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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00166 Dec 2003

 
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Dear friends,

(8) "dEvAdi devanai senru nAm sEvitthAl "ah, ah" enru
aaraaindhu arUL.."

"If we approach Him en mass we shall delight the
'God-of-gods' with our worship" -- is the literal
translation of the expression "dEvAdi devanai senru
nAm sEvitthAl?"

A moment of deep reflection upon this phrase
transports us at once into contemplation upon the
supreme Bliss of Heaven the Vedic 'sruti' speaks
about. It is the Bliss of Pure Grace -- known as
"arUL" -- that is known to descend upon worshippers of
a 'satsangh'. (AndAl ends her song in fact with the
promise of precisely this "arUL" for all lovers of the
TiruppAvai ---"engUm tiruv-arUL petru inburu-var?").
This is the Bliss of God Himself. It is limitless and
immeasurable Joy called "brahmAnandam".

The phrase "dEvAdi devan" and "ah, ah" are both
extremely significant in this verse as they are
reminiscent of the great message of the Taittiriya
Upanishad contained in the famous sections known
"Ananda-valli" and "brghu-valli".

The "ah, ah" is exclamation of ineffable joy? the Joy
"that passeth understanding". The nearest anyone can
come to measuring or explaining the experience of
God's Joy is simply to exclaim "ah, ah". The Joy of
Brahman is of such nature that no mortal words can
convey or depict it. The Upanishad -- in two
magnificent sections called the "Anandavalli" and
"brghu-valli" -- however set out to try and
objectively measure the delight of God, the Supreme
Brahman. It eventually admitted failure. 

The "anandavalli" attempted measuring the Bliss of God
mathematically on a graded scale of "Ananda". Firstly,
it took the highest bliss on earth a man could
possibly experience and designated it as "one unit of
Joy". It then went on to extrapolate the joy of beings
higher than Man i.e. the lesser gods or "dEvas". It
did so by progressively raising Man's "unit of joy",
step-by-step, to the next higher power using a factor
of 100. The bliss of the god known as "gandharva" was
said to be 100 times that of Man. The "ananda" of a
"dEva" was 100 times that of a "gandharva".
"Brhaspati's" joy was 100 times greater than that of
any other "dEva" and "prajapati's" "ananda" was 100
times more than that of "brhaspati"? And so on and so
forth, until finally, through a calculus of values,
the Upanishad arrived at what it called a very rough
estimate of "one unit of the Bliss of Brahman" -- the
"devAdi dEvan" i.e. the God who is the God of all
gods. This "unit of Bliss" of the "dEvAdi-dEvan" was
conceived as being many million-fold that of Man's
unit of Joy! 

Next, the "brghu-valli" passage in the Upanishad asked
itself the question, "How may such 'Ananda' of
Brahman, God-of-gods or "dEvadi-dEvan", be described?"
The Upanishad became speechless with awe and ecstasy
and could say little more than this:  

           "Ha?ooh-aah! Ooh-hA, ooh!" 

AndAl, our gret poetess of SriVilliputthur, gleefully
drew from the Upanishad's own inspiration above and
promptly used it all in the TiruppAvai through the
delightful poetic expression "dEvAdi devanai senru nAm
sEvitthAl, "ah, ah" enru aaraaindhu arUL.."!

                  ********

God's "arUL" is the reward for Man's labour of love
(i.e. "sEvitthal"). But the reward carries a
condition? one that is subtly conveyed through the
phrase "nAm sEvitthAl". Like the proverbial "legal
fine print", this is a crucial term quite often easily
glossed over or overlooked. It is a condition of the
"If-and-only-if" variety and its implication is that
expressions of love for God, and petitions for His
Grace, if they are to truly arouse God's Delight or
"brahmAnanda" within our souls, they are better
represented collectively? i.e. through "satsangh"
rather than through individual plea. 
                  ***********
               (to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan
                   



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