzhwAn, emperumAn, who is the controller of nithyasUris, went on garuda. He severed the head of crocodile with his divine disc, releasing gajEndhran from his imprisonment, and placed the lotus flower, which gajEndhran had carried in his trunk for a long time, on his divine feet. We will perish on account of such emperumAn. We will perish on account of emperumAn who showered his mercy on gajEndhran like that.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
thAzhai … – In a huge pond, which had plants such as thAzhai [screw-pine] on its banks and cool, water-lily inside, in the water. thAzhai is representative of all the plants which were growing on the banks of the pond. nammAzhwAr too had mentioned in his thiruvAimozhi 3.5.1 “moymmAm pUmbozhil poygai” (in the pond, which had gardens having tightly packed, well-grown blossomed flowers) that the pond had gardens around, in which flowers were seen blossomed. Ambal – water-lily, is representative of all the flowering plants inside the pond. This is similar to periya thirumozhi 5.8.3 “vaigu thAmarai vAngiya vEzham” (SrI gajEndhran plucked the lotus flower, present in the pond). Looking at the lotus flowers blossoming densely in the pond, in order to pluck the lotus [and proffer to emperumAn], unaware that the wicked animal, crocodile, was present in the pond, the elephant entered the pond with affection.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here for thadam perum poygai that the pond had coolness due to the depth of the pond, thadam signifies expanse arising out of its breadth and perum poygai signifies greatness due to its length. Inside such a pond, a crocodile was roaming around and the elephant got caught by that crocodile.
vAzhu mudhalai valaippattu – the elephant got caught in the net [crocodile] which was living there for a long time, with the thought “When will the elephant, which is going to release me from my curse, going to come?”
vAdhip puN vEzham thuyar keda – Just as it has been said in SrI vishNu dharmam 68-46 “gaja AkarshathE thIrE grAha AkarshathE jalE” (SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn was pulling towards the bank and the crocodile was pulling towards water), while the crocodile was pulling the elephant into water, gajEndhran was pulling it towards the bank. This went on for a long time, as mentioned in SrI vishNu dharmam SlOkam “dhivyam varsham sahasrakam” (thousand years, as per the period of celestial count). In order that the mental agony of SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn that “We are unable to proffer the lotus at the divine feet before it loses its freshness” was removed …
viNNOr perumAnAy Azhi paNi koNdAnAl inRu muRRum – manifesting that he is the controller of nithyasUris, emperumAn went on his divine vehicle, garuda, killed the crocodile through his divine disc, as mentioned in SrI vishNu dharmam 9-80 “grAham chakrENa mAdhava:” (SrIya: pathi, consort of SrI mahAlakshmi, tore the crocodile with his divine disc); he released SrI gajEndhran from his prison, took the flower from his hand and placed it on his divine feet. The herd-girls say that they will perish on account of the one who carried out the above-mentioned activity.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that because emperumAn was viNNOr perumAn, his divine name of nArAyaNa explains the reason for his being the causative factor for the worlds. Since the elephant called out to him, as said in siRiya thirumadal “nArAyaNA oh maNivaNNA nAgaNaiyAy” (Oh, nArAyaNa! Oh, one with blue gemstone like complex! Oh, one who is lying on the serpent-bed!) emperumAn rushed to the bank of the pond as said in periya thirumozhi 2.3.9 “Anaiyin thuyaram thIrap puLLUrndhu senRu ninRu Azhi thottAnai” (emperumAn, in order to remove the distress of gajEndhrAzhwAn, went on garuda, to the banks of the pond, stood and then severed the crocodile through his divine disc) and removed gajEndhran’s agony. By saying viNNOr perumAnAy Azhi paNi koNdAn, AzhwAr emphasises the enjoyability of nithyasUris [with emperumAn] and that the existence of all the entities in the worlds is because of his existence [since he is the antharyAmi [in-dwelling soul] of all entities, existence of all the entities arises only if emperumAn exists; without him, nothing will exist]. Just as mentioned in SrI vaikuNta sthavam 36 “ichchAdha Eva” (everything is carried out through emperumAn’s wish), gajEndhran survived for such a long time, trapped by the crocodile in his net, only because of emperumAn’s wish. Just as it is said in “dhig balam kshathriya balam” [this is from SrI rAmAyaNam bAla kANdam 56.23, when king viSwAmithra realises that his strength as a warrior is inferior to the strength of the spiritual power of sage vasishta], gajEndhrAzhwAn left the path of bhakthi [devotion] and came into the path of prapaththi [act of surrendering to emperumAn]. He was capable enough to call out to emperumAn to come and protect him. While dhraupadhi surrendered to emperumAn [in the court of dhritharAshtra, when pulled by dhuSSAsan], since she did not say “vArAy ennAridarai nIkkAy” [Please come and remove my great distress] emperumAn did not come in person [unlike the case of gajEndhrAzhwAn who said these words, as mentioned in siRiya thirumadal]. nammAzhwAr, in his thiruvAimozhi 3.1.9 had said “mazhungAdha vainnudhiya chakkara nal …” (having a beautiful divine disc, which is not blunt, which has a mouth and is sharp). When this pAsuram was being recited in the temple, when the last line was recited, where nammAzhwAr asks whether emperumAn’s radiance wouldn’t have disappeared if he had not come in person to save SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn, a SrI vaishNava, siRiya AtkoNdAr said “It would have disappeared” twice. This has been cited to affirm that emperumAn came when SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn called out to him to come and remove his agony while he did not come when dhraupadhi too called out to him, since she did not ask him to come and remove her agony. Through the term Azhi paNi koNdAn [emperumAn killed the crocodile with the help of his divine disc] it is clear that he did not take the help of one who was proffering flower daily to him [reference here is to SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn who was proffering lotus to him every day; emperumAn accepted servitude from him, but did not utilise him for annihilating crocodile].
adhaRku aruL … – Just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 3.5.1 “kaimmAvukku aruL seydha” (one who bestowed his mercy on the elephant), the herd-girls say “We will perish today on account of the one, who showered his mercy on the elephant like that”.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that through the term adhaRku aruL seydhAnAl, AzhwAr says that SrI gajEndhrAzhwAn caried out svagathasvIkAra prapaththi [carrying out surrendering through one’s efforts and not through emperumAn]. Since he carried out surrendering through his efforts, he had to sink until only his trunk was visible. It was then that emperumAn came and showered his mercy on the elephant [in our sampradhAyam, we should carryout paragathasvIkAra prapaththi, viz. surrendering through emperumAn’s effort. In other words, we should not think that we have surrendered to emperumAn because of our effort, but that emperumAn showered his mercy on us and made us to reach him].
We shall next consider the 9th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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