The annihilation of individuality

சளத்திற் பிணிபட் டசட்டுக் ரியைக்குட் டவிக்குமென்ற

னுளத்திற் ப்ரமத்தைத் தவிர்ப்பா யவுண ருரத்துதிரக்

குளத்திற் குதித்துக் குளித்துக் களித்துக் குடித்துவெற்றிக்

களத்திற் செருக்கிக் கழுதாட வேல்தொட்ட காவலனே.

We invest the object of our hatred with more power than it possesses; and the triumph over the hated enemy is complete only when it is totally dehumanised and there is not a shred of dignity to it.

"Protector, who took the spear

for the ghouls to jump,

bathe, drink and joyously dance

in the pool of blood that spilled

out of the Rakshasha heart-

Triumphant in the battle field"

When we overcome evil, what gives us satisfaction- the fact that we have emerged victorious, or the fact that it has been rendered so dead and inanimate, even desecration gives no sense of violation?

I have reead that when the Russian troops defeated and entered Hitler's Germany, even old women committed suicide out of fear. The Russian soldiers went on a raping spree, leaving no one, young and old, unmolested.

When you fear someone and suffer too much, success is savored in humiliating the hated enemy.

Such is human nature- it finds release in violence, is satisfied only with bloodshed.

Arunagirinathar, who writes such moving devotional poetry is no stranger to violence. In these lines rich with alliteration and assonance, "Avunar urathu udhira kulathir kudhithu kulithu kalithu kudithu vetri kalathir serukki kazhudaada vel thotta kaavalane!', he sings the sorry end of the evil Rakshashas.

This is a celebration of victory, a savouring of the fact that the hated enemy is powerless to defend himself against the lowest of the lowest of life forms- the ghouls who feed on corpses.

Why such gruesome description is added to the first two lines of this verse that asks for liberation from pain?

This answer suggests itself to me: Just as Muruga destroys the demons so thoroughly that there is no life left in them, not even the suggestiof life, they are completely inanimate, dehumanised- so also is His grace, it shall destroy our ego totally, all suggestion of individual existence shall be totally annihilated.