SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavaramunayE nama:
pAsuram 16
Introduction (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
Being pleased after thinking about the benefits he received (emperumAnAr’s grace), he wants all to become devoted (to emperumAnAr) in the same way, and for that he talks about emperumAnAr’s graceful help to this world, emperumAnAr who is the target of ANdAL’s grace, ANdAL who is the desire of emperumAn.
Introduction (given by piLLailOkam jIyar)
In the previous pAsuram, he celebrated emperumAnAr through his devotion to periyAzhvAr; in this pAsuram he talks about that AzhvAr’s daughter ANdAL’s natural compassion which emperumAnAr is living with, and his (emperumAnAr’s) nature being of extreme generosity, due to which he is constantly deliberating about giving paramapadham to everyone; when all of the ways of vEdhas were lost, and when kali (its ill effects) was spread everywhere and was ruling the world, he came from the other world to this soil and saved everyone, he is such a beloved one; and he (amudhanAr) wants everyone to be involved in that person, so he is explaining about the help of emperumAnAr.
thAzhvu onRu illA maRai thAzhndhu thala muzhudhum kaliyE
ALginRa nAL vandhu aLiththavan kANmin arangar mauli
sUzhginRa mAlaiyaich chUdik koduththavaL thol aruLAl
vAzhginRa vaLLal irAmAnusan ennum mAmuniyE 16
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Word by word meaning (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
arangar – periya perumAL’s
mauli sUzhginRa malaiyai – garland worn on the thirumudi (divine head)
sUdik koduththavaL – wore that in her hair, made it fragrant, and gave Him; such glory; such ANdAL’s
thol aruLAl – her natural kindness as his water source for growing;
vAzhginRa vaLLal – (he) lives due to that; he is extremely generous
mAmuni ennum – distinguished muni (deliberates)
irAmAnusan – that is emperumAnAr;
Since it is eternal, not created by anyone, significant beyond what is seen (prathyaksham), or inferred (anumAnam), and existing as truth by itself …
oru thAzhvilla maRai – that is, vEdham that is not deficient, in being its own reference,
thAzhndhu – due to those who do not accept it and those who interpret it wrongly, it became subdued and degraded, like the darkness that would spread when light is hidden,
thala muzhudhum – in all of the earth
kali – kali yuga
ALginRa nAL – was ruling, during that time,
vandhu – (he) came (to this world) as requested (by emperumAn)
aLiththavan kANmin – see the one who redeemed that vEdha, and protected the world;
Implication is, like me shouldn’t you too live relating only to him (emperumAnAr) and to nothing else.
vyAkyAnam
arangar mauli – referring to periya perumAL who is in kOyil (srIrangam) in divine rest, since he is the one having divine rest in srIvillipuththUr as vadaperum kOyil udaiyAn; for such swAmi’s divine head;
sUzhginRa mAlaiyai – flower garland that can be used for decorating {, or, that can be decorated by emperumAn}
sUdik koduththavaL – in her divine hair, as can be referred as ‘thAzh kuzhalAL’, first she decorated herself with that garland, and then removed it for presenting to the swAmi. As this happened, she was named ‘sUdik koduththavaL’ (~one who wore and then gave), and then that itself became her identity (her name is not mentioned in this pAsuram); like also said in ‘sUdik koduththa sudark kodiyE [thiruppAvai thaniyan]’.
sUdik koduththavaL with koyil aNNar
thol aruLAl – As said in “udhathi parama vyOmnOr-vismruthya mAdhrusa-rakshaNa-kshamamithi dhiyA bhUya:srIranga dhAmani mOdhasE [srI parAsara bhattar’s guNa rathna gOsam – 56]” (You spurned both the place of samudhra rAjan (your father) and parama padham (your husband’s place), and you have come to srIrangam for us) (this is said towards srIdhEvi nAchiAr, but applies to bhUmA dhEvi (ANdAL) as well) {maNavALa mAmunigaL also said “vaikuntha vAn bhOgam thannai igazhndhu, AzhvAr thirumagaLArAi [upadhEsa rathinamAlai – 22] (~spurned the comforts of srI vaikuntam and was born as divine daughter of AzhvAr)},
and in “anugraha mayIm vandhE nithayam agyAtha nigrahAm [vEdhAnthAcharyar’s yathirAja sapthathi – 2]” (~thAyAr is full of blessings, and is incapable of taking any punitive action),
so, as she is the mother for all in these worlds, due to that motherly relationship, she is naturally merciful.
vAzhginRa – by her mercy only, you see, is his well-being. When emperumAnAr performed charaNAgathy (surrendering), when azhagiya maNavALan had given sERththi (together) with srI ranga nAyakiAr in her sannidhi, he started with ‘bhagavan nArAyaNAbhi mathAnu rUpa [gadhya thrayam]’, it is famous that he performed prapaththi at Her divine feet first to begin with.
vaLLal – in this way, through Her he performed prapaththi to Him, and got the benefit, and he gave that benefit to everyone in this world – such a great generous one. jIyar also divined about this beauty by saying “kAlathrayEpi karaNathraya nirmitha athi pApakriyasya saraNam bhagavath kshamaiva | sA cha thvayaiva kamalA ramaNErththithA yath, kshEmassa Eva hi yathIndhra! bhavathsrithAnAm [yathirAja vimsathi – 18]” (~rAmAnuja! for the sins one performed using the three faculties – mind, body, and speech, it is srIranganAthan who is present in srIrangam the only refuge during all three times of the day; in fact, it is the prayer of dhEvarIr through gadhya thrayam to aranganAthan during the divine day of panguni uthram that is our protection; this is our only protection.)
enRum mAmuni – as he is this much generous, he is always deeply deliberating about the protection of his devotees.
irAmAnusan – that is, emperumAnAr.
thAzhvu onRu illA maRai – vEdham not having any deficiency is about – bramam (mistaking one for other); pramAdham (forgetful); vipralambam (contradictions), etc.; purushapraNIthathvam (being created by someone); svaprAmANyE anya sApEkshathvam (having to refer to something else as source); anithyathvam (not existing at times/not lasting); and so on – none of these deficiencies are present in vEdhas.
maRai thAzhndhu – such vEdham got affected badly due to bAhya kudhrishtis (those not accepting vEdhas, and those giving wrong meanings to vEdhas), and due to the nature of kali yuga; kali cramped and tried to destroy the vEdha; (this is explained in length quoting vishNu purANam and srImath bhAgavatham); due to the badness of kali, it was walking in ways that should be rejected, and cornered and side tracked the vEdham.
thala muzhudhum kaliyE ALginRa nAL – Like how when light is hidden/removed, the darkness would surround and occupy the whole place, by the nature of this world that brings in darkness (ignorance), kali yuga was ruling alone this world; if time and place are right and amicable, then it would be possible to correct and protect; unlike that, the place was having multi-faceted enemies (of vEdhas), and time belonged to such people (so it was hard).
vandhu – during such terrible place and time, from Paramapadham he came as a blessing, as a divine incarnation in this world at srIperumbUthur
aLiththavan kANmin – he came so and protected everyone, please see! Meaning is that, all of you please understand that he is your protector, so surrender to him and live right. AzhvAr too said, ‘kaliyum kedum kaNdu koNmin [thiruvAimozhi 5.2.1] (~ Watch for it! kali’s effects will be destroyed!’).
From AzhwAr thirunagari srI U.Ve. vidhwAn thirumalai nallAn chakravarththi rAmakrishNa iyengAr’s ‘amudha virundhu’:
vEdhas ever present means that the sequence of words is always the same – during annihilation when it is present in the divine mind of emperumAn, and after it is passed as is to brahmA during his creation process;
arangar – unlike in his other pAsurams where he says ‘arangan’, here he says ‘arangar’ -> similar to ANdAL using the word ‘arangar’ during praNaya rOsham (upset with emperumAn due to separation).
arangar – can be considered as a plural of arangan; like how those who attained mukthi might assume different forms in order to do kainkaryam, here emperumAn due to his extreme love for ANdAL, is taking different forms to be with her – he came from the form of arangan of srIrangam to the form of vadaperum kOyil udaiyAn at srIvillipuththUr; so two of them;
This is followed by very detailed descriptions about emperumAn’s love for ANdAL, greatness of ANdaL, greatness of emperumAnAr due to his considering thiruppAvai as an upanishath, and getting the name of thiruppAvai jIyar, how emperumAnAr removed the darkness created by kali, and so on.
– – – – –
Translation: raghurAm srInivAsa dasan
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