Prayer for prosperity

In verse three of Tiruppavai, Andal prays for rain thrice

every month and the prosperity that results from timely

rains. The monthly rains that come thrice a month should

be spaced out in order to be beneficial.Massaging oil on the head is said to be good, but that doesn’t mean one should take a lot of oil and pour it all on the head in one go. One takes a little, massages it, and waits for the oil to be absorbed by the skin, before applying some more. In the same way, the rains that Andal prays for are rains that are conveniently spaced out. She doesn’t ask for one torrent of rain.


What is the significance of rain thrice a month? Rains fall

once for the sake of those chanting Vedas. They fall a second time on account of the presence of virtuous women; they fall a third time because of just and honest rulers, said P.T. Seshadri, in a discourse. Andal also talks of paddy plants that are tall. There is a verse in the Divya Prabandham, which describes the natural wealth of Thiruvanvandur in Kerala.


The verse talks of stalks of grain that, because of the

weight of the grains, bend and touch the water in the fields.

Fish that have fattened on these grains are so stout that

mother storks are unable to offer them as food for their little

ones. Nampillai, in his commentary on this verse, says the

paddy plants here are so high that they reach up to the place

where everyone says, “aham annam.” The reference is to Sri

Vaikuntha! So the verse, according to Nampillai, says that

the paddy plants reach up to Sri Vaikuntha.


Bees perch on lotus flowers and, as the flowers sway in

the breeze, the bees resemble princes on swings in palaces!

This is the kind of prosperity Andal prays for in verse three

of Tiruppavai.


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