Andal (Goda Devi)
Goda, the 9th among the 12 Vaishnava Saints called Azhvars, as the name suggest is a boon given by Mother Earth to this Universe.
To understand the significance of the coming of Bhoodevi into this world, we must go back in time to the time when Lord Narayana took the form of a Divine Boar (Varaha Avatar). Hiranyaksha (brother of Lord Hiranyakasipu) had hidden the Mother Earth in the mire of ocean. The Lord retrieved the Mother after a fierce fight with Hiranyakshan and brought her out holding her on his nostrils as a small bundle. Thereafter the Lord looked at his consort with joy and pride. He expected appreciation from HER but to his astonishment saw HER in tears. When questioned about the reason for this , Mother replied OK you have rescued me from the mirk because I am your consort but, what about our children who are drowned in the ocean of samsara and do not know the way to come out of this shackle. How are you going to help these children? To this the Lord replied, I shall give moksha to all provided following conditions are fulfilled.
Must be in constant remembrance of ME.
Worship and sing my praises
Completely surrender at MY FEET.
Bhoomadevi promised to take birth at an appropriate time to fulfill the above conditions – to take people along with her to the Lord.
It was in this backdrop that Bhoomadevi descended as a small baby girl in the household of Vishnuchittar. Vishnuchittar was a high priest in Srivilliputtur in the temple of Vatapathrasayi (Lord Krishna). On a fine day when Vishnuchittar, who was issueless, was plucking flowers to make garland for the Lord, he found a girl baby near the Brindavan of Tulsi Plant. He took the child home and named her GODA as she was found in the garden regarding the child as a boom given by Bhoomadevi. The child was brought with great care and she grew up into a beautiful damsel.
Vishnuchittar’s household was bhakti laden and vibrating with love for Lord Krishna. She was given account of Lord Krishna’s leela. The child grew up with extreme love and devotion to Lord Krishna to such an extent that she would not think of anybody or anything else.
It was the daily routine of Vishnuchittar to pluck flowers from his garden and make garland out of them and taken to the temple of Vatapathrasayi. Goda used to help her father in this task.
On a fine day, when Vishnuchittar stepped out, after making the garlands, before giving to the temple, Goda in all her innocence thought why not I try the garland before the Lord is garlanded. She then put on the garland, admired her beauty in the mirror and stealthily put it back. This went on for days and the father did not know about it. One day when Vishnuchittar lifted the garland he found to his surprise a human hair stuck among the flowers. When questioned to his dismay, Goda confessed to her trying on the garlands before they were taken to the temple for garlanding HIM. He was shaken and sat in solitude asking the Lord’s forgiveness.
That night the Lord appeared in his dream and told him that Goda did no wrong and in fact HE was only too pleased that Goda wore the garlands before it decorated HIM. From then onwards, the practice of Goda wearing the garlands before was continued. Hence, she was named Choodi Kodutha Nachiyaar.
Though she lived in Srivilliputtur she imagined herself to be in Brindavan and her father’s mansion to be the mansion of Nandan and Yasodadevi. The girls in her neighborhood were gopis.
It is believed that the young gopis with the help of Yadava boys performed this ritual to obtain rains.
Here we are reminded of Govinda Pattabishekam. Whenever there were no rains, the Yadava community used to propriate Lord Indra with offerings and request for rains. Lord Krishna stopped this practice and asked them to offer the worship to HIM. Lord Indra infuriated by this with the intention of punishing the yadava community, poured rains incessantly and brought havoc. Men, Women, Children and Cattle ran hlter skeliter. They came running to the child Krishna. He gave succor to them by lifting the Mount Govardhan and held in aloft for 7 days until Indra relented and stopped the rains. The entire yadava community took shelter under the Govardhana Mountain.
Goda or Andal as she was called started the vrata waking young damsels in the neighborhood in the pretext of going for a bath in the early hours of the morning. The real aim was to bath in HIS glory and attains HIS lotus feet.
She thus composed “Thiruppavai” consisting of 30 verses – one verse for each day of the month. This mellifluous song / composition is and will be the most precious for the devotees of Lord Krishna. They have a poetic beauty laden with spiritual truths Thiruvadipooram the day she was found by Periazhvar is celebrated in all Srivaishnava temples in a grand manner. The composition details the various steps to be undertaken to attain HIM. The first 5 verses describes in detail the equipments required for undertaking the vrata, 6 to 16 is waking up girls in various households, 17 onwards waking up Balaraman, Yasodha, Nandagopan, etc. The last 2 verses of Saranagathi. It also speaks of the Lord’s avatar, verse 3 speaks of Vamanavatar, Trivikramavatar, Ramavatar, Narasimhavatar, etc. To talk of Tiruppavai would be a separate topic altogether.
The other composition of Andal is Nachiyaar Thirumozhi in which she talks of her dream of Lord Ranganatha marries her. It contains the various details of marriage preparations.
When Andal come of a marriageable age, Vishnuchittar started searching for a suitable bridegroom for his foster daughter.
Goda on her part insisted, that she wanted to marry none other than Lord Ranganatha (Krishna). Periazhvar argued that this would not be possible and tried to dissuade her from this thought but to no avail.
Again the Lord Ranganatha appeared in Periazhvar’s dream that he would accept Goda as his bride and to make necessary arrangements for the marriage. There upon Goda was taken in a palanquin to the temple where in front of a huge crowd she merged with the Lord.