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nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL 3

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • November 4, 1999 


                        SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL
        pASuram 10.3 (tenth tirumozhi - pAsuram 3
kOvai maNATTi)

                pAMbaNaiyArkkum nAkku iranDO?

kOvai maNATTi! nI un kozhu'm kani koNDu emmai
 Avi tolaiviyEl vAyazhagar tammai a'njudum;
pAviyEn tOnRi pAmbaNaiyArkkum tam pAmbu pOl
 nAvum iraNDu uLavAittu nAN iliyEnukkE

A. Meaning from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

godai sees the kOvai fruits on the kOvai plant in her
father's
garden fence and exclaims: "amma, kOvaippirATTi! Do
not torture
me with your fully developed, reddish fruits! Your red
fruits remind me of tirumAlicmcOlai mAmAyan's lips.  
As a
result of my birth, a great mishap happened to that
emperumAn,
who is lying on the serpent bed; His tongue split into
two just
like the tiru anantAzhvAn's tongue. With this forked
tongue,
He started lying to me. With one tongue, He says that
He
will come and take me and with the other, He says that
He
never said anything like that before. Thinking that it
is
all because of my sin, I am pining for Him
shamelessly. What
can I do?

B. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP :

ANDAL saw the kArkkoDal flowers, and they reminded her
of
His complexion;  she saw the mEl tOnRi's, and they
reminded her
of His tiruvAzhi; now she sees the kOvai flowers, and
they remind
her of His red and beautiful lips.

kOvai maNATTi:  The term "maNATTi" can be interpreted
as referring to bhagavAn's pirATTi, or one that has
good
fragrance (maNam).  How would a kOvaikkoDi (a vine)
have a
good fragrance?  Since the kOvaippazham (fruit)
resembles
emperumAn's red lips, it will have the smell of the
tiruppavaLac cevvAi of emperumAn.  She has just
finished
asking the Sankam "karuppUram nArumO kamalappU nArumO
tiruppavaLac cevvAi tAn tittittu irukkumO" (nAcciyAr
tirumozhi
7-1).  See also SrI UV's interpretation for "maNATTi"
in
the next section.

nI:   isn't it enough that kAndaL flower and mEltonRi
flower torture me? Do you have to follow suit by
appearing in
the middle of a bush?

un:  "You don't undergo the torture like me since you
don't understand the feeling of separation from Him. 
But
since you are a vine (koDi) yourself, if you only you
understood that you are a female yourself, as one
female to
another, should you not desist from torturing me by
not appearing
in front of me and reminding me of His beautiful red
lips?"

kozhum kani:  These kOvai fruits are so beautifully
red
that they resemble His beautiful lips.

Avi tolaiviyEl: ANDAL wonders:  It is not just that
the kOvai
fruits are torturing her mildly or outwardly, they are
hitting
at her "Avi" itself - her life's very roots.  Already
the
kArkkODal flowers and the mEl tOnRi flowers have
drained her
life away from her - what else is there to drain for
these kOvai           
fruits, and why are they torturing her even more now?

How can the acEtana vastu like the kOvaik koDi 
understand all
these words from godai and respond to her such as "I
am not
torturing you or destroying your Avi"?   Still, it is
a fact
that kOvai fruits are reminding her of emperumAn's red
lips and
torturing her, and so she forgets that they are
acetana-s,
and pleads with them to spare her.

SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye'ngAr quotes here from kALidAsan
in mEghasandESam
- "kamArtA hi prakRti kRpaNAh cEtanA cEtanEshu" -
those who are
experiencing viraha tApam, will not know the
difference between
cetanam and acetanam.

vAyazhagar tammai a'njudum:  "During the times I am
spending
time with emperumAn, I will be overwhelmed by the
sweetness of
association with Him, and will keep closing my eyes
with
fear (that this may end sometime?).  When I am
separated from
Him, I keep my eyes closed because everything reminds
me of
Him.  Even though I keep saying " I am afraid", you
(kOvaikkoDi)
are not saying "mA Sucah" (gItai 18-66); you could
have
said "Don't be afraid; I will disappear from your
sight."                  
pAviyEn tonRi:  "It was only after I was born, that
this
plight of falling at the feet of kOvaikkoDi has
resulted. Before
I was born,  periyAzhvAr and emperumAn regularly
shared all
their secrets with each other and all that ceased only
after
I was born".

pAviyEn tonRi nAvum iranDuLa vAittu:  "With
periAzhvar, bhagavAn
used to always tell the truth, and there was no issue
of
double talk from Him.  If He had indulged in any
double
talk, their relationship would have been cut off right
away.  He
made periAzhvAr praise Him as "onRE uraippAn oru SollE
SolluvAn" (periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 2-6-4) since
periAzhvAr
did not know His true nature.  Now He is showing His
true nature
by His action towards me, and His behavior is:  "I
will
keep talking as my mind dictates; let godai live or
die".
Godai is now lamenting: "All this is only because of
my sinful birth"."

sItA pirATTi laments similarly when she is separated
from Lord
rAma:  rAmAyaNam sundara kANDam 26-11 ("SankE
madbhAgya
sankshayAt" - rAma, who is known for His great
knowledge and
the quality of not forgetting the help done to Him,
has become
compassionless only because of my dur-bhAgyam).  Also 

"mamaiva dushkRtam ki'ncit mahadasti na samSayah -
There is
not the slightest doubt that I must have committed
very big
sins since Lord rAma and lakshmaNa have ignored me" -
sundara kANDam 38-48.

Similarly bharatAzhvAn considers it a result of his
sins
that Lord rAma had to go to the forest - "mat pApam
Eva nimittamAsIt vana praveSe raghunandanasya"
(ayodhyAkANDam ).

pAmbaNaiyArkkum:  "Or maybe emperumAn is not by nature
a double-talker;  it may be all because of His
sahavAsa
dOsham with AdiSeshan.   This sahavAsam is two-fold: 
They
both went to school together (as rAma and lakshmaNa,
or
kRshNa and balarAma);  He also has now AdiSeshan as
His bed".

tam pAmbu pOl: godai's anger with emperumAn is now
flowing
past Him to anantAzhvAn; even though he is a bed for
godai (bhUdEvi) - phaNipatih SayyAsanam for pirATTi
(catuh Sloki 1),
she cuts off her relationship with him and associates
him with
only emperumAn (tam pAmbu").   It is only because of
this bhogam
(which has two meanings - pleasure or snake) of "tam
pAmbu)
that He just ignores godai and still continues to
live.

So also godai associates pA'ncajanyam with padmanAbhan
and
indirectly disassociates his association with her in
nAcciyAr
tirumozhi 7-10 -  "pAncajanniyattaip paRpanAbhanODum
vAinda
perum cuRRam Akkiya godai"); she disassociated
pAncajanyan
with her and associated him with paRpanAbhan.   In
pAsuram 10 of this tirumozhi, she will be calling Him
as "tangaL dEvar" - periAzhvAr's perumAL!

Why is godai consistently disassociating herself like
this?
SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye'ngAr's anubhavam is that she is
overwhelmed with anger and frustration.)

nAvum iraNDu uLavAittu:  "He is talking
contradictorily like
a person having two tongues.  No one else can do this
kind of double-talking except one having two tongues".

All the words such as:  rAma doesn't indulge in
double-talk
("rAmO dvir nAbhibhAshatE");  "na me mOgham vAco
bhavEt"
("The sky may fall, the Ocean may become dry, but my
words
will never be false"); etc. have not been true in
ANDAL's
case.   On the one hand He says "I cannot live without
you -
unnaip piriyEn, pirindAl tariyEn", and then He makes
it all
a lie and separates Himself from her. Godai says He is

double-tongued, especially because the rest of the
world still
believes and respects this double-talker's words as
true.

nAN iliyEnukkE: "On the one hand, periAzhvAr, my
father,
selflessly devoted himself to His service, and without
caring
for any self interest such as bhagavad anubhavam, was
only
concerned about the welfare of emperumAn and sang
pallANDu for Him
to overcome the fear of any harm to Him.  On the other
hand,
I am bearing the name of periAzhvAr's daughter, but
shamelessly publicize His deficiencies and am only
worried about
getting Him.  Oh! What a contradiction it is that I
who was
born to periAzhvAr should shamelessly indulge in this
act.  Just
because His nature has changed from One who speaks the
truth
always to One who is now a double-talker, I need not
have
changed my nature as periAzhvAr's daughter.  This is
cause
for shame".

C. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

It is interesting to note that SrI UV has yet another
anubhavam of
this pASuram:

maNATTi:  SrI UV interprets the term maNATTi as one   

who has greatness (mATcimai).   He is following the
line of thought
he presented for the previous pASuram viz. that godai
is taking
extreme care now not to antoganize anything or anyone.
She
is giving up her antagonistic attitude and is trying
to treat
everything with respect. kOvaik koDi becomes maNATTi
and mullaik
koDi (next pASuram) is going to be mullaip pirATTi. So
also,
she is changing her treatment of emperumAn from now on
- whereas
she addressed Him in singular earlier as "enguRRAn",
is now
addressing Him with respect as "vAi azhagar" and
"pAmbaNaiyAr".

SrI UV also gives a new anubhavam for ANDAL calling
emperumAn
as double-tongued.  He is known for His adherence to
truth
always, as evidenced by "rAmo dvir nAbhibhAshate", and
also as declared by His intimate devotee SrI
periAzhvAr.  ANDAL
now feels that He is not keeping up His word to her
only
because she started having the feeling that He can't
live without
her and there is nothing He can do to her.  So it is
the same
tongue with which He is now telling her something
different because
of her sin of having been hot-headed.  If ANDAL does
not tell
this to kOvai maNATTi because of her shyness, then of
course
kovai maNATTI won't know the truth; so she is giving
up all
her shyness and declaring the truth.  The reference to
"His having
two tongues" is thus not meant as an insult to Him or
to                  
make fun of Him.

While SrI PVP interprets the pASuram as meaning that
He
ended up with two tongues because of His association
with
AdiSeshan and ANDAL, even being periAzhvAr's daughter,
instead of forgetting her selfish need for Him, is
shamelessly
calling Him names such as a double-tongued person, SrI
UV
gives an alternate interpretation.  SrI UV's
interpretation is
that He ended up with two tongues only to make her get
rid
of her shameful conduct of not admitting that she is
subservient to Him:  nAvu iraNDu uLavAga Anadu nAN
iliyEnukkAgavE)
- He assumed the double tongue only to make her give
up her
shame and admit that she is subservient to Him etc.

emmai:  the plural is to include her tOzhi also - if
her Avi
is gone i.e., if she passes away pining for Him, her
friend
will also loose her life as a result.

D. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

SrI PBA gives yet another interpretation - that she
feels
she is shameless because in spite of all his
double-talk she
is still shamelessly pining for Him.                  


E. Additional thoughts from SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye'ngAr:

"I am kulakkoDi of vEyar kulam; you are the
kOvaikkoDi;
are you trying to pick up a cakkaLatti (another wife)
fight with me?".   The interpretation here is that
godai is
using the word 'mANATTi' as emperumAn's dEvi.

[Abbreviations: SrI PVP=Sri periyavAccAn piLLai;
SrI PBA=SrI prativAti bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr;
SrI UV=SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr]

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri                   
 

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