SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:
periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Fourth Centum >> Third decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
eri sidhaRum saraththAl ilangaiyinai thannudaiya
varisilai vAyil peydhu vAykkOttam thavirththu ugandha
araiyan amarum malai amararodu kOnum senRu
thirisudar sUzhum malai thirumAlirum sOlai adhE
Word-by-Word meanings
amararodu – along with celestial entities
kOnum – indhran, who is their lord
thiri – traversing both during night and day
sudar – chandhra and sUrya [moon and sun]
senRu – coming
sUzhum – circumambulating
malai – as the mountain, it is the same thirumAlirum sOlai
eri – fire
sidhaRum – scattering
saraththAl – with arrow
ilangaiyinai – rAvaNa, who is the lord of lankA
thannudaiya – his
vari – long
silai – SrI SArngam, the divine bow
vAyil peydhu – keeping on its mouth [keeping on the chord]
vAyk kOttam – the arrogance of his mouth which said “I will not bow”
thavirththu – removing it
ugandha – one, who was happy, in his divine mind
araiyan – one, who is the king
amarum – residing, in a fitting manner
malai – it is the divine mountain
Simple Translation
SrI rAma kept the arrow, which was spitting fire, on the chord of his divine bow, SrI Sangam, which was long, and removed the arrogance of rAvaNa, who said “I will not bow”. He became happy in his divine mind, with that. thirumAlirum sOlai is the divine mountain where he, who is the king, resides aptly. It is the mountain where indhran, who is the lord of celestial entities, along with his celestial entities, as well as with chandhran and sUryan, who keep traversing night and day, circumambulates.
vyAkhyAnam
erisidhaRum saraththAl – with the arrow, which is spitting fire. It is only when it is locked in its place, on the bow, that it goes by the name “Arrow”. When it pierces the form of the target, it will spit fire on the form of the person. vAlmeeki had mercifully written in SrI rAmAyaNam yudhdha kANdam 16.22 “dhIpthapAvaka samkASai:” (each arrow resembles a blazing fire). In other words, when the arrows pierce the forms of enemies, the arrows will appear like fire.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says, in his svApadhESam, that emperumAn’s divine arrow would appear one, when placed on the chord of the bow, will appear to be many when the arrow is released and would appear like fire, when the arrow pierces the enemy.
ilangaiyinai – it is the place where even yama, the lord of justice, fears to enter. Even brahmA et al, who had granted rAvaNa the boons which he had sought, will have their intestines burnt, on hearing the name of the place. Even Adhithya [sun] will shine only for drying a few wet objects [like dresses]; otherwise, he will keep travelling through this place, trembling. This is the reason that maNdOdhari, on seeing rAvaNa lying in the battlefield, told him, as in SrI rAmAyaNam yudhdha kANdam “uththishtOththishta kim SEshEparibhavEnavE – athyaiva nirbhayam lankAm pravishtA: sUryarachmaya:” (Get up quickly, when a new insult has been heaped on you. Why are you lying down? It is only today that sUryan has entered lankA, with his rays, without fear). It was such a place that emperumAn, in the form of a human species, stood and destroyed with his arrows.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that these are people who are favourable towards rAvaNa. While the pAsuram says ilangaiyinai, the reference here is to rAvaNa, just like when it is said that that the cot makes noise, it refers to the people who are lying on the cot making the noise.
thannudaiya varisilai vAyil peydhu – keeping the arrow on the mouth of the divine bow, which is distinguished for him, and which has beautiful lines on its divine form. Just a serpent eats with its mouth, the bow too ate with the arrow. Thus, instead of the arrogance of being ISvaran [one, who controls all], in being true to the incarnation which emperumAn had undertaken, just as it has been mentioned in SrI rAmAyaNam yudhdha kANdam 120.11 “AthmAnam mAnusham manyE” (I consider myself as a human entity), he destroyed lankA with the arrows.
vAykkOttam thavirththu – kOdudhal [root word for kOttam] – to remove. Removing the arrogance of rAvaNa’s mouth, when he said, as in SrI rAmAyaNam yudhdha kANdam 36.11 “na namEyam” (I will not bow down to anyone). Since perumAL kept saying that he considers himself as an entity in another species, rAvaNa considered him as a human entity. rAvaNa said “Not only this person, even if the one who calls himself as ISvaran comes, will I bow down to him?” If one’s svarUpam [basic nature] is realised, one would say, as in mahAbhAratham Santhi parvam 227.40 “nama ithyEva vAdhina” (they will have the quality of saying continuously, nama:, I do not belong to me, but to emperumAn). To say mama [I belong to me] is the opposite of one’s svarUpam. While it is apt to speak like one who is favourable, rAvaNa considered everything as mama. emperumAn removed that.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that emperumAn removed the words which were spoken dishonestly by rAvaNa, and became joyous.
ugandha araiyan – After removing the other king, emperumAn became joyous in his divine mind. If emperumAn removes the thought of “mine”, he becomes happy since everything becomes his. Once the thought “This is mine” has been removed, all that remains will become part of the wealth of the temple.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that it is the mountain where emperumAn, who was happy that “We have removed the implement [mouth, with which he was reviling emperumAn], which was the reason for his [rAvaNa’s] indulging in sinful deeds”, resides forever.
araiyan – Since emperumAn is the owner of all, a little bit of favourableness appears. The natural relationship between jIvAthmA and emperumAn is such that even if the unfavourable nature disappears [in the jIvAthmA], emperumAn becomes joyous.
amarum malai – this is the mountain, where, one, who is like this, in order to remove the svAthanthryam [independent nature] of all and to protect them, resides forever.
amararodu kOnum – along with the celestial entities, indhran too, who is their controller.
thiruvAimozhip piLLai says here that arrow is the mouth for bow. Just as a snake swallows its prey with its mouth, the bow swallowed lankA through its mouth, the arrow. It was after this that the mouth was removed. The arrow, which killed vAli, swallowed lankA. Even after rAvaNa was killed, the situation of two kingdoms has not been avoided [though one rAvaNa has been destroyed, there are many more entities with the quality of rAvaNa, who are still around]. Instead of saying indhiranodu amarar [celestial entities, with indhran], the reason for saying amararodu kOn is due to the fact that anyaSEshathvam is more predominant than svasvAthanthryam [all the celestial entities serve indhran, instead of serving emperumAn. Hence, their anyaSEshathvam is of a higher magnitude than their quality of independence]. Even after one has obtained the benefits derived from carrying out certain deeds [reference here is to rAvaNa disregarding brahmA et al, who had given him all the boons, which made him strong], at the time of enjoying the benefits, one needs the mercy and permission of the entity who had granted the benefit. Since this was absent in the case of rAvaNa, he became a victim of the fiery arrow. It is pertinent to recall pAsurams such as iraNdAm thiruvandhAdhi 84 “varam karudhith thannai vaNangAdha vanmai uram karudhi mUrkkaththavanai” (hiraNyakashyap, the monster, who was arrogant, thought about the boons which he had obtained from celestial entities, and the strength of his shoulders, and did not bow down to emperumAn), periyAzhwAr thirumozhi 4.8.5 “peruvarangaL avai paRRip pizhakkudaiya irAvaNan” {demon, rAvaNa, who, considering the boons which he had received from brahmA et al as his strength, carried out wrongful deeds towards sages] and nAnmugan thiruvandhAdhi 53 “kallAdhavar ilangai” (lankA, which is inhabited by ignorant demons, who did not have the knowledge to reach mOksham). Thus, rAvaNa did not show gratitude towards those who had granted him benefits and suffered. It is not enough if one carries out penance towards one, who is himself carrying out penance, and obtain a sword [reference here is to the powerful sword chandhahAsam, granted to rAvaNa, by rudhra [who, himself, carries out penance]. Just as it has been mentioned in jithanthE SlOkam 2 “dhEvAnAm dhanavAnAm cha sAmAnyam adhidhaivatham” [emperumAn is the distinguished entity, common to both celestial and demonic entities], it is due to the mercy and permission given by emperumAn that celestial and demonic as well as monstrous entities will have long life, health and wealth, But, when they do not carry out ananyArhaSEshanthvam [being a servitor to emperumAn alone] and pArathanthryam [being totally dependent on emperumAn], their life, health and wealth will get diminished. For everyone, there is scope for enjoying distinguished benefits for the deeds carried out, provided ananyArhaSEshanthvam and pArathanthryam are practiced. Only then, the phenomenon of there being two kings would get removed. This is the reason that the mountain is referred to as one where araiyan [the supreme lord] dwells forever.
thirisudarum – chandhran and sUryan, who keep traversing in the night and day, to obey the command of emperumAn and to cause benefit to the worlds, and to emit radiance.
senRu sUzhum malai – they come and circumambulate the mountain, in order to sustain their respective position. They will also circumambulate due to their thought of gratitude towards the benefit rendered to them by emperumAn, in removing rAvaNa, who was troubling them all the time.
thirumAlirum sOlai adhE – it is the thirumAlirum sOlai, which is like this.
We shall next consider the 9th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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