Tiruvaymoli (Thiruvaimozhi): English translation
by S. Satyamurthi Ayyangar | 388,514 words
This is the English translation of the Tiruvaymoli (or, Thiruvaimozhi): An ancient Tamil text consisting of 1102 verses which were sung by the poet-saint Nammalvar as an expression of his devotion to Vishnu. Hence, it is an important devotional book in Vaishnavism. Nammalvar is one of the twelve traditional saints of Tamil Nadu (Southern India), kn...
Introduction to Section 1.10
In this decad, the Lord‘s voluntary or spontaneous grace is prominently brought out and extolled by the Āḻvār. Some Ācāryas, however, hold that the Āḻvār gives vent to his boundless joy resulting from the Lord‘s contact with him, limb by limb, mentioned in the preceding decad. The remarkable approach of Śrī Parāśara Bhaṭṭar, that intellectual giant of extraordinary divine fervour to this decad is as follows:
In the preceding decad, the Supreme Lord was shown to have finally got on to the Āḻvār’s head. Could there be any mystic experience more exalted than this? It was now up to the Lord to keep it up without once again snatching Himself away from the Āḻvār. That apart, the highest bliss, thus conferred by the Lord on the Āḻvār, led him on, to an introspection as to how he came by it. A thread-bare analysis of his own attainments reveals that he has none whatsoever and, at best, it could be said that he was God-bent and free from hatred for Him. Can it be said that a lemon fruit has secured a Kingdom, simply because a subject reverently placed a lemon fruit at the feet of a munificent King and got a liberal gift of territory, at the King’s pleasure? It is absolutely impossible, rather, it would be preposterous to correlate the slender means of the Individual, as good as non-existent, with the ‘End’, of mighty dimensions, as in the example cited above. Verily, the Lord is the root-cause even for the little merit, if any, acquired by the Individual, down the ages, as the latter was dowered with body and limbs, and put on a career of useful activity, only by Him. And so, the present ecstatic experience of the Āḻvār is traceable only to the Lord’s redemptive grace and, little wonder, the Āḻvār thaws down in grateful acknowledgement of the Lord’s benefaction, totally unrelated to the merit in him.
It will be seen from the above exposition that Bhaṭṭar lays emphasis on the Lord’s redemptive grace besides sharing the view of the other Acāryas, so far as the Āḻvār’s ecstatic experience is concerned.