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
------------------------------------
Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan
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