Pasuram 7.6.1

Tamil text and transliteration:

பாமரு மூவுலகும் படைத்த பற்ப நாபாவோ,
பாமரு மூவுலகும் அளந்த பற்ப பாதாவோ,
தாமரைக் கண்ணாவோ! தனியேன் தனிஆளாவோ,
தாமரைக் கையாவோ! உன்னை என்றுகொல் சேர்வதுவே? (2)

pāmaru mūvulakum paṭaitta paṟpa nāpāvō,
pāmaru mūvulakum aḷanta paṟpa pātāvō,
tāmaraik kaṇṇāvō! taṉiyēṉ taṉiāḷāvō,
tāmaraik kaiyāvō! uṉṉai eṉṟukol cērvatuvē? (2)

English translation of verse 7.6.1:

Oh, Paṟpanāpā, Who created the worlds three, vast and varied.
Oh, Lord with lotus feet that spanned the sprawling worlds three,
Oh, Lotus-eyed, You are the Master unique of this soul lonely;
Oh, Lord, with lotus hands, when do I attain Your feet comely?

Notes:

(i) Paṟpanāpā (Padmanābhā): The Supreme Lord, the Primate, from whose navel sprouted the lotus stalk; from the lotus flower at the upward end of that stalk, emerged Brahmā who gave birth to all the rest. The navel of the Lord thus proclaims Him as the First and Foremost.: The implication of the address in the opening line is: “Oh my Sire, can You who created all things, destroy me? I am on the verge of extinction”,

(ii) The worlds created by the Lord were misappropriated by Mahā Bali unto himself and hence the Lord had to wrest them back from him. Thus there is reference to the spanning of the worlds by the Lord as Tṛvikrāma. The Lord set His feet then on all and sundries but now He would deny those very feet to the Āḻvār who pines for them.

(iii) The Āḻvār was enthralled by the Lord’s lotus eyes and thenceforward he has been subsisting on them alone. How then can the Lord withdraw from the Āḻvār his very sustenance?

(iv) It was with His lotus hands that Śrī Kṛṣṇa embraced Akrūra and the same hands dealt a mortal blow to Kaṇṭākarṇa. And now, the Āḻvār is not asking the Lord to embrace him as He embraced Akrūra but only wants Him to say when exactly He would lift him unto His lotus feet, even as He, as Lord Rāma, assured Bharata about His return to Ayodhyā from exile at the end of fourteen years.