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periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> Fourth Centum >> Fourth decad
avathArikai
There is no specific avathArikai for this pAsuram.
kurundham onRu osiththAnodum senRu kUdiyAdi vizhAch cheydhu
thirundhu nAnmaRaiyOr irAppagal Eththi vAzh thirukkOttiyUr
karundhada mugil vaNNanaik kadaik koNdu kai thozhum paththargaL
irundha Uril irukkum mAnidar eththavangaL seydhAr kolO!
Word-by-Word Meanings
thirundhu – being correct
nAl maRaiyOr – SrIvaishNavas, who have learnt the four vEdhams
onRu – unique
kurundham – kurundha tree [a species of wild lime]
osiththAnodum – krishNa, who broke it
senRU kUdi – attaining him
Adi – immersing in his divine qualities
vizhAch cheydhu – being overjoyed
irAp pagal – during night and during day
Eththi – praising him
vAzh – those who inhabit
thirukkOttiyUr – one, who has mercifully taken residence in thirukkOttiyUr
karu – dark
thada – huge
mugil – like a cloud
vaNNanai – one, who has the divine form
kadaik koNdu – keeping their lowliness in the forefront
kai thozhum – those, who worship him with their hands
paththargaL irundha – followers, who live
Uril – in the place
irukkum – those who reside
mANidar – people
e thavangaL – what sort of penances
seydhAr kol O – have they performed!
Simple Translation
SrivaishNavas, who have learnt the four vEdhams which are correct, attain krishNa, who had broken a kurundha tree. They immerse themselves in his auspicious qualities and due to that joy, praise him, day and night and reside in thirukkOttiyUr. emperumAn, who has a divine complexion, similar to that of a dark, huge cloud, resides in such thirukkOttiyUr. The followers of emperumAn, in thirukkOttiyUr, keeping their lowliness in front, perform anjali to emperumAn there. What penances have those, who live in such thirukkOttiyUr, performed!
vyAkhyAnam
kurundham onRu – the unique kurundham. Since it [the tree] appears like a flower which has covered itself, krishNa would have liked it. nAchchiyAr thirumozhi 3.3 says “pUngurundhu ERi iruththi” (You have mercifully climbed onto the kurundha tree, which has blossomed). A monster had pervaded this tree, thinking “krishNa will climb up this tree. At that time, we shall annihilate him”.
osiththAn – krishNa annihilated the enemy.
osiththAnodum senRu kUdi Adi vizhAch cheydhu – approaching the one, who had annihilated the enemy, and attaining him. The thoughts of both emperumAn and the followers, who had gone to enjoy his qualities, will be congruent. The followers will immerse in the divine qualities of emperumAn, who will grant them the enjoyment of his divine form [in his divine abodes]. Just as the followers will keep looking at his divine form, in paramapadham too, nithyasUris will keep looking at his divine form.
thirundhu nAnmaRaiyOr – Correctness for vEdhams is: explaining the divine svarUpam [basic nature] etc of emperumAn, the way they are. Also, those who have learnt the vEdhams well, will attain the divine abodes of emperumAn, in order to experience the divine qualities and to enjoy the divine form of emperumAn, as mentioned in vEdhams.
irAp pagal Eththi – since they do not look at anything else, this will certainly take place.
karum thada mugil vaNNan – one, who has a divine form, which is dark and huge, like a cloud.
kadaikkoNdu kai thozhum – they will worship emperumAn, keeping their lowliness in front. Alternatively, this could be considered to be carried out by a lowly person towards an eminent person. Another meaning – kadai could be considered as the end [last]; since AzhwAr is going to say a couple of pAsurams later “endhammai viRkavum peRuvArgaLE” (SrIvaishNavas would be able to sell AzhwAr himself), considering that carrying out servitude to emperumAn’s followers is their basic nature, these people will worship emperumAn, since that is the manner which emperumAn’s followers would like.
paththargaL – instead of worshipping emperumAn since it has been ordained in vEdhams, they will worship because this is the activity, which they desire.
irundha Uril irukkum mAnidar – this shows that the purpose of being born in the human species is to live in the divine abodes inhabited by SrivaishNavas. Even when they get liberated and reach mOksham, the divine abode is called as vAnavar nAdu [the land of nithyasUris]. Just as it has been mentioned in thiruviruththam 79 “sIdhanaiyE thozhuvAr viNNuLArilum sIriyarE” (those, who worship emperumAn are more eminent than nithyasUris), just as there is a difference between the servitors of emperumAn here and in SrI vaikuNtam, there is a difference between SrIvaikuNtam and archAvathAra dhESam [divine abodes in samsAram]. Since the pAsuram says “irundha Uril irukkum mAnidar”, the desirable entities are not the people, but the divine abodes. thiruvAimozhi 5.3.11 says “vaigundhamAgum tham Ur ellAm” (the places where those, who are capable of reciting the pAsurams mercifully composed by AzhwAr will be considered as SrI vaikuNtam). Thus, the divine abode gains ascendency over everything else. A few anecdotes are given here by mAmunigaL, to stress this: (1) A SrIvaishNavar once told kUraththAzhwAn “A follower of emperumAn has reached his divine feet”. kUraththAzhwAn told the person “We should say this way for a person who was focussed on carrying out servitude to bhAgavathas [emperumAn’s followers]. We should say that he has mercifully ascended to the divine land”. (2) We refer to SrivaishNavas taking a bath as “nIrAda” (to take a bath) and AchAryans taking a bath as “thirumanjanam paNNa” (to engage with divine bath). (3) When a SrIvaishNava informed aruLALap perumAL emperumAnAr “vaduga nambi has ascended to the divine land”, aruLALap perumAL was unconscious for some time; later, regaining consciousness, he told the SrIvaishNava “We should not say that he has ascended to the divine land. We should say that he has attained he divine feet of udaiyavar [rAmAnujar”. It was the same that SrI sabhari too prayed for, at the divine feed of perumAL. (4) kUraththzhwAn was bewildered by life in samsAram. He went to perumAL [at SrIrangam] and prayed at his divine feet “You should mercifully think in your mind to take adiyEn to the divine land”. When perumAL granted him that in his divine mind, kUraththAzhwAn went to the residence of AzhwAr thiruvarangap perumAL araiyar, in preparation for his final moments. udaiyavar, on hearing this, went to the divine entrance of panjukkottan [present day Arya bhatAL entrance], enroute perumAL’s sannidhi. He desired to retain kUraththAzhwAn for some more time here. He thought “If I asked perumAL about this, perumAL would acquiesce. Since he has already agreed to grant mOksham to kUraththAzhwAn, for our sake, it should not happen that emperumAn has spoken in two different ways”. Thus, instead of going to perumAL, udaiyavar went to see kUraththAzhwAn and asked him “Why this, AzhwAn?” kUraththAzhwAn said “adiyEn forgot” [earlier, udaiyavar had told kUraththAzhwAn that he would precede kUraththAzhwAn to reach the divine abode of SrI vaikuNtam]. The reason for his forgetfulness was the bewilderment in samsAram [through these instances, mAmunigaL brings to light that the divine land is more eminent than emperumAn’s divine feet and that the divine feet of AchAryan are more eminent than the divine land].
eththavangaL seydhAr kolO – thiruviruththam 33 says “aruLAr thiruchchakaraththAl agal visumbum nilanum iruLAr vinai kedach chengOl nadAvudhir – ivaRRin puRaththAL enReNNO” (You are ruling, with the help of the divine disc, both the expansive sky and earth, such that sins, caused by ignorance, run away. Do you think that she is outside the area of your kingdom due to which she has been neglected?) As said in this, staying within emperumAn’s protected area is penance. Again, as mentioned in thiruviruththam 38 “nIr nilai ninRa thavam idhu kol” (people stood in water bodies and carried out penance for a long time), to attain matters relating to emperumAn, the penance to be carried out is one. However, to attain matters relating to bhAgavathas [followers of emperumAn] the penances to be carried out are many.
kolO – AzhwAr knows the penance to be carried out to attain matters relating to bhagavAn. It is only in attaining matters relating to bhAgavathas that he doesn’t know the penances to be carried out.
We shall next consider the 8th pAsuram of this thirumozhi.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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