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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Third Centum >> Sixth decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
nAvalam periya theevinil vAzhum nangaimeergaL! idhu Or aRpudham kELeer
thUvalamburi udaiya thirumAl thUya vAyil kuzhal Osai vazhiyE
kOvalar siRumiyar iLam kongai kudhugalippa udal uL avizhndhu engum
kAvalaum kadandhu kayiRu mAlai Agi vandhu kavizhndhu ninRanarE
Word-by-Word Meanings
periya – being huge
nAvalam theevinil – in jambhudhvIpam (in the word nAvalam, the syllable ‘am’ does not have a meaning; it is present for poetic metric)
vAzhum – living
nangaimeergaL! – oh, those who are without any shortcoming in anything!
idhu Or – this unique
aRpudham – amazement
kELeer – do listen
thU – pure
valamburi udaiya – having SrI pAnchajanyam [divine conch] on his divine hand
thirumAl – one who is the consort of SrI mahAlakshmi
thUya – enjoyable
vAyil – playing, keeping on his divine mouth
kuzhal – flute’s
Osai vazhiyE – through the path of music
kOvalar – herd-people’s
siRumiyar – young girls
iLa – being mature
kongai – bosoms
kudhugalippa – as they make merry, saying that they are going ahead in the front
udal – form
uL – heart
avizhndhu – losing control
engum – present everywhere
kAvalum – protection
kadandhu – going past
kayiRu mAlai Agi vandhu – just like garlands strung together in a rope, coming in huge numbers
kavizhndhu ninRanar – stood, bowing their heads down (due to shyness of seeing krishNa
Simple Translation
Oh, those who are living in the huge jambhUdhvIpam, without any shortcoming in anything! Listen, to this amazing incident. One, who is the consort of SrI mahAlakshmi, who is having the pure SrI pAnchajanyam on his divine hand, is playing the flute, keeping it on his enjoyable divine lips. Through the path of that music, young girls from the clan of herd-folk, in large numbers, with their mature bosoms joyously going ahead, with their forms and hearts losing control, have crossed the protective barriers kept everywhere, and are coming, like garlands arranged properly on a rope, bowing their heads down.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
nAvalam periya theevinil – in the huge land mass, called as a division, where nAval (blue-berry) is present. This distinguishes this division, called as jambudhvIpam, from the others. The eminence of this division is not seen in the other divisions. The other divisions are for the purpose of experiencing the fruits of karmas [deeds] carried out while it is only in this division that one could earn, through one’s deeds [virtues or vices or attain emperumAn through himself]. Even in this division, it is on the ninth continent, called as bhAratha varsham, that one could earn deeds. All the other continents and other divisions are present only for experiencing the results of the deeds carried out here. For this reason, it is not inappropriate to call this division as being more eminent than the rest, since this alone contains bhAratha varsham. It is only here that one could carry out karmas, the results of which could be experienced in the other divisions, as well as in the upper and lower worlds. For attaining mOksham too [SrI vaikuNtam], it is only here that one could carry out deed [surrendering to emperumAn through an AchArya]. Also, it is only in this division that divine abodes of emperumAn [dhivyadhESams] as well as mumukshus [those who are desirous of attaining mOksham] are present in large numbers. Due to all these reasons, AzhwAr terms this division [jambudhvIpam], which has bhAratha varsham within it, as periya thIvu [huge division].
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that among the divisions of the universe, it is due to the ninth continent, bhAratha varsham, present in the southern end of the jambudhvIpam, that the dhvIpam is referred to as huge land mass. It is due to this bhAratha varsham that the other eight continents too got their eminence. It is here that sAkshAthparars [those who had directly seen emperumAn], viz, AzhwArs, and mumukshus [those who desire to attain mOksham, SrI vaikuNtam] are present. Also, the divine abodes, where emperumAn’s distinguished divine forms could be seen, are present only here. mumukshus, who get liberated from here and reach SrI vaikuNtam, are cherished by nithyamukthars [nithyasUris, the permanent dwellers of SrI vaikuNtam, and mukthAthmAs, who had already reached SrI vaikuNtam] as well as by emperumAn himself. Hence, this is called as periya dhvIpam [huge land-mass]. Being identified by blueberries, it is called as jambudhvIpam, and is considered as a huge land-mass.
vAzhum nangai meergaL – [the term nangai refers to a lady who is complete in all aspects; the term vAzhvu refers to flourishing] Since these women have been born in the place where krishNa has incarnated and have been witnessing the divine activities of his incarnation as well his auspicious qualities, these women are said to be flourishing. They are complete with respect to the knowledge required for understanding his divine activities as well as with respect to affection towards him. Since AzhwAr considers himself to be one among the herd-folk, he is calling some of the women, present in thiruvAyppAdi and is telling them mercifully. Alternatively, in line with the saying “sa Eva vAsudhEvO’sau sAkshAth purusha uchayathE l sthrIprAyam itharath sarvam” (It is only that supreme entity, vAsudhEvan [emperumAn], who is considered as a masculine entity. All the others are considered as feminine entities only), considering everyone other than emperumAn as feminine entities, devoid of any trace of independence, it could be assumed that AzhwAr is calling out to those who are distinguished on account of their involvement with matters regarding emperumAn as nangaimIr.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that just as it has been mentioned in thiruppallANdu 3 “vAzh Atpattu ninRIr” (if you are a servitor of emperumAn), vAzhvu, which refers to living in a fit manner, is one where pursuing one objective leads the person to another objective [carrying out one service to emperumAn will lead the person to carrying out another service to emperumAn or his followers etc]. It is this which is the reason for the completeness of their qualities too.
idhOr aRpudham kELeer – Listen to this amazing incident.
thU valamburi udaiya thirumAl – the divine consort of SrI mahAlakshmi, having the sacred divine conch, curling to the right side. This implies that he has the necessary instrument to annihilate those who are unfavourable to him and to unite with him those who are favourable towards him. What is sacredness for SrI pAnchajanyam? It is the purity of carrying out the task, thought of by emperumAn. Through the sound of blowing, SrI pAnchajanyam would be able to make the favourable entities to sustain themselves and the unfavourable ones to meet their end.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that sacredness of the divine conch lies in its having purity of qualities of form and purity of qualities of AthmA. The divine conch is pure white in complexion, reflecting purity of qualities of form. Since conch remains exclusively for emperumAn and not for self, this reflects purity of the qualities of AthmA. Just as it has been mentioned in 2.10 decad of thiruvAimozhi, the divine conch tells all “Leaving aside qualities of your intelligence, youthfulness, obedient attitude, hesitation, proudness etc, come and sing praises of this dhivyadhESam, thirumAlirunjOlai”. It helps the favourable ones by signalling to them the arrival of emperumAn [as in the case of rukmiNip pirAtti, when she had requested krishNa to come and marry her] and it annihilates the unfavourable ones by blowing resoundingly in the battlefield [just as it did in the kurukshEthra battlefield to break the hearts of the hundred sons of king dhritharAshtra].
thUya vAyil kuzhal Osai vazhiyE – the sacredness of his divine mouth is that through the words spoken of by emperumAn, it has the ability to sustain the favourable entities. Through the divine sound of the divine flute kept on such a divine mouth… In other words, in thiruvAyppAdi where people warn of krishNa’s presence through the words “Look, krishNa is here; look after the girls”, with relatives erecting several layers of protection and keeping the girls safely, the sound emanating from krishNa’s flute will put them to sleep, enter the ears of the girls, telling them “Come, now” and will lead them to krishNa. It is due to the pull of that sound that the girls came to the place where krishNa was playing the flute.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that sacredness of emperumAn’s divine mouth is that through the flute it would attract everyone and convey the message that emperumAn does not reject anyone and that he is firm in this. It is not that he had only said in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 18.30 “rAmO dhvirna abhibhAshathE” [SrI rAma will not speak a second word. The reference here is to SrI rAmAyaNa SlOkam where it is said that SrI rAma does not speak a second word. However, he had also said in SrI rAmAyaNam yudhdha kANdam 18.3 “na thyajEyam kathanchana” [he will not let down his devotees].
kOvalar siRumiyar – the girls from the clan of people who are well versed in protecting cows.
iLam kongai kudhugalippa – the well grown bosoms, which were not under the control of the girls, went ahead of the girls, saying joyously “We are going ahead”. iLam kongai – they do not listen to the girls. kudhugaliththal refers to rising up on account of the urge to reach krishNa.
udal uL avizhndhu – it was not only the joy of the bosoms, even the substrate, their forms, on which the bosoms are located and the mind, controller of all the senses, lost control.
engum kAvalum kadandhu – going past all the protective hurdles. In other words, the mothers have kept the girls inside, hugging them. The doors had been bolted from outside and relatives were standing guard outside the doors. Going past such protective layers, considering them as mere clod….
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the girls did not feel any shame in going past their fathers, mothers, brothers et al, when breaking their protective guard in order to reach krishNa. They did not listen to their friends too who tried to control them from going.
kayiRu mAlaiyAgi vandhu – the girls came together in large numbers, just like garlands which have been placed together in a rope properly.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that just like the garlands in a rope will not slip, these girls let go of their friendliness, affection etc towards worldly people [their relatives] and were focussed on the music from the flute which made them to sever their links with worldly people. He says that krishNa could attract people from a particular distance only whereas his music, from the flute, will attract people from much longer distances too.
kavizhndhu ninRanarE – They stood, surrounding him. Alternatively, coming through the path of music from the flute, they came to the place where he was playing the flute, and out of shyness to see his face, they bowed down their heads; unable to look him on his face, they bowed down their heads.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that since they were young girls, coming out for the first time now, tracing the origin of the music, they saw krishNa, felt shy throughout their forms and bowed their heads down. Alternatively, unable to look at krishNa on his face, they bowed down their heads. In the end, he says that this incident reflects the instruction of sapthAksharam (seven syllables) given by AchAryan. In thirumanthram, which consists of eight syllables, if the first syllable [praNavam] were to be removed, the resultant will be seven syllables. Flute, through which krishNa played music to attract the herd-girls, has seven holes [corresponding to saptha swarams, the seven notes]. The second term of thirumanthram, having two syllables [nama:], signifies ananya pArathanthryam [total dependence on emperumAn]. The last term of thirumanthram, having five syllables [nArAyaNAya], signifies ananya bhOgyathvam [enjoying only the auspicious qualities of emperumAn]. Thus, these two terms, accounting for seven syllables [corresponding to the seven holes in the flute] signify total dependence on emperumAn and enjoying only emperumAn. What is the nature of the Sishyas who receive these instructions from AchAryan? [Here, the herd-girls are the Sishyas, receiving musical notes from the flute]. They will accept the words of AchArya fully and will not argue or look at logic etc. They are full of knowledge, devotion and detachment. Devotion is signified by their bosoms, which run ahead of them to receive the instructions. Detachment is signified by their loss of control over their form and mind. In other words, they have detached themselves from worldly matters and are focussed only on receiving the instruction from their AchArya.
We shall next consider the 2nd pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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