Good or bad is all your choice

அன்றே என்றன் ஆவியும் உடலும் எல்லாமுங்
குன்றே அனையாய் என்னைஆட் கொண்டபோதே கொண்டிலையோ
இன்றோர் இடையூ றெனக்குண்டோ எண்தோள் முக்கண் எம்மானே
நன்றே செய்வாய் பிழை செய்வாய் நானோ இதற்கு நாயகமே.

When you came as a mountain that day and made me yours
Did you not take all that was mine - the mind, body, soul and all my belongings?
How then could I have any problems, my lord with eight shoulders and three eyes?
You may do me good; You may do me bad. To all resigned, I'm yours.

(Thiruvasagam, 502)

Thiruvasagam is the pinnacle of emotive bhakti poetry arising out of an overwhelming personal experience of the divine. The verse above stands proof. By the act of completely surrendering to the lord, Manikkavasagar fails to see good and bad differently. Everything to him is an act of divine will. When everything belongs to the lord what has he to lose or gain? to rejoice or suffer?

The personal nature of Thiruvasagam narrating what the saint undergoes in poignant verses makes it stand apart. There is an apt saying in Tamizh - திருவாசகத்திற்கு உருகாதார் ஒருவாசகத்திற்கும் உருகார் (The one who does not melt for the Thiruvasagam, melts for no other verse). The temple at Thirupperunthurai or Avudaiyar koil as it is called today is where Manikkavasagar first encountered his lord. Under a tree inside the temple he sees a man with glowing radiance who bestows upon him the vision of the divine. The rest is history shrouded in a number of legends. To him, his guru that he met then was Lord Dakshinamoorthy himself and  he fondly talks of the incident innumerable times in his works. I sure hope to write on more verses from Thiruvasagam and will elaborate on what makes this book so special.

(The picture above is the life story of Manikkavasagar as depicted on the temple tower of Kapaleeshvarar temple, Chennai. Read this for the detailed story)

His praise in his own words

என்சொல்லி நிற்பனென் இன்னுயி ரின்றொன்றாய்,
என்சொல்லால் யான்சொன்ன இன்கவி யென்பித்து,
தன்சொல்லால் தான்தன்னைக் கீர்த்தித்த மாயன்,என்
முன்சொல்லும் மூவுரு வாம் முதல்வனே

Alas! What shall I say! He stands as the soul within me
and makes poetry of the words I say.
Or rather, the master of delusions, with his own words he sings praise
of himself, the chief of the three gods! 

(Thiruvaimozhi, 7.9.2)

No verse can be as apt as the verse quoted above of Saint Nammazhvar in his Thiruvaimozhi to start this blog. What else can one say? It is he who is the speaker, the audience, the 'speech', the act of speaking and the experience of  hearing; And it is by his own will that these all come together. Is he not then the master of delusions, for he successfully makes me think that there is an 'I' that speaks and a 'You' that listens?

Nammazhvar, the vaishnavaite saint born on the banks of Tamraparni river in southern Tamilnadu was a gifted child that did not cry or speak a word. Under the tamarind tree inside the Azhvarthirunagari temple he sat in padmasana and meditated for 16 years only to open his mouth to his first disciple Madhurakavi. Vaishnavaites regard him an incarnation of the Lord himself and as the chief amongst alwars. Physically seated in the same temple, he mentally traveled to a number of Vishnu shrines composing over a thousand hymns collectively referred to as the Thiruvaimozhi or 'words from the mouth of the divine'. Like the works of all other alwars, his works have deep metaphorical meaning describing the relation between the human soul and God. I regard this verse quoted above as the crowning stone of them all, for here we see for ourselves that the saint has fully identified himself with his lord.