Pasuram 4.7.5

Tamil text and transliteration:

அப்பனே! அடல் ஆழியானே, ஆழ் கடலைக் கடைந்த
துப்பனே, உன் தோள்கள் நான்கும் கண்டிடக்கூடுங்கொல்? என்று
எப்பொழுதும் கண்ண நீர் கொண்டு ஆவி துவர்ந்து துவர்ந்து,
இப்பொழுதே வந்திடாய் என்று ஏழையேன் நோக்குவனே.

appaṉē! aṭal āḻiyāṉē, āḻ kaṭalaik kaṭainta
tuppaṉē, uṉ tōḷkaḷ nāṉkum kaṇṭiṭakkūṭuṅkol? eṉṟu
eppoḻutum kaṇṇa nīr koṇṭu āvi tuvarntu tuvarntu,
ippoḻutē vantiṭāy eṉṟu ēḻaiyēṉ nōkkuvaṉē.

English translation of verse 4.7.5:

Oh, Benefactor great, my potent Lord, holding the discus valiant.
The ocean deep you did churn and delivered the nectar,
Eager to behold your lovely shoulders four, I want
You to come up to me right now; tears welling up for ever.
Greedily do I look around my Soul drying up, again and again,

Notes

(i) The Āḻvār exclaims how greedy he is trying to see the Lord, inaccessible even to the exalted Brahmā and other Devas, and that too, right now. But then, he longs to see the Lord's shoulders unlike the Devas who were, all the time, looking at the ocean for the nectar to come up, foregoing the pleasure of beholding the Lord moving around with His thousand shoulders, gaily bedecked with exquisite garlands. With the prior knowledge of
His condescending love unto Gajendra and Prahlāda, the Āḻvār is so certain of the Lord’s unfailing response that he keeps looking around for Him all the time.

(ii) The greedy looks: Here is a thrilling anecdote. Krimikaṇṭa, a cōḻa king, was a rash bigot of Śaivism. He launched a crusade of religious persecution and forcibly compelled every one to sign a bull, he had proclaimed, to the effect that there was no other God but Śiva. Kūrat-tāḻvāṉ, an intimate disciple of Śrī Rāmānuja, was also ordered to sign the declaration in the Royal court. He not only declined to do so but vindicated the supremacy of Lord Viṣṇu, quoting chapter and verse. The enraged king, however, ordered Āḻvāṉ’s eyes to be gouged but Āḻvān plucked out his eyes himself, exclaiming that the pair of eyes which had the misfortune to see the wicked king, weren’t worth having any more. When Śrī Rāmānuja got to know about this later, his heart bled at this catastrophe and he intensely longed for the restoration of Āḻvāṉ’s eye-sight. At the Master’s command, the blinded Āḻvāṉ composed hymns lauding Lord Varadaraja, enshrined in Kāñchīpuram, known as ‘Varadarāja Stava’ when the verses were read out by Āḻvāṉ to Śrī Rāmānuja, the latter rejoiced, in particular, when he came upon the twenty-second verse, and burst out, “Āḻvāṉ, when the Lord listens to this particular verse, He cannot but grant you the vision to behold Him. Well, turn this side, let me scan your face, right now”. This anecdote illustrates the firm belief of the devotees that the Lord will surely respond to such a moving submission.