1

Daiva Dasakam
( A Prayer in Ten Verses)
Sree Narayana Guru

1. Daivame kaathu koLka angu

Kai vidaat ingu njangaLae
Naavikan nee bhavaabdhikkor-
Aavi vantONi nin padam

daivame- O God
kaattu kolka- confine (us) in your succor, protect( us ); make( us) secure;
angu- there. ( The state of absolute security is seen as something far
removed by the seekers who consider themselves to be away from God )
kai- hand
vidaate- not letting go of; without de linking; without disconnecting; without
with holding support.
ingu- here
njangale- us
naavikan- sailor; captain of a ship; helmsman
bhavaabdhi- the turbulent ocean of life, ocean of life's sufferings.
aavi vantony sure, secure and efficient vessel like a steam ship.
Nin- Your
Padam- foothold; stance; footing; position;

God! Keep us ever in Thy succor, there;

Forsake us not, my Lord here,
Thou the helmsman, and Thy foothold,
Sure vessel, on rough seas of life!

Daivam (God) is the word with which this opening verse begins and padam
(foohold; stance- position) with which it reaches its culmination. Daivam,
we may note, is very much like `Our Father " of Jesus and `Allah' of The
Holy Koran. It does not ascribe to God any specific name , form or other
appellations: names like Krishna, Rama, Yahova,; forms like ` `five headed',
`serpent like', etc.; appellations and dispositions like crowned, enthroned,
with matted locks, wearing specific weapons , dancing, mirthful, wrathful,
courting, crucified , weeping etc. See that daivam does not admit even
 2

gender difference like male god and female god. Sree Narayana Guru has
here in one stroke freed the concept of God from all limiting adjectives and
put that in the frameless- ness of the infinite!. True, what is infinite is
indefinable. However, if we should ever relate to it ( and when we pray, that
is primarily what we do: attempting to relate ourselves to God) it has to be
somehow brought within definitions. I believe The Guru has provided a
definition in this very stanza.

The first line projects a plea: a plea for succor, security or safety. Such a plea
can go only from one who finds oneself insecure, to one who is the
repository of all security; from a position of insecurity to a position of
security. Therefore, in daivame kaathukolkangu kaividaathingu njangale ,
the prayer is one that seeks from a position of insecurity to relate and reach
out to a position or person that is absolute security. In so doing, God is being
defined as `Absolute Security'.
What could be the nature and manifestations of `insecurity' in human
situation? What are the fears that haunt us? We fear that life cannot go on
forever. We fear that there may not be enough of all those things we need in
life, like food, clothes, dwelling, health, enjoyment, love, companionship,
friendship, position, recognition etc. This could be an unending list that in
summing up would be the entirety of human misery or what is called in the
terminology of general Indian spirituality, bhava sagara ( The sea of the
created /suffering). In this poem, the Guru calls it Bhavabdhi- the ocean of
the created ( Worldly Suffering).

It has been said of `fear' that it proceeds from the awareness of the other and
the incomprehensible. This often is understood as the fear of the other
person or other being. However, this could also be the other situation. The
frame of reference is one in which the other situation is pitted against what
could be called the own situation or home situation. In this frame, home
situation is one in which all is in place, comfortable, peaceful, fulfilling etc.
and the other situation is where all is in disarray, uncomfortable, diverse,
painful insufficient, lacking etc. Seen thus, where there is absolute and
perfect security it is the epitome of the home situation and a personage
endowed with this ultimate security could be termed as the perfectly at
home personage. Seen from this standpoint of this personage, all should
appear as coherent, agreeable, loveable and blissful.

God as the haven of absolute protection and provision, is seen here as

distanced from the human situation as` angu' (there). The human situation is
 3

a forsaken `ingu' (here) from where a desperate cry of ` Oh ! Lord, leave us

not here ' – kai vidaat- ingu njangale could emanate. The fervent plea
kaathu kolka not only does seek succor but vividly suggests the very means
by which that may be achieved. It is by means of koLka ( by being received
into God's being; by being gathered back into or contained by God's being).
The knowledge that one is remaining within God's being is the state of the
Garden of Eden and to be exiled from His being is to be cast in the desperate
ingu (here) which is the misery and sin of the fall of man.

It is the state of being one with God that the poem addresses as ` your
foot hold ' – nin padam. We may hear the same idea from The Guru in
Chijjadacintanam :where the spiritual aspirant directly begs of God for his
footing -`nin nila’ :
Nilamodu neruppu niraNNozukum
Jalamaasukanambaram anchilume
Alayaateyadikkadi nalkuka Nin
Nila yiNNitutanne Namukku mati.

(Not for me,The earth the Fire and the Water that reaches out
everywhere, nor the Air nor the Sky. May I no longer wallow in the five of
these. My sole goal is Thy Station!, My Lord ! That is my one fulfillment.
It is the experience from this God's own footing that is encapsulated
in these blazing words of Sathya Sai Baba :

"The moment you see your own inner beauty and are so filled with it that
you forget all else, you become free from all bonds. You realize that you are
all beauty, all the glory, all the power, all the magnificence of the universe,
for the Jiva (the individual) is the reflection of God in the mirror of Nature.
Once you attain self-realization, you recognize everyone else as but the
reflection of yourself. This is the true basis of the unity of mankind. "

First to conceptually envisage this foothold and then gradually to

practice getting into His Shoes is what one may do to cross over from the
quagmire of worldly insecurity to the Perfection and Bliss that God is. That
is why God's footing is described as the sure and secure vessel like a sturdy
steam ship ( aavi van thoni ). Once he gets into this God's footing and the
voyage sets off, the marooned mariner should realize that he himself is the
helmsman, on whom he depended to be ferried across.
 4

This could be read as paralleling the THY WILL BE DONE footing of

Jesus Christ. (Luke.11.2-4) " take away this cup from me: nevertheless not
what I will, but what thou wilt". (Mark.14.36) In the Gethsemane is to be
seen the transition from the bitter constricted cup of body- mind
centeredness to the unbounded ocean of nectarine Love that THE WILL OF
GOD is. The cup is bitter and is filled with insecurity, while the WILL OF
GOD is abiding security and all encompassing Love. That is the Love
extolled by St. John in: "God is love; and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth
in God and God in him". (John-1. 4.16). The Angel greeting of ` Lord is with
thee!’ also may be read as being of the self same tune.

When one is gathered back unto God, he should feel `I am God ';
`Sivoham' – `I am Siva'. When one is `Siva', he accepts like Siva, even the
most dreaded halahala into his bliss. ( The puranic story is that while the
Devas and Asuras were churning the milky ocean for the essence of
immortality- amrit -, there issued from the mouth of the serpent Vasuki ,
disastrously poisonous halahala, which on touching ground was believed to
have been capable bringing about extensive destruction. Lord Siva received
it and partook of it. It brought him no harm; but added unto his glory. He
became Neela KaNtha the Blue Necked, which is a name in which He is
glorified.)

2. Onn onnay eNNi yeNNi

totteNNum porul odungiyal
nonnidum drikku pol ullam
ninnil aspanda maakaNam

Reckoning one after one to infinity-

When names and figures are all done,
Like unto the serene Eye remaining,
May our self in thee perfect tuning find.

Onn onnaa yeNNi yeNNI - reckoning one and then one, so acknowledging;

so registering.
tot t-eNNum porul A –tottu + B eNNum + C porul

A. tottu -touch. Here it stands for all contacts established by the senses and
 5

the resultant impressions.

B. Ennum - reckoning, registering, acknowledging.

C. porul – knowledge. Here tools and adjuncts of the acknowledging

process. ( In the absence of C, B is not possible. In identifying an object as
red or yellow, a necessary condition is prior experience of the colors
concerned and labels or names - forms and shapes too)-associated with such
color experiences in memory. These semantic adjuncts are inevitable tools
in the acknowledgement of persons, creatures, things and, moods)
Odungiyaal- when exhausted.

Ninnidum – remaining, abiding.

Drikk – eye, vision, awareness.

Pol in like maner, similarly.

Ullam – heart, soul, the self.

Ninnil- in You

Aspandam- perfect unison without even the slightest pulsation, perfectly

tuned.
AakaNam – so be it.

It may be seen that, worldly knowledge is one that is dependant on

adjuncts like name and form or similar stuff belonging to the area of mind
and memory. The great poet is absolutely justified when he says that a rose
would be a rose even it were known by any other name. However, a rose
cannot be a rose if there were no name whatsoever with which to name it. In
the event of you not having at least a generalized name like ` a flower` `a
thing` ` a what's that` … etc. it would cease to exist for you.

The problem with these 'tools' is that they are never absolute, pure or
universal. What is 'red' to someone needs not appear as the same shade of
red to another. Moreover, the experience of anything; - be it a color, an
object, a person or a mood – gets a coloring contributed by the emotional
aspect of individual who experiences. The most basic form of this emotional
 6

factor is to be found in like/ dislike. Given that these ' tools of knowledge'
are defective and vulnerable, no unruffled, unsullied vision of reality can
result from sense contacts. Only when all these coloring, perturbing and
distorting elements of non-permanence are removed or overcome through a
proper realization of their futility, would the pure vision of reality, reveal
itself inside the seeker.( What remains is the infinite primal residuum which
may be seen in the Puranas as the Adi Sesha or Ananta on whom Lord
Narayana reclines when a creative cycle has been gathered back into
Himself ) This vision is serenity itself . This is the ninnidum drik ( abiding
vision) of the poem. When this mirror of pure and abiding vision is held up
to God, His Full glory would be reflected in it without the slightest ripple
blemishing the perfection of the image. The mirror and the mirrored shall be
in such perfect tuning that they merge in the Absolute ONE. This state could
be identical with what is addressed as ` nin padam` (your foothold) in the
preceding verse.

What happens is a gradual refinement of the process of experience

through liberating it from the lingo of thought. In Vedantic parlance, this is
doing away with names and forms. Freedom from this lingo weakens the
thought process, and exhausts the subsistence of the mind stuff. Chittavrittti
ceases resulting in Yoga. ("yogas chittavritti nirodhah"- Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali )

3. anna vastraadi muttaate

tannurakhshicchu njangale
dhannyar aakkunna nee
onnu tanne njangalku tampuraan

With grub and garb all providing

Who, for ever us in fullness secure hold
With no lapse or miss to intervene
Thou indeed art our bounteous Lord

Anna - food ; vastra – clothes aadi – etc. Together these stand for the
entirety of human needs.
muttate- without ever a want, incessantly.
tannu – giving; providing.
 7

rakshicchu – protect, secure, keep in care.

njangale – us
dhanyar aakkunna – enriching, keeping provided.
nee onnu thane – you are the singular one .
njangalkku – for us
thampuran – the supreme provident Lord.

The Gods plenty that the seeker finds here far exceeds anything in
earthly human experience. There is no lack of anything ever. Neither is there
the slightest notion of insecurity. It is virtually the Garden of Eden before
Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden tree. Yes, such a vision of splendor
is possible only from the point of view of the one made in the image of God.
That point of view is the ninnidum drikk – abiding vision of the second verse
and that of what is alluded to as nin padam – your footing –in the first verse.
Again this is the standpoint of the yogasthah of The Bhagavath Geeta who
would be in a state of perfect contentment and non attachment. ( yogastah
kuru karmaaNi sangam tyaktua Dhananjaya).

What we have here is an unmistakable realization of the hope and faith

expressed in Psalm 23 of the Holy Bible. The entire psalm is quoted below
as I believe that would enable deeper and more valid readings of both the
Daiva dasakam verse and the psalm itself:

PSALM 23
1.The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
2.He leadeth me beside the still waters.
3.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me through the paths of righteousness for
his names sake.
4.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou
anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

It may be profitable to note here the mudras of vara ( giving)and abhaya

( protecting) that are ubiquitous in eastern religious iconography. Hindu gods
 8

and goddesses are seldom portrayed without these symbolic positioning of

the palm. This shows that assurance of material and spiritual plenty as well
as protection from all kinds of fear are seen as fundamental to the idea of
God. Parama Siva ( supreme godhead that is the embodiment of sat-chit-
ananda) riding Nandi ( the divine bull on which Lord Siva rides)offers
another iconographic and puranic detail which could be seen in a similar
light. Realization of God proceeds from due acknowledgement of all the
goodness that we are provided with. nandi literally means this
acknowledgement and resultant sense of gratitude. The fact that Nandi is
given the form of a bull could be suggestive of the idea, that the God
realization downs with the perception of the beneficial even in something
that confronts one in the form of a charging bull that apparently is at once
adverse, uncontrollable and lethal.
Most Christians add a thanksgiving part to their family prayer, which could
be very close to the following lines:

Thank thee, Lord

For all my many blessings,thank thee, Lord.
I have bread, and boardthank thee, Lord.
Thank thee, Lord, for friends and family.
God takes such good care of me.
Amen.

4.aazhi yum tira yum katt umThank thee, Lord

aazha vum pole njangal um
maaya yum nin mahima yum
nee yum enn ullil aakaNam

Let this in conviction sink, that as truth of ocean,

To the waves and wind and fathomless deep do link
So we, to illusory Nature, Thy splendor
And Thy transcendent Truth, do link.

aazhi: ocean
tira : breakers,wave
kaattu: wind
aazham: depth; the ocean currents and variety in temperatures, salinity,
density etc. that are hidden in the depth.
pole: in like manner
 9

njangal: we
maaya: the incomprehensible and illusory power and process of subtle and
gross manifestations that results in mind and matter that constitute the
experienced universe. This is often referred to as play of maaya ( maaya
leela) or play of the Devine.
nin: your
mahima : greatness, manifest signs and symbols of supreme power.
Nee: You
ennu: in the self same manner
ullil : centre of awareness, inside,
aakaNam: should be so (comprehended)

The parallelism wrought in this verse is one where:

The ocean = Nee (God)
The depth= maaya
Wind = nin mahima (God's manifest glory, power)
Breakers (waves) = njangal (we humans)

For anyone standing on the shore and watching the sea, the immediate
experience is that of the waves and breakers. These waves appear in their
turbulent, noisy, imposing presences for a short while and then dash their
heads against the shore and die. When they die, water that formed these
waves are quietly gathered back into the body of the ocean and become one
with it. A child on the shore might try to count the waves that continually
roll on to the shore; but would soon be bored by the futility of the action and
leave it. Strolling back homeward, the child is not likely to carry the number
and forms of the restless waves he had counted but the generally serene
impression of the vastness and grandeur of the ocean. (We may recall here
the second verse, which equates worldly experience to counting unto
futility). Waves are but evanescent, partial manifestations of an aspect of the
totality that the ocean is. All the turbulence of the waves lasts through the
short-lived sense of unreal separateness from the ocean. The wave is but a
part manifestation of the wholeness that is the ocean. Likewise, the human
experience with all its attendant misery, insecurity and dissatisfactions,
emanate from its separateness from God. God is the Whole, of which the
human situation is a postulated unreal separateness.

The string similitude worked out in the poem is highly logical in its
structure. The total reality of the ocean holds hidden in its unseen depth,
 10

several subtle energies and forces that results in manifestations like ocean
currents and winds. These currents and winds determine the general
appearance of the ocean and generate the waves and breakers. In the parallel
sequence, God as the total reality holds within Him the subtle tendencies.
These subtle tendencies are referred to as the three gunas. The gunas through
their various combinations generate the forces of Prakriti which is referred
to as God's mahima. These forces of prakriti result in varied manifestation
from the material universe to man and his individual ego. The individual ego
is the source and wherewithal of human separateness and all misery
consequent to that. Ultimate achievement is a shift of footing from that of
the wave to that of the ocean. It is the shift from the foothold of man's
limited ego to that of the footing of God's limitlessness.

5. Neeyallo srishtiyum srishtaa-

vaayatum srishti jaalavum
Neeyallo Daivame srishtikk-
uLLa saamagri yayatum.

Thou the act of creation, Thou the Creator

And Thou the intricate web of the created
And Thou Great Lord art the Stuff
All that is, with which is wrought.

Nee: You
allo: verily art
srishti: the act of creation
srashtaav : creator.

aayatum: have taken the role of

srishti jaalam: the web of the created.

Daivame: O God!
srishtikke uLLa: for creating, belonging to the created, comprised by the created.
saamagri: material.

In the preceding verse, the individual wave is portrayed as a part

manifestation of the ocean, brought about by the forces of the ocean itself and man's
individual ego as an unreal state of separation from the total truth that God is. The
same idea is further revealed in this verse. Here, God the creator is shown to be
identical with the created. All the multiplicity and complexity of form, disposition,
qualities etc.( srishti jaalam) embodied in the created, is God himself. The act of
creation is God, the process of creation is God and what impels the process is God.
 11

In the phrase srishtikk ulla saamaqgri, srishti stands for the process of creation as
well as `the created'. So srishtikkulla saamagri is ingredients that go into the making
of srishti as well as al the gross and subtle aspects of the created universe.

The verse repeats here the word ' Daivam ' (God) used in the first verse. We
may see that the relatively limited definition of God evolving from the first verse has
vastly gained in depth and extent through the intervening verses. What in the
beginning was looked upon as the vessel and haven of security is here the wholeness
and singularity of The Absolute Truth.

6. Neey allo maayayum

maayaviyum maaya vinoodanum
neeyallo maayaye neekki
ssayuujyam nalkum aaryanum.

Thou Art the Divine magic

And the one who puts up the show
And Thou the one exulting in the game
And Great Sun, removing, all ,who Supreme Unison grants.

Nee: you
allo: verily are

maaya: the illusory process of manifestations that projects the unreal show of material
universe and individual egos that imagine to be experiencing such a universe. ; the veil of
ignorance that hides Truth.

Maayavi: the magician who projects the show of illusions.

Maaya vinOdan : one who enjoys the play of maaya.
Neeki : removing
SaayUjyam: absolute union, salvation.

The act of creation and the relation of the creator to the created is the
subject matter of the preceding verse. What the verse seeks to establish is the
fundamental unity of the three. The creator indeed is the created and all that
goes into the process of creation. Then what is creation? Wherefrom is the
need of creation? In what exact relation does the creation stand in respect of
the creator? Eastern and western theologies have tried to explain the act of
creation as temporal expression of an eternal order, material manifestation of
 12

pure awareness, partial appearance of the absolute wholeness etc. In all such
explanations, the created represents a lesser truth compared to the creator.

The idea of the creator projecting in the created, a lesser reality or a

state of sheer illusion is represented as Maaya .From within the periphery of
human reasoning, the question why maaya? may not find a satisfactory
answer. The only answer possible is that the need for maaya remains within
the incomprehensibility of the Devine will. It is in this sense it has been
called the Devine play ( Isvara leela or maaya leela). The present verse
extols this very maya as God. God is at once the projector of the maaya and
the illusory projection that maaya is. It is Divine pleasure to project maaya.
God is the one to enjoy this leela in His own unique manner( maayaa
vinodan.)

In the simile of the sea, wave is a manifestations of the sea that in no

way is separated from the body of the sea. However, this wave assumes an
individual character for a short while, where it gathers itself into an
immensely agitated breaker that rushes forward and dashes its head against
the shore and terminates the assumed role. In Gods creative process, human
existence may be seen as being similarly placed. Man is God himself. But he
assumes the role of a limited ego by virtue of maaya. The short span of the
individual human ego is wrought with agitation, suffering and pain. All these
are as unreal as the very existence of the individual ego. But maaya
functions as a veil that hides from the view of this individual ego what he
really is. When this veil is removed he would know that he is one with God
and there existed in reality no separation. The veil of maaya is a veil of
darkness that would only be removed by the glorious sunrise of true
Knowledge. When the sun of true Knowledge takes on, the imagined
separate existence of the individual ego vanishes and realizes itself as being
united with God ( saayuujyam ). This sun of supreme Knowledge ( also) is
God. That is the Primal Sun that ascends cutting asunder the darkness of
nescience (" iruLine eernn ezhum aadi suuryan atre").

Sree Narayana Guru has elsewhere vividly described the very process
by which The Primal Sun of Pure Knowledge removes the veil of Maya. The
Sun as described by the Guru is one with the brilliance that is million times
that of suns of galactic systems. Such brilliance transcends all capabilities of
human comprehension. At the energy level of such a system, no material
universe as we know it can exist. The known material universe and the five
 13

elements that go into the making of it would cease to be. This is exactly the
vision that the Guru projects in his inimitable lines in Chitjjadachintanam:

“ Oru kOti divaakara rothuyarum padi

Neerodu paar analaadi kaLum kedu maaru
KiLirnnu varunn oru nin vadiv
ennumirunnu viLangitaNam”

(O God! Let thy Glory with the brilliance of a million suns, eternally
abide and wax in me thereby extinguishing all the elements that constitute
the manifest universe like earth, water and fire.). This Sun is the Primal
Source that the Gayatry Mantra extols as Tad Savituh- the Primal Source
beyond compare.

7. Nee satyam njanam aanandam

Nee tanne verttamaana vum
Bhuutavum bhaaviyum vErallO-
Tum mozhiyum Orkkil nee.

Nee: You; Satyam: The Truth; Jnaanam: Knowledge, Awareness;

Aanandam: Bliss; Nee tanne: you verily are; vartatmaana : the
present, bhuuta: the past; bhaavi: the future; Otum : speaking, chanting,
instructing; mozhi: speech, word, language; Orkkil: if considered aright.

Truth Thou Art, Knowledge and Bliss!

Thou Lord Art the present and so the past
And the future are none other but Thou.
Thou indeed are the conceiving word!

Here, the same Super Sun of Supreme Knowledge of the previous

verse is presented as a holy Trinity comprising of the aspects of Truth
- Knowledge – Bliss/ Existence – Awareness - Bliss ( Sathyam-
Jnanam- Anantham or Sad – Chid- Aananda or Satyam – Sivam -
sundaram ). Truth is the whole existence; it is the entirety of What Is.
Knowledge is the consciousness aspect of this What Is or the
awareness of it. This Awareness as experience is the experience of
absolute perfection or Bliss. In a bliss situation there is nothing
wanting, nothing unsatisfying, nothing out of place or incongruous. So
it is beauty, peace and bliss. In all the three aspects, it is whole and no
 14

part manifestation. The matchless Upanishadic affirmation - Aum

puurNamadah puurNamidam /
PuurNaad puurNamudacyathe/
PuurNasya puuNamaadaaya/
PuurNamEvaavasishyate.
Saanti1 Saanti1 Saantihi1
could also explain how any particular aspect in the trio is in relation
to the other ( others ). (This is whole; that is whole; the Whole is generated
from the Whole; when the Whole is taken from the Whole, what remains is
the Whole. Peace! Peace! Peace!).

The Whole that is Truth – Awareness- Bliss is what is

experienced as the present. That is the eternal present. That is God.
The eternal present in its purity cannot admit a past or a future. The
eternal present does not have a beginning or an end. It has no
duration. what happens is a superimposition of the designations of
past or future to the experience of the present. All experience belong
to the present. What constitute the sense of the past and the sense of
the future is a figment of the mind or sankalpa that designate a part of
the present experience as belonging to an unreal past and another part
as belonging to an equally unreal future.

The past and the future are never real in the sense the present is
real. The mind or imagination so re designate the present by giving
them names and forms that in reality do not belong to them. The past
is there because we call it that; otherwise the experience it represents
belongs to the present. The future is there because we call a part of the
awareness of the present as future. Here is a case of `word' taking
form and creating unreal worlds. “And God said, Let there be Light
and there was Light” ( The Holy Bible – Gen.I .3). All these happen
within the Whole Awareness that God is. So the word that conceives
( Othum Mozhi) generates the unreal past and future. This word is
God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the word was God" ( John I.1).

We may see that when the `Word' interpolates the ideas of past
and future into the experience of the eternal present, time is generated.
When it is realized thus, Truth – Awareness - Bliss (Satyam –
Jnaananam – Aanandam) is Truth – Awareness – Eternity (Satyam –
Njaananam – Anantham or sat- cid- amritam) Sree Narayana Guru
 15

calls this Sat-cid-amritam in the final verse o f his AtmOpadesa

satakam.

8. Akavum puRavum tingum

Mahimaav aaRnna nin padam
pukazhttunnu njangal
Angu Bhagavaane jayikkuka

Akavum interior, inside ; puRavum: exterior, outside; tingum: filling fully;

mahimavaaRnna: bearing supreme glory; nin: your; padam: foothold;
pukazttunnu: glorify, praise; njangal: we angu: there; Bhagavaane: O
splendorous Lord!: jayikkuka: be victorious.

Confined or free, existence all is replete with your glory.

Such my Lord is Thy Being!
This Thy surpassing Glory do we praise!
Victory ! to Thee! Perfect Being!

This verse glorifies God who pervades the whole of existence.

This is in tune with the assertion of Isaavasya Upanishad that God
inhabits all that is moving (changing) in the moving
( changing)universe:" Isaavaasyam idam saRvam yat kimca
jagatyaam jagat".

All the same, the point of view of this verse is markedly that of
the limited individual ego. From this footing, proceeds the
acknowledgement that what it perceives as its own essence ( the
interior- akam) and as the universe external to it ( puRaM ) are replete
with God. The individual ego and all that feels as world outside of it
are in reality so filled with God that there absolutely is no room for
anything else. The separation also is unreal. This is the view from
Gods footing ( nin padam) . However, the ego has not reached the
point of realization where it is in total identification with God. So God
is addressed as being out there (angu). This is very close to 'Our
Father who art in heaven' of the Lords Prayer. ` Victory to thee perfect
being! '( Bhagavaane jayikkuka) has a close parallel in `Hallowed be
thy name !'.
 16

We may now go back to the Isavasya Upanishad mentioned

earlier. In translating this Upanishad to Malayalam Sree Narayana
Guru has made a unique interpretation of the first mantra.
Isvaran jagatt ellaam aavasikkuka kondu nee

Charikka muktanaayEvam, aasikkarut aarudeyum dhanam.

The first partof the Malayalam lines given above ending with
`charikka muktanaayEvam' means this : `As God inhabits everything
in the Universe, know that you are absolutely free; there is nothing
binding or constricting you'. The second part: `aasikkarut arudeyum
dhanam' would lend to the reading of a common moral instruction
like ` desire not the riches of anyone'. Where the first part of the
upanishadic exhortation has set the seeker in a frame where he is
absolutely free and devoid of limitations following the understanding
that he himself and the world wrongly assumed as being outside of
himself are composed of the same `God Stuff'', wherefore would he
desire anything! When this is realized who would not know that he is
in possession and enjoyment of all the bounty of the universe! . Yes ,
the riches of the world belongs to whoever would have them.:
` dhanam aarudeyum!'

We have dealt with in some length the Isaavasya mantra in the

hope that ,it would lead to a better understanding of the eight verse of
Daiva Dasakam from which we had digressed. Man ( individual ego)
would reach his perfection when he comprehends God as the
Perfection God Is. As long as this does not happen, mans idea of god
would remain the idea of a lesser god. From this diminutive stature,
the idea of God has to grow into its all-comprehending fullness. It is
the fervent aspiration for this to happen we finds in an expression like
`Be victorious o great Lord.' The victory of the Lord would be His
having full sway as Bhagavaan in the seekers being. Bhagavaan is one
endowed with the six divine qualities of 1. Perfect command over
everything – aisvarya ; 2. Perfect order- dharma; 3. Perfect material,
emotional and spiritual wealth- sree ; 4. Perfect endearing- keertti; 5.
Perfect renunciation- tyaaga and 6.Perfect liberation- mukti. Only
when the Bhagavan is given to fill the being of the seeker with all
these six glories would he be victorious. In such victory , His
Kingdom would come and be on `Earth as it is Heaven'. It is this
process that comes through the hails of the next verse.
 17

9. jayikkuka mahaa dEva

deenaavana paraayana
jayikkuka chid aananda
dayaa sindho jayikkuka

Victory to thee Oh God Supreme!

Victory! Thou who ever from affliction lift !
Victory to thee pure awareness-bliss !
Victory! great ocean of mercy!
Jayikkuka: be victorious; mahhadeva: Great Lord; deeneaavan paraayana :
ever engaged in the absolving of suffering; chid ananda: who is awareness-
bliss; dayaa sindho: ocean of mercy.

When the great lord is victorious and descends into the every single
being, to what would deem the meanest among creation, he would shine in
all as mahaadeva with all will, prowess and power. When this happens,
where could misery be. God here would glow as the ultimate dispeller of all
suffering.( deena avana paraayana). When the whole of existence is devoid
of suffering, God would no longer be separated as being out there ( angu);
but be One All comprehensive wholeness the experience of which would be
pure and whole Awareness –Bliss. (chid-aananda ) In that experience, which
verily is supreme Knowledge, no deference of view, attitude, or interest
would exist. This is the perfect Love. Daya or compassion is another name
for this perfect Love footing. Whole of existence is filled with the victorious
God who is a limitless ocean of Love- compassion. It is the glorious vision
of this ever-expanding ever-deepening Ocean of Pure Love Light that we get
in the final verse of this Upanishad in Malayalam. In this all existence merge
and dissolve into a transcendent We Consciousness, which is unalloyed and
enduring Bliss.

10. aazham ERum nin mahassaam

aazhiyil njangal aakave
aazhaNam vaazhaNam nityam
vaazhaNam vaazhaNam sukam !

In the ever deepening ocean of thy glory,

May we all merge and be one!
May we so merging live with never an end!
May Infinite Happiness in fullness reign!
 18

Aazham: depth ( implies all dimensions); ERum: go on increasing; nin: your

mahass: might, brilliance and energy. aazhi: ocean; njangal: we; aakave:
altogether; aazhaNam: may we merge, vaazhaNam: may we live in glory;
nityam: for ever ; vaazhaNam sukham: may enduring happiness reign.

In this final verse, the great Guru ever so gently brings us back to the
same ocean on the shores of which we stood bewildered and beleaguered by
a thousand fears and incertitude, in the first verse. He has, through the nine
inimitable verses brought us to the realization that, what we considered
the ocean of worldly suffering, (bhavaabdhi ) is in fact the nectarine ocean
of infinite bliss. We would not think of running away from it or strain
ourselves to cross it over; but would lose ourselves in it. So loosing
ourselves into it we regain ourselves in our true guise. We realize ourselves
as the ocean of Light-Love-Infinity. Experiencing this at ever deepening
degrees and ever widening realms is experiencing the Bliss that God is. No
`there’and `here’ ( angu and ingu ) may exist any longer. It is the perpetual
Now of enduring Bliss. Yes it Is the very Footing Of God-Daiva Padam that
is revealed to us by the infinite mercy of The Guru.