Tayumanavar -AraNam Tayumanavar -AraNam-1 Agamism: The Way of True Enlightenment Almost all the great Tamil metaphysicians

have mentioned Agamism and described its essence. It is way of life where the mind must keep moving , exploring the hidden metaphysical realms always mindful of only Truth Experiences so that the soul gets illuminated with axiomatic truths and with that dispel the Darkness of Ignorance that is caused by the Malam that pollutes the soul. While Tirumular calls this ancient Way of Life the San Maarkkam, the Way of Enlightenment , Sambantar the TiruneRi, the Sacred Way and so forth, Tayumanavar here calls it the AraNa Maarkkam where AraNam means , becoming illustrious, illuminated and so forth. He also mentions that this Way of Life is the essence of the Agamas where stands BEING Himself as the indwelling Spirit. This immediately recalls Manikkar's great words that BEING blesses the world and comes close to people in the shape of the Agamas ( aagamamaaki ninRu aNNippaan) Now what are the essences of these Agamas? The essences of Agamism are also communicated through the Icon of Siva Nadarajah which encrypts several profound metaphysical disclosures. First we have the various symbolic elements showing that BEING manages t he worlf and the Agamas through the five fold universal praxis, the Pancakrittiyas, the presenting and concealing Himself and within the presentation as there bringing forth the world sustaining it so that it endures and then dissolving it only to re-issue it and so forth. Now why should He be doing it all as He is perfect and in need of nothing? The gestures of the hands that blesses indicates the KaaraNam - the REASON, it is out of LOVE unto all creatures that BEING does it and not for want of something. BEING is LOVE itself and the universal praxis that He initiates are purely out of this love. And another reason is that He intends that all souls assume the Golden Body, the body of endless joys and bliss to indicate which He also shows Himself a of Gold, the Pon meeniyan. s Here He also stands as the Three-Eyed to show the souls that unless over and above the two fleshy eyes they also get opened up their Third Eye, and enjoy the metaphysical visions it will be impossible and without that gaining Moksa also impossible. Now the end of all these is the attainment of what is called here PuuraNa ARivu, the absolute understanding, an understanding that is free of temporality and hence referentiality and so forth. Tayumanavar notes that this is something he can only hope for and till he is blessed with it by BEING, he can only play towards such a blessing. 1 () !~ : ! , ! \\\ . . 1

aaraNa maarkattu aakama vaaci yaRputamaay nadantaruLum KaaraNam kaiyum nin meyyum kaNkaN muunRudaiyaven kaNNee! puuraNa vaRiviR kaNdilam atanai pooRi yip puntioyoodu iruntu taaraNi yuLLa maddumee vaNaGkat tamiyaneen veeNdidat takumee Meaning: O my Lord! You have entered the Agamas that enunciate the Way of Enlightenment and standing within them You mange the various metaphysical processes where the souls are illuminated. With Your raised and blessing hands golden body and three eyes Y also explain ou as to the REASONS why You are doing it all. The processes lead to Absolute Understanding and since I have not yet enjoyed it, with this kind of mind I can only pray for such a ble4ssimg till the end of the world. Having become dissociate from all and hence all alone now, praying for d such a blessing is quite proper, I think. _____________________________________________________

Tayumanavar -AraNam-2 The Cosmology of World Creation and Dissolution The Saiva cosmology as described in this 18th cent verse remains faithful in essence to the Sumerian Solar Cosmology where BEING is seen as the Great Brillance, the Eri that dispels the Primordial Darkmess, the mi bad-da., A countless number of worlds are created against the Malam and th4e souls blessed with different biological forms so that they enjoy visions , develop intentions of various kinds act and learn. Each such a learning reduces the hold of Malam so that eventually the souls become Pure and Clean without any trace of this Malam. But BEING plays a game of creation of such great worlds and then dissolving them all and standing there as Pure and Immense Radiance., the only form that can dispel the Primordial and stubborn Malam. The notion of creation of worlds in anthropomorphic- projected onto the cosmological what are biological. The source of all powers, the Nin Mey Sarva of En Hudu Anna, the Parasakti of later times, is the Woman who remains the left half of Siva-Sakti, the Androgynous Reality, a shape of BEINMG. A part of this Supreme Power becomes the World Mother the In-anna of the Sumerians, the Jagatambal of later times and out of whom BEING creates a countless number of world that stand there firmly for a while, Then they are dissolved back into the primordial Pure Energy where even the Parasakti is dissolved only to appear as the Pure Radiance filing the whole of Space But why such a cosmic game? The form of Pure Radiance is that from of BEING that would dispel the Malam , that which produces the primordial Darkness that always disallows any presence of objects. The souls are tainted by this Malam and because of which while they enjoy cognitive processes of thinking remembering forgetting and so forth but because of which also they remain trappe in the d empirical and physical, Tayumanavar implores BEING that He should withdraw this screed of cognitive processes so that souls can plunge into the meta-cognitive and enjoy transductive perception which alone will help the soul enjoy Njaanam, that which will dispel the Malam that haunts the souls. 2, !

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idamoru madavaaL ulkjkanaikku iintiddu evvulakattaiyum iinRum tadamuRum atil madaGku naaL Ammai tannaiyum ozittu viN enavee padar uRu cootik karuNaiyaG kdalee! paayiruL padukaRiR kidakka kadavanoo ninaippu maRRenum tiraiyaik kavarntenai vaLarppatun kadnee MeaningL O my Lord, a vast Ocean of Love and Kindness! You hold as Your left half the Woman Parasakti, the Source of all Powers and making part of Her the World Mother You have created countless number of worlds. Now when they sustain themselves firmly there comes the day when all these worlds are dissolved and at which point You also dissolve the Woman and shine forth simply as the Pure Space of immense Brilliance! Now all these is to destroy the Darkness that spreads across and in which the souls are en gulfed and because of which they remain metaphysical blind. Now is it my fate to be eternally thus? I feel that it is Your duty to remove the screen of cognitive processes where there are remembering and forgetting and enable me to see the metaphysical world beyond such visions.

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Tayumanavar -AraNam-3. The Axiomatic Truths and Cosmic Dance An important component of Dravidian metaphysics and right f rom Sumerian times is the focus on phenomenology but understood here as seeing all exactly as they disclose themselves from within themselves. In Tolkaappiyam this is called Iyal NeRi, the Way the things disclose themselves, Thus in seeing one must see how things are in themselves and here the possible injections of the imaginative must be avoided. Thus an object that is a male in fact must be seen as such and named consistent with that, The gender number and the essence that the objects disclose must be captured and the names made to carry them When such a phenomenological method is extended to metaphysics then we have the notion of Axiomatic Truths , the PiraMaaNa off Meykandar as those which the soul must seek out and understand. It is called simply the uNmai, the TRUTH and as the things stand as they are in themselves, the uLLavaaRu, The realm of such truths is pictured here as a vast ocean of Njaanam , drinking from which the souls get illuminated and at the same time catapulted into the trans cendental realms, where the physical earth and sky withdraw into background. The souls rest seeing the absolutes, those which are there always, the axiomatic truths and because of which there is only bliss and nothing else though the soul gets tossed about soul and body like a straw in the seas. All these are possible only because BEING as Siva -Sakti dances the cosmic DANCE where these truths are fed into the souls and because of which they become purified of the Malam and such other defilers. The ordinary individual remains not only ignorant but also EVIL and

because of which BEING conceals and distances Himself from them so that such visions as the metaphysical souls enjoy are denied to them This also means that such souls do not enjoy the BLISS, the Sivanantam that the spiritually matured souls ebjoy. 3. ! ! ! : , ! . ! ! 3. vaLam peRu Njaana vaari vaay maduttu maNNaiyum viNNaiyum teriyaatu aLam peRum turumbu ottu aaviyoodu aakkai' yaananta maakavee yalanteen kaLampeRu vanjca nenjcinar kaaNaak kaadiyee ! saadciyee! aRinjar uLampeRun turaiyee potuvibil nadikkum uNamiyee uLLavaaRu ituvee Meaning: O my Lord ! You are the visions and the witness ofthe seeing of all creatures. Blessed by You I enter the ocean of rejuvenating axiomatic truths and drink exhaustively there . Deeply illuminated I become forgetful of the earth and sky and tossed like a straw in the seas, I move about in great bliss with soul and body together. Such visions are impossible for those evil individuals who harbor the Malam in their soul and hence remain blind to Your visions. But for the metaphysically pure and illuminated You become a resident in the heart. This is the reason why You dance as Siva-Sakti in the Tillai Ambalam, the Paradise and where You alert all creatures the axiomatic truths and how things stand in themselves.

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12.

akara uyir ezuttu anaittumaaki veeRaay amarntena akilaaNdam anaittumaakaip pakarvana vellaam aaki allanavaakip paramaakaic collariya paanmaiyaakit tukaLaRu caGkaRpa vikaRpaGkaL ellaan tooyaata aRivaakic cuttamaaki nikaril pasupatiyaana poruLai naadi nedduyirttu peeranpaal ninaital ceyvaam

Meaning:

ayumanavar -AraNam-4

BEING (in order to develop intelligence) becomes the aksaras as well as the primordial phoneme the akaaram as well as aal the other phonemes. In addition to that He also generates the various concrete objects and the vast cosmos where these things become those which are verbalized as well as those beyond the verbal language. BEING stands the absolutely transcendent and whose essence is almost impossible to verbalize. He also stands beyond the reach of the disputing philosophies each trying to defeat the others amd where BEING in that process stands as the Absolutely PURE and who cleanses the disputing souls. Thus He stands as the incomparable Pasupati, the Lord of all creatures , the embodied souls whom I think deeply and fondly with great love and affection

The Call of the Conscience

The all powerful BEING has several mechanisms of helping out the souls to move along the WAY, the NeRi, a Tamil term that also occurs in the same meaning in Sumerian but as Nari. This WAY was also known as the Way towards Moksa and hence also towards the Paradise, the Tilmun of the Sumerians and the Tillai of the Tamils.

Over an above scriptures rituals the edifying discourses by gurus the fine arts and so forth, we have the active and living presence of the Voice of BEING that we call conscience that ensures that we do not FALL but move along the WAY.

processes within nature and which refuse to be reduced to the non-intelligent. Tayumanavar attends to this fundamental categorical division of objects in the world, the cetana and acet na a categories of objects and seeks to understand them in terms of the functions of BEING.

BEING becomes the aksaras and the basic sounds of language and with that develops the Symbolic capacities of the creatures and where while the aksaras may be tha which forms t even non-linguistic animal intelligence, we have the akaaram - the basic phoneme from which develops the other phonemes and hence the verbal language as such so distinctive of human intelligence.

In this remarkable verse Tayumanavar describes how this call exists stubbornly in the depths of the soul unfailing and always calling the soul towards BEING and in that away from the Malam drawing into which will be the FALL. Thi Malam envelopes the soul in the primordial darkness , a s vast realm of sheer emptiness (paaz0 that hastens the death of the body and mind. It is a seductive depression that entices the soul with earthly pleasures but only to swallow the body like a hungry beast.

But of course the functioning of intelligence of both varieties are impossible unless there are objects, both concrete and abstract ( concepts, ideas etc) to constitute the substances in terms of which intelligence gets formed. Intelligence is like a shape it cannot disclose itself without transforming a concrete stuff.

But this is not simply a mechanical process of gravitational pulls but rather that of metaphysical illuminations where BEING also presents Himself as the unfailing and brilliant LIGHT that brightens up both the external and internal world . It places the soul in an expanse of Pure Radiance where there is not even the shadow of the Malam.

Now BEING in becoming these intelligent and non -intelligent substances, also remains ABOVE them so that forever He is there unaffected by it all, always a Surplus and Inexhaustible. While He creates the languages but He stands such that He remains beyond the reach of these languages.

But this is again not something existentially meaningless, simply a thought.. Each time the soul gets drawn closer to this Pure Radiance, there is a flood o great bliss experienced by the soul f so that it seeks to be closer and closer to BEING. Like phototropism of the plants, there comes to prevail a tropism unto BEING to enjoy more and more of this Divine Bliss that puts to shame all other kinds of joys. Such a bliss never turns later into something distasteful as do many earthly pleasures.

He also, because of this, remains always ABOVE the various philosophical discourses in combat with each other with various kinds of views on BEING, some denying BEING, some saying this and some others that of BEING. But BEING by His essential Purity, nevertheless purifies the souls in the course of such disputes.

Such existential processes are also deeply pedagogic for they tell directly the essence of BEING. The soul realizes that BEING is full of compassion unto all souls, s howers with various kinds of blessings like the dark rain clouds and that it is His essence to help out the souls no matter how evil they are.

Now againt all these views of Tayumanvar, it will be instructive to inquire why he brings the very ancient descriptive term Pasupati, a representation of which form has been located even in the Indus Civilization itself.

4. ! !

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that BEING is the Lird of both the intelligent and non -intelligent processes and hence the embodied creatures, the pacu -s, the souls bonded to assume an existential form by transforming the physical stuff and generating a biological body

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12.

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uLLamee niiGkaa vennai vaa! Vaa! Vaa! enRu ulappilaa aanantamaan veLLamee poziyuG karauNai vaan mukilee! Oppilaa taNaruL viLakkee kaLLamee turanta tuuveLip parappee karuvenak kidanta paaz maayap paLLamee vizaatu enaik karai eeRRi paalippatu un aruL paramee!

11.

aatiyantaG kaaddaata mutalaay emmai MeaningL adimaikkaa vaLarttedutta ammai poola niiti peruG kuruvaaki mana vaakku eddaa O my Lord the absolutely Transcendent ! You remain as part of my soul without ever departing calling me out always unto You so that I will not trod the deviant and wrong ways. To bind me to this Way, You bless me like the Dark rain clouds with showers of supreme bliss that never becomes distasteful. You also illuminate me as to the reasons standing there as the supremely brilliant Light that is Love itself. You also appear as the vast field of Pure Radiance to dispel the Malam in the souls, Now even with all these guidance available, when I am inclined to FALL into the way of Malam, You somehow prevent such a FALL and help me out to reach the shores and avoid the disasters. I Learn from all these that it is Your essence to h elp out all souls no matter how wicked thay are as You are LOVE itself. niccayamaay coccamataay nimalamaaki vaatamidu samayaneRikku ariyataaki maunattoor paal veLiyaay vaLagkaa ninRa cootiyai ennuyirt tuNaiyai naadik kaNNiir coriya iru karaG kuvittut tozuthakl ceyvaam

Meaning:

Tayumanavar -AraNam-5 Transductive Perceptions are a Matter of Divine Blessings There are some uncertainties in meaning of some key terms here which are unusual, The key phrase that puzzles me is kaNNal tuyil peraL lit. sleeping with the eyes but which I take as something equivalent to the ancient ARituyil m sleep where there is still learning as is the case with enjoying metaphysical dreams while sleep or awake, Su ch perceptions take place only when the physical eyes are closed or deactivated. Tayumanavar must have enjoyed Transductive Perceptions like almost all mystics who composed the verses of Sacred Tamil of outstanding metaphysical insights. They were people who enjoyed visions of the Third Eye, the Transductive Perceptions which was very clearly understood as different from sensory perceptions mental perceptions and such cognitive processes, They are akin to dreams in that the person does not have contr over them , he ol cannot WILL the TP as he can the ordinary perceptions be it sensory or mental. Thus a person who ardently desires to enjoy such visions may indulge in many tapas like staying awake the whole night with full of fervent hopes in the hear seeking the blessings of t BEING towards this end, It is also recognized that there is a Darkness that envelopes the eyes and which blocks off the TP's. This darkness must be removed and only BEING can do it but certainly not for all, It is an evolutionary advancement that makes an ordinary person quite extra-ordinary

BEING shows Himself as the Primordial Cause who does not have being caused and annihilated by some other Power above Him. He has nourished me like a mother her chi so that like this ld child always in deep love with his mother I am in love with this BEING in eternal gratitude. This BEING is the source of what is just and noble and as the Guru deep within me stands as the Power beyond the reach of the mind and langua ge, the most certain , the always the Surplus and absolutely Pure. As thus He beyond always beyond the reach of the combative and quarrelsome religions but available in His most authentic form only during moments of Deep Silence. At such moments He remains the fully disclosed Open and pure Radiance. Such a BEING, my real and deeply loved companion, I worship with tears of bliss streaming down from my eyes and with both my hands raised over my head.

Tayumanavar on BEING- 12 (Final)

BEING is Pasupati- The Lord of the Creatures

The world as we know is filled with objects that are intelligent and non -intelligent as well as with something on the borderline intelligent in some aspects but not otherwise. Now the world as a whole is also as such where over and above the physical processes, there are intelligent

BEING is the beginning and end of all and hence the Causal Ground of all where He also shows that He is also One who does not have Power which is the Causal Ground of Himself. Thus BEING is the TaRparan, a Power who can self -present and self-withdraw and hence a Lord unto Himself. This is what makes BEING the most powerful and supremely ABOVE all, including the great gods.

One must become the truly deserving for such blessings by attaining the necessary spiritual maturity. This spiritual maturity has nothing to do with birth and hence caste and so forth, It is a spiritual quality which has also nothing to do with vast scholarship of world scriptures. In the soul of the deserving BEING bursts forth as a vast sun m supreme radiance of outstanding brightness where He dispels the hold of Malam that limi the visions to the physical ts realms Perhaps only the souls about to enjoy Moksa are blessed with such capacities by way of preparing them for future existence in the pure metaphysical realms and as mantra bodies, never to descend back into the physical universe with a biological body, 5. ! : ! , ! ! , , ! ,

Tayumanavar claims that such a BEING has nourished him like a mother would her children so that they grow up obedient to her, and because of which has grown up to serve BEING and no body else.

But the most important theme of this verse is that BEING who is Pure , forever a Surplus and One beyond the reach of the mind and language is the Guru who is Justice itself. BEING-as-Guru establishes the ETHICAL sense deep within the soul so that the soul does only the GOOD and avoids the EVIL. BEING provides the ethical sense by His own absolute Purity and urges the soul to do only the ethically sound so that he can develop and FREE h ismelf from the hold of the Dirt, the Malam , the Killer Energy and with that become pure and clean and enjoy a life full of joys.

Such a BEING or an understanding of BEING is beyond the reach of the religions forever disputing with each other more interested in converting into one's own religion others rather than understanding the essence of BEING and which is possible only in Deep Silence.

Because of this BEING becomes the deeply loved companion for whom Tayumanavar is so greatly indebted for all the metaphysical advances he has made, He did not dismiss the ethical values as purely fictitious, imaginary, the KaRpitam as the Vedantic philosophers would say but rather a LIGHT that helps the soul to move in the Right Way , the WAY in which there is continuous metaphysical illuminations and which serve to purify the soul.

5. paramaaparamaakip pakkuvam pazutta paza adiyaarkku aruL pazuttuc curantinaitu iraGkum taanakaR pakalee! Cootiyee! toNdaneen ninnai Irantu nenjcu adaintu kaN tuyil peRaamal Iruntum en kaNil iruddaik karantuRin kaNNaal tuyil peRal veeNdik karutinbeen karuttiGku taanee MeaNing: O my Lord You are the transcendent of all the transcendent realities and who blesses the spiritually matured adiyars where You pour Your grace and dispel the darkness within by bursting forth as a vast sun and great Radiance. Praying and pleading You I stay awake even the whole night in order to gain the capacities for metaphysical visions. But there is a darkness that blocks off such perceptions and which only You can remove. This is the hope of my tapas and I continue with my heart full of such hopes.

Tayumanavar reflects deeply on the TRUTH of this and without any hesitations, with tears of joy streaming down his eyes , he raises both his hands to worship BEING.

11.

Tayumanavar -AraNam-6. The Final Way is that where Siva is the Great Guru The Tamil metaphysical tradition and right from the Sumerian times has been develope4d as belonging t o Hermeneutic Science where Meykandar;s Botham is the crowing achievement. Such an achievement is not simply that of man and his capacity for logical thinking and so forth but actually something that has come about only because Siva has been in the depths as the Great Teacher always instructing the souls from within where only Axiomatic Truthswere planted and allowed to found existence.

So we see that there is no dogmatism, fanaticism but rather an OPENNESS where every form of criticism is allowed to flourish . For the\concern is seeking the Axiomatic Truths, thee Sat ARivu and nothing else. The way of life can be only one calle4d in Tamil as TiruneRi, Civa neRi San maarkam and so forth where BEING Himlsef stands as the Huru. Tayumanavar raise an important question here about the deviance that nevertheless takes palce and because of which there are many religions competing among themselves for supremacy. Despite knowing the fact that BEING as the Great Guru, stays in the depths of the soul and instructs on the axiomatic truths, the soul quite often deviates and moving on wrong ways suffers immensely. There is a stupidity that allows such deviations and falling off the Way which is the Way of Siva the Guru. So on seeing that not all follow the Way and that there are competing number of religions , he seeks to find out why human beings choose to fall off and create many religions where as a matter of fact such religions are unnecessary. There cannot a True Way other than the Way where BEING Himslef is the Guru. There is Matiyinmai, absence of proper understanding and which can be dif fused only be BEING. Rhetorically Tayumanavar posses the question: Should he cease to follow the Way which is the Way of Suva the Guru and follow the different religions that are inventions of the egoistic man? Of course it is implied here that one should not it is simply foolish

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10.

6. \ ? ? ? ! ! . , . ? ? ? . ,

viN niRainta veLiyaay en manaveLiyiR kalantaRuvaam veLiyinuudun taN niRainta pootamaayc cataanatamaana perun takaiyyee! Ninpaal uL niRainta peeranaapl uLuruki mozijuzaRi uavakiayaakil kaN niRaianta punal iruppak karamukizppa nin aruLaik karuttil vaippaam

Meaning:

6.

karuttinud karuttaay nii uNarttuG KaaraNam kaNdu cummaataan Varuta maRRiruntu cukam peRaa vaNNam Varuntineen matiyinmai tiirrppaa Oruttat aar? uLappaadu uNarbavar yaavar Ulakiyar panneRi enakkup Poruttamoo? Collaay! Meelaana caRkuruvee pooRRi nin ponnadip pootee! MeaningL On My Lord who also stays in the depths as the Great Guru! Praise be to Your golden flowerlike feet! I am in a dilemma and You have to solve it and tell me the way out. You stay as the thought within my thoughts and ensure that I enjoy only axiomatic truths whereby I exist without any worries on knowing the reasons for it, However due to some ignorance, I fall off from the WAY and suffer many miseries, Now who can diffuse this ig norance in my soul? Who can understand and appreciate the various trauma I suffer because of such deviant ways? Now is

O you BEING ,the Great One who stands as the forever blissful! You stand as the outer space that is filled with the sky and all physical objects as well as the mental space of the souls where through a gentle and kind pedagogy you illuminate the mind and dispel the Ignorance so that the souls also enjoy endless bliss. When I reflect upon this great love and kindness, I am moved to love you deeply from the very bottom of my heart , the whole heart melting with kindness and love for all. Shedding tears of joys I raise my hands to worship You without any hesitations always thinking of Your infinte blessings.

Tayumanavar on BEING- 11(Final)

BEING the Supremely Just

In this verse Tayumanavar seems to deal with the ethical regulation of human behavior or creature behavior in general where he seems to summarize the great achievementd of MeykaNdar and AruNandi on this very important issue

it the case that I should follow not the WAY that You yourself install but the various ways of egoistic men of the worldly life? You are the only one who can enlighten me on this,

Tayumanavar on BEING- 10

_________________________________________________________________ __ Tayumanavar -AraNam-7 The Deep Silence: The Transcendence of Language

BEING Fills Both the Inner and Outer Space.

There is the mental space of the individual souls and the vast Cosmic Space that contains all including the sky and so forth. It appears that BEING brings forth both kinds of spaces and fills them up with all kinds of things0 physical and mental.

There is a purpose for all these and it is seen as that of illuminating the souls in the mental space in terms of a pedagogy of coolness and kindness so that the soul are freed from suffering and s enjoy endless bliss just like BEING who is forever blissful. It is this state of being always blissful that BEING wants to bestow upon all the souls and all because of His LOVE unto all.

There are many trends in Philosophical Saivism of the Tamils that come to be very clearly articulated in this 18th cnet Tayumanavar . The most notable element of his philosophy is the transcendence of all religions which is the essence of Indian secularism This is a trend already implicit in the great Saiva philosophers like Tirumular Appar and so forth. It is Tayumanavar who uses the technical terms camayaatiitam , the transcendence of all religions subsequent to which there have been many other terms with the same meaning. Certainly this component of Tamil Saivism has contributed substantially to the inter -religious tolerance that we see so abundantly among the Tamils. Now another trend is investigations in relation to the origin of language along with transcending language and replacing communication with Mudras,. This is another vast area of Saiva studies where while Tolkaappiyam and such other linguistic treatises unfolded the essence of languages and paralinguistic features body language and so forth and how they determine communication, they were also related to Mantras in a way. Mantrayana such as that available in Tirumular's Tirumanmtiram reduced languages into a field on Mantras which are very wide in its scope and applications. Now along this line of inquiry they also have investigated the LIMITS of linguistic communication where Deep Silence takes over and becomes communicative solely with Mudras. There is linguistic communication only when the soul stands alienated from BEING so that there can eb a fundamental I-Thou relationship so that there is an Other in consciousness of the soul/ Now what will happen if this fundamental I-Thou kind of structure is dissolved and the soul is made to stand the SAME as BEING and hence without any alienation ? At this point as Meykandar very brilliantly noted there is only Suunyam as the Other, a Pure Nothingness and which dissolves all consciousness as Other. Along with this there is also no more time consciousness for there is no more intentionality of the soul as distinct from that of B EING. At this point while the soul stands without loosing its substantiality, but it does not have a consciousness other than that of BEING. The souls live on but without its own desires and so forth. They shines forth only the radiance of BEING and nothing else. become simply a crystal that

The reason for filing the outer space with things is this divine pedagogy in illuminating the mind with these things through various sciences like astronomy, cosmology of the outer space and cognitive psychology depth psychology evolutionary science and so forth of the mental space , there is dispelling of the dark Malam, the source of all miseries in life.

Thus Tayumanavar sees a link between the physical sciences and the mental sciences where they are not only not independent of each other but have BEING as their Causal Ground.

Tayumanavar reflects on these things the universal Praxis of BEING and seeing that these sciences lead to the souls enjoying bliss and nothing else , he is overcome with not only immense LOVE form BEING but also infinite gratitude that makes him shedtears of joy and raise his hands to worship BEING without any hesitations in his mind.

The genuine understanding that BEING spreads and for which He fills both the spaces in which creatures exist, makes Tayumanavar cherish nothing but deep love unt BEING, a Bakti that o moves him to shed tears of joy making even expressing such joys in language rather difficult.

10.

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This is also the stage of impossibility of speech where once speech occur, there is alienation reintroduced with the usual sufferings and so forth. The soul maintains itself in Deep Silence to be the same as BEING and enjoy the Njaanam and which is the consciousness of BEING. This Njaanam provides a satisfaction, a saturation that breeds infinite Bliss for the soul . It ceases to have desires of its own and hence NirkkuNa, i.e without any dispositional traits of its own In enjoying this state of Deep Silence it also enjoys Moksa and hence the primordial meaning of existence. Since the soul ceases o have its own mind and enjoys the same consciousness as that BEING there is no more anything misleading false illusory delusory and so forth. The soul maintains itself in this state to enjoy this absolute authenticity that produces an understanding of only the axiomatic truths., Tayumanavar seems to have enjoyed this beautiful state and wonders how he wasblessed this kind of state which is also the end of the evolutionary development of a soul where the soul has evolved over countless number of births.

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: 7. Adiyenum, atuvum aruLenum atuvum aRintidin nirkkuNa niRaivum mudiyenum atuvum poruLenum atuvum mozintidiR cuka mana maayaik kudikeda veeNdiR paNiyaRa niRRal kuNam enap punnakaik kaaddip padimicai mauni taaki nii aaLa paakkiyam en ceyteen ? paranee! Meaning: O my Lord!~ For anyone who understands Your dancing feet and the spontaneous manner You bless all, they will be pure with no dispositional kuNas and with that enjoy a fullness of being. Further to that Moksa is the end of evolutionary development and that this is the primordial meaning of the whole of phenomenal struggles m they also become free of all illusions delusions and so forth of the mind. If further and as You indicate with a smile, if one stands outside seeking the earthly things and doing self-centered actions towards attaining worldly desires that is the most excellent thing to do, Now this allows one be in stand in deep Silence on the way towards You where existence is ruled wholly by You. I ma blessed with this kind of life and I don't know what I have done to deserve this. out. 9.

! . . .

viNNaati puutamellaam tan akattee adakki veRu veLiyaay njaanak kaNNaarak kaNda anbar kaNNuudee aanawthak kadalaay veeRonRu eNNaata padikku iraGkit taanaakac ceytaruLum

Tayumanavar -AraNam-8

iRaiyee! unRan taN aarunj caarnta aruL tanai niniantu karamalarkaL

Acting

Without Eliciting Karma

talaimeeR koLvaam

One of the most fascinating aspects f the Saiva theory of Action vastly different from that available in Bagavath Gita and many other Indian texts is that there are ways in which an embodied soul can act but without eliciting any evil karmic traces that bring about many problems in lufe.

Meaning:

O BEING! You remain the Pure Container of all , an Emptiness but because of which You contain within You not only the Panjca buutas the Sky Earth Wind Water and Fire but also everything. This Pure From is disclosed only for those who SEE with their Metaphysical Eyes and where Your EYES also become their eyes and because of which there is only vast ocean of Bliss an d nothing else. You also overpower the SEEING of these souls so that they tdo not see and think anything unpleasant and unsavoury. Seeing Your great Love and Care for the souls in gracing them thus, I worship you and nobody else with my hands raised overmy head!

This theory is briefly outlined in this fascinating verse.

First he notes that there are two different ways in which he understands actions The first is that because of metaphysical maturity seeing every action in fact as the action of BEING and thus taking no personal responsibility for them The actions are seen as the Play of BEING and

BEING stands as the ultimate Causal Ground of all s criptures. However He also stands as an Integral Wholeness beyond the reach of the great intellect and imaginations of all the celestial beings, the great muni-s Siddhas and so forth. However He is there in the world as a manifest reality but hidden and concealed like the invisible fragrance of the visible flowers, the oil in the seeds that emerge only on being pressed and like the soul to the body, the great soul to the whole of the cosmos. But despite being present as such He remains unaffected by it all for He remains in the most distant and pure metaphysical realms in the center of all and managing all. It is this BEING whom I have chosen to worship and nothing else.

thus always good even if the outcomes are very painful. Such a view frees the soul also from guilt and such other psychological consequences that are quite normal but which can lead mental breakdowns if to the excess.

Now the other view is that with the soul polluted by Siddha Maayai, the Malam pervading in the deepest part of the mental modules, the Siddham, t here comes to prevail Ego along with ignorance of the Metaphysical realms. The soul becomes ego-self and with an inability to see the metaphysical realms and hence the Play of BEING, ends up attributing to itself the AGENCY of the actions done.

Tayumanavar on BEING- 9

In the Limit BEING Becomes the Very Eyes of the Sou ls.

Now Tayumanavar notes that when this way of thinking and understanding goes unchecked, there come to prevail more and more of the Malam in the mind destroying the normal mental functioning itself. The person can become insane and fail to be conscious of acti ons as such, his own and that of others. He loses self-consciousness and with that becomes abnormal with no control and regulation over his own actions/.

Since the time of Appar at least , it has been very clearly recognized that the quality of Existence is determined by the quality of SEEING by the souls. In every seeing or Darsana , the soul generates a TEXT which it seeks to understand develop ing behavior in accordance with this interpretive understanding of the TEXT thus generated. The soul is that which SEES and BEING is that which SHOWS and this dialectic of showing seeing constituting the dynamics of spiritual life. Thus Appar exclaims that the souls cannot SEE anything at all if BEING does not show and which is recalled by Meykandar who says that when the showing by BEING ceases so does the seeing by the soul, The reality of this dialectics also establishes firmly the substantial difference between the soul and BEING and by which understanding the Saivites deconstructed the Advaita Vedanta that proposed that the soul is actually a disguised Brahman and not an independent substantial entity.

Now the question arises : How to avoid falling to this state of mental insanity and remain normal?

The solution lies in seeking the blessings of BEING whereby the soul is prevented from becoming excessively egoistic and returns to the view that actions can be that of BEING and that once one suppresses or destroys one's own Ego, then all actionsdome will be in fact that of BEING the universal praxis but now available in the behavior of an individual. Such actions will never elicit the evil karmic deposits at all but aruL and hence will not result in the destruction of the mind and self-consciousness.

Now in this dialectics is also located the Hermeneutic Logic within which the truth value is defined as something that occurs when the soul SEES exactly as SHOWN by BEING. These are truthexperiences, the Mey UNarvu and which is that kind of seeing of the soul where it meets with BEING. In course of such truth-experiecnes the soul is one-with BEING.

All actions will become ToNdu, selfless service to mankind and such actions are in fact that of BEING when the soul becomes one with BEING. When one destroys the normal alienation that leads to seeing oneself as an Ego-self, intentionality as distinct from that BEING ceases to be there and with that the absence of eliciting Karmic consequences good or bad.

Now we also notice that there are TWO different kinds of SEEING, the physical and metaphysical. As this dynamics continues and when the soul continues to experience the truths and nothing else then gradually the physical seeing or the ego -seeing through the senses alone is gradually destroyed and the seeing becomes wholly Metaphysical Seeing, seeing with the Njanak Kan metaphorically put as the Third Eye.

8.

Now Tayumanavar notes that in this limiting SEEING, the Eyes of BEING becomes the very eyes of the soul and because of which it sees only the Divine and noble and because of which there is experiencing og only Bliss and nothing else. This Bliss floods the soul overpowering it so that the soul does not see and think of anything else and suffer. At this point the soul is also said to attain its own most authentic self-underatanding or individuation and live as it is without projecting anything at all,

!'

This final state of being of the soul is a blessing of BEING and because of which there is only BLISS and nothing else. Thus overcome with immense gratitude Tayumanavar exclaims that it is this BEING of such great LOVE and nothing else that he would worship with raised hands.

9.

8. ! . . ' . . , . , , . .

8.

en ceyalinRi yaavu nin ceyalenRu eNNuveen ovvoru kaalam puncey Maayai mayaGki en ceyalaip poruntuvee aQtoru kaalam pin ceyal yaatu ninaivinRik kidappeen pottaneen nannilai peRa nin tan ceyaalka mudittidal veeNdum caccitaananta caR kuruvee!

, . , , , . .

Meaning: 8. O my Lord! There were times when I saw every action of mine as that ofYours, But when my mind became polluted by Maayai, the deluding Malam, then I began to see myself as the agent of all mu actions. Then as I became more and more egoistic like this, the Malam destroyed my self-consciousness whereby I became incapable of normal behavior becoming quite insane. Now O My Lord! To help me to enjoy continuously the good state I with self -awareness, please transform all my actions into that of Yours and which You can do as You are the real Guru with absolutely clear consciousness that comes along with supreme bliss. Tayumanavar -Sitambara Rahasyam Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram Dr K.Loganathan, 2005 Dear Friends In view of the great interest on the part of many members, I continue further translations of Tayumanavar who introduced a new depth in the Metaphysics of the Saivite Tamils. This series now focuses upon what is called Sitambara Rahasyam, the Secrets of Sitambaram, the Vast Realm of Pure Consciousness, a central concept in Tamil Saivism. Here in these hymns this 18th cent metaphysical genious outlines a system of thought immensely rational and I try to bring it out in my commentaries.

arumaRaiyin cirapporuLaay viNNavar maamunivar cittar aatiyaanoor terivariya puuraNamaayk kaaranaG kaRpanaik kadanta celvamaakik karutariya malarin maNam eLLin eNNey udal uyirpool kalantu ennaaLun Turiya naduvuur irunta periya PoruL yaatu atanait Tozutal ceyvaam

Meaning:

He is so real and why only He should be worshipped and nothing no one else.

Loga

First he notices that BEING stands as the ultimate causal ground of all scriptures that are indeed rare and profound. There cannot be a species of literature called scriptures unless BEING pervades the whole lot of them and give a peculiar structure which enables us to recognize them as scriptures and not something else.

Summary Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-1 Tayumanvar wrote 33 verses of outstanding merits on the Secrets of Sitambaram that fortumnately I have translated into English with my own commentary. They are available in the archives of Akandabaratam Meykandar and so forth under the title : Tayumanavar The Secrets of Sitambaram Here I just provide the English translation of the verses alone so that readers can access his thoughts directly and immediately. Loga 1

In this view we already meet the Pedagogic Hermeneutics of the Dravidian folks- that everything that reaches human understanding are TEXTS with DUALITY of structure, the Surface Structure(SS) and Deep Struc ture (DS) and that the deepest of all DS s of the scriptures taken as SS's is BEING

However He also remains always the BEYOND and ABOVE even for the celestial beings the great muni-s Siddhas and people similar to them and who dedicate their whole lif to understand e BEING. No matter how astute their thinking is and no matter how brilliantly imaginative they are, BEING stands always a SURPLUS and ELUSIVE, a integral wholeness that can never be fully comprehended by the finite mind. From this it also follows that whatever we know of BEING including His presence is all because of His blessings - we know Him only because He chooses to disclose Himslef to us in some form or other.

The Sitambaram is the source of all experiences and where there is the source of experiences that are only of bliss. This is attained by the yoga experience where the Primordial Logos the Om is recited and the understanding is made to become limitless, without boundaries and prejudices. Such an understanding becomes the real companion and friend providing strength and support each time doubts and uncertainties assail. It is also an understanding consistent with logic and hence not at all irrational. It exists in the world of concrete and physical objects just like the sweet fragrance of flowers- invisible yet eminently there as rea;. For any one who accesses it and stays within it, it becomes a Divine Mountain of endless bliss.

But in order to do this He mist already be there as manifest in some ways and Tayumamavar summarizes the views that have been developed over time and in terms of some metaphors.

2 BEING as Sitambaram stands among the creatures of countless developmental differences as the one that breeds happiness (amidst miseries caused by the Mal am) It stands also as the Pure Consciousness that shines as that which is beyond the reach of all logical measires. It also stands unique and singular that does not dislose the high and low in consciousness. But it stands as Sat and Asat leading from the asat forms of consciousness to the Sat form and in which form and function rules all the temples where love and compassion dominates. O Lord who disclose Yourself as this Sitambaram! You also do not leave me to suffer in utter loneliness because of such reaches in understanding and you provide companions of agreeable disposition so that there are joys of excellent communal living. O Great Clarity who blesses with clarities You are in fact sugar cubes of excellent sweet taste! 3 O Lord! By intimating me into Sitambaram You come as the immense Flood of Bliss that trivializes all the earthly achievements and attainments. You also have thrown me into the Way of Deep Silence as the way to enjoy this Sitambaram and with that blessing me with the greatest gift. As I indulge in it, the immense Expance of Pure Radiance floods my soul and destroys all the seeds of illusions and delusions and places ot in the limits of the metaphysical odyssey and in that quite safe from the onslaughts of the evil forces.Just as all the rivers in world finally flow into a vast sea and disappear, so does all these innumerable reltgions cults and cultures -they all finally enter the Sitambaram, the Paradise and disappear there. To continue

The first is BEING stands like the invisible fragrance that accompanies the visible flowers. BEING is there but as a DS, something hidden and concealed but nevertheless intuitable as there in some ways.

The next metaphor is that of the oil in the seeds where only when the seeds are pressed the oil will come out. Similar to this is another metaphor, a very ancient one the Fire that bursts forth in a wood only when it is rubbed strongly. In this metaphor it turns out that BEING isa a DS but which has to be wrested out from the ordinary things of our experience. We have to develop transductive perceptions to SEE the presence of BEING in the depths of all the things that surround us.

The next metaphor is that of the body and soul and which is as ancient as Tolkaappiyam where the vowels and consonants are also seen in terms of the same metaphor. There is the sou within the body animating it and BEING stands within the cosmic body as the animating principle, that without which the cosmos cannot move at all,

Now it is also said that even though BEING stands one -with the various things as listed, He remains UNAFFECTED by it all for He re mains always in the most central and the most distant and pure metaphysical; realms SEEING all and doing whatever necessary but standing ABOVE all unaffected by it all.

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-2 4. aatiyantam enum ezuvaay iiRu aRRu oGki arumaRai innamuG kaaNaatu araRRa naanaa peeta mataGkaLum malaiya malaipool vaatap peRRiyarum vaayvaatap peeyarakac saataka moonattil enna vadavaa(l) nizal taNNarud cantiramauli taddakkaik keeRRa veetaka cin maattiramaay emmanoorkkum veLiyaaka vantavonRee! Vimala vaazvee!

It this for these reasons Tayumanavar chooses to worship BEING and nothing else asis the case with all great mystics throughout the world.

Meaning: BEING is the terminator and hence the regenerator of all but Himself having no such a power above Him. Because of this, all the great scriptures of words and because they fixate the mind to words, remain beyond seeing BEING most authentically. These scriptures by freezing the natural flow of the investigating mind, create argumentative devils who enter into vehement and violent verbal disputes. Thus such religions do not appreciate the language of Deep Silence in which BEING as TadciNaa Muurtti sitting in the cool shades of the Bodhi Tree teaches Njaanam through the Mudra of Cin Muuturai on His great great hands. BEING is kind enough to present Himself in this icon from and disclose to the souls the Secrets of Sitambaram this Njaanam through Deep Silence 5. Vimala mutal kuNamaaki nuuRReddu aati Veetam eduttu eduttu uraitta viruttiR keeRpa Amaiyum ilakkaNa vadivaay atuvum pootaatu Appaalukku appaalaay arudkaN aakic Camamudan kalappum aviztalum yaan kaanat taN aruL tantu emaik kaakkum caadcip peeRee! imaiyaLavum upakaaram allaal veeRonRu iyakkaa nirkkuNak kadalaay virunta vonRee! Meaning: (Another secret of Sitambaram is this.) BEING stands as the 108 and more Upanishads continuously declaring and expounding that BEING stands as the primordial and pure guNa and where He also shows himself in various figural forms with definite identifying characteristics, the LakshaNas. But in addition to this and as if not sufficient He also becomes the most distant EYE of Love and Affection where He also becomes one with the souls making them equal to Himself. During such states He also unfolds many new visions that make the souls f ee themselves from r the various existent restrictions and inner boundaries so that the understanding expands and continues to grow. He also remains the unfailing WITNESS of all that is SEEN by the souls and never fails even for a moment to guide and protec the souls remaining a Pure guNaless vast t ocean of Love. 6. onRaakip palavaakip palavaak kaNda oLiyaaki veLiyaaki uruvamaaki nanRaaki tiitaaki maRRumaaki naasamudan uRpatti naNNaataaki inRaaki naaLaiyumaay meelumaana entaiyee@ emmaanee@ enRu enRu eeGkik kanRaakikk kataRinaarkkuk ceetaavaki kaditinil vantu aruL kuuruG karauNai viNNee! Meaning: BEING as Pure Energy (Sakti) became differentiated into many as well the unitary One. There is also the differentiation of the Light of Consciousness along with these differentiated individual things that also becomes the vast inclusive Space. This differentiated consciousness also enables the ethical judgments of right and wrong that guide the evolution of the souls There is also the generation of Time Consciousness that makes the understanding historical and so forth, Now BEING remains despite the destruction and regenerations that He installs everywhere and in everything, He remains Free of it with no power above to destroy and regen erate Him. When the souls understand such a great munificence of BEING and the Supreme Love he has for the creatures and because of which He does all these, they cry to be wholly united with Him out of Bakti just like a calf would seek out to be with its mother cow once alienated. On hearing such genuine cries BEING also very promptly comes to rescue of these souls doing all that is necessary to alleviate their pains and sufferings To continue Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-3

. : . , , . .

7.

poruLaakak kaNda PoruL evaikum mutaR poruLaakya pootamaakit teruLaakik karutum anbar midi tiirap paruka vanta cezunteenaaki aruLaanoorkku akam puRam enRun aata puuraNa aananatamaaki iruL tiira viLaGku PoruL yaatu antap poruLinai yaam iRainci niRpaam

Meaning:

BEING stands as the primordial and deepest substance of all substances that the mind encounters. It is also an Intelligence that instructs the souls about Itself and for those who meditate on Him with love, also: becomes the honey of ambrosia drinking which the souls overcomes all their mental and physical ailments. There is also continuous metaphysical illuminations that destroy the presence if Malam and with that dispelling the metaphysical Darkness or Ignorance, Because of this the souls transcend the discriminative thinking and entering a Supreme Consciousness above any kind of alienation, above the decimations of self and non-self; and so forth, the souls are also blessed with Supreme Bliss. Thus it is this BEING that I choose to worship and implore with love and affection.

_________________________________________________________________ ____

Tayumanavar on BEING- 8

BEING is the Deepest of the Deep Structures of the World

7.

In this verse Tayumanavar summaries neatly the metaphysical understanding of BEING, why

neutral and free from religious or theologi al concepts. c

What Tayumanavar notes is that no matter how the human mind takes as the substance, appropriating that as a TEXT with a DUALITY of structure there is this Primordial Substance as the Deepest of DS's serving as the foundation, that primordial stuff without which the substances reached by the human mind will not be three as such.

aruL pazutta pazac cuvaiyee! Karumbee! Teenee! Aar amirtee! En kaNNee! Ariya vaan PoruL anaittaiyum tarum poruLee! karuNai niiGkaap puuraNmaay ninRa onRee! Punita vaazvee! Karutariya karuttinud karuttaay meevik Kaalamum teesamaum vakuttuk karuviyaati vovinaiayuG kuuddi uyirt tiraLai yaaddum vizup poruLee! Yaan colum viNNapaG keeLee! Meaning:

Now it turns out this primordial substance, the BEING that which is the ground of the beingness of all beings, is INTELLIGENT and who INTRUCTS the souls o His own presence f simultaneously illuminating their mind so that the Darkness of Ignorance is also dispelled. If the ordinary creatures are intelligent this is so only because at the deepest level of these creatures remains BEING, that which is absolutely Intelligent, that Primordial Intelligence because of which the creatures are intelligent.

Here it is also noted that this is not simply a matter of the mind, a purely intellectual affair. There is Malam which is the cause of not only the blindness andIgnorance but also that which is the source of all illness both of the mind and body. So the metaphysical illuminations that BEING provides is also a process of CLEANING the soul of the DIRT and because of which the there is also the flow of Amutu, the ambrosia of not only longevity but also the bliss.

(This is another secret of Sitambaram) For the devoted souls BEING appears as the fruit ripened with Love and Compassion, who tastes sweet like sugarcanethe choice honey and so forth. On top of it all, He is the source of Ambrosia who endears to the suffering souls by removing their sufferings. He is also the One who blesses the souls with the rare celestial gifts of all kinds, remaining with Love and Care not diminishing at all. Staying in the depths of all souls seeks to implant good thoughts that would lead to a fovine kind of life, good and pure. Staying deep within the souls, He also regulates the processes so that the souls get a body with the necessary internal and external organs, a suitable habitat and a life -span quite suited to the kind of life granted. BEING as the Great and Noble Thing plays the souls thus only to lead them towards a life full of joys. Such a BEING will surely listen to myrequests to alleviate my existential miseries. 8. ViNNavr intiran mutaloor naarataati viLaGku sapta rishikaL an viiNai nallor eNNariya sittar manuvaati veentar irukkaati maRai Munivar ellaam intak kaNNakan njaalam matikkat taanee uLLaG kaiyin nellik kabipool kaadiyaakat tiNNiya nallaRivaay iccamayattu enRoor cwppariya sitti mutti veernataar enRum Meaning: There are the celestial beings like Indra Narada the bright Sapta Rigies the Gandaravs who string the VeeNa , the innumerable Siddhas, the great kings like Manu , the Vedic rishies and so forth. All these great beings, human and celestial attained everlasting fame in the wide world only because BEING opened up their Third Eye and let them witness directly the various ga mes He plays and through which He manages the world. There is authentic understanding developed though such means and which leads to the gaining of Njaanam with apodictic certainty as if the fruit is already in the palms . Such an unders6tanding also bl sses them with the various kinds e of Siffhies that are difficult to describe and finally the Moksa itself,

Now on top of it, Tayumanavar also notes that as these metaphysical processes continue, there comes a point where the soul ceases to discriminate the self from the non -self and hence understands all without any alienation. As something alien now, there is only Nothingness, as pointed out by the brilliant Meykandar (cattu etir cuuniyam)

There is fullness wholeness, a non-divisive and non-discriminative unity and universality and all as gift of BEING. So Tayumanavar concludes that it is this BEING that he ought to worship and nothing else.

7.

r ku

9 Ceppariya sanayaneRi ellaam tattam Teyvamee teyvam enum ceyarkkai yaana Apparisaa varum awtee pidittu aavippaar Aduttavanum nuulkaLum virittee anumaanaati Oppuvittu uraippar iGGan poy meyyenna onRillai onRen paarppatu oppaataakkum ipparicaanj samayamumaay allaavaaki yaatu samyamaum vaNaGkum iyalpatu aati. Meaning: There are many religions the correct understandi g of which remain quite difficult. But n nevertheless we see that each religious person extols his own religion and maintains that it is superior to all other religions. Such a pride is quite unnatural and lacking genuine understanding they keep on preaching the greatness of their own religions and which in turn elicit serious objections where many treatises are written with logical principles used to refute the false views. It is claimed that there are truths and falsities and that through LOGIC one ca settle the n matter. However such disputes remain beyond resolution and BEING emerges in the mind of such people making them realize that such disputes are in vain. He shows that He is the GROUND of all religions and that at the same time He remains beyondall these religions. Those who transcend all religions will see that the one and the same BEING remains common to all and

beyond all,

To continue , . , . .

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-4 10. iyalvenRun tiriyaamal iyamam aati eNkuNamuG kaaddi anbar inpamaaki payan aruL apporuLkaL parivaaramaakaip paNpuRavunj caupaana pakshang kaaddi mayaluRu mantiram cidcai cootidaati maRRu aGka nuul vaNaGka maulin mooli(?) ayarvaRac cenniyil vaittu raajaaGkattin amarnatatu vaitiika caivam azakitu anto Meaning: The Vedic Saivism promotes the Yoga Sciences such as the AstaGka Yoga where such procures as Iyamm Niyamam and so forth are shown ( by BEING) himself and where there are joys of all kinds for those who practice them. BEING becomes the ordaining deities of all those objects that bless the souls with happiness and shows (though playing with their seeing) what moments are auspicious and what are not in ways that are becoming. Such Yoga Sciences defeat the Vedic Sciences like Siksha Jyotisha and the other aGkas and which create more confusion in the mind of the people misleading them, Thus the Yoga Sciences crown me with the crown of spiritual clarity and with that become the ruling way in my kingdom. Thus the Vedic Saivism such as this is indeed beautiful ( for the rationality it develops) 11.

6.

intirasaalaG kanavu kaanal niir ena ulakam emakkut toonRac cantatamum ciRparattaal aziyaata taRparattaic caarntu vaazka! Punti makizuRa naaLun tadaiyaRa aananta veLLam Polika! enRee vantaruLum kuru mauni malartaaLai anutinamum vazuttal ceyvaam

antoo itu atisaym ic cmayam pool inRu aRinjar ellaam ndu aRiya aNimaa aati vantu aadi tiribavarkkum peesaa Moonam vaitturunta maavarrku maRRu maRRum intiraati pooka nalam peRRa peerkkum ituvanRit taayakam veeRillai illai sanaanak kaRpakam pola aruLaik kaaddat takka neRi inneRutee taan canmaarkkam Meaning: This Way of Life and the true religion is really amazing ( because of the diversity it allows)There are within this Way of Life the metaphysically inclined individuals who seek TRUTH with a true objective mind free from prejudices. There are also the Siddhas who seek various kinds of Siddhies like ANima and so forth and play various games with s uch powers. There are also the Njaana Siddhas who indulge in Deep Silence and enjoy being =one -with BEING without any fissure. There also so many other kinds of people and some who seek out all kinds of earthly and heavenly pleasures , th joys of Indra. F all these different aspirations and many others this or Way of Life remains the true GROUND of the origins and where all these divergent expressions are in fact the expressions fo the Grace (aruL) of BEING. Thus this Way of Life is indeed the Sanmaarkkam the Way of True Enlightenment. 12.

Meanimng:

BEING comes down as the Guru who throws the souls into Deep Silence by first making the subjective experience of the world something like full of magical tricks, dream -like lmirage waters in the heat and so forth so that they become irrelevant to me. He makes me live always with the Lord unto Himself (TaRparan) who shines always as the unchanging Pure Consciousness (ciRparam). Then he advises me to live always in the meditation of such a BEING in Deep Silence so that there will be a flood of Amutu flowing into my soul without any obstacles and I enjoy nothing else but bliss. I ended up worshiping the lotus feet of such a Guru because of it all.

Tayumanavar on BEING-7.

sanmaarkka njaanatin poruLum viiRu samaya saGkeetap poruLum taanee enRaakap panmaarkkam neRiyiniluG kaNdatu ilai pakarvariya Tillai manRud paartta pootaGku enmaarkkam irukkutellaam ceLiyaa yenna eccamayattavrakaLum vantu iRainjcaa niRpar sanmaarkka njencamuLLa yenakkut taanee kaNdavudan aanantaG kaaNdalaakum. Meaning

BEING is the Substance of All Substances

In this verse emerges again the Pedagogic Hermeneutics of the Tamil philosophic tradition perhaos also that of Tantrism all over India that has been the foundation of culture provided at least since the days of Tolkaappiyam (c. 300 BC) if not earlier. H ere anything that is investigated is taken as a TEXT with a DUALITY of structure - the Surface Structure (SS) and Deep Structure (DS) and which is now applied to BEING, simply called the PoruL , Substance to be

cent AD and attributed to Ati Sankara goes by the name of Mayava tam where the whole world is taken as irreal, insubstantial delusory, dream -like and so forth i.e. a kind of mental imposition upon Brahman the Pure Radiance and which true understanding, the Brahmanjaanam is possible only through the ardent earnest and pr oper study of the Vedas and as taught by a Vedic Brahmin and so forth

This view has exercised some influence (continues to do so?) but which was finally deconstructed brilliantly by Meykandar (c. 13th cent AD) and Tayumanavar adds to this by bringing out that the real significance of it. There is a point in Mayavatam, the subjective experience of the world as irreal but what is it?

The final conclusions of Sanmaarrkkam, the Way of Enlightenment and that of the most authentic reliigion are the same and hence such a unity is not to be seen in the diverse and deviant religions and ways of life. However as another Secret of Sitambaram it is to be noted in Tillai the greatness of which is indeed difficult to describe, Those who belong to different religions but who come to Tillai and see the secret there exclaim that what is present in my religion but concealed remains clear and open here. And because of this even people of different religions would come here and enjoy praising BEING here. I am of the Wa of the Enlightenment y and when I see such a unity among people of diverse ways of life, I really see joys all around. To continue Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-5 13 kaaNdal peRap puRattil uLapadiyee uLLuG kaadci meynnuul coluG patiyaaG kadavuLee! Nii niiNda nedumaiyum akalak kuRukkuG kaaddaa niRai paripuuraN aRivaay nittamaaki veeNdu viduppodu veRuppuc camiibam tuuram vilakkal aNukutal mutalaam vivakaaraGkaL puuNda aLabaikaL manvaakkaati ellaam poruttaamal akam puRam piNarkkaiyaaki! MeaNing: O Lord! Once a person gets to enjoy the capacity for transductive perceptions, then he sees inside of all those things that happen in the outside and which understanding also enables him to identify the authentic metaphysical treatises from the false and misleading. It also happens that these authentic texts also expound the Triadism , that Pati Pacu and Paasam are anaati and that the Pati the Lord is indeed the Supreme God. As I pursue my understanding of You though such visions I also learn that You are an integral Wholeness who is beyond such spatial measure as width height and so forth. You are also beyond Time and hence the Nittiyam, the SAME always. I also understand that You are full of LOVE for all so that there is noone is either specially loved or despised by You. For the same reason there are none who are specially favored by you so that some are closer and some others distant and so forth, You do not practice the casteic way of keeping some denied of their rights and kept at a distance and so forth,. You are also beyond concepts and languages and hence One who can be understood only in Deep Silence and at which point people will understand You as already with their soul inside out 14.

The ordinary person remains fixated to the physical experiential world as the REAL all else being false, fictitious, imaginative, purely speculative and so forth. Now BEING in order to destroy this fixation to the physical and sensory transforms the subjective experience of the world itself as delusory like the tricks of a Magician ( intira saalam), dream-like, the mirages during moments of intense heat and such other perceptual illusions and delusions. Such a subjective experience of world and which is constituted by BEING makes the person FREE himself from the tyranny of the physical world and with that open up his mind to the metaphysical. The suspicions he had towards the metaphysical are destroyed and now his visions and understanding include the metaphysical and which has been concealed from him till now. Anyway even if shown it was not believed but only thrown aside as delusions and so forth

At this point it also emerges that BEING is there as a Power unto Himself, with no power ABOVE Him (TaRparan) and who is always there as the ever -present universal and Pure Consciousness (CiRparam) and hence the most authe ntic reality not at all a matter of various subjective fantasies and so forth.

At this point BEING also comes down as the icon of TadciNaamuurtti and instructs the soul from within throwing the person into a Deep Silence where the soul is always with this BEING enjoying nothing else but joys in that mediation. The AMUTU flows in great floods making the soul enjoy nothing else but bliss.

So now Tayumanavar feels that he must worship the feet of this Guru Icon of BEING who blesses the soul thus.

6.

! !

Aakiya saRkaariya uukkattukku eeRRa Amalamaay naduvaaki ananata satti yookamuRu aananata mayamaaki uyirukku uyiraay en naaLum iiGkaa niRpa mookavuL Maayai Vinai uyirikadkellaam moyttatena kol upakaara muyaRciyaakap paalamika vaLaru oru satti vantu patintatu en kol naan enum paanmai en kol? Meaning: Another Secret of Sitambaram as follows; The Satkaariya Vaatam states that only what is already there will have appearances and such entities will always be indestructibly there Now consistent with tis BEING discloses Himself as the absolutely Pure and in the center of all things. Assuming a countless number of energy forms becomes the sources of bliss for those who practice Sivayoga or KuNdalini Yoga. There are dirt such as ANaavam Karma and Maayai that infect the souls making them polluted . BEING stands as the soul of the souls without ever departing and assuming the forms of brilliant light kills these pollutants . This form of energy also develops LOVE and COMPASSION and which also kills the Ego of the s oul for good making it absolutely pure and humble.

15.

Naan enum oor akantai rvatkkum vantu Nalintavudan sakamaayai naanaavaakit Taanvant todarum ittaal vaLatun tunbac Saakarattin perumai evar saaRRa vallaar Uun enRujm udal enRum karaNamenRum uLaLenRum puRamenRum oziyaa ninRa vaan enRum kaal enRum tii niir enRum maN enRum amlai enRum vanamatu enRum. Meaning: The next Secret of Sitambaram is this. Whoever it may be the moment the Ego-sence of I begins to assail relentlessly the soul then begins to suffer many illusions about earthly existence and which multiply and transform the whole existence into a vast ocean of miseries. There are in fact no one who can describe adequately this wide range of miseries that a rise because of this egotism Now if they are capable they will note that such a soul will claim that it is the flesh, the whole physical body, and the internal and external organs, It will also claim that it is the Ego that remains the inside and outside of all things. On top of that it will also claim it is in fact the Panjca Butas - the Space Wind

, , , . . .

5.

To continue Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-6

caati kulam piRappu iRappu pantam mutti aruvuruvat tanmai naamam eetuminRi epporudkum avvidattum pirivaRa ninRu iyakkanj ceyyunj cootiyai maat tuuveLiyai manatu aviza niRaivaana Turiya vaazvait Tiitil parmaam poruLait tivaruLee ninaivaakac Cintai ceyvaam

16. malai malaiyaaG kaN kaaNaamai yaati maRappenRu ninaippenRu Maayaa vaari alai alaouaa adikkum inbat tunbamneRu malaivikkum viNaikaLenRum athanait tiirkka talai palavaanj samayamenRum teyvamenRunj saatakar enTum avarkadku saadciyaakat kalai palavaa neRiyenRum tarkka menRum kadaluRu maNal ennik kaaNum poolum Meaning: There are mountains of the absence of seeing directly the metaphysical depths (because of which there is metaphysical ignorance) Also the cognitive processes are assailed by waves of false and misleading constructions because of which there is forgetting rem embering and so forth. All these also cause waves after waves of the feelings both pleasant and unpleasant, These in turn bring about actions that further confuse the mind. Because of it all there come men who claim they are the heads and propose religion and cults to alleviate the pains of s suffering humanity. They also invent various rituals and procedures giving also various kinds of justifications and intellectual arguments to support their inventions. If one were to begin to count such religions and cults, it will turn out to be more numerous than the sand particles in the beaches ( so that we have to discard all such developments) 17. kaaNariya vallavellaan taane kadduk kaddaaka viLaiyum athaik kaddoodeetaan viNNil kaappu uur malao padu tiippadda vintai enak kaaNavoru viveekaG kaadda uuN uRakkm inpa tunbam peeriir aati vivvidavum ennaip poola urubaG kaaddik kaanaRavoor maaN kaaddi maanai iirkkuG kokaiyena aruL maina kuruvaay vantu Meaning: The next secret of Stiambaram pertains to the human like guru form BEING takes to dispel all the worldly illusions and purifies the soul. BEING as the one who conceals and because of which there are so many that are not seen at all and which when the time comes appear in bundles after bundles / But these disappear ad if singed to ashes by the Fire in the heavenly Mountain Meru that provides divine protection for the devas. Because of the metaphysical

Meaning:

BEING stands without any determinate characteristics such as social class , communal group, form of biological birth and death, bondages to the world and becoming free of them and enjoying moksa , presenting with or without a definite form and name and so forth. Because of this total indeterminate-ness He stands one with all existing as if they are in thems elves without ever alienating Him from them. In this way He understands all in themselves as they in fact are and manages them all so that all are taken towards Moksa. For this purpose He presents himself as the Pure Radiance and a Pure Space that contain all and who unfolding in this shape s in the souls affords them the enjoyment of the absolutely Pure Existence that brings about complete saturation. Since all these are there because of the Grace of BEING, it is this Grace that becomes the object of the meditation on BEING now.

Tayumanavar on BEING-6

BEING is Not Delusory and Illusory

One of the forms of Vedantic thinking that became popular in the Tamil country around the 9th

fruits and immensely sweet sugar cubes and so forth. On top of it all He becomes theAmbrosia that breeds nothing but happiness in the soul and body of all creatures. Having understood all these and with tears flowing done my eyes and gathering like pearls I stand praying to BEING with blossoms in my hands.

illuminations that do this, there comes to be changes whereby food sleep the feelings of joy and sorrow and desire for city living and so forth withdraw themselves. At that point BEING assumes a human form similar to that of my own and dispelling all my desires as if a magical deer that is shown and later destroyed, casts me into Deep Silence by becoming the Guru always in Deep Silence. 18.

Tayumanavar on BEING-5

BEING is Totally Indeterminate but One-with All

BEING, the PoruL or the Primordial Substance here is very peculiar compared to all other things. He does not have any of the determinate characteristics that would confer an identity as it is the case with human beings and other living and non-living things. He does not have a social class, a caste, and a certain kind animal birth, death at a certain time bondages to the world and becoming FREE of that, a shape or shapeless form a name and so forth. Fr e of such aspects e that would identify Him and thus make Him alien to others, BEING without any of these alienating features stands one-with all and in every place. He stands as the things and creatures themselves understanding as if they themselves are and hence without being an alien to them and who has to see objectively and so forth. BEING lives as the things and creatures in themselves and understands them as such.

Vantu en udal PoruL aavi muunRum tan kai Vasamenavee yattuvaa maarkka nookki Aintu plan aimpuutaH karaNamaati Yadutta kuNam attanaiyum allay yallai Inta udal aTvvaRiyaamaiyu nii yallai yaatonRu paRRin atan iyalpaay ninRu panatam aRum paLiGkanaiya vittu nii un pakkuvam kaNdu aRivikkum paanamaiyeeem yam Meaning: BEING-as-Siva takes possession of the body soul and meanings and bringing them under His control leads a person in the direction of disengagement re-engagement so that he becomes gradually more and more liberated. First He instructs the soul and makes it understand that it not to be confused with the five senses the evol tes of the five basic elements and various u cognitive utensils attributes and qualities that emerge oit of them, Then the person is said to be not the same as the physical body the various forms understanding and ignorance and so forth. Then positively it is told that the soul is a psychic entity that like a crystal becomes that in which it is located but which can free itself from all such bondages. Then BEING says: I am the One who informs all in accordance with the spiritual maturity that has been att ined. a

BEING does not simply stand one-with all as they themselves but also MANAGES them and because of which there is presence of Intelligence in all, quite visible in the lining creatures and buried and in the depths among the non-living.

To continue Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-7

However there is a REASON why BEING is present and wills to manage all it is ultimately to PURIFY all souls so that there is no Malam in them and for which purpose He discloses Himself as the Cooti, the Pure Radiance and which form as it unfolds within the souls , affords the soul enjoy a genuine metaphysical life of immense contentment and satisfacti on. The soul once filled with the form of the Pure Radiance of BEING, becomes fully saturated seeking nothing anymore beyond itself. It becomes self-enclosed just like BEING Himself.

19. aRivaaki yaananta mayamaay enRum aziyaata nilaiyaaki yaatinpaalum piriyaamal taNNaruLee kooyilaana periya parama pati atanaip peRa veeNdin neRiyaaka kuuRuvan keel enta naaLu nirkkuNaa niRka uLam vaayttu niidu vaazka! ceRivaana yaRiyaamai ellaam niingkac ciRcukam peRriduka ! pantam tiirka venRee! Meaning: BEING stands as the absolute understanding and always in Bliss. He stands thus indestructible and hence always there whether other things are there or not. He stands one with all without ever separating and disappearing and His Grace as in fact the temple where He resides. Now if you want to attain being one-with this BEING, let me tell you the way. You must live long with the mind that is absolutely pure as the one devoid of all GuNas Then you will find the ignorance that has been with soul from the beginnings slowly disappearing and the soul beginning to enjoy Pure Consciousness along with becoming free of all bondages. 20. pantamaRu meynjnjaanamaana moonap paNpenRu yaruLi antap paNpukkee taan cintai yillai taan enum paanmai yillai teesa millai kaalamiliai tukkumillai taontamilai niikkamilai piRitu yilai collu illai uravup paklaan tooRRamillai antamillai aatiyillai naduvu millai akamumillai puRamumillai anaittu millai. Meaning:

Now all such great possibilities are for all to enjoy and as the ble ssings of BEING. So Tayumanavar concludes that this is what must the object of mediation the blessings of BEING

5.

BEING blesses by pulling the souls towards Deep Silence that allows them to enjoy the real and authentic Njaanam that destroys all worldly ties. On ce in this Deep Silence the soul transcends discriminative thinking as well as the ego-sense of self, This allows the soul to enjoy the SatSelf = that which is absolutely beyond temporality spatiality and directionality. There are no more any worldly ties whatsoever with no thoughts as to retain some discard some and so forth. Since there is no alienation from anything the category of Other becomes a pure nothing. Language is transcended and with this the understanding becomes absolutely translucent- clear with nothing as the unconscious concealed and so forth. Since there is no temporality of time consciousness there is no more the end beginnings and intermediate positions of the world processes. The self absolutely transparent does not have insideoutsidein fact lives with nothingness as its own.

21. :

illai yillai ennilonRu ilaatalla iyalpaaki enRumuLLa iyaRkai aakic collariya tanmaiyataa yaan taan ennat toonRaatu ellaam vizuGkunj coruubamaaki allaiyuNda pakalpool avittai ellaam adaiyavuNdu tadaiyaRa anna aRivait taanee vellavuNdu uFku unnait taanaak koNdu veetakamaap pesaamai viLakkun taanee Meaning: Even though BEING can be said to be not this not that and so forth ( as done in the Upanishads) but certainly BEING is not something not within me. BEING stands as my essence and something that remains ever as part of me bit which is ineffable difficult to articulate in words. He stands that which swallows all individuations like Self , BEING and so forth so that such differences do not occur at all. Also like the daylight that swallows the darkness, He swallows all the metaphysical ignorance, overcoming all the impediments making the understanding the same as His. He makes the self the same as BEING and makes this known to the self not by any explicit instructions on it but by throwing the self into a condition of imcapable of speech To continue

. , . , . , . , , .

4.

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-8 22. taanaana tanmayamee yallaal onRait talaiyedykka voddaatu talaippaddu aaGkee poonaalum karppuura tiibam poolap pooy iLoppatu allaatu pulam veeRinRaam njaaa aakaasattinodu njeeya maRRa njaaturuvu nazuvaamal nazuvi niRkum aanaalum itan perumai emakkaar colaar? Atuvaanaal atuvaavaar atuvee collum Meaninh: Along with BEING enclosing Himself within Himself, He also projects out of Himself to eliminate the onset of something evil. However despite this BEING always stands as the brilliant Light as His essence and having no other field to present Himself He st ands as Space of Njaanam where shining thus within the soul He also makes the soil remain unconscious of BEING mostly but also allowing slipping out occasionally. But who can ever tell this great game of BEING to me except Himself? When BEING wants to become the self , the self has no choice but to become the same as BEING. It remains unconscious of this till BEING Himself informs from within. 23. atuvenRaal etuvena pnRu adukkunj saGkai aatlinaal atuvennum aRavee viddu matuvuNda vaNdenavunj santanaati mannavarkaL sukar mutalaar enRum pati inta nilaiyenavum ennaiyaaNda

Ikaparamum uyirkku uyirai yaan eantu aRRavar uRavai Enta naaLunj Cuka paripuuraNamaana niraalampak koosarattait Turiya vaazvai Akamakiza varunteenai muRkaniyaik kaRkaNdai Amutai naadi Mokumokuvena iruviziniir muttiRaipak karamalarkaL Mukizttu niRpaam.

Meaning:

While all other powers may be with the soul eithe in this life or the next, it is only BEING who r remains the soul within the soul in both forms of existence. He also becomes the directly experienced power and companion for those who have vanquished the ego with its -ness and I Mine-ness. Because of this He also becomes the One who is self-enclosed and always in Supreme Bliss all because he is totally one with the Sakti. Standing pure and with no involvement at all with the world but the divine cause of all movements, He also stands as the One who affords the souls a Pure Life the most distant and involved though everything is seen objectively. Because of the joy rovides all, BEING becomes the sweetest honey, the tastiest

supreme Bliss for those who succeed in understandin Him thus. He also instructs on Njaanam g by becoming the Guru who SHOWS the TRUTH for the souls to SEE and who engulfs in Pure Light those souls who succeed in this task, But nevertheless even such a BEING that conjoins the soul as thus stands still the Mysterious and so let us meditate upon this BEING to dispel; even this mystery.

padikku nirubikaRpattaal paramaanata kati kaNdu koLLavu ninnaruL kuur intak katiyanRi uRaGkeen meeR karumam paareen Meaning When as in Vedanta it is declared: That Thou Art;, it immediately allows us to raise a question pertaining the object that is referred as a That and because there arises a disturbing doubt. Now there is a state where I can be without refereeing to a THAT at all. This state is quite different from the earthly and pompous life lived by the Kings and Sukar of the PuraNas where they smear their body with sandal wood paste and so forth by way of seeking worldly pleasures. But Pati who overpowers me pulled me into the NiruvikaRpa Samadhi where thinking itself is rooted out and the soul enjoy a transcendental kind of Bliss. O my Lord! To be in this state always, I need your Grace. Ad let me assure You that neither will I sleep nor indulge in other activities till You bless me with this.

Tayumanavar on BEING-4

BEING is the Friend of the Egoless

24. paaraati viN anaittu niiyaay cintai pariya madalaal ezutip paarttup paarttu vaaraayoo en praaNa naataa! Enbeen vaLaittu vaLaittu enai niiyaa vaittuk koBNdu puuraayamaa meel onRu aRiyaa vaNNam puNNaaLar poola nenjsam pulambi uLLee niiraayamaa urukik kaNNiir coora nedduyirttu mey maRantoor nilaiyaay niRpeen Meaning

The soul is a complex of Ego and Egoless pure self that the Saivites call, since the days of Tirumular the Cat-Acat-anma. Here it is the ego, the I-ness of self assertion and mine-ness of self acquisition that remains the mental blocks for being one -with-BEING. BEING stands the soul within the soul of all creatures but what blocks off the recognition of the presence of BEING within is this Ego and because of which BEING remains the Unconscious, something to be only inferred intuitively felt but not directly experienced.

Now as the soul struggles and kills the ego -self and becomes the Pure Self then it begins to enjoy the presence of BEING within and with that also supreme BLISS that is put here in terms of the metaphors of honey sugar cubes and sweet fruits. Most importantly there comes to flow the Amutu so that the soul experiences only joy both of th soul and body and nothing else. With e this experience the soul begins to understand BEING as something always in bliss and because it remain completely detached and as self -enclosed fullness. It is also understands that such a BEING and at this stage of spiritual development is that which affords the most distant but absolutely Pure kind of existence ( turiya vaazvu) The soul SEES all but like BEING does not identify itself with anything that is seen. The seeing remains completely objective and detached

O Lord! You stand as the earth the sky and all and falling n love with you because of this , I write lengthy letters and reading them over and over again I languish asking Wont You come into mey presence or my life? . I want You to embrace me and envelope me over and over as if I am You so that in that embrace I am totally forgetful of all else. Bit this does happen and then I hurt and as if deeply wounded, I lament shedding tears profusely as if a river and with lengthy sighs I stand indifferent to all like those who stand forgetful of their own body. To continue

This Turiya Vaazvu is also absolutely Pure Existence and because of which there is no more Malam either in the soul or the body and because of which there is only JOY as the only emotion there. There are no more depressions worries fears anxieties disap pointments and so forth. A kind of immeasurable PEACE comes to prevail and along with it a happiness, a joy, a bliss that pervades always and in full.

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-9 9 25. aayum aRivaaki unnaip piriyaa vaNNam aNaintu sukam peRRa anbaraiyoo nnat tiiya kolaic camayattunj cellac cintai teLintidavunj samaataanam ceyveen vaazvaan kaaylai pul saruku aruntak kaanam kadal malai eGkee enavuG kavalai yaaveen vaayil kumpam pola kidntu puraLveen vaanin mati katirai munnilaiyaa vaittu neeree Meaning. If I become a metaphysically thinking soul always thinking of BEING and who, with that keeps close to BEING then I become at peace with myself and joyous with love unto all. However if I fail in this and let the mind be without BEING then terrorist religions become attractive and I entertain thoughts in that direction, Then I reflect further and become clear as how evil such religions are, I also enter into pacifying myself with some rationalizatio However the guilt n. continues to hit me and I forsaking family life and all the comforts of such a life, decide to become a mendicant wondering the hills seasides and forests eating the fruits grass dried leaves and so forth. Still restless I roll over the temple precincts as if a pot holding the Moon foremost in my thought

This must have been a personal experience of Tayumanavar for he exclaims that it is this joy that he experiences and which is a gift of BEING that moves him to worship Him shedding tears and with only flowers on his hands to offer to BEING by way f expressing his gratitude.

Tayumanavar is certainly neither atheistic nor agnostic. BEING as God is very real but what does not exist for him anymore are the restrictive religions and which are the stuff of the ego world, Once the ego-self is destroyed and the self made the Pure Self, the soul also transcends all religions. The soul becomes like BEING, abov all religions which promote only conflicts and e combats because of the presence of ego of man there.

4.

26.

Neeree taan uravu pakal kiidaa vaNNam Nittam varavuG kaLai inniliakkee vaittaay Aaree aGkavar perumai ennee! Ebpeen adukinRa kaaRRee! Nii yaaraalee taan peeraatee suzalkinRaay? Enpeen vantu peykinRa mukilkaL! Em perumaanum poola taaraaLamaakak karuNai poziyac ceytynj saatajam ennee! Karutic saaRRym enbeen. Meaning: Taking the whole of the Cosmos as the genuine scripture and reading the various unfailing regularities like days and nights with the arrival and demise of the Sun, I exclaim how great BEING is to establish this Nuhati (regularities) in the cosmos. O the wind that keeps on blowing so regularly ! With the help of whom you blow without deviating ever from your regularities? I will exclaim. And with regard to the dark clouds that shower rains like the love and kindness of BEING, I also marvel at the kindness that makes BEING force such munificence in nature. O you (ignorant fools who take wordy scriptures as the final WOTD of God and fight among yourselves! Bitterly ) consider the visible cosmos and tell me about BEING by studying it. 27 karutariya viBBee! Nii enGkumaakik kalantanaiyee! Un mudivin kaadciyaaka varu PoruL eppadi irukkum? Collaay! Enbeen maNNee! Un mudivil etu vayaGkum aaGkee rturiya aRivudaic ceedan iiRRin uNmai collaanoo? Co;! enbeen surutiyee nii iruvaraip poola anaivarukkum uNamaiyaana mun uraiyanRoo? Un mudivai urai nii enbeen MeaningL In a mood for metaphysical interroghations, I will ask the Vast Space : You have spread out everywhere as the constiner of all particulars. But deep within you what stuff holds as the very limit, Cnb you tell me what? And O the Earth! At the lowest basis of you what remains as the foundation? Will the Aitcedan that becomes available only for distanr transducytive perception, disclose the truth that he is the very limit of the earth? And turning towards the scriptures I will ask: Is not what you say towatds some and all simply a forward a preface and hence not at all something final? You tell me for sure yout conclusion and so foirth

But despite all these Tayumanavar notes a Great Mystery always surrounding this BEING and because of which the genuine meditations should be directed not upon streamlining the thought processes so that there are no disturbances (as some Buddhists recom mended) but upon BEING and that too to free the soul from this Mystery within which BEING casts Himself.

And this mystery exists despite BEING descending down as the Guru and SHOWING the Njaanam that on being seen engulfs the soul completely as if swa llowing it , drowning it in a sea of Pure Light and so forth. Thus BEING who presents Himself as the mysterious and hence the Existential Meaning for the souls that are metaphysically ripe is that which must be meditated upon so that the soul begins to enjoy the Pure Consciousness , a consciousness devoid of any mystery.

3.

To continue

. . . , . .

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-10 28. uraiyiRantu perumai peRRu tiraik kai niiddi olikkinRa kadalee! Iv vulakanj cuuzak jaraiyinRi unai vaittaar yaaroo? Enbeen kaanakattil paiGkiLikaaL! Kamala meevum vari ciRai vaNdu inaGkaaL! ootimaGkaaL tuutu Maarkkam anRoo? niiGkaL itu varaiyileeyum Periya paripuuraNamaam poruLaik kaNdu peeciyatuNdoo? Oru naaL peecum! Enbeen MeaningL: In the mood to interrogate the natural I will ask : O the Sea that has transcended speech and with hands of waves that reaches the shores and just murmurs, let me know who made to surround the earth without any boundary? Then I will turn towards the parrots in the forests and the humming bees around the flowers and the swans I will say: Isnt your task that of communicating messages in various ways? Now let me also ask you: Have you ever until now l managed to SPEAK with BEING the wholly and fully integral reality ? Any way do not fear, one day He will speak to you. I will say.

3.

peruveLiyaay aimpuutam piRappidamaayp peesaata moonam varu idamaay manamaatik keddaata peerinba mayamaay njaanak kuruvaruLaal kaadidaidavum anbaraik koottaRa vizunGik koNdu a ppaalun terivaritaayk kalantatu entap poruL antap poruLinai yaam cintai ceyvaam

Meaning

BEING, the Primordial Substance stands as the vast Space that contains all and which brings forth the five basic elements of the cosmos and who stands as theOne who can be fully comprehended not in any form of speech (langauge) but only in Deep Silence. He stands also as the One who cannot be reached by any form of mental processes but who is productive of

. , , . . . . 2. yaatumana(m) ininaiyum anta ninaivukku niliyaaki, yaatinpaalum peetamaRa ninRu irukku(m) uyiraaki anbarukkee peeraanantak kootil amutu uuRRu arumbik kuNaG kuRi onRu aRat tannaik koduttuk kaaddan tiitil paraaparamaan sittaantap peeroLiyaic cintai ceyvaam. Meaning: Let us meditate upon the BEING-as-the Great Light of Saiva Siddhanta and which is the faultless Paraaparan, the immanent and transcendent Reality. For He stands the ground of whatever thought and also as if the same as all indistinguishable from them, He stands thus with the preexistent souls and illuminates them and where for those who develop and become truly LOVING, He causes the inflow of Amutu, ambrosia as floods within and at which point He also presents Himself without any defining attributes and features so that the soul becomes absolutely Pure and Clean ( free of the polluting Malam and so forth)

29 Oruvan avan yaanaikedak kudattu ceGkai Ooddutal poonaan peetai upodu appai Naruvi vidduk karppuuram atanil tiibam vayaGka viddu, aikkiyam unni varunti niRpeen aruLaidaiya param enRoo anRu taanee yaan uLan enRum enakkee aaNavaati perum vinaik kaddenRum ennaaR kaddip peeciyatu anRee yaruNuul peeciyatu anRee Meaning: There is a man who searches for the elephant when it disappears in the pot that showed an image of it, searching for it by probomg it with his hands,. I am like that ignorant fool and my understanding is like pure water polluted with salts and because of which I worship lightingup bright flames seeking to become ome with that bright Light to free myself from the pollutants. Seeing my sufferings in all these attempts BEING, always with Grace discloses Himself and indulges in direct spiritual pedagogy where the Fundamantal Ontol gy is disclosed. BEING tells o me that I the soul was already there just like BEING only that while BEING is absolutely Pure and Clean . I am not -- I am polluted with Malam and such other fetters. These are NOT products of my own constructions but rather axiomatic truths dislosed by BEING Himself and which all genuine metaphysical treatises ( like Tevaram) have alredy disclosed

30. anRu nutal inRai varaic canana koodi adaintu adaintu aGku yaatanaiyaal azintatallaal inRu varai muktiyinRee, edutta teekam eppootoo teriyaatee, ippooteetaan tunRu manak kavalik keda[ pulau naayeenaiat tozumbu koLac ciikaazit turaiyee! Tuutu cenRidavee poruLai vaitta naavalooy! Nam civan appaa! venRa arud celvat teevee Meanimng:

Tayumanavar on BEING-3

The Mystery of BEING that Invites Meditation on Him

The Tamil metaphysical thinking has seen the essences of ancient Agamism, Vedism and later the revolutionary developments of Buddhism Jainism and so forth. The Bakti movement was in fact the RECOVERY of the ancient Agamism such as that prevalent in Sumeria but only by incorporating the magnificent contributions of Buddhism Jainism and so forth. Such developments finally results in this 18the cent AD Tayumanavar's claim that there is a proper object of meditation and that object is BEING, simply called the PoruL here.

In using this neutral term PoruL but in the sense of the Primordial SUBSTANCE , Tayumanavar tries to give a linguistic _expression to Camayaatittam, the genuine secularism that insists on transcendence of all religions. The best word in English to render the meaning of PoruL is BEING where it means the primordial causal ground of all beings and Being, the Existence of creatures.

From the primordial times when the souls atomic with fully enveloped with Malam, assumed a embodied existence with this Malam being violated , to this day there have been millions and millions of such souls who have suffered this being thrown into embodied existence repeatedly and where they have never enjoyed the final liberation of being free from this existential repetition. I do not know when I assumed this present body but now after studying the hymns of Sambantar of Sikaazi Sundarar who implored BEING Hims elf to serve him as a messenger and Tirunavukkarasar who was called Father! even by BEING Himself, I feel that Moksa is possible. With this I destroy the growing mental depression that Moksa may not in fact be possible. These three great souls who are indeed blessed have made me to be in their service by the excellence of their metaphysical achievements To continue

This is how Tayumanavar begins to describe BEING here - that which is simply a vast Space that contains all and which is also ground for the emergence of the Panjca Butas, the five basic elements out of which the whole of physical cosmos is fabricated. But what is important here is that such BEING in its essence is beyond the reach of all cognitive powers, all kinds of thinking no matter deep and profound and which discloses itself as what is itself only in Deep Silence, the silence that results because of the impossibility of Speech and all because the soul transcends temporality of time consciousness.

Tayumanavar on Sitanbara Rahasyam-11(Final) 31. teevar tozum vaatavuur teevee! enbeen Tirumuular teevee! Ic cakattoor muttikku aavaluRa civa en vaakkudanee vanta aracee! Cummaa viruntun aruLai xaap puulakil vaLar aruNa kiriyee! maRRaip puNiyarkaaL @ o enbeen purai onRillaa ooviyam poola asaivaRavubn taanee niRpeen ootariya turyar jkedavee uraikku munnee! Meaning: I will exclaim (after reading Tiruvasakam) O The lord of Vatavuur! You are in fact worshipped

Now at this point the soul enjoys also the Supreme Bliss for at long last the soul succeeds in destroying the ego-self and become the Pure Egoless Self, the Sat Self by destroying the ego producing asat-self.

by the celestial beings themselves! And then I will say O divine Tirumular! You came down with the civa mantra and pulled many people lost in worldly life into a life where they seek moksa and nothing else. I will also hail AruNa Kiri who taught the art of being action less and with that kind of Yoga of Niddai the soul becomes pure and clean by destroying all the remnants of the Malam still in the deeper recesses of the soul. I will also hail the so many other great souls( who developed Sacred Tamil with its own excellence) Now after studying all these great souls, I remain absolutely still in body and mind like a painting without any d efects and in that stillness destroy all possible miseries that may attack me and before they even get mentioned as such 32. 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. Meaning: There was the great Cukar who was ver profound that it is very difficult to fathom his depths. y 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 s 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 abse nce 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! 33. Kaalamodu teesa varttanmaana aati Kalantu ninRa 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 Compassion 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 the I am m. 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 TadciNaamuurtti sitting beneath the Bodhi tree pulling all into Deep Sil nce to enjoy the Njaanam. Praise also to e the devotees who have destroyed their finitude and have arisen with a universality of understanding so that there are no more prejudices! Verses 1-10 Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-1

At the time of Tayumanavar, there were three distinct streams of metaphysical thinking with which the Tamil mind was preoccupied. The Buddhist and Jaina streams of the earlier periods were no more active. The first is of course the Saiva Siddhanta tradition the very ancient philosophical tradition which was expressed with new depths and clarity from the time of Tirumular. Equally ancient and coeval with that is the Nadanta tradition of the Siddhas who focused upon the mantra recitals for solving not only the hea problems but also the sickness lth of the soul, The third tradition also quite ancient is the Vedantic where the basic metaphysical insights of the Upanishads , the Maha Vakkiyas were articulated as the highest achievements of human spirituality. After Advaita Vedanta of Sankara, Vishidatvaita of Ramanuja the Dwaita of Madhva and so forth we have the 16th cent Tattuvarayar, at first a Saiva Siddhanti but later a Neo Vedanti who goes back to the Maka Vakkiyas and says boldly that there is nothing that is metaphysically important that is not contained in these Maha Vakkiyas. Be it as it may , here Tayumanavar falls back upon the Saiva Siddhanta traditions with its Triadism - that Pati Pacu Paacam are anati -as that metaphysical thinking that is true and the most illuminating about the real essence of BEING, on whom the soul must meditate to solve all its problems. Vedantic Atman understood as really Brahman but misleadingly understood as the independent soul and so forth and all because of some delusions, the Maya is NOT subscribed to by Tayumanavar here where he declares that the uyir the anma is irukkum uyir that which is already there and not at all presented as the something there but which is really Brahman , like the reflections of the Sun in a pot of water, something only insubstantial , shadowy and so forth. The anma is Anati, just as uncreated and independent as BEING. BEING as Brahmin does not play a misleading game of presenting Himself in a biological body and make the soul think that is anati and so forth. BEING as in Himself stands one-with and acts as if the souls and all in order to purify them and enable them to enjoy Moksa. Thus BEING the very Ground of all thoughts where unknown to the souls and illuminating from within enables the death of the ego-self and survival of the self as the Pure egoless=Self. But how does BEING accomplish this supreme purification of the soul? BEING stands one-with the soul - stands as if the SAME as the soul so that He understands the souls as it is immediately and without any interpretive moves. BEING understanding the souls thus TEACHES through various kinds of pedagogic games so that it learns, destroys its ignorance and with that becomes enlightened. But what is the evidence for all these? The enlightened soul is also a PURE and CLEAN soul and which because of that also enjoys the Amutu, the Ambrosia that cascades deep within as if a flood. This is an empirical matter and which has been enjoyed by practical all the Nayanmars and Azwars and countlessnumber of Siddhas and because of which they managed to live long and with a diamond body the Vaccirat Tekam. But why this? This brings us to the primary pollutant , the Malam , also anati and which infects the souls right from the beginning and because of which they are BLIND and metaphysical ignorant and because of which BEING throws them into biological existence to remove this dirt, the pollutant the Malam. It is also cause of all the miseries sickness and finally the death. Here we notice that Vedantic Atman considered only as the Brahman in disguise can never be the anma that is polluted by Malam . Since only because being a polluted soul , that a man requires the WORSHIP of BEING who is absolutely Pure and always Clean, Vedanta in failing to accommodate itself to the Triadism also fails to provide an understanding of existence where man worships BEING as God 2. , () :

Sitambaram -The Location of Limitless Joys

Sitambaram, the Paradise called the Tilmun i.e. Taillai ManRu by the Sumerians, is the source of all experiences (aakaara puvanam) and which is also the location where nothing but joys are experienced( inba aakaara) But what kind of joy is this?

Darkness . Thus even though BEING is mysterious but he is not unkind in not disclosing Himself for the deserving and where He discloses Himself as the Pure Clean and so forth and because of which the souls meditating upon Him also become Pure and Clean and which breed joys that are eternal and not obtainable in other ways. Meditations on BEING and closing in on Him through understanding and love, purifies the souls , destroys the pollutants and with that lead the souls to enjoy physical and mental health that are in themselves blissful Now another important aspect of this desire to meditate upon BEING is that it is BEING and nothing else who is absolutely indestructible, not at all the fleeting and transient as all else The soul rests on absolute grounds in meditating upon BEING for He is always there and who despite His various mystery plays, is always there even as the concealed and so forth. This sense of permanence ( niitiyam) that we get on meditating upon BEING is itself something that dispels metaphysical anxiety that it meets with all else. Nothing is permanent except BEING and the soul in being-with-BEING also enjoys this permanence and peace that comes along with it. 1. : , , . , . , , , . , , . .

This is a joy of understanding where the understanding is formed by the recitation of the primordial Logos Om' and which removes all finitude , limitations , boundaries, prejudices and so forth i.e understadninf that sustains the primitive tribalism. The understanding becomes totally OPEN and BOUNDLESS and which breeds it's own joys, the joys of rejecting nothing because of some inherent prejudice. Such an understanding is also immensely Logical, conforms to Hermeneutic Logic so that there is nothing IRRATIONAL in it leading again to apodictic certainty that breeds it own delights.

This experience and thus Sitambaram as such also becomes, because of this the uRu tuNai, the real companion and friend for each time the soul is tortured with doubts and uncertainties, it can always relocate itself in the vast Realm of Pure Consciousness, the Sitambaram by practicing the Yoga, reciting the mantra Om and free itself from them by entering Sitambaram.

But how exactly is Sitambaram related to the world of the senses, the concrete world of physical objects?

Sitambaram is a mantra world, something disclosed by Primordial Logos Om and hence though real but not real like the concrete objects. Tayuumanar uses an analogy used also to explain how BEING stands in relation to the physical world. There are beautiful flowers where we can see the contours colors and textures and so forth and appreciate the beauty. However it also carries FRAGRANCE which we can smell but cannot locate a part of the flower. Thus s Sitambaram is there in the world of concrete objects but INVISIBLE and to be approached only through the recital of the mantra Om. Once the soul manages to locate itself in this Divine Mountain, it can experience nothing but lim itless bliss, the highest of the mystical experiences.

1.

1. nittiyamaay ninmalamaay nidkaLamaay niraamayamaay niRaivaay niiGkaac cuttamumaay tuuramumaay camiipamaay turiyaniRai cudaraay ellaam vaittirunta taarakamaay aananatamayamaaki manavaakkeddaac citturuvaay ninRavonRaic cukaaraampap peruveLiyaic cintai ceyvaam Meaning: BEING stands showing Himself as the absolutely permanent behind all that are impermanent( nittiyam) , He is also always free of Malam, the primordial defiler of all and who stands as also above everything phenomenal( nidkaLam) ; Since He is integral and c omplete ( niRaivu) He is also closed within, not seeking anything beyond( niraamayam) . He is always with the souls never departing even for a moment and as the absolutely pure, seeks to make all souls pure and clean( niiGkaac Cuttam) In order to pull the souls towards seeking metaphysical illuminations He plays a game of coming close and then moving away to a great distance(camiipam, tuuram) but always the absolutely pure radiance( turiyaniRai cudar) . As part of His completeness He stands as the causal ground of all containing all within Himself( taarakam) , He is also ever the blissful as He is complete with Sakti as part of Himself. He also stands as the Intelligence who cannot be grasped by the mind and captured by any of the languages However He stand as the One who begins a life of good physical and mental health for those who meditate upon Him. So let us meditate upon Him as the vast Open Space that contains all. ! !

Tayumanavar on BEING-2 The Vedantic Brahman is Not the Siddhantic Sivan

, . . , ,

1.

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 taug the Njaanam as the TadciNaamuurtti ht 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!

akaara puvanam inbaakaaramaaka vaGGanee orumoziyaal akaNdaakaara yookaanupuuti peRRa anbar aaviku uRutuNaiyee! eNNaLavum ukanat nadbee! Vaakaarum padikkisai kiNkiNi vaayenna Marnata malaridai vaasam vayaGkumaapool Teekaati ulakeGkum kalantu taanee Tikaz ananta aanata mayat teyvak kumRee

Tayumanavar- PoruL Tayumanavar- PoruL

It is very gratifying to note that in the history of Sacred Tamil that stretches a period of at least 5000 years- if we include the SumeroTamil period- periodically there has been remarkable individuals who wrote some verses of outstanding merits and which also constitute a remarkable breakthrough in metaphysical depths. It would seem that the best of the Tamil mind is always in SEARCH, always in the metaphysical odyssey always on the move with mind always hooked on to the DANCE but in search of TRUTH Thus during the 18th cent AD, one of the darkest periods of Tamils where instead of being a vibrant independent and adventurous group of people declined became colonized even by some European power and all because s the imperial Cholas and Pandyas not only declined but also disappeared, we have the rise of Tayumanavar , a remarkable philosopher who also brings to a close the ancient Siddha tradition by incorporating their metaphysics into the mainst ream Saiva Siddhanta metaphysics. In order to give the scholars a taste for the immensely profound and varied metaphysical achievements of the Tamils, I now venture to translate into English and give my own commentary of some selections from Tayumanava I begin first with the ten verses of what is r. called PoruL VaNakkam, homage to PoruL, the MEANING or SUBSTANCE and by which he means BEING. I follow for this purpose the latest edition of Tayumanavar's verses with MeykaNda virutti urai published by Kazakam, 2001. There is a fear in me, a fear that I also feel towards translating VaLLalaar. My translations may not be adequate not only because the Englishlanguage may not be adequate for rendering the metaphysical ideas so well expressed in C.Tamil but also because I am not sure whether I have really grasped the real meanings in all their depths. Coming after the great explosion of Saiva Siddhanta Vedanta and Naataanta literature in Tamil , Tayumanavar uses many technical terms that are novel. Loga

Meaning:

The Sitambaram is the source of all experiences and where there is the source of experiences that are only of bliss. This is attained by the yoga experience where the Primordial Logos the Om is recited and the understanding is made to become limitless, without boundaries and prejudices. Such an understanding becomes the real companion and friend providing strength and support each time doubts and uncertainties assail. It is also an understanding consistent with logic and hence not at all irrational. It exists in the world of concrete and physical objects just like the sweet fragrance of flowers- invisible yet eminently there as rea;. For any one who accesses it and stays within it, it becomes a Divine Mountain of endless bliss.

Tayumanavar on BEING-1 Meditations on BEING is the Beginning of Real Happiness The basic question that Tayumanavar poses himself is : What object must we meditate upon in order to be really happy ? and ends up saying that it is BEING for it is BEING who is the beginning of sukam, mental and physical wellbeing as well the source of all happiness. As noted by Tolkaappiyar ( c. 300 BC) the happiness of one consists in attaining what one desires and there comes a point where man seeks metaphysical happinessmore than anything else and it is this that Tayumanavar addresses here. Man's meditations cannot be arrested into mundane objects , religious scriptures and so forth. It breaks through all these and seeks to meditate upon BEING himself to free itself from all such meditations for good. BEING is such that meditations upon Him brings to close the very urge to meditate upon something or other But meditation upon BEING is puzzling for it is said here that BEING is an Intelligence ( citturu) beyond the reach of mind and language. If so it would appear that meditation on BEING defeats itself as something nonproductive. However it should be noted that this is a profound metaphysical insight on BEING and which the finite human mind will not be equipped with unl ess it brings all its powers of thought and language to fathom the depths of BEING. The defeat of the soul in this task itself is illuminating for the finite human mind understands its own finitude and the immense MYSTRY BEING is. The immensely arrogant hu man ego gets defeated with encounter with BEING as the wholly mysterious, a substance that we cannot understand at all unless He pleases us with some disclosures or revelations. He can close in and become very near (camiipam) and at the same distant Himself (tuuram) so that it is as if He does not exist at all and atheism and agnosticism and so forth are the only options we have However the most important is that BEING is Cuttam -Clean and Ninmalam-- Free of the polluting

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-2.

Sitambaram is BEING as Pure Consciousness

Sitambaram is said to be Cin Maattirai - just Pure Consciousness , the source of the feelings of joys in all creatures and because of which it stands different from Malam, its opposite and which is the cause of all miseries in life. If creatures enjoy bliss of various kinds each in accordance with their own developmental stages, it is all because this Sitambaram stands in the depth of all s surfacing when necessary and leads the souls to enjoy some kind of happiness, pleasures to offset the pains that are more frequent in life.

Now this Pure Consciousness is NOT something to be determined in terms of various categories of Logic- in fact it is the presupposition of all logical categories of validity reliability and so forth. Each time a certain logical measure is seen as valid, say a kind of reasoning , at work at the bottom of it all is the Cin Maattirai, the Pure Consciousness th experience of which e breeds the consciousness of truth

 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Now it is also said that this Pure Consciousness is all alone and unique and hence anyone who wants to experience it, has to isolate himself totally from all and immerse in it. Now this will create the problem of loneliness - a total isolation from all social ties, communal living. However BEING as the One who presents Himself as such, brings together such individuals and makes them live as a collectivity in excellent friendship and understanding. There is happiness in such a form of communal existence and where additional metaphysical illuminations become available making the whole of existence blissful and because of which BEING becomes the sweetest sugar cubes, a metaphor to describe that the very thought of BEING of this kindness becomes the very source joys untold. Now this is also Sat-Asat - a form of consciousness that shows itself as Asat by allowing itself to be displaced by something that remain in-displaceable, the Sat. Now it should be noted that both Sat and Asat are TRUE but only that while the Asat forms allow to be displaced, the Sat forms do not

: Now Tayumanavar also observes that all temples are in fact Sitambaram. What it means is that taking any temple a TEXT with a DUALITY of structure the Surface Structure and Deep Structure, while they may differ in SS's but not in DS - they all have Sitambaram as the DS 2.

, , ! ! ! ! .

33. Kaalamodu teesa varttanmaana aati Kalantu ninRa 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 Compassion 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 metaphysi cal illuminations but who stands ABOVE all religions promoting the transcendence of all of them. I am

2.

Ananta pata uyirkaL toRum uyiraay enRum Aananata nilaiyaaki aLavaik keddaat Tanantani cinmaattiraiyaayk kiizmeel kaaddac Satasattaay arudkooyil taiazitta teevee! Inam pirinta maaN poola naan idaiyaa vaNNam Inabam uRa anabar pakkam irutti vaittuk Kanam tarum maa kanamee! taN iruLil taanee Kani palitta aanantak kaddi peeRee!

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 aboutso eloquently and at least for the last 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 Sanat ana Dharma and so f0rth, 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.

Meaning:

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.

BEING as Sitambaram stands among the creatures of countless developmental differences as the one that breeds happiness (amidst miseries caused by the Malam) It stands also as the Pure Consciousness that shines forth as that which is beyond the reach of all logical measires. It also stands unique and singular that does not dislose the high and low in consciousness. But it stands as Sat and Asat leading from the asat forms of consciousness to the Sat form and in which form and function rules all the temples where love and compassion dominates. O Lord who disclose Yourself as this Satmabaram! You also do not leave me to suffer in utter loneliness because of such reaches in understanding and you provide companions of agreeable disposition so that there are joys of excellent communal living. O Great Clarity who blesses with clarities You are in fact sugar cubes of excellent sweet taste!

It was Tayumanavar more than any other Tamil philosopher who devoted many verses to this theme despite he being a staunch Saiva Siddhanti 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 mnanaatiita koosram, a movement that cannot be captured by the mind and words.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-3.

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 Compassion. 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 mak es the soul TRANSCEND all religious but only after benefiting from each. Thus a Saivite understands all religious, has a metaphysical space for sorting 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 ma ke him arise ABOVE all religions.

Sitambaram is the Paradise where All Religions Merge

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

Here we have Tayumanavar using a very widely used metaphor to describe the essential character of Sitambaram, the Sit-Ambaram, the Vast Realsm of Pure Consciousness, which is implied to be the Paradise itself, that towards which all religions move. The large number of different religions and cultures are like the various rivers which end in the sea no matter where they originate and how they flow. Thus Sitambaram provides the End Location of ALL religions and in that provides a common ground of all provided they are not frozen on the way.

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

Thus all cultural movements and religions are movements, flows and which , no matter ho w strenuously people try to arrest and freeze, it will nevertheless FLOW and merge in Sitambaram, the Paradise and disappear. No religion has succeeded so far to keep itself monolithic - differences emerge within creating an endless number of factions.

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 compassion unto all, sometimes even battling vehemently against the evils in society even in the name of religion,

An intimation of Sitambaram and its essence does wonders for the soul. For one thing it brings about a CHANGE in fundamental meanings that sustain existence. Once the soul becomes acquainted with Sitambaram, then all of a sudden those which were valued s highy till then o become very unimportant, only a miniscule now and which can be thrown as quite irrelevant and

The Tamil culture has seen many individuals who are superficially irreligious but deeply are rea lly so such as Periyar of recent times. Many Siddhas like Siva-vaakkiyar and so forth also such people severely critical of religions only because of the madness and frenzy it creates. 33.

so forth. It trivializes what was valued very highly by bringing about a transmutation of Fundamental Meanings. Once the soul throws away all these mundane desires, then there is the inner recesses being flooded with Amutu so that only BLISS is enjoyed and forever.

. , , , , . ! !

This happens only because the soul is pulled into Deep Silence, the Moonam in which there is this Sitambaram burning brightly and roasting all the worldly thoughts with their deluding and misleading characteristics. The understanding shines bright fully irradiated with lumens so that the understanding is absolutely Pure and Clean

Thus no matter what the religious and cul ural prejudices one begins the metaphysical life, as t one allows for the movement inherent to it, then one is taken to the final Sitambaram, the LIMIT of these movements, the THAT TOWRADS which all are moving . Sitambaram as such is the Paradise, the Realm of Pure Consciousness , that which completes the soul and puts an end to the historical circulations with countless number of embodiments/

32. 3. 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. ! ! ! ! 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; whyand 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 a nd 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 languishing over the absence of her lover. O my Lord! It is Your eternal duty to see such wishes of your devetees like myself and come to their rescue.

! , . . , [ ! , !

3. Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram- 33 ( final) peeRu anaittum aNuvenavee taLLap BEING is Beyond All Religions peerinbamaaka vanta perukkee! Peesaa viiRanaittum inneRikkee enna vennai

meevenRa varattee! Paaz veyya maayaik kuuRanaittunG kadanta vellaic ceedamaakik kaRaivaRa ninRidu niRaivee! Kulavaa ninRa aaRanaittuG pukuG kadal pool camaya koodi yattanaiyun todarntu puku aati nadbee! 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 encoubrgaed freedom of speech in his assembly. In India especially among the Dravidian folks philosophical odisputes were encouraged so that only TRUTH triumphs. There is a tendency for the human mind to fixate itseff, and with that move in a definite groove without ever thinking seriously of other possibilities. The mind becomes closed and hence virtually dead.

MeanIng

O Lord! By intimating me into Sitambaram You come as the immense Flood of Bliss that trivializes all the earthly achievements and attainments. You also have thrown me into the Way of Deep Silence as the way to enjoy this Sitambaram and with that blessing me with the greatest gift. As I indulge in it, the immense Expance of Pure Radiance floods my soul and destroys all the seeds of illusions and delusions and places me in the limits of the metaphysical odyssey and in that quite safe from the onslaughts of the evil forces. Just as all the rivers in the world finally flow into a vast sea and disappear, so does all these innumerable reltgions cults and cultures - they all finally enter the Sitambaram, the Paradise and disappear there.

In the Upanishads and Tolkaappiyam we find intelledtual 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 relationsh between the soul and ip BEING at the point of Moksa. Here we have some saying that the soul and BEING are absolutely DIFFERENT and others saying that they disslvoe all the differences and becmane the same. These are the Beeta and Abeeta schools of thoughtsand which have produced endless disputes and which continue to this day.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-4.

The solution was already there ( perhaps shown initially by Buddha) that in Deep Silemce the TRUTH is known and which cannot be expressed in words. The verbalization brings alongwith it 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 without the soul disappearing and which is called Suddhadvaita, to distinguish it from Advaita.

The Icon of TadciNaa Muurtti and the Cin Muttirai(Mudra) The point is all differences dissolve and the various religious and philosophical disputes will be seen as childish once the soul practices the real tapas as Sukar did and enjoy the Deep Silence and with that shine resplendantly with the Njaanam,

The Njaanam, or more specially the Civanjaanam ,that which destroys the Malamand purifies the soul is the Secret of Sitambaram, that which is communicated by BEING Himself by coming as the TadciNaa Muurtti and sitting below the cool shades of the Bodhi Tree, communicating Civanjaanam NOT through scriptural disclosures but by Deep Silence where there is the Mudra, Cin Muttirai, a mudra in which the thumb meets the fore finger with the remaining three fingers raised. This symbolizes the soul (the fore -finger) meeting BEING (the thumb) by freeing itself from the Mummalam, the three Malas, the three remaining raised fingers.

32.

This is taught to the Rishies Sanakan and so forth, and who are interestingly enough the sons of Brahma, the Veetan, the deity of scriptures. What it means is described beautifully by Tayumanavar in this verse. ' ? As long the people remain fixated to verbal scriptures, there can only be needless and vehement debates quite often aggressive and violent. These are the religions where only various kinds illusions prevail and because of which the people become IRRA TIONAL- not open at all to rational approaches to metaphysics. They do not discuss, have dialogues with the intention of LEARNING from each other but rather like ghosts and demons enter into verbal debates and disputes with the sole intention of DEFEATINGthose who oppose and CONVERT them into one's own religion at any cost. Thus it precipitates religious violence making people become demons who kill unhesitatingly innocent people ?

 ! . ' . ! ! ! . , !

What Saivism that celebrates the icon of TadciNaa Muurtti, installed inalmost all Siva temples promotes is the FREE movement of the mind , using the scriptures only as ladders to climb and then throw them away after climbing. The mind is NOT made to fixate itself upon a particular scripture and become religious and at the sam time fanatical- intolerant of the scriptures of e other religions

31.

BEING cannot be captured wholly by words and hence by scriptures. He is TaRparan , BEING who is the ground of the destruction and regeneration of all, Himself having no power other than Himself as the one who terminates and regenerates Him. BEING is the only Reality who can self-destroy and self-regenerate and hence cannot have another Power supreme to Him.

teevar tozum vaatavuur teevee!' enbeen Tirumuular teevee! Ic cakattoor muttikku aavaluRa civa en vaakkudanee vanta aracee! Cummaa viruntun aruLai xaap puulakil vaLar aruNa kiriyee! maRRaip puNiyarkaaL @ o enbeen purai onRillaa ooviyam poola asaivaRavubn taanee niRpeen ootariya turyar jkedavee uraikku munnee!

So it follows that no matter how great a scripture is, it cannot capture BE ING wholly within its words. He will always remain a Surplus, overflowing all words and temporality. One has to free oneself from TIME consciousness to understand BEING most authentically and this demands that one frees oneself from all scriptures and reli ions. g

4.

Meaning:

() !

I will exclaim (after reading Tiruvasakam) O The lord of Vatavuur! You are in fact worshipped by the celestial beings themselves! And then I will say' O divine Tirumular! You came down with the civa' mantra and pulled many people lost in worldly life into a life where they seek moksa and nothing else. I will also hail AruNa Kiri who taught the art of being action less and with that kind of Yoga of Niddai the soul becomes pure and clean by destroying all the remnants of the Malam still in the deeper recesses of the soul. I will also hail the so many other great souls( who developed Sacred Tamil with its own excellence) Now after studying all these great souls, I remain absolutely still in body and mind like a painting without any defects and in that stillness destroy all possible miseries that may attack me and even before they get mentioned as such.

! !

! . , . . .

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram- 32 4. Lamentations over Vain Religious Disputes

aatiyantam enum ezuvaay iiRu aRRu oGki arumaRai innamuG kaaNaatu araRRa naanaa peeta mataGkaLum malaiya malaipool vaatap peRRiyarum vaayvaatap peeyarakac saataka moonattil enna vadavaa(l) nizal taNNarud cantiramauli taddakkaik keeRRa veetaka cin maattiramaay emmanoorkkum veLiyaaka vantavonRee! Vimala vaazvee!

Many Tamil scholars and who are very proficient in SK language and literature as well, praise Tamil literature especially Sacred Tamil literature for its metaphysical profundity and openness. They always feel and not for silly chauvinistic reasons that it is indeed a real blessing to be born a Tamil and who enjoys the Sacred Tamil literature. Even foreigners like G.U. Pope belongs to this category of scholars.

For the souls that are exhausted with endless problems in worldly life - the dark sea where lurk the sharks of various kinds of cravings, it becomes a real BALM to indulge in the study of Sacred Tamil. In the earlier verse (verse 29) Tayumanavar singled out the trio of Devaram and where he also noted that Sacred Tamil is peculiar in that th verses are of those already e enjoying Moksa and hence is a literature a study of which will also help the ordinary persons to gain glimpses of Moksa and with that overcome many problems in life.

Meaning:

In this verse Tayumanavar takes up MaaNikka Vasakar of Tiruvasakam Tirumular of Tirumantiram, AruNa kiri of Tiruppukaz and a host of other great souls. He says that even the celestial beings worship Manikkavasakar only because every word of Tiruvasakam is a gem, a diamond- words of metaphysical insights that are priceless.

BEING is the terminator and hence the regenerator of all but Himself having no such a power above Him. Because of this, all the great scriptures of words and because they fixate the mind to words, remain beyond seeing BEING most authentically. These scriptures by freezing the natural flow of the investigating mind, create argumentative devils who enter into ve hement and violent verbal disputes. Thus such religions do not appreciate the language of Deep Silence in which BEING as TadciNaa Muurtti sitting in the cool shades of the Bodhi Tree teaches Njaanam through the Mudra of Cin Muuturai on His great hands. BEING is kind enough to present Himself in this icon form and disclose to the souls the Secrets of Sitambaram this Njaanam through Deep Silence and with that bless the souls with a pure life.

Now Tirumular comes to the scene with the Siva mantras and where the study of Tirumantiram would institute the desire for Moksa in the mind of the people by opening up their metaphysical eyes. AruNa Kiri is noted for his famous cumma iru kkum cukam' the bliss of being without any actions and predispositions to act.

This is the state of frozen physical stillness, the Sahaja Niddai and which becomes possible only when the soul destroys every bit of dirt within and which causes ignorance A man has to be . ACTIVE doing this and that he is unable to remain still only because there is IGNORANCE deep within and which pushes him to act learn and destroy that darkness the patches Malam create.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-5.

What Tayumanavar notes here is that a study of S acred Tamil literature leads to selfpurification so that a soul that becomes absolutely Pure and Clean cease to ACT in any way with the impulses to act wiped out completely. It enjoys the Yoga of remaining physically and mentally frozen whereby every possible misery is destroyed even before they assail the soul

BEING Sees or Witnesses All and Elaborates the Visions of All 31. Dravidian metaphysics moves with the dialectics of SHOWING by BEING and SEEING by the souls and which also presupposes that BEING remains always the WITNESS (saadci) of all, an understanding that seems to have been focused upon in the 108 Upanishads as noted by Tayumanavar, who was a great scholar of Vedanta over and above Saiva Siddhanta texts. Here he incorporates the Vedantic notion of BEING -is-the-Witness of All within the dialectics of Saiva Siddhanta, and which turns out to be another secret of Sitambaram. This may be related to the icon of Siva where only a single eye is drawn as symbolic of BEING.

~ ! !

As Appar has noted no creature can see anything and enjoy an understanding unless BEING Shows. This also presupposes that BEING sees or witnesses exactly how the souls see for they can see differently from how it is shown by BEING and because of which deviations, misperceptions, distortions and so forth come to exist. Thus the soul can see w rongly because of the Malam and in that follow a path that is misleading and which can lead to becoming more filled with the Malam than becoming FREE of it. This is the Saiva way of seeing how the souls FALL in the odyssey towards the Paradise.

! ! ' !

Thus it also follows that BEING despite being without any guNas and definite qualities and so

 , f , . . , , ! ! ! ! .

forth, presents Himself as if having many guNas but all good for the soul to see within their limits and in that gradually move towards becoming Nimalam without Malam and hence Pure and Clean. This state of absolute PURITY is also the state of NirguNa guNaless-ness and which pertains to the most authentic form of BEING.

Thus the Eye of BEING is ArudkaN, the Eye of Love and Affection for this is how BEING develops the creatures- making them not only see the auspicious and good guNas but also become more and more loving towards all and hence more and more humane.

30.

anRu nutal inRai varaic canana koodi adaintu adaintu aGku yaatanaiyaal azintatallaal inRu varai muktiyinRee, edutta teekam eppootoo teriyaatee, ippooteetaan tunRu manak kavalik keda[ pulau naayeenaiat tozumbu koLac ciikaazit turaiyee! Tuutu cenRidavee poruLai vaitta naavalooy! Nam civan appaa! venRa arud celvat teevee

BEING is LOVE and nothing else and in serving as the Witness of all that is seen by the souls where even the distortions are seen exactly as they occur, BEING becomes the souls themselves , seeking to lift them up to be the SAME as BEING and for that destroying all the finitude of the understanding and make it expand and become all embracing. Thus the metaphysical dialectics already there in the world and where BEING plays with the SEEING of all the creatures is designed to EXPAND and BROADEN the understanding so that the souls destroy the narrowness of their visions.

5.

Meanimng:

From the primordial times when the souls atomic with fully enveloped by Malam, assumed a embodied existence with this Malam being violated , to this day there have been millions and millions of such souls who have suffered this being thrown into embodied existence repeatedly and where they have never enjoyed the final liberation of being free from this existential repetition. I do not know when I assumed this present body but now after studying th hymns of e Sambantar of Sikaazi Sundarar who implored BEING Himself to serve him as a messenger and Tirunavukkarasar who was called Father! even by BEING Himself, I feel that Moksa is possible. With this I destroy the growing mental depression that Moksa may not in fact be possible. These three great souls who are indeed blessed have made me to be in their service by the excellence of their metaphysical achievements.

! !

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram- 31

. . , . . , .

The Greatness of Sacred Tamil 5.

proclaim and the possibility of Moksa they outline as a possibilit for all and hence dealing a y death blow to the VarNasrama Dharma so deeply entrenched in the whole of SK literature. Vimala mutal kuNamaaki nuuRReddu aati Veetam eduttu eduttu uraitta viruttiR keeRpa Amaiyum ilakkaNa vadivaay atuvum pootaatu Appaalukku appaalaay arudkaN aakic Camamudan kalappum aviztalum yaan kaanat taN aruL tantu emaik kaakkum caadcip peeRee! imaiyaLavum upakaaram allaal veeRonRu iyakkaa nirkkuNak kadalaay virunta vonRee! But what is Moksa here? Meaning: The soul, already infected with Malam and hence atomic, assumes a physical body because of the violation of this Malam by the Grace of BEING. Since then the soul has been thrown into existential repetition, being born again and again each time assuming a physicalbody consistent with Karma elicited. Now Tayumanavar outlines the reason why the great Three, Appar Sambantar and Sundarar are very special for him for despite being a humble and a filthy dog, a study of their verses has destroyed many doubts he had about Moksa for their hymns clearly indicate that they were already enjoying moksa and hence attained the final liberation. Tayumanavar was a great mystic on his own where his hymns are deeply metaphysical and where we come across for the first time the use of the word camayaatiitam' the transcendence of religions, the main spirit of Sacred Tamil literature from very ancient times.

(Another secret of Sitambaram is this.) BEING stands as the 108 and more Upanishads continuously declaring and expounding that BEING stands as the primordial and pu guNa and re where He also shows Himself in various figural forms with definite identifying characteristics, the LakshaNas. But in addition to this and as if not sufficient He also becomes the most distant EYE of Love and Affection where He also becomes on with all the souls making them equal to e Himself. During such states He also unfolds many new visions that make the souls free themselves from the various existent restrictions and inner boundaries so that the understanding expands and continues to grow. He also remains the unfailing WITNESS of all that is SEEN by the souls and never fails even for a moment to guide and protect the souls remaining a Pure guNaless vast ocean of Love.

Now Tayumanavar sees the millions and millions of souls still caught up in this historical process with no hint at all of ever becoming free from that miserable condition. For Tayumanavar this is very highly depressing because a study of such living creatures gives him no hope at all that he can one day enjoy Moksa and get freed from this condition of being born again and again into the physical world and die again and again suffering all the miseries that death entails.

However he notes that the hymns of Devaram composed by the Great Three, outline to him very clearly that these great souls are different from millions of others for they were not only aware of genuine Moksa but also enjoyed it as shown by the va rious events in their life.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-6.

30.

BEING is the Vast Energy Space that Loves All

We see the Secrets of Sitambaram are deep metaphysical truths that are consistent with the Fundamental Ontology of Triadism on which Saivism and the worship of Siva is based. The SitAmbaram, the Vast Pure Realm of Consciousness is the Paradise where resides Siva and Sakti who dance the Dance of Bliss tirelessly and because of which the world has not only come to be present but also MOVE with a evolutionary dynamics built into it. This Paradise is also the only realm free of the Malam, that which throws everything into not only Chaoes but also Darkness.

; , ! !

In this verse Tayumanavar unfolds the secret that BEING comes to the rescue of those pure souls who, having understood how LOVING BEING is, wanting to be united with Him forever and cry for it like a calf would for its mother cow on being separated. This is the expression of AruL, a pure giving by BEING that the Saivites emphasize so much in their understanding of BEING.

As one progresses in the metaphysical unde rstanding of BEING, how only out of LOVE for all

29

that He has brought the whole of the Cosmos and keep on Dancing staying deep within so that the souls EVOLVE by becoming Pure and Clean, it is also overcome with LOVE unto BEING, the Bakti and which makes it desire nothing but being-with-BEING to feel more secure and comfortable. Thus desire for Being-with-BEING with a non-alienable oneness of the genuine Bakti, is the final outcome of genuine metaphysical life and at which point BEING also discloses Himself and comes to the RESCUE of these souls crying in genune Bakti.

Oruvan avan yaanaikedak kudattu ceGkai Ooddutal poonaan peetai upodu appai Naruvi vidduk karppuuram atanil tiibam vayaGka viddu, aikkiyam unni varunti niRpeen aruLaidaiya param enRoo anRu taanee yaan uLan enRum enakkee aaNavaati perum vinaik kaddenRum ennaaR kaddip peeciyatu anRee yaruNuul peeciyatu anRee When the soul becomes aware of all the plays of BEING whereby the souls enjoy the various types of differentiated consciousness along with a desire to rise above all these and enjoy a unitary consciousness, it is moved to see BEING as One who is wholly LOVE. This understanding is that which generates the Bakti that also brings BEING to grant the souls a ONENESS that breeds the most secure feeling, offsetting all fears anxieties and so forth BEING , originally undifferentiated Pure Energy generates the immensely differentiated individual things along with a sense of inclusive wholeness, a unitary understanding of all. This energy also becomes the Light of differentiated consciousness and which brings along with it the ethical competence to judge what is right what is wrong and so forth. This differentiated consciousness is also the basis for the birth of time consciousness and hence historical understanding. But what is genuine understanding of BEING that will make this a reality?

Meaning:

There is a man who searches for the elephant when it disappears in the pot that showed an image of it, searching for it by probing it with his hands. I am like that ignorant fool and my understanding is like pure water polluted with salt and because of which I worship lighting up bright flames seeking to become one with that bright Light to free myself from the pollutan ts. Seeing my sufferings in all these attempts BEING, always with Grace discloses Himself and indulges in direct spiritual pedagogy where the Fundamantal Ontology is disclosed. BEING tells me that I the soul was already there just like BEING only that whie BEING is absolutely Pure and l Clean . I am not -- I am polluted with Malam and such other fetters. These are NOT products of my own constructions but rather axiomatic truths dislosed by BEING Himself and which all genuine metaphysical treatises ( like Te varam) have alredy disclosed.

6.

! ! !

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram- 30 : Devaram and the Moksa Experience . , , . . , , . ,, .

The burst of Bakti literature, the core of Sacred Tamil compiled into the massive Devaram and Divvya Prabantam are the greatest achievements of the spiritual mind where they were sung not just by ordinary religious souls but by those who were already enjoying Moksa though still embodied. Thus the MEANINGS of the hymns are related to the Final Liberation and no one can really appreciate the profundity unless they also have a clear grasp of Moksa and its human possibility.

Since the days these hymns were sing they have displaced the Vedas by the universality they

6.

Now the questions that Tayumanavar poses here are : Why many philosophers have failed to come to Fumdamental Ontology such as in Saivism? And how is that one is convinced of its truth?

onRaakip palavaakip palavaak kaNda oLiyaaki veLiyaaki uruvamaaki nanRaaki tiitaaki maRRumaaki naasamudan uRpatti naNNaataaki inRaaki naaLaiyumaay meelumaana entaiyee@ emmaanee@ enRu enRu eeGkik kanRaakikk kataRinaarkkuk ceetaavaki kaditinil vantu aruL kuuruG karauNai viNNee! Now as we progress along these lines then BEING himself appears as a kind of Guru and instructs on the essences of Fundamental Ontplogy - that the souls are just anaati as BEING but where while the souls remain infected wth Malam, BEING is not. He also clatifies by various pedagogic movements that the essence of Fundamental Ontology as such are NOT imaginative constructions but rather verbaliszations of Axiomatic Truths, the truths that are universal and already there in the soul of all. Our understanding is not pure- it is polluted with Malam just as the sea water is polluted by the salt. It is because of this that we light up bright lamps during our worship and seek to dissolve out understanding in that Pure Light and by which device we seek to becom Pure and Clean. e Here Tayumavar sees that most of the metaphysical studies are false studies where they take the image of an elephant reflected in a pot as the real elep hant and investigate it. The metaphysicians who preoccupy with shadows and not realuty, will not find out the fubndamental ontology. This includes even the positive scientists who establish a mental block against anything non- phyrical,

Meaning:

BEING as Pure Energy (Sakti) became differentiated into many as well the unitary One. There is also the differentiation of the Light of Consciousness along with these differentiated individual things that also becomes the vast inclusive Space. This differentiated consciousness also enables the ethical judgments of right and wrong that guide the evolution of the souls There is also the generation of Time Consciousness that makes the understanding historical and so forth. Now BEING remains despite the destruction and regenerations that He installs everywhere and in everything, Free of it with no power above to destroy and regenerate Him. When the souls understand such a great munificence of BEING and the Supreme Love he has for the creatures and because of which He does all these, they cry to be wholly united with Him out of Bakti just like a calf would seek out to be with its mother cow once alienated. On hearing such genuine cries BEING also very promptly comes to rescue of these souls doing all that is necessary to alleviate their pains and sufferings.

29

: .

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-7.

It is BEING who Rules the Embodied Souls

One of the most important and fundamental metaphysical insights thatcame to occupy a central place in Dravidian metaphysics is that of BEING plays and because of which creatures act amd that BEING shows and because of which the creatures SEE and understand something as such and such.

Here Tayumanavar returns to the theme that BEING plays all creatures and because of which they act, i.e. Appar's aadduvittaal aaroruvar aadaataaree! ( If played by BEING who can ever resist it ?)

, . . . . , , ,

jaraiyinRi unai vaittaar yaaroo? Enbeen kaanakattil paiGkiLikaaL! Kamala meevum vari ciRai vaNdu inaGkaaL! ootimaGkaaL tuutu Maarkkam anRoo? niiGkaL itu varaiyileeyum Periya paripuuraNamaam poruLaik kaNdu peeciyatuNdoo? Oru naaL peecum! Enbeen But why this Play by BEING and out of immense Love and nothing else for the creatures? MeaningL: Existence as embodied creatures is full of miseries only because there is this Malam, the Primordial Killer Energy which always and relentlessly seeks to bring about miseries and death towards the creatures. Thus BEING plays with them with equipping them with the body and many internal and external organs so that the souls gradually become FREE of this horrible and fiendish Malam. The souls fight a War Game with Malam and its derivatives and all only because BEING privides the necessary weapons and strategies. As they become FREE of it, they also become closer to BEING and with that also begin to enjoy joys of all sorts and which makes the souls exclaim BEING as the sweetest honey and so forth, various metaphors to indicate the happiness that BEING blesses the souls with. Here the secret of Sitamabram, a deep truth about BEING is that BEING pervades the sourceof thoughts in the depths of the mind and thus staying within as such determines the nature of the physical body, the various internal and external organs, the habitat suitable for existence, the life span and so forth He plays the embodied souls thus so t hat on the whole they act learn and move towards the state of inner Purity so that there will be more and more of Njaanam in the souls of the anmals. Thus the evolutionary Game BEING plays is purposive to lead all creatures towards Moksa and which is full of joys.

In the mood to interrogate the natural world I will ask : O the Sea that has transcended speech and with hands of waves that reach the shores and just murmurs, let me know who made to surround the earth without any boundary? Then I will turn towards the parrots in the forests and the humming bees around the flowers and the swans I will say: Isn't your task that of communicating messages in various ways? Now let me also ask you: Have you ever until now managed to SPEAK with BEING the wholly and fully integral reality ? Any way do not fear, one day He will speak to you. I will say.

Thus even if there is Play by BEING and which may interfere with the freedom of the souls, but nevertheless it is all for the good. There is essentially a kind of parenting by BEING, guiding the souls so that they do not FALL and end up with great miseries and premature death and so forth.

7. Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-29 ! ! ! The Fundamental Ontology of Saiva Siddhanta ! ! ! The Fundamental Ontology of Saivism - that Pati(BEING) pacu ( the souls) and the Paacam( the Malam etc) are anatti is the greatest achievement of the Dravidian folks, the roots of which go back to Sumerian times itself where it is part of the Solar Cosmolaogy that we see so extensively in Suruppak's Nari( neRi) Gilgamesh Epic The Sumerian King List Kes Temple Hymn and so forth. This understanding somehow survived among the Tamils and came into clear words ih the Tirumantiram of Tirumular around the 6th cent AD. Since then the metaphysical system called Saiva Siddhnata came into being and which swept aside the Vedantic schools the various philosophies of Buddhism and Janism and so forth. ! ! ! !

This fundamental omtology, called the study of axiomativc truths (piramaaNam) by Meykanadar has come to stay among the Tamils as something irrefutable and where every interpretive understanding of man must presuppose this Fundamental Ontology.

The word anati means here that which has no aati a point of origin and hence always there, uncreated and indestructible. The substances that are anaati go into the fabrication of all and where nothing enters on their own fabrication. It is something like atoms of early chemistry where they saw every physical substance as composed of atoms that are finite innumber. The Pati is Anati for no one creates Him. So are the souls and the various fetters, that Pasam that binds the souls and make them struggle for liberation.

. . , . , , . . , ,

 , . , !

universalism among the best of the mystics asks: Who has transformed thus? Rhetorically implying by that it's because of the grace of BEING and nothing else.

7.

aruL pazutta pazac cuvaiyee! Karumbee! Teen ee! Aar amirtee! En kaNNee! Ariya vaan PoruL anaittaiyum tarum poruLee! karuNai niiGkaap puuraNmaay ninRa onRee! Punita vaazvee! Karutariya karuttinud karuttaay meevik Kaalamum teesamaum vakuttuk karuviyaati vovinaiayuG kuuddi uyirt tiraLai yaaddum vizup poruLee! Yaan colum viNNapaG keeLee!

Now the humming bees the chirping parrots and the swans that go as messengers are perhaps metaphors for different kinds of religious people bent on mantra recitals. The bees surround flowers in search of the honey there. Thus there are people who would hum various kinds of mantras but for gaining something they desire. The mantra recital becomes a tool for gaining what would please them. The parrots chirp blissfully and perhaps in this res emble the vain chatter or noisy mantra recitals of people who cannot practice silence. The swans are the messengers and hence the kinds of people who are like the priests mediums and so forth- the message carriers - they communicate the wishes of the ordinary people to the gods.

But all these are indirect communication for Tayumanavar and hence always interpretive and hence not absolutely authoritative. He mentions that DIRECT COMMUNICATION with BEING is possible and as one pursues in all these ways of communicating directly with BEING, there will come a day where BEING will grace with direct communication, a kind of communication that Tirumular called Sunya Sambashanai- conversation in Deep Silence.

28.

Meaning:

(This is another secret of Sitambaram) For the devoted souls BEING appears as the fruit ripened with Love and Compassion, who tastes sweet like sugarcane the choice honey a so nd forth. On top of it all, He is the source of Ambrosia who endears to the suffering souls by removing their sufferings. He is also the One who blesses the souls with the rare celestial gifts of all kinds, remaining with Love and Care not diminishing at all. Staying in the depths of all souls seeks to implant good thoughts that would lead to a loving kind of life, good and pure. Staying deep within the souls, He also regulates the processes so that the souls get a body with the necessary internal and external organs, a suitable habitat and a life -span quite suited to the kind of life granted. BEING as the Great and Noble Thing plays the souls thus only to lead them towards a life full of joys. Such a BEING will surely listen to my requests to allevi ate my existential miseries.

?' . ! ! ? ? '

________ _________________________________________________________________

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-8

, ! ? ' ! ! ! ? ? , : '

Transductive Perceptions and the Attainment of Mo ksa 28. Tayumanavar ranges very wide here and seeks to explain how the great devas the various puraNic figures the Vedic Rishies the innumerable Siddhas and so forth attained various Siddhies and the intermediate mukkties and finally the total releasemen and which is the real t Moksa.

uraiyiRantu perumai peRRu tiraik kai niiddi olikkinRa kadalee! Iv vulakanj cuuzak

maNNee! Un mudivil etu vayaGkum aaGkee rturiya aRivudaic ceedan iiRRin uNmai collaanoo? Co;! enbeen surutiyee nii iruvaraip poola anaivarukkum uNamaiyaana mun uraiyanRoo? Un mudivai urai nii enbeen But what is the secret that is unfolded here? MeaningL All these celestial and divine human beings had their Third Eye opened and through that BEING discloses Himself and the games He plays in the world so that these beings are very very sure as if the fruit in their very palms, a metaphor in Tamil to point out indubitablty, apodictic certainly i and so forth. The secret of Sitambaram here is how the devas Rishies the mighty kings like Manu and so forth attained Moksa and on the way also enjoyed some psychic powers that make them quite outstanding in many ways. Such figures re main there not only highly praised but also worshipped by people taking them as models on how to live. To this list we can also add the Nayanmars and Azqars who were also granted Moksa.

In a mood for metaphysical interroghations, I will ask the Vast Space : You have spread out everywhere as the container of all particulars. But deep within you what stuff holds as the very limit, Cnb you tell me what? And O the Earth! At the lowest basis of you what remains as the foundation? Will the Aitcedan that becomes available only for distanr transductive perception, disclose the truth that he is the very limit of the earth? And turning towards the scriptures I will ask: Is not what you say towatds some and all simply a forward a preface and hence not at all something final? You tell me for sure yout conclusions and so forth

The vision of the Third Eye is what we call Transductive Perceptions (TD) , the Vinjnjaank Kaadci also called the Yogak kaadci and so forth. Such capabilities or Siddhies remain there as the potential for all and with which they will be blessed provided they strive to gain the Njaanam through becoming less and less infected with Malam. The existence only with the sensory perceptions and ordinary cognitive processes will continue till the Third Eye is opened and TD becomes also possible,

But why is this so important?

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-28.

The secrets of existence , the various dramas and games BEING plays as Siva -Sakti can be witnessed and understood only during the course of such visions and where the contents become the substance of real mythologies that may become corrupted by the human intellect incapable of TD.

Some Day BEING will Speak to You The souls that enjoy TD witness BEING through the games He plays and interpreting the meaning of these dramas, gain an understanding that leads them toenjoy the Njaanam- that which dispels the presence of the Malam. As the soul becomes purer and purer with dispelling more and more of the Killing Malam, there comes to prevail more and more of Njaanam and which finally leads to being blessed with Moksa itself - the final anf total releasement so that the soul is freed from further embodiments and phenomenal circulations.

One of the peculiar features of Tamil Saivism and VasihNavims as we gleans gtom the very extensive Sacred Tamil literature is that there will come a point in the spiritual devopment where the Bakta can converse directly with BEING and clarify all his doubts so that there are no uncertainties whatsoever.

In the modern context this claim may sound absurd but this was the way religion was practiced in the ancient times where someone will get into a trance to the beat of drums and will allow the soul and body to be possessed by the gods who then will speak out using the faculties available in the body of the person for such purposes. This is the phenomenin of aaveesam, still to be observed as part of village rituals in many parts of Tamil Nadu. It is also quite common among many people throughout the world. At higher levels it becomes a kind of Ypg as we a already see in Sumerian literature itself.

8.

Here Tayumanavar may be speaking metaphorically about various religious people using the ocean parrots honey bees swans that are natural objects.

The sea only murmurs and in that has lost the capa city for what is called the Vaikari form of speech, the speech of normal verbal communication. It only murmurs and which is a metaphor for mantra recitals. Such souls who transcend ordinary speech and recite only mantras are also universal in outlook- they rise above the communal, national linguistic and religious boundaries and have in mind the whole of the world as a singleton. Now Tayumanavar having noted this

He notes here that there is Suruti , metaphysically iiluminating scrioptures and which are held by some as infallible and so forth and with that freeze their mind and become fixated like so many Vedists in India. However he notes that the Suruti is only a Mun Urai a preface a forwatd a preliminary description and hence not the final. No scripture of any words can ever embody BEING, the forever transcendent.

. But a preface towards what? . , . , .

It is towards the interrogation of Nature and in this verse he interrogates the Vast Container Space and the Earth , the solid mass that fills the Space. It is interesting that Tayumanavar sees the Aticedam the huge snake at the roots of everything solid like earth. Noting that Aticedan is the symbol of the largest foundation of Energy itself, it follows that Tayymanavar hints that the soild masses that fill the Space and the vast containe space itself are transforms r of Pure Energy. The Kundalini Sakti, the huge Snake, the Usumgal of the Sumerians and which is a form of In-anna the Mother Goddess.

8.

27.

ViNNavr intiran mutaloor naarataati viLaGku sapta rishikaL an viiNai nallor eNNariya sittar manuvaati veentar irukkaati maRai Munivar ellaam intak kaNNakan njaalam matikkat taanee uLLaG kaiyin nellik kabipool kaadiyaakat tiNNiya nallaRivaay iccamayattu enRoor cwppariya sitti mutti veernataar enRum

! ! ? ! ! ? ! ? !

Meaning:

There are the celestial beings like Indra Nar ada the bright Sapta Rigies the Gandaravs who string the VeeNa , the innumerable Siddhas, the great kings like Manu , the Vedic rishies and so forth. All these great beings, human and celestial attained everlasting fame in the wide world only because BEING opened up their Third Eye and let them witness directly the various games He plays and through which He manages the world. There is authentic understanding developed though such means and which leads to the gaining of Njaanam with apodictic certainty as if the fruit is already in the palms . Such an understanding also blesses them with the various kinds of Sitthies that are difficult to describe and finally the Moksa itself.

, , ! : . , . ! ; , . ? : ,

27 karutariya viBBee! Nii enGkumaakik Why Astrology is Highly Misleading and Harmful kalantanaiyee! Un mudivin kaadciyaaka varu PoruL eppadi irukkum? Collaay! Enbeen As I gain more and more metaphysical insights by an intensive study of Sacred Tamil , I also

Meaning:

find myself disagreeing more and more violently with Vedic Astrology and such other pseudo sciences.

Taking the whole of the Cosmos as the genuine scripture and reading the various unfailing regularities like days and nights with the arrival and demise of the Sun, I exclaim how great BEING is to establish this Niyati (regularities) in the cosmos. O the wind that keeps on blowing so regularly ! With the help of whom you blow without deviating ever from your regularities? I will exclaim. And with regard to the dark clouds that shower rains like the love and kindne of ss BEING, I also marvel at the kindness that makes BEING force such munificence in nature. O you (ignorant fools who take wordy scriptures as the final WORD of God and fight among yourselves Bitterly ) consider the visible cosmos and tell me about BE ING by studying it.

I just completed the study of some verses of Tayumanavar's Secrets of Sitambaram and which again opened up my eyes with regard to the True Way,, the San Maarkkam and which is definitely not the Way of Vedic Astrology and so forth. The present day Hindu life including that of Tamils appears to me so corrupted with sup erstitious belief systems that the True Hinduism is hardly visible as a living reality.

My present comments follow my study of Tayumanavar at :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/24149

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-27.

You can see that Tayumanavar also includes the Vedic Rishies as one those groups of people who enjoyed Transductive Perceptions and in which they also gain an understanding of BEING that is beyond any doubts and so forth. Such an understanding also bestows them with various kinds of psychic powers and quasi muktis and where finally the Real Moksa is granted.

The Metaphysical Interrogations

One of the chief features of Tamil Saivism is the continuous battle with the possible fixation of the mind and hence the dangers of becoming closed and in that dead. A new metaphysical insight is wrested out by a gited individual and after which a school or a darsana is fabricated and with that a cult is born where the whole intial insifht is frozen into something like a dogma. The socalled followers do not venture into new grounds but become parrot-like and enjoy tireless repetitions with self enslavement and excessive adoration of the initial hero.

The implication here is that Vedic Astrology not only DENIES such visions of the Thrid Eye but also MISLEADS people AWAY from seeking to attain such capacities and with that gain visio ns of the Games BEING plays in the world, understanding which constitutes understanding BEING itself.

The Vedic Astrology does not make people think that it is BEING who manages their life and that they can overcome their sufferings and so forth only by gaining the AruL of BEING, the Grace of BEING.

In India we can find this in practically all schools, the Saiva Siddhanta being no exception. But fortunately for Tamil Saivism periodically there have been great Saivites who dared to question the earlier achievements and with that break new grounds. Tayumanavar was one such an individual and who also recognized the great importance ofmetaphysical questioning to keep the mind fluid and always on the move refusing itself gallantly to become frozen and hence dead.

Astrology takes people away from BEING through false promises and in that causes their FALL and hence suffer more misfortunes and so forth.

Thus here Tayumanvar, projecting himself onto a genuine metaphysical mind, enunciates the grammar of such a mind, that it will interrogate fearlessly and seek fresh and deep metaphysical insights.

This also goes against temple Worship where Icon Thinking is promoted. As a person worships a deity and later seeks to UNDERSTAND the MEANINGS encrypted in the icons, he slowly draws closer to BEING and when the time is ripe his Third Eye will be opened ip and where he can witness BEING and the various games he plays directly. When further inquiries follow with respect to the MEANINGS of these games, then the Njaanam flourishes and the soul becomes PURE and CLEAN with less and less of the polluting Malam.

Here agaib we notice that NOTHING is left outside the scope on being interrogated- a notion that became entrenched as part of Tamil Culture from at least the days of TiurukkuRaL if not earlier - in the interest of seeking out truth, all persons and all books and so forth must be questioned without any fear.

As Astrology does not promote this kind of Icon Thi king, it becomes very harmful for the souls n it causes the FALL and throws them more and more into the grips of Malam, the Satan (to put metaphorically) and which brings more miseries and sufferings.

Now in this verse too Tayumnavar recovers the Saiva view that it is the cosmos as a whole that is the Primary Scripture where BEING embodies Hinself and the interrogation of which will disclose not only His presence but also His essence.

This raises the question: While astronomy and the devising of more and more accurate calendars and the celebrations of festivals and so forth are quite consistent with the Right Way, but most certainly not astrology- it is in fact very injurious to genuine religious life. Then why the Vedic Brahmins promote it and mislead the people? I believe the Brahmin in promoting such nonsense have become very superstitious indeed.

Loga (revised 8-3-10) The historical religions will soon belong to the inherent barbarism of mankind. In the next phase of development of human culture, this barbarism will fall off like the wirchcraft of medieval Europe. At that point a metaphysics like that of Saivism will come to rule the world ushering in a massive advance in human culture and civilization.

26. Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-9 Hermeneutic Science and Religious Conflicts ! From very ancient times India has been the battleground of many religions. Over and above Saivism Saktaism VaishNavism and so forth, there were also the Yajna centered Vedism , the revolutionary Buddhism, the Ahimsa centered Jainism and so forth. Afterth arrival of Islam and Christianity there were many who became adherents of these foreign religions with a dynamics of their own. Here we see for the first time intense efforts on the part of Muslims and Christians to CONVERT the Hindus and others usin strategies that were quite alien to Indian culture. g Among the Indic religions conflicts were resolved through very intense debates sometimes very furious. However such encounters , though not quite successful in resolving conflicts, led to the development of Tarkka Sastras and Hermeneutic Logic and so forth. ! ? ! !

Among the Tamils and mainly due to the persistent influence of Tolkaappiyam , even religious life was not spared the encroachment of SCIENCE but not the very limited positive sciences as in the West but rather the more inclusive Hermeneutic Sciences. Music and Dance tor e,g are not simply arts - they have been developed as Hermeneutic Sciences among the Tamils

In the Indian cultural world m the various conflits were sought to be resolved through a kind of Logic such as that of the Naiyayikas where it was understood that Brama karaNam piramaaNam, that it is logical measure called PramaaNam which generates only valid and hence true knowledge( brama) . Thus while most schools accepted Perc eption Inference and Metaphysical Utterances ( aapta vakkiyas Agamas etc) as the PiramaaNas, the Buddhists did not accept th Agamas but only the first two. So such conflicts were essentially beyond resolution for each participant came with his own Logi al System which became controversial c on their own.

. , . . , . .

26. It is in the course of such impasses that the Tamils recovered the original shape of Indian Logic as enunciated in Tolkaappiyam along with the Hermeneutic Sciences called Nuul NeRi. Thus each religious system was seen as a TEXT that can be studied as belonging to Hermeneutic Sciences and subjected to Hermeneutic Logic that is inherent to it. We have as the most elaborate applications of these in MeykaNdar's Botham and AruNandi's Siddhyar- the greatest philosophical accomplishments of the Tamils , the equivalent to which do not exist anywhere in India and in any language including Sk

Neeree taan uravu pakal kiidaa vaNNam Nittam varavuG kaLai inniliakkee vaittaay Aaree aGkavar perumai ennee! Ebpeen

The point of it all is that there are NO pramaaNas as such - the soul is taken into a metaphysical journey where various kinds of TEXTS are presented and they are INTERPRTED and a CLAITY of understanding is reached with the flow of LUMENS deep within. Thus any religious scripture can be taken as a TEXT, interpreted and understood as to what they are, what deep insights they encrypt. At this point emerges further insights whereby the inadequacies - if they exist- of the system emerge and thus the whole system DECONSTRUCTED and the mind made to move ahead to a system of thought less inadequate.

adukinRa kaaRRee! Nii yaaraalee taan peeraatee suzalkinRaay? Enpeen vantu peykinRa mukilkaL! Em perumaanum poola taaraaLamaakak karuNai poziyac ceytynj saatajam ennee! Karutic saaRRym enbeen.

As one moves in this way making sure that the mind does not get arrested into some kind of

entertain thoughts in that direction. Then I reflect further and become clear as how evil su ch religions are. I also enter into pacifying myself with some rationalization. However the guilt continues to hit me and I forsaking family life and all the comforts of such a life, decide to become a mendicant wondering the hills seasides and forests eating the fruits grass dried leaves and so forth. Still restless I roll over the temple precincts as if a pot holding the Moon foremost in my thought

fixations, it will dawn in the end that all the religions are only partially right and that the soul must TRANSCEND all religious in order to be with BEING and enjoy Njaanam. At this point the people will also see that the various religions are like steps that BEING provides for us climb up further and that they are contributory in this way towards the final redemption- the reaching of the PEAK

, Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-26

The World is the Genuine Scripture.

Human beings become religiously divided only because of different scriptures and which along with illuminating people in some ways also make them antagonisitc to each other. They provide an identity that makes them religious - a Muslim a Christian a Buddhist a Jain and so forth and which brings along with it religious conflicts out of deep -seated hatred towards each other. The typical religious mind is a highly prejudiced and closed mind and would seek to destroy other religions and propagate their own as the religion of mankind.

Now the Tamil Saivism differs from all such religions in that it does not have a scripture as THE scripture of Saivism. Or it can be said that it has a scripture but it is the whole or COSMOS itself taken as a vast text that is continuously being written by Siva. BEING as the Deep Structure of the cosmos makes Himself VISIBLE through the various features of the cosmos so that is the study of the cosmos as a TEXT that would disclose not only the presence of BEING but also His essence. This view has been there as part of Agamism and which was made central in the elucidation of Fundamental Ontology by Meykandar in his celebrated Botham.

The burden of this verse of Tayumanavar is to underline this central feature of Tamil Saivism. It takes the World as the Scripture and hence does not create a religion like Islam Christianity Vedism and so forth.

, . . . , .

9 The translation of the verse makes the immediate meaning quite clear and hence further comments are quite unnecessary. However we must draw out the implication of this NO SCRIPTURE metaphysics of Saivism and why it is indeed universal and why while religions like Islam Christianity and so forth will become obsolete in time Saivism will not. It will emerge the religion of mankind as a whole where the people will not fall into sect emotions and fiercely combative religions

Ceppariya sanayaneRi ellaam tattam Teyvamee teyvam enum ceyarkkai yaana Apparisaa varum awtee pidittu aavippaar Aduttavanum nuulkaLum virittee anumaanaati

For the Cosmos-as-the Scripture is ALREADY given to us only that we remain FALLEN and cling to some wordy scriptures of prophets rishies and messia The scientific temper of the hs world now will blow up this fallen irrationality of mankind and pull back the souls to the cosmos and its genune appreciation. This was in fact how the ancient civilizations of the Sumerians and so forth began. Now no matter what culture or language or nationality of a person is, the COSMOS is already a common thing. Different people do not have different cosmos as they have scriptures. Thus the COMMONNESS of the cosmos as a Scripture will certainly make people come together in a common understanding and where there is no ground at all for serious combats as in the ordinary relgions.

Oppuvittu uraippar iGGan poy meyyenna onRillai onRen paarppatu oppaataakkum ipparicaanj samayamumaay allaavaaki yaatu samyamaum vaNaGkum iyalpatu aati.

Meaning: There are many religions the correct understanding of which remain quite difficult. But nevertheless we see that each religious person extols his own religion and maintains that it is superior to all other religions. Such a pride is quite unnatural and lacking genuine understanding they keep on preaching the greatness of their own religions and which in turn elicit serious objections where many treatises are written with logical principles used to refute the false views. It is claimed that there are truths and falsities and that th rough LOGIC one can settle the matter. However such disputes remain beyond resolution and BEING emerges in the mind of such people making them realize that such disputes are in vain. He shows that He is the GROUND of all religions and that at the same time He remains beyond all these religions. Those who transcend all religions will see that the one and the same BEING remains common to all and beyond all. !

Astronomy Astrology and Hermeneutic Sciences

For many decades I have noticed that when Indian scholars talk of science, they talk of Western Positive sciences and hardly the Hermeneutic Sciences in which they excelled. We can point out the Linguistic sciences such as Tolkaappiyar PaNini and so forth as examples of very rigorous abd sophisticated Hermeneutic Sciences and which are not the typical positive sciences.

, . . , , . .

Lately there has been attempts to incorporate Astrology as a science, a very silly attempt mostly by people who do not understand either the positive sciences or Hermeneutic science So I am prompted to mention that Astrology is NOT at all a science either in the Western sense with its Theory Experimental Testing falsification and so forth nor in the Indian (largely Dravidian) sense of Hermeneutic Sciences

25.

aayum aRivaaki unnaip piriyaa vaNNam The following post may be of interest to readers where Tayumanavar says that only as Hermeneutic Sciences can religions lead to mutual understanding agreement and so forth aNaintu sukam peRRa anbaraiyoo nnat tiiya kolaic camayattunj cellac cintai teLintidavunj samaataanam ceyveen vaazvaan http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/message/24183 kaaylai pul saruku aruntak kaanam kadal malai eGkee enavuG kavalai yaaveen What I want to mention is that Astrology is neither a positive science nor a Hermeneutic Science but rather a gross mistake that is really harmful to the development of Human personality. As I have been saying already , it MISLEAFS people away from BEING(God) and hence from genuine spiritual life offering solutions to vexing problems in life where as a matter of fact they are not solutions at all. They are not medicines that cure but rather drugs that make people more sick. vaayil kumpam pola kidntu puraLveen vaanin mati katirai munnilaiyaa vaittu neeree

Meaning. The point is it is NOT a positive science for there is NO such a thing as a THEORY on the basis of which some hypotheses are generated where conditions of REFUTATIONS are also specified. When cornered the astrologers specially the so-called Vedic Astrologers end up saying that astrology is not a science but an art as if such a way of avoiding the issue settles the problem

If I become a metaphysically thinking soul always thinking of BEING and who, with that keeps close to BEING then I become at peace with myself and joyous with love unto all. However if I fail in this and let the mind be without BEING then terrorist religions become attractive and I

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-25 Now in saying that it is an ART, if it is meant that it is a kind of Hermeneutic Science (HS) such as Music Dance Linguistics and so forth then we can see that astrology is NOT a HS like these.

Religious Terrorism and its Consequences

In what can be considered one of the deep metaphysical or depth psychological insights into the origins of religious terrorism, we have here Tayumanavar outlining a Theory of such religious behavior and its consequences projecting himself onto a person who lives as a terrorist.

For we have TWO different things - the vast Sky with stars planets and so forth and the PERSON with his soul that has an internal structure and which in fact determines the patterns of his behavior sometimes also related to the biological factors.

First he notes that a person becomes a victim of religious terrorism that calls for killimg of peope of different faiths because he REFUSS to think deeply of the essence of BEING. It appears that when BEING is not kept in sight and the soul always glows in His presence then the EVIL forces take over and make the person murderous. We have to recall here thatthe Malam is a Killer Power and when thoughts of BEING are absent then this Malam comes to rule the mind making even killing a pleasure. Such a person will not FEEL anything remorse at all on killing people just because they are different.

Now the sky may have a Clock-Work and which an astronomer can study and construct calendars of various kinds. This is Pure Astronomy. Now a metaphysician may take the same sky with the same observations but taking it as a TEXT with a DUALITY of Structure the Surface Structure(SS) and Deep Structure(DS) may infer the presence of various kinds of Divine Forces but in the depths. This was how the Sumerians Egyptians and so forth came to recognize the presence do Divine Forces , An In-Anna Enlil and so forth and began building temples for them with festivals and rituals for each one of the gods and in different times.

Now one way to destroy such evil tendencies is to pull back the mind and MEDITATE upon BEING so that there is no fissure and alienation of the soul from BEING. When the soul really keeps itself in the presence of BEING and embraces BEING fervently and in LOVE therecam only be LOVE unto all.

But the astrologer does not link the presence of celestial bodies with the patterns of human behavior. He looks at the birth chart of a person, his cosmic address and seeing the configurations of the stars suns and moons and how these stand in relation to the cosmic address of a person , concludes that the time is auspicious inauspicious he can begin building a house. should not begin now to avoid disasters and so forth.

However he also notes that the emergence of such thoughts and indulging in such terrorist activities, will not disappear without any karmic consequences.

There is immense GUILT tormenting the person from within creating great stress in social existence. So becoming an outcaste he despises the normal social life with the comfort of home life with wife children and so forth. He abandons such a joyous life and with the inner torments that makes the ordinary joys impossible he begins to roam the forests seas hills eating leaves roots fruits and so forth. He tortures his body by way of torturing the soul for having entertained terrorist thoughts. It appears to be a divine exorcism, of driving away the evil and dark forces that have taken contro; over the soul

Despite repeated experiences of people whereby such predictions are known to be invalid the business of astrology goes on more for some psychological l reason than anything e lse. When people fail, feel miserable and so forth , they enjoy being told that they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for such turns of events but it is all the fault of the stars etc. This provides a kind of relieve for the person - he need NOT feel GUILTY about the evils he has done and because of which he is sufferung. He is spared such a self examination and in that misled into a false route whereby he does NOT improve as a person at all.

Thus astrology is like opium- it does not cure but instead pulls the person into another disease.

Now it appears that this is not sufficient. Such a person also visits the temples and rolls over the precincts like a pot with the MOON in the sky kept in mind. This moon is a symbol of the inner moon, the Bindu or Goddess and which is the very source of LOVE and COMPASSION. It is also worn as the Crescent Moon by Siva.

Brahminism basing itself upon the Vedas, in promoting Astrology, throws Hindu people into an unthinking lot, perhaps a cunning move to make people unthinking and credulous. Vedism is not a culture that promotes THINKING and DEVELOPING it drugs the mind and makes people mental slaves. Perhaps it is because of this that Periyar started his rationalist movement where he maintained that making people rational will be sufficient to make them capable of rational decisions

Thus torturing the body in many ways and rolling over by way of a ritual, may drive away the evil forces and install the Mother Goddess as the M etaphysical Moon whereby only thoughts of LOVE and KINDNESS will emerge in the mind.

Loga (revised 11-3-10)

We must note here a kind of psychiatry being practiced here. In fact most of the temple rituals have psychyatric implications and most of them were fomrulated by theSiddhas who were also a kind of physicians. Certainly many spurious practices have also crept in.

25.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-10

 Saivism Accepts the Vedas but not the Vedic Sciences Like Jyotisha What we have in this verse is a direct critique of the various spurious sciences called VedaGkaas such as Jyotisha SiKsha and so forth the so-called Vedic Sciences. Right from SaGkam days at least we see ample evidences to show that the Vedas were there among the Tamils and where we also see them being highly respected. But the best of the Tamil philosophers never accepted the arts or sciences called the VadaGkas that we shall call the Vedic Sciences here. They accepted the Vedas only as a compendium of remarkable metaphysical hymns that encrypt profound metaphysical insights and for which reasonthe Kings and others patronized the recitation of the Vedas in the Tamil country and of course along with Sacred Tamil. The Saivism that also accepts the Vedas as useful scriptures is called Vedic Saivism the Vaitiika Saivam where there is a kind of S aiva Siddhanta called Vaitika Siddhanta.

In this verse Tayumanavar compares the Yoga Scieces Saivism promotes against th Vedic sciences and which are said to be MayarvuRu those disciplines which confuse the mind than clarify. The so-called Vedic Sciences are not at all sciences but rather various gimmicks that confuse and mislead the people. They are not sciences at all but only pretences that ought to be discouraged in the interest of true spirituality.

, ! ; . . .

The proper practice of Yoga where we have iyaman niyaman and so forth are immensely rational and such practices are consistent with the depth psychological essences of the soul so that if practiced properly, beneficial outcomes are possible. It is BEING(God) Himself who through the Astangka Yoga shows the RIGHT Way and blesses with joys those who practice these sciences as prescribed by the experts and who write about the various Asanas and so forth by the inner promptings of BEING Himself - here Siva Himself who is also seen as the Maha Yogi- the Great yogi

24.

paaraati viN anaittu niiyaay cintai pariya madalaal ezutip paarttup paarttu

BEING becomes the various deities and for those deserving shows what are good and what moments are appropriate for certain actions and so forth- the caupaana paksha etc. When a person lives on the guidance given by BEING and through the deities, we can reject all the Vedic Sciences which do not depend at all on BEING and the various deities that He becomes in order to guide the human beings. Here we must recall that BEING becomes the EYES of all and SHOWS for them to see what moments are appropriate and what are not.

vaaraayoo en praaNa naataa! Enbeen vaLaittu vaLaittu enai niiyaa vaittuk koBNdu puuraayamaa meel onRu aRiyaa vaNNam puNNaaLar poola nenjsam pulambi uLLee

So those who reject the Vedic Sciences and proceed in their existential struggles wholly dependent on the deities to guide them in all their undertakings get crowned with a CLARITY as against the immense confusion the Vedic Sciences create.

niiraayamaa urukik kaNNiir coora nedduyirttu mey maRantoor nilaiyaay niRpeen

While Vedism may be beautiful but not the so -called Vedic Sciences which are the products of degenerate and irrational minds who do more harm than good for the spiritual well being of people

Meaning

In the Yoga Sciences we can link up the various practices with their outcomes and formulate even various kinds of rules and explanations as we find in Tirumular Patanjali and so forth. Such claims allow for testing as it is being done now. The Vedic Sciences defy such testings for simply there is no rationality at all in them. They are a a kind of games more to provide a false satisfaction than anything else.

O Lord! You stand as the earth the sky and all and falling in love with you because of this , I write lengthy letters and reading them over and over again I languish asking Won't You come into my presence or my life? . I want You to embrace me and envelope me over and over as if I am You so that in that embrace I am totally forgetful of all else. But this does not happen and then I hurt and as if deeply wounded, I lament shedding tears profusely as if a river and with lengthy sighs I stand indifferent to all like those who stand forgetful of their own body.

10.

 Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-24 The Love Sickness in Metaphysical Life

(?) ( )

The soul is ruled , speaking metaphorically here, either by the heart or the head and it is rarely that we have both ruling the soul in unison and without conflict. Different cultures also seem to condition the individuals differently. The Western culture ( as far as I can see) is a culture that conditions people to be ruled by the head relegating the heart to some irrelevance. This leads to emphasize on analytical thinking physical and intellectual aggression and so forth. Another feature is that we have the downgrading of the feminine with even attempts to transform the females psychologically into males.

And some other cultures do the reverse where the feelings and hence the heart is made more important and along with it the various kinds of human relationships. The thinking is subdued in favor of feelings as is the case in SEAsian cultures.

Now one peculiar feature of Tamil Saivism is that it cultivates both so that along with developing LOGIC they also develop Bakti. It is interesting that this balance is found quite eminently in Tolkaappiyam where we also see the earliest development of Hermeneutic Logoc and which was Sanksritized by the Pasupatas, an ancient group of Saivas and presented it as Nyaya Logic with some distortions and which was further developed by the Buddhists and Jains.

. , , , , . !

10. Tayumanavar so far has been talking about profound metaphysica insights as various kinds of l secrets of Sitambaram but now in this verse outlines briefly the essences of Bakti. This dos not require any interpretive comments except to note that this dimension of genuine Bakti is a kind of love sickness as the verse makes it clear. This kind of focus on feelings comes together with the development of intellect where it is also recognized that deep metaphysical insights are not possible unless LOVE is also developed. It is also implied that the human soul does not develop satisfactorily unless it also develops the aesthetic dimensions. The development of head and heart go together as the whole range of metaphysical illuminations is a product of the Dance of Natam and Bindu or what is the same Siva -Sakti, the Male and Female together.

iyalvenRun tiriyaamal iyamam aati eNkuNamuG kaaddi anbar inpamaaki payan aruL apporuLkaL parivaaramaakaip paNpuRavunj caupaana pakshang kaaddi mayaluRu mantiram cidcai cootidaati

The development of feelings makes the presence of Bindu more dominant and which in turn brings out the Natam along with it and hence sharp and deep intellectual insights.

maRRu aGka nuul vaNaGka maulin mooli(?) ayarvaRac cenniyil vaittu raajaaGkattin amarnatatu vaitiika caivam azakitu anto

24. Meaning: ! The Vedic Saivism promotes the Yoga Sciences such as the AstaGka Yoga where such procedures as Iyamm Niyamam and so forth are shown ( by BEING) himself and where there are joys of all kinds for those who practice them. BEING becomes the ordaining deities of all those objects that bless the souls with happiness and shows (though playing with their seeing)

what moments are auspicious and what are not in ways that are becoming. Such Yoga Sciences defeat the Vedic Sciences like Siksha Jyotisha and the other aGkas and which create more confusion in the mind of the people misleading them. Thus the Yoga Sciences crown me with the crown of spiritual clarity and with that become the ruling way in my kingdom. Thus the Vedic Saivism such as this is indeed beautiful ( for the rationality it develops)

Verses 11-33 (Final) Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-11

Unity and Diversity in Saivism ' ( ) , . . , . . ! .

Since the time of Tirumular (c. 6th cent AD) the word Sanmaarkkam has become a central word in Dravidian metaphysical tradition and which simply RECOVERS the ancient TRUTH that one must strive towards enjoying the presence of BEING as the True Radiance the U dalla-e-a ( the radiant light) and the me su-tt ( Ta. mey sooti: the true brilliance) of the Sumerians and where these words are still available in Tamil to th day. is

The word Sanmaarkkam means the Way of Life (maarkkam) that leads one to enjoy this Inner Radiance ( sun> san) and so it is a Way of Genuine Enlightenment. But Tayumanavar as a historian and a metaphysician integrates within this way, a number of developments that are allowed for and encouraged and because of which it also appears as a kaRpakat Taru, the Magical Tree immensely fertile producing various ways of life and all quite consistent with metaphysical enlightenmen. It appears DIVERSITY is inherent to the True Way of Life.

23.

atuvenRaal etuvena pnRu adukkunj saGkai But what are the different disciplines that are encouraged and which allow for the DIVERSITY of approaches of the human beings. aatlinaal atuvennum aRavee viddu matuvuNda vaNdenavunj santanaati mannavarkaL sukar mutalaar enRum First there is the very ancient Tantric Psychology coeval with the pyramidal te mples of the ancient world with its Six Atara Cakras ascending which one is blessed with various psychic powers like ANima Mahima and so forth and the various psychic processes that come along with them- Mohanam Vaciyam and so forth. There are many Siddhas who acquire these powers and enjoy life exploiting them to the maximum. pati inta nilaiyenavum ennaiyaaNda padikku nirubikaRpattaal paramaanata kati kaNdu koLLavu ninnaruL kuur intak katiyanRi uRaGkeen meeR karumam paareen However there are among these the Njaana Siddhas who rise above such exultations and desiring nothing but Moksa, the final redemption, maintain themselves in Deep Silence an which d makes them be one-with BEING and in that also enjoy the Njaanam , that which confers Moksa.

Meaning'

And over and above these there are also those who desire all kinds of joys in life, both earthly and heavenly like music dance and such other aestheti arts and related matters. c Metaphorically this is put in terms of the joys of the World of Indra. Such people see the meaning of life as enjoying all kinds of pleasures, the drinking of Amutu, the ambrosia where even the heavenly life is conceptualize in terms of such pleasures. d

Now all these though divergent and sometimes mutually contradictory but the GROUND of all remains this Sanmaarkkam, where all such divergent outcomes are in fact the different forms of AruL the Grace of BEING.

When as in Vedanta it is declared: That Thou Art, it immediately allows us to raise a question pertaining to the object that is referred to as a That and because of there arises a disturbing doubt. Now there is a state where I can be without refereeing to a THAT at all This state is . quite different from the earthly and pompous life lived by the Kings and Sukar of the PuraNas where they smear their body with sandal wood paste and so forth by way of seeking worldly pleasures. But Pati who overpowers me pulled me into the NiruvikaRpa Samadhi where thinking itself is rooted out and the soul enjoys a transcendental kind of Bliss. O my Lord! To be in this state always, I need your Grace. Ad let me assure You that neither will I sleep nor indulge in other activities till You bless me with this.

What Tayumanavar seeks to convey is that the Sanmaarkkam is not a rigid and uniform way of

It has been quite mistakenly assumed that the Veda nta Sutras and the Upanishads that gave rise to them register the highest developments in metaphysics in India. Even now we find that most of the Hindu scholars keep on repeating this and all because they remain ignorant of the great advances in metaphysical thinking registered in Sacred Tamil and the philosophical literature that arose out of them. It is hardly known to the bulk of Hindu scholars that Meykandar ( c 13th cent AD) has already deconstructed beautifully the whole range of Vedanta Thinking including that of Ati Sankara.

life that has to be the SAME for all - it is in fact a way of life where various developments, quite different from each other are possible and where all are equally valid as different expressions of the SAME Grace of BEING.

11.

The highest developments of Indian metaphysics are recorded in Sacred Tamil and Tayumanavar a great philosopher who also has benefitted immensely by the achievements of the Tail Siddhas elaborates further the deconst ruction of Vedanta that began from the days of Tirumular at least among the Dravidian thinkers.

Here he brings to our attention the NiruviKaRpa Samadhi and how it lifts up the soul to a metaphysical realm where Metaphysical Thinking itself is stille and as a result which there is d the enjoyment of Paramaanantam , a kind of transcendental Bliss that stays with the souls always.

For, the moment we say That thou Art( Tat Twam Asi) there is a CUDDU, a reference to something and which impels us to raise thr question: What ? Which? Who? and so forth. There is a creation of DOUBT and hence pulling the soul into further thinking. The mind is not freed from thinking Howver when the spirit of enquiry itself gets saturated and with that the onset of a transcendental CALM there is apodictic certainly , a certainty that does not allow the raising of further questions.

This state of being is called here as NiruviKarpa Samadhi and because it transcends even metaphysical thinking, it is certainly ABOVE the Vedantic that get engrossed endlessly with questions about Arman Brahman and the relationship between the two- whether it is advaita dwaita visistadvaita and so forth.

. . . . . . , .

What we have here is a state that is beyond and above the Vedantic and which stills the thinking itself by eliminating the Fundamental Doubt itself, that which the Vedantic makavakkiyas do not eliminate. 11. This Fundamental Doubt can be eliminated only by Njaanam and this is a matter of the blessing of BEING and not at all a matter that can be attained mainly by human efforts. There is no sadhana that can allow the soul to gain this. Tayumanavar , having realized this truth about Njaanam, implores and pleads BEING for His grace saying that he will do nothing else till he is blessed thus.

antoo itu atisaym ic cmayam pool inRu aRinjar ellaam ndu aRiya aNimaa aati vantu aadi tiribavarkkum peesaa Moonam

23.

vaitturunta maavarrku maRRu maRRum intiraati pooka nalam peRRa peerkkum

'

ituvanRit taayakam veeRillai illai sanaanak kaRpakam pola aruLaik kaaddat takka neRi inneRutee taan canmaarkkam

Meaning:

This Way of Life and the true religion is really amazing ( because of the diversity it allows) There are within this Way of Life the metaphysically inclined indivi uals who seek TRUTH with a true d objective mind free from prejudices. There are also the Siddhas who seek various kinds of Siddhies like ANima and so forth and play various games with such powers. There are also the Njaana Siddhas who indulge in Deep Silence and enjoy being - one-with BEING without any fissure. There are also so many other kinds of people and some who seek out all kinds of earthly and heavenly pleasures , the joys of Indra. For all these different aspirations and many others this Way of Life remains the true GROUND of the origins and where all these divergent expressions are in fact the expressions of the Grace (aruL) of BEING. Thus this Way of Life is indeed the Sanmaarkkam - the Way of True Enlightenment.

. , . - . ?. , ,

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-12

22. taanaana tanmayamee yallaal onRait talaiyedykka voddaatu talaippaddu aaGkee

Sanmaarkam is there in the Depths of all Religions

poonaalum karppuura tiibam poolap pooy iLoppatu allaatu pulam veeRinRaam njaaa aakaasattinodu njeeya maRRa njaaturuvu nazuvaamal nazuvi niRkum aanaalum itan perumai emakkaar colaar? Atuvaanaal atuvaavaar atuvee collum

Right from SaGkam days at least the Tamil philosophers were thinking very deeply aboit the SAMENESS that exists among people of different cultures and which they isolated a nd described in various ways. Thus we have KaNiyan PuuGkunRaNaar, the astronomer declaring Yaatu Uuree YabarG KeeLir, where it means Every city is my cirty and all are my brethren. He must have seen the deepest metaphysical layers and noted that it remain the SAME for all s people and that in every culture there are also philosophers who recognize this and work for unity among human beings

Next we have TirukkuRaL (c. 200 AD) so universal that almost scholars of all religions claim that it belongs to their religion or holds the same principles as their religions.

Meaninh:

Now after this we have Tirumular( c. 6th cent AD) who coins the term Sanmaarkkam to describe this universal metaphysical dimensions and with that founds Saiva Siddhanta , a metaphysics that explains, as mamy have noted, ALL religions and metaphysical systems. Saiva Siddhanta provides a framework for mapping ALL religions and with that provide a theoretical framework to UNDERSTAND and appreciate the unity and diversity that exists in world religions. Thus there is a TRANSCENDANCE of all religions and hence a mental framework where the different religions are not rejected as false but rather something that is only partly true but which has within it the most universal and hence somethin the SAME as all g rellgions.

Along with BEING enclosing Himself within Himself, He also projects out of Himself to eliminate the onset of something evil. However despite this BEING always stands as the brilliant Light as His essence and having no other field to present Himself He stands as the Space of Njaanam where shining thus within the soul He also makes the soil remain unconscious of BEING mostly but also allowing slipping out occasionally. But who can ever tell this great game of BEING to me except Himself? When BEING wants to become the self , the s has no choice but to elf become the same as BEING. It remains unconscious of this till BEING Himself informs from within.

Tayumanavar attends to this special feature of Saivism in this verse and describes how Saivism as the Sannmaarkkam can really bring about a sense of Unity among people of all religions and which he claims he has witnessed in person in Tillai, the most sacred place for the Saivites,

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-23

Thus Saivism that enshrines Sannmaarkkam is not a religion among religions but rather that which rises ABOVE all but at the same time leads the people to recognize this deeper and

Going Beyond Vedanta

More on Saiva Suddha Advaita

The great metaphysical insights of the Upanishads that can be traced tothe Sumerian beginnings- that the self has the possibility of becoming God in essence has never been lost in the Dravidian metaphysical tradition and which has registered many kinds of developments and advances going well beyond the Upanishads. The pre sence of the DIVINE in man, the possibility of man becoming God-like or Divine begins with the claim that a mighty person is not an ordinary person but a son of God, or at least someone given birth to by Goddess . Thus we have Silgi claiming that he was given birth to by the Great Mother Goddess Herself( nin tu-da me-en) -e

universal dimensions in their own religions. Saivism does not seek to convert but seeks to draw the attention of all towards the DEPTHS of their own religions where lurks this Sanmaarkkam. In Tamil Nad among the great Tamil scholars but who are Muslims and Christia we see this kind ns of understanding. Some of the best exponents of Tayumanavar are Christians and Muslims and who quote extensively from Al Koran and Bible to show the SAMNESS of thought. This must have been eminently visible during the times of Tayumana var where in this verse he mentions that seeing such individuals is a real pleasure as he loves this Sanmaarkkam.

We may also note here that this Sanmaarkkam , already present in all religions holds the possibility of providing a solution to end the bi ter religious wars and terrorism of the modern t world where even S. India is not exempted.

At the time of the Upanishads this metaphysical insight is recaptured as Tat Twam Asi, Akam Brahmam Asmii and so forth. Here while the Vedantic schools struggled to make sense ofthis metaphysical insight within the framework of the Fundamental Ontology that Only Brahman is Real (hence all else false, fictitious etc) the Saiva metaphysicians, at least from the days oi Tirumular have interpreted the meaning of Advaita here within the Fundamental Ontology of Triadism ( Pari Pacu Paacam are anaati) and not Monism

12.

This difference in the explanation of Advaita emerges in a novel way in the very profound phrase atuvaanaal atu aavar atuvee collum and which can translated as : w hen BEING seeks to become the self , the self has no choice but to become that and when it becomes so then it is BEING who will inform of the matter

Here it can be seen that since it is BEING who informs the soul that it has become the SAME as BEING, the self and BEING are substantially different and that BEING is ABOVE the self despite pulling the self into a SAMNESS of Itself. Thus this SAMENESS is not in substance but only in UBDERSTANDING.

This is explained in the lines that precede thi cryptic but profound expression. For BEING s stands as the brilliant LIGHT that shines forth and dispels the darkness of ignorance. It shines like in the Space of Njaanam, the profound metaphysical illumination where in the limit it leads the self to a forgetfulness if itself and BEING except when it slips out of this state. Thus even though BEING stands sefl-enclosed not needing to stretch outside itself but nevertheless He interferes but only to prevent the onset of the EVIL and which it dispels by jus shining intensely. t The brilliant Space of Njaanam is Darkness dispelling.

The essence of BEING is Supreme Radiance and it is this form that the souls are led to become and when they succeed it is BEING who informs them it and through the language o f Deep Silence as already explained

. . , , . .

22.

12.

sanmaarkka njaanatin poruLum viiRu samaya saGkeetap poruLum taanee enRaakap panmaarkkam neRiyiniluG kaNdatu ilai

pakarvariya Tillai manRud paartta pootaGku enmaarkkam irukkutellaam ceLiyaa yenna eccamayattavrakaLum vantu iRainjcaa niRpar sanmaarkka njencamuLLa yenakkut taanee kaNdavudan aanantaG kaaNdalaakum.

Meaning

. , . , .

The final conclusions of Sanmaarrkkam, the Way of Enlightenment and that of the most authentic reliigion are the same and hence such a unity is not to be seen in the diverse and deviant religions and ways of life. However as another Secret of Sitambaram it is to be noted in Tillai the greatness of which is indeed difficult to describe, those who belong to different religions but who come to Tillai and see the secret there exclaim that what is present in my religion but concealed remains clear and open here. And because of this even people of different religions would come here and enjoy praising BEING here. I am of the Way of the Enlightenment and when I see such a unity among people of diverse ways of life, I really see joys all around.

21.

illai yillai ennilonRu ilaatalla iyalpaaki enRumuLLa iyaRkai aakic collariya tanmaiyataa yaan taan ennat toonRaatu ellaam vizuGkunj coruubamaaki allaiyuNda pakalpool avittai ellaam adaiyavuNdu tadaiyaRa anna aRivait taanee vellavuNdu iGku unnait taanaak koNdu veetakamaap pesaamai viLakkun taanee

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-13

Seeing BEING with the Third Eye

As I have mentioned already several times, one of the themes that connects the Dravidian metaphysics with Sumerian and other ancient cultures is the centrality of the visions of the Third Eye that I call the Transductive Perceptions (TP) . AruNandi calls this Yogak Kaadci- the Yogi Visions and mentions that anyone can enjoy this provided they do the necessary tapas, and weaken the hold of Malam in their souls. What blocks off the TP's is the Malam as it does also the ordinary perceptions where it can be limited partial distorted illusory and so forth.

Meaning:

Tayumanavar in this very interesting verse and quite unique to Saivism that celebrates the icon of Siva with the Thrid Eye, brings out a number of implications of this as another Secret of Sitambaram.

Even though BEING can be said to be not this not that and so forth ( as done in the Upanishads) but certainly BEING is not something not within me. BEING stands as my essence and something that remains ever as part of me but which is ineffable difficult to articulate in words. He stands that which swallows all individuations like Self , BEING and so forth so that such differences do not occur at all. Also like the daylight that sw allows the darkness, He swallows all the metaphysical ignorance, overcoming all the impediments making the understanding the same as His. He makes the self the same as BEING and makes this known to the self not by any explicit instructions on it in words but by throwing the self into a condition of incapable of speech, the Deep Silence

First he mentions that this enables one to identify the m ost authentic metaphysical treatises among the so many that can be confusing and contradictory. A person with the capacity for TP's sees the world outside and understands the inside of them, how they are fabricated and so forth and with that identify the metaphysical treatises that are consistent with such visions. It turns out that such treatises also expound the Triadism that Pati Pasu and Paacam are anati and that the Pati, the Lord is indeed the Power that brings out the cosmos and manages it continuously. The visions of the Third Eye destroy the metaphysical blindness which makes one a disbeliever.

Now as a person continues to understand BEING thus, there is a development in understanding of BEING that corrects many social evils. BEING is beyo nd all spatial measures like width height

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-22

Transmuting the self into Godliness

Dravidian metaphysical thinking, having been an OPEN tradition has benefited by all the metaphysical traditions in India and which have prevailed for centuries in the deep South. Thus we have Buddhism and Jainism thriving among the Tamils contributing imm ensely to the growth of philosophy. The Dravidian philosophers not only learned from these traditions but also pushed ahead and because of which they have Saiva Siddhanta as the most impressive metaphysical system India has ever seen. Th89is has been wi h the Tamils from Sumerian times t itself but has been adumbrated in the face of new challenges.

expanse and so forth. BEING remains an Integral Whole and hence One who cannot be described in any spatial terms. As such He is also Nittiyam, the always there and as the Unchanging the forever the SAME and only because such visions also enable one to see BEING beyond temporality of Time Consciousness. The visions of the Third Eye , the Yogic visions have the power to FREE th soul from temporality and hence time. Only such a soul can see BEING as Nittiyam - always there as the SAME.

Such visions also disclose that BEING is beyond likes and dislikes , that being wholly LOVE, BEING does not show any favor towards some and neglect others. Being wholly LOVE, He also not place, like those following the VarNa Thinking, some as close to God and some others as distant and where these notions translate into various social actions of high caste low caste and so forth with special privileges for the high castes,

Here we see how the Saiva Thinking has benefited from the Vedantic and how the brilliant Tamil philosophical mind moved ahead the Vedantic Thinking where w have the identification of self e with Brahman and so forth,

Tayumanavar notes that while everything can be negated as not being BEUNG(Brahman) but it cannot be denied that BEING is there in the self , always there imparting a spiritual essence to the self. Over and above the ego-sefl the soul is also a Divine-Self with this Godliness being there only because BEING stands in the depths as the self itself but in a manner difficult to articulate in words. Also BEING gradually overpowers the self fr om within so that the differences such as self BEING' and so forth are not felt at all. BEING swallows such differentiated consciousness creating a sense of nondifference but only in Deep Silence.

The implication is that the caste-ridden Hinduism or Brahmanism so actively promoted by the bulk of Brahmins, is a FALSE and degenerate Hinduism, a Hinduism that does not appreciate the possibility of the visions of the Third Eye which alone would inform the soul the true essence of BEING( God)

Finally it turns out that such a soul will also LEARN that BEING is ultimately BEYOND the mental constructs and words and languages. One must transcend LANGUAGE and hence ALL scriptures to understand that BEING is already with the soul in and out without ever de parting even for a moment. We remain ignorant of this presence of BEING only because we remain BLIND glued as we are to the visions of the normal five senses closed to other possibilities.

That which stands opposed to the self shining the s ame as BEING is the DARKNESS of ignorance and BEING in the form of Brahman, the Supremely Radiant swallows this Darkness of metaphysical ignorance just like the bright sun swallows the darkness of the night. With no more ignorance separating self and BEI G, there cam only be the SAMENESS in essence and N which is made known to the self not by any explicit instruction in words but by pulling the soul into a condition where speech is made impossible. While substance -wise different, quality-wise nondifferent

13

When the soul is not ALIEN to BEING, it cannot speak at all and this impossibility of speech itself implicates the advaitic sameness of self with BEING, a maater that was well articualted by Meykandar himself. There is a gradual transmutation whereat the end the self is made qualitatively the same as BEING.

21.

, . , . . . . :

13

kaaNdal peRap puRattil uLapadiyee uLLuG kaadci meynnuul coluG patiyaaG kadavuLee! Nii niiNda nedumaiyum akalak kuRukkuG kaaddaa niRai paripuuraN aRivaay nittamaaki veeNdu viduppodu veRuppuc camiibam tuuram vilakkal aNukutal mutalaam vivakaaraGkaL puuNda aLabaikaL manvaakkaati ellaam poruttaamal akam puRam piNarkkaiyaaki!

. ; . , ' . . ' ' , , . , .

20.

pantamaRu meynjnjaanamaana moonap paNpenRu yaruLi antap paNpukkee taan

MeaNing:

cintai yillai taan enum paanmai yillai teesa millai kaalamiliai tukkumillai

O Lord! Once a person gets to enjoy the capacity for transductive perceptions, then he sees inside of all those things that happen in the outside and which understanding also enables him to identify the authentic metaphysical treatises from the false and misleading. It also happens that these authentic texts also expound the Triadism , that Pati Pacu and Paasam are anaati and that the Pati the Lord is indeed the Supreme God. As I pursue my understanding of You through such visions I also learn that You are an integral Wholeness who is beyond such spatial measure as width height and so forth. You are also beyond Time and hence the Nittiyam, the SAME always. I also understand that You are full of LOVE for all so that there is no one is either specially loved or despised by You. For the same reason there are none who are specially favored by you so that some are closer and some others distant and so forth. You do not practice the casteic way of keeping some denied of their rights and kept at a distance and so forth. You are also beyond concepts and languages and hence One who can be understood only in Deep Silence and at which point people will understand You as already with their soul inside out.

taontamilai niikkamilai piRitu yilai collu illai uravup paklaan tooRRamillai antamillai aatiyillai naduvu millai akamumillai puRamumillai anaittu millai.

Meaning:

Transductive Perceptions and Transcending Re ligions and Scriptures

BEING blesses by pulling the souls towards Deep Silence thatallows them to enjoy the real and authentic Njaanam that destroys all worldly ties. Once in this Deep Silence the soul transcends discriminative thinking as well as the ego-sense of self. This allows the soul to enjoy the SatSelf - that which is absolutely beyond temporality spatiality and directionality. There are no more any worldly ties whatsoever with no thoughts as to retain some, discard some and so forth. Since there is no alienation from anything the category of Other becomes a pure nothing. Language is transcended and with this the understanding becomes absolutely translucent- clear with nothing as the unconscious concealed and so forth. Since there is no temporality of time consciousness there is no more the end the beginning and the intermediate positions of the world processes. The self absolutely transparent does not have inside outside in fact lives with nothingness as its own.

This essay is prompted by the brilliant analysis of Transductive Perception by Tayumanavar , in verse 13 of thr Secrets of Sitambaram the analysis of which you can read at : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/mess age/24292

and where he calls this way of seeing simply KaaNdal.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-21

Now this Deep Silence has MEANINGS but which are entirely different. There is an immense difference between this Deep Silence which uproots the whole of speech and the Linguistic Silence of normal speech and Tayumanavar describes as the next Secret of Sitambaram, the MEANING of this Deep Silence that is cultivated in Saivism more than in any other Indi an darsanas and which allows to promote the transcendence of all religions.

The religious world is a mad world where there is more fanaticism than love not exempted here the Vedic Brahamans and many other members of Hindu sects. So against such developments it is pleasing to hear not only the transcendence of religions but also scriptures including the Vedas. The soul must be Pure in order to realize its own most authentic essence.

First he notes that it is Siva who blesses the souls with Deep Silence by pulling it and placing it in a certain metaphysical space where there is no temporality ecological locality and directional space and so forth. Thus the whole range of identities that are national cultural and so forth are severed by putting the soul in a transcendental space where BEING also resides.

We must recall that Meykandar establishes the TRUTHS of Saiva Siddhnata no by taking the t Agamas and Vedas as Piramanas but simply by analysis the World as a Text and by the application of the Method of Hermeneutic Logic.

This transcendental placing of the soul is simultaneously pulling it from the phenomenal world, the world of many bondages and hence it is also purifying and freeing the soul. This also results in the destruction of the EGO so that the soul becomes the egoless self, the Sat Self, that which is aware of only the absolutes and nothing temporal and historical

There is in religions dogmatism fanaticism and violence only because there is Metaphysical Ignorance. Only the ignorant fools will raise the status of their scriptures to that of God Himself or the ONLY Word of God and refuse to take as valid in some ways scriptures other than his own . Thus the Christians will never accept the Al Koran and Muslims the Bible and so forth. Such a conflict also exists among the various sects of Hindusm - the Vedists cannot see beyond the Vedas, Saivites the Saiva Agamas and so forth

Now this destruction of Ego also results in many other features. The soul becomes non -alien to all and hence unable to impose such dichotomous relationships like i Thou I - He self-other' and so forth. The Other as a category becomes a Pure Nothing, a Suunyam as noted by Meykandar.

However the best Saiva philosophers have also articulated the NEEED to FREE the mind from such scripturals attachments to be one-with BEING. As said by Meykandar(c. 13the cent AD) BEING is vakku manaatiita koosaram, a Divine Movement ( koosaram) beyond concepts and languages and hence all scriptures including the Vedas which is after all verbal. BEING cannot be captured by anything verbal and hence even by the Vedas. They can only HINT at but cannot present Him wholly.

Thus the soul one-with BEING is also one-with all and hence stands non-alien to all and lives moved by Love unto all.

But then how to justify this?

Another feature is that finally freed of Malam as well as the concealing Play of BEING the Toribavam, the understanding becomes absolutely translucent with nothing as inside and outside and so forth.

Such truths are understood only when we appreciate that there are Transductive Percep tions (TP) and that anyone can enjoy such powers provided he practices the appropriate yogas and tapas . He must practice various kinds of Tapas so that the hold of Malam, the Dark Stuff is weakened.

20. What blocks off the deeper visions as well as the me taphysical visions is this Malam and people are religious and fanatical only because the Malam is very thick in their soul. It is out of their metaphysical ignorance that they CLING to their scriptures Gurus Prophets and so forth and enjoy a kind of vicarious satisfaction. However if their Third Eye is open and they begin to SEE for themselves the presence of BEING in the DEPTHS, they begin to UNDERSTAND how the worldly events are fabricated and how BEING is there in all such fabrications.

The souls move from practicing rituals and festivals - the Sariyai and Kiriyai and where the Calendar is necessary, to Yoga where the festivals and so forth are no more that necessary. The tapas are performed to get the blessings of BEING to get the Third Eye opened and with that enjoy visions of the Depths and destroy in stages the metaphysical; ignorance.

It is in the course of this odyssey that it dawns that one must FREE oneself even from the scriptures including the Vedas to be one-with BEING without any fissure as said in the post above .

: Finally it turns out that such a soul will also LEARN that BEING is ultimately BEYOND the mental constructs and words and languages. One must transcend LANGUAGE and hence ALL scriptures to understand that BEING is already with the soul in and out without ever departing even for a moment. We remain ignorant of this presence of BEING only because we remain

BLIND glued as we are to the visions of the normal five senses closed to other possibilities.

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Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-14

aRivaaki yaananta mayamaay enRum aziyaata nilaiyaaki yaatinpaalum piriyaamal taNNaruLee kooyilaana periya parama pati atanaip peRa veeNdin neRiyaaka kuuRuvan keel enta naaLu nirkkuNaa niRka uLam vaayttu niidu vaazka! ceRivaana yaRiyaamai ellaam niingkac ciRcukam peRriduka ! pantam tiirka venRee!

The Destruction of Ego by BEING

In this verse Tayumanavar unfolds another metaphysical insight so central to Saiva Siddhanta that shares with the very ancient Samkhya system the Satkariya Vatam. This Samkhya Philosophy is probably the oldest metaphysical system in India where the roots go back to Sumerian times. While most of the other Indian darsanas developed refuting this Satkarya Vatam, the Dravidian Philosophical Thinking developed this notion furt her. The basic principle is that of the Conservation of Energy in its most comprehensive form. The principle states simply that what is NOT will never appear and what is already there can never be destroyed and made to become a nothing. Thus ontologically what is already there continues to be but assumes a variety of transformational forms and which is not becoming a nothing, a sunyam

Meaning:

Thus BEING is there and if the world is so variegated it is only because He assumes a countless number of energy forms Himself always Pure and remains in the midst of all untainted by such a presence. He also becomes the different forms of KuNdalini Sakti and with that become the forms of Bliss for those who practice the Sivayoga and so forth. The spiritual joys are forms of Energy that BEING blesses the souls that practice such yogas.

But most importantly BEING assumes the form of the Energy that Purifies the souls and with that destroys the Ego that is the source of countless number of miseries in life. There is a special energy form in which BEING settles in the midst of the souls and because of which they become egoless and hence genuinely humble. This of course is the Supremely Radiant Form and which is one of the highest iconic forms of BEING where He has expe rienced as such by the mystics all over the world and from very ancient times.

BEING stands as the absolute understanding and always in Bliss. He stands thus indestructible and hence always there whether other things are there or not. He stands one with all without ever separating and disappearing and His Grace as in fact the temple where He resides. Now if you want to attain being one-with this BEING, let me tell you the way. You must live long with the mind that is absolutely pure as the one devoid of all GuNas Then you will find the ignorance that has been with soul from the beginning slowly disappearing and the soul beginning to enjoy Pure Consciousness along with becoming free of all bondages.

But why this?

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-20

The facr is the soul is polluted and the elements of dirt are ANavam Karma and Maayai collectively known as the Mum Malam, the Three Dark Forces and in which the aNavam is the primordial and which is also the Killer Power mythically understood as the Saitan among the Semitics and the Yamam the God of Death in India and the East.

The Deep Silence and its Metaphysical Significance.

The ANavam also known simply as Malam is that which infects the souls and which is the real cause of all diseases death and the various miseries related to them. The only Power that can destroy this is BEING and who does this by radiating Lumens and which emrrge in the soul as various kinds of metaphysical illuminations. As Anavam gets destroyed from being present in the soul, it becomes Pure and Clean and with that also very happy with excellent mental and physical wellbeing.

The practice of Deep Silence has a very long history in India and we hearthat even Buddha practiced this in the context of many metaphysical questions. However it appears that it is in Saivism more than any other metaphysical traditions in India where this Deep Silence has been focused upon and its metaphysical signidicance brought out.

Now consistent with Satkarya Vatam, it should also be noted that Malam is only REMOVED from the soul and not destroyed absolutely and made a nothing speaking here ontologically. It is

We must note here the CaGkam Tamils have analyzed SILENCE as a category of ordinary speech where it communicates a MEANING depending upon the context. There are certain things communicated by silence and one has to seek out the meaning ofthis linguistic silence to continue meaningful interaction ( as said in Tilkaappiyam) where it is called munnam' that exists now as Moonam Maunam etc.

To have a GuNa , a dispositional trait that makes one to take up a stand , a view and so forth is to be prejudiced in a way. In Tamil we have th meaning in such uses as NaRkuNam (good is dispositions) tiikkuNam( evil disposition etc) and against this , to be NirkkuNa or devoid of any guNas is to be FREE of prejudices. This means to live with genuine objectivity which allows the SEEING of things as they are in themselves I,e without any projections onto it from the seeing subject.

there as always and can re-enter the soul any time. But this reentry and hence the FALL is prevented only because BEING establishes Himself firmly as the Supreme Lig that installs ht Love and Compassion towards all.

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Thus when a person lives long in this genuine objectivity, he will learn truths after truths and which will lead him to understand BEING and be close to Him.

For BEING stands as Pure Understanding that comes along with Bliss and that only when the souls learn in true objectivity will they gradually acquire this Pure and Absolute Understanding. Not only that -- only in the context of genuine objectivity where t here are no guNas that would introduce some kind of prejudice will the soul enter the Temple of Grace where BEING stays. This also shows that no matter how ardently one tries to get the CLARITY of understanding and hence deep metaphysical illuminations, f inally it is a matter of the Grace of BEING. Thus one must first show oneself fit for the blessings of BEING by cultivating genuine LOVE unto all.

But what is the benefit one gets by it all?

More than the destruction of metaphysical ignorance the is what is called CiR Sukam, a kind of re JOY that becomes available because of the PURITY and CLARITY of consciousness. There comes to be a kind of consciousness absolutely transparent translucent etc with no dark shadows or unconscious layers. This also means that at long last the soul is freed of all bondages and hence quite ready for Moksa.

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! ! !

. . . . ' . .

14.

Aakiya saRkaariya uukkattukku eeRRa Amalamaay naduvaaki ananata satti yookamuRu aananata mayamaaki uyirukku uyiraay en naaLum iiGkaa niRpa

mookavuL Maayai Vinai uyirikadkellaam moyttatena kol upakaara muyaRciyaakap

. . , . . . ,

paalamika vaLaru oru satti vantu patintatu en kol naan enum paanmai en kol?

Meaning:

Another Secret of Sitambaram is as follows: The Satkaariya Vaatam states that only what is already there will have appearances and such entities will always be indestructibly there. Now consistent with this BEING discloses Himself as the absolutely Pure and in the center of all things. Assuming a countless number of energy forms becomes the sources o bliss for those f who practice Sivayoga or KuNdalini Yoga. There are the dirt such as ANaavam Karma and Maayai that infect the souls making them polluted . BEING stands as the soul of the souls without ever departing and assuming the forms of brilliant li ht kills these pollutants . This form of g energy also develops LOVE and COMPASSION and which also kills the Ego of the soul for good, making it absolutely pure and humble.

, . .

18.

Vantu en udal PoruL aavi muunRum tan kai Vasamenavee yattuvaa maarkka nookki Aintu plan aimpuutaH karaNamaati Yadutta kuNam attanaiyum allay yallai Inta udal aTvvaRiyaamaiyu nii yallai Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-15 yaatonRu paRRin atan iyalpaay ninRu panatam aRum paLiGkanaiya vittu nii un The Ego and Existential Miseries. pakkuvam kaNdu aRivikkum paanamaiyeeem yam

It is a well known fact of existence that it is full of miseries for the vast majority and for different reasons. The ancient Samkhyas have categorized them into three types ; Ati Pautikam, the miseries arising from natural disasters like floods and so forth, At Teyvikam the miseries arising because of the anger of gods and Ati Atmikam the miseries arising out of the egoistic disposition of the self.

Meaning:

Tayumanavar elaborates on this Ati Atmikan type of miseries here by saying such miseri es arise because the obsession of self with Ego, the fronting of the I'ness in social existence which also backgrounds the presence of BEING. There is in fact a systematic BLINDNESS towards BEING and that He manages all and which becomes the source of en ormous number of miseries in life.

BEING-as-Siva takes possession of the body soul and meani gs and bringing them under His n control leads a person in the direction of disengagement re-engagement so that he becomes gradually more and more liberated. First He instructs the soul and makes it understand that it not to be confused with the five senses the evolutes of the five basic elements and the various cognitive utensils attributes and qualities that emerge oit of them. Then the person is said to be not the same as the physical body the various forms of understanding and ignorance and so forth. Then positively it is told that the soul is a psychic entity that like a crystal becomes that in which it is located but which can free itself from all such bondages. Then BEING says: I am the One who informs all in accordance with the spiritual matur ity that has been attained.

But if there are philosophers who can in fact unfold this secret, what exactly would they say?

First such an egoistic individual will deny that he is a soul who has an understanding of BEING and hence has the potentiality of being a spiritual person. He will identify himself with the flesh, the physical body and the various internal and external organs. Then he will extend himself into the world and assuming that he is the only intelligent entity will maintain th he is the inside and at outside of all. As a further extension of a such megalomania, he will claim he is in fact the whole of the cosmos, the five basic elements as well as all the concrete things that arise out of them.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-19

Thus the simple egoism leads to a madness where he would emerge as a tyrant who would subjugate all assuming that he is the sole intelligent power and that all should submit themselves to his might. Among the Saivites specially for Appar the figure of the ten -headed RavaNa is prototypical of such megalomaniac individuals who always meet with great disasters They bring untold miseries to the world as well as towards themselves/

The Way to Become Free and Blissful

Now we have unfolded the secret of a life full of bliss and purity and which will also lead us towards Moksa by burning off all bondages. Here the word NirkkuNam is used in a sense quite different from the various schools of Vedanta.

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But how does BEING accomplish this? First there is taking possession of the body soul and the various MEANINGS that give structure to the existence enjoyed. Then slowly it is disclosed that the soul is not the five senses or a physical stuff generated out of the five basic elements - Fire Water Earth Sky and the Wind. It is also disclosed that the self is not the same as the cognitive utensils like the various kinds of perceptual and memory mechanisms and so forth. It is also disclosed that the self is NOT the various kinds of guNas or attributes that are generated out of these physical elements.

There are various kinds of pedagogic processes that make the soul whereby it is led tio understand itself as not any one of physical objects and the various attributes and qualti es. From this it is also shown that the soul is a psychical entity and which like a pure crystal that becomes the environment in which it is placed , assimilates itself into that in which it is placed. Thus when the soul thinks that it is the same as the physical body, the mental processes and ignorance that are available there, it is disclosed that the soul is NOT any of these things with which it identifies itself. This is doneby explaining that the soul is a psychical entity which like a ghost becomes what it takes over.

Now it s disclosed why the various pedagogic processes such as these are different. BEING instructs only in accordance with the spiritual maturity of the souls( and hence the teachings hence the religions) are different and very varied.

. ' , . . ? , , , , .

18. 15. Naan enum oor akantai evarkkum vantu Nalintavudan sakamaayai naanaavaakit Taanvanta todarum ittaal vaLarun tunbac Saakarattin perumai evar saaRRa vallaar Uun enRum udal enRum karaNamenRum uLLenRum puRamenRum oziyaa ninRa vaan enRum kaal enRum tii niir enRum ; maN enRum malai enRum vanamatu enRum.

. , . , , .

Meaning:

The next Secret of Sitambaram is this. Whoever it may be the moment the Ego-sense of I begins to assail relentlessly the soul then begins suffering many illusions about earthly existence and which multiply and transform the whole existence into a vast ocean of miseries. There are in fact no one who can describe adequately this wide range of miseries that arise because of

this egotism Now if they are capable they will note that such a soul will claim that it is the flesh, the whole physical body, and the internal and external organs. It will also claim that it is the Ego that remains the inside and outside of all things. On top of that it will also claimit is in fact the Panjca Butas - the Space Wind Fire Water Earth as well things that arise out of them like hills forests and so forth.

kaaNariya vallavellaan taane kadduk kaddaaka viLaiyum ataik kaddoodeetaan viNNil kaappu uur malai padu tiippadda vintai enak kaaNavoru viveekaG kaadda uuN uRakkm inpa tunbam peeruur aati vovvidavum ennaip poola urubaG kaaddik koonaRavoor maaN kaaddi maanai iirkkuG koLkaiyena aruL mauna kuruvaay vantu

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-16

On Why Religions and Cults Proliferate?

Even a cursory look at the human cultural history will show that thousands of religions and cults have come, prevailed for sometime only ro disappear with the birth of some new religions and cults. There have been heroic attempts to FREEZE some religions and with thatstrategy make the religion SURVIVE the same against all odds. But something happens and the monolithic religion for some reason or other disintegrates into thousands of sub -sects and religions. A good example is Modern Christianity. Since the protestant movement there has been new sects of Christianity mushrooming almost daily so much so that there are now more than 40,000 sects each with its own claim for excellence.

Meaning:

Now Tayumanavar notes that such a proliferation of religions gods and cults, each with its own head ritual practices and philosophical justifications and so forth is something that cannot be prevented. They will continue and multiply to the extend that counting them will be like counting the sands on the beach - just too numerous to count and make sense.

The next secret of Stiambaram pertains to the human like guru form BEING takes to dispel all the worldly illusions and purifies the soul of all misperceptions. BEING as the one who conceals and because of which there are so many that are not seen at all and which when the time comes appear in bundles after bundles . But these disappear as if singed to ashes by the Fire in the heavenly Mountain Meru that provides divine protection for the devas. Because of the metaphysical illuminations that do this, there comes to be changes whereby food sleep the feelings of joy and sorrow and desire for city living an so forth withdraw themselves. At that d point BEING assumes a human form similar to that of my own and dispelling all my desires as if a magical deer that is shown and later destroyed, casts me into Deep Silence by becoming the Guru always in Deep Silence.

But why such a disturbing proliferation of religious which also give rise to endless quarrels arguments debates and even fierce battles?

_________________________________________________________________ _

Primarily there is the Darkness of Ignorance in the soul only because the Deep Visions, the transductive perceptions , the visions of the Third Eye, the witnessing of the DEPTHS where every drama in life is fabricated, remains unavailable to those who become fanatically religious. In addition to that there is even loosing the memory of some d eep truths all because the cognitive processes bring their own delusions and illusions. Thus because of it all we have endless waves of joys and sorrows assailing the individuals forcing them to seek out a way to be FREE of such turmoil;s.

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-18

BEING is Always Active Freeing the Souls

It is at such moments of weakness of the average person there comes an individual who claims that he has the solution and creates a religion or cult with various justifications. Each religion or cult comes with a certain ritual practice with arguments showing th they are the TRUE at practices and the most authentic religion that people ought to follow and so forth. They claim that the religion or cult they have founded will destroy the root cause of all miseries confusions bewilderments and so forth

One of the key technical terms in Saiva Siddhanta is attuvaa maarkkam,' whi is used here ch and which means a way of life in which there is disengagement from identity constituting elements after which there is a re-engagement but with a difference. ( attuvaa > aRRu -aa: to be free and then become).

But such arguments do hold at all for the processes in nature whereby such religions and cults are proliferated cannot be arrested and streamlined. The only permanent solution is to TRANSCEND all such religions and cults , learning as much as possible from each b without ut being attached to any one of them.

The next Secret of Sitambaram unfolded by Tayumanavar relates to such processes which are not simply natural but divine but through the natural. While the ordinary souls are left alone to waddle in the mirth of earthly life, those who are sufficiently matured are slowly FREED f rom the various kinds of engagements with the physical world and with that allowed to re -enage but with the metaphysical world only to free ftom that also later. The final way of being is not to be attached to any except BEING.

Over and above the Icon of TadciNamurty where the Cin Mudra implicates this Njaanam and the Deep Silence it promotes, Tayumanavar adds a new dimension to this aspect of Divine Grace. He notes that BEING possessing the soul of a ripe person may in fa appear in human form ct physically close to the person and through appropriate Upatesam, place the person into the practice of this spontaneous Deep Silence and with that enjoy personally the Njaanam that alone would dispel all illusions delusions false g oals and so forth.

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This may explain why many human beings end up claiming they are God incarnate hence the messiah the prophet and so forth. However the Mauna Guru is different in that he does not preach , bring forth another scripture saying that it s the Word of God and so forth. Such a Guru i in fact dispels all such false believes by actually leading the soul to enjoy the Njaanam through the practice of Deep Silence.

Such a posture is possible only if there is nothing there concealed from the sou and everything l becomes transparent. In other words there comes to prevail consciousness without any unconscious layers there. Such a consciousness is the Absolutely Pure Consciousness and which when experienced makes food sleep and so forth quite irrel vant. It not only produces e the supreme bliss but also all the energy necessary for the soul so that the person can continue to LIVE on without eating food and indulging in normal sleep. Since this Pure Consciousness is the most fulfilling and closes all the motivational dynamics of the soul, it also becomes pure in terms of desires- the soul at this juncture has no motives at all.

17.

. . , . . . , . , . . ( )

16.

malai malaiyaaG kaN kaaNaamai yaati maRappenRu ninaippenRu Maayaa vaari alai alaouaa adikkum inbat tunbamneRu malaivikkum viNaikaLenRum athanait tiirkka talai palavaanj samayamenRum teyvamenRunj saatakar enTum avarkadku saadciyaakat kalai palavaa neRiyenRum tarkka menRum kadaluRu maNal ennik kaaNum poolum

, , . . , .

Meaning:

17.

There are mountains of the absence of seeing directly the metaphysical depths (because of

which there is metaphysical ignorance) Also the cognitive processes are assailed by waves of false and misleading constructions because of which there is forgetting the right remembering the false and so forth. All these also cause waves after waves of feelings both pleasant and unpleasant. These in turn bring about actions that further confuse the mind. Because of it all there come men who claim they are the heads and propose religions and cults to alleviate the pains of suffering humanity. They also i vent various rituals and procedures giving also various n kinds of justifications and intellectual arguments to support their inventions. If one were to begin to count such religions and cults, it will turn out to be more numerous than the sand particles n i the beaches ( so that we have to discard all such developments as ephemeral)

intellectual justifications. But the real motivation is to parade as a kind of LEADER to be honored wherever he goes. Basically there is also a desire to amass immense wealth .

Such false religions and cults are just too numerous even to count and assess. They LACK truth and hence proliferate as carious kinds of fictions creating only a false sense of satisfaction security and so forth. What are purely mental fabrications can proliferate endlessly without any constraints.

Astrology and Other Pseudo-sciences in Hinduism

We can see that the whole of Vedic Astrology is such a FALSE re ligion, the creation of some egoistic men to parade as religious LEADERS of a kind who ought to be respected . For anyone who reads the Vedas can see that while there are astronomical and cosmological notions but not astrological particularly of the type called Predictive Astrology. The cosmic address of a person and the current configurations of the stars and planets, the Zodiac and so forth, cannot predict what will happen to a person in the future. The closest we have to such predictions are DREAMS and they have nothing to do with Astrology.

I have been wondering why men especially the Hindus indulge in a variety of pseudo sciences like Astrology Numerology Palmistry and so forth and which are unfortunately very popular among the Hindu-s than perhaps other cultural groups. After writing the commentary to Tayumanavar's Secrets of Sitambaram verse 16, I believe I understand now the reason why men create such false sciences and fool themselves and the people around. There is a psychology of such people and this is what Tayumanavar hints at in this interesting verse.

If it is a proper science then Astrology should not cite the Vedas and so forth for supporting it but establish it in terms of the SUCCESS they have in predicting the events of the future in relations to the cosmic address of a person and so forth

This we do not find at all. There are no law -like statements like given the cosmic siruatiom X, the personal events Y in the future will follow to the level beyond mere chance and so forth

You can read the original post at: Human behavior is infinitely complex and when the Vedic Astrologers claim they can in fact predict the future, they are not only insulting the Vedas by propping it as a support for their egoistic claims but also do in fact great injustice to God as they make people disp lace God with fire-balls stones and gaseous lumps.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/mes sage/24497

I reproduce the meaning of the verse alone here:

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This kind of analysis can also be given to Numerology Palmistry and so forth. There is a psychological weakness among the human beings and such pseudo -sciences exploit it. This exploitation is more widespread in Himduism than perhaps in other religions.

There are mountains of the absence of seeing directly the metaphysical depths (because of which there is metaphysical ignorance) Also the cognitive processes are assailed by w aves of false and misleading constructions because of which there is forgetting the right and remembering the false and so forth. All these also cause waves after waves of feelings both pleasant and unpleasant. These in turn bring about actions that fu rther confuse the mind. Because of it all there come men who claim they are the lradrs and propose religions and cults to alleviate the pains of suffering humanity. They also invent various rituals and procedures giving also various kinds of justification and intellectual arguments to support their inventions. If s one were to begin to count such religions and cults, it will turn out to be more numerous than the sand particles in the beaches ( so that we have to discard all such developments)

Loga(revised 24-3-10)

Tayumanavar- The Secrets of Sitambaram-17.

Deep Silence and Becoming Free of All Illusions

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There are people in great dilemmas and confusions only because they LACK the visions of the DEPTHS, the KaN KaaNaamai and which sustains the Metaphysical Ignorance in which they are already in. These and many other factors like the Karmiic deposits a so forth create great nd miseries perplexities dilemmas conflicts and so forth. At such moments emegre some individuals who claim LEADERSHIP and institute the FALSE religions and cults with their own practices and

Since the days of Tirumular at least the sadhana of Deep Silence as par of Siva Yoga has t been practiced by many Siddhas with many very interesting theoretical accounts of it. If the metaphysical Saivites have been strong in advocating the transcendence of ALL religions and with that provide a overview if all religions where each is placed in a metaphysical space of its own, it is all because of the practice of Deep Silence as the final sadhana of the metaphysical odyssey and where at long last the soul is in total fusion with BEING enjoying the Njaanam that also confers Mukti.