Annamalai Venba

Annamalai Venba

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Mountain who imprints himself upon the hearts of those

Who, mastering the five senses, have attained knowledge,

So that the births caused by their evil deeds vanish away.

Mountain whom devotees perpetually praise and worship:

Annamalai.

Valiant mountain who struck the God of death with his foot

As he advanced on the exalted child-sage Markandeya,

Roaring and panting with eagerness.

Mountain who, as the Sadguru, governs me with his kind partiality:

Annamalai.

Mountain whom devotees and those of fit attainment praise and extol, Garlanding him with the five syllables and with flowers,

Chief among which are the atti and the cassia.

Mountain who, rejoicing, appears to his devotees everywhere

With his consort, who is like a golden creeper at his side:

Annamalai.

Mountain who compassionately planted his foot

And ruled over Sundarar,

Appearing as an aged brahmin, learned in the four Vedas,

Who came leaning on a stick and opposed his marriage

And, preventing it, kept him from delusion:(30)

Annamalai.

Mountain of true knowledge, unreachable to Brahma and Vishnu,

Who travelled his length, diligently seeking,

But were bewildered.

Mountain who, upon the earth,

Wears four different forms in the four yugas:(31)

Annamalai.

Mountain who on that day spoke to the sixteen-year-old Markandeya Saying that twice eight years would always be his age.

Mountain who stands illustrious.

Mountain who disregards the mistakes committed by his devotees: Annamalai.

Mountain whose throat is adorned with poison.

Mountain who came to cut off daily the evil deeds of his devotees. Mountain who softens the heart.

Mountain who engenders the sweetness of supreme bliss

In those who love him:

Annamalai.

Mountain who, granting their wish,

Installed the three asuras in their cities

And then, hurling his great fiery arrow, saw them fall.(32)

Mountain who rules only over those followers

Who, with intense longing, daily seek him out

And place their faith in him:

Annamalai.

Mountain who drives away suffering.

Mountain who removes the ancient burden of deeds.

Mountain who beckons his devotees to come unto him.

Mountain who reveals his holy foot.

Mountain who withers up the afflictions of devotees,

Who feel his presence in their hearts:

Annamalai.

Mountain who, spreading from the roots, along the trunk,

And up to the very tips of the branches,

Permeates the understanding of the true followers

Who have received his teaching.

Mountain resonant with the sound of pranava.(33)

Mountain who calls out to devotees, great in austerities,

Bidding them come:

Annamalai.

Mountain who gracefully appears

Before those who, performing thrice-daily worship,

Joyfully praise him.

Mountain endowed with more than a mother's sweetness.

Mountain who, as Sadguru, prospers in my heart, dog that I am: Annamalai.

Mountain who, when Daksha opposed him, took away his life.(34)

Ash-besmeared mountain who stood before Mal and Ayan

As a pillar of fire.

Lofty mountain who, to those who wish to speak of it,

Lies beyond all comparison.

Mountain whose tall crown is adorned by the waters of the Ganges:(35) Annamalai.

Mountain unreachable to tall Mal, who wields the discus,

And to Ayan too.

Mountain who destroys the age-old karma of his devotees.

Mountain who protected those who trembled with fear,

Seeing the baneful poison in the ocean.

Mountain with five faces:(36)

Annamalai

Mountain who appears in every quarter.

Mountain who, rejoicing, rides the bull.

Mountain who graciously grants the boon of supreme attainment. Mountain adorned by the minds of the liberated.

Mountain whom the celestials praise.

Lofty Mountain of surpassing excellence:

Annamalai.

Mountain who wards off their suffering and bears up

Those whose devotion is strong,

Those who have practised great austerities,

And those who have taken refuge in him.

Mountain endowed with truth.

Mountain who swallowed the poison hala,

That the gods might not perish:

Annamalai.

Mountain who confers undying liberation.

Mountain who, destroying for his devotees

The indestructible residue of deeds,(37) comforts them,

Decreeing that the impassable ocean of multifarious births

Shall henceforth be still:

Annamalai.

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Mountain who appeared mounted on the bull,

Along with the bangle-adorned Uma,

And graciously pardoned my sins.

Mountain who wears the crescent moon,

And whose matted locks are entwined with the holy Ganges:

Annamalai.

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(30) Siva prevented the Tamil poet-saint Sundaramurti from getting married by appearing on his wedding day in the form of a brahmin and producing a document, signed by Sundaramurti's grandfather, which stated that all subsequent generations of his family would be slaves of this man. The elders of the village, who knew the grandfather, attested the signature, and the marriage was cancelled.

(31) According to the Arunachala Mahatmyam, Arunachala in four successive yugas is composed respectively of diamond, gold, silver and earth. Yugas are major epochs of Hindu cosmology.

(32) At a time when the devas and the asuras were having one of their many wars, the three cities of the asuras were protected by a boon which specified that they could only be destroyed by one shot of a single arrow. When the devas were on the point of finally losing, they appealed to Siva and he obliged them by destroying all the asura cities with a single shot.

The myth is pregnant with symbolic meaning. The devas and the asuras represent the good and bad mental qualities which are constantly at war with each other over countless lifetimes. The deva-asura war had in fact been going on interminably, consuming both sides for innumerable generations. Sometimes the devas were on top and sometimes the asuras, but neither side had ever been able to achieve a definitive victory. It was only when the devas were about to be finally defeated that they appealed to Siva and put their faith in his power and grace, rather than their own efforts. When their efforts stopped, Siva destroyed the three cities with a single arrow. The three cities in this parable can represent any or all of the following trinities: the three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming; the three gunas - rajas, tamas and sattva; the three karmas - sanchita, prarabdha and agamya; the three times - past, present and future.

Two conclusions can be drawn from this interpretation: (1) effort aimed at destroying habits of the mind can never bring about peace, it can only prolong the warfare between competing and conflicting mental tendencies. (2) In a moment of absolute non-effort, a moment of true surrender to the Lord in which one is no longer trying to accomplish or attain anything, grace takes over and annihilates all the impediments which were previously obstructing an awareness of Siva, the abiding reality.

Manikkavachagar referred to this enlightening moment when he sang, 'Siva smiled at me, and through his smile he destroyed the three cities of the asuras'.

(33) Pranava is the sound of Om, the primordial sound out of which all creation manifests.

(34) 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.

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

(35) 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.

(36) On the north and north-east side of Arunachala the profile of the mountain appears to have four subsidiary peaks as well as the main one. This particular aspect of the mountain is known as the 'five faces'.

(37) Sanchita karma, the residue of karmas left over from all previous lifetimes.