thiruppAvai – 27 – kUdArai vellum

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

Full Series

“So, have you got all the items you wanted for nOnbu?”

They reply, “krishNa! what we asked till now are for nOnbu, but there are a few personal ones that we need to ask you.”

After getting him they are talking about the rewards they would get for completing the nOnbu (getting him). During union with emperumAn it would appear that the ornaments are their aim.

கூடாரை வெல்லும் சீர் கோவிந்தா உந்தன்னைப்
பாடிப் பறைகொண்டு யாம் பெறும் சம்மானம்
நாடு புகழும் பரிசினால் நன்றாகச்
சூடகமே தோள்வளையே தோடே செவிப்பூவே
பாடகமே என்றனைய பலகலனும் யாம் அணிவோம்
ஆடை உடுப்போம் அதன்பின்னே பாற்சோறு
மூட நெய் பெய்து முழங்கை வழிவாரக்
கூடி இருந்து குளிர்ந்தேலோர் எம்பாவாய்.

kUdArai vellum sIrk gOvindhA
unRannaip pAdip paRai koNdu yAm peRu sammAnam
nAdu pugazhum parisinAl nanRAga
sUdagamE thOL vaLaiyE thOdE sevippUvE
pAdagamE enRanaiya palkalanum yAm aNivOm
Adai uduppOm adhan pinnE pAl sORu
mUda nei peidhu muzhankai vazhi vAra
kUdi irundhu kuLirndhu ElOrempAvAi

Word by Word Meaning

vellum sIr – having the guNam of winning
kUdArai – those who are opposed,
gOvindhA – Oh gOvindha!
pAdi – (we would) sing (till we are content)
un thannai – about you,
paRai koNdu – and receive paRai (instrument)
yAm peru sammAnam – and the price we are going to get is
nAdu pugazhum parisinAl – that the villagers would appreciate/celebrate us,
yAm nanRAga aNivOm – we would wear (the ornaments) very well (as we are decorated with them by you and nappinnai pirAtti), (ornaments such as)
chUdagam – ornament for the arms
thOL vaLai – ornament for the shoulders
thOdu – ornament for the ears
sevip pU – ornament for the upper part of ears
pAdagam – (pAdha kadagam) – ornament for the legs
enRu anaiya pal kalanum – and more such ornaments;
adhan pinnE – after that,
pAl sORu – rice (in the) food made with milk
mUda – (which) would not be visible (due to)
nei peidhu – (lots of) ghee added,
muzhangai vazhi vAra – such that it would drip through the elbows,
kUdi irundhu – (we would) be together (and eat that)
kuLirndhu – and be happy.

Simple Translation

kUdArai vellum

krishNan wins those who don’t want to befriend Him; He will try as much as possible to include everyone with Him. He would win the ones like rAvaNan who did not want to bow his head till the end.

He loses to those who join/accept him.

parasurAman tried to fight with chakravarthy thirumagan, but after losing to Him, he gave his bows and arrows and did anjali to Him and left; if he had done anjali even when holding the bows in his hand it would have been chakravarthy thirumagan who would have lost to that.

“We won’t fall on the feet of krishNan who is having friendship with arjunan” said dhuryOdhanan, and you won him.

“We will do whatever you say” said pANdavas, and you did everything they said – walking for them – to ask for a few small villages, riding a chariot in the war, bathing the horses of the chariot, and so on.

[

AchAryas try hard to correct those who do not follow the sampradhAyam. They try whatever is required to help sishyas understand bhagavath vishayams.

==> Once an elderly person, who helps with tasks related to writing copies of granthams, came to kUraththAzhvAn and requested him to teach him some meanings (do kalakshEpam). kUraththAzhvAn agreed to teach him. But that person put a condition that nobody should know that he is learning from him – he probably thought it is low of him to be learning because others might think that he does not know enough; kUraththAzhvAn agreed not to tell anyone that he is teaching this person, since kUraththAzhvAn thought that it would any way help one person to gain bhagavath vishayams.

So, kUraththAzhvAn took that person to an isolated place and started doing kAlakshEpam, one on one. That person would hold the grantham in his hands and read a phrase and kUraththAzhvAn would explain its meanings (as was the custom of the time). This went on for a few days. One day when this was going on, kUraththAzhvAn saw some people walking toward their location. That elderly man did not notice those people. kUraththAzhvAn was concerned that this person’s condition of anonymity would be in jeopardy if they came to know about this kAlakshEpam.

As those people came closer to the location, kUraththAzhvAn quickly took the srIkOsam from that person’s hands and kept it in his hands, and as those people crossed them, kUraththAzhvAn loudly said to the student, ‘please continue (teaching me)’ – pretending to be learning from that old man. Those people might have thought, “we thought kUraththAzhvAn knows everything, but looks like he is learning all of these secretly from this old person”

kUraththAzhvAn is gyAna nidhi – seeing his gyAnam emperumAnAr himself has wondered whether AlavandhAr has born in the form of this kUraththAzhvAn; there is no end to talking about the greatness of kUraththAzhvAn — that kUraththAzhvAn is sitting here pretending to learn from this person; he did not care what others would think of him. That old person realized his mistake and fell on kUraththAzhvAn’s feet.

They try whatever is required to help sishyas understand vishayams.

sIr

perumAn wins all by his guNams.

perumAL won enemies just by the supreme way he held his bow. (chachAla chApancha mumOcha vIra:) He won them by his guNam of valor.

He wins gOpikAs and adiyArs by showing his beauty and kindness (guNams).

He won AzhwArs by showing his svarUpa (true nature) rUpa (forms) guNa (auspicious qualities) vibhUthi (wealth).

He wins people like us who don’t show interest in any of his qualities, by using our sambandham with Azhwars as the front.

==> One could take care of the target of his arrows by applying some medicine; there is no medicine for the target of his beauty and kindness. “Wow! How can you be like that?” say the gyAnis when looking at his simplicity (eththiRam! – thiruvAimozhi 3-1-1 / எத்திறம்! (திருவாய்மொழி 3-1-1)).

gOvindhA

You are so fond of the cows and you go behind them even though they don’t say they want to be with you, nor do they realize that you are going behind them.

You are just happy that they did not say No to your relationship; they enjoy and grow by your fond touch.
[ Another meaning for govindA – capable of speaking about great things. Our AchAryan ]

unRannaip pAdi

We are singing your names for the purpose of just singing your names.

You are ‘gOpi jana vallabhan‘; singing your names is our benefit of doing the nOnbu; benefit of having a tongue.

paRai kONdu

They are talking about paRai (drum instrument) which is prApakam (means for nOnbu) when they are already on to prApyam (krishNan); they are doing this is to help the elders.

[Singing AchAryan’s greatness, doing saraNAgathi through him; ‘kurugUr nambi pAvin (thiruvaimozhi) innisai pAdith thirivanE‘, said madhurakavi azhwAr. (I will go around singing kurugUr nambi’s thiruvAimozhi); When others said “Since thiruvAimozhi is about perumAn, you are singing about perumAn, not AchAryan”, he replied, “I don’t know what is there in thiruvAimozhi, I only sing that because nammAzhvAr wrote it”.]

yAm peru sammAnam

the prize we get – is the flower garland from your shoulders, for you to place it in our shoulders… like perumaL gave to pirAtti when going out of his palace to meet chakravarthy during the day of his pattAbhishEkam.

yAm – we, who think that we are always under the blessing of perumAn, and all that we have to do is accept that uninterrupted blessing.

nAdu pugazhum parisinAl

you give… such that it is celebrated by everyone as “this one gave and all the girls got the prize!”.

[ The award we get is what we learned from AchAryan’s gatAksham, our association with our AchAryan. ‘thiruvadi sambandham’. ‘adiyen rAmAnuja dhAsan’]

nanRAga

(give us prize in the best way) like how perumAL and pirAtti together gave thiruvadi (hanumAn) the chain given by indhiran. Unlike those going to srIvaikuNtam from here who are decorated by apsara women, we want you and nappinnai pirAtti to decorate us; we don’t want to be in the situation of decorating and waiting for your arrival; we want you to decorate us and enjoy the beauty.

They ask krishNan the following five ornaments.

[ We get from AchAryan the ‘five’ – pancha samskAram, during samAsrayaNam – those five are: poRi (thApa mudhrA) in shoulders, nAmam (puNdram) in forehead and other places, a new name (nAmam) for us – ‘dhAsan’, rahasya manthram, and, about thiruvArAdhana kramam(yAgam).]

chUdagamE

Jewels worn in hands – the hands of gOpikAs that krishNan would first hold when touching; he would fondly keep their hands in his head and chest;

[[ thiruvArAdhanam, done by hands, is our ornament. AchAryan explains this to us during samAsrayaNam ]].

thOL vaLaiyE

with that touch he would want to hug our shoulders – we need jewels for such shoulders.

[ Jewels for our shoulders – thiru ilachchinai – the changu chakra poRi by our AchAryan. ]

thOdE

even if we have already worn in our ear lobes, it wouldn’t be same as what you would put on us.

our ear studs would be a decoration to your shoulders when you hug our shoulders.

[==> The rahasyam we get in our ears from our AchAryan – thirumanthram.

During pancha samskAram, this is dhAsya nAmam from AchAryan; visible outside like thOdu. ]

sevip pUvE

unlike other jewels worn by them which bother when He hugs them, these ornaments and flowers worn in the upper part of their ear lobes would help him enjoy his hug.

[ ==> sevip pU – is bhOgam (enjoyment), that is, for our every-day recital, that we got from our AchAryan : dhvayam ]

[[ rahasyams received during samAsrayaNam, not so visible outside, like sevip pU. ]]

pAdagam

Worn in their legs; after hugging and losing to them, he would press their legs – ornament for those legs;

chUdagam for hands, pAdagam for legs – pressing their hands and legs is what He does and accomplishes other related things from them.

[==> perumAn‘s thiruvadi is what we surrender to – he gave charama slOkam for that. That is our ornament.

==> So, the above three are about rahasya thrayam. They are also about ‘gyAna, bhakthi, vairAgyam’ that one would show towards perumAn. How? Since thirumanthram is about the gyAnam of our relationship with Him, dhvayam’s 2nd line of kainkaryam is based on our bhakthi towards him, and charama slOkam is based on vairAkyam to not use other means to reach Him, they are about gyAna, bhakthi, vairAgyam.

pAdagam – perumAn‘s thiruvadi is what we wear as nAmam in our forehead -> one of pancha samskArams during samAsrayaNam. ]

enRu anaiya pal kalanum

We will wear all types of ornaments that you know; you should know, you wear so many ornaments; we will wear many of these and more like these.

yAm aNivOm

They had said ‘malar ittu nAm mudiyOm (2) (won’t wear flowers (as they were doing nOnbu)), but now they are saying they will wear all these jewels.  Only till coming to him were they to follow those things; now they want him to decorate them; he will do it if they say they agree to wear it.

[==> without bhagavath sambandham, the gyAna, bhakthi, vairAgyam would not benefit but would only create danger. For a baudhdha (follower of budhdha) too there would be gyAna, bhakthi, vairAgyam, but what is the use?

As acharyan does pancha samskAram, we will wear those as our ornaments.]]

Adai uduppOm

Will wear clothes.. were they not wearing before?

They did not wear the ones which He wore first – so they don’t consider them as clothes or as wearing.

His thiruppariyattam (cloth) worn in his head is what they want for their waist. In privacy they would wear each other’s clothes; that is the kind of clothing they wish for. As they are finishing nOnbu, they want a good thiruppariyattam.

They belong to the clan that sang ‘uduththuk kaLaindha nin pIdhaga Adai udhuththu‘.

His smell in what he wore first is what they enjoy when wearing it themselves.

gOvindhA, unRannaip pAdi, Adai uduppOm : Even when you were not near her she said gOvindhA raising her hands and she got unlimited length of saree; we are near you here, will there be any dearth of getting our clothes?

(But, when krishNan was near gOpikAs, he stole their clothes when they were bathing; when he was away from dhraupathi he gave her enough saree when she said his name. It looks like his name is better than him!). [mumukshuppadi: dhraupathikku AbaththilE pudavai surandhadhu thirunAmamiRE / முமுக்ஷுப்படி: த்ரௌபதிக்கு ஆபத்திலே புடவை சுரந்தது திருநாமமிறே ]

==> sEshathva gyAnam; one who does not have any gyAnam/awareness (like a baby, or a mentally challenged) would not worry about clothes; so gyAnam is equated to having clothes worn. We get gyAnam from AchAryan.

adhan pinnE pAl sORu mUda nei peidhu

adhan pinnE – After wearing clothes worn by you, we want to eat prasAdham eaten by you.

adhan pinnE – If one goes to someone other than Him, they would not get those items and they would not get Him. If they go to Him, they will get everything (Him).

We said ‘nei uNNOm pAl uNNOm‘, we did not eat ghee or milk all these days- seeing that, krishNa! you also avoided those things; so there is so much of milk and ghee in all of our houses. We will cook rice with milk, and will add a lot of ghee that covered its top; one would have to search for rice in between ghee.

thiruvAippAdi that is having bhagavath sambandham with krishNan is wealthy and loving.

==> pAl sOru: kainkaryam;   mUda – but we will not think that it is we who did the kainkaryam;   nei peidhu – thus we will stick to our pArathanthriyam.

muzhankai vazhi vAra

==> Nambi thiruvazhudhi vaLanAdu dhAsar asked bhattar: “Wouldn’t the ghee go inside their mouth? Would it only pour out in their arms?”  bhattar replied, “kaNNan is their food, water, and betel leaf (uNNum sOru, parugu nIr, thinnum veRRilai ellAm kaNNan (thiruvAimozhi) / உண்ணும் சோறு பருகு நீர் தின்னும் வெற்றிலை எல்லாம் கண்ணன் (திருவாய்மொழி). These gOpikAs thinking about krishNan and his leelais wouldn’t put food in their mouth, so there is no question of ghee flowing down in their arms.”.

For nOnbu they had said ‘nei uNNOm, pAl uNNOm (2)’, but now, after joining krishNan, they love to eat like this; enjoying food made of so much ghee and other tasty items, which krishNan ate first.

===> [ When standing in a line to get water, if someone is extremely thirsty he would drink the water pouring from the elbow of the person in front of him who is drinking water; we are also drinking water (gyAnam/mOksham) from our AchAryan’s elbow who is drinking from the elbow of his AchAryan, and so on. muzhankai vazhi vAra.].

kUdi irundhu

They were separated from krishNan all these days; now they are with him, around him, and they start feeling better after touching him, talking to him, and talking about him. This is better than eating. Eating is not their goal – being together with krishNan and touching the adiyArs is their wish.

[==> AdiyArs being together for talking, singing, thinking, and doing things about AzhwArs, AchAryas, pirAtti, and perumAn – this is what will make them more dear to krishNan. ‘andham il pErinbaththu adiyArOdu irundhamai’ (thiruvAimozhi).

aham annam – aham annAdha:  :  I am like food for paramAthmA. I the food of perumAn, am enjoying perumAn who enjoys me as a food;

Here too they are bhOgyam to each other.

kuLirndhu

Be with krishNan, and cool down the hearts that were aching all these days due to separation.

[==> Like how they conduct ‘namperumAL thirunAL’ to get all the srIvaishNavas together and enjoy that sight.

kUdi irundhu kuLirndhu:   sOshnuthE sarvAn kAmAn saha brahmaNA vipassthithA – mukthAthmA gets all kalyANa guNams and enjoys them together with brahmam (perumAn) in srIvaikuntam.

(with perumAn) perumAnudan kUdi irundhu kuLirndhu (in here as well as in moksham).

(with adiyAr) adiyArgaLudan kUdi irundhu kuLirndhu (in here as well as in mOksham).

Together with other adiyArs, we enjoy the wonderful prasAdham we cooked.

That will be our sammAnam (gift).

ElOrempAvAi – Enjoy this and follow our path.
In this pAsuram, through our AchAryan, through the link to srI rAmAnujar, we get rahasya thrayam, gyAnam/bhakthi/vairAkyam, after samAsrayaNam we get mOksham and be with perumAn forever.

Previous pAsuram ‘mAlE maNi vaNNa‘ highlighted “sAmyApaththi mOksham” – gaining equivalent kalyANa guNams as perumAn. There, ANdAL asked many of the things that perumAn holds – his changu, flag, mukthAthmAs (pallANdu isaippAr), etc., gaining what he has got.

This pAsuram highlights ‘sAyujya mOksham’ – being together with perumAn (kUdi irundhu) and doing uninterrupted kainkaryams to perumAn (kuLirndhu) in srI vaikuntam.

With sEshathvam (servitude) we do kainkaryams to you for the sake of Your happiness, and without any thoughts that it is we who did all the kainkaryams – everything is yours, so whatever we give you is not created by us.

Doing kainkaryam is our nature; loving and blessing us is your nature.

It also highlights chakkarai pongal made with/of lots of ghee, milk, and some rice. When we take it in our hand to eat it (or not), the ghee will flow in our muzhankai (arm; all the way down to our elbow). We are happy to share the food with other adiyArs – other adiyArs are happy to enjoy it together with us.

It is only because of our AchAryan we get sammAnam of sAmyApathi and sAyujya mOksham where we can be with perumAn, and along with all mukthAthmAs together do kainkaryam to perumAn for ever. The help of our AchAryan. AchAryan seidha upakAram / ஆசார்யன் செய்த உபகாரம் (upadhEsa raththinamAlai).

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English translation raghurAm srInivAsa dhAsan

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