guNavAn

The meaning of "guNavAn" is the quality of saushIlyam.

The first question is "ka: guNavan?". Many people interpret this as Valmiki asking about a person with high qualities in general. However, since the rest of the questions are all about specific qualities, one has to take it that this question too is about one specific auspicious quality. In a similar fashion, Alavandar in his Stotra Ratna shloka 18 has used this word specific to one quality.

Purvacharyas have said that this specific quality is "saushIlyam". This is the charactersitic of a great person mixing with one and all without consideration to his greatness. Since this quality is far superior to other qualities, it is simply identified as the "guNa".

Let us see how this characteristic is shown by Sri Rama.

Avatara

The very fact that Sriman Narayana descended into this world is an exhibition of His saushIlyam.

In his Atimanusha Stavam, Kooraththazhvan starts the tenth shloka with "shIla: ka eSha tava hanta". That is, who can say anything about His divine shIla guNa? Azhvan is melting thinking about the fact that He who is not visible to anyone, descended into this world and became visible to one and all. This is the same as Azhvar fainting for six months when saying "piRandhavARum".

What is avatara?

The word avatAra means descending. This does not have to be interpreted as Him coming down from His lofty abode of paramapadham into this lowly world. His rejecting His lofty status and accepting a lowly one is also avatAram.

His lofty states are:

• One who is not visible to anyone. He gave that up and took on states such as "He is in Ayodhya now; He is in Chitrakootam now; etc." and that when He is in those places, He is not present anywhere else.
• One who is always there for all time. He gave that up and became Sri Rama at one time and that He is not in that form at other times.
• One who is everything. Azhvars say "nIrAy nilanAyth thIyAyk kAlAy neduvAnAych sIrAr sudargaL iraNdumAych sivanAy ayanAnAy", "thAyAyth thandhaiyAy makkaLAy maRRumAy muRRumAy". Yet in His avatAram, He became associated with just one form; that of Sri Rama.

Thus, giving up His lofty states and taking on lowly ones is avatAra.