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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya nama:

Dearest all,
Subsequent to the first two posts and the overwhelming
responses, here is 3rd post. 
Sri Anbil Ramaswamy Swami is pouring in with his Godha
sthuthi posts as well. Insatiable nectar for all your
consumption and pleasure

Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan
************
12. Authentic Sequence of Vedic wedding

Though she had an Inter caste marriage, she seems to
have undergone the ceremony in the strict Vedic
manner. This is vouched by her narration of her ?dream
scene? in ?VaaraNam Aayiram? (Naachiyaar Tirumozhi
10). The exact sequence of a Vedic wedding has been
brought out in clear detail. It was not a mere dream
but we are told that she did marry Rangamannar at
Srivilliputtur in the traditional way. She was thus
the FIRST to describe the elements of Vedic wedding in
such detail and is being followed in all Hindu
weddings even to this day!
None other than Andal seems to have attempted this for
our guidance.

(It will be noticed that ?Maangalya DaaraNam? that the
Television and movies trumpet in season and out of
season with the popular lines ?maangalyam
TantudaanEna? is NOT A VEDIC MANTRA AT ALL and it has
become part of the ceremonies by way of tradition, the
most important components being PaaNigrahaNam and
Saptapathi)

13. ?Hen- pecked? husband?

Yet another revolution that she engineered is that she
converted her spouse virtually into a ?hen pecked?
husband! Rama?s story shows how he carried out the
command of his father (pitru vaakhya paripaalanam). 

But, what did Godha?s husband do? 

He did ?pathni Vaakhya paripaalanam?! 
In wedding ceremonies, elders used to utter the
following mantra: ?moorthaanaam pathyur aarOha? which
means ?Place your feet on the head of your husband?.
It is not to be taken literally. It is a figurative
way of advising that the wife should conduct herself
in such a way that her husband would not mind even her
placing her foot on his head! Indeed, they were an
ideal couple ?made for each other? that they were
devoted to each other and their thoughts were in
unison with each other. In fact, Swami Desika in Bhoo
Sthuthi 10 says that the lord bore BhoodEvi on his
head? ?Bhavateem sirasaa dadaati? 

Arangan ruled Arangam. But Godha ruled over Arangan
himself!

{Let not modern womenfolk try doing this (especially
in public) because tolerance by a husband would be
possible ONLY IF the wife is an ideal spouse reading
the mind and acting according to the husband?s wishes.
Otherwise, she will be branded as a ?termagant? and
lose what respect she attempts to gain!

14. Son-in-law staying in his ?In-law?s house

There is a Tanian (dedicatory verse) which says 
?kOdai piranta oor, Govindan vaazhum oor?
Meaning that the ?Lord resides at the birthplace of
Godha?. Thus, the Lord became ?VeeTTOdu MaappiLLai?-
one who made his wife?s home his own home (like most
of the hen-pecked husbands of today!) Why? This is
because Andal bound him through her garland of flowers
as much as by the garland of poems. 
If YasOda were there to witness this, she would have
regretted why she bound KrishNa with mere ropes!
Luckily for the Lord, he had no parents. Just imagine
that if he had parents, what they would think, on
encountering such a situation!

Is this not a unique achievement of Andal?

15. The Mediatrix (Purushaakaaram) 

Asmad Acharyan, Srimad Andavan, Poundarikapuram Swami
Asramam used to portray a court scene. 
The Lord is the presiding judge duly assisted by Sri
Devi (Mahalakshmi) and Bhoodevi (Godha) on either
side. The soul is brought before the ?bench? for
trial. The long list of sins committed by it over
several lives is reeled out. The list enrages the Lord
so much that he decides to award maximum punishment.
Sridevi on his right intervenes and asks ?na kaschit
na aparaadhyati?? 

Meaning ?There is none who has not erred. Let the soul
be forgiven? You will remember that Sri Sita said this
to Hanumaan when he wanted to punish the Raakshasis
who tormented her in Ashoka vana. 
Paapaanaam vaa Subhaanaam vaa vadhaarhaaNaam
pLavangama!

Kaaryam KaruNam aaryEna na kaschit na apraadhyati//
 (Valmiki Ramayanam 6.116.44)

The Lord then turns to his left side where sits
Bhoodevi. She is even more compassionate than Sridevi.
She says that nothing that the soul had done could be
construed as amiss, the accused has not committed any
sin at all and therefore, the question of punishing
did not arise! The Lord has now no choice except to
abdicate his right to punish and grants ?mOksham? to
the soul.
This is called ?Purushaakaaram? of the compassionate
mother that Andal is.

Her recommendation ensures immediate relief .
(like ?Instant Coffee? or ?Instant Rasam? that we have
come to know!)

Swami Desika says that if only Bhoodevi were not there
on the left side of the Lord, the angry face of the
Lord would have remained turned away forever dooming
our chances of redemption.
Aardhraaparaadhini janEpyi abhirakshaNaatrtham
RangEswarasya Ramayaa vinivEdhyamaanE/
paarsvE paratra bhavatee yadi tatra na aaseet
praayENa dEvee! Vadanam parivartitam syaat // (Godha
Sthuthi Slokam 24)
What a mercy! What a relief for the soul seeking
pardon! 
We can do no better than bowing our heads for Andal?s
infinite mercy. 

Is she not one step above Periya PiraaTTi?

16. Why is Oppiliappan fed on salt-less diet?

Oppiliappan is also known as Uppu+ili+appan. The
legend has it that the Lord desired to marry BhoodEvi
who had taken birth as the daughter of MarkaNDEya
Maharishi. The Maharishi hesitated because she was
then too young for marriage and could not even cook.
The Lord agreed to have food even without salt and
since then all savories offered to the Lord are
without salt and the Lord came to be called
?Uppu-ili-appan? What has this to do with Andal and
her revolutions?

You know that Andal is the incarnation of Bhoodevi
whose compassion we saw far exceeds that of Sridevi.
There is a secret behind serving Salt-less food to the
Lord.

Salt is said to trigger ?RajOguNa?- comprising of
anger etc. Since the Lord is a strict disciplinarian
and a ?DaNDadharan? (wielder of the punishing rod),
when he gets angry on seeing the unpardonable heap of
sins and indiscretions of the Jeevas, he would be
raring to mete out due punishment. If he is fed on
food without salt that would mollify his anger and the
poor soul will saved from punishment (besides probably
saving the Lord from high blood pressure!)
Is this not a trick played on the Lord by Mother Earth
for the sake of the soul?

17.  Andal, the ?Whistle-blower?!

In Naachiyaar Tirumozhi 11.10, she says:
semmaiyuDaiya Tiruvarangar taam paNiththa
?maymmei Peru Vaarthai? Vittuchithar kETTiruppar
Tammai ugappaarai Taam ugappaar enum soll
tammiDaiye poi aanaal saadippaar yaar iniyE?
In this stanza, Acharyas used to say that the word
?Vaarthai? refers to AshTaaksharam, ?Peru vaarthai?
refers to Dwayam and ?Meymmei peru vaarthai? refers to
Lord?s Charaama SlOkam in Bhagavad Gita meaning that
VishNu chitta would have heard this Charama slOkam.
The question arises, how her father, VishNu chitta who
was contemporary of Andal in Kali Yuga could be said
to have heard the Charama slOka imparted by Lord
KrishNa to Arjuna in Dwapara yuga.

The secret is that VishNu Chitta is the incarnation of
GaruDa, the divine bird vehicle of the Lord, even as
Andal was the incarnation of Bhoodevi. During the
Mahabharata war, he took the role of the chariot of
Arjuna because his Lord was to ride on that vehicle.
Thus, he would have been very much a witness for the
delivery of Charama slOka. 

(Do you know that besides Arjuna and GaruDa, there was
one more witness at the battlefield? He is none other
than AnjanEya, whose figure was on the flag atop the
chariot of Arjuna. If you look at the figure of
AnjanEya on the flag, you will see his face slightly
turned away. Do you know why? It is because AnjanEya
was a witness of the Dharma Yuddha that Sri Rama waged
against Ravana in TrEta Yuga. As the Mahabharata war
advanced in Dwapara Yuga, norms of Dharma were
progressively dumped and Lord KrishNa himself was
instrumental to it on several occasions. He could not
bear to see Dharma being trampled upon)

A parallel to this chronological confusion could be
noticed in Bhagavad Gita. Lord KrishNa tells Arjuna
that he advised the secrets of life and death first to
Vivaswaan who advised Manu and who in turn advised
Ikshvaagu (as if it was a slip of the tongue). Arjuna
promptly hauled him up saying that KrishNa was after
all contemporary with him and how could he have
advised Vivaswaan of a bygone eon. To which, KrishNa
replies ?Both of us have taken several lifes; I
remember them all but you do not? and proceeds to
reveal his message. The rest is history.
Was not Andal a consummate whistle-blower?

Another chronological confusion (also related to
Andal) could be seen in her ?Vaazhi Tirunaamam?:
?Perumpudoor maa munikkup pinn aanaaL vaazhiyE?

How come, she is depicted as the younger sister of
Ramanuja? Is she not chronologically senior to
Ramanuja being the daughter of Periyaazhwar in an
earlier age? The answer to this riddle is that during
her days, she vowed to present ?100 taDa of akkaara
aDisl? (A sweet porridge) to PerumaaL. Somehow, she
could not fulfill that promise. Once Ramanuja offered
this to the Lord and when he visited Srivilliputtur to
pay his obeisance to Andal, it would appear that a
female voice (a-sareeri) was heard from the sanctum
saying ?Oh! My aNNaavO? which means: ?Oh! My Elder
brother!?  From that time onwards Bhagavad Ramanuja is
deemed to be Andal?s elder brother and Andal as his
younger sister.

[To be continued]

dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy



      
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