AzhwAr / Kamban 's "aiyO!"

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First Union Capital Markets Corp.

 

Dear Bhakthas,

 

Both Azhwar's "kayinAr-surisanganalAzhiyar ........... seyya-vAyya-aiyO !

ennai sindhaikavarn~thathu~vE!"

and Kamban's "Veyyon Oli Than Meniyin Viri Sodhiyin Maraya .............

mazhaimugilO? aiyO! ivan azhagenaa azhiyaa azhagudaiyaan"

 

expressions of " aiyo!" in attempting to capture Sriman Naryana's

ethereal beauty in their verses, perhaps have an inherent "pain" in

them.

 

Here is my surmise :

 

Unable to do full justice to the Supreme Lord' beauty, their anguish

compounded by their inability to experience that situation further and

having to contend with whatever they came up with forces them to exclaim

"aiyo!"... in the threshold of "pain" born out of sheer helplessness.

 

Alternatively, on a different perspective, the poets in trying to

compensate for the lack of any other precise expression in the language (

other than what is available! ) but then again, not really wanting to

express the "anubhavam" within the confines of a specific word, settle

for the genereic "aiyo!" - serving to fill that void, not as an expression

per se, but meaning "indescribable" - as a means of leaving it to the

reader's own imagination to live and appreciate the scene... thus achieving

the twin objective of describing the "indescribable" and yet not limiting

it ...

 

Whichever way one looks at it, one cannot help wonder the poets' expertise

with a word not so much encouraged.

 

As regards Sri. Sudarshan's query about "pain" being a factor of "superior

consciousness", I guess the answer is

"In a way , yes!"

 

Though the experience of "superior consciousness" by itself can not be

painful, actually

the truth of not experiencing that exalted status makes it painful for

us....

And for those deserving / fortunate ones that do experience, the thought of

separation makes it painful.

 

By "superior consciousness" I understand it to mean "being with Sriman

Narayana"

 

 

Regards,

Sriram Ranganathan