On "Servitude"

[Guest guest]

Dear members of the' Bhakti Archives',

Let me be permitted to a short preamble as to how 'service' &

'servitude' differ.Service, as we all know can be of any kind,like- any

body can serve any body (render it free,get paid) & the noun

clause'service charge' shows it's ambiguous nature.But Servitude is the

condition of being forced to work for somebody &having no freedom.The

purport of Servitude has come to bear on our Bhakti cult an irrevocable

stamp because of it's practitioners.These practitioners served God only&

their Servitude brought in it's trail the bunch of words-

dhaasan,thondan,adimai,vassal.

There are three stages in this Lord- Servant relationship.In the first

stage we see these dhaasans have realized the emptiness of all material

pursuits&they extol the Lord, plead to the Lord,propitiate the Lord for

they have come to Him for redemption.

The second stage is where these 'thondars' are thankful to the Lord for

having accepted them & He becomes the mitran,friend,guide,soul &Spirit

of all their wellbeing.

In the third stage comes the twist to the whole concept of Servitude&

every thing goes topsy turvy.Now that the Lord has come to be enthroned

in their hearts we'll see the extent to which they'll stretch God

Himself.Thirumazhisai AzhvAr has to be quoted first,

"kanikannan pOhiraan-------NEyum undhan painnaagapAyai surutti koL"(move

it, my disciple is leaving,so I am leaving,&hence You too).After some

time the scene changes & Azhvaar will beseech the Lord,

"kanikannan pOKozhindAn------NEyum undhan painnaagap pAi paduthu koL"(my

disciple is back,so am I&now back to the couch).

These Dhaasans will tie the 'talisman' of Love or Bhakti on to the

Lord,take Him to a precipice & will challenge Him 'accept or face the

consequences'.Purandara daasar who is some what meek erupts into a

rhetoric rapture,

'maanaabhi maanamu ninaghidE enaghillA' &proceeds to say

'ajAmilanu annanO vibheeshananu thmmanO---avarilla idharEnO

naan ninakE anyanO(if you are likea brother to Ajaa milan ,Vibheeshanan

what can be our relationship-let that be anything).But don't throw a

slur on your reputation for-'neenE paradeshi naanE swadheshi'

Thirumangai mannan will set this ball rolling &will daringly say'sangam

onrEndhiya kanna-ninranakkum kurippAgil karkalaam viyan porul

thAnE.(I've been singing Your praise in multitudes of verses & You can

make an effort atleast to decipher them).Another such utterance is 'naan

unnai anri ilEn---nee ennaianri illai'

One of the greatest contemporary tamil poets, while building on this

line of thought, shocks us by declaring 'Kannan En SEvagan'(kannan is my

servant).Even Yashodaa didn't spare Him'urallil katti,vaai pothi, kenja

vaithu' so on & so forth.

To make this picturesque- we all know how the value of X increases in

X^2,X^4,X^5.Let us assign infinite value to X(this is just an

analogy).If X represents the Dhaasans,thondars,&adimai-infinite will be

their value as God Himself has assigned so.(let me do it the way we

read) If X will mean thondar or infinite value,what can thondar raised

to the power of adi podi,further raised to the power of Azhvaar mean-a

real dynamite.Similarly when Purandaradaasar says'ninnE daasara

daasanthE'it will be DAsan raised to the power of Your daasan further

raised to the power of daasara daasan.All these are really

explosive.Pitted against these threats how can the Lord pacify them.God

has already accepted this clan, given them the Divine Assuarance & what

else can He give-even Dwaarakaa is lost to a handfull of 'puffed

rice'-Oh,for the plummeting plight of the Lord.

Well,all is not lost yet.Swami Desikan will embellish the Lord in His

didactic words,

'umadhadigal adaighinrEn enru orukaal uraithavarai'-

'thamadhanaithum vazhanghiyum THAM MIGA VILANGUM'-to those who surrender

at His FEET, just once He will give what all He has &by giving so will

He shine in His crowning glory.So 'On Servitude' is a cotemplation on

how 'Affable' the Lord God is.However seething the crucible may be He is

out of these as the'Bhaktha jhana priya- Pankaja lOchanan'.

With highest regards,

Subadra Vasudevan.