Episode 03 - Invocation.

E3 - INVOCATION

(கடவுள் வாழ்த்து)

உலகம் யாவையும் தாம் உளவாக்கலும்.
நிலைபெறுத்தலும். நீக்கலும். நீங்கலா
அலகு இலா விளையாட்டு உடையார்-அவர்
தலைவர்; அன்னவர்க்கே சரண் நாங்களே..    அலகு இலா = LImitless 

Know ye, who is the Godhead at whose feet 

Do we pay our soul-filled obeisance: 

He is the One who has, as His pastime 

Sans a limit, sans a pause nor interruption, 

The creation of all the worlds, this whole Universe, 

Manifest all of it, filling it all with His energy boundless; 

Nourishing, sustaining, ministering its amazing peerless Order, 

Wrought in turn, at His inscrutable Will, its wholesome annihilation 

That is the One, our GodHead, we pay our obeisance to. 

In his endeavor to place his Godhead beyond any comparison, Kamban defines,  describes that Godhead in all-inclusive omni-potent terms that could place his  Godhead as the only God energy – without a second. But at the same time, he wishes  to impress his audience that he (or his clan as he uses the plural நாங்ககள) leaves  room for a comparison by using the defining noun அன்னவர்க்கக, seeming to imply  that his/their choice couldn’t be bettered but there could be lesser choices possible.  This exudes some arrogance about the choice made and its infallibility. 

நிவல பெறுத்தலும் = Nourishing, sustaining, ministering its amazing, peerless Order:  The precision with which this Universe functions is beyond mental comprehension. Just  consider what goes on yonder over trillions of light years away and closer at home with  zillions of bodies hurtling, hurling themselves around in precise paths – elliptical, round  or whatever – causing light, darkness, seasons, deluges, implosions, or just emptiness,  fitting an incomprehensible astral jig-saw; place THAT ORDER against the chaos that  humans could create for themselves. சரண் is a Sanskrit word. Thamizh scholars sometimes raise a hue and cry about Thamizh  being “contaminated” by the use of Sanskrit words. But the imports embellish and make  the rendering of the language so much more beautiful, doesn’t it? Even the first Bard of  Thamizh, Thiruvalluvar, thought it fit to use Sanskrit words in his very first verse! 

அகர முதல் எழுத்தெல்லாம் ஆதி

பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு. (ஆதி, பகவன், இவை சம்ஸ்க்ருதச் சொற்கள்.) 

There are two more verses in this section, but this comes out best in terms of its  universality and assertion. 

We begin the second post of this series with a post-script for the last week’s: we  discussed the words அன்னவர்க்கே சரண் and noted how the word “சரண் ”, a  Sanskrit one, was chosen by Kamban. He could have used a pure Thamizh word like  'தஞ்சம்', 'புகல்' but he went in for “சரண் ”. Considering this word with more  intent, some scholars believe that the poet’s intention was to underscore the fact that  the epic is a saranagati Kaavyam. (சரணாகதி காவியம்). The core message of  Ramayana is “Saranagati” isn’t it?