SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> First Centum >> Eighth Decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that krishNa should come with the divine mole on his divine chest.
kaNda kadalum malaiyum ulagu Ezhum
muNdaththukku ARRA mugil vaNNA O! enRu
iNdaich chadai mudi Isan irakkoLLa
maNdai niRaiththAnE! achchO achchO mArvil maRUvanE! achchO achchO
Word-by-Word Meanings
iNdai – being dense
sadai mudi – having matted hair
Isan – rudhran
kaNda – “those which are seen
kadalum – oceans
malaiyum – mountains
Ezhu ulagum – seven worlds (even if all these are attempted to fill-up)
muNdaththukku – for the cranium which is in my hand
ARRA – are insufficient
O! mugil vaNNA! – oh, one who is like a cloud when it comes to being magnanimous”
enRu – crying out like this, in line with his grief
irak koLLa – as he sought
maNdai – (that) cranium
niRaiththAnE! – oh, one who filled it! You should embrace me
mArvil – on your divine chest
maRuvanE – oh, one who has SrIvaths (divine mole)! You should embrace
Simple Translation
rudhran, who has densely matted hair and who was carrying a begging bowl, in the shape of cranium, lamented “Even if the oceans, mountains, all the worlds, which are seen, are attempted to fill-in, the cranium in my hand is not getting filled up.” Looking up to emperumAn, he pleaded “Oh, one who is like the cloud in your magnanimity! You should help me”. Oh, one who filled up that cranium! You should embrace me. Oh, one who has a divine mole on your divine chest! You should embrace me.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
kaNda …– even if I attempt to fill the cranium in my hand with the oceans, mountains and the seven worlds which are seen, they are not sufficient to fill it up.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here: just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 3-2-1 “munnIr gyAlam padaiththa mugil vaNNanE” (Oh, one, who is having the divine complexion similar to a cloud! You had created the world with oceans), the oceans, mountains and the worlds which you had created.
muNdam – cranium. This implies that despite roaming around, seeking alms, he is unable to fill up the cranium. Alternatively, even if he went around seeking alms in all these places [oceans, mountains, worlds], he was unable to fill up the cranium.
mugil vaNNA – Oh, one who has the magnanimity of cloud which pours rain without distinction between ocean and land! This implies that apart from emperumAn, there is none who is capable of filling up the cranium.
O! enRu – calling, manifesting his grief
iNdai … – rudhran, who has densely plaited, matted hair and who has the ego of being ISvaran (one who controls everything). This speaks about the fact that his ISvarathvam (the quality of being ISvaran) came about due to the power of his penance [only people who carry out penance will have matted hair] and his egoistic nature.
irakkoLLa – just as it has been mentioned in mAthsya purANam 182-87 “thathra nArAyaNa SrImAn mayA bhikshAm prayAsitha:” (nArAyaNan, who was with pirAtti [SrI mahAlakshmi], was beseeched by me for alms), rudhra sought for alms, from emperumAn, with sorrowfulness. The term irakkoLLa is considered as a single word.; to seek alms.
maNdai niRaiththAnE – rudhran tells his consort, pArvathi, as mentioned in mAthsya purANam – 182 “vishNu prasAdhAth suSrONi kapAlam thath sahasrathA – sputitham bahudhAyAtham svapna labdham dhanam yathA” (just as wealth seen in one’s dream disappears when the person wakes up, the cranium, which I had in my hand, with the mercy of vishNu, broke into a thousand pieces and disappeared), the cranium broke into smithereens, without anyone knowing the way in which it disappeared. Just as it has been said in thiruchchandha viruththam 42 “URu senguridhiyAl niRaiththa” (filling up with secreting reddish blood), oh, one who filled up that cranium with reddish blood!
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 2-2-2 “araRkup pichchai pey gOpAla kOLari” (Oh, one who is like a lion among the cowherd people, who offered alms to rudhran), oh, one who filled the cranium held by rudhran!
mArvil maRuvanE – Oh, one who has the divine mole on your divine chest, as an indication of your being the supreme lord of all! You should embrace me. Alternatively, instead of muNdaththukku ARRA, if the text had been uNdaththukku ARRA, for the term kaNda kadalum … – the meaning would be: after being cursed by brahmA, rudhran had gone wandering around the oceans, mountains, various worlds etc in order to get the cranium on his hand to be filled up. Just as it has been mentioned in irAmAnusa nURRandhAdhi “mudaiththalai Un” (eating from the foul-smelling cranium), in order to rid himself of eating from the foul-smelling cranium, rudhran, who has matted hair and the pride that he is ISvaran, appealing to emperumAn’s quality of magnanimity, cried out mugil vaNNA O. Since you [referring to emperumAn] knew that there was none other than you who would be a refuge for such rudhran, you filed up his cranium out of your mercy, just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 2-2-2 “ararkkup pichchai pey gOpAla kOLari”.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the pAsuram has to be rearranged as iNdaichchadai mudi Isan ARRAdhu irakkoLLa, kadalum malaiyum uNda kadal vaNNA O enRadhukku – maNdai niRaiththAnE to get the correct sequence of meaning. He further explains this saying that the garb of carrying out penance, with the hair matted, and being the lord of all would not synchronise in one form [the form of rudhran]. rudhran had been sorrowful for a long time, after thinking through his vanity that he was the controller of all. He went to emperumAn and pleaded with him “No one supports me”. It was after this that he was told as in “mOha SAsthrANi kAraya” (you could attract people through the text of bewilderment). Through that, with the divine will of emperumAn, he started controlling those who became followers of that text, and that he would remain as ISvaran [one who controls his followers] until his matted hair loosens up [until deluge].
ARRAdhu irakkoLLa – apart from seeking alms everywhere and finding that the cranium in his hand was not getting filled-up, during the time that emperumAn swallowed the oceans, mountains and the seven worlds, he [rudhran] too went into emperumAn’s divine stomach and got spat out during the next cycle of creation. Since he was one inside the divine stomach of emperumAn and had been spat out, isn’t it strange that his name is Sivan (that which is auspicious)? Feeling embarrassed with his deed of destruction, he calls emperumAn as mugil vaNNA O, in order to get liberated from his form. It was for this reason that emperumAn filled up his cranium, since he would not be a protector if he had not protected rudhran. The term adhu in muNdaththukku has got changed to aththu (muNdhaththu). Both aththu and ku (the last syllable in muNdaththukku) are fillers and express outwardly the sympathy inside the heart. emperumAn’s act of filling up the cranium indicates that the seeking of alms by rudhran was not the means to get the cranium to be filled up, but it was emperumAn’s mercy. This is brought out clearly in thiruvAimozhi 2-2-2 “aruLAl aLippAr Ar” (Who will give, out of mercy?) Just as gajEndhrAzhwAn had appealed to emperumAn when caught by the crocodile, as mentioned in siRiya thirumadal “nArAyaNA O” since he did not know of any other means by which he could overcome his sorrow, rudhran is calling out to emperumAn as mugil vaNNA O.
We shall next consider the 10th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
archived in https://divyaprabandham.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – http://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – http://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – http://acharyas.koyil.org
SrIvaishNava education/kids portal – http://pillai.koyil.org