Tyagaraja Kriti

Meaning - Gist
O Most auspicious and Handsome Lord SrI rAma!

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this.

The nature of grace of the Lord –

ever engaged in (looking after) the welfare of His devotees in whom Supreme-Self and Living-Self are shining as self-same,
the Lotus eyed, and
protector of this tyAgarAja -

is indeed like this.

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this - the devotee would -

not utter falsehood;
not beseech petty people;
not serve even benevolent kings;
not forget (the worship of) Sun;

not touch meat;
not drink intoxicants;
not cause injury to others;
not forget what one has learnt;

not use or enjoy the three kinds of desires - wife, children and wealth;
not ostentate the delight of being living-free;

not deceive anyone;
not speak lies with revered ones (or) with others;
not abandon the comfort (of self-same nature) by becoming fickle minded; and

understanding that he is only a witness, would not abandon the set aim (of mOksha).

Word Division - Word-by-word meaning

pallavi
karuNa-ElAgu-aNTE-I vidhamE
kalyANa sundara rAma

O Most auspicious (kalyANa) and Handsome (sundara) Lord SrI rAma!
The nature (ElAgu aNTE) (literally how is the nature) of grace (karuNa) of the Lord is indeed like this (I vidhamE) (karuNayElAgaNTEnI).

anupallavi
paramAtmuDu jIvAtmuDu okaDai
paragucu-uNDu bhakta para-adhInuni (karuNa)

The nature of grace of the Lord, who is ever engaged in (para adhInuni) (parAdhInuni) (looking after) the welfare of His devotees (bhakta) in whom Supreme-Self (parama AtmuDu) (paramAtmuDu) and Living-Self (jIva AtmuDu) (jIvAtmuDu) are shining (paragucu uNDu) (paragucuNDu) as self-same (okaDai),
is indeed like this.

caraNam
caraNam 1
anRtambu-ADaDu alpula vEDaDu
su-nRpula koluvaDu sUryuni maravaDu (karuNa)

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this - the devotee would -
not utter (ADaDu) falsehood (anRtambu) (anRtambADaDu);
not beseech (vEDaDu) petty people (alpula);
not serve (koluvaDu) even benevolent kings (su-nRpula); and
not forget (maravaDu) (the worship of) Sun (sUryuni).

caraNam 2
mAmsamu muTTaDu madhuvunu trAgaDu para-
himsala sEyaDu erukanu maravaDu (karuNa)

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this - the devotee would -
not touch (muTTaDu) meat (mAmsamu);
not drink (trAgaDu) intoxicants (madhuvunu);
not cause injury (himsala sEyaDu) to others (para); and
not forget (maravaDu) what one has learnt (erukanu).

caraNam 3
mUDu-IshaNamula vADaDu jIvan-
muktuDai tirugu mudamunu jUpaDu (karuNa)

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this - the devotee would -
not use or enjoy (vADaDU) the three (mUDu) kinds of desires - wife, children and wealth - (IshaNamula) (mUDIshaNamula); and
not ostentate (jUpaDu) the delight (mudamunu) of being (tirugu) (literally roaming) living-free (jIvan-muktuDai).

caraNam 4
vancana sEyaDu varulatO bonkaDu
cancala cittuDai saukhyamu viDuvaDu (karuNa)

The nature of grace of the Lord is indeed like this - the devotee would -
not deceive (vancana sEyaDu) anyone;
not speak lies (bonkaDu) with revered ones (varulatO) (or) with others (parulatO); and
not abandon (viDuvaDu) the comfort (of self-same nature) (saukhyamu) by becoming fickle (cancala) minded (cittuDai).

caraNam 5
sAkshi-ani telisi-andu lakshyamu viDuvaDu
kanja-akshuni tyAgarAja rakshakuDaina vAni (karuNa)

The nature of His (vAni) – the Lotus (kanja) eyed (akshuni) (kanjAkshuni) - the protector (rakshakuDu aina) (rakshakuDaina) of this tyAgarAja – grace is indeed like this –
understanding (telisi) that (ani) he is only a witness (sAkshi) (sAkshiyani), would not abandon (viDuvaDu) the set (andu) (telisiyandu) aim (lakshyamu) (of mOksha).

Notes

Variations - (Pathanthara)
⁵ – varulatO – parulatO. If ‘parulatO’ is correct, then it will be translated as ‘he will not utter falsehood to others’; however, the translation is not very satisfactory.
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References
³ - mUDIshaNamu – The tamizh saint aruNagiri nAdar in his tiruppugazh calls it as ‘mUvAsai’.

⁴ – jIvan-muktuDai tirugu – The state of a jIvan-mukta is defined by Adi SankarAcArya in his jIvan-muktAnanda lahari.
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Comments
¹ – paramAtmuDu jIvAtmuDu okaDai – The state apprehended and expressed as ‘ahaM brahmAsmi’, ‘brahmaivAham’ ‘haMsa’, ‘sOhaM’ – the state of jIvan-mukta (caraNa 3).

² - sUryuni maravaDu – Sun or savitR has a distinguished place in the vEdas. As Sun is the most apparent cause of generation, sustenance of all living organisms, SrI tyAgarAja might have singled out Sun as not to be forgotten; alternatively, this may refer to nitya karma - daily oblations like sandhyA vandana.

⁶ – sAkshiyani telisi – This can be applied to both Lord and the devotee. However, in view of anupallavi, wherein, the devotee is defined as ‘self-same’ (Supreme-Self and Living-Self), it seems that this is to be applied only to the devotee – that the devotee is not to ‘participate’ in activities which results in bondage, because the set aim (lakshyamu) is mOksha.

⁷ – andu – This word has two different meanings – (1) in (2) set; in the present context, ‘in’ does not seem to make any sense. Therefore, the other meaning ‘set’ has been adopted.
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karuNayElAgaNTE - rAga varALi