SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
emperumAn tells AzhwAr “Oh AzhwIr! I am not aware of all these matters which you are saying” to which AzhwAr responds saying “Oh emperumAn! Then, who else carried out all these activities!”.
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
nIyanRE nIrERRu ulagam adi aLandhAy
nIyanRE ninRu nirai mEyththAy niyanRE
mAvAyuram piLandhu mAmarudhinUdu pOyth
thEvAsuram porudhAy seRRu
Word by Word Meanings
nIr ERRu – accepting water as symbolic of alms (from mahAbali)
ulagam – all the worlds
adi aLandhAy nI anRE – was it not you who measured with your divine feet?
ninRu – being focussed on protection
nirai – herds of cows
mEyththAy nI anRE – was it not you who grazed them?
mA – the demon kESi who came in the form of a horse
vAy uram – the strength of his mouth
piLandhu – destroying it
mA marudhin Udu pOy – going between the twin arjuna trees and uprooting them
dhEvAsuram – in the war between celestial and demonic entities
seRRu – destroying (the demons)
porudhAy nI anRE – was it not you who waged the war!
vyAkyanam
nIyanRE nIr Erru ulagam adi aLandhAy – was it not you who went as a mendicant to mahAbali to take as alms the worlds which are your possessions, stretched out your hand to accept water that he poured, and measured the worlds with your divine feet! Did I carry out this task? Or did indhra carry out this?
nIyanRE ninRu nirai mEyththAy – was it not you who incarnated as krishNa [in the clan of cowherds] and followed the cows with a stick in hand in order to graze them! Did I carry out this activity or did someone else do this?
nIyanRE mAvAy uram piLandhu – was it not you who tore the mouth of kESi, the demon, who came in the form of a horse! (mA vAy uram piLandhu – he tore the mouth of kESi such that the strength of the mouth was demolished) That he carried out that task effortlessly when he went to graze the cows is mentioned here.
mAmarudhin Udu pOy – when two demons, yamaLa and arjuna, stood in the form of two huge arjuna trees, you crawled in between the two trees and uprooted them, thus escaping from that danger too.
dhEvAsuram porudhAy seRRu – was it only the insentient entities that you destroyed? Did you not destroy the sentient enemies too? When a war broke out between the celestial and demonic entities, was it not you who engaged in the battle, destroying the demons? But then, is it not mentioned that it was only Siva who burnt the three towns? It does not appear that way to AzhwAr. Just as it is mentioned in mahAbhAratham karNa parvam 29 “vishNurAthmA bhagavatha: bhavasyAmitha thasmAth thanurjyAsamsarkkam sa vishEhE mahESvara:” ((during the time of burning the three towns) vishNu remained as antharAthmA (the indwelling soul) of Siva, who has unlimited radiance and is venerable. It is because of this that Siva had the capability to draw the bow), since emperumAn is the antharyAmi (indwelling soul) of all entities, it was emperumAn who carried out this task too, says AzhwAr.
We will take up the 49th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
archived in https://divyaprabandham.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – https://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – http://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – http://acharyas.koyil.org
SrIvaishNava education/kids portal – http://pillai.koyil.org