Thirupavai Pasuram 16

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SriRangam Temple Paramapada Vasal guarded by Dwara Palakas

The girls with Andal Nachiar arrived at the house of Nanda Gopan. 

The girls pleaded with the guard to let them in. They said, ‘please allow us to enter the house of the hero Nanda Gopan,’ in Tamil but, the guard thought that they called him as a hero and hence immediately allowed them inside the house. Nachiar teaches us that we can get favours from others by praising them.

There is a funny story which was originally narrated by Sri Parasara Bhattar. A poet was strolling through the country side when he spotted a bald land owner supervising the winnowing process. The poet went to the landowner and composed a poem on the spot. The poet through his poem asked the landowner, ‘is it necessary for you to stand in this hot sun with dirt falling on your lush hair from the winnowing process?’

The vain landowner asked, ‘is my hair really beautiful?’

The poet looked at the shiny scalp of the landowner and lied, ‘it is very beautiful!’

The happy landowner presented the poet with a sack of grains.

As the poet carried the sack, a passerby met him on the way and asked the poet from where he had obtained the sack of grain. The poet replied, ‘from that bald headed man!’

The passerby went to the landowner and told him that the poet had called the landowner a bald headed man. The landowner felt insulted. He got on his horse and rode towards the poet. The poet immediately understood that the passerby must have complained about him to the landowner. The poet immediately made a second poem and sang, ‘Oh how handsome you look on top of the horse especially since your hair wave in the air in rhythm to the horse’s hooves!’

The landowner immediately forgot about the complaint he had received. He also forgot that he hardly had two strands of hair on his head. The happy landowner gave another sack of grain to the poet. Thus, by singing the laud of other people we can receive favours from them.

As soon as the girls praised the security guard he allowed them inside. The guard also knew that they had to pass through one more check point therefore he didn’t feel bad about allowing the girls inside.

The girls arrived at a door way decorated with flags. The door was very beautiful. The flags displayed over the door indicated to the people that this was the home of Nanda Gopan the chief of all the businessmen in Gokulam. The flag was similar to the Red Cross displayed on the banner at a doctor’s office.

‘Could you please allow us inside?’ asked the girls. ‘We have come to see Lord Krishna.’

‘I cannot permit anyone other than the household members inside the house.’

‘But we are harmless little girls! There is no harm in allowing us inside, ‘begged the girls.

‘I can’t allow you just because you are women. Surpanaka was a woman too and it was because of her that Ravana came to know about Lord Rama and Sita Piratti!’

‘But Surpanaka was a Rakshashi, a demoness. We are ordinary young women from Gokulam.’

‘This is exactly the way I felt when I allowed a woman who resembled Lady Yashoda inside the house and minutes later I heard a loud scream ; as I ran inside I discovered a demoness lying dead near Krishna. I cannot allow anyone other than the household members inside!’

‘We only came to see our precious gem; Krishna!’

The girls called Lord Krishna as a gem as He had the complexion and lustre of a pure Indraneela gem (sapphire). The people who own gems are respected by others. People also purchase gems to ward off evil. Lord Krishna is such a gem. Anyone who has Him is respected and He protects the people who have His grace from all evil. The main reason why Lord Krishna is called a gem is because of His easily approachable nature. It is not easy to handle $100,000 worth of salt whereas it is very easy to handle $100,000 worth of diamonds as the later can be carried in one’s fist. Perumal in the form of a Salagramam stone makes Himself very easily accessible for our sake. Thus the Salagramam Perumal is like a gem. Even if we use cups made out of leaves to do Thiruvaradhanam for Him, He accepts our offerings. As long as the water is clean, He accepts it from us even if we haven’t added saffron and cardamom to the water. He is so easily accessible that many women even place Him inside their masala box next to pungent spices like asafoetida. He stays even inside the masala box without complaining just for our sake. 

 Picture of salagrama Perumal

The girls said, ‘we have come here because the Indraneela gem like Krishna asked us to come and collect musical instruments like the parai for our ritual. He is easily accessible and yet is a mayan who plays tricks on us’

Once, King Ambarisha wanted his daughter Srimathi to wed the lord. One day Sage Naradar along with His uncle Sage Parvathar visited the king. The king asked his daughter to pay homage to the sages. As soon as the sages saw the princess they developed the desire to marry her. They met with the king without the knowledge of the other sage and asked for the princess’s hand in marriage. The king declared to them that he will ask Srimathi to choose her husband in a swayamvara. Sage Narada immediately left for Thiruparkadal and asked the Lord to make sage Parvathar look like a bear when the girl approached them in the swayamvara. The Lord granted the boon. As soon as Sage Naradar left, sage Parvathar visited the Lord and asked the Lord to make Sage Naradar appear like a monkey. The Lord once again agreed.

The next morning as the princess came to the court she was terrified to see a bear and a monkey. She screamed out of fright but when the king inquired about what was wrong, she turned her attention towards the empty space between the two sages. She then informed the king that she has chosen her husband and garlanded the empty space between the two sages. As soon as she did this, the girl disappeared. The perplexed sages then visited Thiruparkadal. The Lord informed them about each of their boon and He told them that He had appeared amidst them to accept the girl’s garland as she too had prayed to Him to come and accept her garland and thus save her from the sages.

Like this, the Lord plays many tricks to fulfill the boons He granted to His devotees. Thus, He is a mayan.

‘If you have come to get the musical instruments, please wait here while I fetch them for you.’

‘Oh no! We have to get the instruments from Krishna! He promised to give us the instruments but, we came to perform mangalasasanam and sing Suprabatham. We haven’t come to ask for any boons. We came to accept the musical instruments He wishes for us to have as otherwise He will feel bad.’

‘If you came to sing songs for His benefits you may do so from here but, it is too early to wake Him up,’ said the guard.

‘But if you allow us inside we will wait near his footboard and as soon as He opens His eyes we will start to sing!’ said the girls. ‘We consider you to be our boss and will enter only if you grant us permission!’

Nachiar tells us that when we visit temple we should wait for the Bhattacharya to give us the offerings and should not help ourselves to the offerings.

‘Please open the door with your hands so that we may enter!’

Alternate Meaning:

Acharyan is like a hero. He is our leader. Acharyans protect all the divya sukthis (books) for the benefit of future generation. Lord Garuda is found on Perumal’s flag. Lord Garuda is the embodiment of Vedam. Thus, the Acharyans are the door keepers who protect the Vedam. When they open the door to us they give us the precious gem in the form of Asthaksharam. We can only appreciate the value of Asthaksharam when imparted to us by an Acharyan. Lord Krishna asked Arjuna to seek other Acharyans and learn from them after instructing Arjuna on the Bagawad Geetha. We have to approach an Acharyan with the intention of learning from them. Only then will we be able to wake-up from the samsaric life and concentrate on Perumal instead. Even when we make mistakes, our Acharyans correct our errors with patience thus, guiding us along the spiritual path. Our intelligence sticks to our bodily desires like a door which has been jammed shut. We need the help of an Acharyan to open the door in order to make our intelligence move away from materialistic desires.

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