top of page

Kandar Anubhuti by Saint Arunagirinathar — Part 10

Sha­ranaa­gati is the state of com­plete sub­mis­sion to one’s Guru or Ish­tade­va­ta. Sha­ranaa­gati leads to tremen­dous out­comes and many great Mas­ters have showed this to be very true. It is a phe­nom­e­nal state that is worth­while our life’s time to aspire and pur­sue. In tak­ing us clos­er to the attain­ment of the gold­en state of Sha­ranaa­gati at the Feet of Muru­ga Peru­man — Lord Skan­da, Saint Aruna­giri­nathar guides and shows the way for long­ing seek­ers.

In this “Sha­ranaa­gati ” series, we wel­come you on a jour­ney where we per­form abhyasa of “Kand­har Anub­huti” gift­ed to us by the great Saint Aruna­giri­nathar.

Arunagirinathar’s exem­plary life and lit­er­ary works are direct por­tals to the Grace of Shan­mukha Peru­man. Aruna­giri­nathar Swami­gal con­tin­ues to guide all sin­cere seek­ers to attain Sha­ranaa­gati at the Feet of Lord Skan­da! In the pre­vi­ous edi­tion we have looked at a brief his­tor­i­cal note on Saint Aruna­giri­nathar. We have also looked at the kap­pu verse and the first 27 vers­es of Kand­har Anub­huti. In this edi­tion, we delve into vers­es 28, 29, and 30.

Import of Kand­har Anub­huti

Swa­mi Aruna­giri­nathar has bestowed six promi­nent works for the world to cher­ish — Thirup­pugazh, Thiru­vagup­pu, Kand­har And­haad­hi, Kand­har Alan­garam, Kand­har Anub­huti and Vel-May­il-Seval Virut­tham.

Kand­har Anub­huti is regard­ed as a Mantra-Shas­tra — a trea­tise of mys­tic imports and has been placed on par with the well-known Mantra-Shas­tra of Thiru­man­thi­ram - a trea­tise of 3,000 vers­es of Sid­dhar Thiru­mu­lar. The Thiru­man­thi­ram is the 10th book of the Pan­niru Thiru­mu­rai (the 12 sacred Sai­va works) of the Saivites. Cor­re­spond­ing­ly, the Kand­har Anub­huti is regard­ed as the 10th book of the Pan­niru Thiru­mu­rai of the fol­low­ers of Lord Muru­gan. Some gems from Thiru­man­thi­ram have been pre­sent­ed in the Sid­dhar Charithi­ram series of Parni­ka Mag­a­zine.

“Maa­trukaa Push­pa Maalai” is a trea­tise of vers­es with the 51 let­ters, of the San­skrit lan­guage, from ‘A’ to ‘Ksha’. Maa­trukaa Push­pa Maalai is also said to mean a trea­tise of 51 vers­es, because of the cor­re­spon­dence in num­ber and the Kand­har Anub­huti com­pris­es of 51 vers­es. Aruna­giri­nathar him­self refers to this work, in the Kaap­pu verse, as “a gar­land knit with beau­ti­ful sorkal (words or aksha­ras of Tamil)” — “Sen­chor Punai Maalai”.

“Kand­han” in Tamil refers to Lord Skan­da, Who is also adored as Shan­mukha, Sub­ra­manya, Karthikeya, Guha, Velayud­ha, Muru­ga, Aru­mu­ga, Senthilnatha, Sar­a­vana, Dan­dayutha­pani and more names. “Anub­huti” sig­ni­fies the spir­i­tu­al union of the Jee­va (loose­ly means soul) with Shi­va (God) there­by imply­ing direct or imme­di­ate expe­ri­ence of God. Hence “Kand­har Anub­huti” would mean the Imme­di­ate or Direct Divine Expe­ri­ence of Lord Skan­da.

Kand­har Anub­huti con­tains many Mantras both explic­it­ly and implic­it­ly. The Names of the Lord, such as Muru­gan, Kan­da, Shan­mukha, Guha, Vela­va are Mantras by them­selves. Kand­har Anub­huti is replete with these Names of the Lord. Fur­ther, in many vers­es there are Mantras in the form of mys­tic for­mu­lae as brought out by N.V. Karthikeyan of Sivanan­da Ashram. Some instances are “Velum May­ilum Thu­nai” in verse 1, “Naatha Kumaraa Namah” in verse 36, “(Naan) Iraiy­oon Pari­vaaram” in verse 37 and “Guru­vaai Varu­vaai Arul­vaai Guhanae” in verse 51.

Hence Kand­har Anub­huti is held in high esteem as a Mantra-Shas­tra and as the crown­ing glo­ry of Sri Aruna­giri­nathar’s works, because of its high spir­i­tu­al val­ue and mys­ti­cal depth. Kand­har Anub­huti is also spe­cial­ly revered because it intri­cate­ly blends Bhak­ti and Jnana, devo­tion and wis­dom. Kand­har Anub­huti is a text of great impor­tance to sin­cere seek­ers, for in it lies the tremen­dous poten­tial to attain the Lord’s Feet through Sha­ranaa­gati. It is undoubt­ed­ly a phe­nom­e­nal bless­ing that we begin this jour­ney of abhyasa of Kand­har Anub­huti through this series.

Kand­har Anub­huti bestowed by Saint Aruna­giri­nathar

பாடல் 28 — ஆனா அமுதே ஆனா அமுதே! அயில்வேல் அரசே!ஞானா கரனே! நவிலத் தகுமோயானாகிய என்னை விழுங்கி வெறுந்தானாய் நிலைநின் றதுதற் பரமே
Oh ambrosia of eter­ni­ty! Supreme Ruler with sharp lance! Abode of spir­i­tu­al wis­dom! Could it be put in words?Where “I” was swal­lowed, only to be left withThe immense state of Grace that is You, the eter­nal Supreme Being!

Aruna­giri Peru­man, in this verse, cap­tures a par­tic­u­lar state of Muk­ti. Bha­gavad­pa­da Adi Sankaracharya Swami­gal in his Shiv­anan­da Lahiri enu­mer­ates four types of Muk­ti. In Salokya Muk­ti, one shall attain the state of liv­ing in the loka or abode of one’s Ish­tadeivam. Sameep­ya Muk­ti will lead one to attain the sta­tus of liv­ing in close prox­im­i­ty to one’s Ish­tadeivam. Sarupya Muk­ti will bestow one with a form iden­ti­cal to one’s Ish­tadeivam. Some Mas­ters have revealed that those who attain to any of the afore­said Muk­ti states, will merge final­ly dur­ing the Mahapralaya. Where­as in Sayu­jya Muk­ti one direct­ly and com­plete­ly merges into one’s Ish­tadeivam. Muru­gape­ru­man in His infi­nite Grace can bestow upon His devo­tees such a state. Aruna­giri­nathar Swami­gal is express­ing pure joy from attain­ing to such a state and there­by refer­ring to Lord Skan­da as the Eter­nal Elixir — ஆனா அமுதே! Aruna­giri Peru­man also points out to the fact that it is not quite pos­si­ble or valid to put such a state in words exclaim­ing — நவிலத் தகுமோ! Except maybe inspire us with a point­er so may we too seek!

பாடல் 29 — இல்லே எனும் மாயையில் இல்லே எனுமாயையில் இட்டனைநீபொல்லேன் அறியாமைபொறுத்திலையேமல்லே புரி பன்னிரு வாகுவில்என்சொல்லே புனையுஞ் சுடர்வே லவனே!
You have plant­ed me in this illu­so­ry life!You haven’t left this lost one to stay igno­rant!Upon Your mighty twelve shoul­ders,Lord with Vel, You bear the gar­land of my songs!

Here the phrase “அறியாமைபொறுத்திலையே” is not meant to be under­stood as the “Lord has not for­giv­en my igno­rance and actions stem­ming out of my igno­rance”. Lord Skan­da has caused the re-birth of His dear devo­tee and He Him­self in all his kind­ness has removed the “Avidya” in the dis­ci­ple. Lord Skan­da was not patient­ly wit­ness­ing Aruna­giri­nathar Peru­man to be lost in the entan­gle­ment of loukee­ka life. As the life-sto­ry of Aruna­giri­nathar Swami­gal shows, Muru­gape­ru­maan Him­self appeared, pre­vent­ed Arunai Muni from tak­ing his own life, ini­ti­at­ed him and led him to Vay­aloor. From whence, Arunai Muni has weaved many mys­ti­cal and spir­i­tu­al­ly rich songs begin­ning with the grand poet­ry of Thirupugazh. Aruna­giri­nathar has adorned Lord Skan­da with grand gar­lands of intri­cate and exquis­ite vers­es. It was Lord Skan­da Him­self who ini­ti­at­ed Aruna­giri Swami­gal to com­pose excep­tion­al songs. And this verse also re-empha­sis­es the fact that the work of Skan­dar Anub­huti is a “Maa­trukaa Push­pa Maalai” as stat­ed in the very first verse — “Sen­chor Punai Maalai”.

பாடல் 30 — செவ்வான் உருவில் செவ்வான் உருவில் திகழ்வே லவன்அன்றொவ்வா ததென உணர்வித் ததுதான்அவ்வா றறிவார் அறிகின் றதலால்எவ்வா றொருவர்க் கிசைவிப் பதுவே?
Radi­ant as a red-sky, Lord of Vel had that dayBestowed gra­cious­ly upon me a peer­less Upade­sha!That can be tru­ly known only through expe­ri­enceHow could one tell oth­ers about it?

In verse 27 also we saw that Aruna­giri Peru­man says even as one gains a glimpse of life expe­ri­ences’ tem­po­rary nature that does not last long, one again becomes caught up in the web. Aware­ness is the first step. As one repeat­ed­ly observes the pat­terns of self indul­gence, Aruna­giri Swami­gal directs us to appeal to Lord Skan­da. For in His Grace, we shall find the path to break this appar­ent dead­lock. Muru­gape­ru­maan Him­self shall appear as the Guru and bestow one to become Anub­huti-maan.

It is a divine bless­ing that we study Kand­har Anub­huti through this Sha­ranaa­gati Series. We invite you to chant aloud Kand­har Anub­huti, con­tem­plate more on these lines and share with us your insights.

In recit­ing, learn­ing and absorb­ing these revered vers­es, may our abhyasa con­tin­ue, may our shrad­dha strength­en and may rev­e­la­tions awak­en as we grow with­in!

Skan­daarpanam! Aum Tat Sat!

Bình luận

Không thể tải bình luận
Có vẻ như đã có sự cố kỹ thuật. Hãy thử kết nối lại hoặc làm mới trang.
bottom of page