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thiruppavai day twenty eight song twenty eight

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • January 11, 2003 


TIRUPPAVAI  - DAY TWENTYEIGHT-  SONG TWENTYEIGHT

Transliteration

kaRavaikaL pin cenRu kAnam cErnthu unpOm
aRivonRum illAtha Aykkulaththu unthannaip
piRavip peRunthanai punniyam yAmutaiyOm
kuRaiyvonRumillAtha kOvintha unthannOtu
uRavEl namakku inku oLikka oLiyAthu
aRiyAtha piLLaikLOm anpinAl unthannaic
ciRu pEr aLaiththanavum cIri arulAthE
iRaivA nI thArAy paRaiyElOr empAvAy.

Translation

Tending the cattle, we make our living.
Blessed indeed are we to have You born
In the innocent clan of the herdsmen.
Kovinta, You lack nothing!
Our binding with You is interminable.
Frown not at our innocent love,
That associates You with various names.
O God, grant us our prayers.

The twenty-eighth song of Tiruppavai can very well be said to abstract human
qualities, the association of the human with the Divine and the right sort
of attitude to be maintained by the human.

God is addressed, ‘kuraivonrumillata Kovinta’ – Kovinta who lacks nothing.
God does not lack anything even if the soul fails to realise its association
with the Divine. God, in and by Himself is complete and perfect. The human
also has a speciality about it – untannotu uravel namakku inku olikka
oliyatu – its association with the Divine is interminable.

Thus dissociation or ignorance or willful neglect on the part of the human
or any such exercise cannot undo its association with God.

The maids belong to a clan whose business is to tend the cattle and make a
living of it. Lost in the business of making a living, they may remain
unaware of their association with the Divine. They may be simpletons of the
herdsmen clan with no particular knowledge to their credit. It is a great
blessing indeed for such to have God born in their midst.

In their innocence and ignorance, they may fail to comprehend the
transcendental grace of God and may identify Him with names and deeds
associated with the manifest form of God amidst them. The prayer to God is
that such limitations on their part are ignored and GodÂ’s grace showered on
them.

Traditional interpretation identifies in this song a certain stipulation
about human exertion for achieving salvation. The songs so far reiterated
the prayer for redemption through the grace of God. Though GodÂ’s grace in
itself is an assurance for redemption, is it not to be matched with human
exertion towards redemption? In the light of such a question alone can this
song be properly understood.

The answer to the question remains in the affirmative. But it is not in
terms of any particular accomplishment or even renunciation. Human exertion
towards redemption is more a matter of attitude than a matter of action. It
is the attitude of awareness of the limitations of the human. The very
business of making a living is by nature such that it is a distraction away
from the self and the association of the self with the Divine. Therefore the
first line of the song - karavaikal pin cenru kanam cerntu unpom – we tend
the cattle to make a living.

The very birth into bodily existence means ignorance. And it is great on the
part of God to have been condescendingly gracious to place Himself in the
human context in the form of His manifestation.

 Therefore the second and third lines of the song –  Arivonrumillata
aykkulattu untannaip Piravip peruntanai punniyam yamutaiyom.

God is manÂ’s need, no doubt. But is man GodÂ’s need? This question seems to
be answered in the negative when God is addressed ‘kuraivonrumillata kovinta
’ – Kovinta who lacks nothing.

Association of the soul with the Divine has a certain inevitability about
it. It cannot be terminated by distraction into the worldly or ignorance.
Therefore ‘untannotu uraval namakku inku olikka oliyatu’ – our binding is
interminable.

Insofar as even the greatest knowledge of man is not great enough to
comprehend the Divine, even the greatest attribute of God ascribed by the
human is but insufficient to comprehend the Divine and therefore the Divine
remains for ever a Transcendental Reality. Despite such circumscription, the
grace of God is to be extended to the maids in the form of fulfillment of
their prayers.

All put together, man is distracted into the worldly; is ignorant; is
blessed with GodÂ’s presence. His association with the Divine is
interminable. He is not endowed with enough wit to comprehend the Divine.
Such being man, however does he exert himself, he cannot work out his
redemption by himself. Therefore the only way to redemption lies in total
surrender to God with an attitude of awareness of limitations and
inadequacies characteristic of embodied existence.





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