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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00015 Jan 2004

 
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Dear friends,

(18) "vandhu enggUm ? kUyil-innanggal koovinagaan?"
(19) "kOttalar poo? "

If we searched the TiruppAvai for metaphors that
instantly evoke in our minds vivid images of a
'satsangh', they would surely be the above two indeed.


The first metaphor is about singing birds
--"kuyilinnangal". The second metaphor is about a
clutch of flowers in full bloom -- "kotthalar poo?"
These two metaphors leave us reflecting keenly on two
strands of thought: 

(a) The very "sight" of a 'satsangh' is auspicious ---
as auspicious as it is to gaze upon a crowd of fresh
flowers that blooms forth at the first break of dawn.
In the "tirupalliyEchi" of Tondaradipodi AzhwAr there
is a lovely line about precisely such an auspicious
sight of flowers:

"madhu virindhu ozhigina mA malar ellAm?"   (verse 1)

      In the sacred month of 'mArgazhi', in the early
hours of the day, it is customary (especially in the
rural districts of south India) for little bands of
men, women and children to go in 'satsangh' around the
village or town chanting the "tiruppAvai" and singing
"nAma-sankirtan". They go around from street to
street, from house to house in small batches. They
sling a "tambura" or a harmonium around their
shoulder. Some carry pipes and others percussion such
as the "dolak" or "mridanga". The rest carry cymbals
or castanets to keep rhythm?

It is a wonderful sight indeed to watch these little
"satsanghs" as they perambulate the neighbourhood and
AndAl's metaphor of "kotthalar poo?" would describe
them perfectly. It is a sight for the Gods indeed to
see these 'satsanghs' going around with songs of God
and Bhakti upon their lips! They merrily clap hands
and they sway gently to the sounds and beats of the
mystic mood that envelops them soon enough and the
streets they roam as well.

(It is interesting that in the same stanza of the
TiruppAvai, God is described as "malar mArbA..." to
convey the sense that the Almighty's 'infatuation'
with "blossoms" adorning his breast are no less deep
than his infatution with the divine consort,
'sridevi-nAcchiyAr'...i.e. His love for his devotees
is no less than love for his consort).

(b) Equally as the "sight" of these 'satsanghs', the
"sounds" they make in 'satsangh' too are wholly
auspicious. Their singing and "nAma-sankirtan" is as
melodious as the music of a brood of "kuyilinnangal"?.


"Birds" are staple and favorite diet for poetic
imaginations all over the world. The "kuyil" or
cuckoo, the 'koyal', the skylark, the nightingale, the
humming-bird? all these winged creatures for ages have
held endless fascination for the poetic eye. Our
poetess of SriVilliputtur was no exception... (The
image of AndAl commonly portrayed everywhere, be it in
sculpture or painting, is always shown with a winged
creature, a little parakeet, perched upon her slender
shoulders). 

In order to get some but by no means adequate idea of
the beauty of the metaphor, "kuyillinangal" in the
TiruppAvai, it would not be out of place here for us
to sample and savor a few comparative verses in
English poetry which too speak of singing birds:

William Wordsworth once wrote beautiful lines in his
poem "To the Cuckoo":

       "O blithe newcomer! I have heard,
         I hear thee and rejoice,
        O cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird
         Or but a wandering Voice?

       While I am lying on the grass
        Thy two-fold shout I hear;
       From hill to hill it seems to pass
        At once far off and near.

      Though babbling only to the vale
        Of sunshine and of flowers
      Thou bringest unto me a tale
        Of visionary hours."

The sounds of the cuckoo, the poet says, might sound
like "babble" to the rest of the world (i.e. "to the
vale of sunshine and flowers") but to him there is
something about the "wandering Voice" that is deeply
moving and vastly mystic ? It sounds like some "tale
of visionary hours".
              
What is so deeply moving, we might wonder and ask
ourselves, what is in the sounds of the "kuyil", the
metaphoric equal of singing "satsanghs", which moves
poets to speak of it in terms of almost religious and
near-mystic awe -- as a "tale of visionary hours" or
as a "wandering Voice"? Another great poet,
P.B.Shelley, gave vent to that deep sense of poetic
and mystic wonder very beautifully indeed. In a poem 
in praise of another of the winged angels of God, "The
Skylark", he wrote:

        What art thou we know not;
          What is most like thee?
       From rainbow clouds there flow not
          Drops so bright to see
 As from thy presence showers a rain of melody!

       Teach us, sprite or bird,
         What sweet thoughts are thine:
       I have never heard
         Praise of love or wine
 That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine!

       Teach me half the gladness
         That thy mind must know,
       Such harmonious madness
         From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now!

              ************
            (to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan






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