SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Second Centum >> Fifth decad
avathArikai (Introduction)
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
pinnai maNALanaip pEril kidandhAnai
munnai amarar mudhal thani viththinai
ennaiyum engaL kudi muzhudhu AtkoNda
mannanai vandhu kuzhal vArAy akkAkkAy! mAdhavan than kuzhal vArAy akkAkkAy!
Word-by-Word Meanings
pinnai – for nappinnaip pirAtti
maNALanai – beloved
pEril – in the dhivyadhESam called as “thiruppEr”
kidandhAnai – one who is mercifully reclining
munnai amarar – for nithyasUris [permanent dwellers of SrI vaikuNtam]
mudhal – as their lord
thani viththinai – as the unique causative factor
ennaiyum – me
engaL kudi muzhudhu – all those who are in our clan, who have been without any fault for
seven generations
AL koNda – having as servitors
mannanai – one who is the king
vandhu – oh, crow! Coming in proximity, comb his divine locks
mAdhavan than – oh, crow! Comb the divine locks of Sriya:pathi (divine consort of SrI mnahAlakshmi)
(This pAsuram is recited, in a caressing manner, during combing the hair of children. In later pAsurams, since AzhwAr is going to mercifully say “uRRana pEsi nI Odith thiriyAdhE” and “piNdaththiraLaiyum pEykkitta nIrchchORum uNdaRku vENdi nI Odith thiriyAdhE”, we should consider these as being addressed to crow. The term akkAkkAy refers to common practice (of calling a crow)).
Simple Translation
krishNa is the beloved of nappinnaip pirAtti, mercifully reclining in the dhivyadhESam, thiruppEr. He is the lord of nithyasUris and is their unique causative factor. He is the king who has me and all those who have come in our clan, in the last seven generations, without any fault, as his servitors. Oh, crow! Come, in his proximity and comb his divine locks. Oh, crow! Comb the divine locks of SrIya:pathi.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
pinnai … – one who is the beloved of nappinnaip pirAtti. She alone is the principal consort of krishNa, in this avathAram [incarnation]. Just as the term SrIya: pathi denotes emperumAn’s eminence, being the beloved of nappinnaip pirAtti refers to his simplicity [she was born in the clan of herd-people].
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that being purushakAara bhUthai (one who recommends an AthmA to emperumAn for granting refuge] precedes prapaththi [act of surrendering to emperumAn]. Just as it has been mentioned in thiruvAimozhi 1-7-8 “pinnai nedum paNAitthOL magizh pIdudai” (one who has the greatness of embracing the well-rounded shoulders of nappinnaip pirAtti), this should be considered as being equivalent to the eminence of being SrIya: pathi.
pEril kidandhAnai – this denotes further simplicity, beyond his being the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti. The simplicity of archAvathAram [emperumAn dwelling in idol form in samsAram] is unlike his simplicity in incarnations [incarnation is for a limited time while archAvathAram remains forever]. Just as thirumangai AzhwAr mercifully said in his periya thirumozhi 5.9.8 “kombanAr pinnai kOlam kUdudhaRku ERu konRAn – then thiruppEr mEvum empirAn” (the beautiful thiruppEr dhivyadhESam is the place where emperumAn, who killed bulls in order to embrace the slender divine form of nappinnaip pirAtti, dwells fittingly), there is a connection between being the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti and reclining in thiruppEr. It was only to thiruppEr that krishNa came, along with nappinnaip pirAtti, after marrying her.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that it is due to nappinnaip pirAtti’s desire that he is reclining in thiruppEr.
munnai amarar … – this speaks about his eminence, which is the exact opposite of his quality of simplicity, mentioned just now. Just as it has been mentioned in purusha sUktham 18 “yathra pUrvE sAdhyA santhi dhEvA:” (He is the lord of nithyasUris, who have been there since time immemorial), he is the lord of nithyasUris, who have been at the forefront of bhagavadhanubhavam (experiencing emperumAn), being their lord and being the causative factor for their saththA (existence) as well as their dhAraka, pOshaka and bhOgyam (sustenance, nurturing and enjoyment respectively).
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that emperumAn carries out tasks for nithyasUris, much ahead of celestial entities. If he has to be the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti, he has to carry out the tasks of nithyasUris. This is his desire. For the term mudhal thani viththinai, thiruvAimozhip piLLai says that emperumAn is the thrividha kAraNam for this vibhUthi [He is the upAdhAna kAraNam (material cause), nimiththa kAraNam (efficient cause) and sahakAri kAraNam (expedient cause); in other words, just as a potter creates a pot using clay as the upAdhanam (material), himself as the nimiththam (one who carries out the task) and wheel and stick as sahakAri (ancillaries), emperumAn creates the world with himself as the material (without looking for any other material), with himself as the doer (without looking up to anyone else) and with himself as the sahakAri, without looking for any ancillaries]. Alternatively, the term thrividha kAraNam could also refer to his role as srushti kAraNam (cause for creation), sthithi kAraNam (cause for existence) and laya kAraNam (cause for destruction).
ennaiyum … – me, who cannot exist without being affectionate towards him and all the others who are in our clan for seven generations, carrying out servitude to him without any fault, in line with our svarUpam [basic nature].
thiruvAimozhip piLLai explains here as to what is fault for the clan. In the first syllable of thirumanthram (first among the three esoteric manthrams), three relationships are indicated – from the etymology, the first syllable ‘a‘ indicates protector. Thus, the first relationship between emperumAn and us is that of protector – protected. The second relationship indicates one of cause and effect. He is the cause and we are the effect. The third relationship indicates one of SEshi and SEshan – he is the lord and we are the servitors. Thus, fault for the clan is to forget these three relationships between emperumAn and us, and not carrying out mangaLASAsanam, befitting our basic nature.
mannanai – one who is the king.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that emperumAn has the status of being the lord of the clan which behaves in line with nammAzhwAr’s verse ALumALAr [he is the lord, but does not have anyone to carry out servitude to him]. AzhwAr’s clan is always looking forward to carrying out servitude to him and emperumAn is the lord of that clan.
vandhu kuzhal vArAy akkAkkAy – this the manner in which those who comb the locks of their children, recite as a pAsuram.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that once bath has been taken, the next activity is to comb the locks. The reason for emperumAn to make the samsAri to carry out prapaththi, with nappinnai and nithyasUris as purushakAram, is to create the flavour of mangaLASAsanam in the samsAri. Instead of knowing this, and carrying this out, the samsAri has been engaged in desiring and acquiring wealth and other worldly pursuits. These actions create entanglements in emperumAn’s divine locks [he is not happy with the samsAri pursuing other benefits]. AzhwAr calls upon removing these entanglements by combing emperumAn’s divine locks. For the term akkAkkAy, thiruvAimozhip piLLai says the following: The term kAkkai is a pretext. kAkkai would refer both to the bird, crow, and the action, protection [in thamizh, kAththal refers to protection]. AzhwAr transposes the action of protection onto a bird, crow, which has the ability to think and calls the bird to remove the entanglements in emperumAn’s divine locks, caused by the samsAri’s desires in worldly pursuits. While being the causative factor is the prerequisite of being the lord, for emperumAn, once the worlds are created, his engagement is focussed on protection only. Hence, AzhwAr indicates a higher level of respect for the word ‘protection’ which comes out of the etymology for the syllable ‘a’ in thirumanthram and calls out to the crow to come and remove the entanglements in emperumAn’s divine locks. AzhwAr says “It is only when the entanglements in emperumAn’s divine locks get removed that the dirt in your [reference here is to samsAris] heads will disappear”. Thus, he calls all the samsAris, who are like crows, to remove the entanglements in emperumAn’s locks, classify the three entities of chith, achith and ISvaran (entities which have ability to think, which do not have ability to think and the supreme entity of emperumAn, respectively) knowing their true nature, analyse them till the end [of his locks], remove the faults in his locks and keep them on your heads [here, the term fault refers to blaming emperumAn for all our sorrows; instead of blaming emperumAn for our sorrows, we have to take ownership for our actions and make us responsible for our actions and the resultant sorrows].
mAdhavan … – just as he is the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti, to manifest his quality of simplicity, he is the consort of SrI mahAlakshmi, manifesting his quality of eminence. Oh, crow! Comb the divine locks of such mAdhavan.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that emperumAn being mAdhavan (consort of SrI mahAlakshmi) is the reason for his becoming pinnai maNALan (the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti). Since he is mAdhavan, he is without any fault. It is not only that he is without any fault, he is also full of all the auspicious qualities. AzhwAr tells us not to look for faults in the auspicious qualities of emperumAn. When lakshmaNAzhwAn said, as in SrI rAmAyaNam kishkindhA kANdam 4-18 “sugrIvam nAtham ichchathi” (SrI rAma, who was earlier the lord of the entire world, is now accepting the lordship of sugrIvan) while introducing SrI rAma to hanuman, the presence of sIthAp pirAtti was missing for cementing the relationship. However, that fault was rectified earlier when SrI rAma accepted guha’s friendship in the presence of sIthAp pirAtti, as mentioned in periya thirumozhi 5-8-1 “un thOzhi umbiyembi” [accept this sIthAp pirAtti, who has the bewildered look of a doe, as your friend and my brother lakshmaNa, as your brother). In the same way, AzhwAr says that our fault will get removed if we surrender to emperumAn as pinnai maNALan (the consort of nappinnaip pirAtti). With that fault removed, AzhwAr tells us to come and remove the entanglement in emperumAn’s divine locks.
We shall next consider the 2nd pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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