குடந்தை அந்தாதி : பொழிப்புரையுடன் - Kuttan Anthadi : With Comments (Tamil)

AARAAVAMUDAM '- the Nectar that never satiates-What a thrilling and honeyed expression of ecstasy which sweetens the tongue that utters it ! Language has never found a more appropriate term for God, whom the Upanishads define as Aanandamaya, ' the Essence of Bliss Absolute. 'Such is the name by which the seers of Tamil Nad, the Alwars, have sung in their hymns about Sarangapani, the Presiding Deity of the chief Vaishnavite shrine in Kudanthai, popularly known as Kumbakonam.
Six out of the ten Alwars have extolled the Lord of Kudanthai in their hymns. Nammalvar, the fore-most among them, has devoted one full section of ten inimitably sweet and profound stanzas to adore Him. Two of them are rendered here in English to produce in the reader the psychological environment to enjoy the present Andadi on the same Lord which is placed before them:
Oh ! Insatiable Nectar !
Thou hast made my very limbs melt into liquid streams of love and flow with undulating movement towards Thee.
Here, Thou hast come to stay, manifesting thine enrapturing form in the holy, charming shrine at Kudanthai.
Encircled with the limpid and fertilizing streams, and with sheaves of ripened paddy waving about like chauries.
Oh ; my Lord, Here indeed I have visualised thee
Now I weep and now I fall prostrate;
Now I dance in ecstasy, hoping to see Thee ;
Now I rave aloud in hymnal strains.
Haunted by mine own Fate, I gaze around and hang my head in shame at my ineffectual longing.
But Thou hast taken Thine abode, (solely to lift us all) amidst the fertile and sparkling waters in Kudanthai.
It is for Thee to manoeuver to captivate this supplicant with the glances of thine eyes which vie with red loluses.
And to draw him to Thy feet.
Religious and philosophical emotion has been an undying spring of inspiration to the poets of India. Following the foot-steps of the Saints, Alvars and Nayanmars, successive generations of poets have attempted to realise the goal of their existence by contributing to these religious rhapsodies and the author of this Andadi deserves a place of honour among them.