Pasuram 1.5.8

Tamil text and transliteration:

உண்டாய் உலகு ஏழ் முன்னமே; உமிழ்ந்து மாயையால் புக்கு
உண்டாய் வெண்ணெய் சிறு மனிசர் உவலை ஆக்கை நிலை எய்தி
மண் தான் சோர்ந்தது உண்டேலும் மனிசர்க்கு ஆகும் பீர் சிறிதும்-
அண்டாவண்ணம் மண் கரைய நெய் ஊண் மருந்தோ? மாயோனே!

uṇṭāy ulaku ēḻ muṉṉamē; umiḻntu māyaiyāl pukku
uṇṭāy veṇṇey ciṟu maṉicar uvalai ākkai nilai eyti
maṇ tāṉ cōrntatu uṇṭēlum maṉicarkku ākum pīr ciṟitum-
aṇṭāvaṇṇam maṇ karaiya ney ūṇ maruntō? māyōṉē!

English translation of verse 1.5.8:

Wondrous Lord, Once you ate up all the worlds seven
And then spat them out, You then came at your volition
Into this world, assuming the frail form of a human
And ate all the butter (in Gokul) leaving no remnant;
Could it be that you thus sought to dissolve the remnants
Of mud still sticking inside and keep off indigestion.
The fell sickness that befalls humans? (I think it wasn’t that).

Note

We are indeed under a deep debt of gratitude to those intellectual stalwarts, our great Pūrvācāryas, which we can hardly repay. Look at how they have delved in and unfolded the genesis of this song, from the way it has been worded. The Lord was bent upon having a rapport with the Āḻvār and hit upon a plan which would work well and bring round the Āḻvār, shaking off his inferiority complex. There ensued a dialogue wherein the Lord wanted to elicit from the Āḻvār the purpose of His having come down to Gokul, as a cowherd and gobbled up all the available butter. When the Āḻvār pleaded ignorance, the Lord Himself gave out that it was just an antidote against the ill-effects of the mud, if any, still sticking inside His stomach, which had once kept all the seven worlds within and thrown them out after some time. The Āḻvār could hardly swallow such a fantastic explanation, firstly, because of the heavy time-lag between the two events and secondly, because there was no reason why He should have appropriated to Himself all the butter produced in that pastoral village, if it was to be a mere medicine. The Āḻvār opined that the Lord ate up avidly all that butter because it was produced by the loving hands of His devotees, a produce which He coveted very much and would not mind taking even stealthily, when not given for the asking. Precisely here, the Āḻvār fell into the Lord’s trap. The Lord was quick to point out that the Āḻvār was dear to Him for the same reason and, by trying to keep aloof from Him, he would only join the rank and file of those who tried to keep the butter from Him.