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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Third Centum >> Fifth decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
van pEy mulai uNdadhOr vAy udaiyan van thUN ena ninRadhOr van paraththai
than pEr ittukkoNdu dharaNi thannil dhAmOdharan thAngu thada varai thAn
munbE vazhi kAtta musukkaNangaL mudhugil peydhu thammudaik kuttangaLai
kombu ERRi irundhu kudhi payiRRum gOvarththanam ennum koRRak kudaiyE
Word-by-Word Meanings
van pEy – cruel pUthanA
mulai – bosom (smeared with poison)
uNdadhu Or vAy udaiyan – one, who had a mouth, through which he had consumed
van paraththai – heavy weight [bearing it]
ninRadhu Or – one who stood
van thUN ena – like a strong pillar
than pEr – his name of gOvardhanan
ittukkoNdu – giving to that mountaiun
dharaNi thannil – on this land
dhAmOdharan – one who was obedient towards a herd-woman such that she could tie him down and beat him
thAngu – stood, holding
thada varai thAn – the huge mountain
musukkaNangaL – troops of [a type of] monkeys
munbE – already
vazhi kAtta – to show the manner of jumping from one branch to another branch
thammudaik kuttangaLai – their little ones
mudhugil – on their backs
peydhu – taking them
kombu – top of tree
ERRi irundhu – hoisting up
kudhi – to move from one part to another
payiRRum – it is the victorious mountain, called as gOvardhanam, where they were training
Simple Translation
krishNa has a divine mouth through which he consumed milk from the poisoned bosom of the cruel pUthanA. He is obedient towards a herd-woman [his mother, yaSOdhAPpirAtti] such that she could tie him down to a mortar and beat him up. He stood, bearing the mountain, which had his name of gOvardhana, like a strong pillar which was holding up a heavy weight. On that mountain, troops of a type of monkeys, were training their little ones in jumping from one branch to another and from one part of a tree to another part, carrying their little ones on their backs.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
van pEy mulai uNdadhOr vAy udaiyan – one, who had a mouth with which he consumed the bosom of a cruel fiend. What is the cruelty for the fiend? Despite seeing his [krishNa’s] infant age and his divine form, she had the cruelty of a hardened heart. Alternatively, the word cruelty could be considered as an adjective for the fiend’s bosom, due to the cruel nature of the poison on the bosom. It was the bosom on which poison had been loaded. The reason for saying Or vAy is that it was a unique mouth that consumed milk, tolerating that poison and annihilating her, through that mouth.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that this verse refers to krishNa having a mouth with which he consumed the bosom of the cruel fiend. It also refers to krishNa having a cruel mouth with which he consumed the bosom of the fiend. Cruelty for the fiend comes from the context of coming to kill krishNa herself, when kamsan could not harm krishNa and having a cruel heart to accomplish that task. It also refers to the cruelty of the bosom which was loaded with poison. Cruelty of the poison comes out of the fact that even if a drop of this poison drops on another fiend, that fiend will get killed. Cruelty of the divine mouth [of krishNa] is that if an unfavourable person gives even nectar, that person will get annihilated. That is his nature. Thus, when she came deveptively, in the garb of a favourable person [she came in the garb of yaSOdhAp pirAtti, krishNa’s mother], even though he had thought in his divine mind that he too will drink it, deceptively, his divine mouth would not tolerate it. Since the mouth did not tolerate it, it could be said that it was cruel. Or vAy – a unique, divine mouth. This distinguishes krishNa from the one [rudhra] who had also consumed poison, kAlakUta poison. This is because, rudhra had consumed different types of poison from a young age and it was at a mature age that he had consumed the kAlakUta poison, while krishNa consumed this poison when he was an infant, and this poison was such that even if a drop had fallen, it would have burnt a person.
van thUN ena ninRdhOr van paraththai – Just like a strong pillar which sustains a heavy weight. The word dhariththal, which refers to sustaining, is not seen in the verse; it has to be assumed here, to get the meaning.
than pErittuk koNdu – giving his name of gOvardhanan, to that mountain [the word gOvardhanan refers to one who nurtures cattle].
dharaNi thannil – this term distinguishes this land from other lands. In other words, unlike sathyalOkam, kailASam etc, where only entities such as brahmA, rudhra et al could see him, this incident happened on earth such that even lowly entities could see.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the place [where krishNa held the mountain] was distinguished from other places since it was only here that entities starting from herd-men and herd-women and ending with brahmA, rudhra et al could see it.
dhAmOdharan – One who was obedient towards his mother such that she could tie him down. Since the verse mentions about van pEy mulai uNdadhOr vAyudaiyan and dhAmOdharan, this signifies that krishNa annihilated one who came in the form of his mother and was obedient towards the mother who gave birth to him.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that there is a difference from other children who carried out the words of mother and were under mother’s control. yaSOdhAp pirAtti told krishNa, as mentioned in SrI vishNu purANam 5.9.15 “athi chanchala chEstitha” (very disturbing activities), daring him to go out and steal from others’ houses. He had held the gOvardhana mountain even before the wound on his divine stomach [where yaSOdhAp pirAtti had tied him with a rope] had healed. What a synchronisation is this with wound in the stomach, holding the mountain and at the stage of a child!
thAngu thada varai thAn – it was a huge mountain, sustained by one who was like this.
munbE … – In order to teach their younger ones the manner in which one should jump from one branch to another, the monkeys had already taken their littles ones on their backs to the top of the tree. They will then demonstrate the way of jumping from one place to another and teach that to the younger ones.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the leader among the monkeys, who was famous, showed the way to jump from one place to another, for the younger monkeys. Alternatively, this species of monkeys showed the way for all the different species of monkeys.
In the end, he says that through this verse, it is shown as to how our pUrvAchAryas adopted their disciples who they were affectionate with, making them to seek the padhathrayam [thirumanthram, consisting of three words] which is the essence of all the branches of vEdhams. Within this padhathrayam, they made the disciples to see the distinguished meanings of manthrathrayam [the three manthrams which establish the supremacy of SrIman nArAyaNa, namely ashtAksharam [manthram with eight syllables, praNavam, nama: and nArAyaNAya], shadaksharam [manthram with six syllables, praNavam, nama: and vishNavE] and dhvAdhaSAksharam [manthram with twelve syllables, praNavam, nama: and bhagavathE vAsudhEvAya]], through sacred texts such as Sruthi [vEdhams], smrithi [texts such as manu smrithi, yAgyavalkya smrithi etc, which were composed to explain the Sruthis], ithihAsa etc [epics , SrI rAmAyaNa and mahAbhAratha, which were composed to show examples of the enunciations in vEdhas]. The pUrvAchAryas, through the methods of pravruththi [what is to be followed] and nivruththi [what is to be avoided], demonstrated to their disciples to enable them to learn without any fault. It is this which is analogous to the activity of the monkeys in teaching their younger ones.
gOvarththanam ennum koRRak kudaiyE – since the mountain had grass and water with it all the time, it was nurturing cattle, leading to plentiful of cattle. Hence, it was called “gOvardhanam” [that which nurtures and multiplies cattle]. Since it was inverted fully and prevented any drop of water to fall on anyone, when it rained heavily [due to indhra’s anger], it is referred to as gOvardhanam ennum koRRak kudai [victorious umbrella called as gOvardhanam].
We shall next consider the 10th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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