Vol 01.003 3. Tirumalirum Cholai - Part 2

3. TIRUMALIRUM CHOLAI - PART 2
Sampath Rengarajan

thirumAlirunchOlai,the manifestation of thirumaal or Lord Vishnu: This hill is considered to host maal or thirumaal or lord vishnu. The tamil literature " paripAdal" says that people used to worship at the direction of this hill from wherever they are, believing that such worship is directed to worshipping and reaches Lord Vishnu who is living as this hills HIMself. People believed that Lord Vishnu is permanently residing in this hill and hence worshipped from all the remote places around and wherever they are just by looking at the direction of this hill hoping that Vishnu at the center of these worship will accept their worship from this hill and bless them. This is conveyed as

"mAyON oththalin nilaiththE
senRu thozhugal seer kaNdu paNi manamE ..."

i.e. considering this nilai or hill station AS equivalent to mAyOn or thirumaal and nilaiththE senRu thozhugal is worshipping towards such direction (nilaththE is both at the direction and as the hill station used twice but written once). thus believing that this hill is mAyOn people worshipped at the direction this hill was situated from where ever they are.

AndAL delivered 10 pAsurams in nAchiyAr thirumozhi on this kshEthram praising Lord kaLLazhagar. Among his HIS various manifestations, it is also believed that Lord Vishnu is in the form of this hill. This is conveyed earlier in paripAdal explicitly. In Srimath Bagwath geetha Lord Krishna says that among kunRu's or hillock he is in the form of mEru. AndAL expresses this sentiment in her first pAsuram on thirumAlirunchOlai kaLLazhagar.

cinthurac cempodipOl
thirumaaliruNY chOlaiyenkum,
inthira kOpankaLE
ezhunthumparan^ thittanavaal,
mantharam naattiyanRu
mathurakkozhuNY caaRukoNda
suntharath thOLudaiyaan
chuzhalaiyinin RuythunkolO! (2) 1 nAchchiyaar thirumozhi

"thirumaaliruNY chOlaiyenkum" - in thirumAlirun chOlai (azhagar malai) where ever you look
"inthira kOpankaLE" - the butterflies or in tamil pattup poochchi ( they have so many colors that will resemble the colors that represents the sentiments )
"sem" - reddish
"cinthura podipOl" -similar t centhoora podi or the chenthoora powder (chenthooram is similar to kumkumam)
"ezhunthu" -raises
"paran^ thittana" -spread out
"aal" -alas or anthO in tamil
"anRu" -the day "day" dEvas churned the ocean to get the amirtham, surrendered to you
"mantharam" -the manthara malai or mEru malai (the mEru hills that was used to churn the ocean as an agitator)
"naati" -placed and used as maththu or agitator for churning in the pARkadal
"kozhu mathuram" -very pleasant
"saaRu" -the piraati who is similar to the essence of nectar or amirtha rasam
"koNda" - you who took possession of such piraati
"sundarath thOLudaiyaan" - the Lord who has the most beautiful shoulders
"suzhalaiyil ninRu" - though we stand at this life cycle and are caught up in this whirl pool
"uythum kol" - shall we survive this ?

There are also other deeper meanings in this pAsuram: We would like to atleast see his shoulders (in the form of this azhagar malai) that saved the dEvas when surrendered the other day (aNdAL compares this hill to the shoulders of the Lord who saved dEvAs by supporting the mEru hill on HIS shoulders in his koorma avathAram). (is it possible that she was always making garland for the Lord such that She can put it only on the most suitable and majestic shoulder of this perumaal). But the butterflies with their red color spread out and hovered over this hill makes it invisible to my sight. Oh what is this misfortune ? In certain tamil ilakkiyam it is commonly said that " avan naatil kunRum kodiyavO onRum thOnRaa?" when thalaivi (the female) goes out to see the thalaivan to his country but fails to see him. However "thalaivi" or the female would like to see a kunRu or hillock that would have seen him last ? In this case aNdAL touches that sentiment as she goes around to several kshEthrams and is unable to see her thalaivan the Lord and when she hears that HE is present in this hill, she came here and is unable to see him but she would have felt happy to see the hill that hosts him. She is unable to see the hill also as they are covered by the butterflies allover. It is also observe in an another way that the hill looks like a mad elephant (so strong and tall and majestic). It is customary to apply senthooram on the foreheads of mada yAnai or mad elephant. aNdAL compares the red blanket provided by the butterflies as the senthooram applied to the strong hills that is standing similar to a mad elephant. This hill ia also known as vrishabAthri and the details are discussed in part4. Periyaazhwaar comparess "sinthura milangath than thiruneRRimEL" in his pasuram and comapres the senthuram as applied to Lord'S thiru neRRi or fore head.

They (dEvars) brought the manthara malai with the help of Sri Garudan to the thirup pARkadal and placed it in the centre of thirup pARkadal or nucleus of the whole universe (the whole universe is considered thirup pARkadal by many realised souls (both srivaishnava faith and non srivaishnava faith) and for symbolising this the count in santhiyAvandhanam is routed through the 10 peripheral joints of the 4 fingers considering them as the periphery of the universe and excluding the middle joints as they are considered as mEru malai. It is believed that noone must cross over mEru malai as a mark of respect and one can only go around it. mEru malai is even now considered to be the nucleus of the universe by these souls (as per science it is nothing but dense particles or a black hole that is in the centre of this universe and no physical object can possibly cross it) As a respect for the malai no one ever will cross it even while they are traveling or doing japam, while counting gAyathri japam. Same way while many ahObila mutt followers do ashtAksharam as a part of their nitya karmA they also count the 10 external joints of the fingers and exclude the two middle joints of long finger and ring finger considering them as perumal and pirAtti in an anushtAnam that one goes around in pradhakshinam of the divya dampathis. The hill that was so strong and powerful that when it was used as the agitator, it churned the sea in such a way that the sea by itself will bring out and surface its rich contents. It is also conceived that HE agitated the unagitable philosophies and brought the best out of them through HIS charam slOkam of varAha avathAram and that HE alone can do so with HIS supreme nature and that all the philosophies are born out of HIM only. It is also contented that the amirtham is nothing but the extract of the thirup pARkadal while the precious and sweet extract (madhura kozhunchAru) was the piraati HERself who went to perumal. A thought comes to the mind that amirtham might have got its properties due to its association with piraati in the ocean bed ? This is also summarized by thirumangai on Lord Oppiliappan as "viNNAvar amuthuNNa amuthil varum peNNamuthuNda emperumAnE" ie the comparison is such that though the dEvas thought that they got the best out of churning the ocean it is still the Lord who got the best out of the thirup pARkadal ie the piraati and that piraati's presence with HIM glorifies HIS opulence.

At the outset one can read the meaning collectively as "Lord Azhagar with HIS thiN thOL (or majestic shoulders that helped dEvAs churn the ocean but then served HIM ultimately (by bringing piraati on board with HIM in offering HIS divya darsaNam to us) yielded me. Thus with his opulence HE also spreads out his trap for me & also at the same time hides and denies me the sight (or divya darsanam) of HIM as the "thirumalai" by using the butterflies to blanket and cover them. I am saddened by this oodal and will I ever get to survive this separation ?

AT the outset AndAL also compares this hill to the Lord thirumaal (and his shoulders) or vishnu HIMself as similar to the belief summarised in "paripadal"

AndAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam
anathasayanan samEthara sridEvi sundaravalli thaayaar kaLLazhagar thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sampath Rengarajan