1. Nature and Subnature

2. The One with a Thousand Eyes

3. On the Dimensions of Religion

4. Religion and Poetry

5. Manickavachagar - His Life

6. Lamentations over Vain Religious Disputes - Tayumanavar

7. Appar in Manikkar: The Essential Autonomy of the Soul

8. Religion and Art

9. Love and Metaphysical Insights - Vallalar

10. Religion and Politics

11. BEING is Beyond All Religions - Tayumanavar

12. Steps to Liberation, then Merging

13. Religion and Music

14. The Sources and Human Intelligence and Competence - Appar

15. Religion Vs Modernity

16. BEING and the Different Icons - Appar

17. The Mystery of the Play of BEING - Vallalar

18. The Indeterminacy of BEING and the Humility it Breeds - Appar

19. The Birth of Mantra Worship and Sivalokam - Appar

20. Religion and History

21. Theism and the Moral Sense - Appar

22. Mysticism: Scientific Perspectives

23. Appar Meditating on Death

24. Religion and Philosophy

25. Science and Philosophy

26. Religion and Aesthetics

27. Going Beyond Even the Agamas - Vallalar

28. On Agreement Among the Great Ones - Vallalar

29. Going Beyond Vedantas - Vallalar

30. Mahamritunjaya mantra and Vidhi

31. The Vishnu of Appar

32. The Profound Achievements of Tamils in Metaphysics - Vallalar

33. Individualized Self and BEING - Vallalar

34. The Projective Essence of BEING - Vallalar

35. The Poisonous Heart and Premature Death - Appar

36. The Meaningful Behavior

37. The Distorting Sense Organs - Manikavasagar

38. Spiritual Confusion and Existential Repetition - Vallalar

39. BEING is Brahman and Beyond - Manikavasagar

40. Introduction to Sivajnaana Botam

.

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Nature and Subnature

Whereas religion, in its inspiration, speaks of something above nature, science,
in its quest, has found a good deal below nature in terms of which many
features of the physical world can be explained in great detail.

In other words, instead of supernature, science unveils subnature: a world in
the core of palpable matter that is different from ordinary nature. Physics has
penetrated into the substratum of perceived reality and discovered a whole realm
of entities there-under, beyond the imagination of the most creative minds of
the past. Through sophisticated labyrinths of theory and mathematics, aided by
an array of experimental ingenuities, science has uncovered a microcosm that is
abundant in minute bits which are not like sand grains, but more like smeared
out mini-clouds of electric charge and other features. That deep-down reality is
dense with a plethora of particles: dubbed with names like hadrons, mesons,
leptons, and field-bosons. Hadrons and mesons are composite, made up of still
smaller quarks, while leptons are of two kinds: electrons and neutrinos. These
ultimate bricks of the substantial world are subject to mutual interactions,
transmitted via photons, gluons, W & Z, and gravitons. Makes one feel
jargon-giddy? But that's the framework of serious physics today: the so-called
standard model.

From all this subnatural splendor arise the atoms of a hundred elements, where
negatively charged electrons whirl around positively charged nuclei. There is a
cosmic culinary complex, as it were, by which nature concocts an incredible
richness from its atomic ingredients. These are the molecules of chemistry,
forming salt and sugar, wine, water and whatever. All the substances we see and
feel, and a multitude that we don't, are made up of molecules, mostly with two
or more atoms. A molecule barely stretches to a few millionths of a millimeter.
The number of molecules in a teaspoon of water is of the order of a trillion
trillion: more than there are stars in the entire universe.

Some molecules are mammoth and magical: those of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
are stupendously large, a hundred and twenty million times as m***ive as a
hydrogen atom. With variations here and there, they intertwine in pairs, then
as spirals, often in a few thousand turns, forming a structure known as the
double helix. They are the most precious formations in the entire universe, for
they encode every bit of information pertaining to the throb of life. The
combined m*** of all DNA molecules on earth is minuscule compared to that of
the water in the oceans, but they are like the libraries in which are stored all
the information relevant to life.

Thus, science has uncovered that all that we see and feel in nature, admire and
enjoy, is like an incredibly complex building, constructed from a variety of
invisible bricks with specific properties. Some of the molecular configurations
at the basis of life have blossomed into myriad patterns of beauty and
complexity. Some of them are at the basis of the marvel of the human brain
from which emerge the wonders of mind, thought and creativity, as also the raw
p***ions of love and hate.

The religious vision of supernature has instigated great art, glorious music,
epic poetry, colorful festivals, magnificent architecture, and more. Scientific
understanding of subnature has led to some of the most fantastic wonders of
technology from LCD and lasers to computer chips, space ships that explore
distant planets, and much, much more.

Whether the notion of supernature emerges from subnature, or supernature creates
and sustains subnature, is at the crux of science-religion dialogues.

V. V. Raman
December 15, 2006

'Namah Sahasraakshaaya'

Salutations to Him with a thousand eyes.

Explanation:
One of the first spiritual experiences to occur when one undertakes
maunam (observing silence in contemplation) or in meditation is the
experience of seeing the 'eye'. This is seen when our physical eyes are
closed and in the inner sight a single kindly looking full of comp***ion
beautiful metaphysical eye is seen. When it is first experienced it is
usually brushed of as imagination. Later on it persists.

Later this 'eye' can be seen even with the physical eyes open. When the
'eye' is seen with eyes open, and then when our physical eyes are closed
the same 'eye' is seen in the inner sight. And vice versa. In other words
the image is seen whether our physical eyes is open or closed.

Much later on, we begin to have the experience of seeing many such
'eye' at the same time. When one is lying face up on the bed with the
physical eyes wide open, we see this 'eye' on each of the four walls and
many on the ceiling, all looking comp***ionately at the experiencer with
eyeball to eyeball contact. Wherever one looks the eye is there. Over time
one gets accustomed to it.

When pujas are conducted in the home shrines, we see many pairs of eyes
crowding around, and hovering around, and superimposed on, or above
the murthis in the shrine, and its observing the person doing the puja.
Presumably these are the eyes of the devas gathered for the puja. It seems
like you are a VIP and these 'eyes' are crowding around waiting to hear
from you like media reporters or like people waiting to get your
autograph. It is not a p***ing image but lasts for several minutes. The
'eye' watches each detail and the eyeball is seen moving from side to
side slowly observing each worshipper and the actions of the pujari in
presenting each item to the murthi. Everything is observed; whether
you are wearing a teeshirt, scratching yourself or shifting your legs.

This situation happens _all_ the time in _every_ home shrine _without_
exception except that in most cases the worshipper does not see it or
is unaware of it.

The eye can be seen all over the house and even when watching TV,
reading a book or even in the toilet. It gives the impression that we
constantly under watch and care, like under a closed circuit TV. A deep
sense of relief and contentment arises from within.

Many pilgrims to temples especially the temples in India like Palani have
had such experiences where they have seen the 'eyes' superimposed on
the Diety, and blinking, and have seen the lips too chanting along with
the priest while puja is going on.

Even later still the 'eye' is identified with a Being. Thus the 'the One with
a thousand eyes'. It has to be taken literally.

Its just that many people don't believe in the spiritual realm of
experiences but just worship perfunctorily, thereby miss these
experiences and readily conclude that temples and icons are mere
points of worship rather than the 'great doorways' to the inner
worlds where the Beings are seen. Murthis are space-time machines.
Too bad if the worshipper misses the 'inner show'.

All Hindus must strive to get to this stage which is the very beginning of
spiritual life and experiences.

A religion is a system of thought, belief, and practice, based on what its
followers regard as higher revealed truths. Religions several dimensions.
Religions differ in the expressions and structures of these dimensions.

First there is the doctrinal dimension. The doctrines of a religion refer to at
least four important aspects of its belief framework: cosmogenesis: how the
world came to be; anthropogenesis: how human beings came to be; eschatology:.
what happens to humans eventually (post mortem); the nature and attributes of
what is regarded as the Divine. [In non-theistic religions, there are equivalent
notions, such as bodhisattvas in Buddhism.] The roots of the doctrinal
dimensions are in sacred writings and sayings.

Next we have the ethical dimension. All religious prescribe what is good and
right conduct, and proscribe what is bad and wrong behavior. These rules could
be general as in the Ten Commandments; they could be presented as the preaching
of a sage or a prophet, as in the Dhammapada, the Sermon on the Mount, or as in
some chapters of the Bhagavad Gita; they could be very specific as in the
various dharma-shastras in the cl***ical Hindu world; or legally binding as in
the Sharia of the Islamic tradition.

The third dimension of religion consists of its aesthetic aspects. With every
major religion are ***ociated songs and symbols, art and sculpture and poetry
which enrich the culture. There is also magnificent architecture in places of
worship.

All these arise from what is perhaps the most important dimension of all
religions: the spiritual. This again finds expression in different modes, from
prayer directed to visualized representations of the Divine and collective
worship to abstract meditation on the unfathomable Mystery. One may also include
under this category rites and rituals, and the sacraments ***ociated with
birth, marriage, and death.

Religions also have a sacred historical dimension. Episodes relating to the
Buddha, the thirtankaras, Zoroaster, Krishna, Moses, Christ, Mohammed and Guru
Nanak, are examples. They may not stand the scrutiny of critical history's
microscope, but they carry great weight and meaning to the followers. A
disservice that science and Enlightenment have done to traditional religions is
to reduce sacred history into little more than imaginative and meaningful
stories in the traditions.

Then there is the social dimension. Religion is a collective institution. People
may have personal sets of beliefs and practice, but these don't constitute a
religion. A belief system becomes religion only when shared by a group, and
leads to practices ***ociated with the beliefs. The social aspect includes
collective prayers in places of worship, and gatherings in places of pilgrimage.
It is also there in feasts and festivals which reflect practically all the
dimensions of the religion: the doctrinal, the aesthetic, the spiritual, and the
sacred historical

When we talk about religions, it is good to bear in mind that religions are
complex systems with a variety of dimensions whose specific expressions might
change with time. Few religions persist with exactly the same doctrinal,
ethical, aesthetic, sacred-historical, and social manifestations as when they
first came to be. It is fair to say that the degree to which religions change
and adapt themselves to new knowledge and changing values reflects their
capacity to evolve. This capacity prevents religions from stagnating in
anachronistic and sometimes harmful modes with outworn beliefs. The challenge
for practitioners is to determine which elements of their religion need to
change, and which must be kept untouched to keep it meaningful and spiritually
fulfilling.

V. V. Raman
Wilmette, IL
December 18, 2006

Poetry is a pristine manifestation of the human spirit, and is rooted in
human culture and civilization. Its impact is inescapable, its ancient vestiges
are still powerful, and it resonates with our innermost being. Evocative poems
to the Divine are in all cultures. The goal of those literary compositions was
perhaps to persuade the deities into propitious actions. We find such appeals in
the majestic meters of Vedic verses, in Biblical psalms, in the divyaprapandam
in the Vaishnava tradition, and in other hymns and prayers in humanity's
heritage. The magic of religious poetry touches the soul, it transforms and
transports us to realms beyond space and time.

Naïve realism argues that reality is concrete stuff and naught else. But the
visions of ancient poets led to the flowering of art, architecture, and music.
The fabric of cl***ical Greek society was shaped by Homeric poetry, as that of
Indic culture was by Vedic visions.

The poet's painting sometimes renders more visible what the people already
know. A hundred poets have rhymed and sang about the horrors of Hell and the
glories of Heaven, about saints and God Himself. Dante's immortal Commedia is
a veritable guided tour of heaven and hell and in-between. Like the
Satya-narayan-katha, it also describes in spine chilling triads what awaits
sinners and those who don't bow to a particular God.

In all cultures poets narrated religion-related stories, cladding them
in colorful words. Poetic utterances often p***ed from age to age through rote
repetition. In our own times, not many learn to recite verses of even a dozen
lines. But all the lines of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Iliad, the
Odyssey and the Üligers of Mongolia were once transmitted from generation to
generation through the oral tradition.

Epics played important roles in intertwining religion and culture. Through
their noble heroes they conjure up a splendid past when mighty men arose to
subdue the agents of mischief, fought valiant battles for truth and honor, and
stood tall after virtuous victories. The mind's eye and the heart's throb
perceive epic heroes as historical figures, and their accomplishments stir
people to cultural pride.

Virgil wrote an epic history of Rome with fantastic encounters between
Roman gods, and lifting up the spirit of every responsible Roman. Firdusi, the
Persian, constructed the immortal Shahnama in 120,000 lines for his beloved
land. He spoke of Gayamurth, Jamshid and Rustam who lived for centuries. The
sage-poet Valmiki gave the ideal hero of the Ramayana a birth date and birth
place. The day of Rama's birth is still observed in worship and devotional
singing. In the Tamil tradition we have Kandapuranam, leading to Kandasashti.

The grand epics narrate momentous sagas in majestic meters, but they also
infused the listeners with a sense of action and participation, sometimes
inspiring them to lofty ideals. When the heroic Hector declares in the Iliad,

Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious,

but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it,

a subtle value is imprinted in our minds: that we should aspire to do something
of significance in our lifetime. The events and heroes of the epics also infuse
the characters and episodes with historical authenticity.

These hoary narratives which reflect on life and morals, and refer to
divine interventions have touched the heart and mind of millions, giving
meaning and purpose to generations, and engendered feasts and festivals, are
among the cultural treasures of humanity, as precious as pyramids, temples,
cathedrals, pagodas and mosques.

V. V. Raman
December 21, 2006

In Tiruvadavur in South India there lived a pious Brahmin. He and his dutiful wife, due to merit earned in past lives, got a worthy son whom they named Vadavurar, after the native place.

As the child grew, his wisdom increased as well. Soon he had mastered all the scriptures. He also shone as the embodiment of all virtues and won the love and esteem of all. Even learned Pundits and saints were attracted by his personality and wisdom. The king of Madura, Arimardana Pandyan, heard of Vadavurar’s qualities and discovered that he was an all-rounder and was proficient in administration also. The king made him his Prime Minister. Even here Vadavurar shone with extraordinary brilliance and won the title of Tennavan Paramarayar.

As days p***ed, however, disp***ion grew in Vadavurar’s heart. He had realised the unreality of the world. To him everything was painful: birth, disease, death, rebirth, etc. He wanted to enjoy the eternal bliss of Sivanandam. Even while he was administering the affairs of the state, his mind was fixed on the Lotus Feet of the Lord. He would invite learned men and discuss with them the intricate points in the Vedas. Soon, he realised that a Guru was necessary for real spiritual progress. He longed to meet the real Guru. Whenever he went out on duty, he also searched for his Guru.

One day, while the king was holding his Court, the head of his cavalry entered and informed him that the cavalry needed immediate replenishment, as age, death and sickness had greatly depleted its strength. The king immediately ordered the purchase of good horses. The task of buying good horses from the right place was entrusted to Vadavurar. He was extremely happy, as he was sure that he would find his real Guru, during that tour. It was a God-sent opportunity for him. He offered sincere prayer to Lord Somasundarar in His temple and, besmearing His holy ash on his body and with His name on his lips, Vadavurar started on the errand of buying horses, with enough money. He reached Tiru Perunturai.

Lord Siva, Who is the Indweller of all hearts and so knew Vadavurar’s mental condition, had decided to take him to the divine fold. In the guise of a Brahmin and with a copy of the book Siva Jnana Bodam in his hand, the Brahmin was seated under a Kurunta tree near the temple at Tiru Perunturai. He was surrounded by others (the celestial servants in disguise). Vadavurar entered the temple and stood motionless before the Lord, in intense prayer. He shed tears of God-love. Then he went round the temple. Near the tree he heard the holy vibrations of the Lord’s Name (Hara, Hara) which melted his heart. The Brahmin’s magnetic personality attracted him. With overflowing love and devotion, Vadavurar ran to the Brahmin, as a calf to its mother, after a long separation: and he fell at the Brahmin’s feet.

By His grace, Vadavurar was able to recognise him as his real Guru. Holding his feet with his hands Vadavurar prayed: ‘Oh Lord, kindly accept me as your slave and bless me.’ The Lord was waiting for this! He cast a graceful glance on Vadavurar. This at once removed all his sins and purified his heart. Then the Lord initiated him into the divine mysteries of Siva Jnana. This very initiation entranced him. He tasted the divine bliss and was self-forgetfully absorbed in it. Then Vadavurar regained his consciousness and again fell at the Guru’s feet. He prayed: ‘Oh Lord, Who has come to initiate me into the divine mysteries! Oh Lord Who has captivated me by a mere look! Oh Lord Who has melted my mind! Oh Lord Who has made me surrender all wealth, body, mind and soul! Oh my Jewel! Oh Wealth Imperishable! Oh Ocean of Bliss! Oh Nectar of Immortality! Prostrations unto You!’ Singing His glories thus, Vadavurar removed all his belongings and offered all at the Feet of the Guru. He had become a Sanyasi. Smearing his body with sacred ashes, fixing his mind on the lotus feet of the Guru, Vadavurar plunged into deep meditation. When he awoke from this meditation, he was filled with an eagerness to sing the glories of the Lord. With love as the string and his nectarine words as the gems, he made a garland and offered it at the Guru’s feet. The Lord was highly pleased with it, and called him ‘Manickavachagar’ since the hymns sung by him were like gems in wisdom. The Lord asked him to stay on at that place, and disappeared.
Separation from the Lord and Guru, made Manickavachakar suffer intense pain and anguish. Soon, he consoled himself and lived in the remembrance of the Lord and Guru. The king’s servants who had accompanied Vadavurar thought that he had forgotten the mission, and, so, after waiting for a few days, gently reminded him. Manickavachagar sent them back to the king with the message that the horses would reach Madura within one month. When he heard of what had happened to Vadavurar, the king was angry: but, waited patiently for a month.

At Tiruperunturai, Manickavachagar was devoted to the Lord, forgetting the king and the mission: and he spent the money he had brought, in the construction of a temple. After waiting for a month, the king sent him an angry note reminding him that one should be as alert in dealing with the king as one would be when dealing with a cobra, and asking him to appear before the king at once. Manickavachagar was upset. He went to the temple. He prayed for the Lord’s protection. Moved by his sincere prayer, the Lord appeared in his dream that night in the same form of the Guru who initiated him and said: ‘Oh noble soul, fear not. I myself will bring the best horses to Madura. You can go in advance. Tell the king that the horses will arrive there on Avani Moolam.’ The Lord disappeared after placing a very costly diamond in his hands.

The next morning, Manickavachagar took leave of the Lord of Perunturai and donning his ministerial robes started for Madura. He bowed before the king and gave him the diamond. He explained: ‘Your Majesty, I have already purchased the horses for the entire money I had taken. I was waiting for an auspicious day on which to bring the horses here. Avani Moolam is an auspicious day. In the meantime, as commanded by Your Majesty, I have returned. The horses will reach here on the auspicious day.’ The king apologised to him for the rash note he had sent. Manickavachagar built a big stable for the horses.

His relatives, apprehensive of the real state of Manickavachagar’s mind, appealed to him to look after them and not to renounce the world. He laughed and said: ‘Oh friends, the day the Lord initiated me. I have offered everything at His Feet. I have now no relatives except the Lord and His devotees. I have no connection with this body, even. My only attachment is with the Lord Who is the remover of all our sins and bestower of Immortal Bliss. Birth is painful. Death is painful. Everything that is not connected with the Lord is painful. I do not worry about anything in the world now. I will beg happily with my palm as my begging bowl and appease my hunger with the food that is received by chance. When the earth is ready to give me shelter, why should I resort to a special dwelling place? The perfume I smear my body with is the sacred ash. My only belonging is the garland of Rudraksha which destroys the sins of many births. Oh friends, when I am under His protection, why should I fear anybody?’

With his thought fixed on the Lord, Manickavachagar was expecting the auspicious day. In the meantime, one of the ministers had told the king that in truth Manickavachagar had spent all the money in the construction of temples and that Manickavachagar’s statement was false. The king’s suspicion increased. He sent some messengers to Perunturai to see whether the horses were really there. They returned with a negative reply. Only two days remained now. The king did not get any information about the horses. So, he ordered his soldiers to torture Manickavachagar and get the money back. They informed Manickavachagar of all that had happened in the Court. He kept quiet. They tormented him, according to the king’s orders. He bore everything, fixing his mind on the Lord. The Lord Himself bore all the torture, and the Bhakta was relieved. The soldiers could not understand the secret of his endurance. They tortured him further! He prayed to the Lord. The Lord heard His Bhakta’s prayer and wanted to play His Lila. He willed that all the jackals of the place should ***ume the form of horses. He also sent His celestial servants to act as horsemen. He Himself ***umed the form of a trader in horses. He reached Madura. The dust raised by the gallopping horses filled the sky. The people were wonderstruck to see the fine horses. That day was Avani Moolam. The thought that he had unnecessarily tortured Manickavachagar pained the king’s heart. He at once released him and apologised to him. Both of them went to the place where the horses had been stationed. The king was happy to see the good quality of the horses. The merchant was also very handsome. Manickavachagar knew that it was the Lord Himself and so mentally prostrated to Him. The king’s servants led the horses to the stable.

Sivaya Namah

From: Selvaratnam Selvakumar

Lamentations over Vain Religious Disputes - Tayumanavar

In India especially among the Dravidian folks philosophical disputes were encouraged so that only TRUTH triumphs. There is a tendency for the human mind to fixate itself, and with that move in a definite groove without ever thinking seriously of other possibilities. The mind become closed and hence virtually dead.

In Sumerian literature, the Tamil of the First CaGkam, we find ample evidences to suggest that verbal disputes were institutionalized as part of the culture of the e-dub-ba the school for children. In Sulgi Hymn B we find Sulgi boasting that he encouraged freedom of speech in his ***embly.

In the Upanishads and Tolkaappiyam we find intelletual combats, the Tarkka institutionalized as part of important festivals.

So it is not surprising that Indian philosophical thinking has been very productive and which is so to this day. If there were a school of thought, a darsana as something solid and important and where we have a group of adherents identifying themsemves with it (and creating a caste of a kind) then there will emerge an alternative darsana quite opposed to that. This is how the philosophical thinking of the Dravidian folks developed and after the burst of Bakti there arose many different schools of thought seeking to spell out the relationship between the soul and BEING at the point of Moksa. Here we have some saying that the soul and BEING absolutely DIFFERENT and others saying that they dissolve all the differences and become the same. These are the Beeta and Abeeta schools of thoughts and which have produced endless disputes and whch continue to this day.

The solution was already there (perhaps shown initially by Buddha) that in Deep Silence the TRUTH is known and which cannot be expressed in words. The verbalization brings along with the ALIENATION of the soul and BEING and because of which there will be deitic thinking, the CudduNarvu as Meykandar observed. Once the soul transcends TIME and hence the referential understanding, the the-tic consciousness, the soul enjoys a SAMENESS with BEING and which is called Siddhadvaita.

The point is all differences dissolve and the various religious and philosophical disputes will be seem as childish once the soul practixes the reals tapas as Sukar did and enjoy the Deep Silence and with that shining resplendently with the Njaanam.

32.

[b]ootariya cukar poola een een enna
oruvar illaiyoo? Enavum uraippeeb taanee
beetam abeetaG kedavum oru peesaamai
piRavaatoo ? aal adiyiR periya moona
naatan oiru taram ulakam paarkka iccai
naNNaanoo> enTenRee naanaavaakik
kaatan miku maNiyizaiyaar ena vaaduRReen
oaruttaRintu puRapatu unmeet kadan mukkaalum[b]

Meaning:

There was the great Cukar who was very profound that it is very difficult to fathom his depths. Then noticing that there is no one of the caliber of Cukar now, I exclaim; why and why there are no such great philosophers? Then noticing that the little minds pretending to be profound enter into endless disputes about difference or non-difference about BEING and soul. I wish these people would enter the state of Deep Silemce and realize the absolute TRUTH that are beyond words. At this point I also implore the Great Siva who siiting beneath the Bodhi Tree taught the Njaanam through pulling the souls into Deep Silence would just have a desire to see all these vain things in the world. I wonder thus and in many other ways lamenting deeply like a young maiden in deep love lamenting over the absence of her lover. O my Lord! It is Your eternal duty to see such wishes of your devetess like myself and come to their rescue!

Appar in Manikkar: The Essential Autonomy of the Soul

It is very interesting to note in this verse of Manikkar the profound influence of the hymns of Appar especially the one that declares human freedom in very absolute terms. The very pregnant phrase “yam aarkkum kudi allom’ of Appar and which means “we are not subject to any one” declares the real and the most authentic essence of the soul where it is NOT bound by the rules of the political powers social and religious norms.

The soul that is totally individuated remains ABOVE all political and social obligations and hence frees itself from the dictates of a King priests and hence the political and religious rules of the country where the ordinary people are obliged to follow, suffering imprisonment and so forth once they are transgressed.

Perhaps in the whole of world history it was Appar who declared for the first time such a unique and fundamental essence of the human soul - a far cry from the Brahmin dominated VarNasrama Dharma that throws millions into perpetual slavery to the priestly and the royalties and all in the name of Vedic Dharma or simply Hindu Dharma, a mischief that continues to this day.

Appar declared and Manikkar recalls here that man in NOT subject to such political and religious leadership and that there is NOTHING to FEAR in declaring one’s own fundamental autonomy.

But what is the source of such an immense courage and which became lost with the decline of Sacred Tamil with its displacement with Sk literature that never fails to inculcate the evil VD?

As mentioned by Manikkar where in thus verse he recalls the essence of that immortal Patikam, once the soul locates itself as the subject of BEING Himself and who is NOT subject and subservient to any other power, then the soul has also no other powers - kings, priests, gods and what not- as its lord and whom they have to follow serve etc.

Manikkar despite being born a kind of Brahmin, eschews the whole of Brahmanism and acknowledges his indebtedness to Appar and how he also, like Appar, became individuated and absolutely FREE and FEARLESS

BEING- as- Siva is not an enslaving God but rather one who free the soul from all bondages and enjoy dancing in the joy of being absolutely FREE. Soba is freedom itself and hence He develops also human freedom.

10.

Teevar koo aRoyaata teeva teevan
cezumpozilkaL payantu kaattu azikkum maRai
muuvar koonaay ninRa Mutalvan, Muurtti
muutaatai maatu aaLum paakattu entail
yaavar koon; ennaiyum vantu aadkoNdaan
yam aarkkum kudiy alloom yaatum anjcoom
meevinoom avan adiyaar adiyaarodu
meen meelum kadaintu aadi aaduvoomee!

Meaning:

My Lord Siva is One not known fully even to Indra the King of the gods and who is in fact the God of the gods. He is the Supreme Power who brings forth fertile lands maintains them and then destroys them, Himself remaining indestructible in all these. Because of this He stands as the King of the Brahma VishNu and Rudra the gods of the three primordial processes. He is also the primordial source of all illuminations that are the icons- the muurtties. He stands also as One who holds as an equal part of Himself the Woman who generates all the different generations of all the species. Such a One, the Lord unto all also overpowered and made me (as Appar declared) fully autonomous, subject to no one and also fearing nothing in declaring it. Thus fully freed from all bondages, I joined the servants of the servants of Siva dancing merrily bending and winding even more.

Art is humanity's creative expression of profoundly experienced truths in ways
that are aesthetically fulfilling, spiritually uplifting, and easily shared with
others. Given that religions also embody deeply felt truths and have a
collective dimension, it is not surprising that there have been artistic
creations in all religious traditions.

The grand temples beautifying India's landscape from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari are
magnificent works of art. Their extensions into Laos, Kampuchea and other
regions in the cl***ical world, and into Europe and America in the modern, show
how art, like the religious spirit, can move from land to distant land. The same
is true of the awe-inspiring cathedrals of Europe which are marvels of religious
architecture. Their majesty should invoke reverence in all but the most
hard-hearted. And what to say the magnificent mosques of Islam! The one in
Cordoba - now a relic of a by-gone era and tourist site - is but one instance of
their breath-taking grandeur Or again, consider the glorious Golden Temple of
the Sikhs wherein is enshrined the original of the Holy Book of the tradition.
One can go one and on, referring to Buddhist pagodas, Jain temples, Shinto
shrines, and more.In all places of worship, the faithful came by the hundreds to
pay homage to the Unfathomable.

Innumerable sculptures have been chiseled to transform amorphous alloy and rock
into replicas of gods and deities and saints worthy of reverence. Then there are
frescoes and paintings, in Ajanta and in the Sistine Chapel, in ancient Egyptian
tombs and in countless basilicas, all inspired by religion. Religions have also
given rise to individual artistic creations ranging from rangoli (Hindu) to the
adorning of Christmas trees.

There was/is stringent prohibition of figures and figurines in the religious
context of Islam, inspired by the Jewish commandment against graven images. Some
scholars believe that such an inhibition was also there in the early phases of
Buddhism. But as geometrical patterns, balanced symmetry, and beautiful
calligraphy, in carvings and weaving, some of the finest works of art have
originated from the Islamic world of Syria, Persia, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt. At
one time they flooded European countries, and enriched with their artistry even
church adornments,

In the Christian world, based often one Pope Gregory's idea that the written
word is for the learned, and pictures are for the illiterate, religious
depictions were the rule. But since Giotto in the 14th century and the
Renaissance there came about an outburst of masterpieces of painting that
portrayed with extraordinary depth and color scenes and personages from the
Bible and the saints of the tradition.

In the Hindu world there had been mystical art in various regions, and
sculptures of epic episodes for centuries, as in Mahabalipuram. But in the 19th
century Raja Ravi Varma revolutionized Hindu art by painting epic scenes and
divine figures in modes that were not unlike in European paintings. They have
had tremendous impact on how modern Hindus visualize Rama and Krishna, Sita and
Radha, Sarasvati and Lakshmi.

If religions inspired great works of art, some heinous crimes of art-destruction
have also been committed by mindless iconoclasts in the name of their religion..
Temples have been destroyed and religious symbols desecrated by the fanatical
followers of a faith that brooks no representation of the Divine. The most
recent example of such barbarity and crime against humanity was the destruction
of the Hadda sculptures during the civil war, and the Taleban's vandalism of
the two tall Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 in Afghanistan.

The human mind is like a soil where the most beautiful flowers and the most
venomous weeds can grow.

Love and Metaphysical Insights

In the long history of Indian civilization that includes also the Harappan Sumerian and so forth, the chief quest has been metaphysical and perhaps no path has been overlooked in that search. Very early the Rishis recognized that there is already the Njaanam deep in their soul but just present without being fully resplendent. So there were many heroic attempts to make this Njaanam shine forth brilliantly in the soul so that the soul is freed of the quest for metaphysical illuminations, the most fundamental PURPOSE of existence and which constitutes the Moksa.

VaLLalaar notes that this Njaanam, the Pure Consciousness shines in the lofty metaphysical realms of Cin Patam, also the CiRRambalam, the Tillai, the Til Mun of the Sumerians, the Paradise where there is only purity and love unto all.

Thus anyone who does not cultivate Love and Comp***ion will not access this lofty realms where once accessed the Njaanam will shine forth on its own.

But who are those who, despite their earnest desire, go the wrong way?

First are the peculiar kind of yogis who torture their body mercilessly by standing on needles in the midst of blazing fire, fasting and refusing to sleep and hence with the body that becomes so thin that the bones can be seen. Such people also strive to cut off all the five senses so that no information from the world fo not reach their soul.

BEING remains concealed to such people because such yogis do not LEARN at all. Their efforts are misdirected as their understanding is led to suffocate and remain closed.

Next come those who spend all their time in the serious studies of scriptures claiming that the Njaanam is there and anyone who understands the scriptures will understand it. In India the typical Vedic Brahmins are exemplars of such individuals. They remain forever trapped as they do not go beyond WORDS and hence cannot even get a glimpse of Njaanam which is beyond words.

Then comes the Munivar, the Rishies who spend their time in many tapas and many other yogas quite indifferent to the world at large. Such yogis are lost in their quests and remain because of that, BLIND to the happenings around that demand the expression of LOVE and COMP***ION but which they refuse.

BEING remains distant and quite beyond the reach of such individuals for the simple reason Njaanam comes only with LOVE and those who do not cultivate love are also denied this Njaanam. This applies even to the celestial beings who are forever in search of Amutu and always in combat with Asuras because of that.

56,

kaRpaGkaL palakoodi cellat tiiya
kanalin naduvee uuciyin meel kaalai uunRip
poRpaRa mey uNavinRi uRakkaminRip
pularntu elumbu pylappada aumpoRiyai oombi
niRpavarku olittu, aRaiiku oLittu yooka
niiN munivarkku oLittu amarku oLittu meelaam
ciRpatattil vinmayamaay niRaintu njaanat
tiruvaaLar udkalanta teeva teevee

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!

There are many yogis who practice very severe penances where they stand firmly on sharp needles in the midst of burning fire, remain foodless and sleepless without worrying about their body which loses its luster and becomes weak and thin where even the bones show up. They also guard their five senses so that the information form the world is not allowed to enter their mind. To such people You remain very distant and inaccessible, hiding Yourself from them, You do the same with those who pour over the scriptures, to the rishis who with ardent and severe tapas remain forgetful of the world around. You also remain as such even for the celestial beings (who are always in search of Amutu), But for those who develop LOVE unto all, You lift them to the realm of Pure Consciousness and fill them with Your great presence so that they glow in Njaanam.

Politics involves the grabbing, wielding and sharing of power. It is generally
***ociated with governments, but it can be part of any institutionalized
system. It is therefore not surprising that all through history
institutionalized religions have also had a political side. Sometimes they have
usurped, sometimes competed with, governments for power over the people.

Religions regard laws as coming directly from God. That is why a government
that is based on such laws (the Ten Commandments, the Bible, the Sharia, etc.)
is described as theocracy (Rule by God). Usually such countries are not tolerant
of religions that don’t subscribe to their own holy book. There are some member
countries of the United Nations which prohibit religions they don’t regard as
valid. Some Islamic countries are notorious for such violations of the basic
human right of religious belief. Hindus, Bahais and Zoroastrians are all banned
from such countries.

In ancient India, Hindu kings often had religious men as their counselors: the
illustrious Vasishtha and Vishvamitra were among them. Councils to formally
promulgate the teachings of the Buddha have been formed since ancient times in
the Buddhist world. However, though Tibet was once a theocratic state under the
Dalai Lama, it was tolerant of others religions in its midst.
The cl***ic trial of Socrates in ancient Greece was an early instance of
confrontation between government and a religious leader.
Until the Middle Ages,
the Roman Catholic Church wielded power over European kings and lords.

Derelictions from the Church’s pronouncements were not brooked. The practice led
to the notorious Inquisition. In some cases, representatives of the Church had
to choose between the Pope and the King as the higher authority. Thomas Becket’s
decision to put Pope Alexander III on a higher pedestal over King Henry II of
England cost him his life. Protestant monarchs who broke away from Papal
authority, established their own versions of the church, and made themselves
head of the church also, often ***uming a Divine Right of kings.

The establishment of the caliphate after Mohammed’s death saw the emergence of
a vast empire which divided the world into Dar-al-Islam (where the Sharia ruled)
and Dar-al-Kufr (where unbelievers ruled). The Caliphs were Commanders of the
Faithful.

Karl Marx famously called religion the opium of the m***es: a sedative to
exploit the common people. Many minds have been enslaved by narrow religious
doctrines and charismatic religious leaders. But mistaking religions for
spiritual fulfillment led to atheistic and pseudo-socialist regimes, such as the
Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Maoist China which perpetrated more genocidal
crimes than all theocracies put together.

The United States was the first country to incorporate the principle of
separation of church and state in its constitution. The secularist principle is
that no religion, ruled by this scripture or that dharmashastra, this acharya or
that bishop, will have authority in the governance of the nation. However, some
traditional religious values and perspectives are implicit in the laws and
ideals of secularist countries. Also, beliefs and non-hurtful practices of
religions as also non-religions and anti-religions are given equal rights in the
land.

In recent decades, even in some secular countries the more ardent religious
enthusiasts are trying to insinuate themselves and their doctrines into
governmental affairs. They are not content with providing spiritual anchor to
the faithful. They wish to enforce their particular convictions in the
promulgation of statutory laws. This can become unhealthy because some
traditional religious perspective are anachronistic, and are linked to parochial
doctrines which don’t always have universal appeal or relevance.

BEING is Beyond All Religions

If there is something very useful and quite lasting in its world importance from Tamil culture, it is the notion of Transcendence of Religions that they speak about so eloquently and for at least for the two thousand years.

Over and above the intensive philosophic battles the Tamil philosophers have conducted against the criminal VarNasrama Dharma and which is promoted to this day as Hindu Dharma, as part of Sanatana Dharma and so forth, they have also battled vigorously against religious fanaticism and violence that we see among the various religions to this day.

Such battles that have been waged even in India for millenniums slowly but surely opened up their eyes and made them see that BEING (God) is beyond all religions and that the best of the mystics eschewed religious fanaticism and promoted being ABOVE all religions and which goes by the name of Indian secularism at its best.

This deep truth comes out in this final verse as another Secret of Sitambaram, a metaphysical truth that is axiomatic, a truth that is already in the bosom of all.

It was Tayumanavar more than any other Tamil philosopher who devoted many verses to this theme despite him being a staunch Saiva Siddhantin who was very deeply influenced by Meykandar in addition to all the great Saiva saints of the Bakti movement. It is the Fundamental Ontology- the greatest achievement of the philosophic Tamils that can in fact make one understand that BEING is vaakku manaatiita koosram, a movement that cannot be captured by the mind and words.

The Way of life where BEING is seen as the one who created countless number of religions but Himself remaining above all of them, is the AruL Marabu, the Way of Life of Love and Comp***ion. Each religion embodies a certain truth but arrests the mind so that it remains a slave to certain scriptures, rituals and icons. However BEING-as-Siva, the destroyer, destroys such enslavements and freeing the mind makes the soul TRANSCEND all religious but only after benefiting from each. Thus a Saivite understands all religions, has a metaphysical space for setting out every religion but he remains essentially ABOVE all of them with hatred towards none. There is an attitude of ‘letting it be’ in the sense that if a person wants to follow a certain religion then let him do so. When he lives that religion BEING is there in that religion as the Deep Structure and who in due course will perform the Diksa from within and makes him arise ABOVE all religions.

Such individuals who are open and accept all religious but without belonging to any is the Adi-taar, those who are devoted to serve BEING in whatever Way that is possible and impelled by BEING within

Tayumanavar is thankful to BEING for helping him to bring into words the camayaatiitam, matatiitam and so forth - the transcendence of religions.

The Adiyar is not the arrogant Brahmin a Prophet a Messiah and so forth but simply an ordinary person deeply in love with BEING and lives a life of love and comp***ion unto all, sometimes even battling vehemently against the evils in society even in the name of religion,

The Tamil culture has seen many individuals who are superficially irreligious but deeply are really so such as Periyar of recent times. (Though his followers, as usual, have become a degenerate lot)

33.
Kaalamodu reesa varttanmaana aati
Kalantu nin nilai vaazi! karuNai vaazi!
Maal aRavunj saiva mutal mataGkaLaaki
Mataatiitamaana aruL marabou vaazi!
Saala mikum eLiyeen iv vazakku peesat
Tayavu vaittu vaLartta aruL tanmai vaazi!
aaladiyiR paramakuru vaazi! Vaazi!
akaNdita aataara aruL adiyaar vaazi!

Meanning:

Praise is to BEING who despite being above all has descended upon the historical world and remains one with it creating temporality ecological grounds of various sorts and various kinds of processes! Praise to the KINDNESS that is shown by BEING here! There is the tradition of Love and Comp***ion and which transcends all religions. Praise is to BEING who has created the world religions from Saivism to many others to help human beings to gain metaphysical illuminations but who stands ABOVE all religions promoting the transcendence of all of them. I am also full of gratitude to BEING for blessing me with the task of talking about this transcendence of religions and its importance. I praise BEING who taught the Njaanam as the TadciNaamurtti sitting beneath the Bodhi tree pulling all into Deep Silence to enjoy the Njaanam. Praise also to the devotees who have destroyed their finitude and have arisen with a universality of understanding so that there are no more prejudices!

This is why you were born. The one and only reason why you are existing in your material body is first to unfold into your clear white light....

... then penetrate deeper and deeper, touch into the Self, become a knower of the Self, Satchidananda, and then deeper still into nirvikalpa samadhi, Self Realization, preparing for the next steps on the cl***ical yoga path --moksha, freedom from rebirth, and vishvagrasa, merging with Siva.

The aesthetic dimension of religion finds expression in different ways. One is
through music. The Vedas of the Hindu world are said to be the earliest
religious hymns in humanity?s cultural history. And they are chants: verses
sung, often in groups, as per canonically prescribed intonations. The Sama Veda
is entirely musical in construction. In Hindu mythopoesie, there are said to be
minstrels in Heaven (the gandharvas). In the Vaishnava tradition, Sri Chaitanya
sang exhilarating melodies dedicated to the Divine, which sent him in a trance.

The composer-saint Thyagaraja, like his counterpart Johann Sebastian Bach in the
Christian tradition, carved out the gana-marga or musical path for spiritual
fulfillment. Collective devotional singing called bhajans and
divya-nama-sankirtanam induce ecstatic experience.

In a Buddhist treatise on the Perfection of Great Wisdom we read: "the
Bodhisattvas make use of beautiful music to soften people's hearts. With their
hearts softened, people's minds are more receptive, and thus easier to educate
and transform through the teachings." In the Buddhist tradition, music is part
of ceremonial offerings. In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, Emperor Wu of Liang
Dynasty composed musical pieces to propagate dhamma. He also initiated choirs
for children. We are reminded of the medieval Pope Innocent VI who composed the
Eucharistic hymn Ave verum corpus.

In the Judaic tradition, music is given high place. Its role in spiritual
experience is fully recognized. Jewish prophets and mystics sang inspired tunes,
called nigunim. Already in ancient Jerusalem music was part of the worship
service in Jewish temples. One of the psalms in the Old Testament says: "Praise
the LORD with harp: Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten
strings. Sing unto him a new song..."

The Christian tradition has some of the most beautiful music in humanity's
heritage. Not just the Gregorian chants which have their counterparts elsewhere,
but pieces like Bach's P***ion which movingly conveys Christ's suffering;
Exultate Jubilate which Mozart wrote when he was barely seventeen; and the
Messiah during whose composition, Handel said, "I think I did see all Heaven
before me and the great God himself." A Non-Christian could exclaim that the
birth and crucifixion of Christ was worth it because they gave rise to music of
such magnificence.

And yet, whereas in the Eastern religions music is regarded as always great and
sublime, in the Abrahamic traditions, one makes a distinction between acceptable
and unacceptable music, often depending on the theme in a song or in the use of
instrument. There is often the fear that certain types of music could corrupt
the mind. As late as in the 19th century, some churches did not allow
instrumental music in their services, except perhaps for the organ. Nowhere is
this attitude more explicit than in Islam. According to one Muslim scholar,
"music is haram in Islam, while songs without music is (sic) halal if the words
are halal? He goes on to say that music is Satanic. Indeed it is/was believed
by some in these religions Satan inspires the composition of certain music. The
famous violinist and composer Paganini was suspected of having made a pact with
the devil to enable him to write his tempestuous music. For this alleged
offence his bones were removed from his grave. By and large, Christianity and
Judaism have overcome such negative attitudes, but some orthodox Jews are still
touchy about the themes of songs.

Music is certainly one of the most pleasing of art forms. Singing, however
crudely, is within reach of everyone. Besides the auditory pleasure it gives,
music stirs the soul, be it a national anthem or a religious invocation. So it
has played a role in religious traditions.

V. V. Raman
12 Jan 2007

The Hymns of Humble Appar 1-1

The Sources and Human Intelligence and Competence

One of the objects of Fundamental Ontology that was brought into words by the giants of Tantric spirituality like Tirumular Namazvar and so forth is that of MALAM, the Metaphysical Darkness that makes the anmas BLIND and hence unable to SEE anything at all. This metaphysical notion is as ancient as the Sumerian Suruppak’s NeRi ( c. 3000 BC). The Sumerian philosophers have also noted that whatever human competence, including the technical skills like inventing a script for writing down language is there only because BEING emerges in the depths of the soul as the Inner Sun that violates the inner darkness and let there be the light of Intelligence ( Utu ude-a uRu iGanamee aam - 505 Enmerkar and Araata)

Appar interprets his own intelligence against a metaphysical understanding as founded by this Fundamental Ontology and in that also records a continuity with the Sumerian philosophers.

Here Appar contrasts his present ability to compose metaphysically illuminating verses in chaste Tamil with his earlier state of incompetence for such skills. He also laments his inability to understand and appreciate the various divine arts and sciences that have been honed to perfection by continuous reflections on them

But now he can as the voluminous verses he has composed would indicate.

How has this transform come about?

He notes here, just as the ancient Sumerians that it is because of BEING who with a LOVE like that of mother and father and in shape of Cezunjcudar, brilliant and benevolent light, has ERUPTED into the depths of his soul and destroying the BLINDNESS and hence metaphysical ignorance there has transformed him into a competent soul capable of all that he lacked initially.

Not only that. Appar also recognizes that BEING stays one-with and along-with him always showing continuously deeper and deeper truths so that he evolves and develops as an individual enjoying competencies that are novel.

This kind of progress is again like climbing up a hill and reaching BEING in the shrine at the top and in the form of Illuminating Light.

Against the metaphysics of total BLINDNESS as that which is intrinsic to the souls, it turns out that whatever intelligence and competence a person enjoys is a BLESSING of BEING an nothing else. A person cannot be intelligent and competent on his own efforts.

Thus with this realization of his total dependence for whatever competence he enjoys to BEING, he becomes extremely HUMBLE towards BEING

1.

panniya centamiz aRiyeen kaviyeen maaddee
eNNoodu paN niRainta kalaikaLaaya
tannanaiyum tan tiRattaRiyaap poRiyileenait
tan tiRamum aRivittu neRiyuG kaadi
annaiyaiyum attaniyaiyum poola anbaay
adaiteenait todarntu ennai aaLaak koNda
ten eRubiyuur malameel maaNikkattai
cezunj cudaraic cenRadaiyap peRReen naanee

Meaning:

I am because of my inherent ignorance, not familiar with the beautiful cl***ical Tamil. I also lack the necessary competence to compose hymns and poems in that idiom. I am also ignorant of the sciences of numbers and the various musical and artistic traditions full of fine rhythms. I am also ignorant of BEING and His various functions and guNas, but nevertheless BEING overpowered me and on His own accord informed me of His essences showing also the Way of Moksa nurturing me all along like my own father and mother with love and care. This all happened only because I happened to go to ERumbiyuur and worshipped BEING as the crest jewel in the temple at the hill top there.

Loga

Modernity deals with the secular whereas religions deals with the sacred
- the relationship between man and god. They are 'deemed competitor'
because they both wish to draw attention of the 'consumers' away from the
other; modernity externalises awareness, religions internalises it. In this
they are competitors.

In so far as human values in our relationship between man and man, I
think in this day and age, religions and modernity mostly overlap and reinforce each other. Modernity
also serves to keep religions in check with reason and rationale. It dispels
superstition and blind belief with juxtapositions of stark reality and
demonstrable science. Religions serves to check modernity in that it
attempts to cap and roll back 'total externalising' making sure that human
values are not eroded. Both feed on each other too. Its a loop.

Therefore religion and modernism complement, supplement and compete with each other at
the same time. As to our competance in our strategic areas of concern, we
slack and stagnate far too often to our own detriment, and in this regard I
say that we should allow modernity larger space and depth, a sort of
strategic withdrawal, so as to allow modernity to drive out the vestiges of
medievalism that Hinduism reeks of, and which some sections sing of.

I would like to see India attain political, economic and social modernity in
the likes of the Netherlands, Japan, Korea and Scandinavia. Koreans and
Japanese are highly religious people inspite of their modernisation.

TirumuRai 6:91

The Hymns of Humble Appar 1-2

BEING and the Different Icons

The best of Dravidian philosophers or mystics like Appar here, while they appreciate different icons deities and so forth but they do not become excessively sectarian and promote their sects by belittling others. The reason for this very tolerant view of the matter is that they have witnessed BEING as Pure Light and which is the form of BEING at the deepest.

There can be countless number of icons deities but at the deepest of the deep Structures of all these is the BEING-as-Pure-Radiance. So when they see a certain deity, say VishNu, at the deepest level they also see the non-figural Pure Radiance. When they see all deities along these lines, with a DUALIITY of structure then they perceive a SAMENESS despite a surface level difference. This accounts for their tolerance of different deities.

Now Appar adds a profound insight as to why such a metaphysical understanding is not that commonly available and which causes noisy sectarian violence.

BEING implants Himself as the Pure Radiance in the shadows of all souls i.e within the part that is taken up by the Mummalam, fetters or Paacaas that introduce a BLINDNESS. But this Inner Radiance already available in the soul of all, is blocked off by the ARROGANCE or EGOISM caused by these paacaas. Thus they become the Asuras like Salantaran, those who readily make loud noise, become clamorous and seek to defeat any contrary view by drowning them with their abuse verbal dominance and so forth. Thus BEING ***umes the form of Paacupata, the one who destroys the Paacaas so that such individuals learn to withdraw into themselves and begin to witness BEING-as-Pure Light already available deep within their soul.

Once this is accomplished then all the icons like Indira VishNu Brahma Rudra and so forth are seen simply as various presentational forms of BEING and who destroys the differences created by such icons by presenting Himself as the most neutral Pure Light, an experience of BEING that is common to all great mystics throughout the world and from very ancient times.

2.
paLiGkin nizal udpatitta cootiyaanai
pasupatiyai paacupata veedattaanai
viLittezunata slantaranai viiddinaanai
veetiryanai viNNavanai meevi vauyam
aLantavanai naanmukanai allal tiirrkum
arumaruntai aamaaRu aRinteen uLLan
teLintu eRumbiyuur malaimeel maaNikkattaic
cezunjcudarai cenRu adaiyap perreen naanee!

Meaning:

BEING has implanted Himself as a Pure Radiance in the depths of the soul like in the shadows of a crystal. He is also Pasupati, the Lord of all souls bonded by the fetters, the Paacaas. He also has generated the figure of one who seeks to destroy the fetters so that souls can become free of them. There is the Asura Salantaran the clamorous and who was defeated by Him and made to be silent. He is the Lord of scriptures, the celestial beings, the One who measured out the entire manifest world i.e VishNu, the Brahma and so forth. He ***umes all these iconic forms to destroy the ignorance and because of which He is the rare but very powerful medicine. I understood all such deep truths of BEING only because I ascended the hill of ERumbiyuur where Siva stays as the Jewel and Great Radiance.

The Mystery of the Play of BEING

The concept of TiruviLayaadal or the Leella of BEING is how the Dravidian metaphysicians understand the happenings in the world as well as the existence of all. BEING is a DANCER, a player of Sacred Games where He enacts dramas after dramas with His Sakti and all for the pedagogic purpose of teaching the ignorant souls the Njaanam so that they can be redeemed. To redeem is to INFORM them and the existential struggles of various kinds are in fact various kinds of dramas enacted by BEING so that souls caughtt in that dramas LEARN whether they like it or not. We can call this the existential learning which is also the most primordial kind of learning.

When the individuals are full of Ego, they remain egocentric where they understand that whatever that happens to them is their own making, a result of their own actions and so forth. So when they fail, they ascribe the failure to themselves and suffer chronic depressions and so forth . But in the course of such experiences they gradually begin to understand that there is an AGENT within their own human agency and that it is only seemingly that soul is the agent but actually it is BEING who is the real AGENT. BEING plays a skillful game whereby by concealing Himself but remaining the real agent, He leads the souls to imagine that they are in fact the real agents and so forth.

As BEING discloses Himself gradually so that the souls begin to understand the PLAY of BEING everywhere including in his own existence, an utter bewilderment takes over and he ends up respecting BEING more than ever.

Now VaLLalaar notes here that long before individuals become spiritually matured they enjoy a misplaced courage and confidence that they can explore this vast universes and fathom all the workings in it. They believe they can count the enormous range of individuals, their shapes dynamics and so forth. They also believe that they can explore the various galactic systems that are organized into a helical form with one galaxy giving birth to another and so forth. They also affirm they can see how the different souls acquire different biological forms and so forth.

However when it comes to seeking the various games BEING plays, they are completely lost to fathom them to their utter dissatisfaction. BEING turns out wholly mysterious, just too deep to spell out clearly who He is what kind of games He plays, when He would play what game and so forth.

This si the dawn of spiritual wisdom - they bow down before the MYSTERY of BEING and begin to worship Him in all humility awaiting for His grace and nothing else.

63.
antarmum iGky aRivoom maRRu atani; aNdam
adukkadukkaay amanita uLa vaRivoom aGkee
untum pala panda nilai aRivoom ciivan
Urra nilai aRivoom maRRaianittu naaddum
Entail ninatu aruL viLaiyaaddu antoo antoo!’
eL aLavum aRintilool enRu
munti anantan maRaikaL elaam vaaztta ninRa
muzumutalee anbar kuRai mudikkum teevee!

Meaning

O Maha Deva!
There are many who claim that they can explore the vast space and understand everything in it. They also claim that they can measure out the various galactic systems and how they remain packed on top of one another in a helical progression and so forth. They also claim they can count the various individual objects and the sources of their dynamics and so forth. They also claim that they understand quite well how the different souls acquire different biological natures and survive in different ecological regions and so forth. But what the ancient scriptures affirm is the mystery that surrounds the GAMES You play and because of which all these happen. They remain praising You as the Primordial Cause and the LOVING Power who would remove all the miseries of all.

The Hymns of Humble Appar 1-5

The Indeterminacy of BEING and the Humility it Breeds

One of the root mythical tales that Appar and other Nayanmars mention quite frequently is that of the defeat of Brahma who flies on his swan and VishNu who digs deep down as the Boar through a presentation of Himself as a huge Pillar of Flame that has no bottom or terminus. The action of Brahma is that human beings who venture into the manifest world, the Sky and studying it as the only way to determine the essence of BEING. This also can be taken as an attitude where scriptural exegetics and theological speculations as well as the exploration of the unconscious can completely REVEAL the essence of BEING. Both are defeated by BEING by showing Himself as an immeasurable FLAME without any point of origin and termination. The point is BEING shows Himself here as the wholly INDETERMINATE and always a SURPLUS never to be completely grasped by thinking alone.

So the human penchant for determinacy in whatever way in relation to BEING is defeated and in that defeat the human intellect itself vanquished. The human mind is let just to wait for the GRACE of BEING and in that truly humble in relation to BEING, something Appar is well known for. He overcomes the human penchant for determinate knowledge and becoming truly humble and awaits for the GRACE of BEING to fall upon him for further metaphysical illuminations having understood very well that whatever he enjoys is in fact a GIFT of BEING and nothing else. Thus he becomes like the Muni-s, the truly illuminated individuals who simply praise BEING and leaves it to BEING to dispense them with wisdom as He pleases and sees fit.

Now in this connection what is the function of music and dance that are instituted by BEING as the most becoming religious rituals?

The aesthetical arts like singing and dancing subdue the analytical mind and lead it to experience the world in terms of FEELINGS. When man forgets himself by his complete absorption in the melodies of the songs and rhythms of the dance, not only his mind but his soul as well is transported into a metaphysical realm where being in it itself is already is a way of acquiring the germs of metaphysical insights that can later be brought into words and so forth. Thus THINKING becomes a secondary activity - something that ought to follow the primordial and primary dancing and singing which alone transports the soul into new and deeper metaphysical ecologies. When such DIRECT singing and dancing is forsaken and the mind is made to preoccupy itself with THINIING alone, we do not have such ecological transportations but only vain and endless disputes sometimes even violent.

Now such violence in religious matter is to be met with violence and for promoting which BEING becomes the dancer of the War Dance where He rains the sharp -pointed Trisuulam in the heart of all. There is the birth anger indignation and hence all kinds of conflicts and combats but eventually raising the question of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

BEING is absolutely PURE ( Nimalan) and therefore the combats he installs also lead people towards becoming PURE and CLEAN and in that truly HUMBLE.

5.

paaridaGkaLudan paadap payinRu naddam
payilvaanai ayilvaay suulameenti
neeridum poor mikavalla nimalan tannai
ninmalanai ammalarkoNdu ayanum maalum
paaridantum meeluyarntuG kaaNaavaNNam
parantaanai nimirntu muni kaNangkaL eettunj
siir eRumbiyuur malameel maaNikkattaic
cezunjcudaraic cenRadaiyap peRReen naanee

Meaning

BEING installs Himself becoming the DANCER, singing and dancing among all. He also becomes the very powerful war dancer shooting His very sharp Trisuul (to defeat all arrogant individuals). Now He is absolutely Pure and Clean and in order to make even Brahma and VishNu pure and clean as such, he defeats them by showing Himself as the immeasurable FLAME that has no beginning or end. Brahma who flies into sky (on his vehicle of white swan) and VishNu who digs deeps (as the Boar) fail in their attempts to the fathom the real essence of BEING. Those illuminated individuals, understanding all these, simply remain praising the glories of BEING, awaiting for His Grace for any further metaphysical illuminations. Today I was fortunate enough to climb up the hill of the beautiful ERumbiyuur and witness for myself the gem-like BEING over there as the everlasting flame of such merits.

The Hymns of Humble Appar 1-6

The Birth of Mantra Worship and Sivalokam

The body of BEING is Mantrat Tirumeeni, i.e. a mantra complex as said by Tirumular in many places.  It appears the worship of BEING in terms of mantras such as Si-Vaa-Ya-Na-Ma and finally the Primordial Logos Om is something that became very closely ***ociated with the worship of BEING-as-Siva and something that was not focused upon in the worship of Brahma VishNu and Indra and so forth. These religions remained fixated to Icon Worship and hence unable to rise above the non-iconic Mantra Worship and Mantra Thinking.

Now the most sophisticated among these is Sri VaishNavism and which expounds VaikuNdam as the Paradise but viewed as the most excellent life full of happiness and where the souls becoming Krishnas and Gopies enjoy a life of pure love and romance. Ultimately this is a form of life within ***uality but certainly pure and clean - it depicts an ideal kind of earthly life where along with ***uality LOVE rules the human relationship driving away all miseries of life. The Indira worship in the past was mainly in terms of Indra Viza, a month long festival and even now the VishNu worship promotes a form of religious life where festivals after festivals are celebrated. Such ‘vaibavam’(celebration) is extended even to the Acaryas so much so that a serious VaishNava bakta will spend all his time celebrating such vaibavams.

Now Appar notes  even this kind of life is a blessing like showers of the dark clouds in the sky - a spontaneous aruL on the part of BEING. And most importantly, the ***uality that such festivals presuppose is a GIFT of BEING who roams around the world on His Majestic White Bull , the symbol of virility that was also celebrated as such in Sumeria and many other ancient cultures.

But despite all these BEING-as-Siva does not remain confined to icon worship. His essence is the Mantra Om, the One Great Letter and hence promotes the dissolution of Icon Worship and the installation of the abstract and figureless mantra forms  and hence non-iconic forms of worship where the souls ascend the mantra world in stages and reach the peak where resides the Primordial Logos Om. This truth leads Appar to say that Brahma VishNu Indra and such other deities belonging to the world of Icon Worship, in fact turn to Siva worship and in terms of Mantras.

Now it should be noted the Sivalokam or Tillai (the Sumerian Til Mun) and which contains within itself the TiruCiRRampaalam, the vast expanse of Pure Consciousness is the Deep Structure of VaikuNdam , something that lurks within that world of divine happiness but beyond it. For it belongs to a form of life the souls enjoy after Moksa i,e. after freeing themselves from being thrown into repeated embodiment. The life of Sivalokam, the vast world of mantras alone, is the life of the souls after freeing permanently from being embodied and attain being there in the world purely as mantra bodies without any Malam that would throw them into embodiment.

This Sivalokam, the world of Mantras is also a world of Pure Light and BEING shows as such to those gifted individuals who manage to have a glimpse of Moksa.  Appar implies this and notes that this is another source of human humility for it installs the understanding that even the world of divine pleasures, a life of Krisha leelas is after all a gift of BEING-as-Siva,

6.

kaar mukilai pozivanaip pozintu munniir
        karappanai kadiya nadai vidaiyonRu eeRi
uurpalavum tirivaavan uurataaka
        oRRiyuur udaiyanaay muRRum aaNdu
peer ezuttonRu udaiyaanai piramanodu
        maalavaun intiran mantirattaal eettunj
siir eRumbiyuur malaimeel maaNikkattaic
        cezunjcudaraic cenRu adaiyap peRReen naanee

Meaning:

BEING while showers His blessings like the dark rainy clouds also dries them up even when they swell into an ocean.  He roams around all the cities on His majestic White Bull (to bless the souls with KuNdalini Sakti) taking every city as His own.  He also shows Himself as the Primordial Logos with which he rules all completely because of which icon-worship promoting deities like Brahma ViushNu and Indira turn to worship Him, but in terms of Mantras. This BEING who is resplendent Pure Light resides as the diamond in the temple on top of the hill of ERumbiyuur and today I am fortunate enough to witness Him as such in this temple.

Every religion has a history, in so far as the origin of religion was a human
event. How old that history is depends on whether one approaches the question
from an inquiring perspective or on the basis of ancient writings and cultural
inspiration.

The sacred books of every major religion contain parts that sound very
historical. The Old Testament has names of kings and dynasties and chronologies,
specifying how many years they ruled. Abraham and Moses are regarded as
historical figures. Some allow the same historical authenticity to Adam and Eve,
as well as to the story of Noah and his ark. The New Testament speaks about the
birth of Jesus, the places where he traveled and preached, as well as specific
episodes in his life, including miracles, all of which read very much like
historical texts.

If the spiritual framework of Hinduism rests on Vedic hymns, Upanishadic
writings, and the Agamas, the tradition itself relies on the grand epics of the
Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Kanda Puranam of the Tamil world. All these
are regarded as reporting on historical personages and events by most Hindus.

Some scholars have gone so far as to calculate the years and dates when some of
the major events in the lore occurred, such as the Kurukshetra Battle and the
flourishing of Ayodhya (notwithstanding the temporal framework of the epics in
different yugas: i.e. hundreds of thousands of years ago) and the emergence of
Kali Yuga. To a degree, various Sanskritic Puranas are also given historical
weight by many practicing Hindus.

The Jatakas of Buddhism and the stories ***ociated with the Jaina Thirtankaras
are also regarded as historical verities by the followers of those faiths. The
statement to the effect that the Prophet of Islam received his messages from
Archangel Gabriel is taken as historically true by the followers of that
religion, as also the events recorded in the Hadith. And all these have sacred
significance. Those who doubt this are looked down upon as kafirs: unbelievers.

Thus, there is more to religions than doctrinal ***ertion and spiritual
experience. Every religion is linked to personages, episodes, and places that
not only carry the weight of tradition, but also the affirmation and semblance
of factuality.

Normally there are discernable dividing lines between fact and fantasy. But this
is seldom the case in the religious context. Those who are faithfully affiliated
to specific religions take most of the scriptural narratives to be literally
true. In their view, whereas the sacred history of other religions seem
obviously non-factual, their own is a true representation of historical events.

Some people in all traditions do recognize the difference between parable and
moral, between symbol and substance. But it is always a sensitive matter when an
external observer wonders about which elements of the religious narratives are
plausible and which are clearly not.

One would imagine that to people in the twenty-first century, certain claims of
antiquity must be clearly unrealistic. For example, from the orthodox
perspective the world and Judaism had their origin just a few thousand years
ago. In some traditions it is believed that the value of a work and of a
tradition is directly proportional to its antiquity. Thus, for example, some
Jain scholars state that the Thirthankara Rishabha who is regarded as the
founder of their religion, lived "a few billion years ago."

According to a
recently published Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism, which has been highly
acclaimed by some respected professors in accredited universities, the religion
is "155.521072 trillion years." The utter disregard for, or perhaps knowledge
of, any scientific knowledge is glaringly evident in such ***ertions.

V. V. Raman
January 22, 2007

The Hymns of Humble Appar 1-8

Theism and the Moral Sense

In the long history of Dravidian metaphysical thinking that begins at least around 3000 BC if not earlier, there has been a concern with what is right and wrong. In fact Surupak’s Nari (> Ta. neRi, c. 3000 BC) is said to be a text on moral instructions  The key word NeRi already occurs at that time itself and which shows that there is a WAY and which was also vaguely understood but put in metaphorical forms as trhe way that leads to Moksa.

In the mantra texts like Udug Hul, Er Semma and so forth, we come across the technical term pabgal (> Ta, paavaGkaL), the evil actions and which were identified as the real causes of mental and physical ailments showing that the Karma doctrine was already well understood and was linked with the actions a person does.

An important advance is made during the period of Third Academy where the right is said to be actions ruled by LOVE (anbu) and issues forth only when the souls are in the inner ecological realms ordained by the deities like  Muruka KaNNan and so forth.

Now Appar continues this kind of understanding of ETHICS and where the Ethical Way of Life was called Tiru NeRi, a way of life where it is shaped by BEING through becoming the inner guide leading to the intuitive understanding that the actions leading towards Moksa are good (puNNiyam) and those actions which throw the souls towards the Darkness of aaNavam as evil (paavam) and so forth.

Such an understanding of ETHICS requires a theistic metaphysics and which was disallowed by the Buddhists  and Jains where instead of BEING they had the words of Bodhisatvas and Tirtankaras. Thus despite the Jains writing many ethical treatises like Naladiyar and so forth, the metaphysical understanding was lacking as they did not acknowledge BEING.

But it also appears that the Jains at the time of Appar where he in fact lived as one for several years, were a degenerate lot given over to violence and metaphysical ignorance that disgusted Appar and which made him return to Saivism. With this he also recovers the ancient  LOVE based ethics and which goes along with theism such as that of Saivism of Appar here.

One remains not born as a human being at all as long as one lives the life of the ethically ignorant where the RIGHT is not seen as that which is consistent with what is SHOWN by BEING. To be born is to live the most authentic existence where there is acknowledgement of the presence of BEING and that the RIGHT is that which He shows from within.
8.

aRanteriyaa uuttai vaay aRivil cintai
        aaramba kuNdarodu ayarntu naanum
maRantu maaN tiruvadikaL ninaiya maaddaa
        matiyiliyeen vaazvelaam vaaLaa maNmeeR
piRanta naaL naaLall vaaLaa iisan
        pper pitaRRi cir adimait tiRattuL anbu
ceRintu eRumbiyuur malaimeel maaNikkattaic
        cwlunj cudaraic cenRadaiyap peRReen naanee!

Meaning:

When I was one of them I realized that the Jains were ignorant of the sources of moral principles and kept on saying great many evils with their foul mouth. They were also thoughtless aggressive and simply the beginners in metaphysics. In ***ociation with them I lost my mind and spend my life without ever thinking the Dancing Feet of Siva, so stupid was I. The birth that leads to such a way of life is not at all a birth. The right birth and the most authentic existence is that in which one keeps on reciting the name of Siva and with that becoming a servant of  BEING-Siva ruled by LOVE and nothing else. I understood all these when I went ERumbiyuur, climbed up the hill and saw the jewel and the Brilliant Light there.

As with other matters of religious import, modern science has intruded into the
mystery of mysticism also by trying to explain it in its own way. First,
science has been underscoring the role of ****s in the experience. In certain
religious rites, intoxicants are shared, whether chewed as a pulp, imbibed as a
potion, or inhaled as mind-numbing fumes. Soma juice, opium, and mescaline are
not recent inventions. In some religious contexts, the stimulant is consumed
voluntarily as part of a rite whose goal is spiritual excitation. Or an
unwitting victim might consume a mushroom in the wild, which contains chemicals
that work wonders on the brain, kindling it to mystical modes. In the
scientific paradigm, every experience, whether normal, abnormal or supernormal,
can be traced to state-of-brain chemistry. But while simple **** intoxication
can lead to fright and trauma, mysticism is often joyful.

Another interpretation of mystical experience is from psychiatrists who describe
it as arising from a deranged mind. But one must differentiate between sickness
and mystical vision: Whereas an ailing mind is pathetic and erratic, a
visionary mind experiences what is not accessible to minds in their normal
states. Transrational is not the same as irrational.

The third scientific approach to mysticism is to probe into different regions of
the brain and determine if some parts of it are particularly mysticism-prone.
For example, Andrew Newberg and Eugene D'Aquili pointed out on the basis of
experimental findings that the region of the brain called posterior superior
parietal lobe is responsible in some ways for enabling us to orient our bodies
in three-dimensional space. It also helps us recognize our individual selves as
distinct from the external world. If, for some reason, this lobe is affected or
damaged in certain ways, the differentiation is erased, and one experiences the
oneness of which mystics speak.

The neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran has demonstrated that divine visions are
closely related to the functioning of the left temporal lobe. He has called it
the God-module. One of his epileptic patients is said to have confessed that
during some of the episodes he felt an "Oneness with the Creator." In principle,
it is possible to excite this lobe and make anybody "see God." This kind of
reduction of theology to a subset of neuroscience has popularized in this
context the term neurotheology which was coined by Aldous Huxley more than four
decades ago. Jean Richter said: "God is an unutterable sigh, placed in the core
of the soul." As per science, he should have said brain, not soul.

Others have suggested that physical factors in the environment, such as
emanations from solar flares and changes in the ambient electromagnetic field
could trigger disturbances in the brain and cause epilepsy and mystical oneness.

Like the relentless quest of dedicated detectives to corner a criminal, the
scientific search, especially its neuroscientific wing, is in hot pursuit of
uncovering what exactly is behind this extraordinary experience that some
individuals have in such heightened intensity, and which is at the root of
practically every religion in the world. Their investigations and theories have
invariably tended to transform the most lofty and long-revered human experience
into an unusual and abnormal potential of any human brain. In other words,
science tells us that unlike the sun and the stars, gods and angels are not out
there, but are fantastic creations of the complex brain which emerge under
unusual conditions. As of now, the world of science does not find sufficient
reason to subscribe to the idea that mysticism could be the brain's resonance to
something out there, as light is with respect to a narrow band of the
electromagnetic spectrum, though this is not implausible.

V. V. Raman
29 January 2007

Perhaps the most colorful figure in the religious history of India is Appar who declared for the first time in the world the absolute independence and autonomy of man by his very powerful slogan ”naam aarkkum kudi alloom”, 'we are not subject to anyone' and was supposed to have been said in defiance of the Pallava Emperor of his times. He is certainly the first to use the technology of Ahimsa Satyagraha and so forth against the Jains of his time who unleashed many terrors to bring him back to Jainism that he abandoned and with which began the decline of Jainism in the South.

He lived to the ripe old age and composed very profound metaphysical hymns on various themes. In this Patikam 93 in the Sixth TirumuRai, we have Appar meditating on how to die peacefully showing that it must have been composed during his old age where he was simply waiting for the death that would free him forever to enjoy Moksa and be with BEING without ever returning to the historical world as an embodied creature.

Loga

TirumuRai 6-93

Appar Meditating on Death 1

Living Well Till the Ripe Old Age

As the Saiva metaphysicians as well as the Siddhas keep on harping one can live well till ripe old age but without suffering senility with its attendant lose of bodily and mental powers. They affirm that one can live long and as a youthful individual and then just suddenly with the Grace of Siva leave the physical body and ‘enjoy’ death, so to speak. Such a ‘death’ is not ordinary death where it is caused by the attacks of Malam, the poison. There is a way of keeping off this Killer Power, the mythical Yama and live long with youthful virility provided one keeps on eliciting the various forms of KuNdalini Sakti as are indicated in some of the central icons of Siva listed in this verse.

The KuNdalini Sakti comes in various forms. The basic form is the WOMAN, who stands as the equal half of Siva. This archetype shows that born a man and a woman, both must live in some kind loving relationship and with that supply the Amutu, the joys of ***ual happiness of various kinds. This, as the images of Siva embracing Sakti would show need not always mean the PariyaGka Yoga, the Yoga of the bed. Living together with LOVE and CARE already causes the flow of Amutu and with that pave the way for mental and physical health.

Now this same Sakti ***umes the form of Celestial Waters symbolized as the Ganga on the tuft of Siva but which is actually the inner springs of pure waters that would flow each time a person is sick and CURE him by cleaning him of the diseases causing dirt and so forth. This is usually disclosed in metaphysical dreams where one has a bath in a river, a pool and so forth. This is also the ritual of baptism by waters, having a dip in the sacred rivers and so forth. For the deserving the Celestial Ganges flows within helping such individual recover fast good health and so forth.

Now the Crescent Moon, a very ancient symbol of KuNdalini one of the forms the Sumerian In-anna ***umes as the daughter of Suen the Moon God is that form of KuNdalini which when it flows in the body brings about rejuvenation so that the body remains youthful and strong for long. The processes that cause senility are offset or arrested and the biological processes of cell rejuvenation and so forth are kept active as ever. By being promoted.

The snake, also a very ancient symbol and which is also a form In-Anna ***umes, is ***ual libido and which if kept well in the body the youthful vitality and virility remains. It is also disclosed in metaphysical dreams that the Sumerian Usungal the Large Dragon and the precursor of the Atisedan of VishNu is in fact that energy which maintain the youthful virilty which keeps the body free from the attacks of senility.

Appar notes that anyone who keeps on learning and with that keeps on developing self by becoming more and more clean and pure, are bound to be blessed by such icons of Siva and which will ensure that he lives long and actively before the soul is separated from the body by BEING himself as was the case with most of the Nayanmars.

1.
Neentorutti oru paakattu adaGkak kaNdu
Nilai taLara aayirma maamukattanodu
Paayntorutti padar sadaimeel payilak kaNdu
Pada aravam pani matiyum vaitta celvar
Tam tiruttit tam amanatai oruttaat toNdar
tanittoRu taNduunRi meyt taLaraa munnam
puuturtti puunturutti enpaaraakil
pollaap pulaal turuttti pookkalaamee!

MeaninG;

The WOMAN, Uma out of deep love established herself as one half of Siva. Seeing this Ganga, with a thousand faces descended and established herself on the tuft of Siva flowing there in great speed bouncing and jumping. Now seeing this Siva wore the Crescent Moon on His tuft and Snake on His neck. Those devotees who indulge in self-purification can gain the kuNdalini energies of these icons of Siva so that they can end their embodied existence without suffering from senility where having lost all the energies one has to use walking sticks even to walk. Now if they only utter like a mantra the name of the temple Puunturutti, they can attain the blessings of these archetypes and enjoy the energy flow from them and discard the body without any sufferings due to senility and so forth.

Philosophers are keen and prolific thinkers who reflect, both rationally and
speculatively, on important issues. Many of the issues relate to human life and
existence and all that is ***ociated with them. In ancient Greece, there were
many philosophers who had little to say about any particular religion. The
Pre-Socratics like Thales and Anaximander, Anaxagoras and Heraclitus spoke
little about religion. This was true of Plato and Aristotle too. This was also
the case in China. Confucius, Lao-Tzu, and Mo-Ti were not exactly religious
philosophers.

One generally thinks of religion in terms of God and prayer, rites and rituals,
worship and devotional songs. But religions have produced some of the greatest
philosophical thinkers in humanity's rich intellectual heritage. Indeed, after
the rise of the major religions, practically every great philosopher was
affiliated to one religion or another. Since religion and faith in God are
significant aspects of human life, philosophers have often been drawn to these
matters in all religious traditions. It is not surprising that many of them have
been influenced by the religions in which they were born and grew up. The
Upanishadic thinkers were essentially connected to the visions of the Vedic
sage-poets, as were later philosophers like Abhinavagupta (Shaivism) and
Ramanuja (Vaishnavism). Philo of Alexandria was wedded to Judaism and Augustine
to Christianity. The Buddhist world can also boast of a good many philosophers,
from Nagarjuna to Dogen Zenji, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school of
Buddhism.

Religious philosophers have influenced and shaped the corresponding religion.
Shankara and Ramanuja, for example, have changed the course of Hinduism as Al
Gazali did for Islam, Maimonides did for Judaism, and Aquinas did for
Christianity.

Often philosophers in the religious context have attempted to argue for the
tenets of their religion in the framework of science and rationality. This
practice goes back to Philo of Alexandria who incorporated Greek thought into
Judaism. But he was overshadowed as the preeminent Judaic philosopher by the
12th century Maimonides who, likewise, tried to reconcile Aristotle's physics
with the Talmud. In the Islamic world, the brilliant thinker Al Gazali started
as a skeptic, preceding Descartes by a few centuries, but argued that there was
something incoherent in philosophers who tried to challenge the truths of the
(Islamic) scripture. He also propounded the principle that in the explanation of
events, God plays a more important role than causal connections. He became an
effective spokesperson for (Islamic) religious truths. It may be recalled that
another keen philosopher of the Islamic world, Averroes, who emerged a century
later, tried to refute the perspectives of Al Gazali, but not very effectively.

The works of such philosophers serve as models for integrating religion with
rational philosophical (scientific) thinking. This enterprise continues down to
our own times. When philosophers are essentially interpreters of sacred texts in
a rational framework, they are theologians.

After the rise of modern science, there have continued to be many philosophers
in the Western tradition who have been affiliated to Christianity. In this
lineage we have thinkers like Descartes (skepticism), Berkeley (idealism),
Spinoza (ethics), and Kierkegaard (existentialism). These were not theologians,
but philosophers. S. Radhakrishnan, Sri Aurobindo and S. N. Das Gupta in the
Hindu world may be regarded as philosophers in their own right.

We see from all these instances the enormous contributions that religions have
made to the development of philosophical thought.

In the ancient Greek world a number of philosophers from Thales to the likes of
Aristotle and Democritus were also engaged in explaining the natural world,
albeit largely speculatively. In cl***ical India, philosophicl schools like
Nyaya, Vaiseshika, and Carvaka were also of this kind. But non-theological
philosophy re-emerged in ***ociation with empirical science after the rise of
modern science.

Philosophers like René Descartes, David Hume and Immanuel Kant set the stage for
John Locke?s idea (18th century) of philosophy being the hand-maiden of science,
which was both descriptive and prescriptive. What this meant was that
philosophers or at least a good number of them were interested not so much
in reflecting on the human condition, matters of religious import, or the nature
of metaphysical reality, but in probing into the source, nature and validity of
human knowledge. In other words, epistemology became the primary concern of many
philosophers.

While empirical scientists were accumulating more and more knowledge about the
physical world, and theoreticians were building up explanatory structures to
put the results of observation in rational and consistent frameworks,
philosophers began to investigate the logical legitimacy of the modes by which
human beings acquire knowledge. Such inquiries served to elucidate some of the
key ideas on which the scientific methodology rests: such as the principles of
causality and conservation, the rigor in mathematical analysis, the nature of
logical reasoning, the limits of empiricism, and the like. Such thorough look
into the foundations of knowledge and belief has had two significant impacts:
The first put science itself on more reliable and rigorous grounds. The other
was to sow seeds of doubt on some of the fundamental tenets and ***umptions of
religion. In other words, while this type of philosophical analysis often
strengthened the roots of science, it also tended to weaken those of religion.

Scientific philosophy reached a climax in the 1920s through an agenda
formulated by a group of philosophers in Vienna. Their tenet was that all
(valid) human knowledge has its source in experience and must be logically
consistent. Mauritz Schlick (the founding president), Rudolf Carnap, and Kurt
Gödel were among the eminent members of the Viennese Circle whose influence
spread far and wide. A natural extension of their ideas was logical positivism
which went on to reject any other system that claimed truth, such as
metaphysics, theology, or ethics which served no function but to provide
emotional satisfaction.

Other perspectives emerged, and later philosophers challenged the claims of
science and reason. These include thinkers like Thomas Kuhn (scientific truths
are subject to paradigm shifts), Karl Popper (one can only falsify, never verify
scientific theories), and Paul Feyerabend (Against Method: anarchistic science)
whose works have dethroned science (at least among philosophers) from its
hegemonic status in the world of truths. Thus, one impact of post-modernist
epistemologies has been to propagate the view that science is no more than a
useful enterprise, with little relation to anything absolute or objective. To
the extent that such perspectives, formulated in logical and coherent terms,
dilute the narrowness and arrogance of some scientists, these have been healthy
new moves. To the extent that they also fuel, sometimes venerate, irrationality
and outworn beliefs which constrain humanity to pre-scientific worldviews, one
may say that they ill-serve civilization.

V. V. Raman
February 2, 2007

Aesthetics is related to the appreciation of beauty. Beauty is generally
***ociated with form and shape and color and face. In an extended sense one can
speak of beauty in thoughts and ideas too.

Thus, beauty relates to human experience. Whether a painting or a flower is
beautiful per se, independently of humans, it is difficult to say, for it is not
unlike the rustle of leaves in a forest where no human ear is present. But we do
know that beauty is recognized as such by a conscious entity. We as thinking and
feeling humans know that there is much evil in the world, and there is also much
good; there is cruelty and callousness in the world, and also kindness and
comp***ion. In brief, there are many things wrong and negative in the world, but
there are also many things right and positive. All that is good and positive may
be described as beautiful, and all that is bad and negative is ugly.

In principle, religions enable us to choose, cultivate, and experience whatever
is good and right and positive, and therefore, whatever is beautiful. This goal
of religion is reflected in the symbols of the religion. And these symbols are
invariably beautiful.

The Hindu symbol for aum has a unique curved majesty. Its sonic serenity is said
to represent the essence of the Cosmic vibration that sustains the universe. It
has other esoteric significance as well.

The Tai-chi symbol of I Ching (a circle divided into two halves by a curve,
with a small circle in each half) stands for yin (moon) and yang (sun) which
represent the complementing principles behind the phenomenal world, and also the
solstices.

The Judaic Star of David has a wonderful geometric symmetry. Though regarded as
a relatively recent symbol of the much older tradition, it has become a
beautiful emblem for the Jewish faith.

The Christian Cross which symbolizes how the sin and ugliness human actions are
absorbed by a caring and comp***ionate Divine has a universal beauty all its
own.

In the view of many Muslim scholars, it is pure white, the symbol of purity,
that represents Islam. The star and crescent,, like the star of David, is of
more recent vintage. It gained popularity in the Islamic world only since the
Ottomans overthrew Byzantium and changed Constantinople into Istanbul.

Aside from all these symbols, who can fail to see beauty in the Cosmic Joy
represented in the Nataraja, in the sublime peace thatthe Buddha in clay and
stone exudes, in the Pietà of Michelangelo revealing the love of Mother and
Child, and in countless religious icons, especially in the Hindu, Buddhist, and
Christian world? The calligraphy and intricate mosaic in Islamic domes and
mosques also contribute immensely to religious aesthetics. So do the
beautifully lit lamps and statues in temples, candles and immense stained gl***
works in magnificent cathedrals.

Ultimately, one derives the highest aesthetic experience from religions through
prayers and singing. These are not mere words and tunes, but invocations that
fill the heart of the devout with the kind of inner satisfaction that a lover of
art gets upon seeing a masterpiece. There is beauty in butterfly wings and in
clouds, in rainbows and in stars, but the contemplation of the Divine, in
whatever name or form or symbol, confers one of the most abstract aesthetic
joys that human beings are capable of. This is as important a component of
religions as any other, and it eludes those who approach religions only as
scholars. This is why critical analysis is critical analysis, and religious
experience is religious experience, and the twain can seldom meet.

V. V. Raman
February 5, 2007

Going Beyond Even the Agamas

The bulk of the Tamil saints were not only great mystics but also great scholars who unlike the Brahmins who would refuse to acknowledge the greatness of Sacred Tamil, would also study the Vedas and other Vedantic literature mostly in Sk. There was an OPENNESS only because they were genuine philosophers who followed the dictum of TiruVaLLuvar - MeypporuL kaaNpatu aRivu - it is the mark of intelligence to seek out TRUTH no matter from where it comes. Sk literature can only breed Brahmanism and now Hindutva with an in built prejudice against a social philosophy of the equality of all despite all kinds of differences. All are EQUAL not because endowed with the same competence but because all are potentially mumuksus- souls capable of Moksa. There is a recognition that BEING who confers Moksa is UNCANNY - the most unlikely candidate may be blessed with Moksa.

This genuine egalitarian social philosophy is the essence of Hindu Agamas and which are studied very seriously among the Tamils. There are hundreds of Agamas and Upagamas and where none is said to be absolutely authoritative. They are simply mystical texts possibly with metaphysical disclosures from BEING Himself and which nevertheless, must be transcended to be fully with BEING.

BEING, the Civam or the Absolutley Transcendent Object (param PoruL) exceeds even the Agamas and stands well ABOVE all unaffected by the various historical events He in fact configures using the basic Siva Tatvas, Natam and Bindu.

But VaLLalaar seems to have experienced directly is the absolute transcendence by a metaphysical odyssey that can be understood only in terms of the basic of Agamic or Tantric Psychology where the fundamental root objects in terms of which all are generated in terms of various kinds of patterns are the Siva Tatvas, Natam and Bindu.

The whole range events both physical and mental are seen as the Dance of Siva Sakti where more scientifically is actually the Dance of Natam and Bindu that also split into Para and Apara varieties. BEING with Natam is Siva and BEING with Vindu (Bindu) is Sakti, with Paraciva or simply Sivam being ABOVE such differentiations. Here Sakti, a different form of Vindu creates the various DESIRES that provide the fundamental motivations for existence. They make the soul seek this and that and with that become enchained with different kinds of paacaas, the fetters. The Bindu by its aesthetics TRAPS the soul into various kinds of bondages.

Now the Natam on the other hand as FIRE, SUN and so forth and which are different expressions of what Tirumular calls Vanni Ezuttu, the Fire Mantras, BURNS the souls causing there to be genuine Diksas and with that FREE the souls from such Pacaas. While Bindu binds, Natam liberates and frees.

VaLLalaar seem to have gone to the limits of these different majestic and bewilderment play of Natam and Bindu and enjoyed profound metaphysical insights into how the soul is plunged into existence bound with various kinds of desires and slowly also FREED from them by various kinds of natural Diksas there.

But at the end of it he remains bewildered for he still remains ignorant of CIVAM, the BEING beyond all standing there as the ONE i.e even beyond the presentation as Siva-Sakti that is extolled by the Saivagamas.

BEING is wholly a MYSTERY and which understanding also breeds a supreme calmness, product of a resignation at the face of the MYSTERY that cannot be dissolved at all.

65.
parikiraka nilai muzutum todarntoom meelaiap
paravintu nilai anaittum paarttoom paasam
erikkum paranaata nilaikkaN mella
eytinoom appaalum eddap poonoom
terikkariya veLi muunRum terintoom eGkum
civamee nin cinmayam oor ciritum teeroom
tarikkaritu enRum aakamaGkaL ellaam pooRRat
tani ninRa paramporuLee saantat teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
I explored to the limit the various kinds of strong pulls of Apara Vindu as well as the further transcendental pulls of Para Vintu contend with seeing all its various manifestations. We also saw the Para Natam that burns off all the bondages created by Vindu slowly but steadily going also beyond both the Siva Tatvas. We also experienced the Space of Nothingness where Natam and Vindu by themselves and together dissolve into nothingness. Now there was Civam everywhere but Cin mayam, the form of Pure Consciousness of Paraciva, is something that remained a mystery and we do not comprehend it at all and as declared by the great Agamas. You stand as the One above all creating a supreme calmness in the soul of all who understand the mystery surrounding You.

On Agreement Among the Great Ones

As I pour over Sacred Tamil verses, delve into the metaphysical depths with added insights into how they are related to the great pyramidal civilizations of the Sumerians Egyptians Nubians and so forth, one central fact stands out. Almost all the great philosophers unfailingly speak the need to TRANSCEND all religions in order to understand BEING authentically and with that enjoy genuine Moksa and which they understand just like the ancient Egyptians - being freed from repeated embodiments and living in the most authentic shape and which is a kind of mantra body. Embodiment is a FALL and the whole of historical existence is there only to help out the souls to regain the original. The Saivites understand that the soul remains ALREADY FALLEN engulfed with MALAM and the embodied existence is there only to help out the souls to become free of Malam and at which point repeated embodiment ceases.

Now VaLLalaar notes here as do many great Tamil mystics that BEING is a Power that TRANSCENDS all religions where while Tayumanavar uses camayatiitam, here VaLLalaar uses mataatiitam but which mean the same. To be religious is to be mad combative quarrelsome and even murderous as we can see even to-day. History tells us that even in the past it was so. But religions are not to be despised because of this but rather to be lived and then grow up out of them through deep and profound metaphysical illuminations. While almost all the great Tamil philosophers and mystics including the Siddhas have been very critical of all religions to the point where they can be said to be atheists, but they were NOT atheists though for the naive they may appear to be so. This fate descended upon even VaLLalaar whose verses were said to be Marudpaa, Satanic verses of a kind only necause the VarNasrama Dharma and so forth were severely criticized.

But despite this VaLLalaar has become one the greatest philosophers of the Tamil mind, outlining in thousands of beautiful verses and in chaste Tamil the Perennial Philosoiphy like that of so many great souls throughout the world.

The great one who have lived through whatever religion they were born into but managed to transcend its snares- the various dogmas theologies ritual practices and so forth begin to shine with Njaanam and which makes them TRANSCEND all religions and in that become Pure and Clean. They understand the sources of religious madness and refuse to fall prey to such devilish forces within. They understand BEING as One who promotes mataatiitam, the transcendence of all religions and remain deeply moved by that sanity.

Such people become prejudice free and agree among themselves implicitly - the common insights they share, the Njaanam, acts as the binding factor and makes them rejoice at each others company.

This possibility that all the great Tamil mystics never fail to sing, is perhaps the greatest contribution of Sacred Tamil to world civilization as such.

66.

maNakkum teenuNda vaNdeepoola
vaLar paramaanatam uNdu makizntoor ellaam
iNakkamuRa kalantu kalantu atiitamaataRku
iyaRkai nilai yaattutaan emmaaR kuuRum
kaNakku vazakku anaittinaiyum kadanto antoo!
kaaNbu aritinGku evarkkum enak kalaikaL ellaam
piNakkaRa ninRu ooamidat tanittu ninRa
perumpatamee mataatiitap periya teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
The great souls all over the world who drink like the bees the sweet nectar of the fragrant flowers, the transcendent bliss that keeps on growing, mix among themselves repeatedly and stay with implicit agreement among themselves. With this they also attain the state of being ABOVE all religions and where the various mathematical and historical explanations on the basis of the various arts and sciences that people like me offer are transcended and made irrelevant. You stand as the UNIQUE and the isolated and above all religions creating the need to transcend all religions among the souls to enjoy TRUTH. On the face of such a understanding all the sciences and arts withdraw themselves making a huge noise on their departure.

Going Beyond Vedantas

It is not an accident that anti Brahmanism is very strong among Tamils and certainly one of the reasons is that in metaphysics they have gone well beyond the Vedanta schools and which are mainly developed by caste  Brahmins and who except for Ramanuja maintain the evil VarNasrama Dharma.  Even now such an evil is sought to be maintained in the name of Hindu Dharma and where the very notion of Dharma is distorted from the Tamil Tarumam and the Sumerian nam-tar-ra, a given-ness.  Nature gives if acted upon and the when the actions are right then then so are the action outcomes, Payan.

Now it is also not well known that since the burst of the Bakti movement in the Tamil country not only the V.D was wiped out (but restored during the decline of Tamil culture) but also all schools of Vedanta including most certainly that of Advaita Vedanta of Sankara, held onto tenaciously and propagated actively mostly by Brahmins  as the greatest achievement of the Hindu mind.

Such lies hold the ground among the Indologists only  because they continue to be ignore the great  achievements of Tamils in metaphysics. The greatest achievement of course is the Fundamental Ontology of Triadism - that Pati Pacu and Paacam are anati  and which  goes completely against the Vedantic “only Brahaman is True, All else delusory fictitious" kind of ontology.

Here the most important is the recognition of Malam, the primordial Paacaas and because of which there is death not only of embodied creatures but also the cosmos as a whole, a metaphysical understanding that continues to be part of Tamil metaphysics since the days of Suruppak (c. 3000 BC) at least.

Now in the 14th cent we have the brilliant AruNakiiri Natar who introduced a new kind musical Tamil that charms the Tamils to this day and who also introduced the pregnant  phrase, the Maka Vakkiya 'cumma irukkum cukam’ and which is recalled by VaLLalaar here.

The soul polluted with the Malam suffers the the-tic consciousness the CudduNarvu, thinking in terms of reference such as 'this', ‘that’ and so forth. The Vedantic  Maha Vakkiya “Tat Twam Asi” (That Thou Art”) as it can be seen, does not go beyond this kind of referential thinking and hence the-tic consciousness. Now the Saivites discovered that such a CudduNarvu exists only because the soul remains polluted by this Malam that makes it atomic. Once this Malam is removed then such a referential way of thinking disappears and at that point the soul remains without seeking to calculate, cl***ify BEING and so forth.

Without any seeking and trying hard, the soul simply AWAITS for BEING to disclose Himself and enjoy such  disclosures. Thus is the state of Cumma Iruttal, staying without seeking at all, a state that is beyond the reach of the Vedanta as all the Vedantic systems do not  acknowledge the presence of Malam, the killer energy that also atomizes the mind making it finite and so forth. The joy of not seeking to fathom and measure out BEING results in BEING Himself disclosing Himself.

67

potuvenRum potuvil nadam puriyaa ninRa
        puuraNa ciRsivam enRum pootaananata
matuvenRum piramamenRum paramaenRum
        vakukkinRoor vakuttiduka atutaan enRuum
ituvenRum cudda voNaatatu atanaal cumma
        iruppatuvee tuNivenak koNdiruppoorai
vituvenRum taNNaLiyaal kalantu koNdu
        viLaGkukinRa peruveLiyee vimalat teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
Let the philosophers understand You as the CiR Sivam who dances always the Dance of Bliss with the Woman, in Tillai the Ground of all origins and let them also cl***ify You as the One who provides metaphysical illuminations that are intoxication and because of which You are seen as Brahman the resplendent reality as Paraman the absolutely transcendent and so forth. But You have shown Yourself to the gifted that You are beyond such referential understanding, beyond such Cuddu abd hence any form the-tic consciousness. In order to understand You most authentically they have to remain simply without trying to understand at all. You choose the soul of such people and bursting into them and enjoining with their soul disclose Your most authentic form. This You do only because of Love unto all and remain the great Pure Space of Nothingness transforming them also into absolute purity and cleanliness.

Mahamritunjaya mantra and Vidhi

"OM TRYAMBAKKAM YAJAMAHE SUGANDHIM PUSTIVARDHANAM URVAROOKAMEVA
BANDANAAN MRITYORMOKSHEEYA MAAMRITAAT."

Complete meaning of Mahamritunjaya mantra :

TRYAMBAKKAM : it refers to the Three eyes of Lord Shiva. 'Trya'
means 'Three' and Ambakam' means eyes. These three eyes or sources of
enlightenment are the Trimurti or three primary deities, namely
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and the three 'AMBA' (also meaning Mother or
Shakti' are Saraswati, Lakshmi and Gouri. Thus in this word, we are
referring to God as Omniscient (Brahma), Omnipresent (Vishnu) and
Omnipotent (Shiva). This is the wisdom of Brihaspati and is referred
to as Sri Duttatreya having three heads of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

YAJAMAHE: means, " praising to God ".

SUGANDHIM: refers to His fragrance as being the best and always
spreading around. Fragrance refers to the joy that we get on knowing,
seeing or feeling His virtuous deeds.

PUSTIVARDHANAM: He is the Father of all. Pooshan is also the inner
impeller of all knowledge and is thus Savitur or the Sun and also
symbolises Brahma the Omniscient Creator.

URVAAROKAMEVA: 'URVA' means big and powerful . 'AAROOKAM' means
'Disease'. Thus URVAROOKA means deadly and overpowering diseases. The
diseases are also of three kinds caused by the influence (in the
negative) of the three Guna's and are ignorance (Avidya etc),falsehood
and weaknesses .

BANDANAAM: means bound down. Thus read with URVAROOKAMEVA, it means 'I
am bound down by deadly and overpowering diseases'.

MRITYORMOOKSHEYA: means to deliver us from death for the sake of
Mokshya .

MAAMRITAAT means 'please give me some Amrit. Read with the previous
word, it means that we are praying for some 'Amrit' to get out of the
death inflicting diseases as well as the cycle of re-birth.

Japa vidhi :
1. This Mahamritunjaya mantra is from the Rig-Veda and needs
initiation for attaining Siddhi. Anybody can recite this mantra and
attain good health, release from bondage and other problems. This is
the greatest reliever from all evils and can be recited at any time
like any other Maha-mantra. It should be recited preferably for forty
days both in the morning and evening, after lighting a jyoti and
sitting on a cotton asana while facing east., and repeat it from 108
to 1,080 times daily.

kuldeep_ksharma

Appar Meditating on Death 6

The Vishnu of Appar

The reference to Tiurumaal, the One of the huge snake, Aticedan of the wavy sea (alanj cuzikkum man naakan tannaan) is quite unmistakable here. But at the same time there is also mention of Siva as the one who generated the Vedas and other scriptures, the six-fold Vedic disciplines and so forth, a notion quite ancient and common to all Saivites. Thus Appar integrates within his understanding of Siva, the Vedic as well as the VaishNavite traditions as part of the Saiva traditions

Of course this is a very ancient view quite common during the CaGkam timnes where the sectarian movements of the post-Bakti period did not exist. The whole of Tamils worshipped all the deities without dividing them into Saivite Sakta and VaishNavite and so forth. The Vedic tradition was also not seen as alien - it was taken as part of the Tamil tradition probably because even the Vedas were seen as Archaic Tamil of a kind. The whole of CaGkam literature gives the impression that the Vedic tradition was not at all alien to the Tamils and, as mentioned here , the whole range of the Vedas and the various Vedic disciplines were the creations of Siva Himself. This view experienced a set back only when the Europeans isolated Sanskrit and made it Aryan and opposed to the Dravidian.

That Vedism is an Archaic Tamil tradition is something well established in the early Bakti literature. So is also the view that One and the same BEING shows Himself as Siva VishNu and so forth. While some may overlook this understanding of the great ones, and create sectarian divisions and with that introduce unnecessary feuds and so forth, the best of the Tamil philosophers particularly the Siddhas maintained this ancient universalism.

But what is the main point that Appar is driving at here in saying that it is Siva who also shows Himself as the Tirumaal of Aticedan that provides the bed for the Sleep of Joy (aananta sayanam) for Tirunaal?

Appar uses many metaphors that are very ancient here. The soul is compared to boat caught in the stormy seas and which is embodied existence.. The embodied soul suffers all kinds of miseries yearning for some happiness so that life becomes tolerable. There can be BLISS and the most powerful source of bliss is the ***ual libido and which is at the root of LOVE between a male and female, a source of joy for all living creatures,

The snake that Siva wears on His neck also provides this ***ual libido so that there continues to be a kind of ***ual attraction between the males and females and with that life reasonably enjoyable. However this ***ual libido is possible only if the BODY is kept is excellent shape and the various biological functions carried out effectively and efficiently. Senility can set in and dry up all such processes making life miserable without any joys and hence soul just waiting for death as a kind of relieve.

Here perhaps Appar notes that the Aticedan is the powerful kind of KuNdalini Sakti that in fact keeps the body youthful and hence with all the biological functions intact.

Thus in the eyes of Appar emerges another very ancient view with a twist - the genuine metaphysical life can help one to maintain a youthful frame, one can live as the young sixteen years old always. Here it is noted that this a blessing of Tirunmaal of Aticedan and which is also an iconic presentation of Siva, the BEING.

6.
Kalnj cuzikkum karuG kadal cuuz vaiyam tannil
kaLLak kadalil azunti vaaLaa
nanalnj cuziyaa ezu nenjcee inbam veeNdil
namban tan adi iNaikkee navilvaayaakil
alanj cuzikkum man naagam tannaan meey
arumaRaiyodu aaRagkamaanaar kooyil
valanjcuziyee valanjcuziyee enbiiraakil
val vinaikaL tiirntu vaan aaLalaamee

Meaning:
O my soul! You live caught in the treacherous sea, submerged in it and enjoying nothing pleasant in this world encircled by stormy seas that drown many boats. If you desire for some joys in life then you must recite the divine and dancing FEET of Siva. He is not only the one who brought forth all the Vedas and such scriptures but also the One who created the various Vedic studies. Such a BEING is also the Tirumaal of the huge snake (of KuNdalni) that provides the bed in the Ocean of Milk for Tirumaal to repose and enjoy the Sleep of endless joys. Such a BEING is there in Valanjcuzi and if only you would recite the name of this place like a mantra, you can free yourself from the strong and binding karmas and thus freed enjoy celestial existence.

Loga

The Profound Achievements of Tamils in Metaphysics

Perhaps the best of Indian culture is the enormous range of philosophies it has produced. Now among these it will not be an exaggeration to say that the philosophies of the Tamils particularly the Saivites are the greatest and are of lasting importance. The reasons are quite simple - it is the only culture that has worked out a metaphysics that is true and because of which they call for the transcendence of all religions. Religions create a madness, matam that is so obvious throughout world history. The genuine metaphysics calls for living the religions and then MOVING OUT of them and enjoy a purity and inner joys of this sanity.

This is the substance of this verse which brings together many of the deepest metaphysical insights of the Tamils by way of praising the Maha Deva, BEING who is the supreme among all the gods.

There is mention of the Dance of Bliss that Siva enjoys performing with Sakti and which is really weaving various kinds of patterns with the fundamental Siva Tatvas, Natam and Bindu. At one level the various patterns generated bring forth the various scriptures - the Vedas and Agamas where BEING remains there as their ground as well as the force that sustains interest in them. Then He also terminates such interests making the souls RISE ABOVE such scriptures and with that FREE themselves from all religions. BEING remains always a surplus and an excess so that unless a soul transcends all scriptures, it cannot gain the most authentic understanding of BEING.

There is a metaphysical odyssey prompted by BEING Himself who comes down and stays one with all the souls providing them from within various kinds of metaphysical insights so that different philosophies ideologies and religions are formulated lived through and then discarded. There is madness in living through these systems but sanity emerges when they are discarded and the soul becomes Pure and Clean of any of these systems.

And here again we come across the relevance of transductive perceptions, the visions of the Third Eye, so important in Saivism. There is also rising above temporality and with that enjoy Deep Silence and so forth and which is common to all human beings. The soul that in its metaphysical odyssey creates an enormous number of religions and so forth, finally gets tired of them and seeks to become pure and clean and at which point it also dislodges from deep within the Malam that which necessitates the phenomenal and painful bodily evolution where there is repeated births and deaths.

In formulating such views that bring together Cosmology Depth Psychology and so forth together painting a metaphysical system that is not only immensely rational but also enormously true. Saivims remains very appealing to all great souls. It is the TRUTH that is most appealing for no matter how combative and destructive a person is, he certainly cannot destroy TRUTH.

The greatness of the philosophical achievements of the Tamils is that they have brought into chaste Tamil the TRUTH that is already in the bosom of all and hence a system that is immediately appealing.

68.
arumaRai aakamaGkaL mutal nadu iiRu ellaam
amaintu amaintu maRRu avaikkum appaalaakik
karu maRainta uyirkaL toRum kalantu meevik
kalavamal panneRiyum kadantu njaanak
tiru maNi manRu akattinba uruvaay enRum
tikaz karuNai nadam puriyum civamee moonap
perumaialyee parama inba nilaiyee mukkaN
perumaanee aiittiRattum periya teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva
You have generated many Vedas and Agamas and have stood as their ground, the power that sustains interest in them and then make the souls rise above them by terminating interest in them. You also stand as the Power that cannot be comprehended fully by these scriptures by remaining beyond their reaches. But despite this You stand one-with all the souls promoting metaphysical thinking of all sorts and because of which emerge so many different religions and ways of life. As the souls live out such religions You remain One who is not affected by it all. You always dance the Dance of Bliss in the ground of all origins, the Tillai, making all the souls more metaphysically informed and because of that more loving unto all. You are the Sivam, the Absolutely Pure and Brilliant, that pulls all the souls into Deep Silence so that they experience being one-with You. You are in fact the immense mountain and the Great One no matter on what account.

Individualized Self and BEING

One of the slogan-like great words of VaLLalaar is Tanittu Iru, isolate yourself and be alone and which I render here as individuation following Jung here. Dravidian metaphysical life has many essences that we have already written quite extensively about and this another one among them.

Most of them are a battle against the evil and criminal VarNasrama Dharma and this call for individuation is also in line with it. The life of VarNas, so popular in Sk literature, is a life where a person is thrown into a hierarchical social organization and placed somewhere either high as in the case Brahmins or low as in the case of the untouchables and so forth. There is a social fabric where the individuality of the soul is lost completely and made simply a member of a caste, a community outside which he cannot function. The person becomes a m***-man, simply cog wheel in a society that moves along these lines in the name of Dharma, a social philosophy that is disintegrating for good despite valiant attempts of some to sustain it.

The call for Tanittu Iru, be your own, with no social identity whatsoever is a call to free oneself from such imposed VarNas that are social in origins but sanctioned as divine in origin by the upper castes and where almost the whole of Sk literature has been manipulated to present such an evil system something dharmic and so forth.

In this verse VaLLalaar sings out what happens to the soul once it succeeds in individuating and loses all such socio-political identities. There is loneliness in the terms of the various network of social relationships that sustained social life. With total individuation, these vaporize into a nothingness whereby the soul is all alone, but certainly NOT lonely.

At the end phase of this kind of metaphysical life of self-isolation, BEING thrusts forward providing new kinds of substitute social relationships so that the anxiety producing loneliness does not surface at all. First of all BEING becomes the soul of the soul so that there is a feeling that there is always someone with you. As the situation requires, this another soul within the soul can become the Mother the Father, a devoted and faithful friend, One who is loved deeply and so forth

Having lost respect for all earthly guru-s who are not without their faults and limitations, the disenchanted soul succeeds in having BEING Himself as the Guru and who unfailingly guides the soul on the WAY and in a manner that cannot be wrong at all.

Now another source of comfort that is provided by the mundane kings and which makes a person a citizen of a country subject to its laws and so forth is the SECURITY against the evil powers that the state provides. Now at this phase of metaphysical life even this comes from BEING Himself. He SEES all with His Third Eye and WILLS that the soul be protected against impending dangers and because of which the soul is saved. Those capable of transductive perceptions also SEE for themselves such functions of BEING as did VaLLalaar here and because of which such souls do not have an earthly individual as his King but only BEING as sang millenniums ago by Appar.

69.
en uyir nii uyirkkoor uyirum nii
innuyirkkut tuNaivan nii ennai iinRa
annai nii ennudiaya appan nii en
arumporuL nii en itayattu anbu nii en
nanneRi nii enakkuriya uRavu nii en
naRkuru nii enaik kalanta nadbu nii en
tannudaiya Vaazvu nii ennaik kaakkum
talaivan nii kaN muunRu tazaitta teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
You are my life and the soul within my soul, always remaining my unfailing companion. You are my mother who gave birth to me and my father always there to help me out. You are my rare treasures and the deep love of my heart so that there is no loneliness at all. You remain my close brethren showing the Right Way for me to move. You also remain the great and good Guru who teaches me from within metaphysical truths nowhere else to be found. You remain also my friend already lodged in my soul coming to help me out at all crucial times. You remain my life and as the One who protects me all along from the ***aults of evil powers, You stand as my King and Lord. You prosper in the heart of all as the One with Three Eyes!

The Projective Essence of BEING

In this verse VaLLalaar brings together some very ancient metaphysical insights along with some new insights about BEING and how He functions in the world. That BEING is a mystery is something that has been described many times but which does not mean that something positive and true cannot be said about Him. For one thing there is a DUALITY - for BEING stands as the world and everything in it but at the same as the One who is always ABOVE all, completely unaffected by whatever transpires in the world. BEING while promoting all the historical and evolutionary also stands ABOVE all totally unaffected by the world.

BEING stands ALOOF as the One but at the same time always with the souls as the inner guide making them move in the right direction. It is here that BEING emerges also as the One who presents various PROJECTS for the souls from deep within and because of which they become the ones that SEARCH for TRUTH, and quite restless till it is attained. Thus life becomes full of stress for the souls are thrown into searching and moving quite endlessly and which makes them become exhausted. Living with such a predisposition becomes extremely tiring and which may bring about death wishes. When the soul is made to search and search with no respite and where what was thought as final and secure is made to be again false and hence something to be discarded then one can see how the souls can become weary of living and searching and so forth.

It is not surprising that against this many metaphysical systems have been formulated where DEATH is made the final meaning and where the cessation of thinking itself has been projected as the ideal as in some sects of Buddhism.

However BEING is not simply a heartless tyrant always bent on His task of taking the souls towards Moksa no matter how hazardous the job is. BEING is kind and loving and provides also various kinds PLEASURES for the souls to enjoy themselves and in that take some kind of rest. The various kinds joys made available provide the impetus to continue the struggles and the pains there.

Of course the greatest of the joys is that of the ***ual and for which reason BEING presents himself as the androgynous reality. The souls are made to be born males and females with an inner seeking each others company and where there are joys only when they live together as couples in deep love. There is the flow of HONEY in such a form of life and which makes them enjoy living and search more ardently for the TRUTH without becoming exhausted too easily on the way;

Here there is also another kind of projection that sets the goal and hence a direction for the metaphysical strife. BEING stands one with the soul and projects the fully saturated state as its own possibility, a state where there are no more any desires. This is the famous PaRRu aRRaan PaRRU, a state of seeking nothing desiring nothing only because the soul is already fully saturated. Now once this state is projected from within as the soul’s intrinsic possibility, the souls settle for it noting that it is really the final state and so forth.

70.

Taanaakit taan allaatu onRumillaat
Tanamaiyanaay ev evaikkum talaivan aaki
Vaanaaki vaLi analaay niirumaaki
Malar taliya ulakaaki maRRumaakit
Teenaakit teenin naRunj cuvaiyaakit
Tiinj cuvaiyin paynaakit tedukinRa
Naanaaki en niRaiyaay ninRooy ninnai
Naaydiyeen evvaaRu naviRRuveenoo?

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
While You stand the One and Unique above all in blissful isolation, You also stand as all in such a way that there is NOTHING without You and hence also their Lord. You stand as the five basic elements - the Space Fire Wind Water and the worlds of Earth and so forth. Now in addition to all these You also enter the souls of all and bless them with the flow of honey and its excellent taste so that they all enjoy joys of great happiness. In addition to that You stand as myself and projecting various kinds of possibilities within me and hence always in search of something. In this You also stand as the my soul that is completely saturated and fulfilled - freed finally from all longings and desires. Thus I stand completely indebted to you like a humble dog and so it baffles me as how I can ever sing in praise of You.

Loga

Appar Meditating on Death 8.

The Poisonous Heart and Premature Death

It is the common experience of many (including myself) that those whose heart is dirty and spill out words like that of a venomous snake, designed to hurt and if possible kill, meet with their premature and quite often very painful death. When they spill venomous words, they in fact inadvertently kill themselves poisoning themselves in fact.

Appar addresses this empirical fact and suggests a solution where we find the ardent tapas of great Yogis have a meaning. The word ‘vadamuukka maamunivar’ does not lend itself for easy translation for the meaning is quite obscure. However the context suggest that it describes the various bodily tortures like fasting drying up to the point of becoming almost dead and so forth. It appears that those who are indeed poisonous in their heart spitting out venomous words at others should indulge in such ardent tapas that also involve body tortures by way of torturing the soul.

But what really happens when one indulges in such practices of self-torture?

Siva as the One who wields the AXE emerges in the soul and who would chop off the elements there that make the soul poisonous. Such a BEING also shows Himself as the rider of the Pure White BULL to show that His gruesome activity of chopping off some elements in the soul is designed only to PURIFY it not gently but violently.

Now Appar also notes that such gruesome acts of self-destruction are beyond VishNu who concentrates on conserving and preserving and in that also indulges in blessing the souls with good and deep sleep that helps them to recover good health. Such painful activities are also beyond Brahma, who sitting on a white Lotus concentrates on the creative and productive activities in the world.

Self purification and which enables overcoming the fetters that hasten death, is an immensely violent and destructive process and the various tapas of yogis are designed to make present in the soul Siva the wielder of the Axe so that He can chop off these evil things.

8
Vidmuukkap paambeepool cinti nenjcee
veLLeeRRaan tan tamaraik kaNdpootu
vadamuukka maamunivar poolac cenRu
maatavvattaar nanattuLLaar mazuvaaL celvar
padamuukkup paampaNaiyin paLLiyaanum
paGkayattu meelavanum paravik kaaNaak
kudamuukkee kudamuukkee enbiiraakil
koduvinaikaL tiirntaanaik kuRukalaamee

Meaning
O my heart that spits out words that are poisonous like a poisonous snake spitting out poison, listen! When you see the Lord of the White Bull along with His retinue of Siva GaNas, you must submit yourself to Him like all the great yogis who with great tapas become pure and because of which Siva holding the axe resides in their heart ready to chop off anything evil that may enter. This Siva is beyond the reaches of the praises of the VishNu who sleeps over the bed of the huge Aticedan and Brahma who sits over the White Lotus, resides in the temple of Kudamuukku. If only you would recite this name like a mantra, you can become pure of the various fetters and close in on Siva of this greatness.

The Meaningful Behavior

Agamism, as opposed to Brahmanism, fostered the growth of human sciences as hermeneutic sciences by way of opposing authoritarianism in philosophy and religion. Part of the bakthi revolt of the 5th to 7th century India appears to be the return to the natural, to existence after a millennium of false metaphysics of various kinds which petrified the mind by taking it away from existence and hence a proper understanding of existence and hence conducting oneself well in this life itself. And aided by the naturalism of Tolkaappiyar where the psychological intricacies of the mind was explored in great detail by using the natural language as the chief means of accessing it, during the Bakthi period, behavior was analyzed in situ but now the deeper reaches. Thirumular's Tirumantiram embodies numerous excursions in this direction and a detailed study indicates that there were several schools of thought supplementing and complimenting each other.

Having started my academic life from Discourse Analysis as the way to access the mind and understand the dynamics of interactional behavior, it was quite natural for me to resuscitate this ancient tradition and develop a new psychology - Agamic Psychology- using the Access Tests to help out the reaching of the inner mind. This series on Agamic Psychology is designed to recapitulate the psychological thoughts of Thirumular helped out also by my own studies of the human mind by using Access Tests, Dream Analysis and so forth. The relevant articles are available in the Agamic Psychology Campus.

One of the most important aspects of this tradition is that behavior is analyzed not in laboratories but as it occurs in the world, and analysis of it in situ and as such it turns out to be and analysis of existence itself. Behavior is seen as PURPOSIVE and it is also discovered that when it becomes MEANINGFUL then it attains the necessary stability and concentration. So the primary goal appears to be to UNDERSTAND the genesis of MEANINGFUL behavior, how it obtains or does not in the world.

It is in the course of such questions that Thirumular hits upon the idea that there is aruL, the GIFT of BEING and because of which a person enjoys a MEANING for existence and thus attains a stability in behavior. A certain PURPOSIVENESS begins to control behavior and as the person develops meanings after meanings emerge and all because of this aruL and thereby making the person psychologically motivated and stable.

It is recognized that having a MEANING for existence is a result of the VIOLATION of the DARKNESS of the soul where nights and days are already there as given. As aruL violates the darkness and spreads out light in the soul, there comes to be MEANINGS for existence and hence behavior purposive, motivated and stable. At the absence of this MEANING, behavior becomes disorganized for lack of a SENSE for existence a DIRECTION for orgainsing oneself.

One line of psychological thinking of Thirumular develops this theme and thereby allows an understanding of it as it obtains in the world.

More information on the historical aspects below in the notes.

1792
irupatamaavatu iravum pakalum
uruvatuvaavatu uyirum udalum
aruLatuvaavatu aRamum tavamum
poruLatu uLninRa pookamataamee

Meaning:
The metaphysical realms are constituted by the ignorance breeding Nights and illuminations fostering Days. As a result of this conflict and as the power of aruL emerges the anmas with a body and psychic being. And within the existence thus founded there are the right WAYS and various spiritual disciplines as an expression of this aruL. And within these stands aruL also as the MEANING of all, the enjoyment of Absolute Illumination and the joys in attaining it.

Commentary:
In Tol (3rd cent B.C. ) we have the occurrence of the phrase "aruL muntuRutta anbu poti kiLavi" meaning "language of LOVE as impelled by aruL" and subsequent to that we have TiruvaLLuvar (4th cent B.C ?) contrasting aruL with poruL, here the economic wealth. He notes that just as worldly pleasures are impossible without wealth, so is the pleasures of heavenly world without aruL. In this he connects the gaining of aruL as something pertaining to metaphysical kinds of existence and thereby implying that it is not relevant for worldly life. It is this dichotomy that is challenged by Kaaraikkaal Peyar who says rather emphatically that aruL is all, that it rules the whole world, the physical as well as metaphysical. ( aruLee ulakellaam aaLvippathu) .

It is this understanding that is being elaborated further by Thirumular here. The aruL stands as the DAY that violates the Primordial Darkness in the metaphysical realms that DISALLOWS any entity to have have an existence as such. It is as the result of this primordial violation that the anmas ***ume a biological body and a psychic essence and thus become entities that LIVE, that have EXISTENCE as such. And also this aruL becomes within existence the Dharma, the aRam, the ethical principles that guide existence so that the anmas do not deviate from the WAY and various kinds spiritual disciplines of self control so that the anmas can maintain themselves steadily in the WAY.

While the world as a whole may be cyclic and in that not teleological, the human existence is certainly teleological, itis DIRECTED towards a DESTINY and aruL appears as the MEANING of existence, that towards which one OUGHT to move. Thus existence has already within it an OUGHTNESS and it ought to attain the Absolute illumination, the Civanjanam and enjoy the immense Bliss in attaining it. There is meaning for existence, and that meaning, the FOR-WHICH of existence is the attainment of Civanjanam and thereby attaining Mukti.

The Distorting Sense Organs

One of the messages coming from ancient India and certainly something that originated with Yoga is the need to withdraw the soul from its active commerce with the senses in order to appreciate the presence of metaphysical realities over and above the physical.

We hear of such practices as remaining SILENT where in some temples in Sumeria there were special chambers for the practice of silence. Such people were called en-kum-ene and there were as part Kesi Temple special rooms for such practices, as described by En Hudu Anna (c. 2300 BC)

This practice has a permanent place in the history of all Indic religions where great efforts were made to detach the soul from the body and with that gain visions of the metaphysical world. The soul has to free itself from the senses, a notion that was given great prominence even in TirukukuRaL.

Here Manikkar again projecting himself into the average person who is not only lost to the senses but also to sensory distortions, laments that he is, as such, unable to listen to the CALL that always exists in the soul of all to enter the celestial world and live among the gods. As Manikkar notes there is always an invitation in the soul of to enter the heavenly world. Siva unlike the Brahmins and upper castes does not not deny access into the heavenly world to any one.

He compares such a person to an elephant that exists with its extended nose itself as its hand with the highly sensitive sense of touch and smell. Such a person is not only lost to the world of the senses but also to sensory distortions so that even authentic sensory perceptions become impossible. Such a person cannot see TRUTHS that are sensory and hence cannot appreciate the DEPTHS that are there along with physical world. Only when the physical is seen as the physical can the soul see the metaphysical in the depths of the physical

Such a person cannot see the Karu =the originating ground of various thoughts deep within the soul itself. Lost to the senses and caught up by the lack of proper discriminations, he cannot turn inwards and introspect to see the creative productions deep within. For even sensory seeing is not simply a brute affair even when wholly determined by sensory processes. The information that hits the senses have to be categorized to be understood and the concepts for such an activity come from the soul fed there by BEING Himself. A person lost to the sensory world of various kinds of distortions remains BLIND to the presence of BEING deep within and refuses to acknowledge the inner calls and with that lead an active metaphysical life. This total blindness makes him live only a physical life - living and eating only to nourish the body but not at all the soul.

1.
iru kai yaanaiyai ottu iruntu en uLakl
karuvai yaan kaNdileen kaNdatu evvamee
‘varuka’ enRu paNittanai vaan uLoorkku
oruvanee! kiRRileen kiRpan uNNavee!

Meaning
I have senses like the enormous nose that is also the hand for the elephant and because of which I fail to see the creative springs of my own soul where emerge the various ideas. Sensing in this distorted manner, I experienced only problems and miseries. But Oh Lord who is only One for those heavenly beings! You invited me to enter this celestial world but which invitation I cannot appreciate. I remain here imprisoned by the physical body living only to eat.

Loga

Spiritual Confusion and Existential Repetition

While Saiva Siddhanta talks of EVOLUTION where the development is directed towards Moksa, put here in this verse as it was in Sumerian times as living among the gods in the celestial world, the Vedanta schools talk of Vivartta, a kind of super-imposition of individual substances, differences of various kinds growth development and so forth. All these are mental constructs superimposed upon Brahman that is unchanging and eternal, the Kuudashta Brahman. When one gains Brahmanjaanam through the study of Vedas and only the Vedas, then one can also free oneself from this illusion and realize that the atman is indeed Brahman and so forth.

This Vedantic Vivarttam Vaatam and so forth, that denies the substantially of the souls and that it is infected by Mummalam and because of which they are thrown into embodiment and existence in the physical world, is what is attacked here as a kind of Mayakkam, spiritual confusion by VaLLalaar here. The whole of Vedanta that denies the evolutionary movement of the soul as prompted by the Dance of Siva is said to be a Mayakkam, a confusion.

It is a fact of human existence that those who LEARN and gain deep and profound metaphysical insights destroy the metaphysical IGNORANCE and with that move in slow measures towards Moksa and which is existing among the gods in the celestial world and presumably in a mantra body. But to attain this the soul must become Pure and Clean, Ni-malam and in that the same as BEING-as-Siva who is also Nimalan. There is a SAMENESS of self and BEING in this final stae absolute PURITY and which is the Siddhantic meaning of Advaita, a ONENESS because of the absence of difference. (Webmaster's note: this is the Meykandar Siddhanta philosophy)

The soul as something deeply polluted by infection of Malam, can never be BEING-as-Brahman who is absolutely and always Pure and Clean, Nimalan. This BEING out of LOVE unto all creatures ***umes various iconic forms like the rider of the BULL and so forth to agitate the souls and make them LEARN and move in the direction of Enlightenment, providing also various kinds of joys on the way so that the souls do not fall off out of weariness and exhaustion.

There are those who understand the LOVE of BEING and how He dances the Dance of Bliss in the Tillai, the ground of all origins and with that violate the DARKNESS in the soul and install Radiance so that the souls begin to GLOW more and more luminously as the darkness of ignorance is destroyed. While those who are not confused and understand truths, move along these lines and hence gravitate more and more towards the celestial world, there are others who are spiritually confused (like the Vedanties and others) and hence do not develop at all and are thrown into existential repetition - repeated and endless embodiment that brings along sufferings and painful deaths.

71.
aaneeRum perumaanee! Arasee enRan
aaruyirkku oru tuNaiyee amutee konRait
teeneeRu malar sadai enj civanee tillaic
cezunj cudaree aanatat teyvamee en
unneeRum uyirkkuL niRai oLiyee ellaam
udaiyavanee nin adic ciir unni anbar
vaan eeRukiunRaar naan oruvan paavi
maNNeeRi mayakkeeRi varuntuRReenee

Meaning:

O Maha deva!
You ***unme the form of Siva riding the bull in order to supply the KuNdalini Sakti to the struggling souls. You are the King of all and a guide and comrade deep within my soul and always there. Each time I suffer miseries when ***ailed by Malam, You supply me with Amutu that provides the relief. Wearing the honey-oozing KonRai flowers in Your hair, You also bless the souls with joys of all kinds so that they would continue with the struggles. You remain the Pure and Brillant Radiance in Tillai, the Ground of all origins and dance there the Dance of Bliss with Sakti. My soul, because it is infected with Malam becomes embodied repeatedly but You remain deep within as the Brilliance that fills me up. You are fullness itself requiring nothing and all those who sing praises of Your dancing Feet get enlightened and evolving higher and higher move towards entering the celestial world. But I the depraved lot, totally confused and ignorant of such spiritual possibilities, keep on becoming embodied enter the physical world and suffer all kinds of miseries endlessly.

BEING is Brahman and Beyond

As it is now being said by some scholars at least, Sk is a derived language, a language developed out of Archaic Tamil, a language close to SumeroTamil. With this understanding in the background we can see that the word Brahman, which has been given many etymologies, is actually derived from Tamil bar-par that means something that shines brilliantly as in Ta. paruti: sun. Such terms as parai, paraaparai and so forth also have the same meaning - something extremely bright and brilliant and which is also a term descriptive of ParaSakti, the Power as Woman. Such a description is a continuation from Sumerian times where In-Anna is described as U-dalla-e-a: resplendent light.

Manikkar observes that BEING presents Himself as this Brahman, the oLi PoruL, which by the way and as well documented by William James in his “Varieties of Religious Experience’ is common to ALL mystics no matter to what religion they formally belong to.

Now Manikkar adds additional insights to this and which is possible only within Agamism where there are deities male female and forth. We have the male gods like Siva Vishnu Vinayaka Muruka and so forth and female goddesses like Uma Durga Sarasvati Laxmi and so forth. We have also the androgynous forms like Amma-Appar and so forth. Now Manikkar observes that as one goes along these figural presentations of BEING, interpret and enjoy the various metaphysical insights unfolded, slowly but surely the soul is lifted up to seeing BEING as Pure Radiance the Brahman that stands as the Deep Structure of all these figural icons. In the DEPTHS of all these icons lurks Brahman, the Pure Light and which is made available at a point for those who are spiritually matured.

This has the immediate effect of FREEING them from all cultic orientations. Such a person is no more a Saivite a Sakta a VaishNavite and so forth. Since this is common to all, we can also say that such a vision also makes the soul free itself from all religions and become truly secular.

Now interestingly enough this is not all that Manikkar notes within this kind of supreme spiritual experience. As one enjoys such a vision of BEING and transcends all cults and religions, one is also ***ailed by a MYSTERY. For within this experience also emerges that certainly there is more to BEING than this vision of Brahman. BEING is more a Surplus and Excess and hence beyond even Brahman, a metaphysical understanding not available in Brahmanism.

Perhaps the soul has to satisfy itself with this huge MYSTERY and just simply accommodate itself to it without any pretences to the contrary with a certitude that does not exist.

However how is that BEING disclosed Himself most authentically to this non-pretentious Manikkar and NOT to mighty Brahmins like Sankara who did not go beyond the understanding of BEING as Brahman, the OLip PoruL?

The fact is Manikkar despite being born a Brahmin of a kind and who spend most of his life as the chief minister to the PaNdiya King of his times, calls himself a ToNdan , one committed to serve humanity and notes that only because he was a ToNdan that BEING disclosed Himself as He in fact is (uLLavaa?). This invites an in depth analysis as the whole of the Vedantic tradition does not talk at all of ToNdu and it was given only to the Bakti movement, perhaps influenced by the early Buddhists and Jains to formulate true religiosity as ending up becoming an Adyar devoted to ToNdu service to humanity.

Now a person lives normally For-Himself as well For-Others the selfish and altruistic. Now when the selfish is wiped out and only the altruistic survives conditioning existence the person becomes a ToNdan, a person for whom service to society as a whole becomes the very meaning of Existence. Now in this supreme Altruism the soul becomes the SAME as BEING for BEING as wholly LOVE (anbee Sivam) is also supremely altruistic and only because of which He is moved to dance the Dance of Bliss with Uma, effect the Pancakritiyas to make the souls learn become metaphysically illuminated and thus PURE and CLEAN and enjoy Moksa with that.

Thus the soul that becomes a ToNdan is the SAME as BEING in essence and this is the Advaita, a non-difference between BEING and the soul that Siddhanta talks about and which is called Suddhavaita. The soul and BEING are substantially different and both are anati but at the point when the soul is almost ready for Moksa, in essence it becomes the SAME as BEING in the sense of Ottup Pootal that Tirumular talks about. This is same as the sameness that holds between husband and wife deeply in love with each other and who have lived as such for a long time so that one understands instinctively the other.
(Webmaster's note: this is the pluralist philosophy of Meykandar Saiva Siddhanta.)

When the soul becomes thus the Same as BEING then of course there is no more Tirobavam, the need to conceal Himself from such a soul- BEING discloses Himself as He is to such souls - that He is Brahman and Beyond.

2.
uNdu oor oLi PoruL enRu uNarvaarkku elaam
peNdir aaN ali enRu aR oNkilai
toNdneeRku uLLavaa vantu toonRinooy
kaNdum kaNdileen enn kaN maayamoo?

Meaning;
There are those who understand that there is BEING as Resplendent light and for such people BEING is not female male or even the neuter. Such an understanding is not promoted by You. To me who lives with service to people as the best I can do, You have disclosed Yourself as You are, I have seen You as such but feel simultaneously that I have not really seen You. Now what kind vision magic is this?

Loga

PHILOSOPHY AS METAPHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS AS HERMENEUTIC SCIENCE

http://ulagan.tripod.com/boint-e.htm
(very long)

It will not be an exaggeration to say that Meykandar’s Civajnaana BOtam, a philosophic classic that emerged as the critique of the different idealistic and positivistic schools of thought of the Buddhists and Vedanties, is the most profound philosophic treatise that has emerged not only in the Indian soil but also possibly in the whole world. It is genuinely a Metaphysica Universalis, a philosophical statement of the most primordial in man and because of that the most universal. It delineates and articulates what constitutes the existence of every man, no matter to what culture, religion and nation he belongs to. It is not an argument for Vedism, Buddhism, Agamism or any other cultural tradition of a narrow kind. It is not a romantic going back to a previous, presumably a glorious past and treating that as authoritative and justifying those beliefs presumed to be it’s essence.

On the contrary it is a courageous venturing into the most fundamental in all men, an exercise in expounding what makes human existence what it is in fact. It expounds TRUTHS that all thinking men could agree upon provided they dare to tear themselves away from the cultural, cultic, religious and philosophic prejudices that condition even their philosophic quests. For anyone INCAPABLE of raising themselves to this level of universality, of reasoning without FEAR solely in the pursuit of TRUTH, this text will remain a closed book, forever incomprehensible as Meykandar himself asserts in the preface.

The universality of aim is combined in this text with a rationality of approach. What we have in this text is Metaphysics transformed into the most universal, the most comprehensive Hermeneutic Science, i.e a science proper suited to inquire in a thoroughly rational manner the hidden and the mysterious surrounding even the ordinary human behaviour. The introduction of this magnificent philosophic classic which is simultaneously the most rigorous text in Hermeneutic Science is timely in the present world context where Hermeneutics is emerging again as a methodology most suited to the study of human behaviour.

The vast, monolithic and towering citadels of the positive sciences are crumbling down slowly but surely under the attack of some brilliant hermeneutic philosophers - Dilthey, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricouer, Derrida - just to name a few. Despite many counter attacks to arrest this rebellion, new concepts of science along with their own methodologies are bursting through the limited and restrictive horizons of the positive sciences and making impressive inroads into the realms of the respectable in academic life. Many practical researchers in the social sciences, unlike the philosophers, are trying to formulate in less airy veins, the rational structure of these sciences to varying degrees of success. Deetz (1973), Gauld & Shotter (1977), Parker (1985) and many others have attempted to work out the guiding rational principles of what have begun to be called Hermeneutic Sciences or Interpretive Social Sciences. More recently Silverman (1993) and many others see this debate as between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, argue in favour of qualitative, interpretive studies of data and work out guidelines to ensure rationality. In the vein of Ricouer and many other hermeneutic philosophers, Deetz for example, argues that hermeneutic sciences are concerned with understanding a phenomena, where to understand is to literally stand-under and to do so is to explicate a particular behaviour’s implicative structure of possibilities (Deetz, 1973, p. 155, italics mine). Something similar can be found in the philosophic rumblings of many other hermeneuts as well.

While those wedded to the positive sciences, adhere to the received models of scientific research, which have been astonishingly successful in the realms of the physical, continue with their conjectures and refutations (Popper,1963 ), there are now a variety of hermeneuts on the scene who have worked out methodologies distinct from the conjectural and constructinistic models where hypothesis testing reigns supreme. We have the ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967), Conversation Analysis (Scheggloff & Sacks, 1973 etc), Discourse Analysis (Coulthard & Montgomery, 1981; Hoey 1983 etc), Hermeneutic Analysis of Discourse (K. Loganathan Mutharayan, 1993) and so forth.

It is here that Dravidian philosophic tradition from which emerged Civajnaana BOtam can meet the above new developments in the West. It appears that right from ancient times the Dravidian folks were essentially hermeneuts and all their great achievements - Tolkappiyam, Tirukkural, Tirumantiram and many others that have withstood the test of time - were essentially treatizes with hermeneutics as their own methodology, the principles of which were already clearly formulated in Marapiyal, an independent text but which has come down to us as an appendix to Tolkappiyam, dated around the 3rd century B.C.

But recent researches in Sumero-Tamil indicates that the hermeneutic orientation of the Dravidian folks were very ancient and also something that took firm roots in their mind very early indeed.

Just to cite an example, we have the following lines from 'Enmerkar and the Lord of Arratta', a Sumerian text belonging to the third millennium B.C. (Cohen, 1973).

503. en-kul-aba ki-a-ke im-e su bi-in-ra inim dub-gin bi-in-gub
(The lord of Kulaba patted clay and wrote the mesage like on a present-day tablet )

504. u-bi-ta inim im-ma gub-bu nu-ub-ta-gal-la
(Formerly, the writing of messages on clay was not established-)

505. i-ne-se utu u-de-a ur he-en-na-nam-ma-am
(Now, with Utu’s bringing forth the day, verify this was so)

Anyone familiar with classical Tamil will recognize the Tamil character of these Sumerian lines. Such words as `innanam’, `aam’, `utu’ `utiyam’ and so forth are still in use. But what is pertinent is the poet’s assertion in 505 which should in fact be translated as:

Now, with inner sun bringing forth illuminations, verily this was so.

The poet seeks to understand the origins of the birth of a new competence, a new kind of behaviour - the ability of man to write down speech, an ability that never existed before. There is an emergence of a new talent, a new technical competency. How has this competency come to prevail as a fact in the world? He raises this questions and answers it himself:

because the inner sun has arisen within, destroying the ignorance with which human understanding was surrounded; and because of the clarity thus attained, new ways of SEEING that has become possible, a new human competency has become a historical reality - a reality that never was but now is.