Thondardaipoodi AzhwAr's ThirupaLLIyezhucchi Paasurams: Part I

From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 8, 2003


SrI:

SrI RanganAtha  ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Dear BhakthAs:

ThirupaLLiyezucchi means awakening of the Lord from
His sleep (Yoga NidhrA) in the early morning ;
ThirupaLLiyezhuchci literally refers to the Lord's
arising from His bed of AadhisEshA to go about His
duties of Jagath SamrakshaNam , Sishta ParipAlanam
and Dhushta Nigraham .The parijanams (servants) of 
the Lord awaken Him and wish Him an auspicious 
awakening (SuprabhAdham) and perform SaaRRumuRai
for Him . At SrIrangam , ThoNDardippodi AzhwAr
awakened the Lord with his dhivya prabhandham of 
ThiruppaLLiyezucchi and offered the fresh garlands
of TuLasi and fragrant flowers to Lord RanganAthan.

The Yoga Nidhrai of the Lord at  SrIrangam
******************************************
Swamy  NammazhwAr salutes the resting Lord
as: " uRanguvAn pOl yOgu seytha PerumAn " 
( The One who acts as though He is sleeping ,
while engaged in the act of Yoga  Nidhrai ). 
Our Lord is always awake. In that  case , 
why should the AzhwAr awaken Him ? When the AzhwAr 
had  succcumbed to aanAdhi MayA and was "sleeping "
( not steeped in Bahgavath anubhavam) , the Lord woke 
the AzhwAr up and rescued him. AzhwAr  refers to those 
miserable times he experienced in one of his ThirumAlai 
Paasurams:

Soothanaai kaLvanAhi dhUrttharOdu isaintha kaalam
Maatarar kayaRkaNennum  valaiyuL pattazhunthuvEnai
pOtharE yenRu solip punthiyiR-puhunthu ,TannpAl
aadharam peruhavaittha Azhahanoor ArangamanRE
--16th SlOkam of Thirumaalai of ThoNDaradippodi

(meaning ): The place of residence of my beautiful
Lord is SrIrangam . He is the One , who during the time of 
my deciet and thievery arising from my  association
with the unrighteous ones and during the time when adiyEn
was lost in the net of the fish like eyes of the women
through enjoyment of their physical pleasures took pity on
me and gave me His hand to lift me out of my miseries 
and blessed me by entering my heart grew my affection 
for Him.The preferred place of residence of that most 
merciful Lord , who saved me is SrIrangam.

This Lord , who engages in Yoga NidhrA ( NaahaNaimisai
thuyilvAn pOl ulahellAm nankodunga yOgaNAivAn)is always 
thinking about how He can come to the rescue of all of
the suffering SamsAris. Such thoughts dominate Him 
during His yOganidhrA. ThoNDaradippodi has the desire for 
the Lord to come to the rescue of all these suffering 
jeevans just as He came to his rescue at a time of distress
in his ThiruppaLLiyezucchi Paasurams.  

VaithALikAs and  Vandhis
*************************
The servants of the Lord who awakens Him 
in the morning to the  accompaniment of MangaLa 
Vadhyams is known as VaithALikAs . The kings of
the old times had VaithALikAs to awaken them.
SrI RanganAthan is the King of Kings , Emperor of
Emperors (RangarAjA). All the Universes are under 
His control. He has two categories of Servants :
One to awaken Him (VaithALikAs)and the others
to eulogize Him (Vandhis/BhAgavathAs) during 
the morning hours and to perform SaaRRumuRai for Him . 
Vedams and Upanishads also serve as the Vandhis. 
Many parijanams take part in the awakening ceremonies 
and serve as VaithALikAs. For MahA Lakshmi , the Vandhi
and VaithALikAs for ThirupaLLiyezucchi are one and 
the same (Viz).,the elephants standing by the side of 
Her Lotus forest ( asvapoorvAm raTamadhyAm HasthinAdha 
prabhOdhinIm).

After awakening from His Yoga NidhrA , the Lord 
ascends His Padhukai .The Upanishads and Vedams
serve as Vandhis and  vaithLikAs at this time:

YadhArOhasya VedAnthA: Vandhi-VaithALikA: Svayam
--SrI RanganAtha  paddhathi: VaithALikA Paddhathi: SlOkam 1 

Lord Raamachandran's ThiruppaLLiyezucchi
*****************************************
On the banks of river GangA , Sage  ViswAmithrA 
awakened the resting Lord RaamachandrA and 
reminded Him about the arrival of prAtha: sandhyA kAlam
for the performance of His morning anushtAnams:

KousalyA SuprajA Raama poorvA-sandhyA pravartatE
utthishta narasArdhUla karthavyam dhaivamAhnikam
--SrImadh RaamAyanam  

(meaning): Oh the glorious and celebrated 
Suputhran of Queen KousalyA! Oh RaamachandrA! 
Oh the Supreme One(Tiger) among Males! The dawn is 
blossoming . The nithya karmAs intended for
the dEvAs (SandhyAvandhanam et al) that need to be 
performed by us are waiting to be done by You. 
Please arise and  attend to them. 

Uthsavar RanganAthan is none other than Lord 
Raamabhadran. The above ThiruppaLLiyezucchi 
is therefore very appropriate for Lord RanganAthan.

Govindhan's  ThiruppaLLiyezucchi 
*********************************
Moolavar RanganAthan is DaamOdhara KrishNan .
Hence SuprabhAdham to Him as Govindhan is
also appropriate:

utthitthOthishta Govindha utthishta Garudadhvaja
utthishta KamalAkAntha ThrailOkyam mangaLlam kuru
--SrI Venkatesa SuprabhAtham

(Meaning): Oh GovindhA ! Please arise from Your nidhrA!
Oh Lord with Garudan on Your flag ! Please arise!
Oh the Lord of SrI DEvi! Please awaken ! Please
bless all the three worlds with auspiciousness 
through Your karuNA KatAksham!

This slOkma is used at Thirumalai for Lord's
SuprabhAtham with the auspicous ghOsham of
GovindhA , GovindhA ! 

SuprabhAdham at ThiruviNNagaram (OppilA appan Koil)
***************************************************

utthishtOutthishta SarvEsa! Utthishta DharaNIpathE !
UtthishtaAbrapurAdhIsa ! lOkAnAm mangaLam kuru 

(meaning): Oh Lord of All chEthanams and achEthanams!
Please awaken and arise from Your night's rest .
Oh Lord of BhUmi Devi! Please awaken ! 
ThiruviNNagrappA! Please arise and cause 
auspiciousness to the Universe !

ThirupaLLiyezucchi at  Srirangam
*********************************

ThoNdaradippodi AzhwAr describes to the Lord 
the events associated with Dawn and explains to
Him as to why  He should get up and go about 
discharging His sworn duties. These wonderful 
thoughts of the AzhwAr are captured in the ten beautiful 
Paasurams of ThirupaLLiyezhucchi, which has echos of 
many  pasages from Andal's  ThiruppAvai .
 
ThoNdaradippodi AzhwAr was awakened 
from his deep samsAric slumber at one time 
by  Lord RanganAthan at the goading of His
PirAtti , SrIranganAyaki. AzhwAr was forever
grateful to the dhivya dampathis of SrIrangam 
and prayed to Them to confer similar blessings on
the slumbering Jeevans and awaken them from their 
deep sleep of ajn~anam and viparItha Jn~Anam 
and unite them with AchAryAs for the UpAya 
anushtAnams.

ThoNDaradippodi AzhwAr reminds the Lord about
the signs of day  break , alerts Him about 
the enormous assembly of DEvAs, Maharishis, 
GandharvAs , KinnarAs, VidhyAdharAs , Navagrahams,
kings waiting for the Lord's darsana soubhAgyam 
at the early hours of the day.

The ThiruppaLLIyezhuchci Paasurams invite Sri RanganAthA's 
attention to the unmistakable signs of day break and  
appeal to Him to awaken from His Yoga NidhrA
and bless all those ( Brahma , DEvAs , Rishis , Kings ,
maruths, KinnarAs , YakshAs, gandharvAs and others)
assembled in front of His PraNavAkAra VimAnam .

adiyEn will cover the two Taniyans of ThiruppaLLiyezucchi and the First
Paasuram in the next posting.

ThoNDaradippodi AzhwAr  ThiruvadigaLE Saranam,
AdiyEn , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan

P.S : Please do not forget to support the RathnAngi
Kaimkaryam for Lord  DhaivanAtyakan of ThiruvahIdhrapuram .
Please contsact me .Thanks. 






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