based on the vyakhyanam of Sri Periyavaccan Pillai
by Smt Sumithra Varadarajan

soodhanAi kalvanAgi dhoordharOdu esaindha kAlam: Here alwar recollects how he lost track of bhagavan for sometime involved in the lowkika affairs. He says he became a cheat and a gambler. This happened due to the dushsangam with devadevi. He got attracted by her beauty and went at the back of her. He lost all his property and shed all his ego and begged for her love. In the course, alwar totally forgot who he was and what his actual job was. He forgot that the jeevatma belongs only to the bhagavan and can never become a dasan of anyother jeevatma other than emperuman.

mAdarAr kayarkanennum valayul pattu azhundhuvEnai: The main reason for alwar loosing himself is the beauty of devadevi. Alwar was actually already enjoying the most beautiful thing, Namperumal but unfortunately the lowkika kamam made him fall in its net and get deeply involved in it. Will then bhagavan get angry and just leave alwar to undergo the samsaric miseries? No, bhagavan says in Bhagavat gita, "namE bhaktha: pranashyathi"(my bhaktha will never go in vein). Bhagavan's words will never go false. So whatever papam or bad qualities a bhaktha may possess bhagavan considers it to be his duty to change him and bring him to the right path. So we need not worry that we are unable to change ourself. Rely on him and he will surely do it since he also has the capacity and thiruvullam(sankalpam) to do it. We jeevatmas are full of bad qualities and no sukrutham still bhagavat krupai is always there to protect us. Alwar now shows how bhagavat krupai changed him.

pOdharE endru solli pundiyutpugundhu: Emperuman always shows his abhaya hastham to us. This is like telling all of us, who refrain to go to him thinking of the number of disqualification we have, that he will never let us go and like ordering us not to leave. Namperumal never lets his hand down he always keeps it in abhaya mudra to give abhayam to all of us. A-bhayam means "be without fear". If we fall into his feet then we need not fear about anything. Piratti stayed in ashokavana. After Rama ravana war she had to undergo the agni parikshai, though perumal and others very well knew that she was pure and sinless. But then in case of ahalya, perumal just cleansed her with his feet. Perumal very well knew that piratti can withstand the agni parikshai and come out successful. But that was not the case with ahalya so he took it as his responsibility to remove her sins. We all have a number of sins and we do not have any ability to purify ourselves so emperuman does it on our behalf. He says, "abhichetu durAchAraha bhajathe mam ananya bhAgh" (you may have number of bad qualities but still do bhagavat bhajanam also. In that case which will work the papam or bhagavat bhajanam? Bhagavan in this case changes the bhaktha and gives the palan). But bhagavan condemns those who act against his words. "shrutis smriti mamai vakhyam…….Agyam chEthi mama drohi". Though he condemns people acting against the sastras still if he is a bhakthan then emperuman takes the pain of correcting him and bringing him to right path before giving the palan. Actually a true bhakthan, does everything for the happiness of bhagavan and hence even though he does some mistakes due to his vasana he will surely soon correct them since it will not make Krishna happy. Even in alwar's case emperuman made him understand his mistake and feel for it. Alwar was a bhakthan earlier, but suddenly he got involved in lowkika pleasures so emperuman did what had to be done to change him. Alwar says, emperuman not only told me not to do this externally he also went into my senses and instructed me. Others can advice only from outside. Some may even listen to the advises and want to change but their dush sangam will make them do the same mistake again. But emperuman alone has the capacity to go into our minds and instruct us so that we do not do the mistake again.

thanpAl Adaram perugavaiththa azhaganoor arangamandre: what is protection? Raksha is the Sanskrit word for protection. The definition to this word is "prathikoola nivruthi and anookola prApthi". That is the evil effects have to be removed and the good effect has to be given. This is protection. Now emperuman who is the sole protector of all of us, has done the same to alwar. He restricted alwar from going to dushsangam and now he is giving him satsangam. Earlier alwar was involved in the love with a jeevatma(devadevi) which is temporary but now emperuman had changed alwar's vision towards him. Perumal has shown alwar that his beauty is many many times greater than devadevi's and that her beauty is only one in billionth of his. When one thing is greater than the other then we prefer the more beautiful one. Not only that emperuman is greater than anything in all ways and though he has such greatness still he is highly accessible since he is lying in srirangam only very near to us. That's why alwar says the azhaganoor(the place of man of beauty) is nothing other than arangam(Srirangam). Another important thing is that emperuman and his gunas are always constant and never changes like in other cases.