Selected Excerpts from MahA VidvAn Sri
U.Ve. PerukkAraNai Swamy ' ThiruppAvai Monograph'
The Meaning of the Fifth paasuram:Dr.V.K.S.N.Raghavan
(All of our sins vanish like a blade of grass thrown into fire , when
we sing in praise of KrishNan and worship Him ). Him--the mysterious Lord
; the young courageous Lord born at north MathurA , the One who sports
in the pure waters of the great river , YamunA ; the emerald-like shining
Lamp that has risen from the race of cowherds;and the Lord DaamOdharA (the
One
bound by the rope around the waist)who has brought high esteem to His
mother YasOdhA (literally, who illumined the mother's womb)--Him let us
approach with sincerity (purity--physical and mental); let us worship Him
with fresh and fragrant flowers;let us pay our obesiance to Him;let us
sing in praise of Him , by words of mouth; let us think of Him in our mind;if
we do so approaching worshipping ,obeying,singing and
thinking of Him alone), our sins of past , present and future will vanish
like
straw put into fire.Therefore let us sing His glory.
The Inner Meanings of this Paasuram
| Maayanai | Of the One who is the Swami of Moola Prakruthi as LeelA VibUthi Naathan |
| mannu | Of the Para VaasudEva MUrthi |
| Vada Mathurai
Mainthanai |
Of Sri VaikunTanAthan from whose sacred feet the nectar of bliss flows |
| Thooya Peru neer
Yamunai ThuRaivanai |
Of the One , who resides at the bank of VirajA river (in Sri Vaikuntam ) |
| ThAyai Kudal
ViLakkam seytha |
Of the One ,who explained the "nama: Bharga" section
of Gaayathri manthram , which is
equal in sacredness to one's own Mother during His avathAram as NaarAyaNA at BadrikAsramam to perform upaEsam for Naran |
| DhAmOdharanai | Of the One , who got Himself tied up with a small rope by a cowherd woman because of the Bhakthi of that devotee |
| ThUyOmAi Vanthu | if we approach that One ( BhagavAn) with purity of Vaak, Manas and KaraNams |
| ThUmalar thoovi | and offer auspicious flowers (TuLasi) dear to Him (aanUpura paryantham ) |
| Thozhuthu | and perform archanai with them |
| vAyinAl paadi
ManathinAl Chintthika |
and control our Indriyams so that Vaak, mind and body will be fulfilled with respect to their saasthrEic functions |
| pOya pizhayum | (then) all of our accumulated sins |
| puhu taruvAn
ninRanavum |
(and) the ones (sins) acquired after SaraNAgathi consciously |
| theeyinil thUsAhum | all of them will be destroyed like cotton thrown into the fire. |
Special comments on Individual words of Paasuram
(1)"MaayOnai":
Our Lord is a MaayAvi. He hinted that much in Githai: " sambhavaami
aathma maayaya" .All the Maaya ChEstithams from His avathAram at Vada Mathurai
to growth in Aayarpaadi, many leelais in Gokulam and BrundhAvanam
,
His serving as the charioteer for ArjunA, converting day into night
in the battle field of Kuru KshEthram , taking the disc in His hand inspite
of His vow not to use weapons in that war , are examples of the MaayA of
the MaayOn.Abhinava Desikan describes Maayai as Moola Prakruthi and SankalpAthi
Jn~Anam.As the Controller, commander of this Maayai , through His sankalpa
visEsham blesses the DevAs and incarnates as PadhmanAbhan in the milky
ocean and later jumps out of the pillar as
Lord Narasimhan ,goes to the Yaaga saalai of Bali as Vaamanan and transforms
into Thiruvikraman and now incarnates as KaNNan , the MaayOn or adhbhuthan
.
Swamy NammAzhwAr celebrates this Maayam of the Lord , which He performs through His AchAryAs , who remove the "Poy ninRa Jn~Anam " of ours and makes us qualified to receive SadAchAra Jn~Anam through the wonderous act of "Irumbai ponnAkkuthal" (SaraNAgathi) according to Sri PBA Swamy.Our Lord stands on top of this AchArya Paramparai and is therfore MaayAthi Maayan.
ANDAL appropriately addresses Him next this MaayOn as " Mannu Vada Mathurai Mainthan". Mannu stands for the place most desired and where the Lord has blessed through His long resdence there. That place is Vada Mathurai with Bhagavath Saaniddhyam. Mainthan means kumAran of VasudEvar and Devaki .
(2)"Thooya peru neer Yamunai":
YamunA is most sacred and pure. Infact , it is more sacred than GodhAvari
, which failed to describe what it saw (SeethAbahranam by RaavaNan) to
Raama , when He asked whether it had anything to say as
to what had happened there. YamunA on the other hand cleaved and let
VasudEvar walk across its sandy bed , when he was
transporting baby KrishNan on His head during the dark rainy night
of JanmAshtami.Yamunai also had deha sambhandham
with the Lord through His Jala kreedais there with Gopis Our Lord came
to be called Yamunai ThuRaivan or the Lord of
Yamunai for these reasons.
(3)"Aayar Kulatthinil thOnRum aNi viLakkai":
Our Lord was born in Raaja Kulam with the parents of King VasudEvA and
queen
Devaki. He surfaced in the community of cowherds (AaypAdi). Lord has
mentioned to ArjunA that He has had many janmams.
ANDAL does not agree. She says therfore here : "ThOnRum" instead of
"PiRanthum" deliberately. "ThOnrum" means "aavirbavitthAn" /appeared instead
of being born.Next , ANDAL saluted Him as " ThOnRum aNi ViLakkai" or the
most beautiful , lustrous lamp that appeared amidst the aayar kulam . Another
AzhwAr (KulasEkarar) has commented in a similar way about Lord Raamachandran's
appearance in Soorya Kulam as a beautiful , bright lamp ( VemkathirOn kulatthiRkku
Ohr aNi ViLakkAi).
(4)"ThAyai Kudal Vilakkam seytha DhAmOdharanai" :
KaNNan was caught by YasOdhA in the act of stealing butter and she wanted to punish Him by tying Him up with a rope to a mortar to keep Him stationary. YasOdhai was His mother and a Bhakthai. Hence , the Lord out of His Bhaktha paara-tanthryam permitted Himself to be bound ( KaNNinuNN SiRutthAmpinAL KattuNNupatta peru Maayan) .He is adiyavarkku yeLiyavan and therefore got Himself tied up with a DhAmam (rope) around His waist (udharam). This UdhAra Utthama Moorthy carried the welt marks(Thazhumpu) from that happening and came to be known as "DhAmOdharan". YasOdhA got all credit for managing Her "wild" son .AzhwArs described the glory of YasOdhA's role as His Mother this way :
" Ivanai peRra VayirudayAL"
"MaNi Vayiru VaaytthavaLE"
"Unnaik KaNDAr yenna nOnbhu nORRArkaLO"
This helplessness of the Lord in being tied up by a human (mother) moved
Swamy NammazhwAr so much that He stayed in a state of trance for six months.
Such is His MaayA (MaayOn).Even today , One can see the three welt marks
on the waist of Lord RanganAtha (Moolavar) bearing witness to this incident
. ParAsara Bhattar refers to these welt marks in periya PerumAL's
Udharam .It is generally accepted that the Moolavar at Srirangam is
KrishNan and the Uthsavar is Raaman .
(5)"ThUyOmAi Vanthu ":
If we approach Him (DhAmOdharan) with suddhi(purity) through observance
of nithya karmAs, abandoning proscribed acts (nishitthangaLai vittu), avoiding
BhaagavathApachArams and knowing that SaraNAgathi done at His feet is only
for attaining
His grace , then we will be cleansed of all dhOshams.
(6)"ThUmalar thoovi thozhuthu , VaayinAL paadi, ManathinAl chinthikka":
Suddha pushpAnjali as at Thirumalai is Thoomalar Thoovuthal ; Among
the flowers , Utthama pushpam is the one grown by one in one's own garden(nandhavanam
)for the Lord like periyAzhwAr and ThoNDaradippodi); madhyama pushpam is
one grown in
common ground; the adhama pushpam is one , which are collected through
yaachakam from others.TuLasi Pushpa
samarpanam and manthra Pushpa samarpaNam are very dear to our Lord's
heart.Hence ANDAL recommends them here .After PushpAnjali, the naama sankIrthanam
(VaayinAL paadi) has to be conducted.Bhagavath guna dhyAna Chinthanai
(dhyAnam) follows next.AmbharIsha chakravarthy's dhyAnam of KrishNan (Sa
vai Mana: KrishNa:) is the way to follow .
(7)" ManathinAl chinthikka, pOya Pizhayum , puhu taruvAn ninRanavum theeyinil thUsAhum CHEPPU":
If we offer pushpAnjali with a suddha manas , sing the glory of His naamAs and meditate on Him , all of our accumulated sins as well as the ones accrued after prapatthi will be burnt to ashes like the bale of cotton thrown into a blazing fire.
(8) "Cheppu":
The paasuram ends with the command, "cheppu" (say).When we perform a
rite (sandhyAvandhanam , Yaagam , AarAdhanam et al) ,there are deficencies
such as KriyA lobham , Dhravya LObham and Niyama lObham . To overcome this
deficencies , we do
prAyachittha hOmam. Even there , deficencies may occur. To banish that
too , we say " Sri KrishNAnu smaraNam Param" as saathvika Thyaagam
(KrishNArpanam). That KrishNa dhyAnam removes all aparAdhams and blesses
one with auspiciousness. Therefore ANDAL ended the fifth Paasuram(from
the first set of Sextet ) dealing with the methods to perform nOnbhu with
the word "Cheppu" to remind Her friends to utter the name of Lord KrishNA
for sudhdi (KrishNAnu Smaranam param ).
Additional information on artha panchakam concepts and their coverage
in ThiruppAvai Paasurams as well as the deeeper meanings referred to in
this introductory posting for the first set of five paasurams can be accessed
in the 1996 Marghazhi
postings archived in the Bhakthi List under AzhwArs/ANDAL section.Sri
Venkat Iyengar's home page on SrivilliputthUr has also valuable additional
information including beautiful images of ANDAL and RangamannAr.Please
enjoy them. Sri Venkat (adiyen) Iyengar of Bharain has audio
files of the ThiruvallikkENI GOshti headed by Sriman M.A. VenkataKrishNan
Swamy reciting
melodiously the Paasurams of ThiruppAvai in the most traditional manner.Click
here
to listen to them.
Soodikkoduttha NaacchiyAr ThiruvadigaLE Saranam ,
Sarvam KrushNArpanam asthu
RaamAnuja Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri
SatakOpan
Web page kaimkaryam by R.Venkat