Mother and Father

Mother He is and father too,
Apt for every kind of kinship.
Yes, apt and more than apt.
He is the womb from which are born
All moving things and things unmoving.
Dear child He is and cherished wealth,
Rich learning,wisdom ripe;
Blessed by the mouths that daily chant
Vedic hymns to mighty Rudra,
He dwells in the mind's eye
And the bright unbroken sky,
The light of lights that shines within
The deep heart's core;
Venkata,
All in One and One in all,
True seer in whom all Truth is seen,
Merciful, liberal giver of grace
Miraculously strong to save.
Yes, He is Mother and Father too.

~ Muruganar

The gaze of the Lord

54

Subduing me and bringing me under his control, he drew my consciousness to himself with the irresistible magnet of his grace. From the profound depths of his mauna, his gracious glance cleaved the knot of my ego’s ruinous cravings in an instant. How great is the power of his piercing gaze!

55

Lost in the fruitless round of birth and death, I surrendered before my Master and my heart became clear and serene through his gracious gaze. Then, through the luminous spiritual practice in which I embraced his holy feet as the true path, I merged with the nature of the Real, so that the disastrous error [of forgetting my true nature] was no more.

56

Through the forgetfulness [pramada] that arose through the error of failing to enquire what was truly real, I revelled in the illusory existence of the physical body. But the Lord, through his glance of grace, united with my consciousness, and brought me into harmony with true existence, the fullness of the open sky [of the Self].

~ Sri Muruganar, from the forthcoming Sri Ramana Guru Prasadadam, translated by Robert Butler and Dr T. V. Venkatasubramanian

Please see David Godman's new blog to read more of this work.

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To dwell in the infinite sky of holy silence at his feet is to remain within the heart, in one's authentic state, where there is neither soul not body, neither mind nor consciousness, neither 'I' nor 'mine', enjoying the fruits of a clear realization which is sweeter than nectar.

~ Sri Muruganar, Non-Dual Consciousness, The Flood Tide of Bliss

by enquiry or melting

Thinking in the proper manner of the Guru's Grace, which is beyond expression, and being Still, remaining unattached to the false [world] appearance in front of us, is alone Blissful. (verse 288)

Sadhu Om commentary: Sri Bhagavan often used to say "Grace is Self, which shines in everyone as 'I-I'" Therefore, "thinking in the proper manner of the Guru's Grace" is nothing but attending uninterruptedly to Self. In order to show that this Self-attention is nothing but avoiding second and third person attention, it is described here as "remaining unattached to the false world-appearance in front of us". Remaining in Self-attention by "Being Still" is neither a state of laziness, nor is it remaining like a stone in kashta-samadhi or laya; it is the state of making an uninterrupted effort towards Self-attention. When this state is understood and experienced as our own Natural State, then Self-attention becomes effortless, and that is Sahaja Samadhi.

Destroy the stealthy ego, which is the thought "I am the body", either by enquiring "Who am I?", or by melting into nothing by always thinking with love of God's feet. That which will then remain is the Light of Jnana. (verse 289)

~ Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai, translated by Sadhu Om and Michael James

The Magician Ramana

Awareness wherein brightly shine
These many forms of persons, places, time,
All separate-seeming though in substance One:
Into that same Awareness he transmuted
This `I' of mine. Now, nothing to be known,
My past undone, my being his,
I stand, unruffled Bliss,
Untouched by any shock.
Lord Siva-Venkatesa he who,
King of kings, came conquering
And made me his alone.

What is this `I' that rises from within?
Only a thought that, like a bubble, floats
Up to the troubled surface of Awareness.
In sleep the sea is still, no bubble rises:
Then too you are.
You're not the `I' that rises and then sets,
You are the sole Awareness in the All,
The eternal, uncreated Light of Being.

No form or feature has he of his own,
Yet form and feature to all beings gives;
Knowledge and ignorance, both to him unknown,
Each human mind from him alone derives.
He brought me into being but to think
Of him as `you', of me and mine as `yours';
And he has left me wordless, deedless, prone,
Helpless on death's brink.
Only the vast beatitude endures.

~ from Muruganar's `Suttaruttal', translated by Prof K. Swaminathan

Do not limit yourself to the body

Establish yourself in the complete perfection of your own real nature. Do not limit yourself to the [body] upadhi.

Except through the rare medicine of direct experience it is impossible to escape from the I-am-the-body disease.

Unless the belief 'I am the body' is completely destroyed, true knowledge of the one Self is not possible.

The disappearance of the I-am-the-body notion, the wrong understanding that causes infatuation, is the experience of the Atma-swarupa.

In the state wherein the ego, the I-am-the-body delusion, has ceased, both yoga and bhoga [enjoyment], without becoming two, merge together as one.

~ verses 90-94, Individual Identity chapter, Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Recorded by Muruganar, Translated by T. V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman, Edited and annotated by David Godman

the true, bright path

Unbroken Self-awareness is
The true, bright path of devotion or love.
Knowledge of our inherent nature
As indivisible Bliss supreme
Wells up as Love.

~ Sri Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai

tell me how to make good deeds prevail

I cried out, 'Lord and Master, tell me how
To make good deeds prevail
Against deluding evil deeds!'
My dear father, my Ramana, said,
'Stand untroubled in the centre.
Move only as you may be moved
By the grace of the Lord.'

~ Sri Muruganar, Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai

only through his grace

Delighting my gaze, he showed me his feet which graciously bestow true knowledge. No one can reach and know them through the contentious ego with its endless convolutions, but only through his grace, when the mind is delivered up to be subdued by the power of those holy feet.

~ Sri Muruganar, Sri Ramana Anubuti

what is this `I'?

What is this `I' that rises from within?
Only a thought that, like a bubble, floats
Up to the troubled surface of Awareness.
In sleep the sea is still, no bubble rises:
Then too you are.
You're not the `I' that rises and then sets,
You are the sole Awareness in the All,
The eternal, uncreated Light of Being.

~ Sri Muruganar, from 'Suttaruttal'

the spreading radiance of his true teaching rushed forth in all directions

Light of lights, graciously he plunged me into the ocean of
divine love at his holy feet so that I tasted the sweetness of final
bliss with which I could not be sated. Origin and source of my
understanding, the spreading radiance of his true teaching
rushed forth in all directions until within my heart it united
with my very being.

~ Sri Muruganar, Sri Ramana Anubhuti

The ego false and transient makes
The transient world seem real and lasting;
And if it dies, the Self abides
As the sole Being and ground
Of this phenomenal universe.

~ The Garland of Guru's Sayings

But that is what actually happened

When in ancient days even Sri Dakshinamurti the Adi-guru, guru of all gurus was able to reveal the truth of that one Self only through silence, the speechless speech, who else can reveal it through speech?

In this connection, Sri Bhagavan once told the following story to Sri Muruganar. When the four aged Sanakadi rishis first saw the sixteen-year-old Sri Dakshinamurti sitting under the banyan tree, they were at once attracted by him, understanding him to be the real Sadguru.

They approached him, did three pradakshinas around him, prostrated before him, sat at his feet and began to ask very shrewd and pertinent questions about the nature of Reality and the means of attaining it. Because of the great compassion and fatherly love (vatsalya) which he felt for his aged disciples, the young Sri Dakshinamurti was overjoyed to see their earnestness, wisdom and maturity, and hence he gave apt replies to each of their questions.

As he answered each consecutive question, further doubts rose in their minds and still they asked further questions. Thus they continued to question Sri Dakshinamurti for one whole year, and he continued to clear their doubts through his compassionate answers.

Finally, however, Sri Dakshinamurti understood that if he gave more answers to their questions more doubts would rise in their minds and hence there would never be an end to their ignorance (ajnana). Therefore, suppressing even the feeling of compassion and fatherly love which was welling up within him, he merged himself into the supreme silence. Because of their great maturity (which had been ripened to perfection through their year-long association with the Sadguru), as soon as Sri Dakshinamurti thus merged himself, they too were automatically merged within, into silence, the state of Self.

Wonder-struck on hearing Sri Bhagavan narrating the story in this manner, Sri Muruganar remarked that in no book is it mentioned that Sri Dakshinamurti ever spoke anything.

"But this is what actually happened" replied Sri Bhagavan.

From the authoritative way in which Sri Bhagavan thus replied and from the clear and descriptive way in which he had told the story, Sri Muruganar understood that Sri Bhagavan was none other than Sri Dakshinamurti himself.

~ Sadhu Om, from The Silent Power

Grace

If toward the Lord you take
One single step, then with much more
Than a mother's love He takes
Nine steps towards you to accept you.
Such is the Guru's Grace.

~ The Garland of Guru's Sayings

The ending of suffering

Since you are intent on driving out suffering, you should know that your real nature is bliss alone.

Confusion and agitation are erroneous superimpositions upon consciousness, within which they have no real existence.

For all the many distressful diseases the peerless medicine is definitely the certainty of the real nature of the Self.

Why do you become distressed and suffer to no purpose over things that are not worthy of your concern? Let go of the mind's anxieties.

Those adepts who have perfected their sadhana will not become dejected and perturbed when they are beset by trials and tribulations.

In what way do lamentations benefit the jiva? The sensible policy is to terminate the tyrannical insurgency of the mind.

Until you enquire into your real nature, seeing and abiding as it, the triple miseries experienced by you will not cease.

~ Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Recorded by Muruganar

In holy silence at his flawless feet, thinking, yet beyond the
realm of thought, I established in my heart that consciousness
wherein his self and mine were one. The confusion of eye and
mind, born of treacherous desire, died away, its falsehood
revealed, and amidst grace’s honeyed flood, divine reality was
all.

~ Sri Muruganar, Sri Ramana Anubhuti

a miracle wrought by Bhagavan

Among the devotees of Bhagavan, Muruganar, the poet, holds a specially honoured place. In Tamil Nadu the connection between poetry and sanctity has been close and continuous down the centuries. Peria-puranam, the story in verse of the sixtythree Saivite Saints — many of them poets — was a favourite of Bhagavan's in his boyhood; and in drawing Muruganar to himself the seer was only helping to preserve an ancient tradition.

Born in 1895, Sri C. K. Subrahmanyam grew up in an atmosphere of Tamil learning and became in due course a teacher of Tamil in a High School. His first collection of poems, Swatantra-Gitam, owed much to his ardent admiration of Gandhiji and, like the early work of his elder contemporary, Subrahmanya Bharati, formed a distinct contribution to the national movement.

But when he came to Bhagavan and fell under his spell, he renounced all other interests, completely effaced his personality and turned into "a shadow of Bhagavan." And he has lived ever since in a state of stark simplicity, utterly poor and obscure. In thus losing the world to find Bhagavan, he has found a joy to utter and a voice to utter it which have given him a high and assured place among the immortal singer-saints of Tamil Nadu. This sudden and complete change in the poems and in the manner of his utterance, the marvelously sustained and infinitely varied beauty of the enormous bulk of his verse on a single theme, constitutes an undoubted 'miracle' wrought by Bhagavan, permanently there for all eyes to behold.

Muruganar was content with composing his poems and having them read by Bhagavan. For him there was no 'wider public' to whose notice they should be brought. Thus it fell to an admirer, Sri Ramana Padananda, to arrange for the printing and publication of six volumes of Muruganar's poems.

~ from The Mountain Path, Volume 1, October 1964, No. 4

Sadhu Om's love for Muruganar

The intimate spiritual and literary friendship, which existed between Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om was forged by Sri Ramana Himself on the very first day in 1946 that Sri Sadhu Om came to Him.

On that day Sri Sadhu Om sang before Sri Ramana the song Kuyilodu Kooral, which had spontaneously surged forth from his heart a few days earlier and in which all his feelings of intense longing to see Sri Ramana were expressed in a most heart-melting manner; after hearing that song, Sri Ramana read through it carefully and asked Sri Sadhu Om to show it to Sri Muruganar. Thus started the deep and intimate friendship between these two great poet-saints, which in course of time proved most fruitful.

...

The great love and high regard which Sri Sadhu Om had for Sri Muruganar can clearly be seen in all his Tamil prose writings about him, selections from which have been compiled, translated and included in this book under the title ‘Sri Muruganar - The Right Hand of Sri Bhagavan’, but perhaps his love can be found expressed most poignantly in two verses which surged in his heart during the night after Sri Muruganar left his physical body. In the first verse, addressing the contemporary world, which had failed to understand the greatness of Sri Muruganar, he sang:

“The cuckoo who sang (in your midst) for eighty-three years with a sweet voice of cultured, spiritual, ancient Tamil has gone, flying off into the great space of Sri Ramana, the exalted treasure of austerity with which the world has been blessed. What will you do now?”

In the second verse, addressing and consoling those Ramana devotees who had true love for Sri Muruganar, he sang:

“Does ‘Muruganar’ mean the four-cubit body? O you who have love for Muruganar, who is Muruganar?

Know that Muruganar is only the Eye of Self-Knowledge given by Annamalai-Ramana,
the ancient Siva.”

~ from the essay "Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om" by Michael James, in Ramana's Muruganar, compiled and edited by A. R. Natarajan

As I wandered, I know not where, fair Padam, supreme bliss, brought me here to his feet through his sweet grace and brought me salvation.

Padam gave me the emotion that makes my body soften and melt every time I think of the true, cool grace that it bestowed on me.

~ Padamalai, Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Recorded by Muruganar

just this form that pulsated love for Bhagavan from every pore

... Memories of Muruganar return, memories of silence, of his ever flowing tears at the very mention of Bhagavan's name, of being moved beyond words when we sang on Bhagavan.

On one visit, an elder cousin reprimanded a younger one for excusing himself from Muruganar's presence on some pretext. 'He had no interest in what was going on', I stated.

'It matters little', came the answer. 'Whether one is disinterested or even totally restless at that time, one must somehow spend the maximum time possible in a jnani's presence. The extrordinary good that comes out of even simply being in such a presence cannot be estimated by us', he explained. 'For sadhakas such a presence is invaluable. When you see a jnani you can concretely perceive what it means to be apart from the body', he continued, and added, 'I have had the great good fortune of being with Muruganar on an occasion when he was extremely unwell. Yet it was so obvious that his body's suffering did not even touch him'.

To those who have seen Muruganar this would be quite evident. In fact, even to one so young and unlettered in spiritual lore as I, it was obvious at that time that there was really no 'Muruganar' before us. There was just this form that pulsated love for Bhagavan from every pore.

Someone mentioned after going through the book 'Ramana's Muruganar' that almost every article contained reference to Muruganar's tears of joy on hearing Bhagavan's name. I explained that this was not a mere repetition of a single fact, but that it was a continuous experience which is sure to have had an impact on all those who came to Muruganar. Just as it is impossible to speak or write without words, even so it is impossible to think, speak or write on Muruganar without mentioning how he would melt with love for Bhagavan.

~ Dr. Sarada Natarajan, Surging Joy (Self Discovery) (I took the liberty of breaking this into more paragraphs than the original text to make it more readable on the screen.)