Meaning of Thiruppavai pasuram 4 –  Aazhi mazhai kanna!

Here Godā again stresses her desire for rain, and addresses this invocation to the Rain-god Varuna. He is not addressed  as an independent deity but is referred to  as an executive of the Supreme Being Kṛṣṇa. After poetically describing the precipitation process she requests Varuna to assume the dark blue form of Kṛṣṇa who is the Primordial cause of the universe. Kṛṣṇa is known as Meghaśyāma —   “cloud coloured One”.  Godā now uses similes of  Kṛṣṇa’s three weapons to describe the phenomena associated with rain. The lightning is likened to the discus Sudarśana (‘Pleasing to behold’.) The discus which moves at the speed of light represents the Universal Mind. It is discharged for the punishment of the wicked and the salvation of the devotees. The conch —  Pāñcajanya, was born of the sea; from the primordial ocean of creation. It is symbolic of the emanation of the cosmos and of the sound AUM. Its tumultuous sound is meant to proclaim the Lord’s saving grace. In His incarnation as Rāma, the lord used the bow — śārnga, to defeat the demonic host of the Rākṣasas lead by Rāvaṇa. Here the bow is invoked to destroy the demon of drought. Esoterically the cloud is said to represent the great preceptors (ācāryas). They collate spiritual knowledge from many sources, distil the essence and then spread it all over the world in a form easily understood by the masses. This they do without any expectation of gain or selfish motive, the only reason being their boundless compassion for  suffering beings. Most of the Āḷvārs who preceded Aṇḍāḷ in their hymns compared the Lord to the clouds, but Śrī Aṇḍāḷ on the contrary compares the clouds to the Lord. To her the Lord is upamāna, the known object, with which the object of description. ie, nāmeyam  is sought to be compared.  This shows Aṇḍāḷ’s excessive devotion to the Lord.

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