Sakthi Thamil Changam - English articles                                      

SONG 17

Why do we need to get married?

In Tamil, married life is called as ''ILLARAM''. The word IL means home, and ARAM means Dharma, help, or charity. Couples are married to perform all these actions and they need to help and guide each other in the spiritual journey.

In India, the scriptures insist that we offer either clothes or food or at least water to poor people, because these 3 are the very basic needs for us. In Tamilnadu, during summer, we can see many shady pavilions created with shaamianas and water or buttermilk will be offered freely to travelers.

In all Hindu rituals, the last programme will be a feast or offering of prasad [sacred food] to everybody. It is very important to offer at least a handful of food to all in temples.

Manimekalai is a famous Tamil epic {2 A.D} which says that the worst disease on this earth is hunger. If we offer food to a poor man, we are actually giving life to him.

In Tamilnadu nobody will refuse to give water even to enemies. In most of the villages people place a mud pot full of chilled water at the entrance of their houses. Still there are people who place a little curd or rice with water at the entrance to their homes during night time.

Aandaal is remembering how Nandhaa and Yasodhaa offered all these to their people. The Baghavatham says that whenever there is a natural disaster in Gokulam, Nandhaa cared for his community.

So Aandaal is requesting Nandhaa to wake up first. Then she says that Yasodhaa's humbleness makes her an ideal example for a wife and mother and requests her to wake up.

Then she surrenders to Krishna's elder brother Balarama to help her to understand Krishna's likes and dislikes.

Three main relations of a family are mentioned here. Aandaal is showing us how to live with these relations .A couple can’t live alone in a family. May be for some time they will enjoy the privacy but soon they need other people to help them perform various activities in life.

Then she is asking Krishna to wake up. She is remembering the Lord's Vamana avatharam again.

She asks Balarama to wake up Krishna. Balarama was the incarnation of Vishnu's 1000 headed serpent Aadhiseshaa. It is the symbol of infinity and awareness. When the Lord came as Rama he came as Laxmana and always played as the Lord's awareness. In Krishna avathara again he has taken the role of Balarama. So even the Lord's awareness has to be initiated.

A woman must adjust to all her relations in her family. Her harmony makes the life peaceful.

Exercise: Try to forgive and ask for forgiveness to your in-laws or any other relations for some bitter incidents that happened, even though you are not the cause. This is the peak level of shedding our ego.

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