The 'Five
Hymns to Arunachala' are the
earliest poems of the Maharshi
except for a few short verses.
They were written about 1914,
that is when he was about
thirty-five years of age (he
was born in December, 1879)
and while he was still living
in a cave on the hill. Some of
his followers who were sadhus
used to go into the town of
Tiruvannamalai daily to beg
for food and one day they
asked him to make a song for
them to sing as they went. At
first he refused, saying that
there were plenty of songs
already made by the ancient
Saivite saints. They continued
to press him, however, and one
day he walked round the Hill,
composing the first hymn, 'The
Marital Garland of Letters' (Arunachala
Akshara Mana Malai),
as he went. Bhagavan also said
that, 'The Martial Garland of
Letters' was composed partly
at the Virupaksha cave and
partly on my walks around the
hill.' It was written
approximately 1914-1915, and
tells in glowing symbolism of
the love and union between the
human soul and God and is
among the most profound and
moving poems in any language.
Although he who wrote it was
established in the Bliss of
indissoluble Union, it was
written for the sake of
devotees and expresses the
attitude of the soul that
still aspires.
|
|
The second poem, 'The Necklet
of Nine Gems' (Arunachala
Navamanimalai),
the third poem, 'Ten Verses on
Arunachala' (Arunachala
Patikam), and the
fourth poem, 'Eight Stanzas on
Sri Arunachala' (Sri
Arunachala Ashtakam)
were all written at about the
same time as 'The Marital
Garland of Letters' and they
also adopt the same attitude.
Whereas the later poems of the
Maharshi are more doctrinal,
these hymns express a greater
attitude of devotion and
aspiration.
The 'Ten Verses' (really
'Eleven') and the 'Eight
Verses' are among the very few
poems of the Maharshi that
were written quite
spontaneously without any
request. As he himself said
when speaking of them:
"The only poems
that came to me
spontaneously and
compelled me, as it were,
to write them without any
one urging me to do so are
the 'Eleven (Ten) Stanzas
to Sri Arunachala' and the
'Eight Stanzas to Sri
Arunachala'. The opening
words of the 'Eleven
Stanzas' came to me one
morning and even though I
tried to suppress them
saying 'What have I to do
with these words?' they
would not be suppressed
till I composed a
song bringing them in; and
all the words flowed
easily, without any
effort. In the same way
the second stanza was made
the next day and the
succeeding ones the
following days, one each
day. Only the tenth and
eleventh were composed the
same day."
And describing how he composed
the 'Eight Stanzas', said:
"The next day I
started out to go round
the hill. Palaniswami was
not with me for a while
but caught me up later.
That day, before I got
back to Virupaksha, I
wrote six of the eight
stanzas. Either that
evening or the next day
Narayana Reddi came. He
was at that time living in
Vellore as an agent of
Singer & Co., and he
used to come from time to
time. Aiyasami and Palani
told him about the poems
and he said, "Give them to
be at once and I will go
and get them printed." He
had already published some
books. When he insisted on
taking the poems I told
him he could so and could
publish the first eleven
as one poem and the rest;
which were in a different
metre, as another. To make
up the required quota I at
once composed two more
stanzas and he took all
the nineteen stanzas with
him to get them
published."
The fifth hymn, 'Five Stanzas to
Sri Arunachala' (Arunachala
Pancharatna), is of
a different nature to the first
four. The great Sanksrit poet
and devotee Ganapati Sastri, who
was a follower of Bhagavan,
begged him to write a poem in
Sanksrit. Bhagavan replied,
laughing, that he scarcely knew
any Sanksrit and no Sanksrit
metres. Sastri, however
explained a metre to him and
repeated his request. When he
returned the same evening this
hymn had been written in
perfect, flawless
Sanskrit.
Devotee:
I have been reading the
Five Hymns. I find that
the hymns are addressed to
Arunachala by you. You are
an advaitin. How do you
then address God as a
separate Being?
Maharshi: The
devotee, God and the Hymns
are all the Self.
Devotee: But you
are addressing God. You
are specifying this
Arunachala Hill as God.
Maharshi: You can
identify the Self with the
body. Should not the
devotee identify the Self
with Arunachala?
Devotee: If
Arunachala be the Self why
should it be specially
picked out among so many
other hills? God is
everywhere. Why do you
specify Him as Arunachala?
Maharshi: What has
attracted you here to this
place? What has attracted
all these people around?
Devotee: Sri
Bhagavan.
Maharshi: How was
I attracted here? By
Arunachala. The Power
cannot be denied. Again
Arunachala is within and
not without. The Self is
Arunachala.
The history of the rarely quoted
'Sixth Hymn to Arunachala' (Arunachala
Stuti) is as
follows. When Bhagavan was
staying at Skandashram, Ganapati
Muni approached him, quoted a
Sanskrit verse and asked him if
there was any equivalent metre
in Malayalam (language of
Kerala, South India). Bhagavan
replied that there was and to
illustrate it he composed three
verses in Malayalam. Kunju
Swami, a native Malayalam
speaker memorised the verses and
noted them in his notebook. The
verses then passed into
temporary oblivion and were
ignored by the various compilers
of Bhagavan's collected works.
The verses appeared in print in
1980 and in 1982 were translated
from Tamil into English.
In all these hymns the word
Arunachala means God and also
refers to the physical hill of
Arunachala in South India. These
hymns are written to Arunachala
as the Guru, to God Manifested,
to the Absolute.
|
|
|
|
