The saint who ruled over the Lord: Aandal

Andal is a most extrordinary saint. She was only 15 years young when she physically merged with a statue of Sri Ranganatha, the Lord at the temple town of Srirangam in South India. During her short life she wrote peoms to her Beloved God and Lord, that outshine all other poetry of her time in beauty and excellence, so much did she immerse herself in love for God. He was her everything, there wasn't a moment when she didn't think of Him, when she didn't think of how she could best please Him, how she could best win His heart, how she could unite with Him. This is her story:

During the 10th century, there lived a man called Vishnucitta in Srivilliputtur, South India. He was a devotee of Krishna and a saintly man. He was looking after the temple gardens in Srivilliputtur. With great love and affection he tended the gardens and grew the flowers who would be used for the Lord's temple. The gardens were big and grew all kinds of beautiful scented flowers, nourishing birds and bees and the visitor's eyes. But most importantly, these flowers were meant for God Himself.

One morning, as he was digging in the garden with a spade, near a Tulasi tree (basil tree) he hit something hard. Vishnucitta was thinking to himself what it could be, so he started to remove the earth and leaves around the area. To his astonishment, he found a metal box, and in it was a little baby girl, smiling at him. He was amazed at the sight of this little baby, lying there under the tree in the middle of his garden... He took the little bundle of joy in his arms, and immediately fell in love with her. Although he was unsure as how he'd be able to properly look after her, he also knew, that it was God's grace that brought the little baby to him and that he was meant to look after her. He gave her the name Kodai, signifiying "gift of mother earth", among other meanings.

Vishnucitta raised the little girl with greatest love and affection. On top of his own love and care, he taught little Andal everything he knew about God, about Krishna. He told her all the stories on Krishna's life, taught her devotional songs, how to pray, everything that had to do with the Lord. She would help him tending the gardens and together they'd sing His glories.

Andal became so engrossed in love for Krishna, that she started to gather all her friends and together they'd sing and dance for Him. She taught them how to pray and worship Him.

"O great deep ocean, the lord entered into you, mixed and churned you, deprived you of your nectar. That lord of illusion entered into me too, churned me, deprived me of my essence. Go to the serpent who is the lord's couch, tell him of my endless sorrow that he may plead for me."

More and more, Andal dived in bhakti for her Lord. In one of his own poems, her foster father Vishnucitta describes the love-lorn condition of his darling daughter:

"She wears the chocker-necklace, Looks at herself in the mirror, Jangling her bangles; wearing The rich garment, she grows wan and checks her reddened lips; Trying to take hold of herself, She repeats the thousand names Of the Lord; O my daughter Has become mad after the Supreme!"

Whenever Vishnucitta would pick flowers to weave the garland for the Lord in the temple, he was extremely careful, he's only pick the most beautiful flowers, and while weaving the garland, he'd wear gloves and a mouth protection as not to deconsecrate the flowers with his hands or smell the scent of the flowers before the Lord would. After finishing, everyday he carefully placed the garland at the same place in house, before he would take it to the temple. One day he noticed a strand of black hair that were stuck in the garland. He was surprised, and even more shocked as he realised, that the hair belonged to his daughter Kodai. Not know how the hair got there, the next day he hid himself and waited. Not long after, his daughter came into the room, put the garland on herself, and went to the well in the garden to look at herself in the mirror image of the water. Inside her heart she was asking the Lord if He found her to be beautiful with the garland on. After admiring herself and imagining herself as His bride, she put the garland back where she took it. Vishnucitta was devestated, wearing the Lord's garland before offering it to Him was a great offence. He didn't know what to do, on the one hand his daughter had committed a great offence, who knows how many times she did that before already? On the other hand, he knew about her love and didn't want to hurt her. So he explained to her that what she was doing wasn't right. Kodai was very sorry to have hurt her father's feelings and she promised to never wear the garland again from that day on.

That day, Vishnucitta had to make a new garland. When he was at the temple, giving the Lord the new garland, he apologised for the offence his daughter had committed in her ignorance. He promised that it would never happen again. When he went to sleep that night, his mind was still not at peace. Suddenly, while trying to sleep, the Lord appeared to Him and spoke: "I didn't like the garland you offered to me today as much as the previous ones. I love to wear the garlands that have been worn by your daughter, I miss the scent of her body in the flowers. Please continue to give the garlands worn by your daughter." Now Vishnucitta knew about the greatness of his daughters devotion to the Lord, overcome with emotion he had to cry, realising the extent of his daughters love for God, not having fully comprehended its purity and intensity. From that day on, Kodai got to wear every garland before it was offered to the Lord. From that time on, she was called Andal, the girl who "ruled" over the Lord.

When Andal became of marriagable age, her father went out to look for an ideal husband. Andal however stubbornly refused to get married to a mortal: " jackal.." She said that she would only agree to marry Sri Ranganatha, the Lord at the great temple town of Srirangam. Andal was so much in love with Him, that she'd always lean out of the window of her room looking in the direction fo Srirangam, wishing to be with her Lord.

This worried Vishnucitta a lot, after all he was himself to be blamed for having brought up his daughter in such a devotional way.

One night, as he couldn't sleep, worrying what to do about this issue, the Lord appeared to him and told him, that He wants to get married to Andal, and that he should make all necessary arrangements for them to get married in the Sri Ranganath temple. At the same time, the king and the temple priest got a dream with the same content. The three of them met and started preperations for the wedding to take place. Finally the day of the wedding came, Andal's joy knew no bounds. She was dressed like a queen, and with the help of the king, who was befriended with Vishnucitta and the temple priest of Srirangam, a marriage was arranged that surpassed every previous marriage in the region. Andal was led on a procession, riding on an elephant, to the great temple. She was lead up the stairs to the temple entrance. As they entered the temple, she couldn't restrain herself any longer. She ran towards the temple sanctum. While she was running bright light formed around her body, and when she reached the statue to embrace it, she disappeared in a blaze of glory, uniting with her beloved!

Links on Andal:

Her biography online (also available as a little booklet on: ): http://www.freeindia.org/biographies/greatdevotees/andal/index.htm

One version of her life-story on ramanuja.org: http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/alvars/andal/