periyAzhwAr thirumozhi – 1.8 – ponniyal kiNkiNi

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SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Sri varavaramunayE nama:

periyAzhwAr thirumozhi >> First Centum 

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In the earlier thirumozhi [divine verses], yaSOdhAp pirAtti had enjoyed the flavour of krishNa’s activity, as a child, of taking tender steps, during his time of incarnation, in line with her desire. AzhwAr too, though coming much later in time, being endowed with knowledge and devotion, without any trace of ignorance, by emperumAn’s mercy, enjoyed that flavour as if he had seen it during the same time. Now, in line with his [krishNa’s] quality as a child, yaSOdhAp pirAtti desires to enjoy his activity of running and embracing her. AzhwAr too enjoys the same flavour which she had enjoyed, when krishNa had embraced, and becomes blissful. Desiring that he should come and embrace [referred to in the verses as achchO] and enjoying the flavour of that activity are the only two features where AzhwAr has equality with yaSOdhAp pirAtti. Since he has been endowed with knowledge and devotion without any shortcoming and since he has seen emperumAn’s states of parathvam etc [his dwelling in parama padham as para vAsudhEvan, his dwelling in kshIrAbdhi (milky ocean) as vyUha vAsudhEvan etc], due to dharmyaikyam (commonality among various incarnations of emperumAn), he enjoys emperumAn’s activities in the other incarnations as well as his activities in the later part of this incarnation [krishNa], praising him and enjoying his child-like activities. In these features, he is distinct from yaSOdhAp pirAtti.

thiruvAimozhip piLLai says, in his svApadhESam, that in the previous thirumozhi, AzhwAr had said that for a person, who takes refuge under his [AzhwAr’s] affection, and conducts himself in line with what he had mentioned in his verses, both features of anukUla prIthi (happiness from good tidings) and prathikUla nirasanam (destruction of inimical features) would result. Destruction of inimical features could be either thEjOvadham (removal of radiance, viz. removing a quality which is threatening) or prANavadham (destruction of the entity itself). In the real sense, prathikUlam for a person is his body, his senses and his ego. thEjOvadham of body and senses is to make the person to follow the conduct of one’s varNa [brAhmaNa, kshathriya etc] and Asrama [bachelor, married person etc] and to control in that manner. What is destruction of senses? This will be like embAr (cousin of rAmAnujar) [after embAr had got married, he did not consummate his marriage since he was deeply engrossed with bhagavath anubhavam (enjoying emperumAn’s auspicious qualities). He had destroyed his senses in enjoying the enjoyments in samsAram and utilised them only for enjoying emperumAn’s auspicious qualities]. One would become one’s own enemy when one follows worldly enjoyment, forgetting emperumAn. Instead of accepting that he is bound by his karma (past deeds), time (not the right time to engage in an activity), dhESam (not the right place to engage in an activity) or indhriyam (due to lapse in control of senses), the person [with ego] says “I did it”. Now, in this thirumozhi, AzhwAr, through the pretext of achchO (yaSOdhAp pirAtti and AzhwAr desiring that krishNa, as a child, should come running and embrace), says that only through qualities of AthmA such as ayOga vyavachchEdham (accepting that there is a connection with emperumAn) and apradhishEdham (not repelling, viz. accepting emperumAn when he comes to protect) etc could one attain emperumAn.

We shall next consider the 1st pAsuram of this thirumozhi.

adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan

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