pravESa of thiruvaaymozhi - 1.8 - "Odum puLLERi

[Guest guest]

srImathE SaTakOpAya namah

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah

srImathE vara vara munayE namah

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

adiyEn had stopped this series during anadhyayana kAlam, and

only recently got time to start this series again. I apologize

for the rather long break, and hope that our Lord allows

this small effort to continue without break this time.

 

In each thiruvAymozhi, AZhvAr enjoys a kalyANa guNa of the Lord.

In the previous thiruvAymozhi, AzhvAr enjoyed the sweetness

of the Lord (inimai-k guNam). In this thiruvAymozhi, he enjoys

and sings about a guNa of the Lord known as "Arjavam".

 

Arjavam is the tendency to be straight/upright (sanskrit - Rju,

meaning tending in a straight direction, straight, upright,

honest, sincere..). The quality of thinking, saying and doing

the same thing (as against thinking one thing, saying another

thing and doing yet another thing) is called Arjavam. The

tamizh word for this guNa is "semmai". This guNa is enjoyed

in this thiruvAymozhi.

 

Those who are caught in the cycle of birth and death (samsaris)

are such that their thoughts, sayings and actions are not the same,

but very varied and different. While moving with such people, the

Lord goes in the direction they go & (saves them!) This great

guNa of the LOrd (the quality of His moving with everyone and

taking them into service, irrespective of how varied they are

- i.e. He does not move with only a subset and take them into

servitude) is celebrated as Arjavam/semmai in this thiruvAymozhi.

 

 

thiruvAymozhi nURRandhAdhi - 8

 

Odu manam seigaiyrai onRi nillaadhaarudanE*

koodi nedumaal adimai koLLum nila * nAdaRiya

Orndhu avanRan semmai urai seidha maaRan ena*

YEindhu niRkum vaazhvaam ivai*

 

When we remind ourselves (do anusandhanam) that nammAZhvAr is

the one who understood and told everyone about the great

quality of semmai (Arjava) of the Lord by which He moves (and

takes into service) with all kinds of samsaaris who have

minds, sayings and doings that always run after things other

than the Lord and are never the same, the qualities for us

that are appropriate to the nature of our soul (bhagavad

anubhavam/servitude) will be reinforced.

 

AzhvAr clarifies the doubt that may arise - Can the Lord move

and take into service, the samsAris whose thoughts, sayings and

doings are different? AzhvAr clarifies this doubt - similar to

people who do everything to push water up a mountain, the Lord

also moves with everyone irrespective of their qualities and takes

them into service [i.e. no difference seen among people and the LOrd

goes to great lengths to maintain His quality of thinking, saying

and doing the same thing - of being the Asrita vatsalan; the

words in this bracket are not a paraphrasing of srI PBA svAmi's

words in the book, but are provided to make the meaning a bit

easier to understand on first reading]. If we think of such an

AzhvAr who showed us the great quality of the Lord, our good

qualities (vaazhchchi) will be reinforced.

 

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan

 

(Source of the material: Translation of the pravESas of the simple

version of divyArtha deepikai, found in the book "aNNa svAmiyin

amudha mozhi aayiram, 401st - 500th mozhigaL; divyArththa deepikai,

nihyanusandhaanam - simple edition, thiruvAymozhi nURRandhaadhi

portions)