thiruppAvai – 22 – angaNmA gyAlaththu

srI:
srImathE satakOpAya nama:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srImadh varavaramunayE nama:

Full Series

The previous pAsuram was about losing ahankAram (attitude of me-mine) – (mARRAr vali tholaindhu un vAsal kaN). This pAsuram says that after coming here to you there is no other place / person to go to. This is about ananyArha sEshathvam (subservience to perumAn and perumAn only / no other place or person to go to).

அம் கண் மா ஞாலத்து அரசர் அபிமான
பங்கமாய் வந்து நின் பள்ளிக்கட்டிற்கீழே
சங்கம் இருப்பார் போல் வந்து தலைப்பெய்தோம்
கிங்கிணி வாய்ச்செய்த தாமரைப் பூப்போலே
செங்கண் சிறுச்சிறிதே எம்மேல் விழியாவோ
திங்களும் ஆதித் தியனும் எழுந்தாற்போல்
அம்கண் இரண்டும் கொண்டு எங்கள் மேல் நோக்குதியேல்
எங்கள் மேல் சாபம் இழிந்தேலோர் எம்பாவாய்.

angaNmA gyAlaththu arasar
abhimAna bhangamAi vandhu nin paLLikkattil kIzhE
sangam iruppAr pOl vandhu thalaippeidhOm
kingiNi vAich cheidha thAmaraippUp pOlE
sengaN siRuchiRidhE emmEl vizhiyAvO
thingaLum Adhiththiyanum ezhundhAr pOl
angaN iraNdum kOndu engaL mEl nOkkudhiyEl
engaL mEl sAbham izhindhu ElOrempAvAi

Word by Word Meaning

am kaN mA gyAlaththu arasar – kings (who rule(d) the) beautiful, spacious, and big world
abhimAna bhangamAi vandhu – come after losing their ahankAram
sangam iruppAr- and assembled in groups
nin paLLik kattil kIzhE – below your throne;
pOl – likewise
vandhu – (we) came (to your place)
thalaippeidhOm – and approached (you);
thAmaRai pU pOlE – like a lotus
kingiNi vAich cheidha – that is blossomed a little bit, like the opening of ‘kingiNi’ (metal ball with openings like a half-open flower, with a metal ball inside it to make noise when shaken),
sem kaN – (would you open your) reddish eyes
siRuchchiRidhE – little by little
em mEl vizhyAvO – and bless us (your devotees)?
thingaLum Adhiththiyanum ezhundhAr pOl – like how the moon and the sun rise
engaL mEl nOkkudhiyEl – if you would bless us
am kaN iraNdum koNdu – with the two beautiful eyes,
engaL mEl sAbham – our sadness
izhindhu – would get destroyed.

Simple Translation

angaN – beautiful place; nice that from brahma to a small ant (pipIlikai/பிபீலிகை) could enjoy here with all comforts;

mA gyAlaththu arasar – kings of the beautiful big places on earth/world – kings with the pride of ‘all these areas of this earth are mine’; like a king named pouNdarakan who ruled kAsi who thought that the whole universe was his and was walking with changu and chakram in his hands to compete with krishNan.

abhimAna bhangamAi vandhu – losing their svAthanthriyam; those kings come (to you) after losing their kingdom, and become humble;

some kings were bhAgavathas (some of whom are also mentioned in some of the dhivya prabandhams), and they came and surrendered to you even while being kings; kUraththAzhvAn surrendered to emperumAnAr even when having everything (gyAnam, lineage, wealth). kulasEkarAzhvAr and sIrk kaliyan too were kings!

nin paLLik kattil kIzhE – even if they (the former types) are given back their kingdoms, they recall becoming humble and refuse to go away (from you), and stay under you (‘under’ your safety). They want you and you only.

sangam iruppAr pOl – like those great kings we have also come to you after losing our pArathanthriyam – like how significant it is for them to lose their pArathanthriyam (because it is very hard for such great kings), we have come losing ours; they came to you because there was no other place to go to – we came to you for doing kainkaryam.

Like iLaiyaperumAL who was lost to chakravarthy thirumagan, we have come here after losing to your guNams and becoming your sEshans.

vandhu thalaip peidhOm

All the delays we endured till now in waking up every one, now we are relieved of all the troubles after coming here. All these years (lives) we had lost the opportunity of this sambandham (association) with you, and today we got the complete you after coming here, and without doing anything on our part (nirhEthukam). We have shed our dhEhAthmAbhimAnam (giving importance to bodily comforts), also our svAthanthriyam (feeling of we can do everything by ourselves without His help) and have come here as saraNAgathas to do kainkaryam only to you; and without any thought that it is We who Did the kainkaryams.

When bhattar was asked, “vEdhas say that brahmA and other dhEvas are born 7 times, they do very hard penance/tasks before they are able to get mOksham; but we, who are so less able compared to them, have just done saraNAgathi and with all surety we are waiting for this life to end for going to mOksham (like we have packed our bags and are just waiting for His call, to go to mOksham); how come there is such a big difference in the required efforts?”

bhattar replied, “There is nothing wrong in this; those dhEvas are trying everything out of their own efforts, and they want to try like that because/thinking-that they have got that ability. We, on the other hand, have accepted from the beginning that we cannot do anything on our own to become eligible for mOksham, we have fallen on perumAn‘s feet and have told Him that we don’t have anything to show for becoming eligible – so, because it is now perumAn who is taking the efforts to provide us mOksham, we are assured of it; but the dhEvas / rishis – they are trying with their own ability so it would take them a long time before they get mOksham.

{ முமுக்ஷுப்படி – ஒரு பலத்துக்கு அரிய வழியையும் எளிய வழியையும் உபதேசிக்கையாலே, இவை இரண்டுமொழிய பகவத் ப்ரஸாதமே உபாயமாகக் கடவது / mumukshuppadi – oru palaththukku ariya vazhiaiyum eLiya vazhaiyum upadhEsikkaiyAlE, ivai iraNdumozhiya bhagavath prasAdhamE upAyamAgak kadavadhu. }

(Also we are not supposed to go for other means (karma/gyAna/bhakthi) for getting mOksham; only SaraNAgathi is prescribed for us SrIvaishNavas because it is against the svarUpam (our true nature) to try on our own even if we would be able to. Doing SaraNAgathy is also not the ‘means’, it is only an acceptance that He is the means.)

kingiNi vAich cheidha thAmaraip pUp pOlE

(please open your eyes) like the lotus that blossoms when seeing the sun; these flowers blossom seeing our desperation; like how it slowly blossoms;

our desperation is like the sun, and you eyes are like the lotus – please open seeing our desperation.

sengaN – your beautiful reddish eyes

red due to your affection towards us. Even that flower is not as red/beautiful as His eyes, so they use the word as a metaphor.

siRuch chiRidhE

unlike flooding by suddenly opening a dam, the force of your kindness which we cannot withstand if it is available all at once, open your beautiful eyes slowly.. slowly..

We want to enjoy from the beginning the whole process of your opening your beautiful eyes;

we are like dry land which needs to be watered slowly and steadily.

svApadhEsam: please elevate us step by step; begin with:
– remove our dhEhAthmAbhimAnam (thinking of dhEham as Athma – attachment/priority to physical comforts),
– as we accept it (accept this effort of yours), remove our svasvAthanthriya abhimAnam (thinking that we are independent of emperumAn, i.e., thinking that we can do some of the things He has forbidden, and that we need not do some of the things He has commanded us to do),
– as we accept it, do anya sEshathva nivruththi (subservience to others),
– as we accept it, remove sva sEshathvam (kaivalyam – enjoying our own AthmA only),
– as we accept it, remove svarakshaNE sva anvayam (thinking that we can manage to do things to protect ourselves),
– as we accept it, remove us from upAyAntharam (using other means like karma/gyAna/bhakthi yOgams, or other ways, to reach Him),
– as we accept it, make us come to you as the only means (to reach you),
– as we accept it, remove the thought in us that when we carry out activities in our life it is because of our efforts only,
– as we accept it, make us be a parathanthran (subservient to Him),
– as we accept it, make us immersed in all of His auspicious qualities (ஸமஸ்த கல்யாண குணங்கள்),
– then create anubhava-janitha prithikAritha kainkaryam (doing kainkaryam out of affection that came out of experiencing Him),
– and then remove the thought of doing that kainkaryam for own enjoyment.
— In the next phrase of the pAsuram when they say ‘after you open your eyes just enough’ – it means that ‘after we reach such stage here’. To a dhEhAthmAbhimAni it would not work if He tries to grant parama bhakthi straight away, would it?

em mEl vizhiyAvO – would you open your eyes and see us?

Like how desperate one would be when rains came for a dry land, like how the sAdhaga bird would hope to get rain water (it drinks only rain water direct when the rain drops fall from the sky), they are hoping for His blessings. {thurisaRRuch chAdhakam pOl nAthan thandhu aruLE pArththiruththal kOdhil adiyAr guNam [gyAna sAram-2]  / துரிசற்றுச் சாதகம் போல் நாதன் தனதருளே பார்த்திருத்தல் கோதிலடியார் குணம் – [ஞான ஸாரம்-2]}

Would you please give us parama bhakthi after we reached the stage as above?

thingaLum Adhiththiyanum ezhundhAr pOl

Adhiththiyan – sun – hot – your enemies cannot go near you

thingaL – moon – nice – your adiyArs find it nice and wonderful to approach you; they find the moon (un)comfortable when they miss you.

Even though perumAn was fighting hiraNyan, He was kind to his son prahlAdhan. perumAn considered hiraNyan as enemy only because hiraNyan was troubling his bhakthan. bhattar said: Even while the mother lion is fighting with an elephant it would be kind to its cub which is drinking milk from her.

Also means, to remove our inner darkness (sun), and to make us feel better after having gone through separation from you (moon).

angaN iraNdum kOndu

the sun and moon are not comparable to your anger and blessing;

so they stop comparing and mention his eyes itself – am kaN – beautiful eyes; with your wonderful eyes (please see us)

As He opened just enough for them to to be able to bear it (where they had said siruch chiRidhE), they ask Him to look at them with both his eyes.

iraNdum kONdu – see with both the eyes – emphasizing with ‘both’ to imply that He should see them fully with all of His kindness and love. (“நான் என் ரெண்டு கண்ணால பார்த்தேன்” / I saw with both my eyes).

engaL mEl

See us – we who became desperate without your looking at us

nOkkudhiyEl

IF YOU see us – it is not possible with our efforts – You with your efforts please see us and accept us.

engaL mEl sAbham izhindhu

sAbham – curse, or, what we HAVE to go through – because of your playing with us but leaving us and hiding; and we cannot tolerate your absence. Separation from you is our problem; since this trouble is having to be undergone, they use the word ‘sAbham’.

With your sight falling on us, our troubles from samsAram will go away;

With those two beautiful eyes if you see us slowly but fully, our troubles will go away.

They mention thrice – em mEL, engaL mEL, engaL mEl in this one pAsuram itself (lines 5, 7, and 8) – the ’em’ (we) in these lines relate to us who have got ‘poi ninRa gyAnamum, pollA ozhukkum, azhukkudambum’ [thiruviruththam-1].

In this pAsuram, after krishNan opened His eyes, they told Him that they came to get His blessings to serve Him forever.

We were having svAthanthriyam the size that of great kings and emperors.
After great difficulty we have lost all that and are here falling at your feet – ananyArha sEshathvam.
If you would please slowly but fully open your kind eyes to look at us and give your blessings,
then we will get the ever-lasting opportunity to always do kainkaryams to you.
We request Him to allow us to do kainkaryam to Him and Him only, so that we don’t gain svAthanthriyam after doing kainkaryam (not having the feeling that We Did It).

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English translation raghurAm srInivAsa dhAsan

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