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.