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thiruppavai day twenty seven song twenty seven

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 10, 2003 


THIRUPPAVAI – DAY TWENTY SEVEN –  SONG TWENTY SEVEN

Transliteration

Kutarai vellum cirk kovinta untannaip
Patip parai kontu yam perum canmanam
Natu pukalum paricinal nanraka
Cutakame tol valaiye tote cevippuve
Patakame enranaiya palkalanum yamanivom
Atai utuppom atan pinne parc coru
Muta ney peytu mulankai vali varak
Kutiyiruntu kulirntelor empavay.

Translation

Noble Govinta who vanquished the otherwise-minded!
We obtain these when we sing in praise of You
And when you grant us our prayers –
Bangles worth the praise of the world;
Adornments at the shoulders, ear rings and studs;
Anklets and many items of jewelry.
Dressed appropriately, we will dine together
Of rice with milk and ghee covering the lot.
LetÂ’s be together in blissful union.

The twenty-sixth song prayed for implements incidental to pavai observance.
Traditional interpretation will identify each item thus granted in terms of
the following:

1) pancha canyam is the conch associated with Narayana whose effective
functioning is often mentioned in the Mahabharatha as used by Krishna in the
person of the charioteer to Arjuna.
The same conch was used by Krishna to collect all the cattle together.

Thirdly, the conch is referred to as the instrument at the temples to mark
the beginning and course of various temple rituals. Krishna bestows all such
conches upon the praying maids.
2) When Narayana measured the world in two strides, Jampavan is supposed to
have beaten the drums to mark His valour. Another time drums were beaten to
mark RamaÂ’s victory over Ravana.
3) Periyalwar has hailed Narayana and the devotees with thousands of years
of existence. Thus Periyalwar is a bestowal on the maids. So also is the
best of Alwars, Nammalwar.
4) Nappinnai is the auspicious lamp of the clan of the herdsmen. She is also
His bestowal on the maids.
5) The ensign is that of the Eagle, His vehicle.
6) The canopy is the thousand-headed serpent that protected baby Krishna
when he was removed from the prison at Madurai to the Ayppati amidst
torrential rains.

Now that all such bestowal has been formally acknowledged, what else do the
maids wait for? They await personal favours. The earlier bestowals have been
granted to the maids collectively. Personal favours like jewels typical of
maids followed by appropriate dress to culminate in a dinner with Narayana
much to their bliss in His company are what they pray for in the
twenty-seventh song.

There can be an interesting question in this context. What the maids profess
they would appreciate as Divine gifts are those which they had vowed to
refrain from in an earlier song. How to account for the longing for
something they had already renounced in the name of pavai observance?
Neyyunnom palunnom natkale nirati
Maiyittelutom malarittu nam mutiyom.

The question can be answered in the name of a certain transvaluation
achieved by the maids. They renounce all that is identified in terms of
their own. What they would like to have is not theirs. They are the GodÂ’s
and God has bestowed them upon the maids.

So they wear the grace of God in the form of the adornments and garments. It
is this transvaluation that renders the rice taken in as the initiation into
the company of the Divine. Insofar as the jewels and rice are enjoyed in the
presence of God and as gifts of God, they get transvalued into something
great and gracious.

Also the dinner mentioned is not that for the hunger struck. It is a dinner
of celebration of being with God.

The address with which the poem begins also excludes all those who have no
place in such company as celebrated in the song. Vanquishing those who are
otherwise minded is more for the sake of the well being of His devotees.
Vali was vanquished for the sake of Sukriva. It is for the sake of Pandavas
that He played such a great role in the Mahabharatha.

Thus the twenty-seventh song as a whole is to be taken as a celebration of
the transvaluation of the very nature of the life of the maids because of
Divine association.




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