Sage Thiru-valluvar
"The Bard of Universal Man"
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Chapter - 1 : The Praise of God
 

Introductory Note

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein

Tamil compositions begin with an invocation to God thus this first chapter is an invocation. God is hardly ever mentioned in rest of the book as it deals with universal ethics & emotions.

Translation(s)

Every speech maintains ‘A’ as its first letter. Through all the world’s domains, the ‘Primal Deity’ is the First.

Explanation

In Bhagvatgita, God Krishna tells Arjuna: “Amongst alphabets, I am 'akar'.” (10.33). The Tamil word ’bagavan’ is equal to Sanskrit word ’bhagavan’. The latter word occurs in Manu Smruti (1.6) with ‘Swayambhu’ meaning ‘self-existent’ as its attribute.

Rev. G. U. Pope says masculine termination brings out personality of the Deity, which I am not able to make out. There also a comment on first sound uttered by a new born child.

Translation(s)

Men have no fruit of all their studied lore except those who adore the feet of the ‘Purely Wise One.’

“What is the fruit that human knowledge gives,
If at the feet of Him who is pure knowledge
Due reverence be not paid?”
 – rendering by F.W.Ellis.

Explanation

The Tamil word ‘..…..’ is equal to Sanskrit word ‘paramarthatas’. It is translated as the ‘purely wise one.’

Translation(s)

Those who gain his feet ‘who has passed over the full-brown flower,’ shall dwell in bliss for a long time above the earthly plain.

Explanation

Tamil admits two translations in this couplet –‘above the earthly plain’ and ‘on the earthly plain’. The Jain deity ‘Arugan’ is represented as standing on a lotus flower.

Translation(s)

Those who gain his feet ‘whom want does not affect and grief does not irk,’ shall not complain of any woes through every time.

Explanation

Literal translation:

Sorrow never assails those who have drawn near to the foot of Him who is ‘free from desire and aversion.’ Tamil commentator says that the sorrows are ‘the sorrows of birth,’ which are threefold: (i) from oneself, (ii) from others and (iii) from God.

Translation(s)

The men who delight to dwell on the ‘King’s’ true praise; the fruits of deeds done ill or well, does not affect them.

Explanation

Rev. G.U. Pope points out: ‘The word moksha, and its equivalent Tamil vidu, and the specially Buddhist nirvana, point to the same thing though with characteristic difference.’ Not relevant to the verse.

Translation(s)

They live long blessed who freed from falsehood have stood in His path, ‘who quenched the lusts that proceed from the five sense-gates.’

Explanation

The Jain deity Arugan, called Jitendra may be referred to. It may be ‘who has extinguished them in himself’ as in Verse 25, or ‘who extinguishes them in others’:’ whose grace extinguishes in others the fires of sexual passion.’

Translation(s)

Unless men gain this foot ‘to whom none can compare,’ it is hard for the mind to find relief from anxious pain.

Explanation

The phrase- epithet ‘to whom none is like,’ relates to the “adi bagavan” of the first couplet. In fact, all other epithets in this chapter also refer to the same “adi bagavan.”

"God be prais'd, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair."
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Translation(s)

Unless men gain His feet who is the ‘Sea of Good, the Fair and Bountiful;’ it is hard to attain the further bank of being’s changeful sea.

Explanation

Rev G U Pope comments:

“‘Thus Thiruvalluvar founds his system on Love. In speaking of householder, he insists (Ch.8) on heartfelt affection as the very life of man. The ascetic, too, must have a benevolent love for all men (Ch.25) as the foundation of all. The poet approaches the subject of man’s duty in many ways:  ‘But love is the foundation of all.’”

I should take this comment elsewhere. Rev Pope puts it here as in notes he translates “virtue’s sea, the fair and loving one.”

Translation(s)

One who stands with unbent head before His foot who has the ‘Eight-fold Excellence;’ is like palsied sense, to all living functions dead.

Explanation

It is impossible to decide what eight qualities or attributes the poet refers to. The Tamil commentator says they are: (i) self-existence, (ii) essential purity, (iii) intuitive wisdom, (iv) infinite intelligence, (v) essential freedom from all bonds, (vi) infinite grace, (vii) omnipotence, (viii) infinite enjoyment.

Rev G. U. Pope’s personal view is that these could be the eight qualities mentioned by the poet in the eight preceding couplets. They are (i) eternity, (ii) wisdom, (iii) omnipresence, (iv) happiness, (v) power (the King), (vi) purity, (vii) immateriality, (viii) love.

He also makes a negative observation: “It is significant, as Ellis remarks, that every Hindu enumeration omits justice as one of the attributes of God”.

Translation(s)

Those, who gain the ‘Monarch’s’ foot, swim the sea of births. None others reach the shore of being’s mighty main.

Explanation

The end is absorption into the Divine Essence. This is the poet’s ‘further bank,’ to which he attains after swimming over the ‘sea of birth.’

Summary Note

The various epithets applied to god in this chapter are:
(i) The eternal (first adorable one – (Ati bagavan)
(ii) He who has pure knowledge (Valarivan)
(iii) He who has moved (as a breath of air) over the flower (of the expanded soul)(……..)
(iv) He to whom is neither desire nor aversion (……..)
(v) The Lord (….)
(vi) He who has destroyed the gates of the five senses [?without parts or passions] (…..)
(vii) He to whom no likeliness is (…)
(viii) The ocean of virtue, beautiful and gracious one (…)
(ix) He who possess eight attributes (…)
(x) The Lord (,,,)]

Rev. G.U. Pope comments as under:

“The eclectic poet has selected, I suppose, the choicest epithets existing in the language, and several of which admit of being explained in various senses.

There is - and the poet intended this – ample room for men of many systems to import into these verses, under the guise of commentaries their own dogmas. The ten great Tamil commentators, belonging to as many systems, have done this with much ingenuity.

Ellis sees in them an enlightened and sublime monotheism. To Beschi they were exponents of the Christian theology, and without doubt, Christian influences most affected him.

The Jains, delighted with his skilful appropriation of one or two beautiful terms from their writings, claim him as their own”.

There are many comments in this chapter by Rev. G.U. Pope which I have ignored

At the feet of Thiruvalluvar'
Thiruvalluvar Memorial (133 Feet, 7000 Tonnes), Kanyakumari,India
Credit: Btsuga, Flickr

References