Preceptors extol Bhu Devi’s incarnation as Andal as exemplifying her infinite patience and compassion towards the countless jivatmas who are unaware of the way to salvation when being immersed in samsara, said Sri M. A. Venkatakrishnan in a lecture. Full of motherly compassion, she forgives the faults of the jivatma and leads him to the right path by consolidating the traces of goodness in him. It is held that at the beginning of the Kalpa, when the earth is submerged in the Waters, the Lord takes the form of a huge boar to lift the earth from the region of Rasatala. Varaha shines with His consort Bhu Devi as He holds the earth on His tusk as if it were the root of a tiny grass. Though Bhu Devi is grateful to the Lord for being rescued, her motherly concern for the redemption of the jivatmas makes her extract a vow from Varaha.
The Lord assures her then that if a jivatma offers Him worship, engages in His ‘namasamkirtana’ and seeks Him as the sole refuge, He would take the responsibility of leading him to salvation. Brooding over how this valuable truth could reach the people whose lives are caught up only in worldly affairs, Bhu Devi leaves the comfort of Vaikunta and the company of her Lord and incarnates as a girl baby with extraordinary brilliance and fragrance in Periazhwar’s garden in the midst of Tulsi plans. Drawing from the upadesa she has gained from Varaha, Andal herself performs a yagna in the month of Marghazhi to instill jnana and vairagya among the people. The Tiruppavai initiates the jivatma into this path by stressing the value of this birth and by making it clear that one’s everlasting relationship is only with the Lord.
