Pasuram 3.5.7

Tamil text and transliteration:

நீர்மை இல் நூற்றுவர் வீய ஐவர்க்கு அருள்செய்து நின்று,
பார்மல்கு சேனை அவித்த பரஞ்சுடரை நினைந்து ஆடி
நீர்மல்கு கண்ணினர் ஆகி நெஞ்சம் குழைந்து நையாதே,
ஊன் மல்கி மோடு பருப்பார் உத்தமர்கட்கு என் செய்வாரே?

nīrmai il nūṟṟuvar vīya aivarkku aruḷceytu niṉṟu,
pārmalku cēṉai avitta parañcuṭarai niṉaintu āṭi
nīrmalku kaṇṇiṉar āki neñcam kuḻaintu naiyātē,
ūṉ malki mōṭu paruppār uttamarkaṭku eṉ ceyvārē?

English translation of verse 3.5.7:

Of what use unto the devout are they
That are fat and pot-bellied, who melt not
In ecstasy, singing and dancing with tears of joy,
Meditating on the resplendent Lord Supreme Who did blot
The cruel hundred out and on (their cousins) five shed His grace
Routing the armies and ridding Earth of unwholesome populace?

Note

The ‘Kauravas’ (the cruel hundred) would just not allow their five cousins, the Pāṇḍavas, to co-exist. The Lord had, therefore, to annihilate such terribly hostile cousins of the Pāṇḍavas and, in the process, He got the Earth rid of its unwholesome burden. Crores of Sādhus would, by no means, be a burden to Mother Earth to whom they are just as light as cotton, but the sinners press too heavily on her. The Āḻvār deplores the conduct of those remaining unmoved by the Lord’s enormous grace, shown to His devotees as above. These hapless men seem to have been born just to make their poor mothers suffer the pangs of labour. It is a pity such men cannot be of any use to the devout Vaiṣṇavas at whose beck and call the Lord and all His possessions ever remain. While on this subject, the following episode will be interesting and instructive:

In the court of a Cōḷa Rājā, Periya Nampi, Śrī Rāmānuja’s preceptor, had to undergo mortification owing to his refusal to subscribe to the slogan raised by the King and his men, “Śiva is the Supreme God”. Some of these men, however, wanted to claim the merit which accrues by cremating the uncared-for corpses of the destitute and rushed to the scene of death of Periya Nampi. But they shrank back, when they saw the illustrious Kūrattāḻvāṉ by the side of that great Ācārya.

Kūrattāḷvāṉ admonished them by saying,

“You fellows can hardly find a single destitute Vaiṣṇava by cremating whom you seem to be in for cheap merit. You should all know that the Lord and all His worlds are there to subserve the Vaiṣṇavas at all times”.