“He has loving lotus-like eyes embedded in His kariya tirumEni, with which He enslaves me and pulls me here and there with His love and takes my mind with Him wherever He goes, as this is His sport. Did you see this ISan anywhere?”

“We saw Him playing in vrindAvanam, with His body all perspiring. He looked like a huge, dark, shiny, baby elephant that is decorated nicely with pearl garment (because of His perspiration).” (He wouldn’t perspire in SrIvaikuNTham or if He is inside nandagOpan’s house, but we saw Him perspiring because of His playing around outside).

kArt taN kamalak kaN ennum:His having red eyes on His black hued body is like seeing refreshing, blossomed lotus flowers with a background of black-hued clouds. His tirumEni, which has the hue of the raining clouds, attracts the hearts and eyes of the on-lookers. Added to that, the beauty of His eyes enchants everyone who looks at Him even further.

BharatAzhvAn exclaims that seeing the beautiful form of rAma pirAn is the only way to get relief for his sorrow of having been born to kaikeyi:

“mEgha SyAmam mahA bAhum sthira sattvam dRDa vratam |
kadA drakshyAmahE rAmam jagata: Soka nASanam || “

rAmAyaNam ayodhyA kANDam 83-8

(He is dark-hued like the cloud; He has long arms; He has consistent strength; He is steadfast in His vratams; He is the one who can relieve the world from sorrows. When will we get to see that rAmapirAn?)

kamalak kaN ennum neDum kayiRu paDutti ennai: He enslaved me through the long net of His beautiful eyes.

kamalak kaN ennum: His eyes are like the lotus flowers that are fully blossomed, beautiful, cool and refreshingly fragrant, and express His unbounded kindness towards everyone.

neDum kayiRu: His lovely eyes attract me and hold me like an infinitely long rope that follows me wherever I go, and ensures that I cannot escape. With His cool glances, He enslaves me so that I cannot escape, ensures that I am completely under His control and incapable of any independent action, and considers this as His main sport as a svatantran.

neDum kayiRu paDutti ennai iRttuk koNDu viLaiyADum ISan: Roaming around, showing off His beautiful tirumEni and attracting girls with His enchanting eyes is all that He does. He has taken over me completely with His beauty, and the net result is that I am completely out of control, and blabber senselessly in fear, and He enjoys this as His pastime, and is the svatantran who does not have to answer to anyone.

pOrtta muttin kuppAyap pugar mAl yAnaik kanRE pOl vErttu ninRu viLaiyADa: When He is playing, small drops of perspiration appear on His face, and they look like the pearl-laden garment (kuppAyam) placed on an elephant-calf.

yAnaik kaNRE pOl:

SrI T.S. rAjagOpAlan notes here an interesting aspect in the choice of words that gOdai uses to describe kaNNan: In the first pAsuram of this fourteenth tirumozhi, she used the phrase “kArERu” (one is who is like a proud, dark bullock); in the second, she used “kuTTERu” (He Who is like a young bull); in this forth pAsuram, she uses “yAnaik kanRu” (He Who looks like a young elephant). The more and more she looks at Him, the more and more He appears new and novel to her (“kANak kANap pudumai koNDAdu” – SrI TSR’s words).

vErttu ninRu viLaiyADa virundAvanattE kaNDOmE: There is no question of His perspiring in Sri vaikuNTham; In tiru AyppADi, He is the young prince, and can’t play and perspire for fear of His parents who want Him decorated with garlands all the time; but, in bRndAvanam, no one constrains Him from playing and sweating, and this is how we found Him in bRndAvanam.

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PBA: kuppAyam means garment; periyAzhvAr uses the same term in peiryAzhvAr tirumozhi 3.5.6. - “kuppAyam ena ninRu kAtci tarum gOvardhanam ennum koRRak kuDaiyE”.

“Have you seen the Lord who is the Sriyah pati (The Lord of SrI or Lakshmi), my precious jewel, who is arrogant like a boar that skillfully escaped from the net that was thrown to catch it, and does not give away anything from His side except when one is devoted to Him unconditionally?” gOdai is doing nindAstuti of kaNNan here saying that He is “eTTiyum eTTAdavan, kiTTiyum kiTTAdavan”. That mAdhavan is an ‘azhagan’ who is wearing the shining syamantaka gem. When gOdai is feeling proud that she has ensnared Him with her beauty, He is running away from her and is looking like a forest pig that has escaped from the net that the hunters laid for it.

“We saw that person walking in our street in bRndAvanam. He was wearing an exquisite pItAmabaram; it was so long that it was flowing on the ground as He was walking, moving this way and that way beautifully. He looked like a huge, dark colored cloud floating on the sky here and there. We saw Him not in the public places of AyppADi where everyone can see, but in our own SrI bRndAvanam, which is meant for us to play with Him exclusively”.

mAdhavan: laksmI nAthan. Since He has for Himself SrIdEvi, who is ma’ngaiyar tilakam, He is a great rasikan.

en maNiyinai: This great rasikan is also an exemplary bhavyan, whom I can tie like a maNi or gem at the end of my garment and control.

valaiyil pizhaitta panRi pOl: But He has now run away like a wild boar that has escaped from its net. SrI puttUr kRshNa svAmi aiyengAr comments that while He gets tied by bhakti, He also escapes from this net temporarily so that He can develop this bhakti of His devotee into parama bhakti, and no matter how much the devotee tries, He won’t be caught till He achieves His wish. He gives the reference from tiruccandaviruttam 83, where tirumazhiSai AzhvAr declares that even SrI vaikunTham is nothing compared to the anubhavam of parama bhakti obtained by controlling the mind with bhakti: “vILvu ilAda bogam viNNil naNNi Erinum…eTTinODu iraNDu ennum kayiRRinAl manam tanaik kaTTi, vIDu ilAdu vaitta kAdal inbam AgumE”

Edum onRum koLattArA: He does not give anything of Himself to these bhaktas; instead, He considers whatever they possess, including the devotees themselves, as His belonging.

pItaka ADai uDai tAzha: Hi tiruppItAmbaram is majestically and gracefully rolling on the ground.

perum kAr mEgak kanRE pOl: perum – huge; kAr – dark; megam – cloud; kanRu – the just-formed cloud fully laden with water (representing His dayA). He resembles the big, dark-hued, rain-laden cloud. SrI puttUr kRshNa svAmi aiyengAr describes His pItAmbaram as resembling lightening, and His tirumEni resembling the dark cloud. The term ‘kanRu’ can also refer to His youth.

vIdi Ara varuvAnai: Just as the clouds occupy the whole sky, He is treating the whole street as His when He is coming. SrI puttUr kRshNa svAmi aiyengAr quotes from kRshNakarNAmrutam which describes this beautifully:

(“Let us pray that Our kula daivam gOpAlan comes in that street behind the cows, all surrounded by cowherd boys, delighting everyone by His vEnugAnam and filling in the whole street”).

virundAvanattE kaNDOme: We did not see Him in tiruvAIppADi, where everyone could see Him; but, we saw Him in SrI bRndAvanam, made especially for His playing with us.

C.Additional thoughts from SrI PBA:

valaiyil pizaitta panRi: kaNNan’s innate pride is being referenced here. He is like a wild boar that has successfully escaped from the net through its might, ferocious and full of ego when it escapes. kaNNan is just like that haughty boar that has escaped its snare and can never be caught again.

koLat tArA – He won’t give even a trace of anything of Him unless the person is totally devoted to Him. His durlabhatvam to those to whom He does not wish to reveal Himself is indicated here.

mAdhavan en maNiyinai: He is always easily accessible to periya pirATTi. So also, there once was a time when I could rule over Him, just as it is easy to take a gem and tie it in the end of the garment.

panRi pOl: It is very difficult to catch a boar through any part of its body very easily – not through the nose, or leg, or ears, or tail. So also, He is not giving me access to His tiruppavaLam (lips), tirukkai (hands) and tiruvaDi (feet). He doesn’t realize that being accessible to me is for his benefit only. May be, because He incarnated as a varaAham, He forgot that it would be for His benefit and He is acting as if He wants to escape from the net as any normal boar would do.

perum kAr mEgak kanRu – It is as if the huge cloud (perum kAr mEgam) has incarnated in a form that can walk on the street (kanRu). The inner meaning is that He removes all the tApam-s of His devotees and gives them the sweetness of His anubhavam.

mAdhavan en maNiyinai: mAdhavan Who is very dear to me like a precious gem.

Edum onRum koLat tArA – We are the svam – property, and He is the svAmi – One Who owns this property, that is, everything including us.

perum kAr mEgak kanRE pOl: ANDAL follows periyAzhvAr’s example here. He addresses kaNNan as “karu malaik kuTTan” – the Dark Baby mountain” – periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 1-8-5).

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

“Have you seen that kaNNan go this way - the One who does not have any mercy towards those who love Him, indulges in mischief towards everyone, and has beautiful eyebrows that resemble the SAr’ngam bow that He carries in His hand, but also does not know how to share this beauty of His with those who love Him?”

“We did see that kaNNan with a dark colored tirumEni and lotus-like face in vrindAvanam. With His brilliant face in the background of His dark-hued body, He looked like the rising sun in the background of the huge Eastern mountain”.

darumam aRiyA: His behavior towards ANDAL clearly shows that He does not know even the ABC of darumam or dayai. This is quite contrary to what He told sItA pirATTi during His incarnation as rAma. In sundara kANDam 38.41, pirATTi tells hanuman that She has personally been told by Lord rAma that He considers dayA as the highest dharmam:

PirATTi laments: “This is not just the word that I heard from hanumAn whom You sent as a messenger to me. I heard it from Your own mouth when we were together and You were ready to give anything I wanted. I asked You at that time - ‘Of all the guNa-s, which is the one that You think as the best?’, and You responded: ‘I cannot withstand when someone is in pain; I consider dayA to be the best of virtues”.

The inner meaning of pirATTi’s question is “What happens if ever we become separated?”. SrI rAma’s answer for that is “I will not let you grieve from separation from Me under any circumstance”. “mayA srutah” - the reason why pirATTi is saying this is –“I know I heard these words myself from Your mouth. Are these going to be just words that were uttered casually, and not meant to be followed by You in practice?” pirATTi is asking hanumAn to remind rAma of these words, and ask Him the same question - “Are You going to stand by Your words and show that dayA to me, or are they going to be just mere words?”

kuRumbanai: On second thoughts, ANDAL feels: “AnRSamsyam or dayA can be expected of Lord rAma who is cakravarti tirumagan, but after all kaNNan is just a kurumban - a mischievous cowherd, and dayA cannot be expected out of Him”.

tan kai SAr’ngam aduvE pOl puruva vaTTam azhagiya: He Whose eyebrows have the beauty that resemble the beauty of the SAr’ngam bow that He has in His hand. There is nothing in the world that is equal in beauty to His eyebrows except His own SAr’ngam – bow. Only these two can stand comparison to each other, and nothing else can be compared to either of these. If we see the bow in His hand, we can say - “That which is supposed to be on His face (namely the eyebrows) is in His hand”. On the other hand, if we look at His eyebrows, we could say “How come the bow that is supposed to be in His hand, is now embedded in His face?” His eyebrows are so beautiful and curved, and thus resemble the beautiful Sar’ngam in all respects – including that of piercing others by their beauty.

poruttam iliyai: There is no match between this beauty of His on the one hand, and His cruel treatment of those who love Him, on the other. What is the use of the beauty of this unloving person? He does not show any affection to me, even though I am showering my love on Him.

kaNDIrE? Even though His love to us is not evident, it is our lot to love Him all the same. gOdai desires to see Him even as One not showing any affection for her.

mugam SeidAi – With a youthful, reddish, beauiful countenance. (SeidAi is interpreted as Semmai uDaiyadAi, where Semmai refers to redness as well as beauty). SrI puttUr kRshNaswAmy aiye’ngAr refers to the lotus-like eyes, mouth, hands, feet etc., and the shining bright ornaments that adorn Him.

udaya paruppadattin mEl viriyum kadirE pOlvAnai – paruppadam refers to parvatam. KaNNan, with His dark hue and reddish, youthful, beautiful countenance, is like the rising sun in the background of the black mountain.

The rising sun is such that it can be seen with bare eyes; it is red and lustrous and feels cool to the eyes. KaNNan also has dark tirumEni and is lustrous by His youth, lotus-like eyes, hands, feet and lips and is decorated with radiating beautiful jewelry. So, when He came in SrI brindAvanam which is luscious green, He resembled the rising sun.

In SrImad rAmAyaNam ayodhyA kANDam 3-36, SrImad vAlmIki compares Lord rAma to the rising Sun:

“When He reached that great Asanam, He made it shine with His own luster; like the mEru mountain that shines from the rising Sun’s bright rays”.

When rAma was getting ready for His paTTAbhishEkam, He was wearing many shining, beautiful ornaments, and was talking to everyone who came to see Him with a smiling face. vAlmIki compares Lord rAma’s appearance at that time to that of the rising Sun. When kaNNan chose to reveal His pleasing appearance in SrI bRndAvanam to the gopi-s, ANDAL is using this same analogy to describe kaNNan. There is also a description of kaNNan to the “pleasing appearance of the Sun” in samskRt literature - “tatra gOvindam AsInam prasann a Aditya varcasam”.

virundAvanattE kaNDOmE: ANDAL uses the analogy to describe the pleasing appearance of kaNNan as seen in bRindAvanam, like the beautiful and radiant rising Sun in the backdrop of the black mountains, and not the “scorching Sun of mid-day” that He was as seen by her in AyarpADi!

darumam ariyAk kuRumbanai: The inner meaning is that He behaves as One who does not conform to the world standards, but loves the cowherds of AyarpADi so much that He indulges in mischievous acts in playing with them.

tan kai SAr’ngam aduvE pOl puruva vaTTam azhagiya: To vanquish His enemies, He has the SAr’ngam (bow) in His hand. His eyebrows resemble the SAr’ngam; they are curved like the bow in shape; they have the quality to weaken anyone who looks at them with their beauty; they torture His lovers too. Thus, He has one bow in His hand to vanquish His enemies and He has two bows in the form of eyebrows to give trouble to those who love Him; He is only bent on doing mischief and has no dayai. What else can we call Him except “darumam ariyAk kuRumban?”. The inner meaning is that He is the azhagan who has no equal.

“Have you seen that kaNNan who is “poruttam ili” in the sense that He does not know how to share His beauty with those who love Him as we saw in last pASuram, but who is quite consistent (poruttam uDaiya nambi) in the sense that His mind is as cruel, merciless and dark inside as His hue is outside? He is also One who escapes our mental comprehension, and is huge and dark like the dark clouds.”

“Yes, we saw that emperumAN in bRndAvanam, surrounded by a big crowd of all His friends, and He looked like a bright sky studded with a huge collection of stars when He came surrounded by His friends”.

gOdai is using nindA stuti in the first half of this pAsuram and in the second half shares her great happiness with her friends.

poruttam uDaiya nambiyai: In the previous pAsuram, gOdai called Him “poruttamili”. Now she says “What I said earlier was wrong in one sense. ‘poruttam ilAmai’ would apply to the people of this world who appear contradictory in the inside and outside. He is really “poruttam uDaiya nambi” since He is dark outside, and He is also dark inside – His mind is cruel and He has no love to those who love Him”. Then again, He is ‘nambi’ – One Who is complete in all respects, and so there is no way that He can be called ‘poruttam ili’ any way.

puRam pOl uLLum kariyAnai: what is the poruttam that applies in His case? Just as He is dark-hued on the outside, He has a dark heart also. So He is uniformly dark inside and out. He is not inconsistent like cakravarti tirumagan, who was dark outside, but had a very kind heart that was far from dark. gOdai is reaching the peak of nindA stuti here!

karuttaip pizhaittu ninRa: He Who has falsified my belief and faith that He will not leave me thus. He is standing forgetting the memory of me and Himself. When He was with her, He said “I will not leave you; if I leave, I shall not live”. Even as gOdai was beginning to believe in His words, He left her and made her thoughts false.

ak-karu mA-mugilaik kanDIrE?: But even after all that He did to me, I cannot even get mad at Him for leaving me, because of His exquisite and incomparable divine beautiful form resembling the dark-hued cloud.

arutti – This term means “a thing that is greatly liked”. ANDAL uses this word to qualify the “tArA gaNa’ngaL” or the collection of stars. SrI PVP explains the word as “spRhaNiya” – desirable. SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye’ngAr ascribes the ‘desirability’ of the stars (nava graha-s) because they are worshipped by those who desire lesser benefits. The ‘desirability’ could also be attributed to their sheer beauty, which is the interpretation that is suggested by SrI UV.

aruttit tArA gaNangaLAl Arap perugu vAnam pOl: Just like the sky that is flooded with innumerable collections of beautiful stars and planets.

virtuttam peridAi varuvAnai : viruttam refers to the samskRt word ‘vRndam’, which means ‘ a large collection (of kaNNan’s friends)’. periyAzhvAr describes the scene when kaNNan walks surrounded by His friends: “tannEr Ayiram pILLaigaLODu taLar naDai iTTu varuvAn” (periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 3-1-1). ANDAL’s description of this scene of kaNNan surrounded by His huge gathering of friends looks like the beautiful sky filled with the large collection of lustrous stars and planets.

SrI PVP gives an alternate pATham also. Instead of “Arap perugum”, if we take the words as “Arap parugum”, then we have “aruttit tArA gaNa’ngaLAl Arap parugum vAnam pOl” – then we have the anubhavam: When kaNNan is seen in the midst of his multitude of friends, He looks like the beautiful star-studded cloud that is fondly viewed (Arap parugum vAna pOl) by a large number of people (viruttam peridAi varuvAn).

Yet another anubhavam given in SrI PVP’s vyAkhyAnam is – aruttittu ArA gaNa’ngaLAl Arap parugum vAnam pOl. This gives another beautiful meaning - He is the cloud Who is surrounded by the large gathering of people who are never satisfied (ArA gaNa’ngaLAl) no matter how much they worship Him (aruttittu), and Who is enjoyed by them ever more, constantly (Arap parugum).

The identical analogy of people looking at the cloud without being satisfied, and people looking at kaNNan and not feeling satisfied, is also given by SrI valmIki in rAmAyaNam ayodhyA kANDam 3-30 in the context of describing Lord rAma’s beauty. There he describes how dasarathan was constantly looking at rAma’s beauty without becoming satisfied, just like the people who keep looking longingly at the rain-bearing clouds after a summer drought.

virundAvanattE kaNDOmE: When He is seen in tiruvAippADi along with His friends, because of the large number of other people around, one can only get a cursory glance at Him, like looking at a whole forest; but in bRndAvanam which is the exclusive place for His consorts, gOdai’s friends are getting a good, close ekAnta Sevai of kaNNan.

SrI UV gives an alternate interpretation that has a completely positive connotation by ANDAL, instead of the ‘nindA stuti’ interpretation of SrI PVP.

poruttam uDaiya nambi – He has ‘all match’ with me because He has now appeared before me.

karuttai – He Who has always been dear to my heart, and has dwelt in my heart.

pizhaittu ninRa akkaru mAmugilai: When He left me He said “na jIvEyam khsaNamapi”; and He preserved His life just for me and came to me today.

SrI UV also gives alternate interpretations for some of the terms in the pASuram:

tArA: wife; tArA gaNa’ngaL viruttam peridAi varuvAnai – He Who is coming, surrounded by all His consorts.

vAnam: One of the meanings for this word is ‘rain’. The phrase ‘tArA gaNa’gaL Arap perugu vAnam” can then refer to “torrential rains”. SrI UV refers us to periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 3.4.1, where AzhvAr compares the arrival of gOvindan decorated with His peacock feathers etc., and surrounded by His friends, accompanied by the sound of His flute and other instruments, to the arrival of rain accompanied by dense clouds. The description is of gOpi-s rushing out of their houses thinking that huge rain clouds were approaching.