mAnamudaiththu

mAnamudaiththu

Attachment to Krishna Avatar 4 : Complaint of Yasoda and Yadava women anout Lord Krishna's acts

In the last tirumozhi AzhwAr spoke of navaneeta chouryam. In this tirumozhi he speaks of His stealing the minds of women. The gOpi’s come and complain to yaSOda His acts like periyAzhwAr does in his pASuras ‘vaLai tuhil kai koNDu kATTril kaDiyanAi aham pukku’ ‘ATTril irundu viLaiyADuvOngALai SETTrAl erindu’ ‘machchODu mALihai Eri mAdarhaL tammiDam pukku kachchOdu paTTai kizhittu kAmbu tuhilavai keeru nichchalum teemaihaL SeivAn’. There is lot of noise in AyarpADi because of these women shouting and yaSODa replying them.

AzhwAr speaks of no other avatAra except kriShNAvatAra in this tirumozhi.

1. mAnamuDaittu ungaLAyar kulam
adanAl pirar makkaL tammai
oonam uDaiyana SeyyapperAi enru
irappan urappahillEn |
nAnum uraittilEn nandan paNittilan
nangaihAL nAn en SeihEn?
tAnum Or kanniyum keezhaiyahattu
tayir kaDaihinrAn pOlum || One ||

A neighbour woman comes to yaSOda with a complaint. To her yaSOda replies ‘Yes! i understand Your problem. i always tell Him ‘Look! My son! Our kula is very respectable one. We should act accordingly. Hence You should not be doing what You do with the young gOpis of AyarpADi. Please behave well and bring honour to our race’.

‘But why don’t You scold Him so that He won't repeat it again?’

‘No! My dear! i can't do that. i can never scold Him nor does nandagOpa. He is our precious dear son. But He takes advantage of our soft nature and is behaving as before. i think even now He is churning butter with that girl in the eastern house. Oh! What can i do?’

2. kAlaiyezhundu kaDaindavimmOr virka
pOhinrEn kaNDE pOnEn
mAlainarungunji nandan mahanallAl
maTTruvandArumillai |
mElaiyahattu nangAivandu kANminhaL
vENNeyEyanrirunda
pAlum padinkuDam kaNDilEn pAviyEn
en SeihEn? en SeihEnO? || Two ||

Another Aichchi from the house on the eastern side comes to yaSOda with a cry. ‘Oh! yaSOda! See what Your dear son has done today. Early in the morning i got up to churn the butter. Then i stepped in to the street and had gone ten steps when suddenly i saw Him coming towards my house i hesitated and thought for moment whether i should go back to my house. i doubted He would do some mischief there. But on second thought i said to myself, perhaps He won't enter my house and if even He does so, He won't do any mischief. Then i went on my way. But when i returned home after selling the butter milk i found the butter (churned today) and the ten pots of milk (kept for churning tomorrow) are all missing.’

‘Why do you blame my son? Did you see Him do that?’

‘No! But there was no one in the street except Him. Oh! What shall i do! i lost everything’.

mAlai narungunji nandan mahan—Even though she was angry with the boy, she noticed His beauty too.

nangAi—A plural word indicating many women. Even the word kANminhaL is plural. Hence it is interpreted that when she was calling yaSOda to complaint about her son, there gathered many women around them out of curiosity to know what is going on.

3. teLLiyavAiSiriyAn nangaihAL
urimElaittaDAniraindu
veLLimalaiyirundAlotta veNNei
vArivizhugiyiTTu |
kaLvan uranguhinrAn vandu kANminhaL
kaiyellAmnei vayiru
piLLaiparam anru ivvEzhulahum koLLum
pEdaiyEn en SeihEnO ? || Three ||

yaSOda speaks to the other women. Oh! Ladies! Look how my kaNNan is feigning sleep! He just now stole the ghee from the pots. His hands are full of ghee! He is smart to do theft but not skilled enough to hide His act. He wiped His mouth with the hands full of ghee. His hands and mouth are smeared with ghee. After eating so much fat His stomach is not full. It can contain seven worlds even now! ‘Oh! i am fool! i am worried about how He is going to digest!'

4. mainnambu vElkaN nallAL munnam peTTra
vaLai vaNNananmAmEni
tan nambi nambiyum inguvaLarndadu
avanivai SeidariyAn |
poinnambi puLLuvan kaLvam podiyarai
pOhinravA tavazhndiTTa
innambinambiyA Aichchiyarku uivillai
en SeihEn? en SeihEnO ? || Four ||

One of the Aichchis praises balarAma and criticizes kaNNa. balarAma is very fair ‘mun nallOr veLLi malai kuTTan’—periyAzhwAr. She says ‘He too was in this very AyarpAdi. But he was very well behaved and brought honour to our race. He never was a thief nor was he a chat. But this kaNNan is always on the look out for pots of ghee, milk, curds, butter whether hidden or open. He would follow us when we are churning, would know where we keep them. He is the very receptacle of deceit. After doing all kinds of destruction He crawls like an innocent baby and makes one believe He is utterly innocent. When such a boy as He is living here how can we women live happily?’

5. tandaipuhundilan nAn ingirundilEn
tOzhimAr Arumillai
SandamalarkuzhalAL taniyE
viLaiyADumiDam kuruhi |
panduparittu tuhilpaTTri keeri
paDiran paDiruSeiyyum
nandan madalaikku ingenkaDavOm nangAi
en SeihEn? en SeihEnO? || Five ||

‘Oh! yaSOda! Listen to what your son did to my daughter. My husband had not returned home with the cattle from the forest; i was away selling curd and butter milk; and none of her friends had come to play with her. She dressed herself well, put on some flowers on her hair and was playing ball all alone in the house. ‘kArAr kuzhal eDuttu kaTTi, kadir mulaiyai nArAra veekki, maNimEhalai tirutti, ArAr ayil vErkaN anjanattin neeraNindu SeerAr Sezhum pandu koNDu aDiyA ninrEn nAn’. kaNNan who is just waiting for such an opportunity, where and when a girl is alone, came home, snatched away her ball, tore her saree, made her cry and went away. i don’t want to say what more He did to her. (paDiru) How can i ever live peacefully in this AyarpADi where this boy lives?

6. maNmahaLkELvan malar mangainAyahan
nandan peTTramadalai
aNNalilai kuzhaloodi nam SErikkE
allilttAn vandapinnai |
kaNmalar SOrndu mulaivandu vimmi
kamalaSevvAiveLuppa
en mahaL vaNNam irukkinravA nangAi
en SeihEn? en SeihEnO ? || Six ||

One of the Aichchis complained what kriShNa did to her daughter in the last pASura. Here comes another lady who narrates what kaNNan did to her daughter. ‘Oh! yaSOda! nandagOpa’s son kaNNa pirAn is the consort of Boomi pirATTi and periya pirATTi. Why shouldn’t He enjoy them at will? Why should He come to my house at night and play on the flute?’ ‘So what?’

‘My daughter immediately showed signs of love disease. Her eyes drooped, breasts were swollen, lost her complexion, lips became pale. i cannot describe her condition. i fear nothing worse can happen’.

7. Ayiram kaNNuDaiya indiranArukku
enru Ayar vizhaveDuppa
pASana nallana paNDihaLAl puha
peida adanaiyellam |
pOyirundu angoruboodavaDivam koNDu
un mahan inru nangAi
mAyan adanaiyellam muTTra vAri
vaLaittu uNDirundAn pOlum || Seven ||

Oh! yaSOda! Do you know what Your son did today? As usual the AyarpADi men took cart loads of food to offer them to indra to pay homage to him. Your son asked them not to offer them to indra, but to gOvardhana mountain instead. The men folks did so. kaNNan Himself took the form of a huge giant and ate up all the food offered to the mountain.

indra got angry at this and poured heavy rain, to punish them. But kaNNan lifted the mountain as an umbrella and protected the AyarpADi people and cattle. Then He curbed the pride of indra and taught him a lesson.

The words ‘adanai ellAm’ occurs twice in this pASura to suggest He ate everything Himself.

8. tOitta tayirum naruneyyum pAlum
OrOr kuDam tooTTriDumenru
Aichchiyar kooDi azhaikkavum nAn idarku
eLhi ivanai nangAi |
SOttam pirAn ivai SeyyapperAi enru
irappan urappahillEn
pEichchimulaiyuNDa pinnai
ippiLLaiyai pESuvadu anjuvanE || Eight ||

i know what He does in every house. i know He steals butter, curd etc., stored in big vessels and completely eats them all. i fear to listen to all the complaints. You expect me to scold Him for all the mischief that He does. But after the incident of pootana i don’t like to scold Him or speak harshly at Him. But i do point out His wrongs and plead Him softly ‘Please kaNNa don’t do like this. It is not nice of You. See how You put me into trouble and embarrass me when they come and complain.’ The Aichchis feel she pets Him too much spoiling the boy (ANADa viTTiTTirukkum--) periyAzhwAr. i really don’t know what to do.

9. eeDum valiyumuDaiya innambi
piranda ezhuttingaLil
Edalar kaNNiyinAnai vaLartti
yamunai neerADappOnEn |
SEDan tirumarumArvan kiDandu
tiruvaDiyAl malaipOl
Odum SahaDattai SADiya pinnai
urppuvadu anjuvanE || Nine ||

yaSOda tells her friend—‘Oh! Woman! i had gone to yamuna to take bath after putting Him to sleep. He was just a babe of 7 months old. He kicked with His tiny feet the mountain-like huge cart haunted by SakaTAsura and shattered it to pieces? Since then i fear to scold Him and punish Him. Of course i know He is mischievous and what You tell about Him is absolutely true. But what can i do?

eeDu and vali means the same. But here a slight distinction is made that eeDu is interpreted as dEha bala and vali is valour.

tingaL—month is the chandramAna calendar. It is counted from amAvAsya to amavAsya as one.

10. anjuvan Solli azhaittiDa nangaihAL
AyiranAzhi neiyai
panjiyamellaDi piLLaihaL uNhinra
bAham tAn vaiyArhaLE |
kanjan kaDiyan karaveTTunALil en
kaivalattu Adumillai
nenjattiruppana SeiduvaittAi nambee
en SeihEn? en SeihEnO ? || Ten ||

In the previous two pASura yaSOda was telling the women ‘ippiLLaiyai pEsuvadu anjauvanE’ ‘urappuvadu anjuvanE’. They tell her ‘yaSOda! It is but natural that Your son is dear to You. Don’t You know the adage ‘one who cannot be controlled by a mother cannot be controlled by anyone. So You try to control Your son and put Him in the right behaviour. If He keeps stealing our products then how can we live fearlessly in this AyarpADi? Should we console ourselves saying ‘This is our fate. We can do nothing about it’ and keep quiet?

yaSOda was very much moved by their words and said ‘i too feel the same. Oh! kaNNa! If You keep eating all the butter, ghee etc where do we get money from? How can we pay the tax to our king kamsa? It is only eight days time left for us to pay the yearly tribute. Please don’t hurt my mind. Behave well!’

The yearly taxes to be paid is mentioned in viShNu purANa too.

11. anganam teemaihaL SeivarhaLO
nambee Ayar maDamakkaLai
pangayaneer kuDaindADuhinrArhaL
pinnE Senru oLittirundu |
angavar poonduhil vArikkoNDiTTu
aravEriDaiyArirappa
mangainalleer vandu koNminenru
maramEri irundAi pOlum || Eleven ||

yaSOda scolds kaNNan for being naughty. Oh! kaNNa! How can You be so naughty? i hear from a gOpi that You followed the young girls who were going to a lotus pond to take bath. When they kept their dresses on the shore and entered the pond, You hid Yourself somewhere and took away their clothes. You put them on a tree and asked them to come and collect them. How can You behave like a rogue ?

12. achcham tinaittanaiyillai ippiLLaikku
ANmaiyum SEvahamum
uchchiyil muttivaLarttu eDuttEnukku
uraittilan tAn inrupOi |
pachchilai poonguDambEri viSaikoNDu
pAindu pukku AyiravAi
nachchazhal poihaiyil nAhattinODu
piNangi nee vandAi pOlum || Twelve ||

Oh! kaNNa! You never told me where You were going. Suddenly You went out somewhere. i hear from the Aichchis that You had been to the lake where the terrible kALiya lives. You dived into it, fought with him who spits venom through his 1000 mouths. How can You act recklessly like this? You have no fear of anything. i am afraid You think You are very brave and courageous. But we fear for Your safety.

In Sree viShNu purANa it is said that the kurunda tree was barren due to the heat of kALiya’s venom. But AzhwAr’s version is different (pachchilai poonguDambu Eri). Perhaps kaNNan’s tiruvaDi sparSa caused the barren tree to sprout with leaves and flowers.

13. tam param allana ANmaihaLai
taniyE ninru tAmSeivarO
emberumAn unnaippeTTra vayiruDaiyEn
iniyAn en SeihEn? |
ambaramEzhum adirum iDikural
anganal SengaNuDai
vambavizh kAnattu mAlviDaiyODu
piNangi nee vandAi pOlum || Thirteen ||

Oh! My kaNNa! How can You be so reckless and careless daring to perform acts which only elders dare to do and boys of Your age fear to do? Your act of killing pootana, of kicking SakaTAsura etc., are acts which even the elders fear to do. And You don’t take Your elder brother balarAma with You! You want to do them all alone! Oh! kaNNa! You are my dear son. Now i hear You have fought with seven terrible red eyed dark bulls! Oh! My God! What can i do now?

14. annanaDai maDavAichchi vayiraDittu
anja aruvaraipOl
mannu kurungaLiTTru Aruyir vavviya
maindanai mAkaDalSoozh kanni |
nanmAmadiL mangaiyar kAvalan
kAmaruSeer kalikanri
inniSaimAlaihaL eerEzhum vallavarkku
Edum iDarillaiyE || Fourteen ||

yaSOda pirATTi feared for the safety of kaNNan who continued to pursue His amAnuShya chEShTitas like killing kuvaLayApeeDa, dancing on kALiya etc., Also she is much worried abut His behaviour towards the girls of AyarpADi and His continuous stealing habits and eating butter etc—not only in her house but in all the houses of AyarpADi. She says she cannot scold Him. However she shows her concern over Him and mildly pleads to mend His ways. Those who read these fourteen pASuras will be out of samsAra in no time.