ANDAL
|
Place |
Other Names |
Month | Star | Sign |
| Sri Villiputhur | Choodikodutha Naacheyaar, Godai, Godai-piraatti | Aadi | Pooram (Poorva Phalguni) |
Bhoodevi |
One such day (on Adi pooram day) when PeriyaAzhwar was plucking flowers and thulasi leaves in his beautiful nandhavanam, he heard a faint cry of a baby, which appeared as an incarnation of BhoomAdEvi. He was pleasantly surprised to find a little bundle of joy with beautiful pretty limbs and a divine golden face with great amount of tEjas, he immediately picked up the female child with both the arms lovingly and showered her with lots of love. His wife vrajai was extremely thrilled to hug the God-given child in their nandhavanam and melted with vAtsalyam for the kid. When they hugged the child they felt as if it is Lord BalakrishNan himself whom they were holding; They were getting tremendous amount of joy by bringing up this blessed pretty girl, whom they named "kOdhai".
Like Janaka mahaaraaja found Seethaa in a field during
vEdic times, periyaazhvaar found ANdaaL in the temple garden. He then raised ANdaaL as his own daughter. As
ANdaaL grew up her love for Lord Vishnu took on a more literal form.
ANdaaL used to wear the garland of flowers prepared by her father for the Lord to ensure its suitability for
her Lord Vishnu. This is considered blasphemous. This went on for quite some time. One day,
ANdaaL's father found out what has been happening and was naturally upset. He prepared a new
garland and took it to the temple. Inexplicably, with this garland the Lord's
idol was not as lustrous as usual. That night, the Lord appeared in periyaazhvaar's dream and explained
that the garland worn by his devotee, ANdaaL, is special to him and demanded that he bring the garland
worn by ANdaaL to him from the next day. Thus, ANdaaL became known as choodikkoduttha
sudarkkodi. After this episode ANdaaL's extraordinary love for the Lord intensified. She has expressed this love in the
143 captivating verses called naacchiyaar thirumozhi. Her life is said to have culminated in the literal
union she had with the Lord of Sri Rangam.
Andal composed Thiruppaavai (30) Naacchiyaar Thirumozhi (143)
pAthagangaL theerkkum paramanadi kAttum*/
vEdham anaitthukkum vitthAgum *-
kOdhai thamizh ayyaindhum ainshum aRiyAdha mAnidarai
vaiyam sumappathum vambhu./
Meaning:The one which removes all our sins and shows the feet of The Lord; Equal to all vEdAs and even the essence of all vEdAs; they are the THIRTY verses of ThiruppAvai sung by kOdhai; and if one doe not know that, he (or she) is a BURDEN to the earth.- Oh my dearest sisters and brothers, Please make it a point to recite these excellent 30 verses every morning and be blessed by Sri ANdAL, who is none other than Bhoomi pirAtti and can only save us from our samsaaric
afflictions.
|Poigai-Azhwar||Bhoodath-Azhwar||Pey Azhwar||Thirumahishai-Azhwar| |NammAzhwar||Madhurakavi-Azhwar||Kulasekhara-Azhwar||Periya-Azhwar|
|Andal||Thondaradippodi-Azhwar||Thiruppan Azhwar||Thirumangai Azhwar|