vrindhAvanathE kandOmE!

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe rAmAnujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

Dear bhagavatas,

On this auspicious day of thiruvAdi pooram, the birth star of soodikkoduththa nAchiyAr (one who adorned and presented flower garland), anju kudikkoru sandhadhi (daughter to all the 10 alwars) godha piratti Sri Andal adiyen wishes to express some of my deep anubhavams infront of this great group of bhagavatas. This writeup has to be regarded as one another anubhavam granted by the divine couples and shouldn't be considered to be anything against our poorvacharyas vyakhyanams. Hope the bhagavatas of this group will take it in the right spirit.

Abhimanam (favourite) is a term near and dear to our sampradayam. Each one of us has a special abhimanam towards a specific divyadesam/perumal/thayar/azhvar/acharya. As you all already know adiyen reserves my very special abhimanam towards Parthasarathi and his divya desam, thiruvallikeni. So adiyen's writeup on this very special day is going to be about the very special serthi (dual) Sri Parthasarathi and Andal.

Andal is special in our sampradayam as she holds the place of both an azhvar and nachiyar (thayar). She is the only female azhvar and her deep emotional outpourings towards the lord in both her thiruppavai and nachiyar thirumozhi cannot be explained by words. Though thiruppavai is a very small prabhandam with only 30 verses still the amount of deep essence it holds is enormous. So many marghazhi months have passed and so many thiruppavai upanyasams but still thiruppavai ever lives young in all our minds. In all the temples we find andal in a separate sannadhi. Both Adi and marghazhi months are special for andal. In Adi, the 10-day festival of thiruvadi pooram is celebrated in almost all the divyadesams and the grand finale will be the Adi poora thirukalyanotsavam.

But in all other divyadesams, except srivilliputtur and thiruvallikeni emperumans celebrates thirukalyanotsavam with another thayar on the panguni uthiram day also. Srivilliputtur is the birthplace of goda piratti. In thiruvallikeni geethacharyan, Krishnan Sri Parthasarathi reserves the post of his consort only for andal and hence doesn't undergo kalyanotsavam with any other thayar. Here the panguni uthira kalyanam is between ennai Aludaiyappan (ranganathan) and vedavalli thayar. Sri Parthasarathi celebrates wedding with andal on two auspicious days thiruvadipooram and bhogi kalyanam. After both the kalyanotsavams andal stays in her beloved Parthasarathi sannadhi for a full month till the next pooram.

Andal in her thiruppavai undergoes nombhu only for the Ayan, Sri Krishnan. In nachiyar thirumozhi she says, 'venkatavarkku ennai vidhikitriyE' and 'AyanukkAga nan kanda kana'. From the stala puram of thiruvallikeni it is very clear that only the emperuman who stands in thiruvenkatam appeared as Sri Krishnan (Parthasarathi) to satisfy the wishes of his bhaktha, sumathi maharajan. So Parthasarathi in thiruvallikeni is both an ayan and also venkatavan.

Let us dive a little deeper in to this ocean of anubhavam. In her seventh decade of nachiyar thirumozhi andal envies the conch in the hand of emperuman 'karpuram narumO? Kamalappoo nArumO.. sollAzhi veNsangE'. In various divyadesams emperuman holds various weapons in his hands. But sanghu and chakram are the usual trademark for any perumal. But generally we find chakrathazhvar being given greater preference than the conch. We find so many sannadhis for chakrathAzhvar and bhakthas flooding those sannadhi's to fulfil their wishes. Chakrasnanam (theerthavari) on the last day of the brahmotsavam is a usual procedure in all the diyva desam, where chakrathAzhvan is regarded as a representative of emperuman himself. But andal doesn't envy the chakram but instead she envies the sanghu in perumal's hand. Why? Venkatakrishnan (moolavar) in thiruvallikeni has only a sanghu in his right hand. He gives darshan with only two hands one holding the sanghu and the other with varada or vaikunda hastham (like indicating 'mAM Akam charanam vraja').

Andal says 'pathinArAyiram devi mAr parthiruppa' , the conch has taken the special place in the hands of Parthasarathi when all the 16,108 consorts of Krishnan looks with envying eyes. Even when he left the devis and went for the war he didn't forget to take the conch. Again not only the devis but all the other weapons also gives a sad look as even when Krishna promised to leave all his weapons and come unarmed to the battlefield he still held the conch alone in his hand. Andal in her paasurams shows her birth as a Brahmin girl by saying, oh! sangE, how come you have gone to the hands of emperuman when you haven't even taken a bath(Acharam) and how dare you go and have the bath in the mouths of emperuman itself.

Further, andal in her second paasuram says, 'kudiyEri theeya asurar nadalai pada muzhangum'. When did the sound of the conch (panchajanyam) shrill the hearts of the enemy? Yes. It was during the bharatha yuddham (war). Geethacharyan, Sri Parthasarathi held only the conch in his hand and charioteered the chariot of arjuna. In those days the start of the war was indicated by the sound of the conch in the hands of the main warriors. In bhagavat geetha, the first chapter greatly describes the warriors and the different conches in their hands. 'panchajanyam hrisheekesham devadaththam dhananjaya:' and so on. The gauravas lost the war on just hearing the sanga nAdham, which Sri Krishna made, says our acharyas. That is what andal reflects here. The conch settled in the hands of emperuman Sri Parthasarathi and it sounded in such a manner that the gauravas (theeya asurar) got defeated.

Andal enjoys the beauty of Sri Krishnan as 'kananennum karun deivam' and in the grand finale she says her ultimate wish in 'pattemeithathOr kArEru baladevarkkOr keezhkandrAi'. Where can we enjoy this karun deivam? Come to thiruvallikeni and enjoy the thirumugam of Parthasarathi (utsavar). The thirumugam is black in colour and with ultimate beauty. Karum can refer to both the black colour and karunyam(grace). Dark clouds shower more rain. So when andal says karun deivam it can also mean the lord who has so much grace. Parthasarathi's thirumugam is not only black in colour but even today holds the wounds of the arrows of bheeshma which he bore in his thirumugam to save his bhaktha arjuna from getting hurt. He didn't mind getting hurt to save his bhaktha. Does his grace and bhakthavatsalyam need any other proof? Andal in thiruppavai says 'uththaman' where the vyakhyanam reads that uththaman is one who works for the welfare of the others at the cost of himself. Doesn't this name hold good for our dear Parthasarathi who has wounded himself to save his bhaktha?

Last but not the least, andal says 'ettamana pasukkalai enidhu mariththu neerooti' the fact that Krishnan is gopalan and loves cows still stays and that is why in thiruvallikeni we find so many cows on the streets and Parthasarathi still takes care of his beloved cows. One specific instance comes to adiyen's mind while talking about the cows. One day Parthasarathi was undergoing purappadu. He halted in davanautsava bungalow and then again started from there. Ghosthi thodakkam was going on when two cows fighting among each other came running towards Parthasarathi. The cows were right in front of emperuman on one side was the arulicheyal ghosti and on the other the crowd of bhakthas. Finding no place to escape the cows ran towards Parthasarathi. The sreepadham thangis didn't get scared but instead they lifted emperuman a little higher and to all our surprise the cows became very soft and silently went under the kedayam (seat of emperuman during the purappadu) of emperuman to the other side. It was really amazing. Doesn't this show that even fighting cows will become soft in the sannadhi of gopalan and how did it learn to go underneath without hurting or disturbing anyone? Amidst all these confusions the arulicheyal ghosthi continued smoothly as cows are not new to thiruvallikeni and they knew very well that the gopalan would take care of them. That is how thiruvallikeni still remains a gokulam under the leadership of Parthasarathi emperuman.

On top of all these andal completes by saying, 'vittukondu vilaiyAda vrindhAvanaththE kandOmE'. Did you all know that the original name of thiruvallikeni as per the puranas is 'Brindaranya kshetram' and that is where andal found kannan at last and now, on this auspicious day she celebrates her wedding with Parthasarathi in thiruvallikeni. Let us all enjoy the divine serthi of the divine couples Sri Andal samEtha Sri Parthasarathi in all our minds wherever we are on this divine day.

Once again adiyen requests the bhagavatas of this group to enjoy the writeup as one of adiyen's anubhavams.

Brindaranya nivAsAya balarAmAnujAyacha

rukmini prAnanAdhAya parthasoodhAya mangalam

Srimathyai Vishnu chitArya mano nandhana hEthavE

nandhanandhana sundaryai gOdhAyai nithya mangalam

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan