Introduction to Section 9.7

The Āḻvār sustained himself, in a way, by contemplating the Lord’s auspicious traits, as in the last decad. In the process, he, however, developed a deep yearning for direct perception of the Lord. This led him on to send emissaries to the Lord to come down and grace him with His presence. And now, here is the last of the four decads in which messages were sent to the Lord by the Āḻvār, figuratively transformed as a forlorn female lover, the other three being I-4, VI-1 and VI-8. It may be recalled that the destinations of the messages sent to the Lord in the earlier decads, were the Milk-ocean, where the Lord stays in His ‘Vyuha’ form, the seat of creative activity, His incarnate forms and His transcendental Form in Heaven as well as His ‘Antaryāmi’ or hidden Form, as the Internal Controller. The traits of the Lord, which held out a special fascination to the Nāyakī, while sending those messages, were, Forgiveness, His creed or pledge to extend protection to His devotees and His feeling of oneness with His devotees (aikarasya) (i.e.) sense of identity with them and deep compassion. The message, as in this decad, is, however, addressed to the Lord in His ‘Arca’ (Iconic, worshippable) form, the special accent being on His enchanting beauty.

Vide aphorism 156 of ‘Ācārya Hṛdayam, Put briefly, the message in this decad, to be conveyed by the birds to the Lord, is:

“Oh, Sire, enshrined as You are in Tirumūḻikkaḷam (a pilgrim centre in Kerala state), You seem to have got completely absorbed in the company of Your consorts and proximate attendants, to the exclusion of poor Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī. Alas! the Nāyakī, enthralled by Your exquisite beauty, can hardly brook separation from You any longer. Please take note of this fact and hasten to her”.