Thiruvaimozi-1.7.2,, 1.7.3

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1.7.2

 

vaippaam marundhaam adiyarai

valvinaith

 

thuppaampulan aindhum

thunjakkodaanavan

 

eppaal yavarkkum

nalatthaaluyarndhuyarndhu

 

appaalavan engaLaayarkozundhe

 

Our

Lord who is the sprout of the cowherds and who is higher than the highest joy

does not let the devotees get lost by the senses which cause evil karma and He

is the medicine for the ills of samsara as well as the goal of life.

 

vaippaam- The Lord is the goal to be attained. Hence one

should ask Him only for the union with Him and not for anything inferior. Compared with the bliss enjoyed by

attaining the Lord even the freedom from the cycle of birth and death is

inferior , implying what has been said in the previous pasuram about those who aspire for kaivalyamukthi.

 

marundhaam- The Lord is not only the upeya , the goal but

also upeya, the means of attaining Him. He is the elixir to those who suffer from

the ills of samsara by giving them strength to conquer the senses which have

the power to destroy the individual by creating evil karma.

 

adiyavarvalvinai the evil karma of the devotees which are created

by the five powerful senses , thuppaam

pulan aindhum.

 

thunjakkodaan avan- but the Lord does not allow the senses of the

devotees to overpower them.

 

aayar kozundhe- kozundhu means young sprout. Usually it is the

sprout that reflects any ill effect of the tree by fading first. The Lord as Krishna used to show signs of grief if anything happened

to the cowherds. This shows the vathsalya of the Lord towards those who resort

to Him and hence He never allows them come to harm due to the play of the senses. Also usually

only the sprouts from the tree like neem

are used in medicine. Hence the epithet shows His effectiveness as the

medicine for the ills of samsara.

 

The

Lord is the ultimate joy higher than the highest known from the mortal world up

to the world of Brahma. Thaithareeya

Upanishad mentions the joy of a man who is blessed with everything and goes on to relate that of

celestial beings, devas etc multiplying each by hundred to measure the successive

one ending with the bliss of Brahma, the creator and mentioning that to be a

particle of the bliss of the Supreme Being, Brahman. Hence He is eppaal yavarkkum nalatthaaluyarndhuyarndhu

appaalavan, higher and higher to all in respect of Bliss and beyond

everything that could be counted as joy.

 

1.7.3

 

aayaakozundhaai avaraal

pudai uNNum

 

maayappiraanai en

maaNikkacchodhiyai

 

thooyavamudhaipparugi

parugi en

 

maayappiRavi

mayarvaRutthEnE

 

I have abolished my ignorance which deludes me into

further births by drinking forever the pure nectar , that is my Lord, who is

wonderful, shining like an emerald, the sprout of the cowherds who got

beaten by them.

 

aayarkozundhai- the sprout of the

cowherds, the offspring of Nandagopa , the cowherd.

 

avaraal

pudaiyuNNum- refers to Krishna being beaten by the

gopis and Yasodha for his pranks.

 

mayaappiraanai- the wonder , maayam is

that the Lord of the Universe, has taken

birth among the cowherds and also like an ordinary mischievous child got

punished by them for his pranks.

 

en

maaNikkappiraanai- Azvar remembers the `pacchaimaamali pOl mEni' of the

Lord, the form like an emerald and shining.

 

thooyavamudhai- The Lord is the pure

nectar meaning that the enjoyment of the Lord is higher than that of drinking

the nectar that came from the milky ocean. The latter gives only immortality

but does not remove sensuality as the devas did not get moksha but only

attained freedom from death , na mrtham amrtham. But the enjoying the

gunas and forms of the Lord gives real bliss of immortality, the moksha.

 

parugipparugi- there is no satiety in

enjoying the Lord and the devotee goes on drinking the nectar.

 

maayappiRavi

mayarvu-

the delusion out of of ignorance that causes rebirth.

 

aRutthEnE- The Azvar says that by

experiencing the bliss of the Lord he has abolished the ignorance that causes

rebirth once for all.

 

The krishnavathara has the greatest fascination for

all the Azvars as it is for all the devotees of the Lord. Nammazvar after

composing the pasuram `patthudai adiyavarkkeLityavan,' (1.3.1) lost his

consciousness at the word `etthiram,' referring to the Lord being tied

to the mortar. Here also he refers to the balaleela of the Lord as Krishna when He stole butter .curd etc. and was punished

for that.

 

The Lord is referred as maayappiraan because

even though He was avaapthasamasthakaama, who has nothing to be achieved and sathyasankalpa,

who is of infallible will, He acted as though He had a desire for butter and

had to steal for it. It was his souSeelya ,which is, mahathah

mandhaihi saha neerandhra samslesha svabhaavah, the nature of the great to

have close association with those who are at lower level from theirs

intellectually or otherwise and to move as one of them.

 

Azvar means that the cowherds did not know the real

identity of Krishna as that of the Lord

Himself but he knows it and hence he could destroy his karma through

devotion which makes him savour the rasa

of the experience of the Lord.