nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO 1

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VII - karuppUram nARumO

pASuram 7.1 (seventh tirumozhi - pAsuram 1 karuppUram nARumO)

 

A. Translation from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

In the first pASruam of the seventh tirumozhi, godai asks

pAncajanyam, with great longing for kaNNan's adharAmr*tam:

"Oh, white conch, who has the blessing of getting the

sambandham of kaNNan's beautiful lips. I would like

to ask you this: please tell me how the taste of the

adhara-s (lips) of kaNNapirAn (who killed the elephant,

kuvalayApIDam, by breaking its tusks) is, since you are

the most experienced one in this regard. Does the

fragrance of bhagavAn's mouth resemble that of kaRpUram

(paccaik kaRpURam in tamizh)? Or, is it like the sugandham

emanating from blossomed lotus flower? Do the mugil vaNNan's

red lips taste sweet like rock candy? Please explain

to me clearly how His mouth tastes and how it smells, for

I am longing for the anubhavam of these."

 

karuppUram nARumO kamalappU nARumO

tiruppavaLa SevvAi tAn tittittu irukkumO

maruppu oSitta mAdhavan tan vAic cuvaiyum nARRamum

viruppuRRu kETkinREn Sol Azhi veN San~ge

 

B. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

 

karuppUram nARumO kamalappU nARumO: the smell of kaRppUram

(paccaik kaRpURam) is stinging and has a hotness (kAram in tamizh);

lotus flower always smells cool. kaNNan's tiruppavaLa SevvAi's

smell will not have any of the defects of these two objects,

but will have only the good aspects. He is described in the veda-s

as sarva-gandhah sarva-rasah - (chAndogya 3.14.2). These lips

and mouth that ANDAL is longing for are the part of this

great tirumEni.

 

tiruppavaLac-cevvAi tAn tittittu irukkumO: ANDAL gave two

alternatives when she was asking about the smell of His

tiru-adharam, but is now giving only one choice when it came

to asking about the taste of bhagavAn's mouth. It

is as if the person who is immersed in water can't think

of anything else. Now godai is already lost in His

anubhavam, and is not able to think of several things.

So she is not asking whether His mouth tastes like honey or

rock candy or etc. In fact, the minute she saw His red

lips, she has not been able to concentrate on anything else.

He is the abode of the best of the sapta sparSa rUpa rasa

ganda-s and so He is the food for all the indriya-s. (Note

that He is hr*shIkeSa or hr*shIkAnAm ISah - He controls our

indriya-s as He wishes).

 

maruppu oSitta mAdhavan - When rAma destroyed several rAkshasa-s

including kara and dUshNa single-handedly, sItA pirATTi could

not control her great joy, and embraced rAma and hugged Him.

 

"tam dhrushtvA satrujantAram maharshINam sukAvaham |

babhUva hrushtvA vaidEhI bhartAram parishasvajE ||"

(rAmAyaNam AraNya kANDam 30-40).

 

Here ANDAL has the same feeling and wants to embrace closely

her kaNNan for His brave act of destroying kuvalayApIDam.

 

viruppuRRu kETkinREn: In gItA 9.1, bhagavAn tells

arjuna that the reason He is teaching the great secret about

bhakti yoga and the knowledge to free oneself from all evil,

because he is free from asUyA - because he sees the

qualities of bhagavAn as they are meant to be seen -

as kalyANa guNa-s, and not find faults or defect in them

instead. In gItA 18.67, Lord kr*shNa tells arjuna that the

SAstra that has been taught to him should never be

revealed to anyone who is not austere, not a devotee, or

does not wish to listen to the knowledge about Him, but

certainly not to one who analyzes His qualities and finds

faults in them. This last category is a definite NO-NO

(idam te nAtapaskAya). In the case of ANDAL, she does not

need to be told that first she has to accept His guNa-s without

finding fault with them, and then only desire to know His qualities.

She does not have to first get rid of her "jealousy" and

then develop a love, thereby prolonging the time to get to

emperumAn. One doesn't have to tell her about loving Him.

godai doesn't have to be told, because she already has great

love towards Him and thus she is proceeding to the next

step viz. asking the Sa~nkam for the knowledge about bhagavAn.

 

Azhi veN San~ge: The veN-Sa~ngu is huge in shape; ANDAL

says that now the conch has to behave in a broad-minded way,

and respond to her questions. The Sa~ngu was born in the

Ocean which serves to support a multitude of life-forms;

ANDAL expects the conch to now tell her all about bhagavAn so

that it can continue to live listening to these. The bright

white color of the veN Sa~ngu is so striking that it registers

in ANDAL's mind; she now expects the response from the conch

such that it really registers in her mind and pleases her.

 

veN San~ge: SrI PVP gives another explanation also:

The Sa~ngu keeps getting whiter and whiter (i.e., paler and

paler) in spite of being constantly associated with Him (meaning

Sangam is having viraga tApam and is becoming whiter and paler

from love, even though it has the constant accompaniment of

emperumAn); so, the veN Sa~ngu should certainly understand

ANDAL's pining in love for Him.

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

 

adiyEn,

Kalyani Krishnamachari