Part 8:"There is Salvation in numbers"- The Theme of 'satsangh' in TiruppAvai

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Dear friends,

 

(8) "dEvAdi devanai senru nAm sEvitthAl "ah, ah" enru

aaraaindhu arUL.."

 

"If we approach Him en mass we shall delight the

'God-of-gods' with our worship" -- is the literal

translation of the expression "dEvAdi devanai senru

nAm sEvitthAl…"

 

A moment of deep reflection upon this phrase

transports us at once into contemplation upon the

supreme Bliss of Heaven the Vedic 'sruti' speaks

about. It is the Bliss of Pure Grace -- known as

"arUL" -- that is known to descend upon worshippers of

a 'satsangh'. (AndAl ends her song in fact with the

promise of precisely this "arUL" for all lovers of the

TiruppAvai ---"engUm tiruv-arUL petru inburu-var…").

This is the Bliss of God Himself. It is limitless and

immeasurable Joy called "brahmAnandam".

 

The phrase "dEvAdi devan" and "ah, ah" are both

extremely significant in this verse as they are

reminiscent of the great message of the Taittiriya

Upanishad contained in the famous sections known

"Ananda-valli" and "brghu-valli".

 

The "ah, ah" is exclamation of ineffable joy… the Joy

"that passeth understanding". The nearest anyone can

come to measuring or explaining the experience of

God's Joy is simply to exclaim "ah, ah". The Joy of

Brahman is of such nature that no mortal words can

convey or depict it. The Upanishad -- in two

magnificent sections called the "Anandavalli" and

"brghu-valli" -- however set out to try and

objectively measure the delight of God, the Supreme

Brahman. It eventually admitted failure.

 

The "anandavalli" attempted measuring the Bliss of God

mathematically on a graded scale of "Ananda". Firstly,

it took the highest bliss on earth a man could

possibly experience and designated it as "one unit of

Joy". It then went on to extrapolate the joy of beings

higher than Man i.e. the lesser gods or "dEvas". It

did so by progressively raising Man's "unit of joy",

step-by-step, to the next higher power using a factor

of 100. The bliss of the god known as "gandharva" was

said to be 100 times that of Man. The "ananda" of a

"dEva" was 100 times that of a "gandharva".

"Brhaspati's" joy was 100 times greater than that of

any other "dEva" and "prajapati'sananda" was 100

times more than that of "brhaspati"… And so on and so

forth, until finally, through a calculus of values,

the Upanishad arrived at what it called a very rough

estimate of "one unit of the Bliss of Brahman" -- the

"devAdi dEvan" i.e. the God who is the God of all

gods. This "unit of Bliss" of the "dEvAdi-dEvan" was

conceived as being many million-fold that of Man's

unit of Joy!

 

Next, the "brghu-valli" passage in the Upanishad asked

itself the question, "How may such 'Ananda' of

Brahman, God-of-gods or "dEvadi-dEvan", be described?"

The Upanishad became speechless with awe and ecstasy

and could say little more than this:

 

"Ha…ooh-aah! Ooh-hA, ooh!"

 

AndAl, our gret poetess of SriVilliputthur, gleefully

drew from the Upanishad's own inspiration above and

promptly used it all in the TiruppAvai through the

delightful poetic expression "dEvAdi devanai senru nAm

sEvitthAl, "ah, ah" enru aaraaindhu arUL.."!

 

********

 

God's "arUL" is the reward for Man's labour of love

(i.e. "sEvitthal"). But the reward carries a

condition… one that is subtly conveyed through the

phrase "nAm sEvitthAl". Like the proverbial "legal

fine print", this is a crucial term quite often easily

glossed over or overlooked. It is a condition of the

"If-and-only-if" variety and its implication is that

expressions of love for God, and petitions for His

Grace, if they are to truly arouse God's Delight or

"brahmAnanda" within our souls, they are better

represented collectively… i.e. through "satsangh"

rather than through individual plea.

***********

(to be continued)

 

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

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