Pasuram 2.3.4

Tamil text and transliteration:

எனது ஆவியுள் கலந்த பெரு நல் உதவிக் கைம்மாறு,
எனது ஆவி தந்தொழிந்தேன், இனி மீள்வது என்பது உண்டே,
எனது ஆவி ஆவியும் நீ பொழில் ஏழும் உண்ட எந்தாய்,
எனது ஆவி யார்? யான் ஆர்? தந்த நீ கொண்டாக்கினையே.

eṉatu āviyuḷ kalanta peru nal utavik kaimmāṟu,
eṉatu āvi tantoḻintēṉ, iṉi mīḷvatu eṉpatu uṇṭē,
eṉatu āvi āviyum nī poḻil ēḻum uṇṭa entāy,
eṉatu āvi yār? yāṉ ār? tanta nī koṇṭākkiṉaiyē.

English translation of verse 2.3.4:

My Sire, Who did in your stomach sustain
The worlds seven, you dissolved into my soul;
For this great good, my soul I offer you, in return,
There isn’t any going back; but what is my soul?
Who am I? what is yours indeed, you have taken,
You are the Giver great, the Soul of my soul.

Notes

For all the good done to him by the Lord, the Āḻvār wanted to recompense Him and so, he offered his soul to the Lord, adding, with extra gusto, that it was a firm offer from which he would not recant. A little introspection, however, made him realise that there is hardly anything which does not belong to God and there is, therefore, no question of surrendering the soul to the Lord to whom it rightly belongs. What is it that is being surrendered and whose was it before the surrender? To surrender to the Lord that which already belongs to Him would be tantamount to the assumption of an ill-conceived right of ownership of the thing surrendered, in derogation of the divine right of ownership.

These very sentiments were echoed by Saint Yāmuna in ślokas 52 and 53 of ‘Stotra Ratna’ (hymnal gems). Well, the dilemma in which Saint Nammāḻvār and Saint Yāmunācārya were caught up, is bound to present itself to every one of us, as long as we live in this abode. Scared by the horrors of earthly existence, one is tempted to surrender one’s soul to the Lord, as if it is one’s own and could be bartered away in this manner, and. then the correction follows, based on the realisation of one’s essential nature and the inter-relationship between Man and God. Surrendering oneself unto the keeping of the Lord, with the full awareness and awakening of one’s essential nature (svarūpa), as the Lord’s own, solely dependent on Him, stands, however, on a different footing.