Thiruvaimozi-1-3-8

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8.naaLum nin Radhu nampazamai angodu vinaiudanE

maaLum Or kuRaivillai mananaga malamaRakkazuvi

naLum nam thiruvudai adigaL tham nalam kazal vaanangi

maaLumOridatthilum vaNakkodu maaLvadhu nalamE

 

Washing away all impure thoughts to the contrary,malamRakkazuvi, resorting always to the feet of our Lord who is with Lakshmi, naaLum nam thiruvudai adigaL tham nalam kazal vaNangi, our sins accumulated from past lives that torment us always, naaLum ninradhunam pazamai angoduvinai, will be destroyed, maaLum. No bad effects will accrue, Or kuraivillai, to such a devotee. It is better to leave this body with devotion(even if it is not done earlier.)

 

The sins accumulated during our past lives will continue to give us suffering for all lives to come. Only through devotion they can be destroyed. For this, the Lord persuaded by the divine mother through mercy, gives us the buddhi to do bhakthiyoga as He says in the Gita, `dhadhaami buddhiyogam,' hkthi yoga is possible only when all the wrong thoughts are washed away through the knowledge that He alone is our saviour.

 

This pasuram gives solace to those who feel that the sins of their past lives are many and their life has been spent in doubt and indecision before the truth that the Lord is the only solace dawned in their minds. Azvar says in this pasuram that even if they get the firm thought that Naryaana is the only saviour at the end of their life and leave this body with that thought, their sins will be destroyed by their following the bhakthi yoga in the next life through the grace of the Lord. Krishna says in the Gita, `kountheya prathijaaneehi na me bhakthaH praNasyathi,' meaning that the devotee of the Lord never comes to harm. This is what is asserted in this pasuram by the words `Or kuraivillai.'

 

In the vedantasutra, it is said ,

thadhaDhigamauttharapurvAghayOh asEshavinAsou thadhvyapadhEsAth-(BS-4-1-13) which means

Attaining that (meditation ) results in non-clinging and destruction of earlier and later sins because it is declared thus. The suthra says that the scripture declares that not only the evil deeds do not cling but also they are destroyed by the power of knowledge, here the knowledge being the knowledge about the Lord.

Ramanuja says in Sribhashya that this statement is not contradictory to the sruti text declaring that the karma must be exhausted only through experience. 'nAbhuktham ksheeyathE karma kalpakotisathairapi.' There is also a sruthi text 'ksheeyanthE asya karmANi thasmin dhrshtE parAvarE,' meaning, all karma is destroyed when one knows Brahman. There is no contradiction because the two refer to two different subjects. The first one means that work has the power to produce result which has to be experienced. But the knowledge has the capacity to destroy the power of past karma and to obstruct that of subsequent karma. So both declarations are valid as the power of fire to produce heat and of water to quench it are both valid and not contradictory to each other.

Alavandar says in his sthothrarathna,

Thvadhanghrim uddhiSya kadhaapi kenachith

YaThaa thaThaavaapi sakrth krthonjaliH

Thadhaiva mushNaathi aSubhaani aSeshathaH

Subhaani pushNaathi na jaathu heeyathe

 

When anyone any time does obeisance to You at least once, even casually, that destroys all his sins and contributes to his welfare and it is never in vain.