SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
AzhwAr knows that compared to the love showered by yaSOdhAp pirAtti on emperumAn, the love shown by people such as he himself would be equivalent to being inimical to him. Yet, he feels that there is no alternative to holding on to his divine feet and praying to him to forbear his false love.
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
ARiya anbil adiyAr tham ArvaththAl
kURiya kuRRamAk koLLal nI thERi
nediyOy adi adaidhaRkanRE Iraindhu
mudiyAn padaiththa muraN
Word by Word Meanings
ARiya anbu il – without the bhakthi which had simmered after reaching a crescendo
adiyAr – followers
tham ArvaththAl – with their friendliness
kURiya – the words spoken
nI kuRRamAk koLLal – you should not mistake
Ir aindhu mudiyAn – the ten headed rAvaNan
padaiththa – carried out
muraN – enmity
thERi – after clarifying
nediyOy adi – the divine feet of emperumAn
adaidhaRku anRE – did it not become a reason for attaining!
vyAkyAnam
ARiya anbil adiyAr – followers who do not have the bhakthi (devotion) which had simmered. just as the sea becomes calm after being turbulent. ARiya anbu is showing affection in such a way that the person does not worry about himself but only wonders as to what will happen to emperumAn. Showing affection (devotion) towards emperumAn is the svarUpam (basic nature) of AthmA; hence not showing affection towards him is equivalent to displaying enmity towards him.
tham ArvaththAl kURiya kuRRamAk koLLal – whatever the devotees said out of their affection should not be considered as fault. Those words have been spoken by your followers so that they can sustain their affection towards you (if they had not spoken those words, they would have died perhaps). AzhwAr says that even such words spoken so affectionately about emperumAn stand nowhere in comparison to the love shown by yaSOdhA.
kuRRamAK koLLal – you should not consider such words as a fault (AzhwAr says that emperumAn should forbear these words as the followers did not say them consciously and would not have sustained themselves had they not stated such words). thirumazhisai AzhwAr says in thiruchchandha viruththam 111 “seydha kuRRam naRRamAgavE koL” (you should consider the fault as a good deed). AzhwAr says that by saying that you should not consider them as fault, he is not saying that he has not committed any fault. It is just that he is praying that he should not consider them as faults. Once emperumAn says that he has forgiven his follower’s faults, the faults do not remain as faults anymore and become good deeds.
How is it possible to tell emperumAn not to consider as faults when faults have been committed?….
thERi nediyOy adi adaidhaRkanRE Iraindhu mudiyAn padaiththa muraN – the enmity that rAvaNan had towards emperumAn, over a period of time, became the reason for SiSupAlan to reach emperumAn’s divine feet! If we consider the meaning for thErI as being happy, it could be construed that AzhwAr is requesting emperumAn not to consider as faults whatever he did, out of happiness. If we consider the meaning for thERi as clarity, (after rAvaNan was reborn as SiSupAlan), in his last days when krishNa stood in front of him with his divine chakram (disc), SiSupAlan got the clarity in his mind as to who emperumAn was and wondered at the sight “how beautiful is this!” (this itself became the reason for SiSupAlan to attain liberation from materialistic realm and reach SrIvaikuNtam as he was able to envision emperumAn is his final moments).
nediyOy – AzhwAr wonders whether it is possible to estimate the greatness of emperumAn going by his affection towards those who had a little bit of affection towards him.
Iraindhu mudiyAn padaiththa muraN nediyOy adi adaidhaRku anRE – AzhwAr says “wasn’t it due to the devotion that rAvaNan had towards you (later as SiSupAlan) which made him attain your divine feet? Wasn’t it due to your mercy that he attained you? What prevents you from showering that affection towards me? Is my fault worse than his enmity? When you had treated his enmity as real affection, is there any barrier for you to consider my falsified affection as real affection towards you?”
We shall take up the 36th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa ramanuja dhAsan
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