tri-mUrti in tiruvAimozhi – Part 21.

[Guest guest]

tri-mUrti in tiruvAimozhi – Part 21.

 

4.8.1 (30):

 

ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSai muganum, tirumagaLum

kURu ALum tani uDamban, kulam kulamA asurargaLai

neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa

mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE.

 

In this pASuram, AzhvAr refers to the beauty of bhagavAn's tirumEni,

His sauSIlyam, His vIryam, His ability to accomplish whatever He

wants by His mere sa'nkalpam, etc. Above all, AzhvAr points out that

anything that cannot become useful in the kainkaryam of bhagavAn is a

waste as far as he is concerned, no matter how attractive it may seem

in the eyes of the rest of the world. He is singing this

tiruvAimozhi in the nAyaki bhAvam.

 

mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE – AzhvAr assumes the role of

bhagavAn's nAyaki, and declares that she has no use for the beautiful

complexion of her body if it does not attract emperumAn.

 

Who is this emperumAn that he is referring to?

 

ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSaimuganum, tirumagaLum kURu ALum tani uDamban –

The One Who has the beautiful tirumEni that is shared between the

deity who has the bull as his vehicle, by the four-faced brahmA, and

by Goddess mahAlakshmi.

 

Kulam kulamA aSurargaLai neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa

mARALan – He is also the One who made the decision through His mere

Will that the wicked asura-s who were enemies of His devotees will be

destroyed without trace, by numbers upon numbers.

 

kuRai ilamE – I do not care for

maNimAmai – my beautiful complexion

mARALan kavarAda – if it does not attract the Supreme Lord

tani uDamban - who has the uniquely beautiful tirumEni; a-dvitIya

vigrahattai uDaiyavan.

kURu ALum – different parts of which are occupied by

ERu ALum iRaiyOnum – The deity who has the bull as his vehicle (a

reference to Siva)

tiSai muganum – The one who has faces in the four directions (a

reference to the four-faced brahmA)

tirumagaLum – and by Mother MahAlakshmi

paDai toTTa – and He Who destroyed with His weapons

kulam kulamA – by generations upon generations

aSurargaLai – the demons

neeRu Agum paDiyaga niyamittu – after deciding that they will be

destroyed without trace.

 

AzhvAr refers to Sivan as the one who has the bull as his vehicle, to

contrast him with bhagavAn who has garuDa, the personification of the

veda-s, as His vehicle. The fact that emperumAn has accommodated

Siva and brahmA in His body at the same level as He has accorded to

His Divine Consort, SrI mahAlakshmi, shows His sauSIlyam or His

willingness to treat all at equal level.

 

nirumittu – sankalpittu: emperumAn is also One Who could have

destroyed the asura-s, who were enemies of His devotees, through a

minute fraction of His Infinite Will power. But instead of

destroying them thus with His Will power alone, bhagavAn chooses to

use His weapons to kill them. He would have destroyed them through

His Will power alone if they were showing enmity only towards Him;

but instead, they were showing enmity towards His devotees, and this

is something that He could not tolerate. So He became angry, and

used His weapons to destroy them. Through his choice of words,

AzhvAr shows that bhagavAn will not tolerate any offense to His

devotees – He will not tolerate bhAgavata apacAram.

 

kulam kulamA asurargaLai nIrAgum paDiyAga nirumittu paDai toTTa –

refers to His veeryam - one His six primary guna-s.

 

mARu ALan – He Who considers the enemies of His devotees as His own

enemies; He Who literally exchanges His position with that of the

devotee, and destroys their enemies. Note Lord kRshNa's refusal to

eat in duryodhana's place, just because the later was an enemy of the

pANDava-s; in other words, He considered the enemy of the pANDava-s

as His own enemy –

 

dvishad-annam no bhoktavyam dvishantam naiva bhojayet |

pANDavAn dvishase rAjan mama prANA hi pANDavAH ||

 

The spirit expressed in this pASuram by AzhvAr in his nAyikA bhAvam,

is the same that is expressed by sItA pirATTi in SrImad rAmAyaNam:

 

na hi me jIvitenArthaH, naivArthair-na ca bhUshaNaiH |

vasantI rAkshasI madhye vinA rAmam mahA ratham ||

 

"For me, living in the midst of these rAkshasi-s, without the great

warrior rAma by my side, neither life itself, nor any of the other

materials around me or the ornaments etc., are of any meaning" (I do

not care for any of these in the absence of my Lord rAma)".

 

It is also the same spirit that is conveyed by ALavandAr in his

stotra ratnam:

 

na deham na prANAn na ca sukham aSeshAbhilAshitam

na cAtmAnam nAnyat kimapi tava Seshatva vibhavAt |

bahirbhUtam nAtha! kshaNamapi sahe yAtu satatA

vinASam tat satyam madhumatana! vij~nApanam idam ||

 

"O madhusUdana! Please listen to this declaration that I make in

front of mahAlakshmi: This body that is useful for observing all the

dharma-s, the prANa-s that support this body, the pleasures that all

beings like, the soul that supports all these, the children and the

relatives – all of these are of use to me only if they help me in

serving You. If they are not of use for this, then they are of no

use for me. They can all disappear without a trace for me. This is

not something that I say for the sake of saying. If this be a false

statement, then I should suffer the same fate that the demon by name

madhu suffered at Your hands".

 

ANDAL reflects the same sentiment when She declares: "koLLum payan

onRu illAda ko'ngai tannai kizha'ngODum aLLip parittiTTu avan mArbil

eRindu en azhalait tIrvEnE".

 

AzhvAr has already referred to the sauSIlyam of emperumAn in

accommodating rudra and brahmA in His body, in the two pASuram-s we

have covered earlier:

 

valattanan tirupuram erittavan (1.3.9)

ERanaip pUvanaip pU-magaL tannai (2.2.3)

 

It has been explained there that He is accommodating them in His body

for their protection, in addition to reflecting His sauSIlyam.

 

Note that in this pASuram, bhavAn's guNa of vIrya as well as sauSIlya

are sung. SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan points out that this is

analogous to vAlmIki rAmayaNam, where vAlmIki asks nArada to identify

that person who has sixteen important guNa-s, the first two

being `guNa' (meaning saiSIlya guNa), and `vIrya' – guNavAn kaSca

vIryavAn (bAla. 1.2)

 

This tiruvAimozhi teaches us that anything that will not be of

interest to emperumAn should be given up by the bhakta.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

(To be continued)