Tiruvachakam additional notes-2

 Therefore he urges that all our desires, our

200 


THE HINDU TESTAMENT OF LOVE 


riches, love, power, body and soul should be surrendered to 
Him, not bitterly, not reluctantly, nay, not rebelliously, but 
joyfully. The sanctity of his detachment and renunciation 
is revealed in these verses. The Lord becomes the object 
of his impassioned desire and rooted thus, he asks triumph¬ 
antly— “Is there any obstruction that can bar my way”? 
His soul having apprehended the nature of the Beloved, in 
absolute abandonment of desire, he makes a grand offering 
of himself. “I give my all to Thee, Henceforth I claim no 
prerogative over myself”. 

The beauty of his vision of Love is described in the surg¬ 
ing chaos of the unexpressed. ‘ 

“Thou who cannot be beheld by the human eye, 

Thy gracious Feet, I beheld by Thy Grace, 

And my eyes rained bliss sublime so that 
Day and night on that alone I ponder”. 

When his ‘ego’ was vanquished by the 
act of Grace, in other words by the Guru’s initiation, then 
stepped in the Lord to abide in him and the effect of hi 
karmic deeds consumed, he was filled with an all-consuming 
love for the Eternal Light of God. Self-surrender, supplica¬ 
tion, dejection and rapture are the outcome of this persona 
experience. 

“I know myself no more; nor the recurrence of night and day. 
He who is beyond the reach of human thought and speec , 
He has maddened me with madness mystic”. 
“Non-attachment will straightway unite us 

To the holy band of God’s elect. 

Ah, then life’s ego-centred delusive perplexities 

Shall no more press upon me like the raging billows.” 

In this exalted state, the poet feels that he does not need 
anything in this life: 

“Glory I ask not; nor desire I wealth; 

Not earth nor heaven do I crave.. 

I seek not birth nor death. Nor the company 



202 


THE HINDU TESTAMENT OF LOVE 


Of those that deny my Lord Siva. 

I have reached the sacred Feet of Perunturai. 

I have adorned His Feet. I do not move from here. 

I know no going hence a gain .” 

34.7. 

“Oh, precious Balm, distilled Honey, 

What I need I know, but how much 
I need, I yet do not know. 

Verily in my mind, He has commingled 
As life of my life, the Self of my soul”. 

34. 9. 
The journey to God should be undertaken in a true spirit 
of detachment and contemplation, in the company of the 
tested and truthful devotees. Those who pursue the goal 
steadfastly should not falter at any stage of the journey, nor 
halt because of their weakness. “In Him lies our strength 
and the self realises the SELF. In a beautiful stanza, he 
describes the nature of the true “Bhaktas”, devotees of the 
Lord. 

"They are self-possessed, with no ties binding them: 

Guided by their own inner light, they are their own master*. 

Oft they ask, ‘Who are we? What is ours?’ Away with desires! 

Illusion all! and so vanquishing the ‘Ego’, 

Join ye the holy band of saints of the King — 

Realise that in His Will lies the true goal of Life. 

Relinquishing all that is false and unreal. 

Be ye ready to follow the light that gleams 

From the beatific Feet of the Lord of Tillai.” 

45. 3. 
45. 3. 

In the answer to the question, ‘who is dear to the Lord and 
Master?’ we find the poetry and philosophy of Tiruvacna- 
kam, the Testament of Love and Beauty epitomised: 

“He is dear who annihilates the Ego and tunes his 

will to His Love. 

Desire and indignation completely abandoned, these 

pilgrim-seekers 

Should get ready immediately, for there is not much t ' m ® 

left on earth. 

Adorable are those men of God who surrender their 

will to His Will in peace. 

If they do not hasten, the gates of Sivapuram might be 

shut ’ere they 
“The Lord of Perunturai has made my heart 
His abode, and lighted it with Love. 

His coming has cleft sorrow’s bonds 

For ever, and banished darkness from my ken. 

What perfect bliss I experience”. 


PANDAAYA NAANMARAI* 48 THE ANCIENT SCRIPTURE 
v TIRUPPERUNTURAI 

QUINTESSENCE: THE AFTERMATH OF EXPERIENCE 

Who made me a Jivan Mukta? HmMJjouawhom 
the unreal to the Real? The salat attributes aU that KB. 
to the working of the potent force of the ^ 
there. 

In the experience of Siva’s final manifestation, St. Mani- 
vabhakar apprehends the Truth of Oneness. Hie is all that 
is. The poet has released himself from the world of images, 
and beckons us to do likewise; he does not shrink from the 
world of woes and delights as in the days of yore; he does 
not shun the world as a fearful place nor does he ignore 
it as a mirage. The One remains; the many change and 
pass away. ‘ ' 

“He sees it all the time as that \yhich it is”. 
8. 6. 

All the time-forms that change in the process of the cycle 
of ‘becoming’, gain a new meaning and a new, di gnity which 
without the vision of the Real, it could not have. This is 
the revelation of Reality which Manikkavachakar evokes 
in this “Song of Attainment”. 

It embodies the highest consummation of Manivachakaf's 
enjoyment of bliss, to experience that all things in their time , 
illusion, events in life as well as problems of life, have to 



218 THE HINDU TESTAMENT OF LOVE 


be viewed in the light of the Eternal. Behold the vision of 
the transfigured saint! Bereft of the corruptible and mutable 
nature, infused with bliss ineffable, gleaming in effulgence, 
he stands suffused with Love! The Lord of Perunturai 
had taken His abode in the temple of his heart, and had 
led him to Tillai, where he viewed the whole world as 
the abode of the Lord of Tillai. 
hese were the chords resounded by the poet to awaken 
us out of our sense slumber. “No more needless lethargy, 
q crown .of creation! Listen to the panacea . Sp pipes our 
saintly bard. A child’s appeal always moves the heart of 
a mother to tender compassion. So Manivachakar bids us 
plead with our divine Mother. “If she does not suckle us, 
shall we not become weaklings and perish? Oh mother, 
bestow thy loving care over us as we ; seek the solace of thy 
refuge. Turn us not away. Once thou did’st show us thy 
grace, and now is there no place for us?” 50. 5. 

If man batters at the door of Love ceaselessly, crying for 
liberation and union, the Lord cannot hide Himself. ‘-Shall 
He not say ‘Fear not my child,’ and extend the shelter of 
His Love? There is the Lord who holds his mystic Dance 
at Tillai, and whose primary purpose is to heed to the cries 
of His children in their tense moments , of pain and woe.” 
50. 6. What a comforting message does'Manivachakar im¬ 
mortalise in the closing songs of His great Poem! The Lord 
of Tillai, He who is the peerless splendour ‘Paranjothi’, the 
smile of the universe, will reveal His mighty Love to any 
man who calls on Him. The transfigured man in turn tries 
to uplift his fellowmen by the call to love and be loved.



Ever since the Lord ‘pierced him with the arrow of 
realisation’ and awakened his inner eye, Mamkkavachakar 
was able to realise that the divine grace was the greatest 
panacea against the miseries of Life. He traces the stages 
of God Realisation. The soul gets diffused with the light 
of the Lord, the kindly shepherd who leads His nock to 
Mukti, from where there is no return. 
51. 1. 

Manivachakar extols the glory of his soul’s realisation of 
the final Bliss or Mukti. The soul is set free from the in-: 
fluence of the threefold ‘bonds’, through the gift of the 
divine Grace, and having attained illumination rises on wings 
of love to live eternally in the conscious and full enjoy¬ 
ment of Siva’s presence, in everlasting bliss. The saint 
chases all the vain deluding joys and misguided duties that 
cross the path of man, and awakens him from his stupor, so 
that he will be in readiness to receive the welcome rains 
of Grace. Only then shall man liberate himself for ever 
from the weariness of existence. 

232 THE HINDU TESTAMENT OF . LOVE 

When the soul acts in the body, the good and the bad 
results of its deeds are termed Karma. Maya which provides 
the agents, for the development of the soul, does not help the 
soul to understand the Lord beyond its ken. The finite 
cannot perceive the Infinite. Therefore Maya is viewed as a 
bond, because it limits the soul’s vision. The soul in com¬ 
bination with Anavam and Maya directs its actions, not 
always in the right way. The poet compares the might of 
delusion to the tempestuous billows. 34. 6. Thus the soul 
gets entangled in the mesh of its deeds, and ‘Karma’ is thus 
said to be one of the bonds. 26. 8. “I mistook as delightful 
this hovel (body) with dense darkness and the result of 
strong deeds”. Hence we find that Anava, Maya and Karma 
are said to be the three bonds of the soul which should be 
got rid of, if the soul should realise bliss. 48. 2. 
This is the picture of our ‘bhakta’ as he appeared before 
the initiation by his Sat-Guru at Perunturai. The dawn of 
true wisdom breaks the shackles of the five senses and Mani- 
vachakar takes the name of Panchakshara, ‘Namasivaya’— 
the name of the sacred glory, the name of Lord Siva, the 
word of Life. 

“Lonely, tost by life’s storms, in anguish sore 
On the great sea of birth with none to aid, 

Disturbed by carnal delights like ripened fruit, 

I lay entrapped in jaws of the sea-monster lust! 

Henceforth what way to ‘scape?’ oft I cried! Then 
seiz’d I the raft of Thy Five Letters! 

O Primal One, Thou showed me a boundless fertile shore, 
and made me, a rash insensate one, Thine own!’’ 

Tiruchadakam: 3. 27. 

To ward against the danger of falling into the abyss of 
Prapancha, the delusion of the world — the soul should 
strive to get nearer the light of God. The end of meditation 
is release from Pasubhava, the state of bondage, in which 
there is attachment to caste, creed and condition. In looking 
upon the Lord as other than the self, the soul has neces¬ 
sarily to be thought of as limited. One has to meditate there¬ 
fore on oneself as free from these trammels and as identical 
with the glorious, independent and blissful Siva. 

The lustrous Light with benign Grace 
Pierces the murky clouds of Maya and bestows 
Wisdom true for me to receive: 

And all Thy Glory, when I thus perceive, 

That Self is known aind a sigh I heave”. 
God performs the five-fold action (Panchakritya) because 
of his inherent infinite compassion to redeem souls from the 
bonds of mala — the principle of darkness— which holds 
them in its grip. Of these five actions, “srishti” (creation) 
is the first. It is meant to make the bonds of ‘pasa’ fit'for 
dissolution in due time, by creating the necessary bodies, 
organs and environments required for each soul. The second 
activity is “sthithi”. It is meant to protect or preserve for 
a time the created things, so as to enable the souls to enjoy 
the fruits of their action, and thus get rid of them, “Samhara” 
is the third activity which consists in dissolution of bodies 
and worlds in order to give rest to the wearied souls, and 
help them to get rid of the fatigue of their births and deaths. 
The fourth act is “Thirobhava”, which means concealment 
of the Lord from the gaze of the soul until it steadily enjoys 
the fruits of Karma, and at the same time makes sufficient 
progress in spiritual knowledge and longing for union with 
the Lord, rejecting the Pasa which has been holding it so 
far in bondage. The last act is known as ‘anugraha’ — 
bestowal of ineffable bliss on the aspirant soul after it has 
become fully qualified to feel at one with the Lord and enjoy 
His ‘Ananda’, infinite joy. It is only when we understand 
the above import of the Dance of Siva at Tillai, that we can 
fully appreciate Manivachakar’s ecstasy in the Tillai Odes.
In the ode on 
Tiruchadakam (5) it is said that Man by the grace : of a Guru 
begins seriously to enquire about the whence and the whither 
of himself and of the world, and about the means of attain¬ 
ing freedom from the imperfections of human life and of 
becoming one with the Supreme Being. Several births are 
required before man can reach the final goal. He has to 
practise several disciplines to build up a good and strong 
character. He has to achieve purity in body, thought, word 
and deed. He has to learn to refrain from evil and to tty 
to do good to others. 
In the later lyrics written at Tillai, Manivachakar had 
ceased to crave and beg for Grace. He had attained At-One- 
ment.' How do. we prove it? .If man realises that all the 
activities of all insentient and sentient creatures in the Uni¬ 
verse are really the activities of God, then he stands one 
with God. His very body and his physical and mental ap¬ 
paratus will be transformed as they become instruments of 
God. When thus ‘anava’ becomes powerless to attack, ‘maya* 
and ‘karma’ will also become incapable of disturbing the 
punned soul. -When in this manner the soul has got rid of the 
influence of anava, karma, and maya, the vision of the 
Grace of God will dawn, followed by the vision of Sivam, as 
manifested in the Odes on Tiru Tellenum, Tiru Empavai, 
Eagle Mount and the Testament of Attainment. 

In the Temple Lyric (22), the soul sees the infinite com¬ 
passion of the Lord, and the manner in which He has been 
helping the soul all through its stages of evolution — from 
its ‘kevala avastha’ right up to the ‘suddha avastha’, — by 
ever remaining in union with it, by helping the soul to see 
and by seeing Himself as well, and by promoting activity 
calculated to wear out the bonds of ‘pasa\ The realisation 
of this infinite compassion and love of the Supreme melts the 
heart of St. Manivachakar, freed as he is from ‘pasa\ Over¬ 
whelmed by a sense of gratitude, he loves the Lord intensely 
— Vide Ode on Dedication (33) and Prayer (32). These 
are some of the most plaintive strains in the whole range of 
religious poesy, Li 


BLOSSOMS OF ILLUMINATION 239 

“I have donned the Lord’s Feet: I shall not lose my way. 

Never will I loosen it again/’ 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE REALISED 

4 Jivan Mukta is one who has obtained mukthi (freedom) 
while still in the body. Only active and intense love will fruc¬ 
tify into infinite bliss, which is “Siva Bhoga or Sivananda . 
Without such love for God, there can be no ‘AnandaVLove 
leads to bliss. The great Siva Jnani that St. Manikkayachakar 
is, he addresses the Lord endearingly as “Oh Bliss! Oh; my 
Love!” in the Temple Lyric (22) . 

‘My Ambrosia, nectar insatiable, . ' 

Flawless Gem, distilled honey!’ 

In the last Odes of Tiruvachakam, we see the Jivan , 
mukthas merging in the love for, and bliss of the Supreme 
Sivam. They see nothing but God in all things around, them. 
They have no caste or creed. They behave like children and 
act sometimes like mad men. They are found singing and 
dancing in ecstasy. They stand fixed in union with the Sup¬ 
reme, and nothing in the world can effectively drag-them 
down. They enjoy the vision and bliss of the Supreme, even 
when they are in the waking state.
37 . 10 . 

Here the concentration of dazzling light implies the great 
glory of God who can cut away our attachments, pie real¬ 
isation of infinity is presented in terms of diffused light. 
“All-pervasive through earth, heaven and other worlds. 

Oh. Thou expanse of light that spreads o’er all”. 

22 . 8 . 

An emotional response to the Lord’s ineffable bliss is evoked 
in the following line: 

“Weary I feel, seeking Thy gleam of fadeless bliss”.