Translated by Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

The Real Protector

Till the last posting we have seen how Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar has shown that none of the relatives, devatas and wealth can protect a soul from samsara. With the case of elimination, Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar finally discusses about the actual protector.

Iswaran mAthA pithAkkal vitta avasthaiyilum pinnu nindru adiyEnukku uttrAnAi valarthu en uyirAgi nindrAn...

Sriman Narayan is the one who always stands in the background to protect every soul. In fact, he could accomplish this by standing in front, but we as ignorant souls will immediatley be banking only on ourselves instead of Him. He does not just protect us, but very much gets into our heart and develops all the jnAnam required by one to perform surrender and hence attain nitya kaimkarya prApthi. Finally, He also becomes the life of the soul by being the antaryAmin. Once He has accomplished all these tasks, the soul will reach a stage where it will not want to leave Him. This aspect is very much evident from the life of Azhwars.

engnganEyO annaimIrgAL! ennai munivadhu nIr?,\
nangaL kOlath thirukkuRungudi nambiyai nAn kaNda pin,
sanginOdum nEmiyOdum thAmaraik kaNgaLodum,
senganivA onRinOdum selginRathen nenjchamE

Nammazhwar blames his mother and her neighbours for the status that he is in, after seeing Thirukkurungudi Nambi. His mother was the first to show Nambi to him. Once he had seen him, he was not ready to leave Nambi. Azhwar could not resist singing on Nambi. Whenever he closed his eyes (not to see Nambi), Azhwar would get the image of Nambi. When he opened his eyes, Nambi was standing in front of him. Such was the state of Azhwar after having seen Nambi. This is the kind of state that the soul will get to when Perumal enters into it.

Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar does not stop with this. He continues with:

engirapadiyE thAn urukeduthu vErruru koNdu thAi mukham kAttiyum insollu solliyum brAthAkkalum barthAkkalum negizhakkaNdu thAn nErittuk koNdu kazhuthilE Olai kattik koNdu thoodhu pOyum, puruvam neritha idathilE thErai nadAthiyum mArpilE anbEtrum sAvAmal nOkkiyum, sethArai meettum nArAyana prayukthathAle udhara tharippAle agavAyilE nindru sathaiyai nOkki nirkaiyAle rakshagan AvAn..

Let us get into each of the above aspects of Sriman Narayanan and conclude the series in the next posting.