Thiruvaimozi- 1.9 8

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1.9.8

 

naavinuL

ninru malarum jnaankkalaigaLukkellaam

aaviyum

aakkaiyum thanE aLippodu azippavan thanE

pooviyal naal thadanthOLan porupadaiyaazi

Sangendhum

naavinanmEni kamalaakaNNan en

kaNNil uLaanE

 

The

Lord is the life and body for all the learning that manifest through speech ( from the tongue)

and He is the creator and destroyer of the same. The Lord who has tender limbs

like a flower and a hue like the karuneydhal ( a flower of dark blue colour)

and also four wide and strong shoulders

that wield the disc and the conch , is situated in my eyes.

 

kamalakkaNNan- The Lord who has eyes

like lotus

 

naavinanmeni- and a hue of dark blue

pooviyal- who has tender limbs like a flower

 

naal

thadanthOLan- but four strong arms

 

porupadai

aazi sangendhum- in which He

wields the weapons of battle. the Disc and the Conch

 

aavi

aakkaiyum thanE- Who is both the

life and body of

 

jnaanakkalaigalukkellaam- of all the learning

 

naavinuL

ninru malarum- that is manifested

through speech

 

aLippodazippavan- and who gives as well as takes away

 

en

kaNNil uLLaanE- has come and

resided in my eyes.

 

 

Azvar

is experiencing the Lord in His eye now , meaning that he has become perceptible

and also because He is in the eyes Azvar is now able to see everything as His

manifestations, as made out later in a later pasuram, parugum neer uNNum

vettrilai---etc., which means that Azvar saw everything, even water he

drank and betel leaves he chewed as the Lord.

 

The

Lord is beautiful with eyes like lotus, and with a hue of the dark blue flower,

and He has four strong arms, wielding the Disc and the Conch to defeat His

enemies, which belie His limbs looking like

a tender flower.

 

All

the learning from the sastras are due to His grace. Hence he is the aLippavan,

who gives it and also azippavan,

who takes it away. As the sastras are from the Vedas which is known as Sruthi,

it is referred to as naavin ninru malarum- that which is manifested

through speech.

 

He

is the life and body of all sastras which are expressed through words. The body

of the sastras is the words or verbal presentation and the life of them is the

meaning. Learning something without meaning is like having a body without life.

The Lord is the body in as much as the words that are expressed is only through

His will and also because all words have their ultimate import in Him. He is

the life of learning because all learning should converge in the knowledge of

Him as all the rivers reach the sea.

Jnaanakkalai

are the vidhyasThanas mentioned in the Vedas. Naradha wished to get jnana from

Sanathkumara who asked him what all he knew already. Narada mentions all the vidyas that he knew and tells Sanathkumara that he

knew only the words and not the implication. The passage is as follows:

 

rkvedham

bhagavo aDhyemi yajurvedham saama vedham, ATharvanam, chathurTham, ,( the four Vedas) ithihaasa puraaNam panchamam, (

ithihasas and puranasa which are the fifth), vedhaanaam vedham,(grammar)

pithryam,(the rules of the worship of the ancesters), raasim,(science

of numbers) dhaivam,( signs of omens) niDhim,( science of

treaures),vaakovaakyam,( logic) ekaayanam, (science of ethics) dhevavidhyaam,(science

of the celestials) brahmavidhyaam, (knowledge of the Vedas,) bhoothavidhyaam,

(physical sciences) nakshathravidhyaam, (astronomy) sarpadhevajanavidhyaam,

(The science related to serpents and celestials, meaning fine arts).

 

Then

Narada says ,

Soaham

bhagavo manthravidheva sami na

aathmavidh

 

What

he means is that he did not have the self knowledge without which all knowledge

becomes a body without life.

 

The

implication of the words aaviyum aakkaiyum thane can be understood from

this episode. The words have power, manthra sakthi, which is also given by the

Lord because He Himself is the words of the Vedas, but the knowledge that all finally

have import in Brahman is referred to as the life of the Vedas. Hence the Lord

is the life of all words. To get the knowledge requires His grace as he says in

the Gita, matthaH smrthirjnaanam apohanam cha , vedhaiScha sarvaiH ahameva

vedhyaH (ch.15.15), meaning that he is the import of all Vedas and the

memory, knowledge and the removal of it is due to the Lord only. This is what

is meant by aLippOdazippvanthaanE.