SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
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Introduction (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
amudhanAr talked about how unwanted ones got removed – in the previous pAsuram;
The agreeable one, which is service wished for in your divine feet – you yourself please enable my love towards that, says amudhanAr.
Introduction (given by piLLailOkam jIyar)
In the previous pAsuram, amudhanAr divined that he surrendered at the divine feet of the noble ones who would not (be able to) do any help to those who do not have the mind to surrender to emperumAnAr; and that due to that surrender he got the ties to his karmas removed, and lived without getting affected by the harshness of samsAram, and thus celebrated the glory of emperumAnAr whose effect extended up to the devotees of his devotees;
In this pAsuram – he longs to get love towards such divine feet ; ‘Oh emperumAnAr! who incarnated for the ones who are not based on vEdhas to be defeated, and who searched for in the whole earth and took to war against them, and kept looking for them, and drove away those whose philosophies do not accept vEdhas, and so having such highly developed intellect! Please give me at most love towards your divine feet’, thus so he directly requests emperumAnAr.
pidiyaith thodarum kaLiRenna yAn un piRangiya seer
adiyaith thodarumpadi nalga vENdum – aru samayach
chediyaith thodarum maruL seRindhOr sidhaindhOda vandhu ip
padiyaith thodarum irAmAnusA mikka paNdithanE 63
Listen
Word by word meaning (given by maNavALa mAmunigaL)
aRu samayam – the parts of six philosophies that did not accept vEdhas
chediyaith – and are spread like dense shrubs around plants
thodarum – (those who ) follow (such philosophies) obediently
maruL seRindhOr – such knowledge being flawed – having such flawed mind
sidhaindhu – to be lost
Oda – and run away scared
vandhu – (emperumAnAr) came, and
as said in ‘avar pin padarum guNan’ (having nature of following such (people and winning them),
ippadiyai – for taking in and accepting the people in this earth
thodarum – emperumAnAr looks for opportunity and goes after them, doing acts after understanding the nature of them,
mikka paNdithan – having gotten unbounded knowledge (and got his goal fulfilled),
irAmAnusA – Oh udaiyavar!
kaLiRenna – like a male elephant
pidiyai thodarum – which follows a female elephant at all times due to love towards it
and which cannot be stopped by anything,
nalga vENdum – please grace such that
yAn – I too
thodarum padi – get the inherent nature to follow
un – your highness’s
piRangiya – rich
adiyai – divine feet
seer – having qualities of elegance, tenderness, etc.,
kaLiRenna – means, being such that could be said as a male elephant. In the whole phrase, the emphasis is on prayer to emperumAnAr that amudhanAr be in love with emperumAnAr like how male elephant goes behind with full focus towards female elephant.
What if it is recited as ‘kaLiRanna’ ? – Then the emphasis would be on the female elephant that is amudhanAr; then prayer for getting the love would be of lower emphasis. So it is correct to keep it as ‘kaLiRenna’ only, where emphasis is in neither of the two elephants but on the prayer. That is the intent of amudhanAr.
piRangiya – glorious/bright. Also, piRangiya seer adi implies very beautiful divine feet; in that case piRangiya – very, and seer – beauty.
sedi – shrubs; maruL seRindhu – is the gathering (storm) of diminishing of knowledge;
When saying adiyaith thodarum padi, the word padi – means true nature;
nalgu – give;
Also as, please (nalgu ->) make me follow your divine feet.
vyAkyAnam
aRu samayach chediyai – Surrounded like with dense shrubs that are the six philosophies outside of vEdhas; Or, by aRu – the troubles that these philosophies give when starting to practice them; and, when using them as means, it includes sorrows like offering a goat cut, giving own head cut, doing thapas in the middle of five fires in the forest having rough terrain of stones and thorns, wearing ashes, defecation, etc.,
and in the case of reaching destiny, they say we would become like a stone, and such sorrows;
since these are spread in that way, they are philosophies that are tied together with such sadness;
thodarum maruL seRindhOr – those who have gotten into the depths of such dangerous philosophies which are poisonous even to look at; as said in ‘bahuSAkhA: ananthAScha bhudhdhaya: avyavasAyinAm [SrI bhagavath gIthA]’ (best way is to search for the true vision of AthmA (Athma sAkshAthkAram), rest of the efforts are insignificant/lowly), they are being wavering in their stands, and they follow such philosophies – having such badly affected minds;
sidhaindhu Oda – Like how animals would run away upon seeing a lion, emperumAnAr is such that those of other philosophies run away in fear with shattered hearts, upon seeing him;
vandhu ippadiyaith thodarum – he by himself came from paramapadham all the way down here, and in this earth he goes after and wage with armies against those philosophies; padi -> earth;
Or, as said in ‘avar pin padarum guNan’, for taking in the people of this world, and so goes after them looking for the right time;
irAmAnusA! – Oh (such) emperumAnAr!
mikka paNdithanE – Wow how great is the richness of your knowledge! – amudhanAr is joyful at that greatness, and calling him here.
From kALahasthi, saivaites came up to thirumalai and started to promote their very bad philosophy; at that time emperumAnAr went and won them, and they ran away defeated; near thirunArAyaNapuram, the jains had debated with him and went away defeated; after that as part of his victory trip he went seeking those of other philosophies from south to the himAchal mountain and so traveled to all parts of the world and by his scholarship won in sarasvathee peetam the ones who gave wrong meanings to vEdhas – these are all well known about emperumAnAr.
ALavandhAr who wished for all kinds of relationships towards nammAzhvAr
By amudhanAr’s calling of emperumAnAr – it seems like he is calling ‘emperumAnArE!’ to say that he has some something to request of emperumAnAr.
What is the request? amudhanAr specifies that below.
pidiyaith thodarum kaLiRenna yAn – due to immense love towards female elephant, the male elephant goes behind it, unstoppable by any distraction; like that male elephant, I had been going behind the material pleasures all these days; such lowly me.
Or, as said in ‘yA preethir avivEkAnAm vishayEshvanapAyinee | thavamanusmarathassAmE vishayAn nApasarppathu’ (prahlAdhan praying – towards whatever one should not have attraction towards, I was having attraction; please make me to be attracted towards you with such level of love) – it can be understood also as amudhanAr asking – please make me having such level of love towards you;
Saying ‘pidiyaith thodarum kaLiRenna’ is – like I could be said as a male elephant;
pidi – female elephant;
kaLiRu – male elephant;
padi – nature / behavior.
nalga vENdum – please grant me;
all these days I who had been roaming around like that, now,
nalga vENdum – please grant me
thodarum padi – the dawn of love and the nature of being always with you in love towards ..
un piRangiya seer adiyaith thodarum padi – .. the divine feet of yours, you who are having the purifying and other qualities that are driven and spread around the whole world;
please bless me to be like that (such elephant), (towards your divine feet).
If asked whether it is okay to say ‘pidiyaith thodarum kaLiRu’ – since ALavandhAr divines as ‘mAtha pithA yuvathaya:’ (nammAzhvAr is everything to me), it is acceptable to say this.
After perumAL (SrI rAmar) went to forest, chakravarthi (dhaSarathan), thinking about kausalyA, ‘how much she would be suffering now’, he felt very bad about that, and thinking about how kausalyA took great care of him, said ‘yadhA yadhAhi kausalyA dhASaIvachcha sakheevacha bhAryAvath bhagineevachcha mAthruvachcha upathishttathE [SrI rAmAyaNam]’ (kausalya is every kind of relationship to me). rishi also said similarly like this due to showing his love.
So it is acceptable for amudhanAr to say this.
From AzhwAr thirunagari SrI u.vE. vidhwAn thirumalai nallAn chakravarththi rAmakrishNa iyengAr’s ‘amudha virundhu’ :
By the word ‘thodaRum’ (follows), even when the female elephant is not looking at the male, he follows with determination due to unwavering and determined love; amudhanAr is praying to emperumAnAr to give him unwavering and determined love towards emperumAnAr;
Male elephant got the love after seeing the beautiful female elephant; for me, please help me get such love after you show the great qualities of your divine body, and after you let me see that. adi is adjective for the divine body.
mikka paNdithanE – paNdithan – learned; mikka -> of high level – having a sharp mind, that he made the other groups to debate among themselves by showing contradictions in each others’ arguments and got them to finish off each other in debates.
Finish the pAsuram saying, Oh emperumAnAr! please grant me following of your divine feet.
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