Pasuram 8.8.9

Tamil text and transliteration:

கூடிற்றாகில் நல்உறைப்பு கூடாமையைக் கூடினால்
ஆடல் பறவை உயர்கொடி எம்மாயன் ஆவதது அதுவே
வீடைப் பண்ணி ஒருபரிசே எதிர்வும் நிகழ்வும் கழிவுமாய்
ஓடித் திரியும் யோகிகளும் உளரும்இல்லை அல்லரே.

kūṭiṟṟākil naluṟaippu kūṭāmaiyaik kūṭiṉāl
āṭal paṟavai uyarkoṭi emmāyaṉ āvatatu atuvē
vīṭaip paṇṇi oruparicē etirvum nikaḻvum kaḻivumāy
ōṭit tiriyum yōkikaḷum uḷarumillai allarē.

English translation of verse 8.8.9:

It will be good, no doubt, if there can be a blend
Of the soul with the Super-Soul but it will be a notion blind,
That the soul could itself become the Lord with the flying bird
On His banner, oh, what a grotesque misfit indeed!
Pity! there exist such perverts gross, at all times, who wallow
In family ties, with all fanciful notions of the final goal.

Notes:

(i) Meditation of the Lord during the last moments of one’s life, emphasised by the Āḻvār in the preceding song, stresses incidentally the basic difference between the two entities, namely, the ‘Jīva’ (individual soul) and ‘Paramātmā’ (īśvara, the Supreme Lord). Unfortunately, there are perverts, extant in this world at all times, who propagate fanciful notions that the individual soul, rid of nescience, becomes ‘Brahman’ and thereafter, there is but a single entity, namely, ‘Brahman’, the other entity, the ‘Jīva’ having ceased to exist, as such. The Āḻvār now condemns such heresies.

(ii) If the impossible happens, that is, the incompatibles blending into one, as in the fanciful event of the individual soul and the Super-Soul (the Supreme Lord) blending into a single entity, the Āḻvār wonders what a grotesque and preposterous misfit it would turn out to be. The individual soul can then be the Master of Garuḍa, the Eternal Hero and fly on him. But this cannot be, flying on Garuḍa being the sole prerogative of the Lord. It is indeed a pity that there have been in the past, there are at present and there will be in the future, persons expounding such heretical doctrines according to their individual fancies.