thiruppavai day twenty eight song twenty eight

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TIRUPPAVAI - DAY TWENTYEIGHT- SONG TWENTYEIGHT

 

Transliteration

 

kaRavaikaL pin cenRu kAnam cErnthu unpOm

aRivonRum illAtha Aykkulaththu unthannaip

piRavip peRunthanai punniyam yAmutaiyOm

kuRaiyvonRumillAtha kOvintha unthannOtu

uRavEl namakku inku oLikka oLiyAthu

aRiyAtha piLLaikLOm anpinAl unthannaic

ciRu pEr aLaiththanavum cIri arulAthE

iRaivA nI thArAy paRaiyElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

Tending the cattle, we make our living.

Blessed indeed are we to have You born

In the innocent clan of the herdsmen.

Kovinta, You lack nothing!

Our binding with You is interminable.

Frown not at our innocent love,

That associates You with various names.

O God, grant us our prayers.

 

The twenty-eighth song of Tiruppavai can very well be said to abstract human

qualities, the association of the human with the Divine and the right sort

of attitude to be maintained by the human.

 

God is addressed, ‘kuraivonrumillata Kovinta’ – Kovinta who lacks nothing.

God does not lack anything even if the soul fails to realise its association

with the Divine. God, in and by Himself is complete and perfect. The human

also has a speciality about it – untannotu uravel namakku inku olikka

oliyatu – its association with the Divine is interminable.

 

Thus dissociation or ignorance or willful neglect on the part of the human

or any such exercise cannot undo its association with God.

 

The maids belong to a clan whose business is to tend the cattle and make a

living of it. Lost in the business of making a living, they may remain

unaware of their association with the Divine. They may be simpletons of the

herdsmen clan with no particular knowledge to their credit. It is a great

blessing indeed for such to have God born in their midst.

 

In their innocence and ignorance, they may fail to comprehend the

transcendental grace of God and may identify Him with names and deeds

associated with the manifest form of God amidst them. The prayer to God is

that such limitations on their part are ignored and God’s grace showered on

them.

 

Traditional interpretation identifies in this song a certain stipulation

about human exertion for achieving salvation. The songs so far reiterated

the prayer for redemption through the grace of God. Though God’s grace in

itself is an assurance for redemption, is it not to be matched with human

exertion towards redemption? In the light of such a question alone can this

song be properly understood.

 

The answer to the question remains in the affirmative. But it is not in

terms of any particular accomplishment or even renunciation. Human exertion

towards redemption is more a matter of attitude than a matter of action. It

is the attitude of awareness of the limitations of the human. The very

business of making a living is by nature such that it is a distraction away

from the self and the association of the self with the Divine. Therefore the

first line of the song - karavaikal pin cenru kanam cerntu unpom – we tend

the cattle to make a living.

 

The very birth into bodily existence means ignorance. And it is great on the

part of God to have been condescendingly gracious to place Himself in the

human context in the form of His manifestation.

 

Therefore the second and third lines of the song – Arivonrumillata

aykkulattu untannaip Piravip peruntanai punniyam yamutaiyom.

 

God is man’s need, no doubt. But is man God’s need? This question seems to

be answered in the negative when God is addressed ‘kuraivonrumillata kovinta

’ – Kovinta who lacks nothing.

 

Association of the soul with the Divine has a certain inevitability about

it. It cannot be terminated by distraction into the worldly or ignorance.

Therefore ‘untannotu uraval namakku inku olikka oliyatu’ – our binding is

interminable.

 

Insofar as even the greatest knowledge of man is not great enough to

comprehend the Divine, even the greatest attribute of God ascribed by the

human is but insufficient to comprehend the Divine and therefore the Divine

remains for ever a Transcendental Reality. Despite such circumscription, the

grace of God is to be extended to the maids in the form of fulfillment of

their prayers.

 

All put together, man is distracted into the worldly; is ignorant; is

blessed with God’s presence. His association with the Divine is

interminable. He is not endowed with enough wit to comprehend the Divine.

Such being man, however does he exert himself, he cannot work out his

redemption by himself. Therefore the only way to redemption lies in total

surrender to God with an attitude of awareness of limitations and

inadequacies characteristic of embodied existence.