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| 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.
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| 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!’
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| 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.
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| 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
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