Humility

Thiruppallāṇḍu & Periyāzhvār Thirumozhi

Periyāzhvār was a humble gardener of Srivilliputhur who wove garlands for the Lord each day. When he was honoured before a king, his first instinct was not pride but fear — fear that the world's evil eye might fall on his beloved God. So he sang the Thiruppallāṇḍu, a blessing upon the Lord himself: “Many, many years to you!” It is the rare hymn where the devotee, like a doting parent, worries for the safety of the Divine. The Periya Thirumozhi that follows watches Krishna grow up through a mother's eyes — his cradle, his mischief, his first steps.

Amalanādhipirān

Thiruppāṇ Āzhvār was a musician who, by the custom of his time, would not approach the temple. He sang from the far bank of the Kaveri until a temple priest, instructed in a dream, carried him on his shoulders into the sanctum. There, gazing on the Lord of Srirangam for the first time, he sang these ten verses — beginning at the Lord's feet and rising slowly to his face — and then, it is said, merged into that beauty, never to look upon anything else again.