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Writer's pictureAnaadi Foundation

Kandar Anubhuti by Saint Arunagirinathar — Part 15

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 42 vers­es of Kand­har Anub­huti. In this edi­tion, we delve into vers­es 43, 44, and 45.

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 espe­cial­ly 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 43 — தூசா மணியும்தூசா மணியுந் துகிலும் புனைவாள்நேசா முருகா நினதன் பருளால்ஆசா நிகளந் துகளா யினபின்பேசா அநுபூதி பிறந்ததுவே!
Beloved of the One adorned with impec­ca­ble pearls, ruby gems and gar­mentsOh Muru­ga! Because of your infi­nite Love and GraceThe chain of desires has been crushed to pow­derAnd in the still­ness of silence arose the Anub­huti!

This verse is the crown-jew­el of Kand­har Anub­huti. It is impor­tant to rec­ol­lect the imme­di­ate pre­vi­ous vers­es. In verse 40, we saw that Thiru Muru­gap­pe­ru­man comes wan­der­ing through all geo­gra­phies seek­ing to bestow Grace on to the one whose con­scious­ness is filled with Lord’s Name and Form. We saw that one of the pathi­nen-sid­dhas Patan­jali Mahar­ishi also has described this process as attain­ing to Sav­i­tar­ka and then Nirvi­tar­ka Sama­p­at­ti in the Sama­di Pada. In verse 41 Lord bestows Grace through Yoga and Shi­va-upade­sha. Through verse 42 we see that Aruna­giripe­ru­man suc­cinct­ly show­ing the expe­ri­ences through Asam­pra­j­na­ta and Nir­bee­ja Sama­di. In this verse we see that Lord Skan­da in His Infi­nite Love and Grace has crushed all the vrit­tis with­in. “Anub­huti” here sig­ni­fies the true unin­ter­rupt­ed spir­i­tu­al union of the Jee­va (loose­ly means soul) with the Para. Hav­ing attained to Nirvikalpa Sama­di, Aruna­giripe­ru­man there­by states an inex­plic­a­ble expe­ri­ence of One­ness with Lord Skan­da. Om Muru­ga!

பாடல் 44 — சாடும் தனிவேல்சாடுந் தனிவேல் முருகன் சரணஞ்சூடும் படிதந் ததுசொல் லுமதோவீடுஞ் சுரர்மா முடிவே தமும்வெங்காடும் புனமுங் கமழுங் கழலே!
The Divine Feet of the Lord Muru­ga, who wields the all-slay­ing Lance (Vel)How would I extol His Grace with which He has placed Them on my head!Those Sarced Feet in the abode of Muk­ti, on the heads of the Devas, the four Vedas!That which have walked through scorch­ing-forests and mil­let-fields!

In this verse, Aruna­giri Swami­gal express­es with great anand­ha (bliss) the incred­i­ble feat of hav­ing attained to Lord Skanda’s feet. This verse also deeply resounds that it is by the Will and Grace of Muru­gape­ru­man that Lord Muru­ga has placed his Divine Feet on Arunagiriperuman’s head there­by bestow­ing Sha­ranaa­gati. Aruna­giri Swami­gal empha­sis­es that Kand­har Anub­huti attain­ment is Murugaperuman’s doing!

பாடல் 45 — கரவாகிய கல்வியுளார்கரவா கியகல்வி யுளார் கடைசென்றிரவா வகைமெய்ப் பொருள் ஈகுவையோகுரவா குமரா குலிசா யுதகுஞ்சரவா சிவயோக தயாபரனே!
With­out hav­ing to serve and learn from the Real­ized Mas­tersYou have bestowed me with Mei-PorulOh Sat-Guru, Kumara, One with Kulisayu­da and an Ele­phant Vahana Oh bestow­er of Shi­va-yoga-upade­sha!

From Skan­da Purana we also learn that Lord Skan­da has a Goat, Pea­cock and an Ele­phant (Pin­imukam) as his Divine Vahanas or vehi­cles.

In Indi­an lit­er­a­ture, one would often find the author attribut­ing to his or her lin­eage and a guru-vand­hana where the author bows down to his or her Guru and reveals it to us. In this verse, Aruna­giripe­ru­maan shows us the great bhagya (divine for­tune) he has been a recip­i­ent of. Arunaimu­ni hasn’t had to go to any Guru as a Sishya. It is his unpar­al­leled pur­va-kar­ma and tapo-bala that Lord Skan­da Him­self came as the Sat-Guru. And through these vers­es infused with Aruna­giri Swamigal’s tapo-bala, we also undoubt­ed­ly receive the direct Grace and Guid­ance of Lord Skan­da. This verse also removes all samshaya (doubts as hur­dles) and invokes in bhak­tas the guar­an­teed sup­port of Lord Skan­da where He is known to seek the seek­er!

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!

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