Andal's Tirupavai -part A

[Guest guest]

Tirupavai – Introduction

 

The opening pasurams (stanzas) 1 – 5. deals with the four fundamental Srivaisnava doctrines, knowledge of which is a pre-requisite for spiritual development. These are:

1.prapya svarupam – nature of the goal of life

2. prapaka svarupam - the means to which can directly lead us to the goal

3. adhikara svarupam – the qualification required for an aspirant who wants to reach the goal through these means

4. phala svarupam – the results of such a spiritual quest:- the destruction of Karma and general prosperity for others

 

Invocation

 

O Andal radiant like flash of lightning! You bedecked yourself first with the garland intended for Ranganatha and then offered it to Him. By your great talent in poetry yo composed the renowned and ancient hymn Tirupavai O Andal adorned with many beautiful bangles, please shower your Grace on us so that we become greatly devoted top Lord Krishna : with the same sincerity of devotion that you asked Kamadeva .. “O Kamadeva , be pleased to make me a humble servant and bride of Lord Venkatesa !”

 

Pasuram 1

 

The auspicious full moon of Margazhi is here –

Maidens bejewelled and keen on bathing , came out !

Darling girls of the cowherd clan

Whose hamlet brims over with beauty and wealth:

Young Lion of Yasoda with her loved-filled eyes

Cloud hued, red eyed, sun and moon for His face

His Gracious drum for us

To sing His praise and gain the world’s

 

In this stanza Andal invited the other gopis from among the 500,000 families of Aypadi (Gokula) to rise early and join her, so that they can all go together in a group to ask Krsna for the parai (drum – which symbolises the purusartha or goal of life)

 

Esoteric Meaning

 

O Cetanas (souls) who are matchless in knowledge, devotion and dispassion, who are the inhabitants of this place wherein reside great people totally absorbed in service to the Lord ! Come out and enjoy Bhagavat anubhava (union with the Lord) at this auspicious time, the Lord is the supreme acarya of acaryas, the refulgent, the All Merciful.

 

The sight of His divine form will remove all our distress. His eyes glow with love and power. He is like a raging conflagration to His enemies and cool moonlight to His devotees. He is Lord Narayana, who is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, and repository of all good qualities. He is the only refuge and only one able to fulfil our desire and grant us the fruits of the pavai nombu, which is being undertaken by us for the welfare of all beings.

 

Translation and commentary based on the Tengalai Jiyar sampradayam

 

to be continued ....

 

YRD

 

[Guest guest]

The month of margazhi (known as Dhanur in Sanskrit) is the Tamil month of religious austerities and devotional activities. It corresponds to Dec – Jan culminating in the Bhogi festival just a day before pongal /makara shankranti which will be celebrated in 15th January.

 

This month long celebration is in honour of Andal. The vaisnava saints - Alvars 12 in numbers lived between t5he 5th and 7th century and the only woman among them Andal is considered as the incarnation of Bhudevi.

 

Pasuram 2 vaiyattu vazhvirhal …

 

In this stanza the gopis are describing the vow that they will be performing and the austerities they will undertake.

 

O people of the world, listen to what we shall do

How we shall observe these sacred days. We shall praise the feet’of that Supreme One Lying on the Ocean Milk;

No ghee, no milk shall we take and at dawn we shall bathe:

No collyrium for the eys: no flowers bound the hair

Avoiding all proscribed deeds, refraining from gossip

Giving alms, and making offering all we can

And joyfully seek our salvation

[Guest guest]

Andal was no ordinary child, was evident from the moment her foster father Vishnuchitta (Periyalvar) found her under the basil plant in his flower garden, he nurtured to perform the service of offering flower garlands to Lord Vadapatrasayi in Sri Villiputtur, where he lived.

 

Vishnuchitta himself was a great devotee who with the insight of his spiritual experiences and envisioned the Supreme One and expressed his benediction to Him for His well being in his hymn " Pallandu Pallandu .. May thou live for thousands , thousands ....of years ..

 

Stanza 3 Ongi ulahalanda uttaman per padi

 

In this stanza Andal pays obeisance to Lord Vamana. The acaryas praise this incarnation above others because everything belongs to the Lord, yet He took the form of a Brahmin boy and goes to seek the favour from a mortal.

 

It is the only incarnation in which no one was injured and everyone received Grace of the Lord. In contemplating upon this most compassionate of the divine incarnations at the outset, and stating the results the hope to obtain, Andal is expressing her great confidence in being able to secure the Grace of the Lord

 

If we sing the Great One’s name, who shot up and measured the earth

And with a single stride and go for our ritual bath,

Thrice a month will the rain fall, and no drought will come

Swelling red paddy, the kayil fish gliding amongst them

And spotted bees will doze in the blue lilies

Big cows with their udders full will yield milk at a touch

A flood of milk will fill our cans to the brim

And wealth unfailing will fill the land

 

[Guest guest]

Stanza 4 – Azli malai kanna onru ni kai karavel

 

O Great Varuna, God of the rain, withhold not anything

Plunge into the sea, fill up rise with splendour;

Assume the dark hue of the Primordial Cause

Blaze with lightning like the Discus in Padmanabha’s hand

Thunder like the conch above His shoulders

Pour down your showers in abundance

Like arrows from, His bow saranga. That we and the world

May live, and bathe in the joyous month of margali

 

Here Andal (Goda) again stresses her desire for rain and addresses this invocation to the rain god Varuna. He is not addressed as an independent entity but is referred to as an executive of the Supreme Person – Krsna.

 

After poetically describing the precipitation process she requests Varuna to assume the dark hue form of Krsna . Andal then uses similes of Krsna’s weapons to describe the phenomena associated with rain.

The lightning is likened to the discus.

The conch was born of the sea; from the primordial ocean of creation. It symbolises the emanation of the cosmos and the sound OM. Its tumultuous sound represents the Lord’s saving grace.

 

In His incarnation as Rama, the Lord used the bow to vanquish the demons. Here the bow is invoked to destroy drought.

 

Esoterically the cloud is said to represent the great preceptors (acaryas) The collate spiritual knowledge from many sources, distil the essence and then spread it all over the wortled in the form easily understood by the masses. This they do without and expectation or selfish motive, the only reason being their boundless compassion for the suffering beings. They

 

Most of the Alvars who preceded Andal in their hymns compared the Lord to the clouds but Andal on the contrary compares the clouds to the Lord. To her the Lord is upamana, the known object with which the object of description i.e nameyam is sought to be compared. This shows Andal’s excessive devotion to the Lord.

 

[Guest guest]

Pasuram 5 “mayanai mannu vada madurai maindanai”

 

Eternal Mathura’s mysterious child

The one who sports in the great Yamuna River

Emerald- like radiant lamp of the cowherd clan

The Lord Damodara who has illumined his mother’s womb

Let us, adore with Him with fresh flowers, pay obeisance

And sing His praises. Let us meditate upon Him

Our sins both past and present and those yet to come will vanish like cotton in a fire. Therefore let us sing His glory.

 

Goda (Andal) in this verse teaches the means of devotional service – making simple offerings of flowers, chanting Krsna’s names and silently meditating upon His refulgent form. The result of such a spiritual practice is the absolution of sins and the attainment of

Spiritual purity.

 

Andal’s foster father, Periya Alvar named initially named Goda and the environment in which she grew up brought out her mystic temperament and she identified with the gopis of Vrndavan, when she listened to the glory of the Lord in His incarnation as Krishna from Periya alvar.

 

Even as a child of barely 5 years her spiritual maturity reached great heights. Vishnu chitta (Periya Alvar) once caught Andal red handed in the act of admiring her reflection wearing the garlands meant for the Lord and was disturbed by what he considered a sacrilege. He did not offer any garlands to the Lord that day. That night Vishnu chitta (Periya Alvar) was commanded by the Lord in his dream to offer garlands first worn by Goda and overwhelmed by this incident he addressed her as Andal – “One who has conquered the Lord”

 

While other Alvars had also given expression to their agony over separation from the Lord in the language unique to bridal mysticism, Andals’ outpours scores above them because the emotion comes naturally to her. She threatens that she would not live if betrothed to a mortal when her foster father Periya alvar expressed his intention to get her married

 

The Tirupavai verses are the expression of Andal’s desire to attain union with the Lord when she performed Pavai nombu, a vow on the lines of Kartyayini vrata performed by the gopis.

 

Ramanuja acarya admired the work of Andal. Though he was known by many names such as Emperumanar, Yatiraja and Bhasyakarar, he was popularly called “Tirupavai Jiyar”. The version how he earned this appellation is well known but the background is that Tirupavai’s 30 verses spell out the essence of the vedas and reflects how Andal treated Vishnu chitta (Peria Alvar) not only as her foster father but also as her acarya (preceptor)

 

 

Hari om tat sat

 

YRD