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:

சூழ்ந்து அகன்றுஆழ்ந்துயர்ந்த முடிவில் பெரும் பாழேயோ
சூழ்ந்ததனில் பெரிய பரநல் மலர்ச்சோதீயோ
சூழ்ந்ததனில் பெரிய சுடர்ஞான இன்பமேயோ!
சூழ்ந்ததனில் பெரிய என் அவாஅறச் சூழ்ந்தாயே! (2)

cūḻntu akaṉṟuāḻntuyarnta muṭivil perum pāḻēyō
cūḻntataṉil periya paranal malarccōtīyō
cūḻntataṉil periya cuṭarñāṉa iṉpamēyō!
cūḻntataṉil periya eṉ avāaṟac cūḻntāyē! (2)

English translation of verse 10.10.10:

The eternal matter that sprawls along, high and low, up and around,
The individual souls whose native intelligence does matter pervade and transcend,
You permeate them all. Oh, Lord, with Your blissful intelligence and sweet will,
My flamboyant appetite that did engulf all these three Principles,
You did appease, in full, enclosing me in Your sweet embrace.

Notes:

It was the exuberance of the Āḻvār’s love unto God that egged him on to the extreme length of binding Him upon oath, in the name of His Consort, Śrī Mahālakṣmī, vide second song of this decad. The Lord could not but respond immediately to the ardent call of the Āḻvār, saturated with God-love. And so, He did hasten to the devotee and held him in tight embrace. This was the only way the Lord could avoid being engulfed by the Āḻvār’s love for Him, which had. by now. developed to such an enormous extent like whirlwind that it assumed supra-cosmic proportions, transcending all the three entities or principles, namely, matter (Acit), soul (Cit, the Jiva) and Īśvara (the Supreme Lord, the Inner Controller of one and all, the great Ordainer). Finding that the Lord had forestalled him and proved more than a match for him by shedding on him His love, far more intense than even his own, and thus setting him at rest, the Āḻvār gratefully acknowledges the Lord’s great gesture.

It is quite an ordinary principle, amply borne out by our everyday experience, that our longing for a particular object, however intense, ceases simultaneously with its fulfilment. In other words, the moment the object of our heart is achieved, the yearning therefor is set at naught—“Iccāyā viṣaya siddhyā nāśah”. For example, the thirst is quenched by drinking water and hunger vanishes when one is fed. And so, one way of interpreting this song would be, that the Āḻvār’s longing for the Lord, deep and intense beyond words though, ceased when he attained Him. There is yet another interpretation, far more interesting, rather, edifying. It is not as if the Āḻvār’s love, which had gathered momentum down the years, had been set at naught altogether but it dwindled down to negligible proportions, when compared with the Lord’s astounding love for him, as revealed in the finale of this great saga of Divine Love.

The Āḻvār’s love, which was fast encompassing all the three Principles like the forest fire of menacing proportions, pales into insignificance, having regard to the magnitude and intensity of the love now exhibited to him by the Lord, which is comparable to Śrī Rāma’s patronising and parental love to Bharata, on their reunion at the end of ṭhe long exile. Bharata was lifted by Rama unto his lap and held in sweet embrace, like unto the fond father fondling the child, restored to him after years of separation.

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