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...

Tamil text and transliteration:

கன்மம் அன்று எங்கள் கையில் பாவை பறிப்பது கடல் ஞாலம் உண்டிட்ட
நின்மலா! நெடியாய்! உனக்கேலும் பிழை பிழையே
வன்மமே சொல்லி எம்மை நீ விளையாடுதி அது கேட்கில் என் ஐம்மார்
தன்ம பாவம் என்னார் ஒரு நான்று தடி பிணக்கே.

kaṉmam aṉṟu eṅkaḷ kaiyil pāvai paṟippatu kaṭal ñālam uṇṭiṭṭa
niṉmalā! neṭiyāy! uṉakkēlum piḻai piḻaiyē
vaṉmamē colli emmai nī viḷaiyāṭuti atu kēṭkil eṉ aimmār
taṉma pāvam eṉṉār oru nāṉṟu taṭi piṇakkē.

English translation of verse 6.2.7:

Oh, immaculate Lord, you once gulped down the worlds seabound,
It hardly befits You, oh, great One, to squeeze from our hands
Our playthings; a mistake is a mistake even if by You committed,
Words you whisper, we dare not repeat and with us you flirt;
Surely, our brethren, when they get to know, will feel hurt,
For good or bad they wouldn’t care and You they might hit.

Notes

(i) Finding the Gopīs terribly vexed with Him, Śrī Kṛṣṇa bade good-bye to them, wishing them well and told them that He would, however, be taking with Him, His playthings. But the Gopīs lost no time in picking up those pieces, with a view to detaining Him and prolonging the controversy. This gave Śrī Kṛṣṇa the golden opportunity He was looking for, to come in physical contact with the Gopīs and snatch the materials from their hands. The Gopīs screamed that this was not the kind of job, expected of Him, to which He replied that this was too petty a job for Him Who had gulped down all the worlds. While conceding His great ability, the Gopīs pointed out that, however big He might be, mistakes committed by Him cannot be overlooked. Śrī Kṛṣṇa tried, in vain, to refute this by saying that He was immaculate and, therefore, above mistakes. At this stage, the Lord pretended to be non-plussed and whispered quite a few secrets into the ears of the Gopīs and they administered a stern warning that He would be belaboured by their brothers without any hesitation, if they got to know about His silly behaviour and the stupid things He spoke to them (Gopīs).

(ii) The secrets whispered into the ears of the Gopīs by the Lord, referred to in (i) above, should, in the particular context of Saint Nammāḻvār re-enacting the cld scene of the days gone-by, be taken as God's secrets with His Saints. While [Em ār] [Empār?] was discoursing on this song, a few disciples asked him, “What are the secrets, Sire, which the Lord spoke to the Saint?” He replied: “When the Saint, illumined by God, has himself pronounced them as secret, how can you expect me to spell them out?’

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