Mystery of The Mistaken Identity -summary 3 -concluded

December 22, 2008

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IGNORANCE IS BLISS

Our faith rests on the premises of knowledge and devotion. The ripening of knowledge into devotion is the zenith- AzvArs have reached this great point -gnAnam kanindha nalam-à®žà®¾à®©à®®à¯ à®•à®©à®¿à®¨à¯à®¤ à®¨à®²à®®à¯

The AzvAr-s who are blessed with full of knowledge bereft of forgetfulness by The Lord Himself, indulge in some weird acts not behoving this status.

SvAmi PiLLai LokAchAryAr analaysis these actions and explains these.

Instances of AzvArs engaging emissaries (dhUthu vidal) or looking up at other deities to reach Him or publicise in palm leaf with pictorial representation the betrayal of EmperumAn (maDal OOrdhal) are a few of these.

Having very well known that it is His look out to come for their refuge and also preaching so, AzvAr-s however have entangled themselves in such indulgences.

Sri PiLLai lOkachArar categorises the agjnAnam/ignorance into two. Those which occur due to ones sheer ignorance and those whcih occur due to overpowering of devotion over knowledge.

(bakthi pAravasyam).

In fact he goes a step ahead and proclaims that

'gnAna vibAgamanA kAryamAna agjnAnathAlEa varum avai ellAm adikkazhanju perum'

Srivachana bHushaNam -91.

The strange acts emanating out of extreme devotion resulting in acts of ignorance, unlike acts of sheer ignorance, are extremely valuable and priceless.

Drawing the same analogy, we can say that EmperumAnar falling at the feet while chanting the 18th pAsuram of TiruppAvai or Sri Periya Nambi recalling His spiritual guide Sri ALavandhAr or veNdar/sundars falling at jain temple and so on and so forth all spring from the extreme devotion or immense knowledge ripening into devotion

If we go by normal earthly standards these may appear like acts of ignorance or forgetfulness. However, measuring these with the highest benchmark, these are but acts of

extreme devoiton and invaluable and priceless.

and therefore adikkazhanju perum.

dasan

vanamamalai padmanabhan