thiruppavai day twenty nine song twenty nine

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TIRUPPAVAI - DAY TWENTY NINE – SONG TWENTY NINE

 

Transliteration

 

ciRRam ciRukAlE venthu unnaic cEviththu un

poRRAmarai atiyE pORRum porul kElAy

peRRam mEyththunnum kulaththil piRanthu nI

kuRREval kollAmal pOkAthu

iRRaip paRai kolvAn anRu kAn kovintha

eRRaikkum ELEL piRavikkum unthannOtu

uRROmE AvOm unakkE nAm AtceyvOm

maRRai nam kAmankAL mARRElOr empAvAy.

 

 

Translation

 

We access You during the small hours.

In obeisance, we praise Your golden feet.

The proceeds – Our services to You,

Born of the herdsmen clan,

Not to be disallowed.

Not the day’s gift of the pavai,

But several seven births of affinity with You;

Services unto you for ever and ever.

Free us from the fetters of desires-otherwise.

 

The twenty-ninth song clinches the whole series of the Tiruppavai. The real

business of the pavai observance is explicitly acknowledged only here.

The prayer so far had been for ‘parai’ – the prize or the gift or the

bestowal. Such prize or gift or bestowal, in conventional interpretation,

consists of rains as the cause of abundance and the right man to be married

to.

In fact, to consider the pavai observance as prayer for rains in itself is

an anachronism since the monsoon is over by November and December/January

are months of winter followed by the harvest season marked by the Pongal

celebrations. Thus pavai observance can be taken for a prayer for assurance

of abundance. Such social prayer matches with the personal prayer for the

right husband too insofar as harvest and marriage are indicative of

fruition.

 

Tiruppavai, as the adjectival prefix indicates, prays for something more

sanctified – abundance of God’s grace in the place of rains and union with

God in the place of marriage.

 

The first song expressed assurance of parai – narayanane namakke parai

taruvan.

The second song mentioned the purpose of the pavai – uyyumaru – the means

for redemption.

The third song mentioned optimum rainfall, abundance and wealth.

The fourth song was a prayer for rains which in effect was a prayer for the

showers of God’s grace.

The fifth song spoke of negation of the effect of past karma through

devotion.

>From the sixth to the fifteenth song, we came across the maids gathering all

together for the pavai observance. If the maids are to be associated with

the uninitiated devotees, the maid yet to join them is to be taken for the

initiated one who can thus lead the others through the pavai observance.

This is better revealed as the maid to join the others is associated with

the Alwars in the traditional interpretation.

The seventeenth song marked gaining admittance into the abode of God.

The seven songs from 17 to 23 marked the stages through which the maids get

acknowledged by God who grants them His audience as indicated in the

twenty-fourth song.

The five songs 24-28 mention ‘parai’:

24: parai kolvan vantom – we came to receive your gift.

25: parai tarutiyel – if you extend your gift.

 

26: ventuvana…calapperumparaiye – what is prayed for … your noble and great

gift.

27: patipparai kontu – sing and receive gift

28: taray parai – give us the gift.

 

There is a shift in the twenty-ninth song – obviously the gift has been

extended – ‘irraip parai kolvan’. The maids pray for a greater gift – to be

related to God in several seven births and to remain His devout servants for

ever and ever.

 

The last line of the song sums up the significance of the whole series –

marrai nam kamankal marrelor empavay – Free us from desires-otherwise.

 

The twenty-ninth song, as has already been said, clinches the series as a

whole. Religious literature in general is three-fold.

Literature of Praise : God is praised in terms of Divine attributes.

Literature of Prayer : God is implored to extend His grace to the devotees

granting them their prayers.

Literature of Renunciation : Finding this life too much to be lived through,

or in the interest of realising the true nature of the self as alien to this

life, renunciation is advocated in such literature.

 

There is the fourth and unique religious literature namely the literature of

sanctification. This is a very positive literature unlike that of

renunciation. This is a very selfless literature unlike that of prayer. This

is the intimate literature in terms of attributes of God in that it goes

beyond philosophising on the attributes of God and makes God the most

intimate presence.

 

The fourth literature finds a personal communion with God to be the ultimate

objective of spiritual cultivation. Advocating the renunciation of nothing,

it looks for transvaluation of everything – therefore the word ‘marrelor’ in

the last line of the twenty-ninth song – ‘change’ meaning ‘transvalue all

our desires as oriented towards You.