SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavara munayE nama:
avathArikai (Introduction)
emperumAn tells AzhwAr “For me to shower my distinguished glance at you, you should have something in you. Could you compel me to give it myself?” AzhwAr responds in this pAsuram “If I need to have something in me, you should mercifully ensure that I stay away from evil disposition and worldly pursuits due to desire in the parama purushArtham (ultimate benefit) of kainkaryam and using that kainkaryam as the support, you should mercifully remove me from the great sorrow of samsAram”
maRandhuRandhu vanjamARRi aimbulangaLAsaiyum
thuRandhu ninkaN AsaiyE thodarndhu ninRu nAyinEn
piRandhiRandhu pEridarch chuzhikaNinRu nIngumA
maRandhidAdhu maRRenakku mAya nalga vENdumE
Word-by-Word Meanings
mAya – Oh, one who has amazing power!
maRam – anger
thuRandhu – getting rid of
vanjam – deceit
mARRi – avoiding
aim pulangaL – five sensory organs’
Asaiyum – attachment (towards other matters)
thuRandhu – getting rid of
ninkaN – in matters related to you
AsaiyE – only devotion
thodarndhu – desiring
ninRa nAyinEn – this servitor, who is remaining
piRandhu iRandhu – the events of birth and death
pEridarch chuzhikkaNinRum – from the vicious cycle of
nIngumA – the way to get out of
maRRu – and kainkaryam (servitude)
maRandhidAdhu – without forgetting (me)
enakku – to me (who is incapable)
nalga vENdum – you should mercifully shower
Simple Translation
Oh, one who has amazing power! You should mercifully grant me, who is your servitor, kainkaryam (servitude) so that I could get rid of anger, avoid deception, get rid of attachments to other matters, have the desire only for devotion in matters related to you and get out of the vicious cycle of births and deaths.
vyAkyAnam (Commentary)
maRam thuRandhu – maRam refers to anger. Its boundary is the inability to tolerate others’ eminence and thinking of harming others; getting rid of this anger.
vanjam mARRi – giving up deceit; vanjam – falsehood. Putting on a façade of being favourable, while behaving unfavourably (like an enemy)
aim pulangaL Asaiyum thuRandhu – getting rid of attachment of the five sensory organs towards worldly matters. AzhwAr had said in the 90th pAsuram “pulangaLaindhum venRilEn poRiyilEn“, being caught up with matters such as Sabdham (sound) etc. In this pAsuram, he says that he gave up attachment towards other matters, which is the reason for anger and deceit, with the mercy of emperumAn. For those who have developed a taste towards kainkaryam, which is the ultimate benefit, wouldn’t attachment towards other matters happen on their own?
ninkaN AsaiyE thodarndhu ninRa – having desire only in matters related to you. The word thodarndha refers to relationship, viz. the desire to have love towards emperumAn always.
nAyinEn – apart from getting out of the state of being unfavourable towards emperumAn and having desire in the ultimate benefit [of servitude], I have no means within myself and am lowly, like a dog. I am also one who cannot take refuge under anyone else.
piRandhu iRandhu pEridarch chuzhikkaN nIngumA – getting out of the vicious cycle of repeated births and deaths. The term piRandhu is symbolic of the six different states of life namely (1) being born (2) being destroyed (3) changing (4) growing (5) reducing (6) remaining as it is. The term iRandhu is symbolic of going to narakam (hell) and other places.
maRandhidAdhu maRRenakku mAya nalga vENdumE – thinking of the hardship that I had undergone in this samsAram, my earlier bad conduct and your quality of having total independence, you should not forget me thinking “Let this person of poor conduct, who has been suffering in samsAram since time immemorial, suffer for some more time”. You should mercifully grant me the ultimate benefit of kainkaryam looking at my desire for it, looking at the relationship between you and me, removing the sins which are hurdles and which I cannot get rid of on my own. Through the term maRRu, AzhwAr refers to the ultimate benefit of kainkaryam, which is attained after the hurdles of sins have been removed. The term mAyA refers to emperumAn’s amazing power of severing the vicious cycle of samsAram with alternating births and deaths, just as it has been mentioned in bhagavadh gIthA 7-14 “dhaivI hyEshA guNamayI mama mAyA dhurathyayA l mAmEva yE prapadhyanthE mAyAm EthAm tharanthi thE ll” (This mAyai [prakruthi, the primodial matter], which has been created by me, the lord and which has three guNas [of sathva, rajas and thamas, viz. noble, passion and ignorance respectively) is difficult to cross over. Those who surrender to me, will be able to cross over this).
Next, we will take up the 99th pAsuram of this prabandham.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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