SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavara munayE nama:
avathArikai (Introduction)
In the previous pAsuram, AzhwAr said nAgamUrthi sayanam and earlier, in pAsuram 15, he had said thadam kadal paNaththalaich chengaNAgaNaikkidandha, while describing the reclining posture of emperumAn in thiruppARkadal (milky ocean), as a prelude to his incarnations. Immediately, AzhwAr’s mind went towards emperumAn. Just as it has been said in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 1-7 “sa hi dhEvair udhIrNasya rAvaNasya vadhArththibhi: l arthithO mAnushE lOkE jajgnE vishNu: sanAthana: ||” (vishNu, who is ancient and who was prayed to by celestial entities who desired annihilation of the demon rAvaNa, was born in the world of humans), even though there is no necessity for celestial entities to pray to you just as they do for you to incarnate and remove their hurdles, who is going to know your greatness of resting in enemy land with your qualities of beauty etc and come to you for getting their deeds to be done?
vidaththa vAyorAyiram irAyiram kaN vendhazhal
viduththu vIzhvilAdha bOgam mikka sOdhi thokka sIr
thoduththu mEl vidhAnamAya pauvanIr arAvaNai
paduththa pAyal paLLi koLvadhu enkolO vElai vaNNanE
Word-by-Word Meanings
vElai vaNNanE – Oh one who has the complexion of blue coloured ocean!
vidaththa – having poison
vAy orAyiram – having thousand mouths
irAyiram kaN – with two thousand eyes
vem – cruel
thazhal – poisonous fire
viduththu – letting out
vIzhvu – separation from emperumAn
ilAdha– not having
bOgam – having enjoyability (having divine form)
mikka – in abundance
sOdhi – being with radiance
mEl vidhAnamAya – in the hoods which are like a canopy
thokka – being dense
sIr – beauty
thoduththu – fastened well
pauvanIr – in thiruppARkadal (milky ocean)
paduththa – spread out
arAvaNai – thiruvananthAzhwAn
pAyal – on his mattress
paLLikoLvadhu – this posture of reclining
enkol – for what?
Simple Translation
Oh one who is having the complexion of blue coloured ocean! You are reclining on the divine form of thiruvananthAzhwAn (AdhiSEshan) who has a thousand heads which emit poison and two thousand eyes which emit poisonous fire. He does not have separation from you and has dense beauty in abundance which is fastened well in his hoods which are like a canopy. For what purpose are you reclining on him?
vyAkyAnam (Commentary)
vidaththa vAy orAyiram – having a thousand mouths which emit poison
irAyiram kaN vendhazhal viduththu – emitting cruel fire through two thousand eyes. AdhiSEshan is always enjoying the presence of emperumAn who is reclining on him. Why then did he get this cruelty arising out of anger? This is because of his doubt “emperumAn is reclining in this samsAram which is inhabited by demons and monsters. What difficulties will come his way here?” AdhiSEshan enjoys emperumAn due to his insatiable affection for emperumAn. In the same way, the hatred and anger towards inimical entities came out of this affection for emperumAn. By recalling this, AzhwAr feels satisfied that “emperumAn is resting well on thiruvanandhAzhwAn, well protected by him such that wicked people cannot approach emperumAn”
vIzhvilAdha bOgam – having a very sweet divine form which comes about because of emperumAn’s embrace and due to which he cannot separate from emperumAn. ALavandhAr, one of our important preceptors, in his sthOthra rathnam 39 says “thayA sahAsInam anantha bhOgini” (one who has mercifully sat along with periya pirAtti on the divine form of thiruvanandhAzhwAn). His divine form is referred to as bhOgam in this SlOkam too. Thus, just as he protects emperumAn through his Athma guNas (auspicious qualities of AthmA) of needless doubt and anger arising out of that doubt, ananthAzhwAn is dear to emperumAn through his divine form too.
mikka sOdhi – due to carrying out kainkaryam (services) to you and enjoying, he gets an unparalleled radiance.
thokka sIr thoduththu mEl vidhAnamAya – the words should be rearranged as mEl vidhAnamAya thokka sIr thoduththu to get the meaning of “In the canopy of hoods, gathering the dense beauty”. thokku – dense; sIr – beauty. In the earlier part, the enjoyability which resulted for emperumAn due to AdhiSEshan’s contact was mentioned. Here, it describes the way emperumAn is reclining on AdhiSEshan, enjoying the beauty of his hoods which are with different complexions, along with the comfortable joy of experiencing his contact as mentioned in the earlier part.
pauva nIr arAvaNaip paduththa pAyal – apart from reclining on the ocean appropriate to his soft, divine form, emperumAn is reclining on the mattress of thiruvanandhAzhwAn so that even the irritation arising out of the ocean will not cause him any discomfort.
paLLi koLvadhu enkol – for what purpose are you reclining? Did you do this because brahmA et al prayed to you saying “You should recline here so that you could protect us during our times of danger”? The implied meaning here is that emperumAn is reclining here even when none prayed to him to do so, in order to help them when danger encircles them.
vElai vaNNanE – did you recline with the complexion of bluish sea, on the white coloured (milky) ocean so that some people will know about it and attain you to enjoy it? The implied meaning is that celestial entities approach him only to beseech him to destroy their enemies and not to enjoy his beauty.
The purpose of mentioning his reclining on thiruvanandhAzhwAn was not to remove the doubt of “Is there no one to carry out service for him?” but to make it appear that he is always alert to hear the voice of samsAris such as brahmA et al who come to him when they are hindered by demons.
We will next take up the 19th pAsuram of this prabandham
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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