பக்கம்:திருவாசகம்-ஆங்கில மொழிபெயர்ப்பு-1.pdf/116

He peeped through the key-hole of the door and was watching the saint in reverence. He found that he was as usual composing a verse in deep intropection. After writing the first two lines of the stanza on a slate, he was profusely shedding tears. He kept on moving about in his tiny room repeating the two lines he had sung, interrupted by sighs and sobs of misery. The Munsiff could see with the light of an oil lamp that was burning there, that the entire room was wet with drops of tears. The moment he turned back it was day break! He wondered how the saint could write at this rate such a book of verses of 40,000 lines of devotional poems. At dawn everybody was alert in their morning prayers and the disciples of the saint were busy to receive his blessings in his melting mood and anxious to copy down the new arrival of sacred verses. The Munsiff desired to take leave from the chief disciple of the saint, Velayutha Mudaliar who was labouring painfully to make out the first two lines of the stanza from the slate as they were disfigured by tear drops. The Munsiff sang out the first two lines from his memory and desired to hear the other two lines. It is hereditary saying that the verse is “Poomaandum Vandena nim pon adiyai punniyargal”. “Oh! God of Orriyur. When all those cherished ones devouring your great Grace just like the insects which suck honey from flowers, abide safely at your holy Feet, I alas! closing my eyes have deceived myself by drinking the doomed today of lust and passion” (Thiru Arulpa ). All those who were there in the congregation were bewildered with awe and reverence to hear from the Munsiff what had happened that night. They felt that the tears shed for obtaining His Grace were as great and holy as the Grace of God for which they were shed. An instance of shedding tears by Dr. Pope, the pioneer Reverend who has translated Thiruvaachakam into English 92