SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
avathArikai
When AzhwAr was asked as to how he knew emperumAn when even brahmA could not know him, he responds saying “after I held on to him by reciting his divine names, he showed himself to me; thus I knew him. I knew that life in this world is susceptible to danger and that only if I hold on to him could I extricate myself from it”
Let us go through the pAsuram and its meanings:
ayal ninRa valvinaiyai anjinEn anji
uya nin thiruvadiyE sErvAn naya ninRa
nanmAlai koNdu namO nAranA ennum
sonmAlai kaRREn thozhudhu
Word by Word Meanings
ayal ninRa – standing close (to me)
val vinaiyai – looking at the extremely powerful sins
anjinEn – I was scared
anji – being afraid (like this)
uya – to get emancipated (after ridding of the sins)
nin – your
thiruvadiyE sErvAn – in order to attain divine feet
nayam ninRa – being in the form of SAsthras (sacred texts)
nal mAlai koNdu – with beautiful garland
thozhudhu – worshipped
namO nAranA ennum – thirumanthram with eight syllables
solmAlai – garland of words
kaRRen – I practised.
vyAkyAnam
ayal ninRa valvinaiyai anjinEn – I was scared of my sins which kept troubling me, without leaving me, entering wherever I entered and constricting me (this is considering the meaning for the term ayal ninRa to be ‘nearby’). Alternative explanation – I was scared as to what would I do if the sins, which had left me on my gaining knowledge about emperumAn, would come back (this is considering the meaning for the term ayal ninRa to be ‘at a distance’).
anji uya nin thiruadiyE sErvAn – being scared and in order to get emancipated from those sins, I recited your divine names in order to attain your divine feet, which will not give any place for fear. It is not that I was capable of reciting your divine names. Due to fear and incapacity, in order to sustain myself I recited something.
nayam ninRa – being very simple to recite. Alternatively, being an explanation for thirumanthram (the eight syllable phrase based on the name nArAyaNa).
namO nArANA ennum sol mAlai kaRREn – I learnt about thirumanthram which reveals about him from this prabandham (mudhal thiruvandhAdhi, a collection of divine verses) which is an explanation for thirumanthram (at the beginning of this prabandham, AzhwAr had mercifully used the term “sol mAlai sUttinEn” (I adorned him with a garland of verses) in the very first pAsuram. Hence in the verse “sol mAlai kaRREn” he says that he spoke about this prabandham).
son mAlai kaRREn thozhudhu – I learnt about the garland of verses, and appropriate to that, I also worshipped him in line with the meaning of the verse.
We shall take up the 58th pAsuram next.
adiyEn krishNa ramanuja dhAsan
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