Periya Tiruvantāti
• October 1, 1974
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Periya Tiruvantāti (Periya Tiru Antati) is a poem of eighty-seven stanzas, each stanza a venba, a special kind of four-lined verse in Tamil. Why the poem is called Periya Tiruvantati has been already explained.
To trace a definite logical link between stanza and stanza the poem will be difficult, perhaps unprofitable, though theology may desire and has attempted it. Each stanza may be considered as an independent lyric, and each is a gem, revealing one mood or state of being of Nammalvar. All the stanzas are connected, however, by association resulting from singleness of theme which is the love of God, and the trials, the failures and the successes of that journey of love.
Quite a number of verses in the poem are addressed by Nammalvar to his own heart. Here are some of them and it will be seen that they express different moods ranging from stern disapproval and misgiving to elation. The first is an invitation by the Alvar to his heart to join him in praising God:
Labouring under your burden, Why do you still run ahead of me? Come, tarry a little, join me. Together we will fashion Words running soft and sweet on the tongue, Words of praise to Him Who is dark as the Kaya 1 flower. 2
Alvar wonders at his own greed in trying to reach God.
The eight Vasus, The eleven Rudras, And the twelve suns Who worship Him? To think of reaching Him indeed, What a sin! Do you realize, my good heart, How over-weening our greed is? 3
The Alvar feels worried over his wayward heart:
To push me deep and deeper into sorrow and suffering? It is you, my heart, What is the good of advising you? Wayward, irascible, you would never listen to me. Come, turn in praise to His feet. There, that is what we should do. 4
The Alvar encourages his heart telling it that words of praise to God, however weak, will not lessen His infinitude:
He reclines aware, eyes closed, on the sea, The loud waves caressing His feet. You can sing His praise again and again. Brushing aside our miseries. Do you imagine, foolish one, Our paltry words will erode His greatness? 5
The Alvar pleads with his heart to speak of God always even if it were in mockery:
You could speak of Him in dispraise, Laughing if you like At the Lord of Mystery, He of the sweet tulasi wreath, At how he was beaten By a woman of the cowherds. You hang back even from that. That is your curse. 6
The Alvar is distressed that divine grace has not reached him:
To protect even the mute cows. [^ In Krishna avatara. ] How comes it then That He does not relent, Does not reveal His form Though I stand begging all day, every day? Is the earth where we stand So steep, my heart, That even his Grace cannot flow upward here? 7
`The world of man is sweet,’ says the Alvar, `but far sweeter the world of God’:
Sweet one’s family branching wide, Sweet is the love of kinsmen, Sweet are the uses of noble birth. Yet, my good heart, Do taste the limitless sweet of His praise, He whose divine bow is ever bent To protect those who love Him. 8
The poem ends with an appeal to the heart that it should ever try to dwell on His praise. It seems however, that as he confesses early in the poem, the Alvar did succeed in persuading his straying heart to walk the straight and narrow path:
We have beaten with the Grace Of our Lord dark-hued, All our evil Karma And driven it into the wild. 9
There are moving direct appeals to God in the poem:
What thou dost think Of doing to us? Wilt Thou say "Go your way" And forsake us? Or wilt Thou reveal to us Thy form darkly bright as a mango tendril? We do not know, We have not known from the beginning of time What dost thou think of doing to us. Whatever Thy will Will we not endure it? 10
The Alvar feels helpless lacking the will to follow the right:
I see what is good and what is evil, But it is beyond me To follow the one and give up the other. Whatever am I to do? 11
Knowing that God is beyond him, the Alvar's love still goes out to Him:
O Thou too subtle to be seen by us, Sinners that we are, We know neither the way to Thee Nor how to near Thee. Yet our love for Thee flows, a rising tide, Tell us how or why. 12
The Alvar asks of God only one boon, not to forget Him:
I have ripened and lost myself In Thy grace, Do not change, I pray Thee. I do not desire freedom from birth, Nor to be Thy servitor in Heaven. All the wealth I want Is not to forget Thee. 13
Though in many places in the poem, Nammalvar speaks of the suffering and apparently unavailing nature of his quest, there are verses that indicate the joy of fulfilment:
The poovai, the kaya, the neelam and the kavi flowers, Unworthy though I be, My weak spirit and my body thrill and grow In pride and joy That all these are but the Lord’s form. 14
`This is enough,’ Nammalvar says, `To love Him is more precious to me than even the Heaven that is His final gift.’ 15
Whose praise is greater? I have given my heart wholly away To the Lord, dark as the sea, To His infinite, dark glory and grace. 16
This love of his has been, Nammalvar records, amply rewarded. `He has come into my heart,’ the Alvar cries, `There is nothing more to wish for’:
So distant from us, He who changes his form so, That no one can near Him, He the infinite mystery Who on that distant day Measured the worlds with His feet, Has today come to me. How, I do not know, And life is Passing sweet. 17
The Alvar wonders who is greater, he or God:
Are within Thee. But Thou hast entered through the ear Into my heart and remainest there ever. Think of it, Lord of the discus That savours the blood of evil ones, Who can know who is greater, Thou or I? 18
In range and in moving quality, `Periya Tiruvantati' is almost an epitome of the Alvar's magnum opus, `Tiruvaymoli'.
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1 A dark blue wild-flower. (↑)
2 Periya Tiruvantati 1.
muyaṟṟi sumantheẕhunthu munthuṟṟa neñcē,
iyaṟṟuvāy emmodun^ī kūḍi,-nayappuḍaiya
nāveṉ thoḍaikkiḷavi yuḷpothivōm, naṟpūvaip
pūvēṉṟa vaṇṇaṉ pugaẕh (↑)
3 Periya Tiruvantati 10.
iruṇṇālvar īraiṉthin mēloruvar, ettō
toruṉ^ālvar ōriruvar allāl, thirumāṟku
yāmār vaṇakkamār ēpāvam nanneñcē
nāmā migavudaiyōm nāẕh? (↑)
4 ibid. 12.
nīyaṉṟē āẕhtuyaril vīẕhvippāṉ niṉṟuẕhaṉṟāy?
pōyoṉṟu solliyeṉ? pōneñcē,-nīyeṉṟum
kāẕhthupathē samthariṉum kaikollāy, kaṇṇaṉ thāḷ
vāẕhththuvathē kaṇḍāy vaẕhakku. (↑)
5 ibid. 15.
pārththōr ethirithā neñcē, paduthuyaram
pērththōthap pīḍaẕhivām pēccillai,-ārththōtham
thammēni thāḷthadavath thāṅkiḍanthu, thammudaiya
semmēṉik kaṇvaḷarvār sīr. (↑)
6 ibid. 38. The allusion is to how Yasoda, mother of Krishna, punished Him for His childish pranks.
pālāẕhi nīkiḍakkum paṇpai, yām kēṭṭēyum
kālāẕhum neñcaẕhiyum kaṇcuẕhalum,-nīlāẕhic
cōthiyāy! āthiyāy! tholviṉaiyem pālkadiyum,
nīthiyāy! niṟsārnthu niṉṟu. (↑)
7 Periya Tiruvantati 74.
eṉṟum oruṉ^āḷ oẕhiyāmai yāṉiranthāl,
oṉṟum iraṅgār urukkāṭṭār,-kuṉṟu
kuḍaiyāga ākāththa kōvalaṉār, n^eñcē!
puḍaithāṉ perithē puvi. (↑)
8 ibid. 78.
thuṇai^nāḷ peruṅkiḷaiyum tholkulamum, suṟṟath
thiṇai^nāḷu miṉpuḍaiththā mēlum, kaṇai^nāṇil
ōvāth thoẕhilsārṅkan tholsīrai n^anneñcē,
ōvātha vūṇāka uṇ. (↑)
9 ibid. 26.
yāṉumeṉ Nneñcum isainthoẕhinthōm, valviṉaiyaik
kāṇum malaiyum pugakkadivāṉ,-thāṉōr
iruḷaṉṉa māmēṉi emmiṟaiyār than^tha,
aruḷeṉṉum thaṇḍāl aḍiththu. (↑)
10 Periya Tiruvantati 6.
neṟikāṭṭi nīkkuthiyō, niṉpāl karumā
muṟimēṉi kāṭṭuthiyō, mēṉāḷ-aṟiyōmai
eṉseyvā Nneṇṇiṉāy kaṇṇaṉē, īthuraiyāy
eṉseythā leṉpadōm yām? (↑)
11 ibid. 3.
ivaiyaṉṟē nalla ivaiyaṉṟē thīya,
ivaiyeṉ ṟivaiyaṟiva Nnēlum,-ivaiyellām
eṉnāl adaippuṉ^īk koṇṇā thiṟaiyavaṉē,
eṉnāl seyaṟpāla theṉ? (↑)
12 ibid. 8.
arugum suvaḍum therivuṇarōm, aṉbē
perugum migavithuveṉ? pēsīr,-parugalaam
paṇpuḍaiyīr! pāraḷanthīr! pāviyēmkaṇ kāṇpariya
nuṇpuḍaiyīr nummai numakku.
Another interpretation is that God's love for man is ever-growing. (↑)
13 ibid. 58.
mālē! paḍicchōthi māṟṟēl, iṉiyunathu
pālēpōl sīril puẕhuththoẕhinthēṉ,-mēlāl
piṟappiṉmai peṟṟaḍikkīẕhk kuṟṟēva laṉṟu,
maṟappiṉmai yāṉvēṇḍum mādu. (↑)
14 Periya Tiruvantati 73.
pūvaiyum kāyāvum nīlamum pūkkiṉṟa,
kāvi malareṉṟum kāṇthōṟum, pāviyēṉ
mellāvi meymigavē pōrikkum, avvavai
ellām pirāṉuruvē eṉṟu. (↑)
15 ibid. 53.
oṉṟuṇdu seṅkaṇmāl! yāṉuraippathu, uṉṉaḍiyārk
keṉseyva Nneṉṟē yiriththiṉ^ī,-niṉpugaẕhil
vaikumtham sinthaiyilum maṟṟinithō, nīyavarkku
vaikuṉtha meṉṟaruḷum vāṉ? (↑)
16 ibid 4.
eṉṉiṉ migupugaẕhār yāvarē, piṉṉaiyummaṟ
ṟeṇṇil migupugaẕhēṉ yāṉallāl,-eṉṉa
karuñcōthik kaṇṇaṉ kadalpuraiyum, sīlap
peruñcōthik keṉṉecāt peṟṟu? (↑)
17 ibid. 56.
varavāroṉ ṟillaiyāl vāẕhviṉithāl, ellē!
oruvā ṟoruvaṉ pugavāṟu,-urumāṟum
āyavardhām sēyavardhām aṉṟulagam thāyavardhām,
māyavardhām kāṭṭum vaẕhi. (↑)
18 ibid. 75.
puviyum iruvisumpum ṇiṉakaththa, ṇīyeṉ
seviyiṉ vaẕhipuguntheṉ Ṉuḷḷāy,-aviviṉṟi
yāṉperiyaṉ ṇīperiyai eṉpathaṉai yāraṟivār,
ūṉparuku Ṇēmiyāy! uḷḷu. (↑)
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