Three Minutes Series – Faults found to be fabulous

Published from “Three Minutes” series written by A.S.Rajagopalan Swami of Ohio

kunRanaiya kuRRam seyyinum guNam koLLum InRU mudalAga en nenjE – (poigai AzhvAr, mudal tiruvantAdi – 41)

குன்றனைய குற்றஞ் செயினும் குணங்கொள்ளும் இன்று முதலாக என்னெஞ்சே, – என்றும் புறனுரையே யாயினும் பொன்னாழிக் கையான் திறனுரையே சிந்தித் திரு.

en nenjE = oh, my heart ! inRu = (from) today mudalAga = onwards seyyinum = (even when people) do kunRanaiya = mountain like kuRRam = faults
guNam koLLum = take only the good

This verse is sung by poigai AzhvAr, the first of the 10 (or 12) celebrated AzhvAr-s. AzhvAr-s were believed to have lived around 6- 8th century B.C. They were convinced that shrIman nArAyaNa is the final and ultimate God. Mesmerized by His extreme characters to rescue even the lowest people like us, these AzhvAr-s poured out their feelings in Tamil songs. This collection of 4000 verses is    called    nAlAyira    divya Prabhandam, which is the tamizh maRai equivalent of saMskR^it Vedas. Each stanza is called a pAsuram (pA + svaram = poem with music).

The Lord has innumerable qualities like    beauty,    authority,    energy, knowledge etc. But one character, dayA or mercy stands above everything. As appreciated by many of our AcArya-s, despite His power and independence, we can approach Him only because of this ocean of mercy. With His extreme kindness, he doesn’t shut the door, pardons the mistakes however many or huge they may be. All it takes is to realize one’s mistakes, pray to the Lord for the pardon and His grace, and assure oneself not to repeat those again.
The Lord’s auspicious characters goes one step further to vAtsalyam. It simply means the Lord ignores the flaws of His devotees. They don’t even appear in His eyes (this is just like, how a mother cow licks with tender loving care of its newly born calf while completely ignoring the dirt and “yuck” on the calf’s body). Everyone else outside might see the dirt, but the mother cow does not. That is the magnanimity of the Lord and    His    great    quality    called vAtsalyam. Here, the AzhvAr makes surrender to the Lord and says “From    today,    I    have    become liberated. You will protect me, guide me and will never let me do any harm to others. In case, by some accident, if I ever flawed, it will only look good to Your eyes and You will not refuse me”.

In our busy daily life, we often get mad at people for no reason, despite most of their good deeds and great qualities. At times. we are too narrowly focused on finding faults on others and somehow, the goodness slowly slips away from our conscious mind. What we do is exactly the inverse of what our Lord is doing and our scripts are preaching. Take a moment and try hard to find the goodness in people. Ignore any harm they do to you intentionally or unknowingly. You will be surprised to see how they react. You will be more surprised at how you have been changed!

To err is human, to forgive is divine.