SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
Is there any place which is not his? Is there any activity that he has not carried out for his followers? That being the case, what is special about thirumalai? AzhwAr says that unlike other places, emperumAn has come to this place with lot of affection and has made it his permanent dwelling place and this speciality is exclusive to thirumalai.
Let us first go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
idandhadhu bhUmi eduththadhu kunRam
kadandhadhu kanjanai mun anja kidandhadhuvum
nIrOdha mA kadalE ninRadhuvum vEnkatamE
pErOdha vaNNar peridhu
Word by Word Meanings
pEr Odham vaNNan – emperumAn having the complexion of a large ocean
mun – in earlier times
idandhadhu – (in varAha form) dug out
bhUmi – was the earth
eduththadhu – held as umbrella
kunRam – was the gOvardhana hill
anja kadandhadhu – destroyed through fear
kanjanai – was (king) kamsa
kidandhadhuvum – reclined
nIr Odham mA kadal – ocean which is full of water and which keeps throwing up waves
peridhu ninRadhuvum – stood always
vEnkatamE – only at thiruvEnkatam
vyAkyAnam
idandhadhu bhUmi – when the world drowned during deluge, emperumAn took the form of varAha (wild boar) and dug out the earth.
eduththadhu kunRam – when indhra (lord of celestial people) became angry [on being denied food] and created hailstorm, emperumAn lifted the gOvardhana hill like an umbrella and stopped the hailstorm, thus protecting the cowherds.
kadandhadhu kanjanai mun anja – in earlier times when kamsa tried to destroy krishNa, he made kamsa to shiver on merely seeing him and killed him.
kidandhadhuvum nIr Odham mA kadalE – as the origin of these incarnations, emperumAn reclined on thiruppARkadal (the milky ocean) which has large amount of liquid and throws up waves.
During each of these incarnations, very few people only were able to see him and enjoy him. Unlike that, he came to thiruvEnkatam to be seen and enjoyed by everyone at all the times.
pErOdha vaNNar peridhu ninRadhuvum vEnkatamE – emperumAn who has the complexion of large ocean with agitating waves, does not return to paramapadham after his incarnations but goes to thiruvEnkatam to take permanent residence, with full desire. Just as he himself has divined in SrI bhagavath gIthA 4-8 “parithrANAya sAdhUnAm vinASAya cha dhushkruthAm, dharma samsthApanArththAya sambhavAmi yugE yugE” (in every yugam, I incarnate myself in order to protect the good people, destroy the bad people and to establish righteousness), his incarnations are only to remove the dangers that could occur to his followers. But is it not true that thiruvEnkatam is such that he comes ahead and stays there so that it will prevent dangers that would set in, in future! There is not a deed that emperumAn has not carried out for our sake, with immeasurable love. But, we [the samsAris] do not have real involvement in anything. While professing that we enjoy him, we relish food. But we do not have total involvement even in that. We observe fast on some days because we do not like that food. We like women. But on occasions, we forget them too and play games like chathurangam (modern day chess) or sleep, as a pastime. We do not have real love towards anything. This is a major difference between him and us.
idandhadhu bhUmi eduththadhu kunRam kadandhadhu kanjanai mun anja – he overcame the danger that befell earth during deluge; he removed the danger due to hailstorm; he removed the danger due to kamSan too. He reclined on his thirupARkadal after completing incarnations so that he could rest awhile and be alone for some time. We can see the beauty of his digging out bhUmi which got drowned during deluge; the beauty when he lifted the gOvardhana hill as an umbrella; the beauty which came as a victory upon destroying kamSan; the beauty of his reclining in thirupARkadal – all these beauty can be seen together at thiruvEnkata hills, in the divine form of thiruvEnkatavan.
We shall next take up the 40th pAsuram.
adiyEn krishNa ramanuja dhAsan
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