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...
Pasuram 6.4.11
Tamil text and transliteration:
நாயகன் முழு ஏழ் உலகுக்கும் ஆய் முழு ஏழ் உலகும், தன்
வாயகம் புக வைத்து உமிழ்ந்து அவை ஆய் அவை அல்லனும் ஆம்,
கேசவன் அடி இணைமிசைக் குருகூர்ச் சடகோபன் சொன்ன
தூய ஆயிரத்து இப்பத்தால் பத்தர் ஆவர் துவள் இன்றியே.
nāyakaṉ muḻu ēḻ ulakukkum āy muḻu ēḻ ulakum, taṉ
vāyakam puka vaittu umiḻntu avai āy avai allaṉum ām,
kēcavaṉ aṭi iṇaimicaik kurukūrc caṭakōpaṉ coṉṉa
tūya āyirattu ippattāl pattar āvar tuvaḷ iṉṟiyē.
English translation of verse 6.4.11:
Those that learn these songs ten, out of the immaculate thousand
Composed by Caṭakōpaṉ of Kurukūr, adoring the lovely pair of feet
Of Kēcavaṉ, the Lord Supreme of the entire Universe Who sustained
All the worlds in His stomach and then spat them out,
Who pervades them all and would all the same
From them remain apart, will blemishless devotees become.
Notes
(i) Blemishless devotees: Those that learn these songs will be exclusively devoted to Lord Kṛṣṇa, like Saint Nammāḻvār. It is this exclusive devotion like unto that of Toṇṭaraṭippoṭi Āḻvār for the holy Śrīraṅgam, that the word ‘blemishless’ connotes.
(ii) The immaculate thousand: Contrary to his prefatory resolve to write out Śrī Rāma’s life story, Śrī Vālmīki introduced quite a few extraneous anecdotes, such as the genesis of Gangā, birth of Kārthikeya and so on. Likewise, Sage Vyāsa made no secret of his intention to tell the story of Lord Nārāyaṇa but got terribly discursive and literally turned his Mahābhārata into a war-memoir, with a bewildering maze of episodes, inter-twined and inter-locked. On the other hand, true to his resolve in ‘Tiruviruttam’, the first of his four works, that he would sing the praise of ‘Tirumāl’ (Mahā Viṣṇu) and nothing but that, Nammāḻvār kept up the tempo throughout, uninterrupted by anything else and thus his works became the cream of the whole compendium of ‘Divya Prabhandham’, even as ‘Puruṣa Sūktaṃ’ gets the pride of place among the Vedas, ‘Manu Smṛti’, among the Dharma Śāstras, ‘Bhagavad Gītā’ in Mahābhārata and ‘Viṣṇu Purāṇa’, among the Purāṇas. Thus ‘Tiruvāymoḻi’ is pure and unalloyed.