SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavara munayE nama:
avathArikai (Introduction) – looking at her distressed condition, her mothers started taking efforts to understand what her disease is due to and to find a suitable remedy for it. She says “Being related to me alone is not enough for you, to know my disease”
Arkkum ennOy idhu aRiyalAgA(dhu) ammanaimIr! thuzhadhippadAdhE
kArkkadal vaNNan enbAn oruvan kaikaNda yOgam thadavath thIrum
nIrkkarai ninRa kadambai ERik kALiyan uchchiyil nattam pAyndhu
pOrkkaLamAga niruththam seydha poygaikkaraikku ennai uyththidumin
Word-by-Word Meanings
ammanaimIr! – Oh, mothers!
en – my
idhu nOy – this disease
Arkkum – whosoever it may be
aRiyal AgAdhu – is not possible to know
thuzhadhip padAdhE – without feeling sad (by carrying out some remedy)
nIr karai ninRa – on the bank of kALinga madu (a mound in the pond)
kadambai Eri – going atop kadamba (Indian oak) tree
kALiyan uchchiyil – on the hood of snake kALiyan
nattam pAyndhu – jumping, in the pose of a dance
pOrkkaLam Aga – making that pond as a battlefield
niruththam seydha – where the dance took place
poygai karaikku – on the bank of that pond
ennai uyththidumin – carry me
kArkkadal vaNNan enbAn oruvan – kaNNapirAn, who has the divine complexion of a bluish ocean
thadava – if he massages (with his divine hand)
thIrum – this disease will be cured
kaikaNda yOgam – this is the means which will give instantaneous result
Simple Translation
Oh, mothers! This disease of mine is difficult for anyone to know. Without feeling sad about carrying out remedial measures, carry me to the bank of the mound where kaNNapirAn had climbed atop a kadamba tree and jumped on the spread hoods of the serpent kALiyan in a dancing pose, and danced on that kALiyan to make the pond into a battlefield. If kaNNapirAn, who has the divine complexion of a bluish ocean, gently massages me with his divine hand, my disease will get cured. This is the means which will give instantaneous result.
vyAkyAnam (Commentary)
Arkkum ennOyidhu aRiyalAgAdhu – is it only for mothers like you? Even for emperumAn, who created this disease, it is not possible to estimate this disease. Did not nammAzhwAr too mercifully say in thiruvAimozhi 4-6-2 “idhu mikka perum dheyvam isaippinRi nIr aNangAdum iLandheyvam anRidhu” ([her disease] has been caused by sarvESvaran, who is the greatest among all. It has not been caused by the petty deity which you people are engaged with, which is not fitting to your nature)? kEnOpanishath 2-3 says “yasyAmatham thasya matham matham yasya na vEdha sa: avigyAtham vijAnathAm vigyAtham avijAnathAm” (brahmam (supreme entity) becomes known to that person who is not able to determine and know it. It is not known to one who thinks that he knows about it. [brahmam] is unknown to the knowledgeable and is known to the one who does not know). In this vEdhavAkyam (words from vEdham), emperumAn is included in the group of those who do not know about him! As mentioned in periya thirumozhi 5-2-1 “thAm tham perumai aRiyAr” (He, who is omniscient, does not know his greatness), when he does not know his own greatness, how will he know about the disease which he had created for me?
en nOy – could this disease, which is exclusively existing for me, come to you? SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 87-9 says “puthra vyAdhir na thE kachchith SarIram paribAdhathE l asya rAjakulasyAdhya thvadhadhInam hi jIvitham” (O, son [bharatha]! I hope that no ailment afflicts your body. Now, the life of this royal clan is indeed dependent on you). kausalyA, who raised this query of bharatha, was steady only and did not swoon, like bharatha did. She says “Oh, son! Your face has got drained of its colour. Looking at that, it is possible that SrI rAma would return, thinking that if he doesn’t return, he may lose you forever. For that to happen, you have to be alive. Anticipating that, this royal clan is dependent on your life”. The meaning for the first part of the SlOkam cited above is this: As soon as guhan, a boatman, said “SrI rAma, lakshmaNa and sIthAp pirAtti have gone to the other side of river gangA” bharatha swooned, just like alchemists will swoon upon getting a pellet. At that time, on behalf of the mothers, kausalyA asks bharatha “Oh son! Which disease is troubling you?” They did not realise that he had swooned due to separation from SrI rAma. They would be able to understand the reason for his bewilderment only if they too swooned due to separation from SrI rAma! It is not surprising that bharatha swooned in a country where trees were withering with their fruits and flowers due to separation from SrI rAma, as brought out in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam SlOkam 59-4 “vishayE thE mahArAja rAma vyasana karSithA: l api vrukshA: parimlAnA: sa pushpAnkura kOrakA: ll” (Oh king! In your kingdom, trees, suffering due to separation from Sri rAma, have withered with their flowers, buds and sprouts). Since bharatha was affected by something which didn’t affect them, kausalyA asked that query of bharatha, in the SlOkam cited above. ANdAL’s case of speaking about en nOy to her mothers is similar to that.
en nOy – just as it has been mentioned in thiruviruththam 53 “dheyva nannOy idhu” (the disease that she has, is a distinguished one, caused by SrIman nArAyaNan), since it has been created due to love for emperumAn, this is a disease which is desired by me.
ammanaimIr – just because you had given birth to me, would you know about my disease which happened to me?
ammanaimIr – since you are old, you are now counselling me to await his arrival. At a younger age, wouldn’t you too have been like me, with the urge to attain your goal?
thuzhadhip padAdhE – without suffering. thuzhadhi – sorrow. If you seek remedial measures for my disease through foretelling etc known to you, you may have to lose me, causing you sorrow.
Her mothers say “You may step back from protecting yourself. However, we will not withdraw from that. Even if you consider that we will not be able to take proper remedial measures ourselves, if you tell us the remedy which you think would be better for you, we will carry it out if you inform us”. She tells them further …
kArkkadal vaNNan enbAn oruvan – she says that only the one who has a divine form which is invigorating like the dark ocean, is tormenting her like this. Initially she points out to the person who is the root-cause for her disease and then says the remedy for it. Since they [her mothers] are bewildered at her condition, they have to listen from her the root-cause of her disease as well as the remedy.
oruvan – you could hear from me the remedy for my disease, but you would not be able to measure the eminence of the entity who is the root-cause for my condition.
kArkkadal vaNNan enbAn Oruvan – thadavath thIrum – only if he, who is the cause for my disease, strokes me, would my disease be cured. When asked “How did you find this out?” she says …
kaikaNda yOgam – this is the remedy that I have known already. yOgam – use of medicine. Alternatively, from the lexicon, “yOga: sannahanOpAya”, the term yOgam could refer to means. Thus, this could be construed as the means as seen by many people. She says “Do not think that this would not give result similar to various other words which did not fructify. This is the means which has been found out to be true by many”. What is the pramANam [authentic proof] for this? bhagavath gIthA 9-3 says “kshipram bhavathi dharmAthmA SaSvachchAnthim nigachchathi l kaunthEya! prathijAnIhi na mE bhaktha: praNaSyathi ll” ((one who attained me) becomes a great entity soon. He attains mOksham which is in a permanent state of peace. Oh arjuna! Take a vow that my devotee will not get ruined). To establish the fact that the followers of emperumAn will not be destroyed, did not kaNNan ask arjunan to take a solemn vow, as said in this? Did not emperumAnAr too, in his gIthA bhAshyam 9-2 say “kaunthEya thvamEvAsminnarthE prathigyAm kuru” (Oh, the son of kunthi! You take the pledge in this matter)? Through the term mE bhaktha: (my devotee) emperumAn indicates “Don’t you know my eminence?” For those who attain me, harm will never come their way. That harm will be similar to the SAsthra vAkyam “agninA sinchEth” (let it be wet by fire), something which will never come about. pEyAzhwAr too, in his mUnRAm thiruvandhAdhi 27 said “ArE thuyar uzhandhAr? thunbuRRAr ANdaiyAr? kArE malindha karum kadalai nErE kadaindhAnaik kAraNanai nIraNaimEl paLLi adaindhAnai nALum adaindhu”. The meaning for this is as follows: kAraNananai adaindhu ArE thuyar uzhandhAr – Among those who had taken refuge under emperumAn, just as it has been said in brahma vaivartham-prakruthi kaNdam 26-90 “avaSyam anubhOkthavyam krutham karma SubhASubham l nAbhuktham kshIyathE karma kalpakOti Sathairapi ll´ (The effects of deeds of vice and virtue, carried out by a person, have to be necessarily experienced. The effects cannot be wished away, even after passage of hundreds of crores of kalpam), is there anyone who, as the result of his sins, has gone away from emperumAn, and got immersed in the hell of samsAram? thunbuRRAr ANdaiyAr – Is there anyone, who, after carrying out offences during the course of his stay here, taking refuge under other deities, just as was done by entities as hiraNya, rAvaNa et al, had received punishment for that? The concise meaning of these two pramANams is that “After entering samsAram, carrying out sinful deeds, but after attaining emperumAn, there are only people who got uplifted, such as vibhIshaNa, prahlAdha et al, but none got destroyed like hiraNya kashyap, rAvaNa et al”. Even if people had been caught in the web of samsAram, due to the result of previously committed sins, after attaining him, sins will run helter-skelter, as mentioned in periyAzhwAr thirumozhi 5-4-3 “nAttiluLLa pAvamellAm summenAdhE kaivittOdith thURugaL pAyndhanavE” (sins of the people in the world, unable to breathe, hid themselves in the bushes) or emperumAn will shift these sins on the heads of the enemies of his followers just as he did when he changed the direction of his arrow, aimed at varuNa, on the heads of varuNa’s enemies or he would take the sins on himself, just as he did when he took the arrow, released by bhagadhaththan on arjuna, on his chest, as mentioned in mahAbhAratham SAnthi parvam33-18 “visrushtam bhagadhaththEna thadhasthram sarvaghAdhukam l urasA dhArayAmAsa (prathijagrAha) pArtham sanchAthya mAdhava: ll” (mAdhavan [emperumAn] took on his chest the arrow, which was shot by bhagadhaththan, which was capable of destroying everything, by hiding arjuna from it). Thus, his words “My devotee will not be destroyed” are infallible.
When they ask her as to what they should do for the remedy, she says …
nIrkkarai ninRa – uyththidumin – she tells them that instead of carrying out inappropriate remedies at the place where they are residing, leading to disastrous results, they should carry her to his place where she can sing pallANdu for him [carrying out mangaLASAsanam or wishing him well].
nIrkkarai ninRa kadambai ERi – he got atop the kadamba tree, which, having grown on the bank of the bank which had the poisonous serpent kALinga in it, had poison all over it. How much of fear is that creating in our minds! He let out an uproarious sound even as he jumped from the top of the tree to land on the spread hoods of kALiyan, waking him up in the bargain.
kALiyan uchchiyil nattam pAyndhu – even as he jumped, he made sure that his feet pressed on kALiyan’s head. Alternatively, this could be construed as falling head over heels, on kALiyan.
pOrkkaLamAga niruththam seydha poygaik karaikku – nampiLLai had told periyavAchchAn piLLai, about the explanation given by parASara bhattar for this verse: On hearing that kaNNan has gone to the mound where kALiyan had taken residence, all the people from thiruvAyppAdi ran to the bank of the pond, to prevent him from going there. Upon hearing “kaNNan has jumped on kALiyan’s head” people swooned in their respective place. Without anyone at the bank to prevent kaNNan from jumping on to kALiyan, the bank appeared like a battlefield, with corpses lying everywhere. nampiLLai would narrate another incident to establish that if people hear about a danger which had befallen someone they love, their lives should go off in a natural way and that they should not attempt to end their lives themselves – during the last days of emperumAnAr, his disciple ananthAzhwAn had come from thirumalai to see him. As he neared the northern bank [of river kAviri] he saw some of emperumAnAr’s disciples, with tonsured heads, saying “emperumAnAr has ascended to paramapadham” climbing up the northern bank. On hearing this, nambi guhadhAasar, who had come with ananthAzhwAn [to see emperumAnAr] started climbing up a tree nearby to kill himself by jumping from the tree. Hearing this, ananthAzhwAn told him “As soon as you heard that emperumAnAr is no more, you should have swooned dead, instantaneously. Instead of that, when you are clear enough to climb the tree to jump from there and die, you will not die even if you jump from there. Hence, come down from the tree”.
poygaik karaikku ennai uythidumin – the previous explanation for this verse was that ANdAL was asking her mothers to take her to the bank of the pond so that kaNNapirAn who has the complexion of an ocean could stroke her gently such that she could find the remedy for her disease. Alternatively, this could be construed as ANdAL telling them that instead of remaining here, with clarity, if she were carried to the bank of the pond, upon hearing the danger which came his way, she could also lose her consciousness and swoon, like the rest, on that bank.
Next, we will consider 6th pAsuram of this decad.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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