SrI: SrI ANDAL samEta SrI ra’ngamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam General Introduction to nAcciyAr tirumozhi XIV – paTTi mEyndOr kArERu A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise: So far gOdai has used the nAyaka-nAyaki bhAvam to show that the sole purpose in life is for the jIvAtmA to seek union with the paramAtmA and attain brahmAnandam only after reaching paramAtmA. She has outlined in detail the sorrow that the jIvAtmA goes through until this union happens. This is the only and the supreme goal. Sri SadagOpan quotes SrImAn Justice rAmAnujam: “All the wealth in nature are God’s blessings; these are meant to be used by people as fertilizers in growing the bhakti in the society” - (i.e., to be used in His service and nothing else). That is what ANDAL is pointing out through her aRuL mozhigaL. gOdai who showed us that the only goal of life is to be united with emperumAn, sang the praise of “Ongi ulagaLanda uttaman” and got the greatness of being permanently united with Him. To show that reaching His kaimkarya sAmrAjyam is a herculean task, she sang the first one hundred and thirty three pASurams of nAcciyAr tirumozhi depicting the viraha bhakti (tApam), UDal (fight representing the temporary frustrations) etc. In the last 10 pASurams, she describes with great glee how her kaNNan, who was playing hide and seek with her, finally showed Himself up and gave her a sight where He revealed Himself to her and her friends in AyarpADi and removed all their despair. Thus ends the viSlesham (the separation and the longing associated with it), and the samslEsham (the brahmaAnda anubhavam associated with realizing Him) is attained. B. Additional thoughts based on SrI PVP and the commentary of puttUr SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye’ngAr: gOdai started with the realization and declaration: “nArAyaNanE namakkE paRai tariuvAn” in the first pASuram of tiruppAvai. Here, nArAyaNanE refers to the upAyam or means, and “namakkE paRai taruvAn” refers to kaimkaryam as the benefit to be attained. Since she had not succeeded in attaining this, she proceeded in nAcciyAr tirumozhi with falling at the feet of kAman (1), performing SiRRil (2), resorting to observances such as taking bath before dawn in the river (3), playing kUDal game (4), and conversing with the cuckoo and desiring to see Him in person (5). Since she did not succeed yet, she tried to live with just the dream of her marriage with kaNNan (6). Since the dream anubhvam was not enough, she asked pA’ncajanya AzhvAn for the means to attain Him (7), then she was reminded of Him by the clouds because their color resembled His nIla mEni (8), and used them as messengers just like sItA pirATTi sent word through hanumAn to Lord rAma. Being reminded of His soundaryam because of the things she saw in the rainy season, she started losing herself (9). She starts the tenth tirumozhi with further expression of her intense pain of separation from Him, and in pASuram 10-4, she expresses her losing faith in His word “na tyajEyam” (I will not forsake My devotees). She then starts feeling that even her AcArya sambandham (association with periAzhvAr who was very dear to Him) was not sufficient for her to reach Him. But by the end of the 10th tirumozhi (10.10), she reaffirms that even if His words (na tyajeyam) turn out to be false, her AcArya sambandham will definitely yield the result without fail. By the end of the 11th tirumozhi, ANDAL again declares that His words cannot after all be untrue, because priAzhvAr trusts in His words; even otherwise, if He decides not to keep His word, who is there in this universe who can question Him any way? But neither her trust in her sambandham with her AcAryan, nor her trust in His words, have yielded the result as yet. She is becoming weaker every second, and she decides to try to reach Him by her own efforts; and since she is too weak to undertake any effort by herself, she asks her elders to take her and leave her in any place which has His sambandham (12). In tirumozhi 13, she pleads with her elders that if they cannot do that, then they should at least bring any material that has had association with Him, and establish a connection of that object with her self, so that she can sustain her life (13). Thus, ANDAL’s life was one of being born in a prapanna kulam that had nArAyaNa as the sole object to be attained and to be worshiped, and nArAyaNa as the means to be attained as well as the end to be attained. Even so, she could not just sit around for Him to unite her with Him, and she resorted to all means at her disposal to attain Him, and could not sustain her life until she attained Him. While ANDAL was thus going through intense pain because of her separation from Him, emperumAn wished to transform her love for Him into parama bhakti – the stage where bhakti overflowed beyond limit and she could not see herself alive without Him even for a second any more, and then only He wanted to reveal Himself to her. The bliss of this union with Him is such that the person who is not prepared to receive it will not be able to enjoy that experience. Just as food given to persons suffering from indigestion might result in danger to their life, the great bliss of union with Him might not be digestible if a bhakta has not matured to the stage of parama bhakti. Now that ANDAL’s devotion to Him is at its ultimate limit, He decides to shower this great bliss of union with Him on her. Just as nammAzhvAr (tiruvAimozhi ) received a blessing “en avAvaRac cUzhndAi”, gOdai also is showered with His Grace. Finally, gOdai’s kaNNan ennum kAdalan, her kaNNil ADum mAyavan, her “kuRai onRum illAda gOvindan”, shows Himself to her. Since the parama bhakti that is needed for reaching Him, and the pErinbam that results from reaching Him, are both limitless and beyond description by any one individual, ANDAL captures this anubhavam by presenting these two aspects through pASurams involving conversation between two sets of people. It can also be said that it is difficult to find a cEtanan who has both parama bhakti and also the pErimba experience at the same time in this world. For this reason also, one can say that the pAsurams of this current tirumozhi (paTTi mEyndu) are presented in two parts – in the form of a conversation between two sets of people. The first part starts with the question from the seekers asking whether they have seen emperumAn – this represents the seekers’ ‘parama bhakti’; the second part is the response of those who have had the pErAnandam of having attained Him – this represents the ‘pErinbam’ of those that have attained Him after seeking Him with parama bhakti. C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA: For all the suffering that ANDAL went through as conveyed from “tai oru ti`ngaL” up to “kaNNan ennum”, she now concludes with the great blessing that she received from kaNNan by His appearance to her. This is analogous to the experience of nammAzhvAr in “en ava aRac cUzhndAyE”. Unlike nammAzhvAr who describes his realization in first person, ANDAL chooses to present her realization in the form of a dialog between two groups of gopi-s. D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV: gOdai decides to forsake all her own efforts “ciru mAniDivar nAm Seyvaden” and leaves it all to her father “villipuduvai viTTucittar tangaL dEvarai valla pariSu varuvipparEl adu kANDumE” (NT 10.10). When vishNu cittar understands through gOdai’s folks her pitiful plight of pining for her gOvindan, he decides to bring Him to her using his prabhAvam. To show that, gOdai uses the term “viTTu cittar viyan gOdai” (NT 13.10). In order to please periyAzhvAr, kaNNan shows Himself to her with His parivAram in brindAvanam. Becoming ecstatic with the sight, gOdai shares her delight with all her friends and composes this last tirumozhi to describe that event. There are three interpretations for the way the pASurams are arranged with “kaNDIrE” in the first half and “kaNDOmE” in the second half. First interpretation: the tirumozhi is a dialog between two groups of gopi-s – one set representing the overflowing prama bhakti towards Him and the resulting search for Him, and the other set representing the resulting anubhavam on attaining Him. This is the way that SrI PVP has interpreted the tirumozhi. Second interpretation: In the first two lines of each pASuram, seeing kaNNan and being excited by His sight, she asks the gopi-s around her whether they are seeing Him the way she is seeing Him, and then in the next two lines, she describes what she is seeing – her anubhavam. Third interpretation: ANDAL had pleaded with her elders to bring anything that belongs to Him and associate them with her so that her grief will be removed. Now she has found kaNNan, and she is showing Him to those surrounding her, and confirming that they see Him also, so that they will believe her at least now. In order to ensure that all those surrounding ANDAL trust her and heed her words in future, kaNNan reveals Himself to them also. She is repeating their responses in the affirmative – that they are also seeing kaNNan in bRndAvanam in their midst, in the last two lines of each pASuram. This is similar to kaNNan showing His viSva rUpam to the deva-s also, in addition to showing the viSva rUpam to arjuna, to ensure that the deva-s will treat arjuna with the proper respect. This third interpretation gains credibility because mostly in the first two lines of most pASurams, we find the words that refer to ANDAL (“ennai” etc.), whereas the last two lines invariably end with “bRndAvanattE kaNDOmE”. The reference to bRndAvanam here confirms that the gopi-s are not really in bRndAvanam, but that kaNNan is showing Himself to them along with bRndAvanam, with all the specialities of brindAvanam. In NT pASuram 10.10 (‘nalla en tOzhi’), we see the reference to “kANDumE” – in plural. The intent is that because of the blessing of, and association with, periAzhvAr, not only ANDAL but all the other gopi-s are blessed with His appearance. What gOdai wants to stress here with the plural of “adu kANDumE” is – with just her way alone, even she cannot see Him; but, if the same is a present from vishNu cittar, everyone can see Him. Abbreviations: ------------------ PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr UV = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi. aDiyAL, kalyANi kRshNamAcAri