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nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII maRRu irundIrgaTku 5

From the Bhakti List Archives

Kalyani Krishnamachari • March 23, 2001 


                                                      
                             SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI raÂ’ngamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

                           nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII–
maRRu irundIrgaTku 

pASuram 12.5 (twelfth tirumozhi – pAsuram 5 - Arrkum
en nOi)

(kALiyan ucciyil naDamADiya poygaikku ennai
uyyttiDumin)

Arkkum en nOi idu aRiyalAgAdu ammanaimIr! tuzhadip
paDAdE
kArkkaDal vaNNan enbAn oruvan kai kaNDa yOgam taDavat
tIrum
nIrkkarai ninRa kaDambai Erik kALiyan ucciyil naTTam
pAindu
pOrkkaLamAga niruttam Seida poigaik karaikku ennai
uittiDumin

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

Oh my mothers! No one can understand or diagnose the
sickness I have.  DonÂ’t try to find cure or treatment
for this disease yourselves and feel sad that none of
your treatments are working.  Instead, please take me
to the pond where kaNNan jumped from the kaDambA tree
on to the top of kALIyanÂ’s hoods and made a
battlefield out of the dance that He performed there. 
If He so much as gently passes His hands over me, that
is all what is needed for curing me of my sickness,
and it is guaranteed to work.

B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

Feeling sad about her pitiful plight, her relatives
want to figure out what her disease is, and do
appropriate parihAram to get her cured; gOdai tells
them that the mere fact that they are her relatives
does not enable them to figure out what her disease
is.   

Arkkum en nOi idu aRiyalAgAdu:  It is not only her
relatives who canÂ’t figure the Cause of this disease;
Even the One who caused all this pain will not be able
to measure the depth of gOdaiÂ’s sickness.  nammAzhvAr
says that He, the Supreme One, and not any small god,
caused this disease. 

“idu mikka perumdeyvam iSaippinRi nIr aNangADum iLam
deyvam anRidu” (tiruvAimozhi 4.6.2).  

The Cause of ANDALÂ’s disease is unknown and
unknowable, as declared in kEnOpanishad 2-3:

 “yasyAmatam tasya matam matam yasya na vEda sa: |
   avi~jnAtam vijAnatAm vij~nAtam avijAnatAm        
||”

“He who has realized that he cannot understand Brahman
has indeed understood Brahman; and he who thinks he
has understood Brahman has indeed not understood It. 
Men of true knowledge know this is what they do not
know, and those who think they know It are those who
are ignorant”.

His greatness is such that He Himself does not know
it!   When He is not capable of measuring His own
greatness, how is He going to measure the depth of
godaiÂ’s suffering? (SrI kRshNasvAmi aiyeÂ’ngAr gives
reference to periya tirumozhi 5-2-1 - “tAm tam perumai
aRiyAr” - He does not know His own greatness).

en nOi:  this is the nOi that only the likes of ANDAL
can experience;  this experience is not for ordinary
people. 

SrI PVP gives the parallel from SrImad rAmAyaNam. 
When bharatAzhvAn found out that he was going to be
separated from Lord rAma, he suffered intense viraha
tApam, and fell down unconscious.  But this did not
induce the slightest feeling of viraham in the likes
of kaikeyi and mantharA (kUni).  Even kousalyA, who
was facing the separation from rAma, could not feel
this separation with the same intensity that
bharatAzhvAn was going through.  So when bharatAzhvAn
fell down unconscious, she could not comprehend that
it was because of his intense viraha tApam, and was
asking him: “Is your body being inflicted with some
disease?  The life of the royalty totally depends on
you” –

“putra vyAdhir na tE kascit paribAdhatE  |
  asya  rAjakulasyAd yatvadadhInamm hi jIvitam ||
(rAmA. Ayodhya.  87-8)

On the other hand, even the trees were suffering in
resonance to rAma’s sorrow (“api vRkshAh” – rAmAyaNam
ayOdhya kANDam 59-4) and they were wilting, and
shedding  their flowers,  buds and shoots.  So, in
this sense, it is no great surprise that bharatAzhvAn
fainted.  

en nOi:  The phrase that gOdai uses here – “en nOi” is
that kind of a disease. tiruviruttam 53 talks about -
“deyva nannOi idu”; the sickness is the result of
bhagavad vishaya kAmam –something that one should love
to have.  Because of this also, ANDAL may be using
this term proudly – en nOi.  

ammanai mIr:  The mere fact that you are my mothers is
not sufficient for you to know and understand  my
disease. Or it could mean that even though they are
now old and so they might ask gOdai to wait till He
comes, when they were younger and of her age, they
also would have been as restless as she is now. 

tuzhadip paDAdE:   tuzhadi means suffering.  If you
continue in your path of trying to find parihAram for
my disease in the ways you know, all you will end up
with is suffering in the end, because my illness is
not something that can be cured in those ways. 

To the question from her mothers as to what is gOdaiÂ’s
suggestion for a remedy, gOdai tells them what to do.
They could have guessed that it is that kaNNan who has
caused her all this trouble, but, since they are so
distressed at her plight, they themselves are at a
loss to think. gOdai has to first tell them who caused
her disease, and then tells them what they should do
to take care of her problem.

kArkkaDal vaNNan enbAn oruvan:  The person responsible
for my sickness is that One with the hue of the dark
ocean.

oruvan:   This term tells them that this person who is
the cause of her disease is not someone whom they can
comprehend or understand;  He is beyond understanding.
 They can only try to do the parihAram that she tells
them; they canÂ’t measure Him and know Him. 

taDavat tIrum: the only way my sickness will be cured
is if He comes and gives His kara sparSam to my sick
body. 

And how does she know that? 

kai kaNDa yOgam: this is something that she has
already experienced and found to be true. 

yOgam: can refer to (aushadha) prayogam –
administration of medicine, or it can refer to upAyam,
means that has been determined to be effective based
on the experience of many ( SrI kRshNasvAmi aiyeÂ’ngAr
gives support from nighanTu – yogah sannaha upAya. 

That those who resort to Him will never suffer is
supported by the experience of many.   In fact, Lord
kRshNa asks arjuna to convey this based on his
first-hand experience as the true devotee of the Lord.
 This is bhagavad rAmAjujaÂ’s interpretation for the
gItA Slokam 9.31:   “kauntEya tvam eva asminnarthe
pratij~nAm kuru”.  Lord kRshNa’s words are:  “na mE
bhakta: praNaSyati” (gItai 9-31).  That His devotees
can suffer is like saying that one can get drenched
and soaked wet with fire - “agninA sincEt” - a
statement that is self-contradictory and can never
become true.  

pEyAzhvAr indicates the same in mUnRAm tiruvantAdi
27):

“ArE tuyar uzhandAr?  tunbuRRAr ANDaiyAr?
  kArE malinda karum kaDalai – nErE
  kaDaindAnaik kAraNanai nIraNai mEl paLLi
  aDaindAnai nALum aDaindu”

Has anyone ever heard of any devotee who has
surrendered at emperumAnÂ’s tiruvDigaL, and then got
separated from Him because of sins and fell into the
narakam of samsAra for ever?  Has anyone heard of a
case where one has committed lot of sins, then
surrendered to Him, and then still had to go through
the suffering associated with all their karma phalan? 

The way He takes care of the sins committed by His
devotees prior to their surrendering to Him is through
one of two methods:   a) He either gives it to the
enemies of His devotees (just as He aimed His arrows
at varuNa first, but when varuNa surrendered, He just
diverted the arrows at varuNaÂ’s enemies), or b) give
them to Himself (as He did when He bore the brunt of
bhagadattaÂ’s arrows by bearing them on His chest and
shielding arjuna from being touched by those arrows). 
 

Thus, His words – “my bhaktan will not get destroyed”
– will never be false. 

nIrkkarai Â… uittiDumin:  instead of creating unwanted
results from doing useless and irrelevant parihArams
for me, take me to the place where I can do things
that can be supportive to Him.

nIrkkarai ninRa kaDambai Eri:  Because the kaDamba
tree had grown on the banks of the lake where the
intensely poisonous kALiyan, it had become poisonous
itself.  Getting up on top of this poison-soaked tree
is itself scary.  He wakes up the kALiyan which was
fast asleep with a big snore, climbs this
poison-soaked kaDamba tree, and goes to the topmost
branch of the tree so that He can get accurate aim at
the hoods of this ferocious snake. The whole thing is
scary right from start to end.  

kALiyan ucciyil naTTam pAindu:  He jumps and lands
precisely with His feet right on top of the snake's
hoods. 

pOrkkaLamAga niruttam Seida poigaik karaikku:  The
interesting question arises: Which is the battlefield
here?  Is it the hood of kALiyan, or is it the lake in
which kALiyan was living?  “Neither” is the beautiful
anubhavam that SrI PVP gives to us, conveying the
narration of nampiLLai who in turn quotes BhaTTar. 
The term “pOrkkaLam” really refers to the shores of
the lake, and not to the lake nor to kALiyanÂ’s head.  
How so?  “As soon as the AyarpADi folks heard that
kaNNan has gone to kALiyanÂ’s lake, they came running
to stop Him. When they heard ‘kaNNan has jumped on
kALiyanÂ’s headÂ’, they just swooned in the same place
where they heard the news.  There was no one who could
stay alive to reach the lake and stop kaNNan; the
whole lake bank looked like a battlefield strewn with
dead bodies.” 

A similar bhAvam is illustrated in another narration
of SrI PVP.  When emperumAnAr was close to leaving his
mortal body, anantAzhvAn and nambi guha dAsar were
coming from tirumalai to have his darSanam.  When they
were almost close to the place of emperumAnAr, some
people communicated the news to them that emperumAnAr
had already reached tirunADu.   On hearing this, 
nambi guha dAsar climbed a tree to jump from it and
commit suicide.  anantAzhvAn commented that if nambi
guha dAsar could keep his life long enough to think of
climbing a tree to commit suicide etc. after hearing
that emperumAnAr had passed away, then he was not
going to die even after jumping from the tree top, and
so he might as well get down!   

poigaik karaikku ennai uittiDumin:  One interpretation
is:  “Leave me on the river bank so that kArkkaDal
vaNNan can give me His kara sparSam”.  An alternate
anubhavam is:  “Instead of being here with a clear
mind, I could go there and faint like the other
AyarpADi folks; so, please take me there”.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

SrI PBA notes that the term naTTam that is used here
is derived from the samskRt word “nATyam” or “nRttam”.
 

poigai:  refers to a section of yamunA river.



D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

In the previous pASuram, ANDAL asked the elders to
take her to a place where she can be seen by Him.  In
the current pASuram, she is asking them to take her to
Him so that she can touch her and cure her of her
disease.  Even if this reservoir of water where
kALiyan lived is not the place where she can do jala
kRIDai with Him, still it is better to be close to Him
than where she is now.  Even if she faints because of
the poisonous atmosphere there, it is better than the
life with full conscience that she is going through
now.  

tuzhadip paDAdE:  There is no need for the elders to
be concerned of what will happen to her.  The same
kaNNan who rejuvenated the dead and dry kaDamba tree,
the same one who spared kALiyan and did good for him,
and the same kaNNan who helped all the gopas and
gopis, will help her as well.  

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

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyeti samarpayAmi.

aDiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri


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