The New Year and "tiruppAvai"

From the Bhakti List Archives

• January 2, 2000


Friends,

This New year's Eve, it was particularly meaningful to
recite the verse of the day -- the 16th verse of the
'tiruppAvai' wherein the line "mani-kathavam tAl
tira-vAy..." seemed to carry more than the usual
significance.

To see the whole world waiting with bated breath for
the stroke of midnight on Dec 31, 1999, it seemed as
though all humanity was waiting for some Great Doorway
of Time to open out to a new millennium, a New Age!

At that precise instant, AndAl's expression
"manikathavam-tAl tiravAy..." seemed to resonate
through the air inside one's heart ("hrdaya-AkAsa")
like a distant temple bell tolling the break of a new
dawn... 

And immediately after the final moment of the old
millennium had chimed away and the New Year was born,
it was equally dramatic and appropriate to open with
the first line of the 17th verse: "ambaramE tannirE
sOrE aram ceyyum...", the lines in which our "pirAtti"
clearly showed that of all virtues that most
contribute to human happiness and brotherhood, it is
the virtue of "charity" ("aram-ceyyum") that is
supreme!

In the New Millennium, may we all "give" freely of
each other's love and goodness in abundant charity to
one another!

dAsan,
Sampathkumaran


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