Love for the Lord

The relationship between the Lord and the bhakta is a very complicated one. One really does not know who is manipulating whom. The Bhakta thinks that it is the Lord who loves him less and that His love is ever wavering. All the while though, it is the Lord who should be hurt and pained. But He does not for obvious reasons. He only strings the bhakta along for a ride standing by him should they fall and suffering more with every pain to the bhakta than the bhakta himself.

What I really wanted to write about was the various instances in Divya Prabhandam which made me think about this. How deeply should they have loved the Lord for them to cease thinking, even breathing to try and express their love.

Thiruppanazhwar in his amalanathipiran raptures, "seiya vaai - aiyo - en sinthai kavarnthathuve!" and yet again as "Neela meni aiyo! Nilai kondathu en ninjinaiye!

Every one knows that the Lord carries a conch. He blows it at the start of the Mahabharat. The conch is meant to blown from the mouth. Who else but the Naachiyar herself will realize and proclaim " Thirupavazha sevvai than thithuthu erukumo? - sol aazhi vensange!" (Why did not I ever think that the conch has seen the insides of His mouth? :((( )

Periazhwar who became renowned forever and has the starting honours of the Divya Prabhandam as Muthalayiram - He sings paalandu for the Emperuman Himself and worries that no one should cast an evil eye on the Lord.

Periazhwar's description of young Krishna beckoning to the moon (personifying himself as Yashoda) are beyond compare. The way He describes Krishna as "Yen siru kuttan".

Even those pasurams wherein he describes the love of the gopas and gopis of Nandagokula - "Engum arivazhindhanar Aayipadi ayare!" - They lost their senses by merely thinking of the Lord.

Swami Nammazhwar praying for eternal servitude for the Lord - "Ozhivil kallam ellam udanai manni vazhuvila adimai seiya vendum naam!!"

Thirumangai azhwar asking us to think about the Lord - when we are asleep, when we are struck by sadness - "Thunjum pothu ninaimin, thuyar varil ninaimin, thuyarileer sollinum nandram!"

Thirumangai again when he cries out " Emperuman Arullanna - Anthamil varaiyal mazhai thaduthaanai" on Thiruvallikeni Perumal

But when one thinks of Siriya Thirumadal, there seems to be nothing more pining than love of that young maiden lying in a swoon forgetting her parents, her name and why! Even herself by merely thinking about the one with the thousand names!

But then there is the Naachiyar Thirumozhi in which Thayar sings about all Her wishes to be united with Her own Lord - She dreams, she observes fasts, she sends messages, cries and pants to be with Her Lord.

I know so little about the 4000 that these are the only ones I was able to quote. How many 1000s more must there be!

But everything else is nothing compared to the Lord's own love to the bhakta as Thirumangai azhwar - "Petra thaiyinum ayina seiyum" - One who cares for His bhakta more than the mother who gave birth to him.

The love for the Lord opens the eyes of the bhakta to his follies; makes him see the maya in the world; raises aspirations in him to achieve the perfect being; reminds him of his faults and makes him forgiving and accommodating to the faults of other beings like him. It destroys his ego and makes him impervious to illness, pain, hunger, wretchedness, darkness and self pity. It elevates him to a rank above the rank of Siva and Brahma by the thought of never aspiring for those positions himself and wishing only for Saranagathi and Vaikunta Prapthi.

What can be more uplifting to the bhakta than his love for the Lord? Only the thought that the Lord loves him even more.