evaritO nE telpudu

evaritO nE telpudu rAma nA lOni jAlini
Show Word Meanings
O Lord Rama! To whom shall I convey my mental agony?
kavagoni¹ sadA bhajana sEya
kAryamulanni vErAye (evaritO)
Show Word Meanings
Even though I chanted Your names always without break, all my efforts have gone awry.
gaNa² nAthu sEya kOraga kaDu
vAnaruDai tIregA
guNa³ maya mAyAmbuda samIra
gOpAla tyAgarAja nuta (evaritO)
Show Word Meanings
(It is as if) While I desired to mould (the form of) Ganesa, it ended up verily as a monkey; O Lord Gopala - the Wind that blows away the cloud of Grand Illusion consisting of three qualities! O Lord praised by this Thyagaraja!
  • 1 kavagoni – There is some doubt about this usage. ‘kava ’ means ‘pair’ – in that sense, ‘kavagoni ’ could be interpreted as ‘because of dvandva – pairs of opposites’. However, ‘kavalugonu ’ means ‘to take up or catch up the recitation of the Veda from another person without making a break’. In the latter sense, it could mean ‘without break’.
  • 2 gaNanAthu sEya - In Tamil, it is called ‘piLLaiyAr piDikkak kuraGgAnadu ’.
  • 3 guNa maya – In some books this has been translated as an epithet of the Lord – Ocean of Virtues – Embodiment of virtues etc. It is not appropriate to describe the Lord as ‘guNa maya ’ – it is not same as ‘saguNa ’. Therefore, ‘guNa maya ’ has been taken to qualify ‘mAya ’. In this regard, the following verse from zrImad-bhagavad-gItA, Chapter 14, verse 5 is relevant.
    • Sattva, Rajas and Tamas – these Gunas, O might-armed, born of Prakrti, bind fast in the body the indestructible embodied one. (Translation by Swami Swarupananda).
    • “Prakrti, Maya and Pradhana are approximate words (synonyms) and stress the material origin of life.” (explanation of Brahma Sutra - 1.1.5) - [[http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/THE%20BRAHMA%20SUTRA.htm Maya]]