Thiruppavai – A Rhapsody in Devotion

Devotion is the relationship between the devotee and God. This is visualised in two types in the Indian tradition. One is in the mode of duality – the god as a person different from the devotee and the seeker who wants the grace of the lord. The other type is as told by Shankaracharya in the Vivekachudamai (32). It is in the mode of enquiry into the nature of self and seeing the non-difference between the seeker and the Supreme Reality. In the mode of duality, the devotion should not be in the form of a supplicant seeking some favour or as a trader offering something to God if he fulfilled a desire. The greatest form of devotion in the mode of duality is to have an unconditional love for the god. The devotee longs for the deity, loves him as a lover and loses himself or herself in that love. The devotee does not seek anything, but he/she is there to give.

The Vishnu temples of Tamil land reverberate with the songs of ‘Thiruppavai’ in this month of ‘Margali’. This is also seen in the Telugu states as ‘Thiruppavai’ is quite popular not only with those of the Vaishnava sect. The beauty and rhapsody of the devotional songs composed by ‘Godaadevi,’ (Andal, as she was called), longing to marry Vishnu, are universal. Her father Vishnu Chitta (literally, one whose mind is always in Vishnu), had sown the seed, the samskara, of the love for the lord in her mind and she had accepted Vishnu as her lover. The ‘gopis’ (cowherd women) of the ‘Srimad’ Bhagavatam are the first archetypal examples of this mode of devotion. Radha, another archetypal lover, is compared to ‘jiva’, longing for the ‘paramatma’, the Supreme being. We have other examples too, of people like Mira Bai. Such a devotion is called ‘madhura bhakti,’ because of the sweetness in the pangs of love for the lord.

Every day, ‘Godaadevi’ wore the garland which her father prepared for Vishnu, looked at herself as the consort of Vishnu, and then took it to the temple. One day Vishnu Chitta was shocked to see his daughter wearing the garland before it was offered to the lord. He had no garland for the lord on that day. The lord appeared in his dream and told him that ‘Godaa’ was the incarnation of goddess Earth (Bhudevi) and that he loved to wear the garland worn by her.

A simple devotee got so absorbed in love for Vishnu and in his avatars that her absorption expressed itself in the form of devotional songs. The thirty songs composed by her are sung every day in the Vishnu temples during this month. In her songs ‘Godaa’ addressed her friends to wake up from sleep (wake up from the bondage of samsara) and join her in praising the lord. The songs are held on par with the scriptural texts because the nature of the Supreme is revealed in them by the grace of the lord. ‘Godaa’ is said to have gone as a bride of Vishnu to ‘Srirangam’, bowed before the lord and merged in him by leaving the mortal frame. The lord seems to have accepted her as assured by him in the Gita, ‘in whatever way people worship Me, the same way I respond and fulfil their desires’ (4-11). He had made a similar promise in the same text, ‘those who love me as the supreme goal, I lift them up to immortality’ (12-7).

We do not see celebration or revelry during the month, but we see a pious and sober environment in which women usually unmarried girls) recite these songs in great veneration. Girls also perform the ‘Katyayani vratam’ which was performed by the ‘gopis’ in the Bhagavatam, and also by ‘Godaa’. The samskaras arising from such devotion would stand them in good stead in having a harmonious married life in future.

The feminists may be cynical about this, but we should note that it is not only for the girls. It is for all those with pure devotion. Pundits have shown different levels of meaning in the songs. The core teachings of the Vedas and the unique features of Vaishnava doctrine are described in various songs. There was no need for Godaadevi to study scriptures, because she got them as traditional learning from her father.

(The writer is a former DGP, Andhra Pradesh)