nAcciyAr tirumozhi - ciRRil cidaiyEl 1

From the Bhakti List Archives

• July 13, 1998


                                       SrI:
                SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

                      nAcciyAr tirumozhi - II - ciRRil cidaiyEl.
                              pASuram 1 - nAmam Ayiram.

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagopan's tamizh treatise.

Introduction to second tiru mozhi:

In the 10 pASurams of the second tirumozhi, ANDAL assumes the identity of 
a leader for the AyarpADi girls and argues with kaNNan, pleading with Him
not to destroy the small houses (kolams or designs) made for manmathan by them 
with the fine river silt.

kaNNan, who first thought He will not reveal Himself to godai right away,
appears in her house, not being able to withstand His longing for her.  
godai wants to show her anger at Him for ignoring her for so long.  She 
pretends that she is not aware of His appearance.   Along with her friends, 
she keeps drawing small decorative houses with the white silt collected from 
river beds for kAmadevan.  kaNNan gets angry now because ANDAL and her 
friends are honoring another god and continuing to pray to manmathan with 
their mazhalai words, totally ignoring Him; He starts destroying their small 
silt house designs made on the floor, with His feet.  So they have a 
back-and-forth argument and have a mini-mahA-bhArata battle, and ANDAL bursts 
into prayers for her kaNNan in the next 10 pASurams, entreating Him not to 
get angry and destroy their small decorative houses (ciRRu il cidaiyEl - do 
not destroy our small houses).

pAsuram 2.1 (second tirumozhi - pAsuram 1 nAmam Ayiram)

Oh, nArAyaNA, who is worshiped by thousand names!  You who appeared as naran
and nArAyaNan and did penance in bhadrikASramam to set an example for the 
people of this world!  You who appeared in the form of a naran (man) as rAma 
and kr*shna! How can we escape from your natural mischief, especially since
our mami (aunt) yaSodhai got you as her son, because of which you are now
related to us as our aunt's son?  We drew all these small houses for
manmathan because it is that time of the year when he favors those who
worship him.   And, you (who has lakshmI pirAtti on you chest) are coming 
and disturbing us! Is this the right behavior? Please, do not destroy our 
small sand houses!

 nAmam Ayiram Etta ninRa nArAyaNAnaranE unnai
   mAmi tan maganAkap peRRAl emakku vAdai tavirumE
 kAman pOdaru kAlamenRu panguni nAL kaDai pArittOm
   tImai ceyyum SirIdharA e~ngaL ciRRil vandu cidaiyElE


B.  Some additional thoughts:

kaNNan is perturbed that these girls fall at the feet of a demi-god, instead
of His feet. He is reminded of how in AyarpADi, He could not bear to see 
His people doing pUjA for indra, and made them direct these offerings to Him 
in the form of the gOvardhana mountain.  Just as He rushed to help the 
elephant (gajEndran), He decides to come and show Himself up in godai's house. 
[SrI PVP]

nArAyaNAnaranE:  It can be read in 2 ways; as nArAyaNAnarane (one word), 
it refers to the nara-nARAyaNa avatAram of Lord vishNu in bhadri [for further 
details, please refer to SrI SaDagopan's posting that came out 2 days back]; 
or as nArAyaNA naranE (two words), it refers to nArAyaNa Himself and naran (His
avatarams in the form of a man as rAma and krshna  - for detailed explanations,
please refer to vishNu sahasranAmam explanation by SrI kr*shNamAchAri under 
slokam 26).

One explanation given by SrI PVP for nArAnArAyaNan is: just as a mother
drinks water if her stananyaprajai (breast-fed baby) falls sick,  the Lord
came as naranArAyaNan and did penance for the sake of His cEtanA-s or His
children.

SrI PVP beautifully describes how the dispute between godai and kaNNan might
have taken place, as follows:

godai:    We are all abhalaigaL (helpless); you are by nature
          very mischievous and now you trouble us even more since you
          are related to us as our aunt's son.

kaNNan:   I was just sitting unconcerned about you, and you are the ones who
          are doing mischief by attracting me with all these designs you are 
          drawing.

godai :   No, we are not doing it for you!  We are doing it for kAman 
          for this is the month and time he visits (panguni).  

kaNNan:   What! This is not for me? Then I will destroy all your designs.

godai :   This is not fair, kr*shna.

kNNan:    Just watch me destroy more!

godai :   Who do you think we are? Will you do the same to your lakshmI
          pirAtti?  She will not let you do this.

kaNNan:   I am Sriya: pathi; no one can question me. I will destroy
          more of your designs.

godai :   Please do not destroy engaL (our) ciRRIl; go destroy Hers!



sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.


adiyEn,
Kalyani Krishnamachari
(kkrishnamachari@lucent.com)