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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Third Centum >> Seventh decad
avathArikai
thiruvAimozhip piLLai, in his svApadhESam, says that even if the friends try to separate her from krishNa, she was unable to let go of him.
nAdum Urum aRiyavE pOy nalla thuzhAy alangal
sUdi nAraNan pOm idam ellAm sOdhiththu uzhi tharuginRAL
kEdu vENduginRAr palar uLar kEsavanOdu ivaLaip
pAdu kAval idumin enRu enRu pAr thadumARinadhE
Word-by-Word Meanings
nAdum – people in the places surrounding thiruvAyppAdi
Urum – those who are in thiruvAyppAdi
aRiya – such that they know
pOy – leaving the house, and going out
nalla – having green colour
thuzhAy alangal – thuLasi garland
sUdi – wearing
nAraNan – krishNa
pOm idam ellAm – places where he roams
sOdhiththu – searching
uzhi tharuginRAL – she is roaming
kEdu – harm (for this clan)
vENduginRAr – those who desire
palar uLar – there are many people
(Hence)
kEsavanOdu – with krishNa, who has eminent locks
ivaLai – she, who is roaming behind him
pAdu kAval idumin – keep her safely, with him
enRu enRu – saying this, many times
pAr – favourable people in the world
thadumARinadhu – was reeling
Simple Translation
Wearing a garland of fresh thuLasi, she went searching for krishNa, in all the places where he used to roam, with the people in the places surrounding thiruvAyppAdi as well as those who are in thiruvAyppAdi, knowing about it. There are many persons who desire harm for this [the girl’s] clan. Those, in the world, who are favourable to her, are repeatedly saying “Keep her safely, along with krishNa, who has eminent locks” and are reeling in their hearts.
vyAkhyAnam (Commentary)
nAdum Urum aRiayavE pOy – she left the house, with love towards him, such that not only did her close relatives know about it, but even those in thiruvAyppAdi and those who were in places surrounding thiruvAyppAdi knew about it.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that just as periyAzhwAr had said in thiruppallANdu 4 “nAdu nagaramum nangu aRiya” (for those living both in the countryside and in cities, to know well about emperumAn), people around thiruvAyppAdi as well as those in thiruvAyppAdi knew about this. Alternatively, instead of one or two who come looking for [here the term nAdum is taken to refer to those who come looking for], all the people in the place knew about this.
nalla thuzhAy alangal sUdi – donning a garland of thuLasi, which had got wrinkled during union
nAraNan … – Since the places roamed around by krishNa, who is also called as nArAyaNan, are many, she went to the places which he used to visit, with a desire to see him. In other words, she searched for him in places where he would graze cows, where he would mingle with herd-girls, where he would play etc.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that the term nArAyaNan has got transformed as nAraNan. This has been done due to the prominence of the meaning of the term [emperumAn]. Even when the complete word is considered [nArAyaNan], it refers to the (1) qualities of the necessary identifying attributes of emperumAn [such as sathyam gyAnam anantham brahma, which refers to his permanent existence, his unblemished knowledge, his being without an end etc], (2) auspicious qualities of emperumAn such as vAthsalyam, saundharyam, mArdhavam etc [motherly forbearance, beauty, tenderness respectively], (3) wealth of emperumAn [composed of both nithya vibhUthi and leelA vibhUthi [SrI vaikuNtam and samsAram, respectively). These qualities would still be present since they are always together with emperumAn, irrespective of whether he is called as nArAyaNan or nAraNan and shine brightly. pOmidam ellAm sOdhiththu – when krishNa was roaming, playing on the divine flute, the herd-girls followed him, through his footsteps. When they could not locate him, they returned, enacting his activities. Unlike those girls, she [the daughter, mentioned in this pAsuram], went to the places which he [krishNa] would have thought of going, ahead of him. Unlike sIthAp pirAtti, who had said as in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam “agrathasthE gamishyAmi” (I will go ahead of you) that she will go ahead of SrI rAma [and remove all the thorns and stones in the path to facilitate SrI rAma’s journey], this girl went to the places where krishNa would frequent and waited for him there, roaming around, in those places.
kEdu vENduginRAr palar uLar – unable to tolerate the eminence of this clan, there are many people who think “We should see some blemish to come to this family”
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that there were people who did not want to see the union of perumAL and pirAtti and the affection that pirAtti had towards perumAL. Apart from EkAyanar [these are people who worship and attain only nArAyaNan, and would not think of pirAtti], there were also those who thought of harming emperumAn and who harmed him, as mentioned in periyAzhwAr thirumozhi 2.3.10 “kanjan kadiyan” (kamsan was cruel towards krishNa) and in SrI rAmAyaNam AraNya kANdam 6.16 “EhipaSya SarIrANi” (this refers to the words of sages who were in the dhaNdaka AraNyam when SrI rAma came with sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNAzhwAn during his exile from ayOdhyA and told him about their sufferings at the hands of demons there; this was the start of the sequence of events leading to separation of pirAtti from perumAL].
kEsavan … – this being the case, instead of allowing her to roam behind him, being attracted by his distinguishing features, you take her yourself and keep her safely, near him. In other words, take her to a place which is private to him and keep her there, safely.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that while she was young in terms of her age, she was well matured in terms of her thinking. While her locks have grown well and are dark, her mother says that her locks have not grown to the extent where they could be gathered together and plaited. pAdukAval – safety. In other words, keeping her safely. Since there are many people who wish to see harm fall on the clan, her mother is keen on uniting her with krishNa. The relatives too say that instead of going ahead and searching for him at various places, and unlike the manner in which sIthAp pirAtti had told SrI rAma, as in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 30.3 “sthriyam purusha vigraham” (when SrI rAma refused to take sIthAp pirAtti with him to the forest, she told him that her father would think that he had given away his daughter in marriage to a lady who was in a man’s attire, inferring that she would always be with him, without separating], instead of letting her to go to various places in search of krishNa, they would suggest to the mother to take her daughter to the private quarters of krishNa and keep her safely there such that even after attaining him, she does not go away from him again.
enRu enRu pAr thadumARinadhE – people in the world, who are favourable to this family and who are unable to see any blemish coming to this family, said this repeatedly, reeling in their hearts [about the possible blemish which could come].
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that some mothers, looking at the way this girl was going without being under the control of her mother, would think “We too have sired daughters. Will our family too have a blemish because of her?” They will also be reeling under sorrow on account of this. The mother thinks that her worries as well as the worries of her relatives will be identical.
In the end, he says the following: the search for krishNa could go up to SrI vaikuNtam, and go even further beyond that such as thiruvazhudhi nAdu [present day AzhwAr thirunagari] and thirumalli vaLanAdu [present day SrI villibuththUr]. This refers to seeking those who are living in divine abodes of emperumAn and are desirous of reaching SrI vaikuNtam. Instead of going for svarUpAnurUpa purushArtham [going for benefit, aligned to our basic nature of being SEshabhUthan or servitor] it is superior to go for vishayAnUrUpa purushArtham [looking at the distinction of the refuge, emperumAn, and go for that benefit] [the former demands that we wait for emperumAn to take us under him and the latter demands that we forget our nature and go towards emperumAn ourselves]. In this mode, we celebrate SrI vaishNavas who are good at heart [in uniting us with emperumAn] and go after the one who has eminent locks, viz kESavan, who is also referred to as gOvindhan without any shortcoming, instead of going after one who has insignificant name [such as nArAyaNan]. This is similar to the one who went behind emperumAn saying, as in SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 31.25 “aham sarvam karishyAmi” (I will do all the servitude to you, without leaving out anything, referring to lakshmaNa telling SrI rAma that he would like to go with SrI rAma to the forest and carry out servitude to him and to pirAtti) and to those who are referred to as sayug [those who reach emperumAn and carry out servitude to him, in SrI vaikuNtam, enjoying along with emperumAn and carrying out service to him, after the enjoyment, realising their basic nature]. palar uLar – there are many people, who do not desire to see such servitude. Are there that many people who are like this? If they are absent, will not the vaitharaNi mArgam [the path leading to narakam, or hell] become non-existent? This implies that there are people who indulge in annihilation of their basic nature and become entities such as a stone or rock, not knowing when they will be born again. This pAsuram confirms that it is appropriate to attain an AchArya who is an expert in his knowledge about emperumAn and to engage with emperumAn, based on the AchAryan’s words or thinking about the great benefit showered by the AchArya [in imparting knowledge about emperumAn] with gratitude and that going after emperumAn on one’s own is incorrect [the path chosen by the girl, in the pAsuram]. The word, lOkam, world, refers to those who are eminent. Since they always abide by the proper relationship between an AchArya and a disciple, the world cannot sustain without this knowledge. This causes wavering in the mind [reeling in the minds of those who look at the girl, as mentioned in this pAsuram]. Those who do not have knowledge about this proper relationship and who do not follow it, will come to grief due to the fault in their thinking. This is brought out well in samarpaNa vAkhyam [thirumanthram, the first among the three esoteric manthrams in our sampradhAyam, which tells us that we do not belong to us and that we belong to emperumAn and through him, to his followers, as mentioned in the middle term nama:].
We shall next consider the 6th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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