Sri Parthasarathi thunai Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha Srimad Vara Vara MunayE namaha Sri Vanachala mahA munayE
namaha Emperuman is sarvagyan (one who knows
everything). But his devotees very
easily cheat this lord. How? Andal
came to the footsteps of krishna and asked him to grant what she wanted. Mesmerised by the bhakthi of the little
girl krishna said, “Granted. What
do you want?” Immediately andal
said, “I need the things needed for my vratha “mAlE!
ManivannA! ……mElayAr seivanagal vEnduvana kEttiyEl….pAlanna vannaththu
pAnjajaniyamE!… sAla perumparaiyE! pallAndisaipArE! kOla vilakkE! KodiyE!
VidAnamE! alinilaiyAi arul” With great happiness krishna granted
all these (his panchajanyam, karulakodi, kolavillakku-nappinnai piratti,
pallandisaipar-periazhvar and nammazhvar, vidAnam-adiseshan) and found that he
had lost all his special things to andal.
Slowly he asked andal, “Oh! Andal I thought that you came to surrender to
my divine feet (“ARRAdhu vandhu vun adipaniyumA pOlE
pORRi yAm vandhOm”) but now I find that I have lost myself to
you. You have put me into your
trap” Andal immediately responded, “koodAraivellum seer govindA!” Oh!
Krishna it is nothing amazing. It
is your nature. You win over all
those who stubbornly run away from you.
But if some one willingly comes to join you, you then lose yourself to
them. Here andal says, “Govinda!”
indicating that even though the cows, mainly the calfs didn’t ask krishna to
protect them still since they did not say against also, Krishna protects them
with love. So what he expects is
only “vilakkAmai” (refusal).
Through out the prabhandam andal in many places has talked about singing
the praise of the lord viz., “vAyinAl pAdi”,
“kEsavanai pAda”, “mugilvannan pEr pAda” and so on. Now towards the end she says, “vun thannai pAdi”. So it shows that the prime goal of andal
is to sing the praise of the lord.
That is the characteristic of an Srivaishnavite to do kainkaryam for the
lord for the very purpose of doing it purely for his pleasure. But in the next line andal says, “nAdu pugazhum parisinAl” Is andal
interested in fame? Isn’t it against her Svaroopa? Srivaishnavas should shed
interest in fame, money, power etc and totally surrender to the lord. Why is then andal concerned about the
fame amidst the society? Andal says
“nAdu pugazhum” in order to show the greatness of what she is going to
achieve. It is not for her fame but
to show the greatness of the lord who has granted the same and it is also good
for those who are talking about the same.
When we talk great of a srivaishnava then our tongue gets the purpose of
its existence. So for the benefit
of the others andal says, “grant me such a gift”. Even sorrow when it is felt due to the
sorry state of others becomes a quality.
In Srivaikundam the land of ultimate bliss, emperuman
alone is worried, say the sastras.
Why? He is worried about the
sorry state of the samsaris who are entangled in the cycle of life and
death. This is considered to be the
greatest kalyana guna of emperuman who pities the jeevatmas and hence does a
number of things to get us all to the divine abode and make all of us enjoy like
the nithya sooris. (To be continued) Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE
sharaNam Adiyen ramanuja dAsee Sumithra Varadarajan azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
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