Thirupavai. 10

nōttuc cuvarkkum puhukinna ammanāy!

māttamum tārārō vācal tiravādār ? |

nātta tuzhāi muḍi  nārāyaṇan |  nammāl

pōtta paṛai tarum puṇṇiyanāl | paṇḍoru nāḷ

kūttattin vāy vīzhnda kumbha karuṇanum |

tōttum unakkē perunduyil tān tandānō ? |

ātta anandal uḍaiyāy! arungalamē! |

tēttamāy vandu tiṛa vēlōr empāvāy ||

Meanings:

Goda arrives at the home of a very special Gopi. She is so special and very close to the residence of Krishna and hence is blessed to get the divine experience of Krishna whenever she aspired for the same. Goda calls her in sarcasm.

she wakes up a gOpi, who is very dear to kaNNan emperumAn. She is explained as a sidha sAdhana nishta, one who has surrendered fully to emperumAn and so emperumAn likes her the most. The love that all gOpikAs have towards krishNan and the effort they take to go behind him – that is the effort Kannan takes to go behind this gOpikA – they are waking up such a gOpikA in this pAsuram.

There is mention of Rama in the pasuram. One may remember that Rama didn’t protect Sugriva when he too shelter of Rama for the first time. Next time, when Lakshmana gave him garland and he approached Rama through Rama, he protected him. Only to teach a lesson Rama didn’t protect Sugriva for the first time. We too should approach God through his devotees/ Acharya/ Ramanuja.

NŌTTRU- undertaking vratha

Goda says in Sarcasm that it seems as though you are observing the vratam. What is their vratam? Means and Goal are same. Their vratam is experiencing Krishna.

O Girl! It seems Krishna is with you. That’s why you are not opening the door.

CUVARKKAM PUHUKINDRA – enjoying Svargam;

For mundane people, Svarga is place where Indra resides and Naraka is place where Yama resides. But, for devotes, Svarga is being with Krishna and Naraka is being without Krishna. Sita says in Ramayanam, “Yah Tvaya sah, sa svargah”.

O Gopi! Krishna is with you and you are enjoying him, that’s why you are not opening the door. Open the door, we won’t take Krishna away from you.

AMMANĀY!:  Oh our leader!

You are our leader and you are enjoying Krishna alone. It’s duty of people advanced in spirituality to take neophyte devotees with them, correct them and remove their doshas.

MĀTTRAMUM TĀRĀRŌ VĀCAL TIRAVĀDĀR?

Even if you don’t open the doors cant you even utter a word?

If someone comes at our home, we welcome them by coming forward with sweet words. It seems you are so much immersed in experiencing Krishna that you are not able to speak even a word.

They are saying this as they are not able to tolerate her silence; if the door is closed, should the mouth also be closed? Can you not reply to the relatives even if you are having a lot of wealth? Inside your house you have given yourself to kaNNan, but can you not even give your talking to us? He is not letting you get up but can you not at least say a few words to us? While looking at him, can you not lend your ears to us? You may not want to give your krishNan, can you not give us yourself (for going to the nOnbu)?

The gOpikA replies, “You are blaming me that I am keeping kaNNan here. Do you think he is here?”

The Gopi woke up and began to run to come out. Goda says, “Don’t come out like Tara. Get properly dressed and come out”. Tara approached lakshmana directly coming out of bed. Lakshmana couldn’t even rise his head to see her.

NĀTTRA TUZHĀI MUḍI: Both of you can try to hide but the fragrance of the tulasi in His head can never be hidden.

Bhagwaan is always with Tulasi. The fragnance of Tulasi is coming out of your home. Even if you don’t open your mouth to confirm, the fragrance confirms his presence.

Gopi replied, “If he hugs me just once, his fragrance will be with me even after bathing nine times; I came to bed after meeting you all, and you all came to my door last evening itself to wake me up. With so many of you standing there, and with elders’ protection of the house, would He have been able to enter this house?”?

NĀRĀYAṇAN: He is Narayanan;

He is present inside and outside everyone. ‘antar bahir cha tat sarvam vyaapt Narayan sthitam’.  He is present inside even those who don’t accept Him what to say about devotees like you;

NAMMĀL PŌTTA PAṛAI TARUM- whose praise we sing and thereby receive our goal of divine service (kainkaryam) from Him;

PAṇḍORU NĀḷKŪTTATTIN VĀY VĪZHNDA KUMBHA KARUṇANUM – our supreme Lord who is the personification of dharma (that which leads us to our goal); Once upon a time, that kumbhakarna, One who fell prey to death, failed in front of you.

Earlier there was one kumbhakarana who kept sleeping and hence missed the opportunity of enjoying and surrendering (like vibheeshana) under the divine feet of Sri Rama who has incarnated to uplift the jeevatmas and entrapped in gratitude fought in the side of ravana and paved way for his death himself.   Probably that kumbakarana lost in a battle between you two in sleeping long hours and as a result gave his sleep also to you.

ĀTTRA ANANDAL UḍAIYĀY! – One with a beautiful slumber!

 ARUNGALAMĒ!- One like a rare jewel;

 TĒTTRAMĀY VANDU TIṛA- Shake of your stupor and open the door.

Inner meanings:

For a devotee, the vratam is Krishna himself. What would they get out of vratam? Krishna.  To achieve Krishna, one don’t need to perform any means to get him. Goda introduces us to one such devotee in that stage of devotion. She immersed in experiencing Krishna and keep relishing the divine experiences. Such devotees become our leader and we should approach them. We should her to their teachings and their realizations.

Everyone is eligible to get God. One just needs to surrender to Acharya. They have to open the doors. What are the doors? The doors are ignorance. After doors are open, we see the Narayana, husband of Tulasi.

Kumbhakaran here means sage Agastya as he was born from kumbh (pot). He had drunk the entire ocean in one sip. Acharyas ingulf the entire ocean of shastras and provide whatever needed to us. We don’t need to get lost in the forest of shastras but simply approach a devotee who have assimilated the Vedas.

Agastya controlled the Vindhya when he was rising in ego. Similary, Acharya scolds us to bring divine qualities in us.

LESSON FOR THE DAY

All theists aim at doing good deeds to gain punyam (result of good deeds) and get away from papam (result of sins). Jeevas take birth in this world due to the accumulated karma (combination of papa and punya).  In case of those who aspire to get rid of this cycle of life and death and attain salvation (moksha) both punya and papa are obstacles.

Punya is like a golden Hand cuff and papa is like a Iron Hand cuff both are anyway going to bind us in this samsara (cycle of birth and death).  So to get rid of this bondage both our papa and punya has to be nullified.  But how does that happen?

Andal answers “nAttra tuzAi mudi nArAyanan nammAl pOttra parai tarum punniyan”  With the help of punniyan- Narayanan adorning the fragrant tulasi garland who we praise and who will grant us the requested parai (servitude).

Bhagwaan himself is the means to reach him.

So should we stop all the other so called good deeds we do today?  No we need to continue to do all the good deeds and refrain from sins with greater enthusiasm since that is the only way we can please our master (the supreme Lord) who has ordained so through the Vedas.  But while doing the same we need to do it only for His happiness and not for any other benefits, then that supreme Lord will grant us His divine abode.