Sivamayam
“Thou art not the body ; nor art thou the mind.
Neither art thou intelligence nor even consciousness.
Thou art Atma. Atma is eternal, imperishable.
Such is the realised experience of the seers.
However, there is one thing you should bear in mind.
Do not swerve from the path of Dharma. Reflect that all
beings are in the hallowed presence of the supreme One.
Kaduval is within and without.”
Yours,
Avane Thaane.
Natchintinanai. (Photo-stat.)
The wisest seers of all ages, climes and creeds have posed the question Who am I? and directed the intelligence of man to Know himself. In response to our query who am I, Swami however posed the question Who art thou? and conveyed the answer in a lucid letter, written by him to a close devotee. It adorns the opening page of the Natchintanai. Swami is a term meaning Lord and Master--'He who is one with the Self-Swa'. It is also an endearing form of adressing an enlightened Guru. We use the term with specific reference to Siva Yogaswami, the seer of Lanka, who lived and moved amidst us in the hermitage of Columbuturai in Yalpanam.
Swami who knows the secret of the entanglement of human existence reminds us in this letter, of the infinite stature of the immortal soul--Anma, beneath the emotional and intellectual convolutions that enwrap our conscious being. This Reality is unfolded in Swami's letter by the revealing expression of Avane-Thaane : Thyself in Himself. It is the symbol of the indissoluble relationship of Siva and the Anma, which implies the obliteration of all kinds of existing differences by a process of mutual interpenetration. It connotes the attainment of the Feet of Siva, the commingling of the One and the Beyond, celebrated in verse 2577 of the eighth Tantra of Tirumantram.
When the mind is rendered quit and free from all disturbing distractions, incident on a sense of identity with the body or the faculty of reason, a sense of divine joy dawns on the Anma. The sense of duality disappears in serene light of undifferentiated non-duality. This light brings out the hidden powers of consciousness, which once awakened, the Illumined Anma realises the Truth of the Supreme One. Purity and refinement of the entire being of man, and elevation of the empirical consciousness to higher spiritual planes are defined in Swami's letter as the first code in the path of self-realization. It is by faithful adherence to Dharma interpreted as righteous living, that man is made fit for illumination by the divine light.
The term Atma as designated by Swami, connotes the true self of all existence, the true self of every individual and the universe. It is Eternal. It is the basis of the blissful experience of all enlighted sages. It is contained in the sacred utterance of Muluthum Unmai, which the illuined consciousness of Swami realised. He percieved the essential unity between the true self ofthe individual and the true self of the universe. Sanmarga or Unmai-neri is the spiritual approach to Truth-realization. Natchintanai reveals this Yoga-vidya of Maha YogaSwami, by which he realised the Absolute Truth. It is of timeless and placeless validity, true nowever and everywhere.
In the letter, Swami signs as Avane-Thaane, which term occurs in the tenth sutra of Sivajnana Bothan:
Thaane is Himself--the Infinite One, in Avane--thyself, the finite one. It is the supreme awareness that the Anma is in perpetual communion with the Lord. This identity is the secret of the divine energy of Sivam--evolution and dissolution, light and darkness, remembrance and forgetfulness, action and inaction. This 'and' uniting incompatibles expresses the fundamental character of the Highest Being, who is termed Siva, whose energy is Sakti. The opposites are fundamentally of the one essence, two aspects of the God-head. Thus the anma who is in tune with Himself, perceives all his actions to be His, in consonance with the Will of Siva, and sees action in inaction, and inaction in action. In this state of perfect surrender, he attains the Be-attitude, the blissful state under the Lotus Feet.
The prologue Sivam art All is a song of jubilation which marks the awakening of man from the sense of egoity to spiritual universalism whence he realises the goal of human life. This attainment is an experienced certitude for an illumined sage like our Guru, Siva YogaSwami.
“This universe and all therein art Sivan.
My own invincible Lord too is Sivam”
Swami's fundamentall code of righteous living is embodied in his letter by the term Dharma. He admonishes us not to err from the pivotal force of Dharma. Hinduism is a growing tradition and not a fixed revelation, and hence called the Sanatana Dharma. The Hindu Dharma is without beginning and end. It stands for all those ideals and purposes that have built up the essence of man. By Dharma is implied the law of righteous living, the observance of which Swami assures us, secures the object of happiness on earth as well as spiritual freedom or Moksha. The aim of Hindu Dharma is to lead man to the realization of the Eternal Truth. It is the ultimate truth which is the basis of all life. This is the main theme of Swami's letter.
The Hindu Dharma enjoins the spiritual perfection of man as the aim of all endeavour. The highest life enjoined by the Dharma is what follows spontaneously from the indomitable faith in the Reality of God. Swami enjoins that the indwelling of God in man is the significant truth, while the ideal conduct is that which translates it into pratice. Every act of such a man is termed Sivathondu or service to Siva
The establishment of the dialogic relationship of the Anma with Siva is brought about by a mastery of the Anma over the senses five, when clouds of hate and passion, attachments and impurities dissolve; the anma becomes filled with serenity. In this state of quiescence, Swami vouchsafes that the devotee shall realise Siva. He becomes Sivathondan. Such a purified aspirant views Dharma as an inspiration from within; for the others of course, it is an external path-way which they follow blindly, prompted by custom and logic.
The Sanatana Dharma is the Hindu tradition which has been sustained by the convictions of countless generations of men, who had helped to build the temple of truth in us. If Moksha or spiritual liberation is the ideal towards which humanity moves, then all living beings can rise to their divine destiny of being in union with Sivam. This letter of Swami brings out the vision of the unity of all things in God. “Reflect that all beings are in the hallowed presence of the Supreme One.”
KADAVUL
The term Kadavul is fraught with significance. 'The Supreme Lord abides within and without.' It is ultimately within the centres of perception, that is, within the living individuality, that we must search for the Reality, which pervades in the cosmos. The cosmic or elemental energies must be basically found in our own beings as well, for we cannot know something which is not in ourselves. It is only a self-illumined seer who alone can see everything in the work of manifestation as creating an illusion of multiplicity, which prevents the realisation of the basic oneness of all beings. All means of perception are oriented outward to a man of the world. Once he is made to look inwardly, he can behold the soul of all things within himself.
St. Tayumanavar in his Ananda Kallippu sings on the immortality of the Anma:
“Thou art not the elemental forces.
Thou art not the five senses
Nor the inner faculties of the mind.
Thou art Chit--Intelligence pure.
So said my Guru full of Love.
His utterance is full of sweetness.
Sankara Sankara Sambu.”
--St Tayumanavar. 1429.
It is only the grace of a Sat-Guru that can direct the light of knowledge within one's heart. Such an aspirant can attain Him who lies beyond. The term Kada-vul in Tamil connotes the idea of stepping inside and discovering that the Lord who prevades has universal appeal, and because of its universality, it can be asserted with equal authority from many different points of view, as testified by the great mystic poet, St. Tayumanavar:
“The Vedas, Agamas, Puranas great,
So legends and the other diverse lores,
Set forth at length the vast Advaita's creed.
And Dvaita too! for Dvaita's truths well grasped
Do lead us on towards Advaita's light.
Here reason, facts and sacred texts agree.
And Dvaita and Advaita are at one
Enough! no more of discipline I want:
What'er I think, I that become indeed;
So by the constant thought that Thou art I,
I can well tread Advaita's path indeed.
What'er I think of Thee, in that same form
Thou dost descend O Sire! What need I more!.”
--St. Tayumanavar. 91