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Pasuram 3.- Ongiulagalandha

Ongi ulagaLandha uththaman perpaadi 
naangaL nampaavaikku saattri neeraadinaal
theenginri naadellaam thingaL mummaari peydhu 
Ongu perumsennel oodu kaylugaLa
poonkuvaLaippOdhil porivaNdu kaNpaduppa 
thengaadhe pukkirundhu seerththa mulai patri
 vaangakkudam niraikkum vaLLaL perum pasukkaL
neengaadha selvam niraindhelOrempaavai

Translation

When we sing the glory of the Lord who measured the whole universe 
with one foot, and proceed to do our ritual by bathing in His grace 
the whole country will be blessed with rains three times a month and 
the paddy crop will grow tall and the fish will swim in the water 
that surrounds it and the bees will sleep inside the kuvalai flowers 
that grow in the water. The aayppadi will become prosperous with the 
cows filling the pots by mere touch of the udder.

commentary

        The Lord is referred to as Utthaman. The particle `thama' is 
added to words to show the superlative degree. ` Uth' denotes 
mukthas the realized souls, uththara the nityasuris, the ever-free 
souls like Garuda, Ananta etc.  and uththama the Lord. 

Ongi ulagaLandha Uththaman ?Ongi means rising high and ulagalandha 
means measuring the world. This has reference to the Vamanaavathaara 
when the Lord came as a midget Brahmin youth and asked Mahabali  
three feet of ground as dhaana. When Mahabali started to give it the 
Lord grew in size and covered the whole earth with His foot and the 
heavens with the second and challenged Mahabali to give him the 
ground for the third foot and when Mahabali offered his head for the 
Lord to put His third foot He sent Mahabali to Paathaalaloka and 
being pleased with his devotion the Lord also positioned Himself as 
his guard. He is Uththama because He destroyed only the pride of 
Mahabali  but gave him in return His bhakthi samrajya. When He 
covered the earth with His foot He placed it on all irrespective of 
their merit to deserve it. He will give rain, which stands for His 
grace,
 unasked and hence He is Uththama.

        Mahabali acquired the post of Devendra for a short duration 
due to his merit and he gave away all the riches of Indra to the 
saptarshis and as a consequence was born as Mahabali  and became 
arrogant of his power and confiscated the heaven from Indra . When 
Aditi the mother of devas prayed to the Lord , He came down as her 
son Vamana and punished Mahabali. 
        
        When the Lord raised His foot to heavens Brahma washed His 
feet with the water from his kamandala, holy pot but it was not 
sufficient and then the Lord tore open the cosmic shell and the 
waters beyond the universe, aavaraNajala poured through and washed 
His feet and that was Aakaasaganga, the heavenly Ganges which later 
Bhagiratha brought to earth.

        The whole creation belongs to the Lord as He is the seshi 
and all the rest are seshas. Mahabali thought that the world 
belonged to him and performed the sacrifice feeling proud that all 
his wealth and thought that he is capable of bestowing anything to 
anybody. The Lord killed only this arrogance but otherwise showered 
His grace on Mahabali. Similar to Mahabali we also think that our 
soul, atman,  belongs to us whereas not only our soul but  nothing 
else belongs to us. Even our children are born through us into this 
world but not born to us. The story of  Mahabali  illustrates only  
this .

        Nammazvar asks, ` When the Lord covered the whole earth with 
his first foot where was the space for His second foot?' So Mahabali 
gave on enough land for only one foot !

Perpadi ? Singing His name is enough to secure His grace. The nama 
is even greater than the nami. It was the nama that came to the 
rescue of Draupadi. So Andal here praises the name which is enough 
to give them rain. 

NangaL nampavaikku saatri neeraadinaal  - Neeraadal or taking bath 
implies engrossed devotion. We bathe for cleansing ourselves of 
impurity . Here the inner and the outer purity is intended as 
Purandaradasa  said, `manasu kuliyabeku krishnaanadhiyalu 
thirthamaadi,' the mind should be cleansed, and not the mere body, 
by bathing in river of Krishna, the Lord. Saatri neeraadal  means 
doing everything as a service to the Lord, bhagavatkainkaryam. 

Theenginri naadellaam thingLl mummaari peydhu -  theenginri  means 
without obstacles. The rain should come three times a month, maadham 
mummaari, to the whole country naadellaam. In ancient days when 
people lived adhering to dharma, there were three showers a month, 
nine days of sun and one day of rain. This ensured that there were 
no excessive rain, athivrishti, or anaavrishti, draught. When for 
instance the reading of virata parva of Mahabharatha was going on, 
not only that region but the whole country got rain.

        The word mummaari, according to the commentators, implies 
the three streams of water, the water poured by Mahabali in the hand 
of the Lord giving dhaana, the water from the kamandalu of Brahma to 
wash His feet and the water of the Ganges created by Him by tearing 
open the cosmic shell and bringing down the Avaranajalam.

Ongu perum sennel ? The paddy crop, sennel, grew high and big giving 
bountiful harvest after the birth of Krishna.

Oodu kayalugaLa -  The water level was high likewise and the fish 
were  seen running through it. Commentators see a reference to 
Matsyavathara and take the word kayal, fish to refer to the Lord 
Himself.

PoonguvaLaippodhil porivaNdu kanpaduppa ? The  beautiful black bee, 
porivandu,   which has entered the kuvalai flower to drink the honey 
became drowsy and slept inside as in a cradle rocked by the fish 
going to and fro. The Lord Himself , who enters the heart of a 
devotee and  rests there rocked by the loving hand of devotion   
could be imagined as the bee here. 

Thengaadhe pukkirundhu seertha mulai patri 
vangakkudam niraikkum vaLLal perum pasukkal ? The cows  of aayarpadi 
were big, perumpasukkal, bountiful, vallal generous and do not 
withhold their milk, thengaadhe , and fill the pot, kudam niraikkum, 
when the cowherds touched their udder pukkirundhu seertha mulaipatri 
vanga. When the cow is ready to give all she has if one is not able 
to milk her fully, it is not the fault of the cow but due to the 
inefficiency of the cowherd or insufficiency of the pot. Similarly 
the Lord is like a generous cow, ready to give everything if we ask 
him for trifles it is our fault.

         The acharyas are  likened to vaLLalperum pasukkal as they 
are ready to impart all their wisdom to the disciples. But how much 
the disciple is able to grasp depends on the vessel  he carries, 
namely the amount of faith, his thirst for knowledge and his 
intellectual capacity, more than anything else his karma and the 
grace of the Lord.

        In this context the  mummaari,  the three showers are, the 
resolve of the devotee who surrenders to the Lord to accept Him 
alone as his master,  to desist from seeking any other means of 
salvation except the devotion to the Lord and  not to look for any 
other end than to attain Him. The word is also taken to refer to the 
three types of serving Him, namely, to write about Him, to tell 
others about His glory and to serve Him in the form of 
Archavathara , idol to be worshipped.

        Onguperum sennel , the tall crop of paddy is the growth in  
the number of devotees who surrender to Him which makes Him sleep 
peacefully in their hearts like a Porivandu, a black bee with spots. 
The spots described here could be His ornaments as Azvar said' 
palappalave aabharanam, His ornaments are numerous or by a stretch 
of imagination one can be reminded of the sloka of 
Kulasekhara, ` `Ksheerasaagaratharngasheekaraasaarathaarakilachaaru 
moorthaye' the  body of the Lord is speckled with the drops from the 
milky ocean like the sky shining with stars.

        To the devotee whatever he sees will remind him of the Lord. 
The gopis thought only of Krishna when they saw anything tall and 
beautiful. To Parasara bhattar and Alavandar, the lotuses grown in 
the water of the paddy fields and the tall full grown stalk of paddy 
bending downward, brought the picture of the Lord and His devotees.


Pasuram-4

AazimazaikkaNNa onru nee kaikaravel
aaziyul pukku mugarndhu kodaarththeri
oozimudhalvan uruvampOl meikaruththu 
paaziyamthOludai padmabnaabhan kaiyil



------------------------------------

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