Thirupavai Pasuram 27

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/01/thirupavai-pasuram-26.html

Lord of Tirumala

“koodaarai” means the enemies of Perumal. Perumal has the capacity to defeat His enemies very easily hence “koodaarai vellum”.

Andal Nachiar said, ‘Govinda, we are not your enemies therefore don’t defeat us!’

Nachiar wanted to ask Perumal to lose to them but she camouflaged her words beautifully by implying that they are His devotees therefore He should not think about defeating them.

‘Krishna let us win just like the way in which you let Bhishmacharya win.’

‘When did I lose to Bhishmacharya?’

‘Duryodana and Arjuna approached you to seek Your help in the upcoming war. You knew that they would be arriving. You removed every single chair from Your bed chamber all except one throne placed behind Your head board and a small foot stool place near Your foot board. You instructed Your guards to allow anyone inside Your chamber while You slept. You then pretended to sleep and Duryodana arrived first. As Duryodana entered the chamber He pitied himself for having to seek the help of a Yadava. Feeling arrogant that he was superior to even You, Duryodana occupied the throne behind Your  head board. Very soon Arjuna entered. Arjuna did not notice Duryodana but as soon as he entered he saw the Your beautiful feet he stood humbly near the Your footboard. After making sure that Arjuna has arrived, You opened Your eyes and as Your eyes first fell on Arjuna, You welcomed him. Duryodana immediately objected stating that he had arrived before Arjuna. You replied that as You had first seen Arjuna, You would first offer the choice to Arjuna. You asked Arjuna to choose between Your  strong military consisting of 9 crore units on one side and You. You informed Arjuna that You will not fight in the war. To Duryodana’s delight, Arjuna chose You over Your military units. Duryodana went back to Hastinapuram and informed Bhishmacharya. Bhishmacharya sent Duryodana back to Dwaraka asking You to promise that You will not touch any weapons during the war. You solemnly vowed to never touch a weapon. Bhishmacharya then vowed that he will make you take-up weapons during the war. As Bhishmacharya was Your dear devotee, You wanted to make his wish come true. Every day in the morning Bhishmacharya performed archanai to worship You and then came to the battle filed. He showered arrows on You considering His attack to be the archanai performed as part of Karma Yoga to worship you. You were very pleased with Bhishmacharya but upset that Arjuna wasn’t fighting back Bhishmacharya. Arjuna didn’t have the heart to attack Bhishmacharya. Hence, pretending to be angry, You jumped down from the chariot and rushed towards Bhishmacharya. Even without being called, Sudarsana Chakram took its place on your finger. Thus You broke Your own vow to fulfill the wish of Bhishmacharya. Bhishmacharya wanted to see if You would break your vow once more on the following day and You kindly obliged by rushing towards Bhishmacharya once again with Sudarsana Chakram in Your hand. Treat us the same way in which You treated Bhishmacharya by not defeating us!’

“koodaarai vellum seer” means that even enemies enjoy the Lord’s qualities and sing His praise. We can see this in Ramavataram. Lord Rama showered arrows on Ravana and wounded him. Ravana’s charioteer retreated from the battle field in order to provide treatment to the unconscious Ravana. As soon as Ravana came to, he was upset that the charioteer had retreated thus smearing his name. The charioteer replied that he only wanted to provide treatment to Ravana. Ravana was pleased with his charioteer’s loyalty and gave him a gift. He then asked the charioteer to return to battle as he was eager to see the grace with which Lord Rama fought majestically in the war!

Surpanaka sang praises about Lord Rama’s qualities. Mandodari too sang the Lord’s praise after Ravana had been killed and recognized Lord Rama as Paramatma.

Ravana held a meeting prior to the war to discuss what must be done to retain Sita and yet prevent an attack from Lord Rama. Kumbakaranan expressed his disappointment that Ravana had not consulted with them first prior to abducting Sita Piratti. Kumbakaranan promised to stay by Ravana knowing very well that they would be destroyed but he performed Saranagathi to Perumal and asked Lord Rama to always keep Vibhishnazhwar by His side or to make sure Vibhishnazhwar was protected by Lakshhmanar or Lord Hanuman.

Thus the entire family of Ravana had eulogized lord Rama.

There was once a couple in Vrindavan who did not like to see the women folk spend time with Lord Krishna. The lady vowed to her husband that she would never go after Krishna. One day the couple heard a noise and the husband went outside to check. Soon he returned and knocked on the door. The wife opened the door for him.

‘Thank God you are okay! Krishna tries to enter homes in the guise of the women’s husbands!’ said the husband.

‘Don’t worry; I can easily recognize you from the impostor!’

They heard someone knock on the door.

‘Who is there?’ called the husband.

‘It is me your real husband! You are inside with the impostor!’ said the voice from outside.

‘What did I tell you! The impostor is here!’ exclaimed the husband.

‘I will teach him a lesson!’ said the wife as she opened the door. She saw the impostor standing outside looking exactly like her husband.

‘Here hit him with these pots!’ said the husband as he passed heavy metal pots to his wife.

The wife started to hit the impostor who kept crying that he was the real husband.

‘Stop hitting me! Turn around and look!’ cried the impostor.

The wife stopped hitting and looked behind to see Lord Krishna standing with disc conch, mace and lotus in His hands. The wife realized that she had been hitting her real husband. The couple fell in love with Krishna and sang His praise even though He had played a prank on them.

Thus even enemies of the Lord sing His praise.

Nachiar mentioned the name Trivikrama once every 10 pasuram because He placed His feet on everyone’s head even if they were sinners and measured the world equally. To show that He treated everyone equally, His name is mentioned once every ten pasuram.

The name “Govinda” is whereas clumped together and mentioned in all of the last three pasurams. Nachiar hits a hat trick with Govinda. The name Govinda is chanted while eating to help us digest. The girls had done severe penance and to celebrate their success they were going to have a feast; hence Nachiar mentions “Govinda” to help them digest the feast. Normally when people eat peanuts, they keep three good peanuts aside so that even if they eat rotten peanuts in the end, they can cleanse their palate by eating the three good peanuts. Thus “Govinda” is also repeated three times to end on a good note.

Perumal received the name “Govinda” during Krishnavataram after Govardhanodharanam when Kamadhenu performed Govinda Pattabhishekam. Perumal promised the people of Vrindavan that Govardhana will eat their offerings to show that Govardhana was better than Devendran since Devendran had never ate their offerings.

‘Everyone, please chant “Govardhanai namaha”,’ said Lord Krishna.

As everyone repeated the manthram they were surprised to see a handsome youth appear on top of the hill.

‘Look at that handsome youth!’ they exclaimed.

They watched the youth come down the hill and eat the mountain of rice by mixing rice with ghee filled inside a huge well and a pond filled with curd.

‘Doesn’t this youth resemble our Krishna? Look at His beautiful eyes!’ exclaimed Krishna’s friends.

Thus Perumal ate all the offerings in order to get the stamina to uphold Govardhana on His little finger for seven days. We chant Govinda namam before eating so that He will help us digest our food.

The very first time Perumal obtained the name “Govinda” was not during Krishnavataram but during Varahavataram. He received this name for lifting Bhumi Piratti on His shoulders as Bhumi is also called as “Go”. Thus Nachiar reminds us about Varaha Perumal since Varaha Perumal promised Bhumi Piratti that He would grant moksham to anyone who chanted His name once while they were feeling well even if they do not have the capacity to think about Him on their death bed.

Varaha Perumal at Kumbakonam

Andal Nachiar is the incarnation of Bhumi Piratti. She is reminding Perumal about His promise while also making sure that we think about Varaha Perumal and chant “Govinda” now itself so that He can keep up His promise and save us even if we forget about Him on our death bed.

‘Krishna as we have been singing your praise, grant us gifts.’ asked Nachiar.

‘What do you need?’

‘We need armlets, rakudi to wear on our coiffure, earrings, sevi poo the small earrings which we will wear above our earrings, anklets plus as many jewelry you can give us!’

Since the girls are before Perumal they want to dress up to please Him.

‘Is that all you need?’

‘We also need new clothes which we will wear after wearing the jewels.’

They wanted to wear clothes after wearing jewelry so that they will not wrinkle their dress.

‘We need yummy rice cooked in milk with strong flavour of milk because the rice as well as sugarcane must have been grown on milk and not on water. The rice should be very rich cooked in large amounts of ghee and garnished with almonds and cashews. We will sit around you with the rice in our hand but we will not eat the rice even if ghee drips on our dress because Your company is the real feast!’

Sri Mushnam Varaha Perumal

Alternate Meaning:

Nachiar describes a Mukthathma’s enjoyment in Sri Vaikuntham. A Mukthathma enjoys everything equally with Perumal including Perumal’s kalyana gunam.

As soon as a Mukthathma reaches Sri Vaikuntham, the Mukthathma is received by 500 Apsara women. Women receive the Mukthathma as they represent Thayar. 100 women stand with trays loaded with dress and ask the Mukthathma to choose a dress.

Another hundred Apsaras stand with beautiful garlands in hand, hundred with collyrium for eyes and 100 with fancy beautiful jewelry. To represent these five sets of hundred Apsaras, Nachiar has specified five kind of jewelry in the pasuram. The five hundred Apsaras represent the reception received by the Mukthathma which is supreme and beyond our imagination.

Swetha Varaha Perumal - http://anudinam.org/2012/04/12/brahmothsavam-of-sri-shwetha-varaha-swamy-mysore-palace/

Alternate Meaning 2:

Sadacharyans are like Govindan; they teach us their poorvacharya’s divya sukthis and ensure that we understand the texts. The Sadacharyans lecture in such a way that even if students do not like attending classes, they get absorbed in the Sadacharyan’s lecture and do not wish to skip even one lecture.

It is our duty to chant the taniyan of our Acharyan every day. Our Acharyan gives us five items; sudagam which is dasya namam – Acharyan provides us with a new name as part of the five refinements so that we are reminded about Perumal and our Acharyans when we mention our name. Tholvalai is the marks of conch & disc on our shoulders added during Samasrayanam. The rahasyatrayam upadesam become our earrings, the proper way to use the manthram during Thiruvaradhanam, are the sevipoo, padagam is the thiruman worn by Bagawathas. The above five are applicable for women as well.

It is our duty to take care of our atma as the property of Perumal. We should accept Bagawad Prasadam and live happily by attending kalakshepams and upanyasams.

The qualification reqd to do saranagathi is that we don't have any qualifications!

 Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/02/thirupavai-pasuram-28.html