SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr was asked “You had mentioned earlier, nenjaththu eNNinEn and dhidamAga vaiyEn madhisUdi thannOdu ayanai. In this world, inimical people will celebrate and friendly people will be saddened when something terrible occurs. Will you have this firmness in you even when misfortune comes your way? ” He responds saying “whether joy comes or sorrow comes, there will be no shortcoming in the way I worship emperumAn” thus mercifully affirming his deep faith.
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
valamAga mAttAmai thAnAga vaigal
kulamAga kuRRandhAnAga nalamAga
nAraNanai nApadhiyai gyAnapperumAnai
sIraNanai Eththum thiRam
Word for Word Meanings
nAraNai – being lord of all
nApadhiyai – controller of my tongue
gyAnam perumAnai – being great in knowledge
sIr aNanai – supreme being who has all the auspicious qualities fitting well
vaigal nalamAga Eththum thiRam – this nature of praising him all the time
valam Aga – whether it gives good benefits
mAttAmai thAN Aga – or it does not give good benefits
kulam Aga – whether it leads to birth in good clan
kuRRam thAn Aga – or it leads to birth in bad clan
(I will not give up praising emperumAn)
vyAkyAnam
nalamAga nAraNanai – being the supreme lord of all in a great way. Even while he pervades all the souls and sustains them, emperumAn is such that their faults will not affect him. The opinion here is that praising such emperumAn will not be the reason for any lowliness.
nApadhiyai – the one who controls my tongue such that he made my tongue to look in his direction from the lowly matters in which it had got immersed earlier.
The text is also nampadhiyai in which case the meaning will be that he is our lord to such an extent that even if all the other clusters of souls get together, they cannot equal us.
gyAnap perumAnai – just as it is said “yassarvagya: sarvavith” (one who knows the basic nature and basic qualities of all entities) he is the repository of all knowledge. Just as nammAzhwAr had said in periya thiruvandhAdhi 53 “unnadiyArkku enseyvan enRE nI iruththi” (you are constantly contemplating on what further you could do for your followers), he is great in terms of knowledge too.
sIraNanai – he is the reservoir of all auspicious qualities.
Eththum thiRam – the way in which he is praised. We can prefix the word nalamAga to this word and say “praising him well”.
valamAga – whether the act of praising him gives good results or
mAttAmaidhAn Aga – does not give good results.
kulamAga – whether praising him leads to birth in a good clan or
kuRRandhAn Aga – it leads to birth in a bad clan
vaigal – whether this becomes a daily event or not. Since praising him constantly is what is acceptable to me and not the benefit out of it, I will never let go of the two firm resolves en nenjaththu eNNinEn and dhidamAga vaiyEn.
nAraNanai nApadhiyai gyAnapperumAnai sIraNanai Eththum thiRam – The opinion here is that since emperumAn is the supreme being who is praised, since he made my tongue to recite this prabandham (divine hymn), since he is omniscient in order to protect me, only good things will happen to me. It is pertinent here to recall the firmness of nammAzhwAr when he said in thiruvAimozhi 5-3-5 “kadiyan kodiyan nediya mAl ulagam koNda adiyan aRivaru mEni mAyaththan Agilum kodiya ennenjam avanenRE kidakkum ellE ” (even though emperumAn will be intent on completing his task, will not look back once the task is completed, has a superior nature even if he starts leaving after the task in such a way that it is difficult to reject him, has divine feet with which he brought all the worlds under his control, bewilders the beholders with his beauty in such a way that they cannot find out whether he is good or not, my cruel heart has totally surrendered to him).
We will take up the 68th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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