Tiruvayamozhi - 7

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Jai Srimannarayana!

Pasuram 1.7

dhidavisumberivali neer nilam ivai misai

padarporul muzuvadhuma:i avai avai thorum

udalmisai uyirena karandhengum parandhulan

sudarmigu suruthiyuL ivai unda surane:

 

Dhida means gross. visumbu is a:ka:Sa, eri is fire, vali means wind, neer nilam

denote water and earth respectively, thus naming the five gross elements which

are the cause of the gross universe.

 

ivai misai padar means having these as the material cause and porul is the gross

universe of all beings.

 

muzuvadhum a:i- pervading all beings in the universe and avai avai thorum

means pervading even their cause, that is the gross elements.

 

The process of creation as described in the Upanishads is as follows: Brahman or

`sath' that was one only without a second, willed to become many and created the

space, Akasa, from which came vayu, wind and from the wind came fire, tejas and

from fire water originated and lastly from water prthvee the earth came about.

 

In accordance with the theory of visishtadvaita the world , the individual soul

and Isvara, the Lord, are real. The other two being the sarira of the Lord.

Hence Azvar says dhidavisumbu, implying it is solid and real. The reason for

enumerating the elements by name is to refute the theory of naiyayaikas or the

school of logicians that the world was created only out of the paramanus,

primary atoms of the four gross elements excluding Akasa.

 

This pasura emphasizes the sarira-sariri bhava one of the key concepts of

visidshtadvaita by the sentence udal misai uyir ena, as the soul inside the

body. Karandhengum parandhulan means that He pervades all beings inside and

outside unmanifest. This implies the transcendence and imminence of the Lord. He

is unmanifest in the world as the inner self.

 

But He is manifest in the Vedas like the flame of a lamp, says azvar. Sudarmigu

suruthiyuL means He could be perceived in the Vedas which shows him like a

luminous lamp.

 

Finally azvar says that the one who has created and sustains the universe as its

inner self is the same one who absorbs them all into Himself in the end. Ivai

unda surane means that He is the same divine being who devoured them all.

 

Lord Narayana is the Brahman who creates, sustains and annihilates as per the

sruthivakya 'yahto: va: ima:ni bhootha:ni ja:yanthe: ye:na ja:tha:ni jeevanthi

yasmin abhisamvisanthi thath vijinjsasva thath brahma.' It means " know that to

be Brahman from whom all this originate, by whom they are sustained and into

whom they all enter in the end.

Jai Srimannarayana!