ANDALS THIRUPPAVAI PASURAMS 6 TO 9 In my earlier posts on pasuram 5 (Maayanai mannu vada madurai..) and pasuram 6 (puLLam silambina kaaN...), I had mentioned that Andal is describing for us the five forms in which the Lord is worshipped. This is quite obvious when we study pasuram 5 where Andal describes how one should worship Krishna and tells us about a couple of the childhood pastimes (leelas) of Krishna. The worship of Krishna, with showering of flowers and singing of His glories, is the worship of arca vigrahas in our temples. It then becomes obvious that she is also describing the other four forms of the Lord in pasurams 1 to 4. This theme is continued in pasurams 6 to 10 where more leelas are described. Pasuram 6 starts with the description of the dawn and the chirping of birds that we hear (puLLum silambina kaaN). The birds that Andal is alluding to none other than the Lord Himself, who took the form of the swan to instruct the four Sanatkumaras. This is known as the Hamsaavatara. The Sanatkumaras, of course, are the four sons of Brahma, who refused to enter into family life and procreate and populate the world, as desired by Brahma, since the Lord had commanded Brahma to engage Himself in the task of creation. Other reference to bird is found in the same first line of pasuram 6 with puLLaraiyan koilil. Here puLLaraiyan is taken to refer to the king of the birds or Garuda who serves as the vehicle for the Lord. PuLLaraiyan koilil means in the temple of Lord who has the king of the birds as His vehicle. In this temple, we hear the conch being blown in the early morning hours. The conch itself is described as being white. The swan is white, the conch is white and white symbolizes purity or the saatvic state - the mode of goodness. There is an interesting discussion of pasuram 6 and the birds alluded here that I have cited in the comment box to this post. The commentator refers to pasurams 6 and 13 and sees the reference to another bird, Jataayu, who came to the rescue of Sita when she was being abducted by Ravana. In pasurams 6 to 15, as the superficial description goes, Andal is going from house to house, waking up her friends to join her in the paavai nombu (the ritual performed by young virgin damsels to get a good husband, which really means that all of us must perform such austerities to get the Lord as our protector, like the husband who is to act as protector - not a tormentor of the wife). The young damsel being woken up in pasuram 6 (already discussed at length in earlier posts) is called PiLLai. Two leelas of the Lord as baby Krishna (drinking of Putanas breast milk and shattering of the asura in the form of a car, or shakatam) are described. In pasuram 7, the Lord Himself is referred to as Kesava, the one who killed the demon Kesi, who appeared in the disguise of a horse. The sleeping damself is described as an exalted one - naayaga pEN piLLai - the exalted and luminous one who understands Kesava as the NaaraayaNan moorthi - the Kesava or Krishna is the Lord Himself, the Lord Narayana, the Para Vasudeva. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, where all the incarnations are described, the description ends with Krishnas tu Bhagavaan swayam - Krishna, Kesava, Narayanan moorthi, is the Supreme Being, the Lord Himself. Andal wants this damsel (naayaga pEN piLLai) to wake up and join her and her friends in their nombu. To wake her up, she refers to other beautiful scenes of the early morning hours which is also described in the Venkatesa Suprabhatam (yoshaa gaNena vara dhadni vimathya maanE). In fact, the Venkatesa Suprabhatam, composed after Andals Thiruppavai borrows from the Thiruppavai description. The scene described is the churning of the curd, buttermlik, or yogurt to which water has been added, to produce butter. This was the first duty that young women of the household engaged themselves in pristine times. The sound of these churning pots reveberates through the quiet hours of the morning. How could one miss it? Not only that. We can hear the jingling sound made by the bangles as they churn the pots. How can we miss that? Not just that. They are singing the praises of the Lord and are nicely decked and anointed and have fragrant flowers decorating their hair. The fragrance is being carried by the cool early morning breeze. How can a sleeping person not hear these sounds or smell such sweet fragrance? This is the description in lines 3 to 5 of pasuram 7. Actually, this damsel, being a highly evolved soul, is not asleep. She is wide awake and enjoying all this. She just did not get up from her bed. Other imageries regardind the hidden meaning of each and every word can be found in the commentaries cited earlier (see also comment box). In pasuram 8, the sleeping damself is called kodhoogalam uDaiya paavai, or one with a lot of enthusiasm and devotion for the Lord. She too is an exalted devotee. The Lord is referred to as Devaadhi devan, the God of all the gods. The conquest of various wrestlers when Krishna returns to Mathura at the invitation of Kamsa (who had developed schemes to kill Krishna) are mentioned here. In this context, we should also recall the implied mention of Krishna killing a mighty elephant, named Kuvalayadweepa, in pasuram 7. This elephant was a strong as a thousand elephants. Kamsa invited Krishna to Mathura and posted this elephant at the gate of the city, thinking that the elephant would finish off Krishna. (keechu keechu endru aanai chaaththan, aanai chaaththan is the name of the bird that is supposed to be chirping incessantly but aanai also means elephant and so commentators refer to the Kuvalayadweepa episode as a hidden meaning). Another Krishna leela is also mentioned, the killing of the asura who took the form of a horse (Kesi), and ordered by Kamsa to kill baby Krishna. The mouth of Kesi was split open (maavaai piLandhaanai) to kill him. The asura Kesi is taken to be our ignorance. The great guru, or acarya, splits our mouths open and infuses knowledge into it thus destroying our ignorance. The Kesi episode of pasuram 7 is further expanded here in pasuram 8. The scene described in pasuram 8 is the brightening of the early morning sky before the sun actually rises. The lower parts of the horizon (keezh vaanam) turn bright at first. Andal also mention buffaloes who are already out grazing on the grass which is still covered with the morning dew. The buffaloes are dark. They also walk much more slowly than cows. They are considered to be dull creatures. Even they are up and grazing in the morning and the day is progressing. Further discussion of the spiritual significance of this imagery can be found in the commentaries cited. In pasuram 9, the sleeping damself is called uncles daughter, in other words a very dear relative. One must develop such intimate relationship (deha sambandam) with evolved souls, or gurus, who will unlock divine secrets for us. This is the reason for the opulent imagery in this pasuram. This dear damself is asleep on an orante bed, surrounded by beautiful ornate lamps that are lit, in a nice mansion. This opulence is indeed the wealth of knowledge that is to be revealed to us. This comes from developing an intimate relation with the guru. The maternal uncle (maamaa) is indeed the real guru for many of us, and is the dearest of relatives. Through him we learn a lot. This is a matter of experience. It is this relation that is being alluded to by Andal in spiritual terms. The Lord Himself is now referred to again as Maamaayan (already discussed in the context of pasuram 5, maayanai mannu vada madurai..), Madhavan, and the Lord residing in VaikuNTha. Madhava also means the Husband (dhava) of Maa, or MahaLakshmi. He is the Lord of all opulences. Singing all His glories and spreading these glories and His naamas (like the Vishnu Sahasranamam that too must be chanted daily, especially during Margazhi month) - naamam palavum navinDRElor - let us enjoy the naamas, i.e., study their meaning as well instead of just chanting the naamas.... if we do all this, Andal promises for us the great benefit of being one with the Lord Himself in VaikuNtha. The chanting of the naamaas should give us great pleasure. Andal calls her aunt (maameer) and asks her to wake up her daughter who seems to be in deep sleep. Andal asks, is your daughter dumb (cannot speak) or deaf (cannot hear)? So much is going on and she is still snoring away. One could just as well argue that if one is hearing the divine naamaas one will literally turn deaf to all else and dumb too and speak nothing else. This is my humble summary of the pasurams covered to date. Please note that everything that I presented is extracted from what I have learned over years from commentaries by others on the Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam and Thriuppavai, notably the commentaries complied by Sriman Sadagopan cited in the comment box. Hari Bol! Govinda Govindaa!! Om Namo NaaraayaNaaya l
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 09:46:46 +0000
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