Numbers of the Pasurams in this section follows Venkataraghavan’s text and is divided into 40 Pasurams.
The earth goddess
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This world says, “Hills covered with clouds are the breasts of the earth goddess, the wide oceans are her clothes the bright sun is her thilagam, wide rivers are the ornaments on her ample chest, large dark clouds are her hair, and the ocean is her boundary. She is three things, dharma, wealth and moksha.”
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Many get dharma and wealth but they are not permanent. People say there is a third thing that is higher than those two, but they speak in ignorance—I will explain why.
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The sun god rides on a chariot yoked to seven horses and goes around the world– does he only go to the world of the gods and stay there? That would be like someone wanting to eat meat who leaves a rabbit and goes after a crow.
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She says, “O friend with beautiful young breasts, listen to what happened to me. I adorned my dark hair and tied it up, put a band around my beautiful breasts a mekalai around my waist, and put kohl on my sharp spear-like eyes. I was playing ball happily.
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“Thirumāl with eyes like beautiful lotuses blooming in the water came there carrying a lovely pot and danced on the rich streets as drums played. People saw him and felt happy.
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“My friends, my brothers and others came to me and told me, ‘Come, let us go and see him,’ and I went with them. It was my fate. Suddenly my body grew pale and the bangles on my hands became loose and fell and I couldn’t find them. Whatever others said to me, I didn’t listen to them.
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“I was confused, and became weak and pale. My loving mother with a voice as sweet as a parrot’s, seeing me suffering, was concerned and put vibhuti on my forehead to protect me.
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“She worshipped the god and asked for a boon, saying, ‘I will give you a lovely fragrant garland strung with Kuṛinji flowers. Please take away my daughter’s sorrow.’
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“But whatever my mother did, it didn’t remove the sorrow from my mind or the pain of my love. Some older mothers who saw how I suffered how my body grew pale advised her, ‘Take her to a fortune teller who can tell you how to remove her sickness. She may tell you the truth.’
10, 11, 12. “When my mother summoned her, the fortune teller with dark, tied-up hair worshipped the god and was possessed. She threw the paddy that my mother gave her on a winnowing fan, sweated and trembled and said, ‘The thousand-named god has caused her sickness. He has a dark cloud-colored body, carries a valampuri conch in his hand and is adorned with fragrant thulasi garlands. O you with sharp spear-like eyes, do not worry. I know who gave this sickness to your daughter and I will tell you who he is. He measured this earth with his feet, shattered Lanka into pieces, and protected the cows and the cowherds from the storm with Govardhana mountain.
13, 14, 15. “‘He churned the milky ocean to get nectar for the gods, he grazed the cows, and he swallowed all the worlds, kept them in his stomach and spat them out. But that was not enough for him. One day in cowherd village lovely-waisted Yashoda, with beautiful feet, amred coral mouth and round breasts tied with a band spent a long time churning good yogurt with a churning stick. Sweating as her beautiful waist hurt, she took the butter and carefully put it in a pot on the uṛi hanging on a rope. He pretended as if he were sleeping until Yashoda with a shining forehead had left. Then he raised up his long arms as high as possible took gobs of butter and swallowed it.
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“‘He rolled the pots on the floor and again pretended to be sleeping. When Yashoda came back she saw him acting as if he didn’t know anything, and she saw the pots rolling on the ground but could not see any of the butter.
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“‘She hit herself on her stomach and said, “Who could have done this except this naughty one?” She asked Kaṇṇan, “Did you do this?” She got very angry, shouted at him, took a long rope, tied him to the mortar and spanked him as the villagers looked on. He didn’t stop her.
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“‘Do you know who he is? He is the lord who jumped into the deep pond, stirred up its abundant water and fought the cruel thousand-headed snake Kaalingan.
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“‘With his sharp sword he cut off the nose and ears of Raksasi Surpanaha who told Rama that she was as beautiful as Sita. He fought with Karan, the brother of Surpanaha with his bow and made him suffer as if he were in hell.
18, 19, 20. “‘When handsome broad-armed Rāvaṇa took Sita whose lovely breasts were tied with a band to Lanka, Rama went there, fought with Rāvaṇa, drew his bow and cut off his ten heads. As a man-lion he split open with his sharp claws the chest of of Hiranyan, the long-speared fighter, and wore his intestines on his chest as a garland, striking his red kumkumam-smeared arms with his hands, standing and shouting, while Hiraṇyan lay in a flood of red blood.
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“‘When he took the form of a dwarf and went to the king Mahābali, asking for three feet of land, that king assented, pouring water on the dwarf’s hands. Then, tricking him, the god took a tall form and measured the world and the sky with his two feet.
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“‘He churned the milky ocean with the gods and the Asuras using Mandara mountain for a churning stick and the snake Vasuki for a rope.
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“‘The elephant Gajendra, large as a dark mountain, who would go to a pond every day to get a lotus flower to worship the god, was caught by a crocodile one day. He raised his long trunk screamed out calling the god, “Nārāyaṇā, you with the color of a diamond who rest on Adisesha, come, remove my terrible distress.”
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“‘Our lord came to Gajendra and, enraged at the crocodile, cut it in two pieces with his discus and saved Gajendra. It is the thousand-named lord who has given this love sickness to your daughter, making her crazy about him.’
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The fortune teller told all these things to her mother and she was pleased because her daughter had not been hurt. She understood that she had fallen in love with the lord adorned with a fresh thulasi garland and realized that her daughter was crying with tears falling from her beautiful spear-like eyes because she had become his slave and was not in love with anyone else.
26, 28. The daughter says, “I prattle on because I saw his dark cloud-like body. I wander not knowing what to do when the cool wind blows giving me pain. The curly-haired women are gossiping about me, but I can’t stop them and keep quiet.
- “I told my heart, ‘O heart, go to the sapphire-colored god and ask him if he will give me his thulasi garland. Speak to him when my enemies are not there— otherwise they will give me trouble. If he doesn’t answer you, just come back.” But when I said that, my heart that went to him who has the dark color of the ocean did not come back and forgot me.
30.- 33. “I have done bad karma. The villagers are making fun of me and there is no one to help me. My life melts like a candle near a fire. My long eyes don’t sleep even if the whole village sleeps and I prattle on saying the thousand names of the good lord. When people fall in love it is like plunging into a dark ocean— they don’t know the trouble it will bring. Let that be.”
The daughter says, 34. “Let me tell you about a woman whose love is known to eveyone. Her name is Vāsavadathathai. Once she left all her friends and went along the wide street behind her broad-armed garlanded beloved. The villagers gossiped saying mean things about her. Here is what I am going to do.
35 - 40. “I have decided to go to temples to see the dark one. I will go to beautiful Thiruvenkaṭam, Thirukkovalur, strong-walled Kachi, Thiruvuragam, Thirupperagam, Veḷḷaṛai, temple of the god who walked through the large marudam trees and destroyed the Asurans, Thiruvekka, Thiruvaali, Thiruthangaal, Thirunaṛaiyur surrounded with water, Thiruppuliyur, Srirangam surrounded with groves, Thirukkaṇṇamangai, beautiful jewel-like Thirukkaṇṇanur, Thiruviṇṇagaram, famous Thirukkaṇṇapuram, Thirucheṛai, Thiruvazhundur, Thirukkuḍandai, Thirukkaḍigai, Thirukkaḍalmallai, Thiruviḍavendai, Thiruneermalai, the famous Thirumālirunjolai, Thirumohur, Thiruvadari praised by all, northern Madurai and all other places of the god without missing any. I prattle on saying the thousand names of the famous, lotus-eyed god adorned with thulasi garlands dripping with honey who broke the tusk of the elephant and saved Gajendra from the crocodile, Even if the villagers say nasty things about me I will surely ride on a horse made of palm leaves.
SUBHAM
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