My mind, deeply entangled in ignorance and sin, we have been journeying through countless births. Will we ever attain Kaṇṇaṉ, the lustrous and omniscient Lord, who pervades all things eternally?
Explanatory Notes
Mention of the Lord’s resplendent feet, in the preceding song, set the Āzhvār’s mind throbbing for them and now the Āzhvār hastens to disabuse his mind, sunk deep in age-long ignorance and accumulated sins, of its ill-conceived ambition.
Word by Word (WBW) meaning
(The words may be rearranged to facilitate poetry to prose conversion (Aṉvayam). Please read the meanings (in black) continiously to form the sentence and understand the simple meaning of those verse.)
nenjĕ! — ŏh heart!; engyānṛum — always; irundhu irundhu — being; irangi — grieving (due to desire for the goal); mey gyānam — true knowledge (which is the tool for attaining such goal); inṛi — not having; vinai — due to the sins (that are the hurdles for attaining such goal); iyal — leading to; piṛappu — births; azhundhi — trapped; nām — we (who have this as the routine); engyānṛum — all times; engum — in all entities; ozhivaṛa — without leaving anything; niṛaindhu — fully pervading; ninṛa — stayed; mey gyānam — eternal knowledge; sŏdhi — having radiance of; kaṇṇanai — krishṇa (who appeared to be easily approachable by his devotees); mĕvudhumĕ — when will we reach?
Detailed WBW explanation
Highlights from Nampil̤l̤ai’s Vyākhyānam as documented by Vadakkuth Thiruvīdhip Pil̤l̤ai
engyānṛum ... - What is the benefit of crying profusely, life after life?
nenjē! - Āzhvār addresses his heart, saying, "Do you not recognize your nature? Were you not always the cause for bondage in the past?" To which the heart responds, "But why should we not achieve