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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00106 Aug 2005

 
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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?

Before we dwell upon her wonderful verse let us
briefly glean at and enjoy AndAL?s works. 

ANdAL is one of the most extraordinary personalities
in religious history. She is known in her native
tongue of Tamil as an Alvar, one who is "immersed" in
the depths of enjoyment of God, the omnipresent
mysterious One. Tradition reckons AzhwArs, of which
Andal is the only female. Between the fifth and ninth
centuries, in the Tamil-speaking region of South
India, these saints revitalized the Indian religious
milieu, sparking a renewal of devotional worship
throughout the subcontinent. Traveling from place to
place, from temple to temple, from holy site to holy
site, they composed exceedingly beautiful poetry to
their Divine Beloved, Vishnu, as an expression of
their love for Him. Anyone can see why their poetry
was so attractive; at once both impassioned and
philosophical, their words cut across all barriers of
caste and class, attracting all to their faith. In
doing so, they sculpted a new religious heritage of
intensely emotional bhakti, or love of the Divine,
whose impact is still felt today in the Indian
religious life. Andal, whose life and poetry are
celebrated every December-January, is the most visible
contributor to this heritage.

The life of Andal is remarkable in its romantic
simplicity. A devout brahmin named Vishnucitta lived
in Villiputtur, a town near Madurai. His daily duties
included procuring flowers for the worship of the Lord
at the local temple. One morning, as he went about his
business, he discovered a baby girl lying under a
tulasi plant in his flower garden. Having no family of
his own, Vishnucitta felt it was God's grace that gave
him this child and named her Godai, or "gift of Mother
Earth." Filled with joy, he took her home and raised
her as his own. 
Godai grew up in an atmosphere of love and devotion.
Vishnucitta doted on her in every respect, singing
songs to her about his Beloved Krishna, teaching her
all the stories and philosophy he knew, and sharing
with her his love of Tamil poetry. The love
Vishnucitta had for his Beloved Lord intensified
further in his daughter, and before long she was
passionately in love with Lord Krishna. Even as a
child, Godai made up her mind to marry none but the
Lord of Brindavana, and refused to think of any human
being in similar terms. 
She imagined what it would be like to be His bride,
playing the role of His beloved, enjoying His
presence. Unknown to her father, she adorned herself
daily with the flower garland he prepared for the Lord
at the temple. After admiring her reflection and
thinking of herself as His ideal bride, she would put
the garland back for her father to take to the temple
and offer to the Lord. 

One day, Vishnucitta noticed a strand of Godai's hair
on one of the garlands. Shocked and saddened by this
desecration of what was meant only for the Lord, he
scolded Godai for her misuse of the garland and
discarded it. He carefully prepared a new one and
offered it to the Lord, begging His pardon all the
while. 

That night, the Lord appeared to Vishnucitta in his
dream and asked him why he discarded Godai's garland
instead of offering it to Him. He told Vishnucitta
that He missed the scent of Godai's body in the
flowers, and that He preferred them that way. Would he
please continue to give the garlands once worn by
Godai? Overcome with emotion, Vishnucitta awoke and
cried tears of both joy and remorse. It dawned on him
that his daughter was someone whose love of God was so
intense and pure that even he had not comprehended its
extent. Her spiritual greatness was such that the Lord
Himself wished to share her presence. From this day
on, she became known as "Andal", the girl who "ruled"
over the Lord. 

Andal blossomed into a beautiful young woman as she
came of marriageable age. When asked to marry,
however, she stubbornly refused, saying that she would
only agree to marry Sri Ranganatha, the Lord at the
great temple town of Srirangam. Vishnucitta despaired,
wondering what was to become of his daughter. One
night, Lord Ranganatha appeared in his dream and asked
that Andal be sent to Him in all her wedding finery.
Simultaneously, the Lord appeared before the priests
at Srirangam and asked them to prepare for the coming
of Andal. Vishnucitta once again was filled with both
joy and sadness; joy that his beloved daughter would
attain her goal, but sadness at losing her at the same
time. He made all the wedding preparations and
arranged for Andal's journey in a palanquin to
Srirangam. 

Andal waited with excited anticipation as the wedding
party approached Lord Ranganatha's shrine. As they
entered the temple, she jumped out of the palanquin,
unable to restrain herself any longer. Running into
the temple sanctum, she embraced Lord Ranganatha and
disappeared in a blaze of glory, having joined her
Lord. She was only fifteen at the time. 

Andal is now one of the best loved poet-saints of the
Tamils. Pious tradition reckons her to be the
veritable descent of Bhumi Devi (Mother Earth) in
bodily form to show humanity the way to His lotus
feet. She is present in all Sri Vaishnava temples, in
India and elsewhere, next to her Lord, as she always
desired. 

The hagiography of Andal as presented above is
undoubtedly historically true in most important
respects. Today, the tulasi garden in which she was
found is preserved in Srivilliputtur. Vishnucitta's
house, adjacent to Lord Vishnu's temple, has been
converted into a temple in honor of Andal and contains
the well in which she admired her reflection while
wearing the Lord's garlands. 

Most of all, however, Andal is remembered for her
poetry, in which she often strikes autobiographical
notes about her love for her Lord. She describes
herself as a young girl, still not fully mature,
pining away for Him. She beseeches her friends, the
god of love, and even animals for help in her quest to
attain Him. Finally, she describes her good fortune of
being the daughter of Vishnucitta, the best of the
devout, who lives in Srivilliputtur and adores the
Lord. 

Andal composed two works in her short life. Both are
in Tamil and are unique in their literary,
philosophical, religious, and artistic content. Her
contribution is even more remarkable considering that
she was a teenage girl when she composed these poems,
at a time when there is no other record of Tamil women
composing poetry. Far from being the prattlings of a
youngster, Andal's verses display a literary and
religious maturity far beyond her years. Her first
work is the Tiruppavai, a poem of thirty verses in
which Andal imagines herself to be a cowherd girl
during the incarnation of Lord Krishna. She yearns to
serve Him and achieve happiness not just in this
birth, but for all eternity, and describes the
religious vow (pavai) that she and her fellow cowgirls
will take for this purpose. 

The second is the Nacciyar Tirumoli, a poem of 143
verses. Tirumoli, literally meaning "sacred sayings",
is a Tamil poetic style in which the work is composed.
"Nacciyar" means goddess, so the title means "sacred
sayings of our Goddess." This poem fully reveals
Andal's intense longing for Vishnu, the Divine
Beloved. Utilizing classical Tamil poetic conventions
and intermixing stories from the Sanskrit Vedas and
Puranas, Andal creates imagery that is quite possibly
unparalleled in the whole gamut of Indian religious
literature. 

The impact of these works on the daily religious life
of the South Indian has been tremendous. Just like the
Ramayana, people are never tired of listening to the
Tiruppavai. The poem itself is recited with great
religious fervor by women, men, and children of all
ages, particularly in Tamil Nadu. The daily services
in most Vaishnava temples and households include its
recitation. 

Both of these works, particularly the Tiruppavai, have
been commented on extensively by innumerable scholars
in a number of languages over the centuries.. [from
the website: www.ramanuja.org] 

Let us enjoy the Naachiyaar Thirumozhi from morrow 

AndAL ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsan

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