SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Fourth Centum >> Second decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
AnAyar kUdi amaiththa vizhavai amarar tham
kOnArkku ozhiyak kOvarththanaththuch cheydhAn malai
vAnAttil ninRu mAmalark kaRpagath thoththizhi
thEnARu pAyum then thirumAlirum sOlaiyE
Word-by-Word Meanings
vAn nAttil – in the svarga lOkam [celestial world, heaven]
mA – excellent
malar – having flowers
kaRpagam – in the kalpaka tree [a wish-fulfilling tree]
thoththil ninRu – from the bunch of flowers
izhi – overflowing
thEn – honey
ARu pAyum – will flow like a river
then – thirumAlirum sOlai, having beauty
An – having cows
Ayar – herd people
kUdi – gathering
amaiththa – arranged [for indhran, the lord of celestial entities]
vizhavai – the festival of proffering
amarargaL – for the celestial entities
kOnArkku – king, indhran
ozhiya – denying
kOvarththanaththu – for gOvardhana hill
seydhAn – one, who carried out
malai – is the divine mountain
Simple Translation
thirumAlirum sOlai has the beauty of honey, which is flowing from the bunch of excellent flowers of kalpaka tree which is in the celestial world. The herd-people, who have cattle, gathered together and arranged for a festival of proffering for indhran, the king of celestial entities. krishNa denied that offering to indhran and made it for the hill, gOvardhana. thirumAlirum sOlai is the mountain of that krishNa.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
AnAyar … – herd-people, for whom cattle is the wealth. Every year, for the sake of rains, on one day, they will carry out worship for indhran [lord of celestial entities]. At the entrance of every house, they were making varieties of food to offer to indhran. Seeing this, krishNa asked them “What are you people doing?” They said “For the sake of rains, we are preparing food to offer to indhran”. Thinking in his divine mind “In the place where we were born and are growing up, how could a material be offered to some other entity?” in order to prevent that, he asked them “Who is indhran? Have you seen him? Have you seen him eating the food which you offer? You do not know anything. gOvardhanam derives its name since it nurtures herd [gO – cow; vardha – to nourish]. Clouds settle on top of the mountain and give us rain. The mountain offers grass and water to our cattle When it rains or when there is gusty wind, we take shelter in it. Isn’t this our god? Bring all the materials which you have cooked and offer to the mountain”. This [thirumAlirum sOlai malai] is the mountain of krishNa who made the herd people from the five lakh families in thiruvAyppAdi to deny the food which they had prepared for offering to indhran, who had thought of himself as an eminent person, who is worshipped by crores of celestial entities and made them to offer the food to an achEthana entity [one, without the ability to think]. The opinion here is that this is the divine abode, where krishNa had come to dwell forever, after ensuring that those who came under his affection did not become servitors to other entities and made them to be servitors of the divine hill.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says the following (starting from the sentence below, until the subtitle “gOvarththanaththuch cheydhAn malai”):
Just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 1.8.8 “AnAn AnAyan” (emperumAn became a cow-herd boy, naturally protecting cows), he considered himself as a herd-boy.
amaiththa vizhavai – the festival got together by the herd-people. Only krishNa was not agreeable to this. The reason for this is that his divine mind could not tolerate when he was amidst them; instead of offering food to him directly, who has come with a distinguished divine form, they were offering the food to another deity and he had to consume that as the antharyAmi [indwelling soul] of that deity.
amarar tham kOnArkku ozhiya – amarar refers to celestial entities. kOnAr refers to their head [indhran], who accepts their worship.
ozhiya – krishNa called nandhagOpar and told him “Isn’t it on this mountain that our cattle get their grass and water? Isn’t it because it is nurturing cattle that it is called as gOvardhanam? Hence, avoid proffering him [indhran] anything and instead feed this gOvardhanam”. Hearing this, nandhagOpar called the herd-people and told them “We do not have the knowledge, which this little boy has. Do as per his instructions”. They also told him that they will do accordingly, and heaped all the food in front of the mountain.
[Up to this, it was from thiruvAimozhip piLLai’s svApadhESam]
gOvarththanaththuch cheydhAn malai – he took an imposing form and ate all the food. He joined with the other herd-boys and prayed to the gOvardhana hill. thirumAlirum sOlai malai is the mountain where such krishNa resides.
vAnAttil … – From svarga lOkam, from the kalpaka tree which has huge flowers, from the bunches of flowers, a river of honey flows down. thirumAlirum sOlai has the beauty of that river on its expansive land.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here, that indhran, for the fault of raining hailstorm [on being denied food] and for the fault of not offering the flower from kalpaka tree when sathyabhAmA, krishNa’s consort, desired it, engaged in carrying out servitude to emperumAn. He says the following at the end:
When an AchAryan realises that his disciple has been corrected by someone else [emperumAn], since he remains as mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 2.9.9 “yAnE nI en udaimaiyum nIyE” (I, being your attribute, which is inseparable from you, could be considered as ‘you’. Whatever belongs to me, will also, by the same reasoning, be considered as ‘you’), will think that emperumAn has taken his disciple under him, since the disciple has surrendered to emperumAn. Alternatively, if we [samsAris] take refuge under emperumAn [through an AchAryan], knowing that emperumAn would make us to carry out servitude to his followers, as mentioned in amalanAdhipirAn 1 “adiyArkku ennai Atpaduththa vimalan” (the faultless entity who made me as a servitor to his followers), we should pray to him, as mentioned in thiruppaLLIyezhuchchi 10 “adiyArkku ennai AtpaduththAy” (you should make me to be a servitor to your followers). Thus, through the thoughts of all three [the disciple, AchAryan and emperumAn] there is no sorrow. If someone corrects a disciple in the absence of AchAryan [when AchAryan is not present in that location], AchAryan would only feel pleased towards that person, just as when the divine garden inside the divine walls gets damaged and someone makes it alright, the original caretaker of the garden will feel happy only. If the disciple goes towards someone who will not correct him, the AchAryan will feel sad, thinking “We were thinking that emperumAn was going to take this AthmA, along with us; how sad that it is going the wrong way…”
We shall next consider the 5th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
archived in https://divyaprabandham.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – http://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – http://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – http://acharyas.koyil.org
SrIvaishNava education/kids portal – http://pillai.koyil.org