The Supreme One tries in many ways to save us and give us liberation, looking for merit in us even when there is none. But we end up being undeserving of such kindness because we do not do the right thing even unwittingly.
While it may be difficult for us to resort to conscious acts of propriety and righteousness, we don’t do the right thing even indirectly. That is why Thirumangai Azhvar said that he only sinned and did nothing else and thereby qualified to be called a sinner.
But this requires some clarification. If a man is a sinner, where is the need to add that he was an out and out sinner? A commentator on Thirumangai Azhvar’s verse explains that even a sinner might do some good. This lament of the Azhvar is because he wants to say to the Lord that he has only committed sins and has done nothing else. This, in fact, is a definition that suits us because we don’t seem to do good at all, intentionally or otherwise, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan in a discourse.
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There is an interesting example of how the Lord tries to look for good even in our wicked acts hoping to save us and how we lose out even there. A man once chased a cow, hoping to get hold of it and tie it up. The cow ran round a temple and the man, chasing it, ended up circumambulating the temple. The Lord was very pleased. Here was a man who deserved His mercy, because he was going round a temple. But the man suddenly changed course. He felt that the best way to corner the cow would be to head it off and he began to run in anti-clockwise direction. So by doing this, he stopped doing the right thing.
Earlier too he had done the right thing only accidentally, and without making a conscious decision to do the right thing. But now he had given up even an incidental act of merit.