Originally Posted by
Sathiya Keerthi
I saw Aalaya MaNi in the weekend (Thanks to NOV for telling me that
this movie was being shown on Malaysian TV) and I am compelled to write another
long posting. Although the movie has excellent songs such as thookkam un
kaNgaLai thazhuvattumE, ponnai virumbum boomiyilE, and kallellaam maaNikka
kallaagumaa, I just want to write about the song in the movie, satti
suttadhadaa. The song is usually classified as one depicting sadness (see
TMS sOha geedhangaL.. thread, but I want to argue that it is just the
opposite.
There are good (divine) and bad (animal) qualities in-born in every human being.
In some people, one or more of the bad qualities such as fear, jealousy, anger,
etc., are present in an extreme level, causing deep mental agony. The hero of the
movie is one such person; the problem in him is extreme jealousy. If he loves
a certain thing and if someone else sets eye on it, he loses control and becomes
furious. When he was a small boy, he even caused the death of a dear friend who set
his eyes on a doll that the hero loved. The hero, who otherwise is a person of
good character, has been having this deep feeling of guilt that he (the deep
jealousy in him) was the cause of his dear friend's death. Hence he
has been consciously making an effort to control jealousy whenever it
arises, and is also doing so many good deeds to others as atonement. BUT, the fact
was that jealousy was always rooted inside him, just waiting for a chance to explode.
Naayagan oru azhagaana peNNai kaNdu mayanginaan; avan perum paNakkaaran aanadhaal
avaLudaya petrOrai sulabhamaaga convince paNNi avaLai maNam mudikka nichchayamum
seydhaan. Avanukku oru uyir naNban. Andha naNbanukkum thanakku varappOgum manaivikkum
kaLLa uRavu irukkindradhu endru kELvippattu naayaganum avargaLai sandhEgikka
aarambikka, uLLil idhuvarai adangi irundha poRaamai endra mirugam viswaroopam eduththu
varugiRathu. Than uyir naNbanai kolai seyya andha mirugam thooNdugiRathu; naNbanai
thaniyaaga oru malai uchchikku kootti selgiRaan thaLLivittu kolvadhaRkku. Kolai
seyyap pOgum tharuvaayil avanudaya uyir naNban uNmaiyai sollugiRaan: oru kaalaththil
avanum appeNNum kaadhalargaLaaga irundhadhu uNmai; aanaal, naayagan avaLai virumbugiRaan
endru therindhadhum avaLai naayaganukkaaga vittu koduththuvittaan; avaLum konjam
konjamaaga naNbanai maRandhu naayaganai nEsikka thodangivittaaL!
Indha uNmai therindha nilaiyil naayagan enna seydhaan? Enna seydhaan enbadhai
konjam postpone paNNivittu, enna seydhiruppaan endru aaraaivOmaa? Nam manadhukku
iraNdu solutions thOndra vaayyppirukkiRadhu. Avai enna endru paarppOm.
uNmai enna endru naNban solliyum, naayagan manadhil viswaroopam eduththa poRaamai
ennum mirugam avanai thodarndhu aagramiththu, indha naNban iruppadhu unakku
eppOdhum aabaththuthaan; avanai kondruvidu, adhuthaan unakku nalladhu endru
thooNda, avanum adhanpadi nadandhirukkalaam. I call this as the animal solution.
Naayaganukku idhu nadakkavillai. En? Let us analyze.
Manidhan, poRaamai pOndru manadhil irukkum mirugaththai iraNdu muRaiyil deal paNNalaam.
He can just accept that as a part of him and act whatever that animal instinct asks him
to do. If this had been the case, the animal solution would be the most natural
result.
But, nammudaya naayagan was not so; he had always considered jealousy as a
disease and had been fighting and resisting it all his life. Adhanaal, naNbanidamirundhu
uNmai therindha pin avan, chE chE, ennai indha poRaamai ennum mirugam engkE koNdu
sendruvuttadhu paar endru sindhiththu adhanpadi manidhanaaga seyalpattiruppaan.
(avargaLudaya vaazhkkaiyai patri avan enna mudivu seygiRaan enbadhu ingku mukkiyamalla.
So I will not go into that.) I call this as the human solution. The key thing
to note here is that jealousy is still present in him; indha muRai adhu viswaroopam
eduththa pOthu adhai avan adakkivittaan, avvaLavudhaan; pinnar avan vaazhvil adhu vERu
oru kaaraNaththiRkkaaga paayndhu veLi vara vaayppu irukku innum.
uNmai therindha andha nEraththil avanukku, mElE solliya reNdu solutions-um nadakkavillai.
AppuRam ennadhaan nadandhadhu? naNbanidamirundhu uNmai therindhadhum avan udanE ninaiththaan
(Oh how stupid I have been):
budhdhi kettadhadaa nenjai thottadhadaa
naalum nadandhu mudindha pinnaal nalladhu kettadhu therindhadhadaa
avan vaazhnaaL muzhuvadhum poRaamai-yai resist seydhu manadhilum seyalilum nallavatraiyE
seydhu vandhaanE, avaiyellaam avan manadhil dheyvam vaLarvadhaRkkaaga pOtta viththukkaL.
PoRaamai ennum mirugam viswaroopam eduththu nindra pOdhu, uNmai therindhu, enna
madaththanam seyyavirundhEn endru avan ninaiththa pOdhu, andha instant-il (as JK
says, you can even say that time was not involved here; it happened instantaneously)
avanuL vaLarndhu vandha dheivam innum periya roopam eduththu poRaamai endra mirugaththai
azhiththu saambalaakkiyadhu! He was free of jealousy for ever! This is what they
call as God's Grace or as a spiritual experience, something that cannot
be planned and executed via the mind process! I call this as the divine solution.
As JK says, when there is a snake right in front of you ready to bite and you truly
realize how deadly it is, what do you do? You immediately take action to get rid of it!
This is what happened to him. IdhaRkku Kavinjar azhagaana uvamai kodukkiRaar paadalil.
Soodaana oru sattiyai (compare this with the jealousy-animal which had taken a huge form)
kaiyil pattadhum (he realizes the stupidity of following jealousy), by reflex action you drop
it (he becomes free of jealousy instantaneously):
satti suttadhadaa kai vittadhadaa
Kavinjar follows this with beautiful lines that describe, in a nutshell, what happened
in his mind from birth till now:
paadhi manadhil dheivam irundhu paarththu koNdadhadaa
meedhi manadhil mirugam irundhu aatti vaiththadhadaa
aatti vaiththa mirugam indru adangi vittadhadaa
amaidhi dheivam muzhu manadhil kOyil koNdadhadaa
(Actually I would have preferred the word azhindhu instead of adangi.)
aaravaarap pEygaLellaam Odi vittadhadaa
aalayamaNi Osai nenjil koodivittadhadaa
dharma dhEvan kOvililE oLi thulangudhadaa
manam shaanthi shaanthi shaanthi endru Oyvu kaNdadhadaa
(As said already, spiritual experiences such as this cannot be planned; the are god-given.
So, avanuL irundha poRaamai azhindhadhu kadavuL avanukku koduththa pichchai; andha dheivaththai
dharma dhEvan endru kavinjar solvadhu kuRippida thakkadhu.)
Gnanam endra vaarththaikku Knowledge endru podhuvaaga naam translation
solvadhuNdu; aanaal Gnanam innum aRpudhamaana ondru. Hindu philosophy-yil
Gnannam is used to denote the the ultimate understanding of the Aathman
that comes from a profound spiritual experience. Naayaganukku vandhadhu spiritual
experience (yaanai) enbadhu uNmai; aanaal adhu vandhadhu avanuL irukkum poRaamai
(eRumbu) endra mana nOyai kolla; avanukku muzhu Gnanaththai koduppadhaRkkaaga alla;
after the experience he is not a realized soul or any such thing; it's just
that he got rid of jealousy from the roots! Idhai kuRippida kavinjar thErndheduththa
varigaL:
eRumbu thOlai uriththup paarkka yaanai vandhadhadaa
en idhaya thOlai uriththup paarkka gnanam vandhadhadaa
Being so thrilled at the peace that has come in him, our naayakan further sings:
piRakkum munnE irundha uLLam indru vandhadhadaa
iRandha pinnE varum amaidhi vandhuvittadhadaa
Summarizing, ip paadal sOhap paadal alla. In fact, it is sung by the character
in great happiness, no, actually more, it is in esctacy! Paadalukku kavinjar
Kannadhasan varaindha varigaL aRpudham. Saanthamaana tune pOttu, kadalin alaiyOsaiyum,
aaravaarap pEygaL kaththuvadhaiyum, aalayamaNiyin Osaiyum sariyaana idangaLil izhaya
vittu paadalai unnadhamaaga aakkivittanar mellisai mannargaL; paadalai nalla uNarchchiyudan
paadi asaththivittaar TMS. Padaththil, Shivaji Ganesan-in nadippu indha paadalil avar kaattum muga bhaavanaigaL
pramaadham endrE sollavENdum. Overall, it is a beautiful song perfectly made for a
wonderful situation.
when I saw the link Joe gave. To ME it was like plain bread after having tasted a feast.
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