In the Tiruvachagam, a 9th century devotional classic text of Tamil devotional poetry, its author, Manikkavacahagar, used play activities by young girls as a framework to dispense spiritual advice. Muruganar, who adopted this style in his own work Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai, invents an eye-gazing game (Kannokkam) and exhorts young girls to come into Bhagavan’s presence and experience the exalted spiritual consequences of eye-to-eye contact with him. The numbers refer to the verses in the original Tamil work and the translation was done by T. V. Venkatasubramanian, Robert Butler and David Godman.
1612
You whose eyes are blue water lilies!
Have you not seen with those very eyes
the tree of true jnana
that, though rooted in the earth
in beauty, bestows the glance of grace?
With mighty shoulders branching out
he casts his glance
upon the beings of the world!
With Venkata, this celestial tree of heaven,
let us play kannokkam!
Venkata is a dimuntive of Bhagavan’s original name, Venkataraman. Muruganar often refers to Bhagavan this way in his verses.
1613
Poor ones, you may surely attain
that which you desire in the way you desire it!
Through the unique state of sleeping in the Heart
with attention perpetually fixed within it,
his eyes are unblinking, like those of the plump fish
that bask in the luxuriant tanks of this earth.
With Ramana, let us play kannokkam!
1614
Damsels whose humble speech is sweet like music!
You whose eyes are like fresh water lilies!
He is the eye of undivided consciousness
which cannot be described by girls like us
who in our ignorance think thoughts without number.
With Ramana, let us play kannokkam!
1615
He is the eye,
he is the iris of the eye,
he is the uncreated pupil within it,
he is the gaze of that pupil!
He is the heavens, and their jewel, the Sun!
He is the eye that is other than all of these!
With Ramana, let us play kannokkam!
‘He is the gaze of that pupil’ can also be translated as ‘he is the dance of that pupil’.
1616
He is the number and the letter
that are regarded as the very eyes of humanity
by the learned of the world.
Yet, as the eye of being-consciousness-bliss,
his nature cannot be seen or known
by anything at all!
With Ramana, let us play kannokkam!
‘Number and letter’ are the Tamil equivalent of the three ‘r’s.
Tirukkural 392: ‘These two, number and letter, say [the wise], are the eyes of living beings.’
1617
He is even the eye of the eyes
of Vishnu and Kannappa,
who both had beautiful eyes.
Damsels, you who have the eye of discrimination
in this great and vastly spacious world!
So that all your five senses
may be usurped by the sense of sight,
with Ramana let us play kannokkam!
In separate incidents both Vishnu and the Tamil saint Kannappa offered their physical eyes to Siva as an act of devotion.
1618
He is the siddha
who performs the dance of supreme jnana,
and bestows upon us the life of grace, saying:
‘See, this great and vastly spacious world
is a mere trick of sight!’,
thus rendering heaven, earth and the nether world
a prey to the supreme firmament of true jnana!
With him who bears an eye upon his forehead,
with Venkata, let us play kannokkam!
1619
Sisters of ours! When the eyes of lovers merge
in the act of seeing, of what use are spoken words
that are not fashioned within the heart?
So that no purpose will be served
by the music of the spoken word,
with him who with his eyes
brings us under his sway,
with Venkata Ramana let us play kannokkam!
Tirukkural verse 1100: ‘When [lover’s] eyes meet with [lover’s] eyes, their gaze in mutual accord, there is no need whatsoever for the spoken word.’
The same idea was also recorded by Muruganar in Guru Vachaka Kovai, verse 286: ‘The Guru abides as the silent benefactor who reveals the light that shines as the one and only eternal residue. If his eyes and the eyes of the disciple meet in total harmony, spoken words are redundant.’
1620
In the form of the seer he has infiltrated sight.
The seeing of those who look upon him
with [individualised] vision will not be rewarded.
Those who do not see in this way see him.
He, therefore, has an eye that cannot be seen.
So that the [individualised] vision,
the obstacle to seeing him, is banished,
with Ramana, let us play kannokkam.
1621
You whose ornament
is the longing for the bliss of liberation
whence there is no return!
You who are like the golden-red lotus!
With him who rules the world of liberation
and who possesses the infinite eye of true jnana,
with Venkata, let us play kannokkam!
1622
Possessing a cool compassion that extinguishes
all the intense suffering in which they writhe,
he is the sun of jnana that dispels in his followers
their densely compressed darkness of ignorance.
You devotees! With a gaze that, uninterrupted,
sees him as not-different from yourselves,
let us play kannokkam with Venkata,
he who holds as his umbrella
the mind, fully inward turned!
1623
Our sisters who steadfastly abide
in the service of Ramana!
So that the personal self and the supreme Self
may merge together as one,
abolishing all our doubts,
just as the light of the eye merges
with the unfailing light of the sun,
with our protector, Venkata Ramana,
let us play kannokkam!
1624
You who do not know a single iota of enjoyment
other than the jnana experience that rises
in the eyes of Venkata Ramana,
the treasure house of wisdom!
You who, like the chakora bird,
possess this beneficial virtue of surpassing excellence!
With him who possesses a beautiful face
like the full moon that never wanes,
with Ramana, let us play kannokkam!
The chakora is a mythical bird that feeds exclusively on moonbeams. In this verse the girls are exhorted to eat the moonbeams that emanate as rays from Bhagavan’s full-moon face.
1625
Artless maids, he is the great tapasvin
who with his sword-like eyes
cuts away [the root of] our delusion.
So that the lotus [of his eyes] blossoms
in the blue water lilies [of your eyes],
and those fragrant blue water lilies
blossom beautifully too
in the expansive lotus [of his eyes],
with Venkata Ramana let us play kannokkam!
1626
See, he is the liquor fit to be drunk
without a qualm even by brahmins!
Whether one meditates upon him, not rejecting him,
experiencing supreme bliss,
or whether one looks upon him
without accepting him inwardly at all,
it bestows a joy that no heart can contain.
With that intoxicating wine, Ramana,
let us play kannokkam!
1627
You who distress yourselves thinking:
‘Is there salvation in death,
or does it lead merely to birth again?
By what means may we truly live?’
Here is such a means:
with focussed attention, let us play kannokkam
with Venkata Ramana, our Lord.
1628
Just as, for the two eyes of the crow
there is only one iris,
similarly Ramana rests
in the chamber of my heart
as the witness of the two states
[waking and sleep] that assail me.
In order that he, who is the Lord
even of dark-hued Vishnu,
the protector of this vast universe,
may flourish and shine,
let us with Ramana play kannokkam!
In Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 313, Bhagavan says: ‘There is the belief that the crow rolls only one iris into either eye to see any object. It has only one iris but two eye sockets. Its sight is manipulated according to its desire.’