aDiyEn.

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While the literal meaning of aDiyEn is "a servant of yours", as SrI

MaNi has pointed out, the spirit in which I understand its usage is

that it means "aDiyArkku aDiyan", dAsa dAso'ham", etc. In other words,

when we offer ourselves as "aDiyEn" to another person, we recognize and

accept that this other person is dear to bhagavAn through his/her

kaimkaryam, and thus he/she is worthy of our worship, respect,

humility. In our sampradAyam, bhagavAn Himself will become the

"servant" of His devotees (aDiyArkku meyyan, dAsa satyan, etc.). I am

reminded of the story of how Lord ve'nkaTeSvara ended up with the

paccaikkaRpUram in His chin (it represents the dust that has the

association with the feet of His devotee, anantAzhvAn), how Lord kRshNa

asked for and accepted the dust that was associated with the gopikAs'

feet, etc. I am sure SrI MAdhavakkaNNan can come up with innumerable

instances where our AzhvArs have repeatedly emphasized the importance

of our serving the devotees of bhagavAn even more than our serving

bhagavAn Himself. We have also come across instances of how bhagavAn

Himself respects His devotee - in the case of bhIshma, He broke His vow

not to take arms in the war just to keep BhIshma's promise true, and He

became a mere charioteer for arjuna just in order to serve him and

protect him. Many more instances of this kind have been referred to by

svAmi deSikan in many places, which I will summarize in the future. If

bhagavAn Himself respects His aDiyAr, then there is no question that we

are the aDiyAr's of the aDiyAr's of the aDiyAr's of these aDiyArs to

several generations.

 

Of course, SrI MaNi and SrI MAdhavakkakNNan are both right that this is

not what is meant in many instances. We very frequently use it in our

list when we really mean exactly the opposite, especially when we

disagree with someone and want to tell them what "aDiyEn" thinks and

knows to be the correct view, and how misinformed, illiterate, etc. the

other person's view is when compared to "aDiyEn's" view.

 

-dAsan (and aDiyEn means it with full humility and respect and with the

realization that all the others in the list are worthy of aDiyEns'

respect because of their superior and dedicated kaimkaryam to Him

compared to aDiyEn)

_______

 

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