Yatiraja Vimsati - English Translation

Yatiraja Vimsati - English Translation of the twenty slokas on Yatiraja by SriSri Manavala Mamunigal

Srirangam Mohanarangan

(Pillai Lokam Jeer's commentary is the great help in understanding and translating this wonderful piece.)

Yatiraja Vimsati is a wonderful little work of twenty stanzas, written by SriSri Manavala Mamunigal, otherwise known as Periya Jeer. He was called Periya Jeer, for the reason that he was the Jeer of the Temple, Srirangam. Anything of the Temple is termed as "Periya", the great. He was also known for the same reason as 'Koyil Manavala Mamunigal'.

Sri Sri Manavala Mamunigal has written scintillating commentaries on the puissant Rahasya works of Pillai Lokacharya and the incomparable and masterly work of Acharya Hrudayam by Sri Alagiyamanavalapperumal Nayanar (brother of Pillai Lokacharya). And also he has written commentaries on Sri Ramanuja Nootrandadhi, a major portion of Periyalwar Tirumozhi, for which the commentary of Periyavacchan Pillai was lost even in the times of Periya Jeer. Not only that, Koyil Jeer has penned some of the exquisite verses in Tamil in the form of Upadesa Rattina Maalai, Tiruvaimozhi Nootrandadhi, Aarthipprabandham and some singular pieces of venbas on occasions of wonder and intimacy. He has proved himself as the commentator nonpareil, always having the starting reader in his mind in his commentaries. Also he was able to realise the predicaments of the future reader, in whatever future he might come and he has taken enough pains to make room for clarity even for such readers yet to come. And greatest of all he never minces words and never his words hurt even by way of criticisms. And even when he differs from his superiors, few may be such instances, it is really an art, how he is able to combine precision with reverence. And these remain very valuable lessons for the modern scholars also.

In this work, Yatiraja Vimsati, Periya Jeer is pleading on behalf of one who is steeped in worldly attachments and pleasures and at the same time wanting to liberate himself from all the snares of worldliness and devote fully for ever to the service at the lotus feet of Sri Ramanuja. That one is not able to free himself/herself for he/she realises that he lacks the knowledge proper to do that. Such a person is not able to elicit help from the pious Sadhus of great spiritual acumen for the reason he lacks totally the Atma Gunas, or the qualities spiritual, without which the Sadhus will not tolerate the lay person. So such a person's last resort is nothing but the humble prayer - craving the only possible salvation, viz., the mere spontaneous sympathy of Sri Ramanuja on oneself, caused only by the kindness of Sri Ramanuja himself and for no other reason at all. The faults and blemishes are aplenty. No need for counting. It is innumerable. No qualities of head or heart to stake any claim by right. There is every reason and more so, to give up such an unworthy soul. But Periya Jeer believes that the grace of Sri Ramanuja flows upon the soul exactly for that, that the soul has become irretrievable by any other consideration or means. That is the greatness of Sri Ramanuja that his heart flowed towards the lowliest of the low.

This is the prayer, what I should have made, you should have made and that person over there, should have made. We have not been awakened enough to realise our predicaments and state and we are joyfully ignorant of our banalities. More than that, we imagine ourselves safe in all illusory confidence and this is a good wakening call, if only we choose not to close our ears. When waken up to our dire circumstances, fortunately we have this pleading and prayer ready-made, all we have to do is just recite this or read this with full heart and who knows wonders may happen!

*
Stanza 1

Sri Maadavaangri jalajadvaya nithya sevaa
prema vilaasaya paraankusa paada baktham |
kaamaadi doshaharam aatma padaasritaanaam
Ramanujam yatipathim pranamaami moordnaa ||

*

Sri Ramanuja is full of love
for the service
at the lotus feet of Nammalvar
who is merged in love
of eternal service to Sri Madhava;
Sri Ramanuja, even by his graceful look
destroys all the blemishes
like lust, of the soul
which resorts to him for protection;
To that Yatipathi,
leader of the renunciants,
I bow down my head,
laying all my cares to him.

*
Stanza 2

Srirangaraja charanaambuja raajahamsam
srimadparaankusa padaambuja brungaraajam |
sribhattanaatha parakaala mukaabhjamitram
srivatsachinha saranam yathiraajamidE ||

*

Royal swan residing on the lotus
of the Holy Feet of Sri Rangaraja
Splendid bee enjoying the honey unique
of the lotus feet of Paraankusa
Sun in the sky, friendly to the lotuses,
seeing whom the flowers bloom forth,
the lotus faces of Sri Bhattanatha and Parakala,
He, the Yatiraja, whose lotus feet,
the ideal scholar-disciple Sri Vatsachinha
resorted to as the only refuge,
Unto his lotus feet I pray. 

*
Stanza 3

vaachaayatindramanasaa vapushaa cha yushmad
padaaravindayugaLam bajataam gurooNaam |
kooraadhinaatha kurukesa mukhaadyapumsaam
paadaanuchintana parassatatam bavEyam ||

*
Yatindra! I must remain always devoted
to the lotus feet of those illustrious masters
like Kuresa and Kurukadhipa,
who ever and ever worshipped thine holy feet
by their words, minds and bodies.
Kindly bestow thy grace.

*
Stanza 4

nityam yatindra tavadivya vapus smrdau mE
saktam manO bavatu vaak guNa keertanE sau |
kruthyancha daasyakaraNE tu karadvayasya
vrutyantarEstu vimukham karaNatrayancha ||

*
Yatindra! let my mind be able to
think of your divine form always
let my words sing your divine
qualities ever and ever
let my two hands be always
doing service to thee and your cause
let my three functions, mind, word and body
withdraw from all other activities.

*
Stanza 5

ashtaaksharaakya manuraja padatrayaartha
nishthaammamaatravitaraadya yatindranaatha |
sishtaagragaNyajana sEvyabavatpadaabhjE
hrushtaastunityam anubooyamamaastabuddhi; ||

*
Yatindra! three meanings
of exclusive devotion and service
evinced in the eight-lettered mantra,
and those meanings through Bhagavan
culminating full in His Bhaktas,
let me become deep in conviction
and practice of those meanings full!
Oh my Lord! let my intellect
always rejoice at thine holy feet,
which even the ideal pious great men
devoted their loving service to.

*
Stanza 6

alpaapimEna bavadeeya padaabhjabakti;
sabhdaadiboga ruchiranvahamEdhatEhaa |
matpaapamEvahi nidaanamamushya naanyat
tadvaarayaarya yatiraja dayaikasindhO ||

*

Yatiraja! the great Master of comprehensive knowledge!
Not even a little do I have devotion for thy lotus feet
But, alas, the taste in worldly enjoyments
grows more and more, day by day;
this embarrassment, is due to my sins alone
and not due to any unconcern by God;
Oh Thee! the very ocean of sympathy!
remove these hurdles in me.

*
Stanza 7

vruttyaapasur naravapustvaham IdrusOpi
srutyaadi siddha nikhilaatma gunaasrayOyam |
ityaadarENa krutinOpi mitha: pravaktum
adyaapi vanchanaparOtra yatindra vartE ||

*
O Yatindra!
my activities are animal-like
but my form is human
such a lowly being am I
but, see! even the great wise sages
are extolling me
with great affection among themselves
'what a unique saint,
full of spiritual qualities,
enumerated in scriptures like Vedas!'
So much full of deceit and hypocrisy
do I live day by day, even now, Yatindra!

*
Stanza 8

dukkhaavahOham anisam tavadushtacheshta:
sabhdaadiboga niratassaraNaagataakhya : |
tvatpaadabakta iva sishtajanaugha madhyE
mithyaacharaami yatiraja tatOsmimoorkha: ||

*

O! Yatiraja!
I am a cause of unending worry for thee,
I am of evil ways in life,
steeped in worldly enjoyments,
bieng 'one who has surrendered to thee'
just only in name;
but alas! what a wicked person am I
among the illustrious great ones of devotion
I dare move about
as if I am also equally devoted to thy holy feet.

*
Stanza 9

nityamtvaham paribavaami guruncha mantram
taddEvataamapi nakinchidahO bhibEmi |
itthamsathOpyasathavadbavadeeya sanghE
hrushtascharaami yatiraja tatOsmi moorkha: ||

*
Oh! Yatiraja!
Daily, day in and day out
do I slander Guru and Mantra
and also the Devata evoked in the mantra;
not even an iota of fear do I seem to have;
I remain in truth such a slothful person;
but among your fervent devotees,
See! how I move about in joy
as if I am exceedingly pious !
there lies my wickedness.

*
Stanza 10

haahantahanta manasaa kriyayaacha vachaa
yOhamcharaami satatam trividhaapachaaraan |
sOhamtavaapriyakara: priyakrudvadEva
kaalamnayaami yatiraja tatOsmi moorkha: ||

*

Ha! alas, alas..by mind, actions and words
who, that is me, move about
committing grave blunders
in all three ways without rest;
that same me,
by the very same reason of that
should remain a cause of displeasure for thee;
But, what happens,
I am passing time
as if I behave pleasing to thee!
hence am I a wicked person,
Yatiraja !

*
Some thoughts on Stanza 10:

The beginner in devotion is pulled back by his past impressions and he behaves in mind, words and actions anti to all that he has been taught and anti to all piety. This should cause serious displeasure to God or Acharya, to whom he has surrendered himself. It is almost intolerable. That is how he himself reads the situation. But to his utter dismay he sees that the Master is unperturbed and even evinces more sympathy on him as if he has done something very pleasing to him. The beginner takes it upon himself that he has acted in such a covert manner that even the Master is taken by the impressions. Periya Jeer is packing wonderful poetry and deep psychology in this verse.

Let us take an example, a child beginning to learn alphabets from its mother, or father or teacher. The teacher or mother shows the child how to write rightly and wait for the child to do it by itself. But the child scribbles bizarre and realises that and expects extreme displeasure from its teacher or mother. But when it raises its head and sees, lo! what has happened? The teacher or mother is laughing at him pleasingly, as if he has done something worthful! The reaction is not normal, so it seems to the child which after all expects a scolding at least. But the loving teacher or mother is all patience and sympathy and can wait happily till the child learns by itself, not causing any unwanted trauma in the child by way of showing anger or chastising. That shows the best teacher or ideal parent.

Here Periya Jeer is trying to say that Yatiraja is such a loving mother or the graceful Master, who takes our failures in our attempts in all love and kindness and knows no end of patience and hope.

*

Stanza 11

paapE krutE yadibavanti bayaanutaapa
lajjaa:punakaraNamasya katham ghatEta |
mohEnamEna bavatIha bayaadilEsa :
tasmaat puna: punaragham yatiraja kurvE ||

*

If some one commits sins
and fear, repentance and shame occur,
then how can that person do again such acts?
But in me due to illusion and ignorance
no trace of such fears occur
and hence again and again, Yatiraja!
I go on committing sins after sins.

* 

Stanza 12

antarbhahi: sakalavastushu santamIsam
andha:purassthitam ivaaham avIkshamaaNa: |
kandarpavasya hrudaya: satatam bavaami
hanta tvadagra gamanasya yatindra naarha: ||

*
Like a man born blind
does not see the person standing before him
I, being ignorant-blind do not see
That Supreme Person who stands always
in and out of everything in the world.
My heart is swayed at all times by desires
Alas, Yatindra! I am not fit to come
before thee in thy presence.

*

Stanza 13

taapatrayI janita du:kha nipaatinOpi
dEhasthitau mamaruchistu natannivruttau |
Etasya kaaraNamahO mamapaapamEva
naathatvamEva haratad yatiraja sIghram ||

*

Deeply steeped in miseries threefold am I,
Yet the taste in the body and its maintainence
never seems to fade and disappear;
Alas, the reason for that is my own sins, I am sure;
My Saviour! Yatiraja! you alone can remove
such distractions in me.

*
Stanza 14

vachaamagochara mahaaguNa desikaagrya
kuraadhinaatha kathitaakhila naichyapaatram |
EshOhamEvana punar jagatIdrusastat
Ramanujaarya karuNaiva tu madgatistE ||

*

The lowliness narrated by the great teachers
like Kuradhinatha of wonderful qualities,
inexpressible by words,
all such lowliness of oneself
can be found in full in me
and only in me, in this whole wide world;
Hence, our Supreme Master, Ramanuja !
My only refuge is thy reasonless grace.

*
Stanza 15

suddhaatma yaamuna guroottama kooranaatha
battaakhya desikavarOkta samastanaichyam |
adyaastyasankuchitamEva mayIha lokE
tasmaadyatindra karuNaivatu madgatistE ||

*
Pure souls like the teachers great
Yamuna, Kuranaatha, Sri Bhatta,
whatever lowliness out of imagination
have they uttered in their verses
all that in full measure, unshrunk,
is here only in me in this world;
hence Yatindra! your sympathy
is the sole refuge for me.

*

Stanza 16

sabdadhibogavishayaa ruchirasmadheeyaa
nashtaabavatu iha bavadhdhayayaa yatindra |
tvadhdhaasadhaasa gaNanaa charamaavadhaumya
tadhdhaasataika rasataavirataa mamaastu ||

*
Yatindra! by your grace
here, in this life itself
should the taste in sensual pleasures
disappear from me;
and the involvement in serving
the servants of your servants of your servants
down to my time should never slacken in me
and be always on the increase.

*

Stanza 17

srutyagravedhya nijadhivyaguNa svaroopa:
pratyakshataam upagatastviharangaraja: |
vasyassadhaabavatitE yatiraja tasmaat
saktasvakeeyajanapaapa vimOchanEtvam ||

*

Yatiraja!
One who is known in His true nature,
His divine qualities and splendor
through Upanishads,
verily He resides, Rangaraja,
coming in Srirangam,
visible to all our eyes for ever;
and He is, out of your love limitless,
happily in your control;
so, by that you are able
to liberate from sins
your devotees, surrendered to thee.

*

Stanza 18

kaalatrayEpi karaNatraya nirmitaati
paapakriyasya saraNam bhagavat kshamaiva |
saachatvayaiva kamalaa ramaNertthitaayat
kshEmassa Eva hi yatindra bhavachchritaanaam ||

*

For the sins committed
in the past, the present and the future
by the triple ways of mind, word and actions,
the only refuge is the pardon
of the Almighty God, Bhagavan,
Was it not in such a vein,
that your great prayer
to the Lover of Kamala went forth?
That very great prayer is the sole refuge
for the devotees who have surrendered
unto thine holy feet, Yatindra!

*
Stanza 19

Sriman Yatindra tavadhivya padhaabja sEvaam
srisailanaatha karuNaa pariNaamadhattaam |
taamanvaham mama vivardhaya naathatasyaa:
kaamamvirudhdham akilancha nivartayatvam ||

*
Oh Yatindra,
rich in abundant wealth of divine service!
Please bestow thy grace
so that my involvement
in the deep service of thine lotus feet,
kindled in me by the sympathy
and evolved due to the blessings
of my teacher Sri Sailanathaa,
may grow more and more, day by day;
and by your grace
let the distracting desires
of all other things
be removed from me.

*
Stanza 20

vijnaapanam yadhitam adhyatu maamakeenam
angeekurushva yatiraja dhayaambhuraasE |
ajnOyayam aatmaguNalEsa vivarjitascha
tasmaadhananya saraNO bhavateeti matvaa ||

*

Yatiraja!
Ocean of empathy, which suffers
with the sufferer!
considering that I am chronic ignorant,
and that I am totally devoid of
any shred of spiritual qualities
and hence having no other refuge than thee,
kindly accept my prayer here,
this supplication from a person like me.

***

Here comes to completion this great poem of Yatiraja Vimsati. All together it is just twenty. But what an ocean of frank and excruciating self-repentance, which is a necessary stage in the mystic paths of spiritual progress. This repentance forms the purgatory for the soul. In zen-language it is 'emptying the cup'. Many masters have penned such pieces of repentance, here and there. Even the illustrious fore-masters like Alavandar and Parasara Bhatta have given vent to such emotions of 'deserted state of the soul' and 'keen awareness about the faults'. Human life being as it is, and the divine state that is becoming visible in the horizon being immeasurably great and pure, the poor soul shudders at the realisation. Any qualification is not a sufficient claim and no claim has any right to back it up. There dawns His grace which says the quite opposite to the soul - 'when have you separated from me? why this strangeness? I have been chasing you all along and trying to win over and tell you that you are mine.' 

But here Periya Jeer is so full of compassion for the modern man's predicament, who professes his devotion and turns empty in his soul. Ignorance, habits, mental associations and lack of genuine commitment and sincerity, all these characterize the modern man of religion, whatever name by which he may call the Supreme God, Sriman Narayana. There is no redemption for these anywhere. Even such are saved by the abundant grace of Sri Ramanuja, if they openly confess their state and surrender to him. 

'Not a soul to be lost' seems to be the mission of Sri Ramanuja, at least as per the understanding of Periya Jeer. Such seems to be the import of this unique composition.

***

No compromises, be yourself !

Their soul is made of

endless compromises

who claim perfectionism in their lives;

what they can't be in reality

they claim to be in narrations, whitewashed.

They excuse themselves infinitely

and they punish others endlessly;

That is the pity of them;

They have to carp and carp at others

to engine their complex

of being always perfect;

poor souls! who have traded poorly

their real self

for the gilded tin-work of the society;

Be happy, my dear soul!

to be always imperfect;

never covet any encomiums

to live your ordinary banal life

here on this dirty soil;

don't breath for claps!

don't sweat for laurels!

don't dance to the tunes of society

and make yourself a showpiece!

just live your dirty little life

for yourself and by yourself;

The slave-catchers are aplenty
and come in so many forms;

don't sell yourself for any of the charms.

You need never be a god or goddess

just be an everyday being,

smelling the dirt of life;

traders in rackets are many

and beware of hackers of soul;

Just be yourself,

a dirty human being born of the dust.

***

Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

Translating Tiruvaaymozhi 5.1.10

'Oh! He has come back!
And become devoted to me!'
So thinking and happy over the thought
and so much full of it
He came to me of himself,
gave His grace of himself
and made me full of Him.
Yea, the same black-hued God
who became a fish,
a turtle, a man-lion and a dwarf
and even a wild boar and the future Kalki
yea he came and made me full of Him.

***
ஆனான் ஆளுடையான் என்று
அஃதே கொண்டு உகந்து வந்து
தானே இன்னருள் செய்து
என்னை முற்றவும் தான் ஆனான்.
மீனாய் ஆமையுமாய்
நரசிங்கமுமாய்க் குறளாய்
கானார் ஏனமுமாய்க் கற்கி ஆம்
இன்னம் கார்வண்ணனே.

(திருவாய்மொழி 5.1.10)

***

Translating Tiruvaaymozhi 10.2.1

Say Kesava
all the troubles will disappear
the squads of death
who in very many ways
try to harms us everyday
even those will become powerless
and cannot come near.
Come on, let us go
and enter the town of Ananthapuram
today itself
where reclines willingly our Lord
on the bed of venomed snake
and the bees are ringing
round the water puddles of fields.

***
கெடும் இடராய எல்லாம்
கேசவா என்ன
நாளும் கொடுவினை செய்யும்
கூற்றின் தமர்களும்
குறுககில்லார்
விடமுடை அரவில்
பள்ளி விரும்பினான்
சுரும்பலற்றும் தடம் உடை வயல்
அனந்தபுர நகர்
புகுதும் இன்றே.

(திருவாய்மொழி 10.2.1)

***

Translating Sri Ramanuja Nootrandaadhi 2

I do not know
what has happened to me
something great I sense;
My heart will never feel
for anything else
other than
the graceful simplicity
of Ramanuja;
He is such a lover profound
worshiping deep
the holy feet of Kuraiyal's Chief;
and He is away from men,
whose heart is strange
to the Lotus Feet of Blissful Ranga
reclining among
the honey-brimming groves of Srirangam.

*
கள்ளார் பொழில் தென் அரங்கன்
கமலப் பதங்கள்
நெஞ்சில் கொள்ளா மனிசரை நீங்கி
குறையல் பிரான் அடிக்கீழ்
விள்ளாத அன்பன் இராமானுசன்
மிக்க சீலம் அல்லால்
உள்ளாது என் நெஞ்சு
ஒன்றறியேன்
எனக்கு உற்ற
பேரியல்வே!

(Kuraiyal's Chief - Thirumangai Alwar, who was the Chief of Thirukkuraiyal)


***

Translating Sri Ramanuja Nootrandaadhi 1

My heart Come Come !
we will chant His names
to live for ever
at the holy feet of Ramanuja
who came
as the final resort of scholars
and who considers himself blessed
by surrendering
at the divine feet of Maran,
whose songs exude
ever and anon
the glory of God,
whose chest is the coveted place
for the divine Lady of lotus.

*
பூ மன்னு மாது
பொருந்திய மார்பன்
புகழ் மலிந்த
பா மன்னு மாறன்
அடி பணிந்து உய்ந்தவன்
பல்கலையோர் தாம்
மன்ன வந்த இராமானுசன்
சரணாரவிந்தம்
நாம் மன்னி வாழ
நெஞ்சே!
சொல்லுவோம் அவன் நாமங்களே!

(ஸ்ரீராமானுச நூற்றந்தாதி, 1)

*

Translating Tirumaalai 1

Keeping the senses in control

transcending the gaping wides of bad times

we dance on the very heads

of the messengers of death;

You, the Primal God !

It is because

of the proud jubilation we feel

on close reading your Names
Lord of the divine town of Srirangam

***

Translating Tirumaalai 26

I do not worship
all the time
your golden feet
with flowers chosen
with love;
I do not chant
your blessed qualities
with chosen words
blemishless
My heart does not throb
with love and mix with you;
when such is my life
it is not proper,
alas! my Ranga!
auf,,,why then I was born!

*

போதெல்லாம்
போது கொண்டு
உன் பொன்னடி புனைய மாட்டேன்.
தீதிலா மொழிகள் கொண்டு
உன் திருக்குணம்
செப்ப மாட்டேன்;
காதலால் நெஞ்சம்
அன்பு கலந்திலேன்,
அது தன்னாலே
ஏதிலேன்,
அரங்கர்க்கு எல்லே!
என் செய்வான் தோன்றினேனே!

(திருமாலை, 26, தொண்டரடிப்பொடி ஆழ்வார்)

***

Translating some songs of Perumal Thirumozhi

I am mad, for my Thirumal !
I don't mix with this crowd,
which takes this world
of deception as real.
My Master! My Ranga !
So do I call and call
losing me in longing for Him!

Joy for food, joy for dress
enjoying, this world runs about
I am away from it
And I am  a lunatic
of one who sucked
the ogre's breast;
In Him lives the Universe full,
He, my beloved Ranga.

The perfect path,
with no blemishes
I am onto it
And I don't get mixed up with others;
The primordial Cowherd,
He, my Ranga!
I am mad for Him,
who is the lover
of the lass on the lotus.

Ghostly they look,
everybody to me;
and of course I am so
to them in return;
what is the use,
talking about this?
I call and call
Hey Cowherd! Hey Ranga!
and for my Lord
I am rid with spirit!

These are my translations of Perumal Thirumozhi of Alwar Kulasekara, 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 3.8

மெய்யில் வாழ்க்கையை
மெய் எனக் கொள்ளும்
இவ் வையம் தன்னொடும்
கூடுவதில்லை யான்.
ஐயனே! அரங்கா!
என்று அழைக்கின்றேன்
மையல் கொண்டு ஒழிந்தேன்
என் தன் மாலுக்கே.

உண்டியே உடையே
உகந்தோடும்
இம் மண்டலத்தோடும்
கூடுவதில்லை யான்
அண்டவாணன் அரங்கன்
வன் பேய்முலை
உண்டவாயன் தன்
உன்மத்தன் காண்மினே.

தீதில் நன்னெறி நிற்க
அல்லாது செய் நீதியாரொடும்
கூடுவதில்லை யான்.
ஆதி ஆயன்
அரங்கன்
அம் தாமரைப் பேதை மாமணவாளன்
தன் பித்தனே.

பேயரே எனக்கு யாவரும்
யானும் ஓர் பேயனே எவர்க்கும்
இது பேசி என்?
ஆயனே! அரங்கா!
என்று அழைக்கின்றேன்
பேயனாய் ஒழிந்தேன்
எம் பிரானுக்கே.

***

Translating Periyaalwar Thirumozhi 4.10.1

Why do we go for help
to persons who are capable?
Their help will be timely,
So we expect, is it not?
I have come to you for help,
may be, I fair poor,
in comparison with that elephant,
which you saved on call;
when the death comes
and knocks me down
I will not be mostly
in any position
to remember thee and call;
So, my Lord, I am telling you now.
when able and willing,
You who recline on the Snake
In the Island of Srirangam.

***
(My translation of Periya Alwar Thirumozhi, 4.10.1)

துப்பு உடையாரை அடைவதெல்லாம்
சோர்விடத்துத் துணை ஆவர் என்றே
ஒப்பிலேன் ஆகிலும்
நின் அடைந்தேன்
ஆனைக்கு நீ அருள் செய்தமையால்
எய்ப்பு என்னை வந்து நலியும் போது
அங்கு ஏதும்
நான் உன்னை நினைக்க மாட்டேன்
அப்போதைக்கு
இப்போதே சொல்லி வைத்தேன்
அரங்கத்து அரவணைப் பள்ளியானே!

***

Thinking along with JK

Thinking along with JK, mind is seen full of conditionings. Every act we do now, every thought which occurs, every view that the mind holds upon - all are, all have been deriving themselves recursively, layer upon layer of the past, my past, your past, our past. The pros is as much a part of this layering as the cons is. Nothing escapes, no theory, no school, no idea that has come down, however docile or daring, this matrix of conditioning. Even your spontaneity is sham-faced by the subtle prevarications of this chained lattice of conditioning. 'What survives?' is an extended link of this lattice.

***


Generally with any book on spirituality, whatever may be the school or whoever may be the author, whether in any religious garb or not, I find one uniform feature. That is, all these books are brain-washing in the sense, that these make you feel that that way is the only way or the only efficacious way or the only superior way vouchsafed unto humanity as the final path. All other ways are either wrong or only preparations to this path. Why every mystic wants to do that for his way is queer if we choose to think on that. Perhaps this vehemence occupies the vacuum of the lack of any objectively verifiable ground. Science fares happier on that ground.

***

Hall of Masks

We are in a hall of masks;
lost our heads long ago,
somewhere, hereabout,
in the midst of masks,
those should be lying,
lisping some unheard truths;
our masks deter our efforts
in finding out our heads
and shoot a thousand head-aches
of the heads unfound;
chinnamasta shies away
having tried and failed
to give us hints.

We are in a hall of masks
searching for a thousand reasons
instead of our one head that will count;
perhaps we are afraid we may find it
and postpone the chance of the unexpected;
the masks are in search of our heads,
to hide them and belie our eyes;
That one head, our beloved head
should reach us soon, in spite of us.

***
Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

A Sangam poem

Eating plenty of plantain

of the rich swaying leaves,

along with the sweet shelves

of jack-fruits, resisting further intake,

changing gulps of honey-like water,

coursed with rich bouts of wine,

the monkeys find it impossible,

to scale the sandal trees,

and just doze off
on the beds of heaps of fallen blossoms;

effortless pleasures are aplenty

for all the living beings of thine hills,

easily got with no strain;

then forsooth, aimed pleasure,

is it so difficult for thee?

Bounteous beauty

and bamboo-smooth shoulders

branching off and entwining

as it were the heart,

ever pressing forth to thwart;

all for the sake of thee, if then,

she is tightly in guard by daytime

and you venture the night not sir;

the seasons fade fast away

and the wretched moon lingers long

down in the town.

***

(Translation of one Sangam song, 'what is that?')

Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

'In the windy plains, O! Kannamma!'

In the windy plains, O! Kannamma

I rejoice in thy loveful thoughts

Lips of springs of nectar

Moonlight drips brimming eyes

Body shaped of pure golden hue

Till I last in this world vast

Make me forget everything else

Changing me into a celestial

You are my sweet soul O Kannamma!

I will adore thee for ever and ever

Sorrows gone and gone are the miseries

The moment you are held as gold

Pure nectar bristles in my mouth

When I utter your name Kannamma

In the fire of my soul you are the rising flame

You are my thought you are my mind aflame.

(Translation of Bharathi's song)

***

 
Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

Poetry in a phrase !

Poetry in a phrase !

Poetry can happen even without words. If so, no wonder, poetry can happen even in only one word.

But nobody can doubt that poetry can happen in a phrase. Such phrasal poetic flashes are abundant in Sangam lore. One example we will see.

You are sitting in your garden house. It is calm, honeyed isolation. Surrounding trees chatter some age old jokes, which the wind recognizes.

The sheen of sprayed light, the skin of emergent twilight and the returning calls of the home-coming birds make the evening wine-dipped.

You fix your gaze on a branch. It is odd, the curves and the bends and the swirling botanical gustos. One parrot is sweetly repetitive. You wonder why. Perhaps to relieve you of the mystery, a squirrel sits in a lower branch, being tutored by the parrot for some uncertain future symphony. It is not there, the reasons, in the creatures' minds. But the poetry links it so. The parrot and the squirrel make an ideal tutor and the taught. What the parrot says, the squirrel tries to repeat in many unsuccessful attempts. It looks so in the poet's eyes. He expresses it in a phrase, so beautifully, in akanAnURu. 12

kiLi viLi payiRRum veLil Adu perunchinai

a parrot teaching a squirrel

the sequence of calls

on a wide branch of tree

(veLil - squirrel)

The scholars who have translated this line so far, including my friend Prof A Dakshinamurthy, have overlooked this poetry, which is there in the natural sequence of words. Instead they have gone around to draw meaning more congenial to the common sense as - the parrots mistakenly thinking the calls of the girls in the ranches as the calls of their own kind and the squirrels dancing - which goes too way afar to make the Sangam poet look so prosaic, whereas the line in its natural order evoke a terrible sense of poetry in a serene mood.

***

Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

'El' dorado of Tamil

A rich man adorns himself with very many apparels. An able artist knows how to use the same material in so many ways.

A language should be rich and at the same time highly artistic. Only then such language can use various words for every distinct occasion and the same word in very many senses in different occasions. It is rare to see such languages in the linguistic spectrum of the world. Tamil is one such language, which is at the same time very rich in words and highly artistic in the use of them.

To illustrate this point I will take the word 'el' in Tamil.

This simple word of mono syllable carries about ten meanings. Is it believable? But it is so. And not only that - this same word carries diametrically opposite meanings also.

First we will take the meaning of 'el' - as 'light'. Kuruntokai 216 uses this word 'el' in this sense. - 'thodu aar el vaLai'

Again the same word 'el' also carries the meaning which is opposite in signification to 'light'. el = night. NaRRiNai 2 uses the word in this sense - ellitai neengum iLaiyon.

Again another shade - neither light nor night but evening when the twilight sets in. el - evening. KuRuntokai 275 uses the word in the sense of evening. - el Urc cErtarum ERutai inatthu.

Again the same word 'el' is also used to denote daytime. In AkanAnURu 266 'el' is used in the sense of daytime. - kaLLutaip peruncORRu el imizh anna

Again the same word 'el' also signifies the Sun. PuRanAnURu 157 uses it as - mImisai el padu pozhudin

'el is not only the Sun but also the sunlight or sunheat veyil. Pingalandai nigandu lists it as a synonym for 'veyil'

'el' has not still exhausted its meanings. 'el' can also mean the full day. naaL, which the nigandu lists.

All these are in one way understandable as signifying inter related things like light, day, sun, sunlight etc. But what to say, when the same word 'el' is used to denote the qualities like greatness or abundance.?

AkanAnURu 77 uses 'el in the sense of big, great, majestic - el vaLi alaikkum iruL kUr maalai

And Perunkathai 33 uses it as abundance - el oLip paavai

What is so awesome is the range of meanings both opposite in signification and falling beyond the major registry of meanings.

Such was the original Tamil, voracious in vocabulary and yet again adept in using the words.

Is it the 'el' dorado of Tamil ?

(my thanks to the dictionaries and anthologies)

***

Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

On Poetry vs Music

Some thoughts on poetry vs music, which I shared back and forth in dialogues in googleplus:

Singing poetry is strangling the delicacy of poetry by the arrogance of music.

Poetry has its own music inbuilt which manifests in progressive coming back to it and understanding the poetry layers after layers. But when you set the music from outside, the words are forced to play a different role than for which they are intended in poetry, a role of danseuse to an external code and rhythm. Whereas in poetry the words blossom out petals by petals of their meaning levels. This unnatural and forceful appropriation of poetry to serve the logic and codes of music is what I call 'the arrogance of music'. In chanting also the inner world of poetic sensibility is sacrificed to the social formulas and codes of chanting and choir.

Roman Jakobson sees progressive freedom of expression from the stage of phonemes into words to the stage of words set in sentences. But in prose and ordinary functions of language like reporting and narrating, the words are constrained by the denotative function, even though the connotative writes into the sentences more and more spaces of freedom. But in poetic function the language becomes almost self-referential and in one stroke it has become the stage, the player and the performance, all in one. The compulsion of denotation is reduced to the minimum. Roman Jakobson maps this progressive liberation of language in his book, 'Fundamentals of Language'. While discussing the two-fold character of language in the second part, his following words are significant, which play resonance with the Dhvani concepts of Kavya Sastras.:

"Thus in the combination of linguistic units there is an ascending scale of freedom. In the combination of distinctive features into phonemes, the freedom of the individual speaker is zero; the code has already established all the possibilities which may be utilized in the given language. Freedom to combine phonemes into words is circumscribed, it is limited to the marginal situation of wordcoinage. In the forming of sentences out of words the speaker
is less constrained. And finally, in the combination of sentences into utterances, the action of compulsory syntactical rules ceases
and the freedom of any individual speaker to create novel contexts increases substantially, although again the numerous stereotyped
utterances are not to be overlooked."

*
 
I will like to take one example from Victor Hugo,  a line which I like very much - 'L'homme respire, mais l'artiste aspire'. L'homme is man. 'respire' belongs to biology. L'artiste again the name of man in one function. 'aspire' belongs to the field of values - aspiration. Here what function the biology word 'respire' is doing? Man respires. Is it reporting? What use? Yea man respires. What of that? But V Hugo uses the whole first part as a preamble and foregrounding for what he is going to say next, as 'pakaippulam' - contrast background. The whole unit Man respires serves to focus our attention on 'but the artist aspires'. Aspiration is as essential and sine qua non to the artist as respiration is to the man, biological. Where will you point the occurrence of poetry here? In which word? That is why we have to consider that poetry is maximum freedom context of language, which Dhvani says in its own way - Poetry happens after the words are exhausted.

***
Srirangam V Mohanarangan

*

On the idea of Pierre Bourdieu..

Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, very aptly expresses one concept of field research experience, in his book 'Outline of a Theory of Practice'. When in 1989 or so, when I was conducting a group of my friends in a cultural understanding practice employing phenomenological constructs, through a couple of years, to temples like Srirangam, Thirupathi, Kancheepuram and Melkote, the idea I was beginning to have then, was very near to what is expressed here in this book by Pierre Bourdieu.

"The anthropologist's particular relation to the object of his study contains the makings of a theoretical distortion inasmuch as his situation as an observer, excluded from the real play of social activities by the fact that he has no place (except by choice or by way of a game) in the system observed and has no need to make a place for himself there, inclines him to a hermeneutic representation of practices, leading him to reduce all social relations to communicative relations and, more precisely, to decoding operations."

*

The author speaks of the necessity of the theory developed to be at variance in some aspects from the object studied. The accountability question does not arise. The research has to fulfill the accountability criteria. The point is even if participatory exercises are incorporated into the module, still the faith commitments or the lack of them, make a large difference in the presentation. And in the research methodology, it fails at the start if you uphold the faith positions.

*

Existence of bias - regarding a thought of Mr Alex Watson

Existence of bias in research may not be totally eradicable. But awareness of such bias and that too self-awareness by the scholar himself is an efficacious corrective and check to that bias. Real research rests on such self-disciplines. Here is an example, which when read emboldens one's reliance on true research and its functioning towards knowledge. Mr Alex Watson is one such scholar, whose opinions make one think and rethink about the matter. In his remarkable book translating with a commentary Bhatta Ramakantha' work 'naresvaraparikshaprakasa', which is again an elaboration on the work 'naresvarapariksha' of Sadyojyoti, Mr Alex Watson writes the following words. (Bhatta Ramakantha, an early Saiva Siddhantist belongs to the later part of 10th century CE): "The fact that, in western scholars' encounter with Buddhism over the last two centuries, Buddhist authors have been interpreted as Hegelian, Heideggerian, Wittgensteinian, Platonic, Stoic, transcendental idealist, phenomenologist, and as akin to Husserl, Russell or Whitehead, indicates that, instead of letting the texts speak for themselves, we have a tendency to superimpose on them perspectives with which we are more familiar. This raises worrying questions about our ability to recognize what is unfamiliar as unfamiliar."

To my mind it looks but natural and creative also to read authors across times and cultures in parallel lights and in inter-textual interpretative understanding. But sometimes the comparison may become a noise rather than an enhancing music of mutual meditations. Perhaps to avoid such noisy mishaps Mr Alex Watson intends his note of caution.

Then what is the way out ? How to do remedial research which avoids such quagmires? He himself suggests a valid approach of sticking to the words intelligently.

"If we want the classical Indian traditions to reveal themselves, not our own preconceptions, and the voices of their thinkers to come across louder than our voices, our most powerful tool is philology. While we can never completely eliminate our own subjectivity, we can, as philologists, attempt to set it aside to some extent by sticking closely to an observation of the texts themselves, and, when interpreting, allowing our analysis to be guided by concepts and ideas derived from the text itself or other texts of the same general period and tradition."

Persons, who aim to be better and more better scholars cannot afford to pass over these words in haste.

***