Garland of Hymns to Arunachala

Garland of Hymns to Arunachala

Isanya Desikar's Garland of Hymns to Arunachala is a collection of verses on various spiritual themes. After the traditional invocation to Ganesh, he begins by praising Arunachala as the Guru who freed him from spiritual bondage. Soon, though, he moves into a long section in which, following Tamil poetic tradition, he outlines all his faults and pleads for grace to transcend them. Midway through the poem he switches to a shorter metre and again begins to thank Arunachala for his liberation. Next, he moves into a teaching mode and reels off many verses that praise Siva, propound advaita philosophy, and offer hints on spiritual practice. The last section, from which I have selected only four verses, is a long serious of couplets that either praise Arunachala-Siva or, more frequently, seek his grace. 

     The translation is based on an unpublished rendering by Dr T. N. Pranatharthi Haran, to whom I give acknowledgements and thanks. The translation of verses from this poem which appear in the biography of Isanya Desikar were done by Sri K. V. Subramanian. 

1 

Afraid of the foe called 'death', I approached Arunachaleswara.(1) Since now is the time to get rid of all troubles by his grace, I will start to praise the Lord with Tamil songs. Let us worship the feet of the elephant-faced God for the accomplishment of this task. 

2 

Unapproachable to Brahma and Vishnu, you are the one who encompasses the whole universe. Your devotees, ascertaining that you were grace incarnate in the form of fire, praise your greatness. Taking you as my Guru, I call you 'Lord Arunagiri'. 

3 

Like a piece of straw being blown about in a cyclone, I was caught up and tricked by maya. Out of ignorance I mistook maya to be real and was held in bondage by it until you released me and bound me to your feet. O blissful supreme Guru! Father! The Eternal! Consort of Unnamulai residing in Annamalai! How you play with your devotees! In silence you gave my upadesa, (2) rendering me speechless at your feet. 

4 

O Father! The Eternal! Unnamulai's husband living in Annamalai! If you keep quiet, to whom will this slave report? Caught by the devil called 'mind' and frightened by the five elements, to me this false world appears to be real and fights with me. The cloud of lust kills without killing. Emaciated by karma, I have fallen into the well of the sharp, spear-like eyes of the ladies. Everyone abuses me. Should I go down like this? Since you have created me, protect this poor man. 

5 

O Father! The Eternal! Consort of Unnamulai who resides in Arunai!(3) When the mind, the five elements and the five senses combine, a false knowledge within the intellect makes the world appear to be real. This is nothing but a magic trick. The mind is wounded when it combines with lust, but still it wallows in the mud of desire. Is there no way to fight and be victorious over these wicked thieves? I believe that you are the Supreme God. So, grace me and remove my difficulties. O Lord, I have surrendered to you. Please protect me. 

6 

O Father, Eternity itself! Husband of Unnamulai residing in Arunai! The greatmaya is like a mango tree, and the five elements are the seeds that scatter from its fruits. Growing aimlessly, they develop into a forest of lust, anger, and so on. All souls live in this forest, wandering aimlessly, thinking that they are the senses. The evil spirits known as sankalpas [intentions] get together and shout aloud that there is no God, and they cry 'It's real!', 'It's not real!' Since this is the situation, bestow on me the proper grace to reach you. 

7 

I do not know when you will bless me with the state of mauna, or when I will become the eternal pure knowledge, full of the light that is unborn. I do not properly learn the path to freedom from the liberated ones, nor do I do service to them. Instead, I go round the world as if in bondage, dumb, like a blind man, caught in the birth-cycle created by maya. How I have suffered! Protect me with your radiant jnana. 

8 

O Father! The Eternal! Husband of Mother Unnamulai residing in Arunai! Like a lame man who cannot reach out for wild honey, I am unable to realise your greatness. You are the plenitude, the knowledge and bliss attained by yoga. Bondage, actions, illusion and desires expand from one to a hundred, and then to a thousand. If one of them leaves, the others pull me down. I believe in you alone. Kindly tell me on which day I will receive the direct experience that is flawless, supportless, and the unbroken whole. Raise me up from the eight-limbed yogic states to the sovereign state of true Siva-jnana. 

10 

O Father! The Eternal! Consort of Mother Unnamulai residing in Arunai! What can I say? Though it is known that all things will pass away, the mind still regards them as real. Ignorance fights with me. This mind, joining hands with the intellect and the ego, goes astray and ends up wandering in the forest, weeping and wailing. How can I overcome the mind? Blissful plenitude! Eternal grace! Clearly show me the truth or entrust me to the hands of your devotees. 

11 

O Supreme Bliss! Eternal Plenitude! Teacher of Nama Sivaya! You who cannot be approached by the Agamas, the Puranas, the Itihasas (4) and the Vedas! Father! Eternal One! The husband of Mother Unnamulai who resides in Arunai! Please instruct me about the supreme state: the single, infinite state that is full of silence, in which the flood of the unified taste of peace prevails, where the body and all enjoyments are blissfully forgotten, where true knowledge shines like the sun. This is the yogic state that is called 'Being still'. 

12 

Eternal One! Consort of Unnamulai residing in Arunai! Without knowing the Self, I played with the body through the senses, the breath and the mind. I thought that I was born and that I will die. I considered my parents, women, the world and all its enjoyments to be real. But then you possessed me and made me join the select band of your devotees. You made me realise the complete knowledge that has neither birth nor death and let me enjoy the simple essence of remaining as the Self. O Father, thank you so much! 

13 

The five sheaths, the three bodies, the five elements, the ten organs, the four karanas,(5) the soul, etc., together constitute birth and death. But all this is only a trick. Before you they fade away like darkness before the sun. Am I different from your own real nature? What then is happiness and sorrow, what are the karmas I have done? O my possessor, the Golden Hill! Embodiment of grace, plenitude itself! The Self in all souls! Sonachala [Red Hill], you have entered me. 

14 

Self of all souls on earth! Lord of the Red Hill! Not knowing how I came, without having knowledge of even the sun and the moon, of day and night, I became a plaything of fate. By not thinking of you till now I became egotistical in many ways. Tell me, what is the body? What is the soul? What is 'in' and 'out'? Other than you I have nowhere else to go. As complete bliss you have entered into me. Will you now possess me like the scent in a flower and merge me with your devotees? 

15 

You have entered into me but somehow the world still appears to me to be real. On this earth you are complete bliss, the Self of all souls. Bondage in the form of birth and death has crept in without my knowledge. If I analyse, I discover that it is nothing but the mind. The Vedas proclaim that all this is a function of the mind, but still I remain ignorant. Bhakti is flooding. Lord of the Red Hill! Make me understand this by your grace. 

16 

Like the scent in a flower, like the taste in honey, blissfully you have entered into me. Self of all souls! Lord of the Red Hill! Immanently you pervade the whole world, manifesting as the sky, the wind, fire, water, earth, the moon, the sun and the individual soul. You are the soul, the 'you' and the 'I'. Up till now I have considered the world, which is only a mirage-like appearance, to be real. Who am I? What is this body? What is it that speaks 'I'? What are all these relationships that appear as 'father', 'mother', 'women'? Tell me! 

18 

Lord of the Red Hill! Self of the souls! You have entered me! I do not know how to worship devotedly with flowers, as prescribed by the Agamas.(6) Nor do I now how to dance, how to worship with folded hands,(7) how to go round the temple, or recite hymns. I do not know how to serve those among your devotees who are liberated. I have failed to get instructions from them on how to get release from bondage. Up until now I have wasted my days by mixing with ignorant people. Please reveal to me the eternal truth of your own Self. 

20 

Self of all souls on earth, existing beyond the mind, you are the plenitude of bliss! Lord of the Red Hill. You have entered me! Standing as the light through which the eye sees, you show me your form. From you arise, in the ear, songs, melodies, poetry and other sounds. The taste of earth on the tongue, the scent of a flower in the nose, the wind in the ear, the bite of a mosquito on the skin - all proclaim and announce you. Since you make me feel everything, from where, then, arises the sense or feeling of 'I'? 

21 

Plenitude of bliss! Self of all souls on this earth! Lord of the Red Hill! You have entered me! After controlling the senses, I should worship you eternally with the flower of grace. Only then will I cross the shore. God unknown even to the gods! How can I praise you who are Truth itself? I myself know nothing, so all I can do is beg from you. Supreme Deity! Bliss incarnate! You should not despise me just because I am false and know nothing of you. 

22 

Lord of the Red Hill! As complete bliss you have become the Self of all souls and entered me. Will you please tell me how the following pairs came into existence: the beginning and the end, men and gods, the arts and the Vedas, mother and father? What is this strong, binding karma? What pleasures and pains does the body undergo in heaven and hell? And what is it that remains beyond all this as 'I'? Is it fair for you, the omnipresent one, to fail me? You are the first, the head of all others, so please show me your grace. 

23 

Lord of the Red Hill! Silent Guru! Flawless gem! All the universe is like an atom or a mustard seed before you. All the worlds derive light from you, as light is obtained from the sun. Knowledge and ignorance, pujas and japas, and all the supporting rituals - who are they for? Who made the clouds wander about in the sky? O Nataraja! Culmination of the rare Vedas! Everything is your greatness. You play on the earth, in the ether, and transcend them both. You are beyond speech and mind. 

25 

O flawless gem worshipped by Brahma and Vishnu! Lord of the Red Hill! Guru who gives silent upadesa! Not knowing intuitively what the body and soul are, I think instead about how the world came into existence. Is it because of my old karma that my mind gets bogged down in these worldly matters? The fire of ego pulls me strongly, but what can I do about it? I will seek refuge in you, my true God. I have faith in your feet. 

26 

O flawless gem! Lord of the Red Hill! Guru who teaches in silence! Like waves in the ocean, one world expands into a hundred, a thousand, a crore [ten million] and then ten crores, all within a minute. Thoughts enter the ghost-like mind and flow outwards to become the universe. All relationships - mother, father, relatives - are merely a delusion. If facts could be ascertained I would find that my previous births were as dogs, jackals, and so on. The mind believes all these things to be real, even my previous births. Because I didn't believe in your grace, I had to die and be reborn. 

27 

Culminating dancer of the Vedas! Flawless gem! Lord of the Red Hill! Guru who instructs in silence! Deluded as I was, I did not believe your grace to be real. You are the one without a second, as clearly revealed as the fruit in the hand that appears in vedic and agamic stories.(8) It appears to be real, but if this is reality, I am blindly wandering in the forest of dualistic differences. People talk about the different types of liberation. Will it ever be possible to speak of your greatness, the perfection of your bliss? 

30 

Flawless gem! Lord of the Red Hill! Guru giving silent upadesa! Like a lethal spear in the hands of a king, the eyes of women destroy men and throw them into the muddy well of karma. How to get out of the well and become happy? After your glance of grace, it is easy to triumph over the dull intellect and be alone. 

34 

You who are unattainable even by Vishnu, Brahma and the devas!(9) Tell me that one word that will enable me to receive your grace and attain the egoless state. Your southward-facing body of grace spoke of truth and knowledge to the four.(10) Dweller in Arunai, You are an ocean of grace! O supreme Lord who dwells in Kailash,(11) how superior you are to the devas! 

35 

Supreme Lord, unknown even by the devas! Dweller in Kailash! Like a cloud enveloping the sky, mind and maya cover up the reality. Through this maya births appear and good and bad prevail. Will you despise me and forget me? Flawless Guru-Lord! Body of grace! You are the beginning, the middle and the end. Show me that grace which has the taste of honey. 

36 

Dweller in Kailash and Arunai! Truth Supreme, unknown even to the gods! You are time, space, name and form. How can I control the mind which, caught in bondage, wanders out through the five senses? Why have I always so far thought that I am the body? How to know the truth? Where is the direct experience? By what process is it known? O True Light! Kindly grant me the grace to unite my mind to you. 

37 

Dweller in Aruna and Kailash! The Supreme, unknown even to the devas! The blind, delusive ignorance stalking through my intellect can only be removed when the sun of your grace shines there. So declare the Vedas. My mind suffers from the delusion that this earthly life is real. It values relationships such as father, mother, wife and son and thinks that they are also real. Kindly make my mind clear. Show me your grace. 

39 

Dweller in Arunai and Kailash! Supreme Truth that even the devas cannot know! Of what use is it to relinquish my family and other relationships? By wandering among the people who give alms, and by suffering, I have not achieved anything. I have not mingled with your devotees and worshipped their feet. My unmelted mind remains like a stone. Make me think of your feet, for I have not yet reached the ocean of your kindness. 

40 

Dweller in Kailash! Dweller in Arunagiri! Supreme, true Lord who cannot be comprehended by lesser gods! By studying and by directly realising, I should have controlled the mind that always runs out towards the world. I should have immersed myself in the still and waveless ocean of your grace. With purity, and without any attachments, I should be offering devoted worship to you. O flawless one, teach me all this! You have taught and liberated sages like Sanaka.(12). You are the first cause. Even Brahma and Vishnu were unable to comprehend who you are. You who are knowledge itself, show me your grace. 

41 

Resident of both Arunai and Kailash! Supreme God unknown by lesser gods! TheAgamas declare that you are the beginning, the middle and the end, that you are full of knowledge. By your grace devotees have intuitively found you and become deathless. By catching hold of the vibration of Om, your devotees have merged with you, like light into light, space into space, and by acquiring pure knowledge have become consciousness itself. So say many sacred books. Show me too your benign grace. 

42 

Dweller in Arunai and Kailash! Truth Supreme, unknown even to the gods! Some of your devotees danced; some wept and cried out of love; some worshipped you everywhere, weeping, and praising with flowers in their hands. What is the karma that prevents me from worshipping you like this? Thinking that the world is real, I wandered around hankering after money. I went after women and contracted diseases. O my Lord, though this was my condition, you came in search of me and bestowed your grace. 

43 

Lord of Arunai, I salute you! O Light! The great light unknown even to the devas! Have you, abiding in the joyous company of your devotees, forgotten me? Do you regard me as trash? Other than you, you who have taken possession of me, do I have any other support? 

44 

Lord of Arunai who dances at the end of the wonderful Vedas! You have already told me, 'There exists one alone. It appears as the three worlds,(13) the soul and the Supreme Lord. It is grace. It alone shines as the Guru and as the SupremeBrahman.' 

45 

Lord of Arunai, I salute you! By shining as fire, you have removed my forgetfulness. You showed me your grace by telling me, 'Get relief from this dream by looking at your own Self'. In the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, none of the three bodies knows who he really is. Nor do they know where the 'I'-feeling is located. It was your instructions alone that saved me. 

47 

Lord of Arunai, I salute you! You destroyed the power of the mind which, assuming the form of the false ego, construes the world as something real. You broke the ego that identifies the Self with the body. You rooted out lust and gave me a clear vision of heaven. How gracious you are! 

48 

People speak about gold and gems as having varied properties. Similarly, without knowing the Self, they talk about it in different ways. Lord of Arunai, this is pitiful. True devotees know you alone, the one and only truth that appears as the world, the soul and God. 

49 

The Lord residing in Arunagiri appeared before me as my Guru in order to lift me up. Placing his feet lovingly on my head, He blessed me with the words, 'This is the time'. He made me experience sat-chit-ananda, cut off the delusion of death and enveloped me in silence. How great he is! 

51 

Lord, Guru and Father! My friend residing in the Heart! Flawless gem! King who dances in the dancing hall of the Heart! True friend! Omnipresent plenitude! Eternal flawless bliss! Destroyer of bondage! Supreme yogi instructing like a Guru! How great you are! 

53 

How I praise you, my Lord, the Supreme! I believed in Nama Sivaya. Unapproachable by Indra, Brahma, Vishnu and others, you are the sat-chit-anandathat has possessed me. 

54 

I praise you as the flame that is beyond and inside all the worlds as the light within the light. O true knowledge and bliss! Culmination of the Vedas! You found the right place and possessed me with your breath.

55 

Dweller in Arunai! Unknowable even by the devas! Easily accessible to devotees, you are where all words end. You are both the sight and the seer. Your dance is omnipresent, but even the devas are unable to comprehend it. 

57 

Sat-chit-ananda shining as 'I am He'! By manifesting love to your feet, I understood you to be king. You made me praise your blissful form and become silent. Kindly liberate me. 

58 

The end of the Vedas [i.e. the Upanishads] proclaim that if you think without thought of the eternal, blissful Lord who shines everywhere as Sakti and Sivam, that devotion itself is liberation. Through that experience of liberation consciousness becomes great. 

60 

Supreme Light! Consciousness itself! Shining flame of Arunai, I praise you as the unbroken light, without beginning or end. I call out to you, 'My jewel! My Guru! You are flawless nectar!' 

62 

All learning and knowledge come through God's grace. Other than that, what will we learn? I attained silence; now please give me the knowledge to get rid of births. Those who hold onto their undying Self as Sivam, they alone attain clarity. 

63 

O Supreme! Everything we hold onto is false. The immanent knowledge is Siva. He is without flaw or error, and has no form or character. He is pure and blissful. Let us worship him and be happy. 

64 

The Vedas, the Guru's teachings and the experience of one's own Self are all one in the vision of that light that forms the substratum and gives light to the sun, the moon and fire. In the Heart, where there is neither day nor night, the light is experienced as the Supreme Siva. 

65 

I worshipped the Supreme Siva and by plunging into the ocean of his grace, found him to be the substratum. The bliss experienced by his devotees is inexplicable. Even the Vedas and the Agamas fail to describe it. 

66 

Assimilator of all, shining as the Self! You are everything, and nothing is outside you. King! Guru! Knowledge! You are form; you are the path; you dance as 'I' and 'you'. Undiminishing knowledge, you shine within your devotees as the unbroken Supreme Siva! 

67 

O Siva! Consciousness itself shining in the minds of devotees! You are the one, the auspicious, the undivided whole! Self that shines at the end of tapas! Father of Arunai, You remove unholy karmas! 

68 

O mind, listen and kindly understand: Siva, the all-pervading consciousness, is eternal; he is flawless, purity, completeness, the self-shining light of knowledge. He is the Father dwelling in Arunai. 

69 

O worried mind, you are always wandering in the countryside and the forest. Offering love to the feet of the Guru, I will tell you the truth: 'The Supreme shines as pure knowledge. Merge there and realise.' 

70 

By devotion to the Supreme Sadguru, peerless wisdom can be attained. Praise the Guru as the one who has attained liberation, as the consciousness of Siva, as God, as the eternal bliss, as absolute fullness, as true jnana and the Self. 

71 

The devotees praise him with complete devotion. Though he is the Self, they will praise him with infinite names. He shines in the flawless intellect, not different from it. With infinite love let us adorn our heads with his feet. 

72 

Learning and knowledge are God's alone. By continuous love, the plenitude is attained. If this is gained, bliss continuously flows and future births cease. 

73 

There are many ways to reach the Self, and many teachings that are hard to understand. The wise think that these various instructions are just impediments. They simply relinquish speech and mind. 

74 

You have had many thoughts arising out of sankalpa,(14) but what did you gain by them? Your intellect got spoiled because it became full of fear and thoughts of danger. If you reach the feet of the Guru, taintless wisdom will certainly dawn in you. So, the acceptable way is to seek the aid of grace for realising the truth. 

75 

The mad chase after mantras. Crazy people get caught in the ego, in maya, praise many gods and follow the tantric ways. Why do you run insanely after all this? The world is made, and so is religion. They are all incapable of praising the beautiful flame of wisdom. 

76 

The Self, fulness and perfection, can neither be described nor rejected. It is a state of bliss and knowledge beyond words, having no day and no night. It is callednishtha by the Vedas.(15) The Self, complete in itself, is not something that can be caught hold of. 

77 

The one omnipresent self-effulgent Supreme Being is everywhere, shining as light. So what does it matter whether we worship, or do puja, or praise inside or outside? 

78 

What Supreme shall we catch hold of? What is it that catches? The undivided whole, knowledge itself, is that Supreme. The greatness of those who can directly speak of this is indescribable. 

79 

Those who are adorned by the feet of the silent great ones will certainly attain realisation. It is blissful to praise the Lord, but if one has the benefit of being looked at by the Master, one becomes that peace and bliss. 

80 

No amount of learning can teach one to give up the ego. The best course is to catch hold of what is real, without any support. He who is fully conscious is really God. He is the real nature of one's own true state. The experience is silence; it cannot speak. 

81 

They are truly great who live without the mind. Is there anything other than the Self? The state of sat-chit-ananda, alone is real. Those who are in nishtha, without any activity, they alone are realised. 

82-85 

It is sheer delight to speak of Lord Aruna, the Light who is both beginningless and endless, unbroken, infinite space. It is sheer delight to say that Lord Aruna, the Light, is the source giving light to the sun, the moon, and fire. At the moment when one realises the Self by diving within, you become the face on the mirror. O personification of grace! What else needs to be known other than you who are omnipresent and who possess all?