Arunagiri Antadi

Arunagiri Antadi

(Translated by Robert Butler)

Page 1

Invocation

When we join our hands in worship of the elephant-headed one,

Son of Lord Arunachala, (1)

Who is anger pierced the lion-headed Vishnu with his beak,(2)

He grants success in deeds and gives forth wisdom,

He brings red-hued Lakshmi to our side,(3)

He inspires devotion to God and confers true knowledge of reality.

Lord who stands immanent as the Red Mountain, full of glory,(4)

Unseen by the black cloud of Vishnu and the lotus-born Brahma,(5)

Who on this fair earth can grasp and speak your greatness,

If you, in compassion, deign not to bestow your grace.

Immaculate One who swallowed the poison from the ocean of milk!(6) Exalted emissary! Holy Guru in the form of the Red Mountain,

Who delights our eyes and gives us nurture!

To a dog such as I, who never thought

To strew flowers at your feet in the early morning,

You afforded me shelter.

Lord who burned up the God of love,

Who bears a bow of sugar cane!(7)

Your pure heart is my only recourse.

Without that, everlasting Lord Sonagiri,(8)

Who ate up the abundant venom,

What salvation then remains for a dog such as I?

Speak!

Lord Sonagiri, seat of true knowledge,

Whose glory spreads throughout the world,

Is the one who cuts away the illusion-fraught births

Of those who speak of him!

Immaculate and unapproachable Mountain,(9) look upon me,

And grant that I shall no more take form within a mother's womb.

Lord who wears an ornament in his hair,

Red Mountain of fire, without you to watch over me,

Who else is there upon this earth for a dog such as I

To wipe out this very day unceasing birth and close-pursuing death?

Lord of the Vedas that impart goodness, venerable Red Mountain,

The First Cause that Vishnu sought!

If you fix your graceful thoughts on me,

Surely the results of my good and evil deeds,

And my soul's three-fold impurity

Will be abolished this very day,

And cease to crush this solitary devotee!

O my heart!

If you meditate with love upon the form of the Red Mountain Lord,

Who drank with relish the poison hala,

He, the Supreme One, will dissolve the worldly fetters

That vex you and keep you in thrall.

What cause then is there for you to fear the Lord of death?

Monarch who dwells as the Red Mountain,

When I lauded you as the Supreme One,

Worshipping and praising you with melting heart,

When I sought your favour with hands clasped

And tears running down from my eyes,

You granted me my boon, according to my desire.

What I might offer you in return, I cannot see.

Exalted Red Mountain, wisdom's very form,

Who thwarted the desire of Daksha who dared oppose him!(10)

You whose locks are intertwined with the holy Ganges!(11)

My desire is to see and know your holy form, giving you my love, Before my eyes grow dim and weak.

The white ash that he joyfully wears,

The serpent, the fiery eye,

And the beautiful necklace, bearing Brahma's severed head:(12)

Worship these, the sacred emblems of the Red Mountain Lord

And he, comprehending, will sunder

The powerful bonds of the deeds that crush and oppress you.

My heart! The Great One whose throat the poison hala adorns!

The Supreme One who in anger consumed with fire the god of love! Wearer of the divine form, whose feet the boar sought,

Calling out his name, but could not see!

He has come, assuming the bodily shape of the Guru!

What wonder is this?

Three-eyed One,(13)

Whom even the primordial Vedas cannot know,(14)

Red Mountain Teacher!

I know not what austerities I, a poor wretch, can have performed

That their reward should be to seek you out,

And sing of your glory.

My heart! By praising the bounteous one

Who drives away the effects of evil deeds

That torment perpetually the hearts

Of those in whose mind there is attachment,

We have received our boon;

We have received the fruit that is proper for this human birth;

We have ceased to be reborn.

When we perceive in our hearts the Red Mountain Master,

Our boon will be granted,

Our life will be illuminated by true knowledge,

Strength, wealth and endurance will be ours.

Of what worth is the opinion of those who do not thus perceive him?

Although the intense suffering of birth and death

Pursues remorselessly all the variously established life forms,

What hurt can it do to those

Who implant in the hearts and meditate upon

The holy lotus foot of the red-hued Lord?

By virtue of hearing the songs of the three devotees of Lord Sonagiri, Who establishes the truth in the hearts of devotees,

The huge rock will float on the flood,

The crocodile's jaws will restore the living child,

And dry bones will become a well-formed young girl.(15)

Just as the wicked Daksha, whilst conducting his sacrifice,

Lost his own head, of ambrosia-like beauty,

And received in return the head of a goat,

So we have seen that the undertakings of those

Who do not worship the feet of the supreme Mountain Lord,

Will ever come to nothing.

When the host of the gods,

Seeing the poison hala arise from the ocean of milk,

Trembled with fear and ran to him in great confusion,

Crying aloud for succour,

He stood affording his protection, for all the world to know;

Lord Sonagiri, whose love for his devotees is ever unfailing.

While ten million Brahmas are born and die,

A single day passes for Lord Vishnu,

He whose eye is like the glorious lotus flower,

And then Lord Vishnu goes to sleep on the leaf of the banyan tree. When we consider the matter,

At the merest hint of a smile from Lord Arunachala Siva,

In his compassion,

Ten million Vishnus will be born and die.(16)

Most desirable Lord of the Red Mountain,

Who holds in his hand the smiling deer,

Immaculate One, who protects me

As I enter the round of birth and death,

Without you, my only fitting guardian,

Who else is there in the wide world to give succour to a dog such as I?

Speak!

My heart! To speak in praise of the Red Mountain One,

Who takes as his food the poison from the billowy sea,

This is your duty.

Praise him and the reward of his holy foot will be yours.

Disease, old age and death for you will disappear.

You shall reach the shore of birth's ocean.

My heart! Fix your thoughts on the Red Mountain Teacher,

Who, if you believe in his grace and praise him daily,

Will take hold of you, desirous for your good, saying,

'Behold, I am here!'

If you think of him thus, all the painful effects of your actions

Will subside and go away.

Except in response to the songs

Sung by the three devotees of Lord Sonagiri,

Who tears out by the roots our painful cycle of births,

Would the crocodile who ate the child spit him out again alive?

Would the rock succeed in floating on the chilly waters?

Would the male palmyra tree yield up fruits?(17)

Before my corpse decays; before my eyes grow dark;

Before my teeth rot and fall;

Before the Lord of death, his eye fixed upon my body, comes hurrying,

Seek out Lord Sonagiri, my heart.

Greet him with praise and walk in his way.

Those who prize the prestige of good family

And high learning as their own

Know nothing of how to curb their desire.

Will the works they compose

Reveal the twin-lotus feet of the Red Lord Sonesan?

Will their high-sounding name bring those feet any the closer?

Be they of lowly birth, without the advantage of learning,

Unable to practice the virtue of liberality,

It is of no account.

Those who perform pradakshina of holy Aruna, the Supreme,

And submit to his rule

Will excel even amongst the most excellent.

Those who desire the boons of fame, long life and children,

All praise the Red Mountain Lord.

For those who praise him continually,

Incapable of forgetting him even when asleep,

There is no further birth.

I know nothing of the past, nothing of the future, a simpleton!

Why? I do not even know how to compose a song garland.

Even with the aid of your grace,

My mind cannot perceive and speak of

Your manifest qualities and their inner meaning.

Lord Sonagiri, who comes mounted upon the white bull

For the true devotee who knows his inner meaning to look upon!

You it was who, perceiving the vanity of Brahma,

Master of the four Vedas,

Cut away one of his five jewel-encrusted heads

To keep him from error.

Rule, regent of the heavenly host! Exalted Red Mountain!

May they prosper if they can

Those who, although they have seen at his feet

The eye of Vishnu,(18) bearer of the conch,

And in his red hand, of noble fame, the head of Brahma,

Still deny his supremacy in their words and thoughts.

The Supreme One, whose meaning the great unattainable Vedas seek,

Red Mountain, the First Cause whom the hosts of holy men praise,

He will surely come,

Wearing the necklace with the severed head and mounted on the bull

To unite his being with ours amidst our worldly sorrows.

Lord Sonagiri, who rules over us,

When will you grant your grace in answer to my plea,

So that I may behold that beautiful form,

When you and Goddess Uma, who shares your being,

Are seated joyfully side by side.(19)

For those who have no faith

In the holy feet of the Red Mountain Lord,

Of what use is it to go off wandering

Among the forests, mountains and caves,

To consume various life-prolonging potions,

Or to take an untimely death?

Pages: 1 2 3

Photo of Arunachala, courtesy Dev Gogoi

(1) The invocatory verse, as is usual with all invocations of this kind, is addressed to Ganesh, the elephant-headed god who is the son of Siva.

(2) One of Vishnu's avataras was as Narasimha, a half-man and half-lion form. Narasimha disembowelled the demon Hiranyakasipu, who had harassed the gods. After the demon had been killed, Narasimha was still full of anger and threatened to annihilate the whole universe. Siva appeared in the form of Simbul (in Sanskrit he is known as Sarabha), an eight-legged flying creature. This 'bird' attacked Narasimha, lifted him off the ground and killed him. Siva subsequently wore the skin of Narasimha as an item of clothing.

(3) Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu and the goddess of prosperity. This portion of the verse is saying that Ganesh grants success and wisdom and also brings about worldly wealth.

(4) Aruna means 'red' and achala is Sanskrit for 'mountain'. There are also other names for Arunachala that can be translated as 'Red Mountain'.

(5) The black cloud is one of the epithets of Vishnu. He is traditionally held to be black or dark blue in colour. Brahma originated from a lotus that appeared in Vishnu's navel.

The principal puranic story about Arunachala features a dispute between Brahma and Vishnu over which of them is the greater. Siva witnessed their dispute and decided to teach them a lesson in humility. He appeared before them in the form of an infinitely long column of light (some versions say fire) and announced that whichever of the two could find the end of this column could call himself the greater. Vishnu took the form of a boar and burrowed downwards to find the bottom end, while Brahma took the form of a swan and flew upward in search of the top. Neither extremity was found even though the two gods spent thousands of years trying. Both returned unsuccessful, finally conceding that Siva was greater than either of them. Vishnu then requested Siva to manifest in a form that was less dazzling to the eyes so that devotees through the ages could have darshan of his form. Siva obliged by condensing himself into the mountain of Arunachala. Thus, for devotees of Arunachala, the mountain is not merely a symbol of Siva or the place where he resides, it is Siva himself, manifesting in a physical form.

(6) After a long period of animosity the devas and the asuras, the inabitants of the spirit realms, agreed to cooperate to churn the ocean of milk to obtain amrita, the elixir of immortality. At some point during the churning a burning mass of poison appeared whose fumes began to asphyxiate the whole world. At Brahma's request Siva swallowed the poison (hala, or halahala) and held it in his throat. This poison left a blue mark on Siva's throat, earning him one of his many titles - Nilakantha, which means 'blue-throated'.

(7) Kama, the god of lust, was employed by Indra to make Siva fall in love with Parvati. When he fired one of his arrows from his sugarcane bow at Siva's heart, Siva responded by burning him to ashes with a ray that was emitted from his third eye.

(8) Sonagiri also means' Red Mountain'.

(9) Annamalai, the Tamil name for Arunachala can be translated as 'unreachable or unapproachable mountain,' probably a reference to the story in which Brahma and Vishnu were unable to find the limits of Siva's column of light.

(10) Daksha was the father of Sati, who was the wife and consort of Siva in the birth before she became Parvati. In that birth she was also known as Uma. Brahma thought that the business of creation could not proceed properly unless Siva married, so he persuaded Daksha to have a daughter who would attract Siva by the power of her yogic tapas. The mother-goddess of the universe took the form of Sati and promised that she would go through with this arrangement, but added that if Daksha ever showed her a lack of respect, she would abandon her side of the bargain.

Sati won Siva by the power of her love and asceticism and they were eventually married. Many years later Daksha organised a sacrifice to which he invited all the gods except Siva. Some versions of the story say that Siva did not show Daksha proper respect at an earlier sacrifice, so was not invited again. Another explanation was that Daksha disliked Siva for his wild lifestyle and for the fact that he had once severed one of Brahma's heads, and still carried the skull around with him. Brahma was Daksha's father.

Sati went alone to the sacrifice and discovered that no portion of the offerings had been allocated to Siva. Daksha treated her very disrespectfully, saying that she should not have come to the sacrifice at all. Sati reminded him of the condition of her incarnation - that she would end it if Daksha ever treated her badly. Sati then sat down and self-immolated, burning her body to ashes in a yogic fire that she manifested inside herself.

When Siva heard the news, he vowed revenge. He tore out a clump of his hair and threw it against a mountain, where it turned into Virabhadra and Mahakali. Virabhadra was ordered by Siva to go to the sacrifice and take revenge. He went there with a great army, killed Daksha and many others present, and evicted all the gods who had come to attend. Daksha's head was thrown in to the sacrificial fire. Finally, Virabhadra placed a severed goat's head on the body of Daksha and reanimated it.

Sati reincarnated as Parvati and eventually, after a period of extreme tapas, married Siva again and became united with his physical form.

(11) Siva is always depicted with the Ganges emerging from his head. The Ganges is the embodiment of the goddess Ganga who agreed to flow on earth to wash away the sins of people who bathed in her. Starting in heaven, she flows down to earth, where the force of her waters is initially absorbed by Siva's head. It is said that the earth could not otherwise bear the full impact of the descent.

(12) Siva once severed one of Brahma's five heads for an act of sexual impropriety, leaving him with four. After the event, Siva threaded the skull on his necklace. There is an alternative version of the story in which Siva severed the head because Brahma was arrogantly proclaiming that he was the supreme deity. In this version Brahma curses Siva, saying that he has to keep the skull in his hands and use it as a begging bowl.

(13) The two normal eyes of Siva represent the sun and the moon. The third, in the centre of the forehead, symbolises fire. The eyes together represent the three sources of light that illumine the earth, space and the sky. Through his three eyes Siva can see past, present and future, an accomplishment which, as Guhai Namasivaya points out elsewhere, enables him to transcend time. The central eye is the eye of higher perception. Normally it is directed inwards, but when it is turned outwards, it burns all that appears before it.

(14) 'The four Vedas' is occasionally used as an epithet of Brahma. When this phrase occurs in the context of not being able to reach Siva, it is a reference to the attempts of Brahma and Vishnu to find the end of Siva's column of light.

(15) The three devotees are Tirunavukkarasar (also known affectionately as 'Appar'), Sundaramurti and Jnanasambandar. Miraculous things happened to all three of them when they sang songs to Siva.

Appar was originally a Jain, but when he converted to Saivism he attracted the ire of the local king and his Jain supporters. Appar was sentenced to death and put into a burning lime kiln for seven days. He sang songs in praise of Siva for the whole week and escaped unburned. Next, the Jains tried to poison him, but Siva turned the poison into nectar. In the third attempt at execution Appar was tied to the ground while an elephant was ordered to trample him to death. As a result of a song Appar sang to Siva, the elephant approached and prostrated to him. Finally, the king ordered Appar to be tied to a huge rock and thrown into the sea. This is the story alluded to in the verse. The rock floated and took Appar away to safety in a neighbouring kingdom.

The crocodile miracle comes from the story of Sundaramurti. Two brahmin boys went for a bathe in a tank. One was eaten by a crocodile and one escaped. Sundaramurti came to the town and heard two different sounds coming from two houses. In one (the house of the boy who had escaped) there were the ritual sounds of a brahmin boy being invested with his sacred thread. From the other house, only sounds of waling could be heard. Sundaramurti made enquiries and found out what had happened. He sang a song to Siva, asking him to bring the boy back to life. Siva went into the crocodile's stomach and reconstituted the boy. Yama, the god of death, released his soul and the crocodile vomited him up. Sundaramurti then performed the thread ceremony of the boy.

The third story is about Sivanesan and his daughter Poompavai. The father thought that Jnanasambandhar would be a suitable husband for his daughter and mentally offered her to him. Poompavai, though, was bitten by a snake and died. Sivanesan offered a large sum of money to anyone who could resurrect his daughter, but no one came forward. The body was cremated and the ashes were put into a pot. Every day Sivanesan decorated the pot with flowers and thought of Jnanasambandhar. Sivenesan eventually went to meet Jnanasambandar, who had already heard about Poompavai and the pot from another source. Jnanasambandhar sang a song to Siva, asking him to restore the girl to life. Poompavai came back as a twelve-year-old girl. Sivanesan asked Jnanasambandar to marry her, but Jnanasambandhar declined, saying that when Sivanesan had offered the girl to him, that was in her previous form in her old body. In her new form, said Jnanasambandhar, he would only regard her as his daughter.

All three stories can be found in the Periyapuranam, the 1000-year-old anthology of the lives of sixty-three Saiva saints.

(16) According to one of Hinduism's creation myths, the universe began with Mahavishnu lying on a banyan leaf in the shape of a baby. Vishnu then began to think, 'Who am I? Who created me?' In response to these queries the Supreme Sakti (the female divine energy) manifested in a personified form and explained the process to him. The trimurtis (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva) would be responsible respectively for the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe each time it came into existence. Brahma, Vishnu was told, would appear from a lotus that would manifest in Vishnu's navel.

Hindu cosmology is cyclical. The universe periodically comes into being and then withdraws into nothingness again. The periodic disappearance of the universe is known as pralaya, or cosmic dissolution. Even the gods are dissolved at the time of pralaya. The universe has manifested innumerable times, and each time it has appeared a new set of trimurtis has regulated its functioning.

The Siva that Guhai Namasivaya is speaking of here is the transcendent Absolute, not one of the perishable trimurtis. From this position of transcendence Siva can witness millions of the other gods being born and dying without aging himself. This transcendent Siva is not subject to dissolution at the time of pralaya.

(17) Except for the last line, these are the same miracles that were explained in footnote fifteen. The additional story concerns Jnanasambandhar.

While he was visiting Tiruvothur he met a devotee who told him, 'I have planted many palmyra trees in my garden, but all of them turned out to be male trees, and they are not yielding fruit. The Jains are mocking me for this.'

Jnanasambandhar went to the local temple and sand a song that mentioned the devotee's plight. All the tree turned into females and gave fruits. Some of the previously mocking Jains were so impressed, the converted to Saivism.

(18) Vishnu was once performing a sahasranama to Siva's feet. In this form of worship one chants the thousand names of the deity, making an offering as each name is chanted. When Vishnu reached 999, he ran out of flowers. Not wanting the puja to be spoiled, he gave one of his eyes as the final offering.

(19) Uma is one of the many names of Parvati, the consort of Siva.

In Arunachala Mahatmyam and Arunachala Puranam, Uma, known locally as Unnamulai, unites with Siva to such an extent that each shares the other's form. Unnamulai means, 'She whose breasts have never been suckled'. Traditionally, Siva and Unnamulai appear as a half-male and half-female figure, the left side being Unnamulai and the right side Siva. In this merged or unified state Unnamulai becomes Siva's sakti, the divine energy which brings into existence all manifestation. Iconographical representations of their combined form, which is known as Ardhanariswara, show a half-male and half-female body, with the dividing line being the vertical axis running down the middle of the body. Uma (Unnamulai) earned the right to this union by performing intense tapas over two lifetimes, the first as Sati, and the second as Parvati.