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Boundless generosity

March 01, 2021 09:25 pm | Updated 09:25 pm IST

Azhwars have been blessed to have the mystic vision of the transcendent Lord and their hymns are replete with their spontaneous and joyous experience of the Lord’s unique attributes, pointed out Asuri Sri Madhavachariar in a discourse. For instance, in the hymn Periya Tiruvandadi, Nammazhwar tries to enter into the Lord’s mind and he is able to visualise His magnanimity and boundless generosity to all jivatmas. In many verses he adopts the conversation mode to address the Lord directly.

In one such verse, Azhwar, seeing the Lord’s eyes that appear red, guesses that this is owing to His compassion to those devotees who have no desire for anything else and seek Him for His sake alone. He states that the Lord is naturally overtly partial to such devotees who seek Him with the aim of highest Purushartha, moksha. This echoes the Gita statement about the different types of seekers, such as those in distress or those desiring wealth, or some others wishing to attain the kaivalya state of atma anubhava. No doubt, He grants all these special requests. But there is yet another devotee who, being a jnani at heart, constantly yearns only for Him. The Lord says that such a devotee is very dear to Him. So Azhwar surmises that He is always thinking of what more can be done to such devotees.

Interpreters in this context draw attention to the way Krishna feels indebted to Draupadi. When she had to fight the humiliation meted out to her, she had resorted to Krishna as the sure protector and had surrendered to Him. While no one could help, including her husbands, the Lord sent timely help. But what is more astonishing is that since then, Krishna continues to feel that He has not done enough and wishes to do something more in response to her surrender.

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