ara?nganAr is living in tiru ara?ngam that has tall mAdam-s (houses) and forts; He incarnated Himself as vAmanan and is the purest paraman. He begged for, and got, three feet of land from mahAbali in His vAmana incarnation. If He feels that He is not satisfied with the wealth He usurped from mahAbali and feels that He needs my bangles as well, can?t He at least walk through my street and come to me and ask for my bangles

aranga vAmananAr: Just as He did in His vAmana avatAram, He is determined to get the possession of all the souls that really are His property, and is lying down in tiru ara?ngam patiently with this determination. It looks as if He is saying Unless My wish is fulfilled, I will not leave this place?.

maccaNi mADa madiL ara~ngar: He knew how to build tall palaces for Himself, but He has not learned even the ?ABC? of how to behave towards me who is His nAyaki! All He knows is how to decorate His Living place, tiru ara?ngam, with tall mADam-s and forts.

vAmananAr: This short person. There is a saying in the world: ?alpannukkuc celvam vandAl arttha rAttiriyil kuDai piDippAn? (quote is from sudarSanam SrI kRshNasvAmi aiye?ngAr) - when a lowly person attains enormous wealth, he will not know how to behave himself, and will start behaving stupidly and indulge in acts such as unfolding the umbrella in the middle of the night and walk around the streets to display his newly possessed wealth! Just like that, this vAmanan who is short in form acquired this huge wealth from mahAbali, and does not know how to conduct Himself towards me, with all this enormous newly possessed wealth at His disposal!

vAmananAr: ANDAL must have listened several times to her father saying ?cattiram Endit tani oru mANiyAi, uttara vEdiyil ninRa oruvanai, kattiriyar kANak kANi muRRum koNDa pattirAkAran? (periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 1-9-6). So she must have got attached to this vAmanan naturally, and desires Him.

paccaip paSum dEvar: the most beautiful dEvar. In this sense, it is impossible to be at peace with oneself without having association with Him one way or the other. SrI bharatAzhvAr declares:

An alternate interpretation for ?paccaip paSum devar? is that He is the Supreme Divine Person with all the perfect guNa-s in fullness. Like the term ?paccaip paSum pon? which refers to unadulterated pure gold, ?paccaip paSum devar? refers to His quality of being the Supreme Person with all the divine guNa-s in perfection. nammAzhvAr says that when He takes His incarnations in human and other forms, He still has all His divine qualities like paratvam in fullness (?AdiyanjOti uruvai a?ngu vaittu i?ngu piRanda? - tiruvAimozhi 3-5-5).

piccaik kuRai Agi ennuDaiya pei vaLai mEl iccai uDaiyarEl - ?Because of the deficiency in His piccai from mahAbali? can be interpreted in two ways:

1. He begged and got the land from mahA bali who was attached to his possessions, and did not get his bikshA from someone who had the realization that everything really belonged to Him anyway. So now, He wants to remove this deficiency in His piccai by getting the piccai from ANDAL who does not have any attachment to anything she possesses.

2. He had begged for the land from mahAbali in order to help the deva-s who were His aDiyargaL. So he had received bikshA FOR His aDiyAr-s, but had not got bikshA FROM his aDiyArgaL. In order to remove this deficiency, now He is getting ANDAL?s bangles and thus removing this blemish.

itteruvE pOdArE: ?nADi nam teruvE vandiTTu? (nAcciyAr tirumozhi 4-5); can?t He come to our street to get this piccai from me? Can?t He show me the naDai azhagu that He showed to the asura by name mahAbali in his yAgasAlai?

SrI T.S. Rajagopalan adds that gOdai is the kind that would give not one but more and more : ?onRu nURu AyiramAkkoDuttu pinnum ALum seyvan? (nAcciyAr tirumozhi 9-7).

paccaip paSum devar: This like ?paccaip poi? - unadulterated, pure. He is Pure deva unlike the other deva-s who have only temporary devatvam - when their karma expires, their devatvam also expires. Unlike that, He is the only deva who is deva always - divyo deva eko nArAyaNah.

He came in the form of the deceitful dwarf form, begged three feet of land from mahAbali , received the bikshA from him on His beautiful hands and snatched all the worlds from him. This emperumAn who is resting on His snake bed in beautiful tiru ara?ngam populated by noble people, is not only taking the bangles from me who has really nothing to start with; it looks like He is going to take away my body also.

pollAk kuRaL uruvAi: Just so that vAmanar will not get any dhr*shTi dOsham, gOdai calls it ?pollA?, thus doing dhr*shTi parihAram.

Or, it may be because, if she says ?azhagiya kuRal uru? or beautiful vAmana rUpam, others may get confused and compare this with other ordinary things that are considered beautiful in this world; since this beauty is nothing comparable to anything known in this world, she is calling this ?pollAk kuraL uru?.

kuRaL uruvAi: Just as milk when boiled down to one-eighth of its initial volume would taste very sweet, vAmana rUpam is a sweetened version of His true form.

poRkaiyil nIrERRu: While normally those who offer bikshA offer it in a mud vessel, mahAbali had the great honor of giving bikshA to a golden vessel in the form of the golden hands of emperumAn (pORkalam, not maN kalam).

ellA ulagum aLandu koNDa: It looks like it is His nature that if He gets something from anyone, He will get all that belongs to them in toto, and send them to the deepest netherworld in the process (sending that person to the lowest position possible). He is one who gets great pleasure by pushing those who give alms to Him in the deepest hole possible (referring to mahAbali?s case). As her father said He is ?iRaippozhudil pAtALam kalavirukkai koduttu uganda emmAn? (periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-9-7) - in a fraction of a second, He gave the ownership of pAtAla lokam to mahAbali and was very pleased in the process.

emperumAn: Because of this nature of His, He has put me in a position such that I cannot belong to anyone else but Him. ?muvaDi maN koNDaLanda mannan SaridaikkE mAlAgip pon payandEn? (periya tirumozhi 9-4-2) - His aDiyArs become so enchanted and engrossed in these acts of His, and totally surrender to Him and lose all other interest in life. Knowing full well that He will take away everything if she gives Him anything at all, instead of being careful with Him, she gladly gets engrossed in Him, and now is in the state of losing all her belongings including her body.

nallArgaL vAzhum: The significance that is associated with living in a divya deSam in our sampradAyam is brought out here by SrI PVP. Those who do not have any other interest in life except Him live in divya deSam-s such as tiru ara?ngam. periyAzhvAr has said : ?maRaip perum tI vaLarrttiruppAr varu virundai aLittirruppAr SiRappuDaiya maRaiyavar vAzh tiru arangam enbaduvE? (periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-8-2). nAcciyAr communicates the same idea in ?vEnkaTattaip padiyAga vAzhvIrgAL? - NT 8-9.

naLir ara~ngam: the "cool" tiru ara~ngam. By living there and getting engrossed in the service of emperumAn, one will not be conscious of any of the tApa traya-s: ailments associated with the body and the mind (AdhyAtmikam), Adhibhoudikam (those that are caused by other bhUta-s such as animals, birds, etc.), and Adhidaivikam (those caused by divine causes such as fire, water, heat, cold, etc.) do not occur.

illAdOm kaipporuLum: I already have nothing that belongs to me, unlike mahAbali who had the things belonging to me, who does not have much to give Him like mAbali did or the things belonging to me, who does not have any other savior but Him.

SrI PVP refers to ?another vyAkyAnam - vyAkhyAnAntaram?, and quotes from a different source which is not identified:

naLir arangam: He who is living in such as a great place such as tiruara?ngam is indulging in acts that only those who kill womenfolk will commit.

nallArgaL vAzhum arangam: the place which attracts all the blessed folks who come here to live. It is a place where all the AzhvArs flocked to (?aRRa paRRar suRRi vAzhum andaNIr arangam? - tiruccanda viruttam 52).

nallArgaL: it is a divyadEsam where people do not have to struggle doing any sAdhanA-s or anushThAnam, but can live on the benefits of the good deeds that have already been performed . Since the param poRul (who is normally accessible only in paramapadam) is easily and readily accessible here, those who chose this place as their place of living, spend time in nothing else but bhagavad anubhavam. Is there anything else in life for them except enjoying periya perumAL in that tiruppati? They tremble at the thought of getting paramapadam - ?What will I do if I get paramapadam, and have to leave this bhAgyam of having tiru ara?ngan?s darSanam??. As toNDar aDippoDi AzhvAr said: ?iccuvai tavira yAn pOi indira lokam ALum accuvai perinum vENDEn ara?ngamA nagar uLAnE? (tirumAlai 2).

When SrI BhaTTar was suffering from sores in his back, periya perumAL asked him if he was scared. bhaTTar responded: ?Oh my Great Lord! Of course I am scared! You have already given me Your promise that I will go to paramapdam, and so this is no concern for me. But what else can I do except being scared at the thought that when I leave this world for paramapadam, I will miss your cool face, the tazhumbu of your tirumaN kAppu and your enchanting smile!?.

Another instance cited: SoTTai nambi (one of ALavandAr's sons) said something offensive about tirukkOTTiyUr nambi, one of the important pupils of ALavandAr. nambi asked SoTTai nambi to get away from him; so SoTTai nambi went to the SOzhA king's palace and was doing rAja sevai and lived as a loukikar. When he reached his last days on earth, some people wanted to see if he is still holding firm belief in vaishNavam (even though he had to live as a loukikan) and asked him what was occupying his thoughts in those last days. He said: ALavandAr's tiruvaDi sambandham will definitely earn me paramapadam. If I go there, I will check whether SrIvaikUNThanAthan's face is as sweet and pleasant as namperumAL's tirumukha manDalam. If it is not, I will break open the wall in vaikuNTham and come back to SrIrangam. The only concern I have is that in doing that, I would have transgressed the vedic declaration that a mumukshu does not ever return to this earth after reaching SrIvaikunTham .

nAgaNaiyAn: Instead of reaching the ultimate goal of having His darSanam in SrIvaikunTham in His seated posture, this beauty of His as He is lying down on the snake bed in tiru ara?ngam is even more beautiful.

illAdOm kaip poruLum: ?Since we and everything we possess is His anyway, we don?t have anything of our own to start with. So He does not have to indulge in acts that make it appear that He is taking away all things from me?.

nallAr: Those who are best trained in j~nAna, anushThAna, vairAgya, etc.; they do not make others suffer and are not deceitful. ANDAL is thinking aloud: ?I thought the reason for their greatness comes from their living in the tiru aranga kshEtram. But even though He is living in nallArgaL vAzhum arangam, still it doesn?t seem like He is having any nalla guNam; He only has nAgaiyAn?s two tongues (double-talker) and the na?nju (poison). Because the other residents of tiru ara?ngam are tolerating Him and keeping Him with them, just for that reason they can be called nallArgaL. Look at His pollA?ngu; He is stealing things from us, who do not have anything. Is it fair if He usurps things without asking us? So, ara?ngan is much worse than vAmanan, who asked for things that mahAbali had in his possession and got them after getting his consent from him and He did not take away anything that He did not ask for. So vAmanan is better in this sense compared to this ara?ngan?.

SrI UV?s anubhavam is that because gOdai is comparing vAmanan with tiru ara?ngan and feeling that vAmanan was at least fairer to mahAbali than ara?ngan has been to her, she uses only singular and not plural when she talks about arangan (?nAgaNaiyAn?, ?eiduvAn?, ?ottu uLan?).

tiru ara?ngam is made wealthy by the waters of the river kAvEri which cause a rich growth of all kinds of crops. The Lord of this place makes Himself easily available to the lowliest of the devotees, and at the same time is unreachable even for the highest among us who try to reach Him by our own efforts. He is the essence of all the vedas. He has already taken away all my belongings, and now He has taken over my body as well.

kAviri nIr SeippuraLa ODum tiru ara?ngac celvanAr: Even the waters of cauvery which have no intelligence of any kind, flow of their own accord to offer sustenance and enrichment to the crops in this kshetram. Why is it that tiru ara?ngap perumAL who has everything He needs, and who lives in this kind of great kshetram where even the acetana vastu is offering protection to other things, still takes away everything that belongs to me (instead of protecting me)?

epporutkum ninru: He is a great saulabhyan to His devotees - He made Himself easily available to a hunter-woman like Sabari, a monkey like SugrIvan and an iDaicci like yasOdai. However, see the next sequence of words.

Arkkum eidAdu: He is unreachable even by those who have great knowledge and strive to reach Him through their own efforts. In the phrases ?Arkkum eidAdu? and ?epperutkum ninRu?, gOdai is reflecting what nammAzhvAr said : ?ArumOr nilaimaiyan ena aRivariya emperumAn, ArumOr nilaimaiyan ena aRiveLiya emperumAn? (tiruvAimozhi 1-3-4).

nAn maRaiyin SoRporuLAi ninRAr: He stood as the One meaning of all the words in the four vEdams (?vEdaisca sarvairahamEva vEdya:? ?I am the one who is known by all the vEdams?- gItai 15-15). gOdai?s father also said in periyAzhvAr tirumozhi 4-3-11 ?vEdAnta vizhupporuLin mEl irunda viLakku?.

en meyp poruLum koNDArE: He took away my AtmA and the body that belongs to it.

What follows is a vyAkyAnam that SrI PVP quotes from another source:

kaip poruLgaL munnamE kaik koNDAr: ?munnamE? can signify ?right from her early childhood?, even when she was the age of being breast-fed. PeriyAzhvAr inculcated the love for emperumAn in her even when she was a baby.

There is similarity between the way lakshmaNa was brought up by sumitrA, and the way ANDAL was brought up by periAzhvAr - both were brought up with emphasis on service to perumAL as their life?s objective. sumitrA kept instructing lakshmaNa right from his childhood:

sumitrA was feeding rAma bhakti to lakshmaNa side by side with the milk that she was feeding him. In bAla kANDam 18-27, we have sage vAlmIki declare that lakshmaNa was deeply attached to rAma from the early childhood - ?bAlyAt prabhRti susnigdho sakshmaNo lakshmivardhanah | rAmasya loka rAmasya bhrAtur-jyeshThasya nityaSah ?.

Analogously, even as ANDAL was appearing in this world, she probably had already lost her bangles because of her separation from Him.

kAviri nIr SeippuraLa ODum tiru ara?ngac celvanAr: The vyAkhyAna kartA draws a great analogy between the mercy of the water in voluntarily going to the crops and making them grow, and the Mercy of tiru ara?ngan which automatically flows to His devotees with no reason that justifies His Mercy. The waters of tiru ara?ngam reach the crops on their own and make them grow without any effort whatsoever on the part of the crops; similarly tiru ara?ngap perumAn bestows His blessings on the deserving souls for no reason other than that He will not stop short of blessing the devotee. Those who may resort to their own effort to reach Him do not necessarily achieve Him in the end, and so it is not their effort which gets them to Him; it is His own Mercy that gets Him to them. ?kAviri nIr Seip puraLa Oduvadu? reminds one of all these qualities of emperumAn.

tiru ara~ngac celvanAr: The mahimA of the kshetram is such that it is as if perumAL gets His greatness because He lives there, not the other way round.

epporuTkum ninRu: The extent to which emperumAn?s soulabhyam goes is illustrated by the fact that He puts Himself in a position where He surrenders to sugrIva, and seeks Him as His master, while the truth is the other way round.

(This rAmapirAn who bestowed His blessings on others infinitely, and who had the highest kIrti and was the leader of the whole lOkam, today wishes to have sugrIvan as His nAthan).

emperumAn has both pAratantriyam and svAtantriyam; it might appear that the two do not go with each other; but, His svAtantriyam is such that He makes His pAratantriyam a great quality in Him. If one who does not have any leadership qualities stoops low, does it make it a great quality in him? No. So, svAtantriyam and pAratantriyam in the right quantities will always go together. He is one who does not have a nAthan (because He is the nAthan for everyone); it is common for one to crave for something one does not have; so, He craved for a nAthan for Himself and aspired to have sugrIvan as His nAthan. He made Himself so simple that He let Himself beaten and tied up by the farm girl yasOdai [[?kaNNi nuN ciruttAmbinAl kaTTuNNap paNNiya perumAyan? avan]]. He let a forest girl like Sabari do antaranga kaimkaryam to Him (like iLaiya perumAl is always doing). All these are shown by the phrase ?epporutkum ninRu?.

One time, emperumAnAr was explaining paratvam - mEnmai, and soulabhyam - eLimai. embAr, who was listening to it, was so involved that he was full of tears. emperumAnAr blessed him saying ?when people find out His eLimai, they think that He is too low, ignore Him and keep away from Him; you, on the other hand are thinking - that great an emperumAn is this easily approachable?.

Arkkum eidAdu: While He is so easily accessible to His devotees, He is totally inaccessible even to the likes of brahma and Siva:

?peNNulAm SaDaiyinAnum piramanum unnaik kANbAN eNNilA Uzhi Uzhi tavam SeydAr veLgi niRpa, viN uLAr viyappa vandu Anaikku anRu aruLai Inda kaNNaRA!? - toNDar aDip poDi AzhvAr in tirumAlai 44.

epporutkum ninru Arkkum eidAdu: An alternate interpretation is that since He is the antaryAmi in all the things, He cannot be known by anyone.

en meyp poruLum koNDArE: That paramAtmA, who is praised by vEdams, appeared before my eyes, and with a great loving relationship, took away my body. Just as His devotees who are trying to enjoy His svarUpam and guNam end up appreciating His tirumEni, He also does the same in respect to His devotees. Just as gOdai longs for the union with His tirumEni, He also wants her body and so takes it away.

meip poruL: This term can be interpreted to refer to the soul instead of body: The poruL or the support behind the mei or the body, or the object that is behind the body or residing in the body etc.

epporTkum ninRArkkum eidAdu: Instead of looking at this collection of words as ?epportuTkum ninRu, Arkkum eidAdu?, as SrI PVP interpreted it, SrI UV looks at it as given here, and gives the meaning ?epporuTkum ninRarkkum - the likes of brahma and rudra who stand as the abhimAna devatA-s for all objects around us?, eidAdu - unreachable for these devatA-s.

Alternatively, epporuTkum ninRu can mean that He is the one who bestows everything to anyone who wishes it - koLLak kuRaivilan vENDiRRellAm tarum.

Is He suffering from poverty? He has the most prosperous tiru ara?ngam with the river cAvEri flowing everywhere and making all lands rich. pirATTi is always with Him, thus making Him very wealthy. He is one who is unreachable even for dEvas, who claim that they bestow boons to mankind. He has uncountable aiSvaryam even in His nitya vibhUti. He is above all things and all demi-gods. That is how all the vEdams extol Him; they all claim that He is the antaryAmi in all cEtana acEtanams. He is the meaning of all vEdams too.

With all this wealth, He had to come and take away all my wealth, and my soul too, without even asking me. My soul became a big thing for Him, even though He is the wealthiest. In a sense it is meaningless for me to grieve that I lost my bangles, when I do not even possess a healthy body.

epporuTkum ninRu - Being the antarAtmA in everything; Arkkum eidAdu - not accessible to anyone.

azhagiya maNavALan, the Lord of SrIra?ngam which is protected by strong walls that won?t yield even during the mahA praLaya, fell in love with a woman, sItA when He had taken the incarnation as rAma. Being lovelorn, He spent His time fasting and loosing His sleep over her. He had to build a dam over the ocean to cross lankA. He has forgotten all the humiliations He went through for a woman and now thinks only of His greatness, and keeps torturing me in the process.

uNNAdu: After sIta was separated from Him, there was no one to feed rAma with great affection, and so He was not eating well. If you were to say that lakshmaNa was there, the answer is ?Not so?. As per periya tirumozhi 8-10-1, He was mAmalar mangai maNa nOkkam uDaiyAn - His food was to have sItA in front of Him, and when she was gone, there was no food for Him.

anidras satatam rAma: suptOpi ca narOttama: |
sItEti madhurAm vANIm vyAharan pratibhudhyatE || (rAmAyaNam sundarakAnDam 36-44)

oli kaDalai UDaRuttu: When He built the dam across the ocean, it was after becoming the Sishyan of a rAkshasa, namely vibhIshaNan, and surrendering to samudra rAjan under his instructions.

peNNAkkai AppuNDu: He was so obsessed with the body of a woman (He was bound to the tirumeni of pirAtti). Akkai also denotes a creeper, and so perumAL who is the kaRpaga maram is bound by pirATTi who is the kaRpagak koDi.

tammuDaiya nanmaigalE eNNuvarE: He thinks that it is a sign of His greatness that those who are separated from Him have to really struggle hard to get Him by performing nOmbu, falling at the feet of kAman, playing the kUDal game and sending messengers to Him. Forgetting all the sufferings that He went through when He was separated from sItA, and hot-headed by the wealth of the ubhaya vibhUti that He has as He is lying on His snake-bed in tiru ara?ngam, He watches the pangs of separation that I am going through, and thinks that it is a proof of His greatness.

uNNAdu etc: ?If I am not eating and not sleeping now, it is because He set an example for me by not sleeping and not eating when He was separated from His beloved sItA. So it is not my fault that I am not able to eat or sleep being separated from Him; it is all His fault?.

Akkai AppuNDu: ?He kept thinking about pirATTi?s tirumEni and was not able to see her Atma svarUpam and Atma guNam?.

tAm uRRa: ?He was the disciple of the great sage vasishTha, and could not get over His kAmam and suffered so much because of it; what else can be expected of a brainless girl like me except going through the suffering that I am going through? He even wailed to His own brother of how he was tortured by the separation from sItA - ?only those who are blessed (to be with their beloved) can enjoy pampA river?s breeze? ?dhanyA lakshmaNa sEavntE pampO pavana mArutam? (rAmAyaNam kishkindAkANDam 1-115)

eNNAdE: ?How is He able to forget all His previous humiliation? It is the sheer possession of His immense aiSvaryam of being the Lord of tiru ara?ngam; nothing else?.

SelvanAr - ?He always has pirATTi in His vaksha sthalam - this was true in His vAmana incarnation, and it was true in His rAma incarnation also, and it is true always no matter what His incarnation is. Still, He could not be bear the separation of a bodily form of pirATTi in the form of sItA. He ended up surrendering to sugrIva first. Then the same vibhIshaNa who first described Him as sarvaloka SaraNyan directed Him to surrender to samudra rAjan, and He complied with that. He fasted for three days and prayed to samudra rAjan without sleep, and when samudra rAjan did not comply, He had to resort to all kinds of efforts such as throwing rocks and stones, getting angry, building a dam, etc., before claiming victory. Such was His desire for a woman at that time. Why doesn?t He have the same desire for me now? All because He now thinks of His greatness and nothing else. May be He thinks that there is no rAvaNan to take me away, and so He can just lie down on His snake-bed and have me with no effort whatsoever.

Maybe He will always be unable to bear the separation from the tirumeni of pirATTi no matter what form she assumes, because they are both one tattvam together. The SAstra declares ?eka tattvam ivoditau??. Or, one could argue that He might have gone to such a great length to get back sItA because this was His responsibility to His kulam. If it is argued that this does not mean that He has to be interested in ANDAL's tirumeni now, she explains further in the next pASuram.

People tell me that it is unfair for an ordinary human girl like me to accuse this Almighty emperumAn in these terms. Let me tell you all what kind of mEnmai this emperumAn had in His rAmAvatAam. He went around and behaved like a mad person (pEdu), sleepless and hungry, building dams across the ocean, etc., all because of desire for a woman. Is this consistent with His greatness? And if the answer is yes, then it is just as fine that He should now take efforts in my case as well. It is not fair that He now thinks that He is great and I have to suffer to get Him.

It is interesting to note the different meanings given for the same word "pEdu" - SrI PVP calls it "eLimai" (simplicity); SrI PBA calls it "paittiyam" (madness); SrI UV calls it "varuttam" (hardship)!