Pasuram 1.10.2

Tamil text and transliteration:

கண்ணுள்ளே நிற்கும் காதன்மையால் தொழில்,
எண்ணிலும் வரும் என் இனி வேண்டுவம்?
மண்ணும் நீரும் எரியும் நல் வாயுவும்
விண்ணும் ஆய் விரியும் எம் பிரானையே.

kaṇṇuḷḷē niṟkum kātaṉmaiyāl toḻil,
eṇṇilum varum eṉ iṉi vēṇṭuvam?
maṇṇum nīrum eriyum nal vāyuvum
viṇṇum āy viriyum em pirāṉaiyē.

English translation of verse 1.10.2:

My Lord hath as His body the elements five
And as the sprawling Universe expands; worshipped with love
He makes Himself visible, nay, for the mere count.
What more does one (for salvation) want?

Notes

(i) It is by no means surprising that the Lord Who is bound by the deep love of the devotees, always keeps Himself in their vicinity. But the Āḻvār now touches upon the Lord’s overwhelming generosity in presenting Himself even to those who utter the number twenty-six, in the course of casual enumeration. The non-sentient body has 24 ingredients, such as Mind, senses, tanmātrās etc; the sentient soul which takes possession of the body and directs it, is the 25th tattva (principle) and the Lord is the 26th tattva, controlling, as He does, both the body and the Soul which constitute, as it were, His bodies. This explains the significance of number 26, denoting the Lord.

(ii) The Āḻvār exclaims: “When the Lord can be got at even by casual enumeration, what more do we need for our salvation?” By this, he means that God’s grace is the sole means of salvation and nothing is needed on our part. There are no special conditions supporting His grace which operates unasked and unaided. What is wanted is non-resistance or nonrejection when Grace is offered. When it was pointed out to the great Ācārya, Nampiḷḷai, by one of his disciples, named, Vēlveṭṭippiḷḷai that Śrī Rāma offered Śaraṇāgati to the king of the oceans, facing east and observing other ritualistic formalities, the learned Preceptor elucidated that it was done so by Śrī Rāma as a matter of course, in keeping with his orthodox background and not as something mandatory. As a matter of fact, Śrī Rāma resorted to the said ‘Śaraṇā-gati’ only on the advice of Vibhīṣaṇa who, however, did not have a single dip in the ocean before he sought asylum at the feet of Śrī Rāma. The lesson to be learnt from this contrasting picture is that ‘Śaraṇāgati’ (surrender to the Lord’s loving grace) could be performed iṇ any manner, with or without a bath, the one who hasn’t had his bath already, not being under any compulsion to take a bath and, conversely, the one who has had his bath already, need not defile himself by way of emulating the former.