The Lonely Lord

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

The Lonely Lord

 

 

 

The Lord must get pretty lonely in His arcchAvatAra, the form in

which He is to be found in various temples. In His other forms, He is used to

quite a crowd as company.

 

 

 

As the ParamapadanAtan, He is constantly being addressed and adulated by the

nitya sUrIs, with whom He exchanges views, especially with Sri VishvaksEnar, on

matters concerning Universal administration. Sri Garuda is the Lord's dear

friend ( " Dasa: sakhA, vAhanam, dhvaja: " ) and keeps Him constant company. Thus He

doesn't lack people to speak to and move with.

 

 

 

In the Vibhava avataras too, as Sri Rama, He was constantly surrounded by His

illustrious brothers and others whom He himself had acknowledged as brothers-Sri

GuhapperumAL, Sri Hanuman, Sri VibhIshana etc. In Sri Krishnavatara, He

enjoyed the boisterous company of young cowherds ( " tan nEr Ayiram piLLaigaLOdu

taLar nadai ittu varuvAn " _Sri Periazhwar) and had His fill of all sorts of

sport. As Sri Balarama, He had Sri Krishna for company. As Sri Nrsimha, He had

the adoring company of Sri Prahlada, and so on.

 

 

 

However, in the arcchAvatAra, He has nobody to speak to. All the mortals look up

to Him as the unapproachable Lord and do not entertain even the thought of

speaking to Him. They ogle at Him from a distance with folded hands and bowed

heads, bring Him fruits and flowers, bedeck Him in the finest of silk and the

most precious of gems and jewellery. However, they don't think of talking to

Him. They may voice their prayers seeking this and that, they may recite stotras

in His praise, but they do not give a thought to speaking to Him.The arcchakAs

perform for Him all kainkaryAs and recite nAmAvaLis during arcchanA, but when

there is no devotee in sight, they too prefer to come out of the shrine and pass

time with their colleagues or visitors. The Lord is thus left alone most of the

time. All this is when the temple is open. When the visiting hours are over,

there is an exodus of people from the temple and everyone, including His

intimate servants, the arcchakAs, leave, practically codemning Emperuman to a

sentence of solitary confinement.

 

 

 

If He were a person who likes solitude, He would definitely relish the abundant

doses He gets: but He is a sociable Lord and never likes to be alone- " Sa EkAkI

na ramatE " says the Upanishad, confirming His distaste for loneliness. The long

hours He spends locked up behind doors like a truant child which can't be

trusted to be free, make Him terribly bored. With none to speak to, not a soul

to socialise with, He stands all alone for hours at a stretch, for days and

years and millennia, enduring all the solitude stoically and uncomplainingly.

However, He still doesn't like it. Thus the arcchA samAdhi or the absence of

interaction with His devotees is a source of tedium for the Lord.

 

 

 

One can endure only so much, and the Lord is no exception. When the solitude

begins to tell on Him, He does open His beautiful mouth and speak with devotees

of His choice, who mingle freely with Him, speaking to Him, telling Him not only

their woes but also every little thing that happened to them to that day- in

short, treating Him as a beloved friend and companion. We thus have several

instances of the arcchA samAdhi being broken and the Lord engaging in verbal

interaction with Sri Tirukkacchi Nambi, Sri Tirumalai Nambi, Sri Parasara

Bhattar and others. Such bhaktAs had developed an extremely intimate

relationship with the Lord and used to interact with Him daily, as freely as

they would with a human friend.

 

 

 

In Srirangam, there was a temple employee entrusted with the responsibility of

keeping all the temple lamps topped up with oil. In the course of performing

this uninteresting routine, once or twice he addressed the recumbent Rangaraja,

speaking to Him casually, asking Him how He felt that day, etc. Though he was

greeted only with silence for some time, when he continued this practice of

talking to the Lord, Sri Peria Perumal felt compelled to reply. Then onwards,

chitchat between the Lord and His employee became regular, and they used to

exchange views on anything and everything under the Sun. The Lord was touched by

the man's unassuming conversation and His chat-mate was thrilled that Peria

Perumal was actually speaking to him, a lowly employee in the temple hierarchy.

To people who watched him occasionally standing before Rangaraja and apparently

talking to himself, he appeared to be off his rocker, and was given the

sobriquet " Picchan " (mad man). Combining his job title and popular impression,

he came to be known as " ThiruviLakku Picchan " . Even as he casually lent his ear

to the constant recitals of Divya Prabandam in the shrine, over the years

Picchan acquired quite a passable knowledge of these divine pasurams.

 

 

 

One day, while carrying out his chore, Picchan fell into conversation with the

Lord, who wanted to draw him out and asked him what he thought about great

people. In a deprecatory tone, Picchan replied that all great men had their own

weaknesses, their respective Aschilles' heels. Peria Perumal, who found

Picchan's remarks interesting and unusual, providing a welcome change from the

litany of stotras He was fed daily, asked Picchan whether he could find any such

frailty in the Azhwars.

 

 

 

Never at a loss for words, Picchan immediately replied in the affirmative and

proceeded to quote the following pasuram from Peria Tirumozhi , in support of

his contention-

 

 

 

" Sengamalatthu ayan anaya marayOr KazhicchIrAma ViNnagar en SengaN MAlai

 

ankamala tada vayal soozh Ali nAdan aruLmAri arattamukki adayAr seeyam

 

kongu malar kuzhaliar vEL Mangai vEndan kottravEl ParakAlan Kalian sonna

 

sanga mukha Tamizh mAlai patthum vallAr tadam kadal soozh moovulagukku

talaivar tAmE "

 

 

 

Picchan told Peria Perumal, " You asked me whether Azhwars had any failings. You

listened to the pasuram I just recited. Didn't You find that Sri Thirumangai

Mannan has, in the guise of singing Your praises, heaped upon himself quite a

lot of flattering sobriquets like " Ali nAdan, aruLmAri, arattamukki, adayAr

Seeyam, Mangai vEndan, ParakAlan " etc.? In fact, in this particular pasuram,

Azhwar blows his own trumpet much more than he sings Your praise. Devoted as he

is to You beyond measure, Sri Kalian is indeed susceptible to boasting and

bragging about his own prowess. Would you agree with me now that even the great

ones have their frailties? "

 

 

 

Peria Perumal was indeed amused at Picchan's observation and his irreverent

attitude towards the high and mighty. He chided the man for daring to criticise

Azhwars and clarified that such remarks by Azhwars, sounding like shameless

self-praise, reflected, in reality, their pride in their having been rescued by

the Lord from the bottomless pit of samsara and been given the exalted job of

singing His praises. When Sri Nammazhwar describes himself as " vazhuvAda tol

pugazh van KurugUr Satakopan " , the pride he takes is not in his own glory, but

that of the Lord, who endowed him with blemishless wisdom, enabling him to sing

His praises forever. When Sri BhootatthAzwar says, " YanE tavam seidEn, YAnE

perum Tamizhan " etc., it is the pride of having been so blessed by the Lord.

These are totally different from the sort of pride and vanity that characterise

conceited mortals and lead to their downfall, and fall under the category of

SAtvika ahankAram, which comes from deep devotion to the Divine Being.

 

 

 

Convinced with Periya Perumal's explanation, ThiruviLakku Picchan passed on to

the next topic of the day and continued thus to regale the Lord lifelong with

his views of men and matters.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan