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nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL 6

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • December 16, 1999 


                                                      
                        SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL
        pASuram 10.6 (tenth tirumozhi - pAsuram 6 gaNa
mAmayilgAL)

  gaNa mA-mayilgAL! kaNNapirAn triukkOlam pOnRu
    aNimA naDam payinRu ADuginrIrkku aDi vIzhginREn
  paNam ADu aravu aNaip paRpala kAlamum paLLi koL
    maNavALar nammai vaitta pariSu idu kANminE


A. Meaning from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

ANDAL next looks at a collection of peacocks, which
are enjoying the water-laden clouds and dancing in the
forests of tirumAlirum SOlai. She tells the peacocks:
“You have the vaDivazhagu that reminds me of
kaNNapirAN both because of your beautiful appearance
and your blue complexion.  Here you are, dancing
beautifully as if you have learned dancing for a long
time and practiced for a long time.   But because it
only reminds of my separation from Him, it is
unbearable for me to watch you and your dance.  I fall
at your feet and beg you to stop this merry-making. 
How sad it is that I have been “blessed” with this
gift of having to fall at your feet by the “Grace” of
my azhagiya maNavALap perumAL who is forever resting
on tiru anantAzhvAn.”

B. Additional thoughts from SrImAn SaDagOpan: 

SrImad bhAgavatam describes kaNNanÂ’s beautiful dance
on the heads of kALeeyan.  ANDAL is surmising that
these peacocks must have learned their dancing from
Him as He danced on the heads of kAleeyan, and that
these peacocks are now paying their homage to their
teacher by showing their dancing skills.  But since
ANDAL is in no position to enjoy their dancing, she is
telling them that their great teacher is the one who
has now caused her to fall at their feet -  such is
the blessing that her AdiSesha Sayana nAyakan has
given her.  godai is making fun of kaNNan by doing a
“nindAstuti” here.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP :

gaNa mA-mayilgAL:  godai really wanted to join
“mARROlai paTTavar kUTTam” (kArkkODal 2), namely the
kUTTam or gathering that consists of only good souls,
but now she is in a kUTTam that is totally fully of
her enemies – kArkkODal, kOvai, mullai, kuyil and
mayil (peacock).   Why are these peacocks her enemies?
periyAzhvAr says (in periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-8-9),
“ninRADu kaNa mayil pOl niRam uDaiya neDumAl”; these
peacocks remind her of His hue and make her suffer. 

kaNNapirAn tirukkOlam pOnRu: “mangala nal vana mAlai
mArbil ilaÂ’nga mayil tazhaip pIli SUDi, poÂ’ngiLa ADai
araiyil Satti, pUm kottuk kAdil puNarap peidu”
(perumAL tirumozhi 6-9) –  kaNNan decorated Himself
with vana mAlai, peacock feather, beautiful garments
around His waist and colorful flowers in His ears. 
These peacocks look well decorated and this reminds
one of kaNNapirAn decorating Himself well.

aNi mA naDam payinRu  - bharata Sastra deals with the
complete set of all dances that are known to mankind. 
These peacocks seem to have exhausted all those, seem
to have surpassed all that is known, and seem to now
be dancing dances that are special and unknown
hitherto to anyone.    

aDi vIzhginREn:  ANDAL is telling these peacocks that
she is falling at their feet and requesting them to
stop their dancing.  But the peacocks can tell her in
return:  “We are the ones who should be falling at our
pirATTiÂ’s (your) feet;  it is not appropriate that you
fall at our feet instead”.   She responds to this in
the latter half of the pASuram:  “Everyone has to
follow His wishes.  Normally He protects those who
surrender to Him.  He gave the pleasure of the contact
with His Body to anantAzhvAn, but refuses to give me
the same privilege.  In my case, it is His wish that I
fall at your feet, and so it shall be ”. 

nammai vaitta pariSu: “In the name of being with me,
He held my foot first  (and then left me; now He has
made me hold your feet.  What can I do?  This is what
He has done: you, who is supposed to be subservient to
me, has to give your feet to me and I, who am your
svAmini, have to hold your feet”.

The peacocks, which are in Sishya sthAnam to godai,
have to give their feet for her to hold because of
their pAratantriyam (lack of independence) – because
it is His Will.

SrIvaikuNTha stavam 77 talks about the kind of company
one should desire:

“kaimkarya nitya niratair bhavadEka bhOgair
   nityairanukshaNa navIna rasArdra bhAvai: |
  nityAbhivAnchita paraspara nIcabhAvair
    maddaivatai: parijanais tava sangasIya ||”

“Please bless me with the company of  those  nitya-s
who are worthy of being worshipped by me and who are
in constant association with you and doing constant
kaimkaryam to You,  consider You as their only object
of enjoyment, enjoy You through  ever-new
bhagavad-anubhavams,  and consider themselves always
subservient to each other (paraspara nIca bhAvaih)”.

It is SrIvaishNava svarUpam that all SrIvaishNavaÂ’s
feel mutually subservient to all SrIvaishNavaÂ’s.  If a
cetana gives oneself to the paramacetanan (emperumAn)
unconditionally, then His aDiyar-s can use that cetana
anyway they like. It is not uncommon for an AcAryan to
hold the foot of his Sishyan. ammaNi AzhvAn used to
prostrate at his SishyanÂ’s feet. His triuvuLLam was:
“I prostrate to him because he is a SrIvaishNavan; he
is one who knows my heart exactly”.  The bhAvam here
is that the Sishya understands that he is just to be
used by his guru as the guru pleases, and if this is
what the guru wants to do, it is the SishyaÂ’s duty to
accept it.

An instance where tirumaÂ’ngai AzhvAr worshipped the
parrot he created in his pASuram is comparable to
ANDAL falling at the feet of her peacocks.  
vehkAvil tirumAlaip pADakkETTu vaLarttadanAl payan
peRRen varuga enRu maDak kiLiyaik kai kUppi
vaNanginAL” (tiruneDumtAnDagam 14), because he felt
that the parrot had grown listening to the praise of
emperumAn all its life, and was devoid of any
ahamkAram.  

Yet another illustration of this concept that
SrIvaishNava-s consider themselves to be the aDiyArÂ’s
of other SrIvaishNava-s irrespective of age etc., is
given by SrI PVP.  Once SrI BhaTTar was discussing sat
vishayam with SrI tirunaRaiyUr araiyar who was his
elder by age, and quoted some of the above instances
to araiyar.  araiyar in turn parised him saying he had
never heard such kind of words from any AcAryan
before. bhaTTar was feeling uncomfortable with the
praise coming from a great man like tirunaRaiyUr
araiyar.  The latter comforted  him saying that it was
quite acceptable in our tradition for anyone to praise
another SrIvaishNava irrespective of age etc., and
quoted the instance of tirumaÂ’ngai AzhvAr (parakAla
nAyaki) who first taught his parrot the nAmam of
emperumAn, and then fell at its feet when it uttered
the name of emperumAn that he himself had taught. 

D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

It is unique for kaNNan that He decorates Himself with
the peacock feathers;  so no wonder that He resembles
the peacock in beauty.  

paRpala kAlamum:  always, that is, irrespective of
whether He is in yOga nidrA, or when He is with His
periya pirATTi or when He is with His other consorts
or during His avatAram-s. 

How can godai fall at the feet of the peacocks? It is
her maNALanÂ’s (Semmai uDaiya tirukkaiyAl tAL
piDittavan) present to her.  When He is away from her,
He makes them look exactly like Him in appearance and
is now testing if she is paying respects to Him by
falling at their feet.   periya pirATTi drove Him to a
state where He had to surrender to SugrIva.  godai is
not doing any such thing to Him, but still He is still
showing her that He is capable of the same thing that
sItA pirATTi did to Him”.  

nammai: Instead of showing His “skills” to sIta
pirATTi, He is showing them to godai instead.
  
If it is proper for Him to touch godaiÂ’s feet
(tirukkaiyAl tAL paRRi), then there is nothing wrong
with godai falling at the peacockÂ’s feet.  It is true
that there are Sastric injunctions against who can
prostrate to whom etc.  But no harm can come to the
peacocks by ANDAL falling at their feet, since:  a)
the birds are not subject to these Sastra-s; b)
emperumAn, ANDAL, pirATTi etc. are not bound by these
injunctions; c) she is falling at their feet for her
benefit, and d) He is the one who forced it to happen
this way.   So in all ways, ANDAL does not see
anything wrong with this. 

E. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

parpala kAlamum:  SrI PBA gives the reference to
“SenrAl kuDaiyAm, irunDal SingAsanamAm ninRal
maravADiyAm” – mudal tiruvantAdi (53), in this
context.

Both SrI UV and SrI PBA give an alternate version
“phaNa vAL aravaNai” in place of “phaNam ADaravaNai”. 
In this case, the meaning becomes “The dancing Adi
Seshan with his hoods shining and spread” instead of
just “The dancing Adi Seshan with his hoods spread”.

F. Additional thoughts from SrI T. S. rAjagopAlan:

SrI T. S. rAjagopAlan gives yet another anubhavam of
“phaNam ADu aravu” – Adi Seshan is dancing with joy
with his hoods spread, because he has been blessed
with the sparSam of bhagavAn.   

Abbreviations:
------------------
PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai
PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr
UV=   SrI uttamUr vIra rAghavAcAriyAr

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri





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