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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest all,

After PeriyAzhwAr anubhavams, let us now continue on
his darling daughter GodhA PiraaTTi?s Naacchiyaar
Thirumozhi verses... on ThiruvEnkatam? [Extracted from
the most wonderful translation of Smt Kalyani
Krishnamachari based on Sri Sadagopan Swamin?s
treatise and acharyas? commentaries.]  

nAcciyAr tirumozhi VIII - viNNIla mElAppu ? these ten
verses are on ThiruvEnkatam. 

Introduction: GodhA PiraaTTi does not get any response
from the great pA~ncajanya AzhvAn in spite of all the
praise that she heaped on him. Month after month
passes ending in rainy season with the associated
lightning and dark clouds. The dark, blue-hued clouds
remind godai of kaNNan and cause even more pain in her
heart. At the time of  vastrApaharaNam, He had made a
promise to her that He will come back to her during
the rainy season and disappeared from her sight. Now,
ANDAL is suddenly sad that He has not kept His
promise. She decides to tell her plight to the clouds
and send them as her messenger to gOvindan, who is
stationed in tirumalai.
 
B. Some additional thoughts (from SrI PVP):
In the introduction to this tirumozhi, SrI PVP
describes his anubhavam of ANDAL's progression from
conversing with the pA~ncajanyam to appealing to the
clouds to be her messenger. He also discusses the
natural advantage that ANDAL has in being able to
express her extreme love towards bhagavAn in the role
of a nAyaki, whereas the other AzhvAr-s have to assume
this role which is not natural to them by their birth.
In this tirumozhi, ANDAL declares her love for
tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn and sends the clouds as her
messenger. 

In the previous tirumozhi, she conversed with SrI
pA~ncajanyan. This suggests the natural progression of
a devotee whose thoughts are drawn closer and closer
to bhagavAn as time progresses. The very utterance of
His name is sufficient to result in the maturity of a
devotee such that the devotee is drawn closer to Him.
The progression from pA~ncajanyam to the clouds can be
also seen as a step up in the sense that the Sa~nkham
has as its only reason for prominence its being
associated with Him. It is only a means to Him, like
dharma being only the means to the dharmI who is the
object to be attained through dharma. SrI pA~ncajanyan
is only a SeshabhUtan, as he is dependent on
emperumAn, and emperumAn is the dharmi (prAkAri)
without whom the Sa~nkham does not have any existence
or appearance. There is also a similarity between the
clouds and the conch that we see in the mudal
tiruvanTAdi by the mudal AzhvAr (poigai AzhvAr) - "
kAr kODu paRRiyAn kai ". One meaning for the word kAr
is clouds, and one meaning for the word kODu is conch.
SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcArya svAmi interprets kArkODu
as referring to tiruvEnkaTa Hills (kAr = dark or
black, kODu = hill) in the context of the pASuram.

But he also points out a possible alternative
interpretation for the phrase as "One who holds in His
hand the conch (kODu) that makes the great sound like
the dark clouds (kAr)", thus establishing a
relationship between the two. In tamizh literature,
there is a stage of separation between the nAyakan and
nAyaki where the former promises the later that he
will be back during the rainy season, and the nAyaki
suffers from separation when the nAyakan does not show
up as promised. ANDAL is in this stage of separation
from kaNNan who left her at the time of
vastrApaharaNam, and now she sees the clouds but not
kaNNan. The color of the clouds reminds her of kaNNan,
and their garjanai reminds her of the pA~ncajanyam in
His hand. So she thinks her kaNNan has come, but lo!
Her kaNNan is not there. She asks the clouds about
emperumAn. Of course, they do not respond to her. She
becomes very sad and insists on sending them as her
messenger since the clouds have a relationship with
tiruvEnkaTam uDaiyAn by virtue of their living in the
same mountain.

In rAmAvatAram, sItA sends hanumAn, who knew five
vyAkaraNams and was a great scholar, as her messenger
to rAma. Since in vibhavAtAram the Lord could talk,
embrace, etc., this made sense. Now, in arcAvatAram,
godai sends the clouds as her messenger, without even
thinking that clouds cannot talk, and without
realizing that all she can do is worship the arcAmUrti
but not expect Him to embrace her etc. How do we
explain ANDAL's actions? PuttUr SrI kr*shNasvAmi
aiye~ngAr svAmi quotes a passage from meghadUtam (1.5)
" kAmArthA hi prakr*ti kr*paNAS cetanA'cetaneshu "
which says that those who are scorched by love are
unaware of their actions and try to send messages to
their partners through animate or inanimate objects
such as the cloud etc. 

Then the question arises : "How is it that a person
like ANDAL subjects herself to kAmam like wordly
people?" We should understand that in ANDAL's case it
is her extreme bhakti to Him that expresses itself in
this form. Just as ordinary mortals who are in love
cannot bear to live when separated from their loved
one, the bhakta cannot live in the absence of
bhagavAn. This being the case with pirATTi, the
AzhvArs who were born men assumed the role of pirATTi
and express their devotion in their pASuram-s. ANDAL
is doing nothing different, expect she does not have
to assume any new role to be a nAyaki. By birth she is
a woman, and she can naturally express her devotion to
Him in the role of a nAyaki. SrI kr*shNasvAmi
aiye~ngAr describes this in the following terms:
"Expressing the bhakti towards emperumAn using the
language of a nAyaki is like "paLLa maDai" for ANDAL;
the love of the AzhvArs who try to use girl talk to
emperumAn to show their extreme bhakti is like" meTTu
maDai". 
We will start with the first of these ten verses from
tomorrow. 

AndAL ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsan




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