audio 1

The speaker discusses a form of poetry called Vahuppu, which focuses on describing the qualities and attributes of a particular subject. They specifically mention a poem called Sirpaada Vahuppu, where the subject is the splendor of Lord's feet. The feet symbolize the eternal reality in Saiva Siddhanta, with the Lord being the ultimate reality and souls being the Pasus. The speaker explains that everything in existence falls under one of these categories. Om Saravana Bhava. What Mahendran has sung just now is called Sirpaada Vahuppu and it is one of the several Thiru Vahuppus that St. Arunagirinathar has sung. Let's consider what sort of poetry Vahuppu is. The Vahuppu form of poetry has a theme or subject at its core and all of its stanzas describe the traits, attributes and essential qualities of that subject. Only the last stanza of the poetry announces the subject about which the descriptions have so far been given. In Sirpaada Vahuppu, Arunagirinathar describes the splendor of Lord's twin feet, its cosmic aura, grandeur, its magnificence and power. Sir stands for prosperity, wealth, beauty, gracefulness and excellence. So Sirpaada means illustrious feet. The poem describes various accomplishments, feats and triumphs and finally attributes all these accomplishments to his feet, to Lord's feet. The feet here are the symbolic or metaphoric descriptions of the Brahman. Saiva Siddhanta believes in three eternal entities called Pati, Pasu and Pasam. The Saiva texts say that Lord is Pati, the ultimate and eternal reality. Pati is Lord, his Lord for all the souls which are called Pasu. So Pati is the Lord of all souls or Pasus and Pasam is the bondage. So like Pati who's real and eternal, Pasu and Pasam, they're also real and eternal. So all this, everything that you see will of course come under one of these categories.