Chapter 10 - Thiruvalivalam or Tiruvalivalam (Hymn 67)

I

The Thiruvalivalam hymn gives another vision of the Lord which Nampi Arurar had. Cekkilar calls this ‘Enkum nikalnta Tamil malai’ or the universal hymn. Nampi Arurar explains herein his own experience of God, sometimes as something personal, sometimes as something universal. Every verse ends with the assertion, “I have come to Valivalam and have seen the Lord”. He explains in the rest of the verses how he had experienced the Lord. “He is the very breath in the body and yet He stands in the form of ‘Om’ becoming all the Universe” (1). Thus our poet explains God as the inner and the outer principle. “His munificence is immeasurable even unto those who have renounced everything looking at even the pleasures of heaven as bitter. He becomes the very light of the mind of His followers, springing up in their minds as the nectar by whose side the honey of their minds turn bitter” (1). Thus is expressed the subjective experience of the Absolute. The poet passes from this esoteric experience to its concrete representation in the image form. “He is the Lord capable of holding in His hand the deer” (1).

II

In the next verse, God is experienced as one who blesses His followers. Our poet speaks of five kinds of devotees: (i) First come the innumerable followers with their varied services and the Lord is full of sympathy for them, (ii) The bhaktas, those who are full of reverence and love for Him, sing and dance in divine ecstasy and the Lord is all love unto them. (iii) There are again those who walk in the narrow and strenuous path following the footsteps of old, never swerving therefrom even by a hair-breadth and reaching the goal. Success and freedom are created for them by the Lord, (iv) To the good or the great, He is like the wealth or treasure in reserve, for times of trouble or misery, (v) There are the followers firm in their resolve, hard and unshakable as the mountain, like the saints of Thiruthondathogai. To them, He is the very desire of the heart. The poet hastens to include himself amongst those blessed by the Lord: “He blesses me knowing my own wants” (2).

III

In the next verse Nampi Arurar harps back to the truth of the Lord beyond the reach of all, though within the reach of the lovers. “His beginning and His end grow deeper and deeper, broader and broader and higher and higher, (never to be reached) but He is so close to those who fall at His feet”. Who are these followers? “They are like other people of the world, sinners, all to start with, but transformed into saints, by the company of the Great. The stupid serve their family sustaining nothing but falsehood. They suffer and then their heart melts, they finally come and mix with the community of true bhaktas. Thus, they come to live and to them the Lord shows the unerring path.” The poet combines his own redemption with the salvation of others: “He removed my blot even from my future birth”—All these seem to represent the inner meaning of the image from where Shiva is happy with Uma or the Mother Goddess (3).

“He is always my confidant, my guide, friend and philosopher. My tongue will not swerve from the path of singing your praises and it is so sweet like the nectar collected there to be oozing out”—thus he expresses his experience of his compositions. “This very Lord is He that is worshipped by innumerable and varied Devas taking refuge in Him. He is the great, unknown to Tirumal and Brahma; though unknown to them, He had made me great” (4).

IV

Our poet thinks more about the importance of music compositions. “The Lord enjoys most the praises sung in the hymns of Campantar and Appar and loves them to be repeated often and often”. From this it has to be noted how in the time of Nampi Arurar, who followed Campantar and Appar, not at any distant date, the hymns of Campantar and Appar came to be sung by devotees with fervour and reverence and what high esteem Nampi Arurar himself had for the hymns. Our poet is giving in his hymns expression to those ideas of Campantar and Appar, “God knows my ignorance, the ignorance of a slave. He has made the stone of my heart melt in love unto Him. He has shown me His victorious feet. He has removed the weeds and the obstacles”. Who is He? “He is the Lord who stands firm while the Devas of great prowess worship round Him” (5).

Nampi Arurar gives us still more of his experience of the Lord saving and blessing him; “I know not to sing; and worship; I know not to praise thereby; I know not to go in quest of Him; I know not to get myself reformed thereby; I know not to walk in the path and to lead my mind therein. How am I to reach you, I cry. He showed distinctly the path and brought me thereto. He accepted me saying, ‘Do not thou feel miserable and pine away in vain’.” (6).

“He helps us to escape from the deep expanse of the sea of birth completely removing the taints of cruel karma, which holds fast and fetters us all. Communion with Him inspires a capacity in us for great service. He yokes us on to His service to amass the results of tapas. Those who had amassed like this can easily think or contemplate on Him and to them He opens the Sivaloka of His glorious feet to which he raised them. He is always inside the mind of those who worship Him”—thus our poet expresses his own experience though the verse is couched as expressing the objective truth about God (7).

V

“Innumerable Devas, Rsis and kings and infinite number of people stand everywhere and praise Him and He blesses them with whatever they want. He stands firm so that those who take refuge in Him may rest in Him. He is the Grace overflowing unto these all. He is my karpaga ocean, the ocean that will give anything that is wanted”. I cried unto Him, “O, Lord! bless me!”. “Thereafter He has snatched my soul and became one with my mind”. In this way, the poet tries to make his experience a universal fact of God’s Grace (8).

VI

The two verses that follow refer to the story of Tripura, Ravana, the feast of poison, the Mother Goddess and the Kupati form expressing in the language of mythology, the very great experience vouchsafed to Nampi Arurar. “He comes after every thing and goes before every thing, unknowable even unto the Vedic scholars of kinaness falling at His feet” (6). “It is impossible to bring in any evidence to prove His existence objectively. But, He is easy of reach and experience. To the minds which do not think of Him, He never reaches and He creates confusion therein” (10).

VII

Valivalam is praised as the place where the learned Vedic scholars raise the sacrificial fire to reduce the evil powers of ‘Kali’ (11). No other description is given of this place and this description is significant and to the point, emphasizing the spirit of sacrifice and the great light or the fire of sacrifice ever kept alive for the good of the Universe. This hymn is an outpouring of his heart, a sweet music of pure Tamil. The poet has known the elation he felt, when he sang this hymn and therefore assures the recitors of this hymn that those who can praise the Lord by singing these verses with all their heart and with all the bliss, will reach the world or place praised by even the Devas who know no suffering (11).

VIII

This hymn, therefore, gives us a picture of the spiritual development of Nampi Arurar, realizing God in his mind and in the Universe as a great principle of love, light and happiness, ever ready to help the fallen and the depraved—the great power worshipped by all, the fundamental principle preceding and following everything beyond the reach of all learning and power, though at the beck and call of the loving heart.