Rettai Thirupati, Navathiruppathi

In the Navatiruppathis located in the Nellai district, visiting this place is the most challenging. As sung by the Āḻvār, there are no towers here. This Divya Desam is situated in a remote forest surrounded by bushes, wilderness, and thorny plants.
This place is situated like “ālāravam aṟṟa taṉikkaṭṭil ampo” (a forest without any human noise). The way Nammāḻvār gets enchanted by this Perumāl is not easily described.
King Janaka showed the horoscope of baby Sītā to the court astrologers. While predicting her great good fortune of getting married to the Supreme Lord and all that, they also foretold her exile into the forests. So also, when Caṭakōpaṉ was born, his parents elicited from the astrologers that he would be endowed with supreme knowledge and become world famous and yet, there was the great risk of their losing him, if ever they took him to Tolaivillimaṅkalam.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) Even the normal environment of Tolaivillimaṅkalam is enticing enough and what to talk of the festivities, with their rich and varied fares! The elders having brought the God-bent Nāyakī during the festival going on there, they stand no chance whatever of weaning her away from the Lord and the allied attractions. Incidentally, we get at the Śāstraik meaning that we would do well to get initiated into God-head through our elders, rather than the direct approach.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) Sweet tongued: The Āzhvār’s hymns are very sweet to hear and when one delves into their meanings, the commentaries, however numerous and copious they might be, one cannot plumb their depth fully.
(ii) The elders cannot coax the Nāyakī and get her dislodged from this pilgrim centre, even as it would not be possible to induce the fertile fields and the orchards fed by the waters from the river Tāmraparṇi to get uprooted and proceed with them; in other words, the Nāyakī stands as firmly rooted there as the fields and orchards themselves.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
The Nāyakī was overwhelmed by the sweet chanting of the Vedas in Tolaivillimaṅkalam and she started musing over the Lord Who disseminated the Vedas, at the commencement of the epoch, to the four-headed Brahmā. Her innate modesty is no longer there, in her present rapturous state, and she openly rejoices, speaking solely about the Lord, the ultimate goal of all learning and knowledge.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) The effulgence of the God-love within is reflected on the Nāyakī’s forehead. By her very nature, she would thaw down in ecstasy, in deep contemplation of the Lord and now that she has been brought by the elders, face to face, with the radiant Lord, bedecked with jewels, at Tolaivillimaṅkalam, her God-intoxication has gone to a very high pitch. The Lord, even when unadorned, is extremely charming and now, He is adorned, imparting lustre to the Jewels on His person.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) Mostly, the Nāyakī is in a trance state and she seldom opens her eyes; if ever she did open the eyes and saw anything, it was only this pilgrim centre with its romantic setting on the north bank of Tāmraparṇi (also known as Porunal), the cool river. If she opened her mouth, she would only spell out the Lord's glorious names. Well, these are the observations of the mate.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) The Nāyakī’s lovely locks of hair are compared to the colourful plumes of the peacock and her bewitching eyes to those of the young doe.
(ii) The Lord’s names and attributes gain colour, when they are spelt out by His devotees with inimitable fervour, as when Śrī Parāśara Bhaṭṭar sweetly ejaculated the holy name, “Aḻakiya maṇavāḻapperumāḷ!” (Lovely Spouse), Śrī Śomāśi Āṇṭāṉ entoned “Emperumāṉār!” (My own Lord, an epithet of Śrī Rāmānuja) and Anantāḻvaṉ uttered the holy name “Tiruvēṅkaṭam uṭāiyāṉ!” (The Lord of the holy hill, Tirupathi).
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
The Nāyakī’s eyes became dark through their absorption of. and deep penetration into the dark-hued Lord. From the moment, she worshipped the Lord, enshrined in this pilgrim centre, she got entranced by His lotus eyes and thawed down, when she addressed Him, as her lotus-eyed Lord. She couldn’t go on repeating it, much as she would like to, as she dwindled down in a state of ecstasy.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
Having been initiated into this pilgrim centre, the Nāyakī keeps on reciting the Lord’s name, in such a manner that even the inanimate beings, like trees, are moved. If these hymns can move even the stony hearts of the uninitiated men of the present day, what doubt could there be about their impact on the contemporary men and things, when the songs flowed from the Āzhvār’s rapturous lips!
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
(i) Looking at the Nāyakī’s intense longing for Lord Kṛṣṇa, the mates guess that she might be Nappiṉṉā, reborn; and then, her rapturous meditation on the Lord’s advent as Varāha, the Great Boar, makes them inclined to think that she might be an incarnation of Mother Earth. But still, the mates could not make up their minds, as the Nāyakī’s devout contemplation of Lord Rāmā suggests the possibility of her being no less than Sītā, reborn.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.
The hoary thousand: It might be asked how this work is claimed to be antiquated while there is the distinct reference to Āzhvār as its author. The element of antiquity comes in automatically if one considers the parity, which this Dramiḍa Veda enjoys with its Sanskrit counterpart. These thousand hymns were ordained by the Lord, just like the Sanskrit Vedas, as revealed by His own words in Bhagavad Gītā, “Śrutis smṛtir Mamaivājñā’; the veracity and blemishlessness.
Words may be rearranged for prose order (Aṉvayam). Read meanings in black continuously for the simplified sense based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai.