tri-mUrti in tiruvAimozhi ? Part 21.
4.8.1 (30):
ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSai muganum, tirumagaLum
kURu ALum tani uDamban, kulam kulamA asurargaLai
neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa
mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE.
In this pASuram, AzhvAr refers to the beauty of bhagavAn's tirumEni,
His sauSIlyam, His vIryam, His ability to accomplish whatever He
wants by His mere sa'nkalpam, etc. Above all, AzhvAr points out that
anything that cannot become useful in the kainkaryam of bhagavAn is a
waste as far as he is concerned, no matter how attractive it may seem
in the eyes of the rest of the world. He is singing this
tiruvAimozhi in the nAyaki bhAvam.
mARALan kavarAda maNimAmai kuRai ilamE ? AzhvAr assumes the role of
bhagavAn's nAyaki, and declares that she has no use for the beautiful
complexion of her body if it does not attract emperumAn.
Who is this emperumAn that he is referring to?
ERu ALum iRaiyOnum, tiSaimuganum, tirumagaLum kURu ALum tani uDamban ?
The One Who has the beautiful tirumEni that is shared between the
deity who has the bull as his vehicle, by the four-faced brahmA, and
by Goddess mahAlakshmi.
Kulam kulamA aSurargaLai neeRu Agum paDiyAga nirumittu, paDai toTTa
mARALan ? He is also the One who made the decision through His mere
Will that the wicked asura-s who were enemies of His devotees will be
destroyed without trace, by numbers upon numbers.
kuRai ilamE ? I do not care for
maNimAmai ? my beautiful complexion
mARALan kavarAda ? if it does not attract the Supreme Lord
tani uDamban - who has the uniquely beautiful tirumEni; a-dvitIya
vigrahattai uDaiyavan.
kURu ALum ? different parts of which are occupied by
ERu ALum iRaiyOnum ? The deity who has the bull as his vehicle (a
reference to Siva)
tiSai muganum ? The one who has faces in the four directions (a
reference to the four-faced brahmA)
tirumagaLum ? and by Mother MahAlakshmi
paDai toTTa ? and He Who destroyed with His weapons
kulam kulamA ? by generations upon generations
aSurargaLai ? the demons
neeRu Agum paDiyaga niyamittu ? after deciding that they will be
destroyed without trace.
AzhvAr refers to Sivan as the one who has the bull as his vehicle, to
contrast him with bhagavAn who has garuDa, the personification of the
veda-s, as His vehicle. The fact that emperumAn has accommodated
Siva and brahmA in His body at the same level as He has accorded to
His Divine Consort, SrI mahAlakshmi, shows His sauSIlyam or His
willingness to treat all at equal level.
nirumittu ? sankalpittu: emperumAn is also One Who could have
destroyed the asura-s, who were enemies of His devotees, through a
minute fraction of His Infinite Will power. But instead of
destroying them thus with His Will power alone, bhagavAn chooses to
use His weapons to kill them. He would have destroyed them through
His Will power alone if they were showing enmity only towards Him;
but instead, they were showing enmity towards His devotees, and this
is something that He could not tolerate. So He became angry, and
used His weapons to destroy them. Through his choice of words,
AzhvAr shows that bhagavAn will not tolerate any offense to His
devotees ? He will not tolerate bhAgavata apacAram.
kulam kulamA asurargaLai nIrAgum paDiyAga nirumittu paDai toTTa ?
refers to His veeryam - one His six primary guna-s.
mARu ALan ? He Who considers the enemies of His devotees as His own
enemies; He Who literally exchanges His position with that of the
devotee, and destroys their enemies. Note Lord kRshNa's refusal to
eat in duryodhana's place, just because the later was an enemy of the
pANDava-s; in other words, He considered the enemy of the pANDava-s
as His own enemy ?
dvishad-annam no bhoktavyam dvishantam naiva bhojayet |
pANDavAn dvishase rAjan mama prANA hi pANDavAH ||
The spirit expressed in this pASuram by AzhvAr in his nAyikA bhAvam,
is the same that is expressed by sItA pirATTi in SrImad rAmAyaNam:
na hi me jIvitenArthaH, naivArthair-na ca bhUshaNaiH |
vasantI rAkshasI madhye vinA rAmam mahA ratham ||
"For me, living in the midst of these rAkshasi-s, without the great
warrior rAma by my side, neither life itself, nor any of the other
materials around me or the ornaments etc., are of any meaning" (I do
not care for any of these in the absence of my Lord rAma)".
It is also the same spirit that is conveyed by ALavandAr in his
stotra ratnam:
na deham na prANAn na ca sukham aSeshAbhilAshitam
na cAtmAnam nAnyat kimapi tava Seshatva vibhavAt |
bahirbhUtam nAtha! kshaNamapi sahe yAtu satatA
vinASam tat satyam madhumatana! vij~nApanam idam ||
"O madhusUdana! Please listen to this declaration that I make in
front of mahAlakshmi: This body that is useful for observing all the
dharma-s, the prANa-s that support this body, the pleasures that all
beings like, the soul that supports all these, the children and the
relatives ? all of these are of use to me only if they help me in
serving You. If they are not of use for this, then they are of no
use for me. They can all disappear without a trace for me. This is
not something that I say for the sake of saying. If this be a false
statement, then I should suffer the same fate that the demon by name
madhu suffered at Your hands".
ANDAL reflects the same sentiment when She declares: "koLLum payan
onRu illAda ko'ngai tannai kizha'ngODum aLLip parittiTTu avan mArbil
eRindu en azhalait tIrvEnE".
AzhvAr has already referred to the sauSIlyam of emperumAn in
accommodating rudra and brahmA in His body, in the two pASuram-s we
have covered earlier:
valattanan tirupuram erittavan (1.3.9)
ERanaip pUvanaip pU-magaL tannai (2.2.3)
It has been explained there that He is accommodating them in His body
for their protection, in addition to reflecting His sauSIlyam.
Note that in this pASuram, bhavAn's guNa of vIrya as well as sauSIlya
are sung. SrImad tirukkuDanthai ANDavan points out that this is
analogous to vAlmIki rAmayaNam, where vAlmIki asks nArada to identify
that person who has sixteen important guNa-s, the first two
being `guNa' (meaning saiSIlya guNa), and `vIrya' ? guNavAn kaSca
vIryavAn (bAla. 1.2)
This tiruvAimozhi teaches us that anything that will not be of
interest to emperumAn should be given up by the bhakta.
-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan
(To be continued)
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