Abhirami. Bhattar and Abhirami Andhathi........A comparison.............

A MUST READ BY ALL PARENTS.....& TAKE TIME TO READ..........TO GUIDE THEIR CHILDREN.............JK

Verses 13 & 69 of Abhirami Andhati are of utmost importance..... for Verse 13 prayer to mother Abhirami....for protection...well-being...self determination and over all good of the person offerring this prayer to Goddess Abhirami....whereas verse 69 prayer to Mother Abhirami...........shall shall be bestowed with the following by the mere grace of the corners of Her eyes:
Riches..... education......, tireless mind......, divine form......, relatives without malevolence....... and everything good.....This is moire essential for children undergoing education and seeking employment career.

Abhirami. Bhattar and Abhirami Andhathi........A comparison.............

To Surrender unto my Mother................

Abhirami Andhathi.......While all the 100 stanzas are equally important in Abirami Andhathi composed by..........ABHIRAMI BATTAR............which is widely regarded as one of the foremost works of modern Tamil literature stanzas 13 & 69 are most touching stanzas......&.....Now about Abhirami Bhattar..................

Abhirami Pattar (original name Subramaniya Iyer) (late 1700s - early 1800s) was a semi-legendary Hindu saint from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

He is famed as the author of a collection of hymns called Abhirami Anthadhi which is widely regarded as one of the foremost works of Tamil literature.

Subramaniya Iyer was born to one Amirthalinga Iyer in the village of Tirukkadaiyur. Tirukkadaiyur was one of the agraharams established by the Maratha ruler Serfoji I, a great admirer of Brahmin poets and bards, in the early part of the 18th century. The village was famous for its temple to Lord Shiva. Right from his childhood, Subramaniya Iyer was drawn to the temple and the Goddess.

As he grew Subramaniya Iyer developed a fanatical devotion to Goddess Abhirami. He would sit in a corner of the temple meditating upon the Goddess and singing her praise. As time passed, he was forever immersed in meditation upon the Goddess that he began to observe the supposed likeliness of the Goddess in the persona of the women around him and often showered them with flowers. According to sources, soon, a particular section of the populace began to regard him as a madman.

One day, Raja Serfoji, the Maratha Raja of Thanjavur who ruled over the land, visited the temple to pay homage to Lord Shiva. On noticing the peculiar behavior of Subramaniya Iyer who was a temple priest, he inquired the other priests about the individual. One of them remarked that he was a madman while another rejected this categorization explaining to the king that Subramaniya Iyer was only an ardent devotee of Goddess Abhirami. Seeking to know the truth himself, Serfoji approached the priest and asked him what day of the month it was i.e. whether it was a full-moon day or a new-moon day. Subramaniya Iyer who could see nothing else but the shining luminant form of the Goddess before him wrongly answered that it was a full-moon day while it was in fact a new-moon day. The king rode off informing the former that he would have his head cut off if the moon did not appear on the sky by six in the night.

Immediately realizing his mistake, Subramaniya Iyer supposedly lit a huge fire and erected a platform over it supported by a hundred ropes. He sat upon the platform and prayed to the Goddess Abhirami to save him. He cut off one rope after another in succession on completion of each verse of his prayer. These hymns form the Abhirami Anthadhi. On completion of the 79th hymn,the Goddess Abhirami manifested herself before him and threw her earring over the sky such that it shone with bright light upon the horizon. Overcome with ecstasy, Subramaniya Iyer composed 22 more verses in praise of the Goddess.

The king repented his mistake and immediately cancelled the punishment he had awarded Subramaniya Iyer. He also bestowed upon the latter the title of "Abirami Pattar" or "priest of Goddess Abhirami" and supposedly awarded his successors the privilege of using the title "Bharathi".

Abhirami Bhattar's Andati [100 verses Tamil prayer] is a delightful work. It is too good chanting it at least on Tuesdays and Fridays....if not on all days.Each verse is full of Sakta advaitic meaning. He says Mother is Primordial. Without Her, even Siva is Savam, corpse. She is the Suddha Maya who will confer the kaivalyam for Sivahood.

In verse (13) Bhattar says..............:

To Surrender unto my Mother.................ABHIRAMI.......

Poothavale bhuvanam padhinangaiyum pooththa vannam
Kaaththavale pin karandhavale karaikkandanukku
Mooththavale endrum moova mugundharkku ilaiyavale
Maaththavale unnai andri matror deivam vandhippadhe

Translation.............

Hey Abhirami! Thee Bloom of self-determination
Made the fourteen worlds desired by you,
Playing guardianship parallel
Blessing the same by consuming back
Ancestor to my Lord with poison retained throat
Younger to the evergreen protector blue tinted,
Embodiment of great penance
Where is the need for another God when you are there?

Simple Meaning..............

Abhirami is the mother of fourteen worlds; She is the preserver of those worlds also; She absorbed the same in Her; elder to Sadasivan who took poison; younger sister to the youthful Vishnu; Leader of great penance; where is the need for another God when you are there?

You are the eldest. You constitute, protect and destroy the 14 worlds. You are even elder to Siva with halahala in His throat.
But you are younger to Mukunda, who never gets old. You are attained only through constant meditation and contemplation.
There is no God apart from you, how can I pray to other gods?
and suffer in this world without retribution?

And yet in verse (69) Bhattar says..............To Get Anything Precious

Tamil Transliteration......Stanza.69

Dhanam tharum kalvi tharum orunaalum thalarvariyaa
Manam tharum dheiva vadivum tharum nenchil vanchamilla
Inam tharum nallana ellaam tharum anbhar enbhavarkkae
Ganam tharum poong kuzhalaal Abhirami kadaikkangalae

Translation

Dark clouds pregnant with water
Forming thy thick locks of hair
Abhirami! Thy corner of the eyes
Shall lavish riches, impart educative knowledge
Accord tireless mind and bestow form so divine
Confer kith and kin deplete of malice
Mete out everything, implying good
To zealots, the ardent lovers of Thy form!

Simple Meaning

Devotees of Abhirami who exhibits thick locks of hair resembling dark clouds, shall get the following by the mere grace of the corners of Her eyes:
Riches, education, tireless mind, divine form, relatives without malevolence and everything good.

In the slogan 12 it was told that Abhirami is the mother of seven worlds; here in 13 it is indicated that Abhirami is the mother of fourteen worlds. Hindu mythology defines fourteen worlds (not to be confused with planets) - seven higher worlds (heavens) and seven lower ones (hells) . (The earth is considered the lowest of the seven higher worlds.) All the worlds except the earth are used as temporary places of stay as follows:

upon one's death on earth, the God of death (officially called 'Yama Dharma Raajaa' - Yama, the lord of justice) tallies the person's good/bad deeds while on earth and decides if the soul goes to heaven and/or hell, for how long, and in what capacity. Some versions of the mythology state that good and bad deeds neutralize each other and the soul therefore spends time in either a heaven or a hell, but not both, whereas according to another school of thought, the good and bad deeds don't cancel out each other. In either case, the soul acquires a body as appropriate to the worlds it enters. At the end of the soul's time in those worlds, it returns to the earth (is reborn as a life form on the earth) . It is considered that only from the earth, and only after a human life, can the soul reach supreme salvation, the state free from the cycle of birth and death and the place beyond the fourteen worlds where the eternal god lives.

14-world Samsaara: Abhirami....The Mother of 14 Worlds.......

6 heavens or Upper Worlds [where merits earned in Bhooloka (the last heaven in the list of seven) are expended. One cannot earn any merit in these worlds]:

1) Satyaloka [heaven of Chaturmukha Brahmaa]
2) Tapoloka [heaven of the Sanakaadi Rishis]
3) Janarloka
4) Maharloka
5) Suvarloka [heaven of Indra]
6) Bhuvarloka
7) Bhooloka [only loka where merits & sins can be earned and their effects experienced]

Seven hells or Lower Worlds: [where sins earned in Bhooloka are expended. One cannot earn any sin in these worlds]:

8) Atala
9) Vitala
10) Sutala
11) Talaatala
12) Mahaatala
13) Rasaatala
14) Paataala

Conventional education makes independent thinking extremely difficult. Conformity leads to mediocrity. To be different from the group or to resist environment is not easy and is often risky as long as we worship success. The urge to be successful, which is the pursuit of reward whether in the material or the in the so-called spiritual sphere, the search for inward or outward security, the desire for comfort - this whole process smothers discontent, puts an end to spontaneity and breeds fear; and fear blocks the intelligent understanding of life. With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.

There is a couplet from Thirukkural written by Thiruvalluvar that says...........

Vaiyaththtul vazhvaangu vaazhbhavan vaanuraiyum
Dheivaththul vaikkappadum

This means that he/she who lives properly on this earth shall be placed among Gods......

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, please realize how much your outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly you must exert yourself in order to give in return as much as you have received.

As long as we want our children to be powerful, to have bigger and better positions, to become more and more successful, there is no love in our hearts; for the worship of success encourages conflict and misery. To love one’s children is to be in complete communion with them; it is to see that they have the kind of education that will help them to be sensitive, intelligent and integrated.

So Abhirami by Her mere slight look can bless Her child with money, then education that can control the money, then the courage to enter into actions; these above possessions will give a Godly look to the child as he becomes an icon for fellow human-beings; once this is reached all the near and dear will become devoid of narrow mindedness which even if present gets dissolved in the divine brilliance of the devotee.............&...........

if this stage is achieved is it essential to say that Abhirami’s eyes will always grant all good things to Her child?

Abhirami Bhattar says in his Verse 99 of Andati:............

kuyilaay irukkum kadampaadaviyidai; kOla viyan
mayilaay irukkum imayaachalaththidai; vandhu udhiththa
veyilaay irukkum vichumbil; kamalaththinmeethu annam am;
kayilaayarukku anRu imavaan aLiththa kanankuzhaiyE

You are like a koel [cuckoo] in Kadamba vanam.

The Kadamba Vanam is Madurai, which in those days had full of kadamba trees [kadamba - Jampaka tree, with flowers of high fragrance]......

Why should she be like a koel there? She is Meenkashi, daughter of Malayatvaja Pandyan and Kanchana Mala. She is the princess of the kingdom. She is waiting for Siva to come and marry her. So during those days before the wedding, she is always singing like a koel, the glory of Siva!

You are a beautiful peacock in Himachala! How come, she is a peacock, which does not sing in Himachala?

The Mahapurusha Siva had come and saw Meenkashi and said......, I love to marry her! Please arrange!" The king and the queen made all arrangements and the wedding took place in Madurai. [There is a story that Vishnu came from Sri Rangam to give the hands of his sister to Siva]. Siva brought only one guest to the wedding. He is Gundothara, the fattest member of Siva retinue. The king and queen were worried how tons of food items that had been prepared would be spent. Gundothara was served. He took all the food, without anything remaining. He then started eating even the vegetables and provisions that were in store of the palace. He took all the fruits and even unripe fruits! Then he cried, "I am thirsty, water, water..." All the water stock of the palace was drunk by him and still his thirst was not fully quenched. Then they took him to Vaigai river itself. He consumed all the waters of Vaigai river and made it dry. Meenkashi saw all these and kept mum. She took the hands of Siva and then proceeded to Himalayas. She now knew that no singing would be necessary. What is necessary for Siva and his retinue is sumptuous food everyday. So she prepared them every day and just loved to see them eating everything. Then she simply danced like a peacock without words. No more singing. Only hard work and then dance in front of Siva!

You are the hot Sun in Akasa Kshetram, i.e Chidambaram

Why she is like the hot sun in Chidambaram? There was dance competion. Siva danced and danced and Sivakami could not compete with Him. She became angry and appeared like a hot sun in Chidambaram, owing to her defeat!

You are the Swan in Kamalalayam, Tiruvarur

Why she is like a cute silent white swan in Tiruvarur? This fellow has beaten me in the dance competition. Now I shall see that His legs are getting tired with walking up and down to Paravai Nachiyar's house! Paravai Nachiyar had a quarrel with her husband Sundarmurty Swamigal. Sundarmurty asked Siva to go as a mediatator. Siva once went to Paravi's house. She did not care. Second time, Siva went in His Form with His retinue. Paravai knew that it was Siva and Siva is Sundaramurty's friend. So she opened the door and after talking to Siva, she reconciled. Meenkashi was watching all this 'fun' as a cool white swan in Tiruvarur. "Let His legs ache with these frequent walking up and down. Have not the same legs defeated me in the dance competition in Chidambaram? Now let Him have the punishment. I shall keep cool."

Oh You are the ear ring that was presented by Himavan to your husband?

What does it mean? Ear ring or "Kuzhai" in Tamizh is what a man would wear those days. The woman would wear what is called ear stud or "thodu". Himavan gave this kuzhai to Siva and He became an Ardhanari, {Arunachala Principle, ref. Verse 1 of Navamani malai}. Half woman and Half man, wearing thodu and kuzhai!

Now what is the esoteric meaning of this verse? 99?

First we sing Siva's glory like a koel, as a devotee. Then we go near Him and keep mum and simply dance in His presnce, like a peacock. Whenever our sadhana gets disturbed, we get angry with self pity, be hot like a sun.When the Sadhana is complete, we keep cool like a swan and watch the errands done by our Master, for our sake. Or be in the Sayujyam, Sivahood, like a cool milky white swan, the Suddha Sattva state.

Aum Namasivaya.

Compiled & Edited by JK

J.KANNAN, M.Com, FIATA

"WE DON'T THINK TO BREATHE

 WE BREATHE TO THINK"