Tiruvaimozi-1-6-1

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1.6.1

 

parivadhil

eesanaippaadi virivadhu mEval uRuveer

pirivagai inRi nanneer

thooy purivadhuvum pugai poovE

 

Those

who wish to worship the Lord, who has no blemish like sorrow, by singing His

praise and expand their self to its natural state, do not go away from Him.

Worship Him with water or any holy fumes and any flower.

 

parivadhil eeSanai- The Lord is heya prathyaneeka

ananthakalyanagiuna viSishtaH, possesses infinite auspicious qualities and free of

blemishes like duhkha or sorrow. The sorrow

occurs only due to samsara caused by ignorance. But the Lord is

sorrowful towards the devotees who suffer and this is not a blemish but a

virtue only. It is due to His infinite mercy which is one of His kalyanagunas.

He feels sorrowful towards His devotees for two reasons. 1. The devotees get

into trouble when they forget that He alone is their saviour and try to react,

influenced by their own impulses like anger, pride etc. 2. Even then He feels

guilty that he did not go to their rescue till they called out as in the case

of Draupadi or Gajendra. Even towards others who err or go against Him, He

feels sorry and that is why He tries to correct them through punishment like a mother

who punihes her child for wrong-doing, but nevertheless feels the sorrow for

his act which necessitated punishment.

 

Paadi

virivadhu mEval uruveer- refers to

those who desire, mEval uruveer, to attain their natural state of

bliss and worship Him by singing His praise etc. virivadhu is the expansion

of jnana which is the real state of the self. In embodiment the individual soul

experiences the contraction of jnana limited by the conditions of his

embodiment which is called dharmabhoothajnana. When he attains the Lord

becoming free from bondage the jnana reaches the full expansion.

 

pirivadhu

inRi- without leaving Him again.

Azvar had thought of leaving Him considering his own unworthiness but the Lord

would not let him go and came to him. Once the Lord has decided to come and

reside in the heart nothing can displace Him from there.

 

Nanner

thooy pugai poovE- Azvar says that

in order to worship Him one need not go into any trouble. Any flower, or holy

fumes or even water is enough to please Him. The Lord says in the Gita, pathram

pushpam phalam thoyam yo Me bhakthyaa prayacChathi thadhaham bhalkthyupahrtham

aSnaami prayathaatmanah. This means, "whatever one offers with

devotion whether it is a leaf, a flower or a fruit or even water, that I will

accept with pleasure." The same view has been expressed by the devotee-saints

like Thyagaraja and Purandaradasa.

 

Thyagaraja

said,

 

Manasunilpa

Sakthilekapothe

maDhurakanTavirulapooja

yEmi chEyunu

 

When

there is no control over the mind what is the use of doing pooja

ostentatiously?

 

Purandradasa

says that one need not follow any austerities to worship the Lord who is easy

to please.

 

Japavondhariyenu

thapavondhriyenu

upavaasanariyenedhalaiya bedaa

apaara

mahima sree purandharavttalana

upaayadhindheli

nena manavE

 

The

meaning is that there is no need to worry about not being able to do japa,

thapas or upavaasa etc. Purandara vittala is Himself the means to attain Him. So just

thinking about Him is enough. But this does not mean casual thinking like we do

of others but intense and continuous thinking of Him alone.