Thiruvaimozi-1.5.6

[Guest guest]

1.6.8

 

kazimin thondeergaL kazitthythozumin avanai, thozudhaal

 

vazininRa valvinaimaaLvithu, azivinRi aakkam tharumE

 

Give up all worldly attachments , Oh Devotees, and worship only the Lord. He will remove all sins that impede the attainment of immortality and bestow mukthi if you surrender to Him.

 

One should have the desire to serve the Lord with a sense of belonging to Him, seshathva. This necessitates giving up all other attachments and live as an instrument of the Lord. Then all actions become His service, because there is no other desire except to attain His feet. The doubt whether the karma which has to be exhausted will obstruct the path of salvation is answered by this pasuram where Azvar says that if you resort to Him in the spirit of surrender, He Himself will remove the sins that occur as a result of karma and grant salvation.

 

1.6.9

 

tharumavarum payanaaya thirumagaLaar thanikkELvan

 

perumaiyudiyapiraanaar irumaivinai kadivaarE

 

 

The one who has Lakshmi as His supreme consort, who gives the highest fruit of salvation and who removes the karma both good and bad, is the supreme benevolent supreme Lord.

 

As made out in the previous verse, the Lord removes the sins due to bad karma and secures mukthi for those who resort to Him as their only saviour. But here Azvar says that He removes not only the sin but also the merit due to good karma because it is as much an impediment to mukthi as the sin since it also results in rebirth in order to enjoy the fruit of the good karma. Irumaivinai means both good karma and bad.Vedanta Desika says in his varadharaja panchaSath that puNya is like golden fetters while papa is like iron fetters which makes no difference since both are binding.

 

He is thus exalted being supremely benevolent, perumai udaia piraan, because He is the unparalleled Lord of Lakshmi who is instrumental in making Him benevolent because She is the divine mother who is always full of mercy towards all beings and influences the Lord to show mercy. `Lakshmyaa saha hrsheekeSaH dhevyaa kaaruNya roopayaa rakshakaH,' ( pancharathra) The Lord becomes rakshaka , protector only because He is with Lakshmi who is the embodiment of mercy.

 

1.6.10

 

kadivaar theeya vinaigaL nodiyaarum aLavaikkaN

 

kodiyaavadupuLLuyarttha vadivaar maadhavanaarE

 

The Lord who destroys the bad karma within a second and who hoists up Garuda as His flag, is the Lord of Lakshmi.

After saying that the Lord removes the sins of His devotees Azvar now says that He does it in no time, that is in less than a second. He is MaDhava, the Lord of Lakshmi, who pleads the case of the devotees but in anticipation of Her plea of mercy He Himself destroys the sins in a moment. He is described as kodiyaavadu puLLuyarTTha vadivaar.

 

Kodi aa vadu puL is Garuda, who is His flag. Uyarttha vadivaar refers to the Lord who is of beautiful form, carried by Garuda. But kodiaa vadu puL uyarttha is also explained as an adjective to the Lord maaDhavanaar, in which case it means, the one who hoisted Garuda ass His flag. This implies the vathsalya of the Lord towards those who resort to Him in as much as He raised Garuda who served Him as a vehicle to the high position of being a flag.

 

11. maadhavan paaR sadagopan theedhavam inRi uraittha

Edhamil aayitratthippatthu Odhavallaar piRavaarE

 

Those who chant these ten verses told by Sadagopa, without the defects pertaining to subject, speaker and construction, will not be born again.

 

The synopsis of these ten verses is that the Lord, having Lakshmi as His consort, is all merciful and destroys all our sins and hence we need not worry about our imperfections and desist from worshipping Him within our capacity. He will give salvation to those who worship Him.

 

There are three defects that may creep into any composition. They are defect of subject, that is the subject matter being defective, and the defect of the speaker, he being incapable of proper expression etc. The third defect is that of the work itself, which may be defective in grammar, construction etc. These are referred to as avam, theedhu and Edham respectively.

 

The verses of Azvar are free from all the three defects and tose4 who chant these verses will be free from the cycle of birth and death and will not be born again.