Swami's canzone on 'Enkal Gurunathan' unfolds the profound truth underlying the mystic formula of the Vedas--Aum Tat Sat. The lyric is the spontaneous outflow from the spring of the Guru's Grace. Thiru sang the song in his own peculiar cadence with closed eyes and meditative resonance. My heart pondered in silence on the beauteous communion of Grace Divine. The scintillating chorus of Enkal Gurunathan in every line of the canticle resound the melody of Swami's majestic adoration of his gracious SatGuru, Sage Chellappa Swami of Nallur. It is a testimony of his direct spiritual experience of Truth. In like manner did St. Tirumular, the illustrious mystic Seer of early Saivism celebrate the causeless act of God's grace in Tirumantram:
“My Guru's Grace bathed me in a sea of nectar
My Guru's Grace taught me the love divine
My Guru's Grace made me taste bliss divine
My Guru's Grace has crept its way to my heart.”
In the spiritual illumination communicated by Swami in the Incantation on His Guru, we become aware of the elimination of diverse barriers between the individual self and the universal Self. His verses breathe of the joy he experienced at his first penetrating insight into Truth, wrought about by Chellappa Swami's beatific Grace!
In me art Thou
In Thyself am I
We are what we are
Thou art what Thou art
These magnificent simple utterances of Swami convey his wondrous relationship with the God-Guru--Ontraai, Veraai, Udanaai. God is the Infinite Being who is both in us and out of us. If God were not in us, there would be no sense of Need. If God were not out of us, there would be no sense of worship. Our highest knowledge of God through the power of the intellect can only be partial. There always remains something which is unknown and unspoken. Swami like many other illustrious Hindu saints and seers, experienced the formless supreme Godhead in the form of Grace, which came down in human habitation as Sage Chellappa Swami. Therefore it behoved him to hail his Guru as the guide and guardian of the world at a particular point of time and context of human situation.
Guru Nanak the Founder of Sikkhism, in the Guru-Granth exclaimed that if a hundred moons went up and a thousand suns arose, even then in the midst of such a light there would still be intense darkness without a GURU. In Swami's song on Our Gurunathan, we get the vision of unity in the universe as an experienced certainty. Sparks of love and wisdom irradiate in every line of this Song of songs.
The Guru's Grace has the power to purge the human ego into a purified, subdued 'egoless ego'; and Swami perceives himself in all beings and all beings in himself, freed from selfishness, attachments, envy and lust. The refrain--Enkal Gurunathan, at the end of every line of this Poem strikes the chords of aspiration in our hearts and fills us with a thirst divine for the elixir of the Guru's Grace. The beacon light of Our Guru encompass the orbit of our existence, and we follow from behind, in the footprints of the Lamp Lighter, who lights up the dark chambers of our inner self.
When by meditation the mind is purified,
The inner light begins to shine forth.
When the knot of ignorance is broken,
The Sun of our soul shall shine in all its glory.
Dreams of pain and pleasure will no more be seen,
And the boon of divine Grace shall we attain.
The soul is the Supreme everlasting Self,
The Light of Truth Effulgent.
Swami reiterates the Saiva Siddhanta doctrine of Grace, that it is the Lord who comes down in the form of Grace, and removes all obstacles in the pathway of libration. The Guru establishes the reign of Grace on earth.
“He is the Guru who granted me grace to gain
Good for the life that is, good for the life to be;
Being most worthy to show me true wisdom's way
How best to be but the doer of good only;
He draws me to him with mother like tenderness
And in my heart-temple, He the Guru dwelleth.”
--St. Tayumanavar. 541.
'He who knows the knowledge of the Knower, He indeed is the Teacher.' A Guru dispenses his grace with discerning love, and dispels innate darkness with radiant wisdom. Sang St. Tayumanavar in Ananda Kallipu:
“He is Truth and beloved of his devotees true,
The gracious Guru who's the essence of serenity.”
Swami too sings of the SatGuru's Grace as effecting tranquil quietude. The soul's sense of duality and relativity disappear in the serene light of the vision of Oneness, which according to him is not a momentary attainment, but a permanent possession and the highest consummation of Grace. The Atma is realised as a continuum of luminous light, endowed with infinite power.
Thus did our Gurunathan make me Know Myself. He made me acquainted with the deepest layers of my external and internal, gross and subtle self, and I discovered Himself in myself”: “His peerless Feet, the symbol of His Grace reposed on my head.”
--Enkal Gurunathan--1--Nathintanai.
In a most touching stanza of Tirumantram, St. Tirumular too signifies the luminous impact of the Guru on an awakened soul:
“It's enlightenment to bask
in the Guru's presence;
It's enlightenment to take
the Guru's sanctified name;
It's enlightenment to receive
the Guru's ambrosial word;
It's enlightenment to meditate
upon the Guru's sacred form.”
--Tirumantram. 27.
This vision of Truth fills the soul with ecstatic joy, and Swami conveys in his poem Enkal Gurunathan, the beatitude of bliss when infinite varieties are seen as an expression of the One, and when the One reveals itself in every point of the infinite. In the same sweet naive tones did Saint Kabir too convey the unspeakable communion with His Guru:
“It is the grace of my Guru that made me know the unknown
I have learned from him how to walk without feet,
to see without eyes, to hear without ears,
to drink without mouth, to fly without wings.
I have brought my love and my meditaion into the land
where there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.
Without eating, I have tasted of the sweetness of nectar,
and without water, I have quenched my thirst.
Where there is response of love, there is fullness of joy.
Before whom can that bliss be uttered?”
At the going down of the Sun and in the morn, let us sing the canticle of Our Gurunathan so that its melody may float on wings of love. Let its meaning penetrate deep within, lighting up the dark recesses of our divided selves. Let its symphony awaken hope and solace that shall restore the split personality of man today.
1. Our Gurunathan is He
Who made known to me my greater self,
His peerless Feet reposed on my head.
Father, mother and Guru, He became,
And endowed me with sovereign power.
The effect of my deeds of yore He effaced,
He who cannot be fathomed by the triune,
Beyond the duality of good and evil,
His flame lightens my being.
He is our Gurunathan.
2. He is our Gurunathan
Who said that body art thou not.
He illumines my consciousness to the brim,
And bids me give up my desires alluring,
And attain Mukti in desirelessness.
He did enslave my impetuosity,
He who pervades both heaven and earth,
He made me thirst for the waters of grace.
'Twas Truth indeed that I did behold,
Our Gurunathan is He indeed.
3. Our Gurunathan is He
Who taught me the mysteries of Yoga
By exalted contemplation pure,
To merge the finite consciousness
With that of the Divine source.
Then did I perceive the non-dual,
Supramental, timeless beyond space.
'Do thou apprehend the cosmic dance,
That pulsates in universal consciousness,
By giving up all attachments,' so said He.
He is our Gurunathan.
4. He is our Gurunathan
Who suspends the vital process of the breath,
That shall unveil the secrets many
And gain the mastery of the mind and body.
Attuned to hear the unheard melody,
I awakened to the resonance of Aum.
'Be thou pure and realise,' said He,
'The indissoluble link between you and I.'
Our Gurunathan is He.
5. Our Gurunathan is He
By whose grace the cosmic powers did reveal
Their abiding place within my core.
Myself did mingle in His cosmic self.
Adorned with the mystic insignia,
He bade me melt in yearning love,
And chant the sacred name of Letters Five.
'Eternal art Thou,' was his assurance.
He is our Gurunathan.
6. He is our Gurunathan
Who made me seek without striving,
And realise that Sivam art in the Anma.
He made me espouse spontaneous worship
And walk in the goodly path,
By songs unpremeditated, and bade me
Join the band of devotees meek,
In the certitude of faith and good cheer.
'Live well in this world,' said He.
Our Gurunathan is He indeed.
7. Our Gurunathan is He
Who with one sweet word,
Revealed the calm of inner consciousness.
Indweller in all the objects of the world,
He towers above the causal existence.
Unknown even by the celestials,
He soars above the experiential planes,
And so enriched I felt with grace sublime.
He is our Gurunathan.
8. He is our Gurunathan
Who knows not the beginning nor the end.
'That art Thou,' He said and chimed
That perfection is supernal Effulgence.
His is the plea to overcome finitude.
Non-pareil and self-luminous is He
Who bestowed on me such bliss.
Our Gurunathan is He.
9. Our Gurunathan is He
Who kindled in me the lore of yogic cult,
That shall sustain the inner force.
Himself untainted by fear and wrath,
He did alleviate my egoity,
And unveiled by gradual stages,
The way to attain the unitive experience.
'Pursue the beatific goal,' said He
And He is our Gurunathan.
10. He is our Gurunathan
Who affirmed that we are what we are.
And that we lack nothing whatever.
Effaced shall be the reaction of deeds,
With no comings nor goings, said He,
Thou art what Thou art--One with Truth,
Resolve not but submit to Divine will.
'Aum' of sublime power did he impregnate,
And infused the peace of the voiceless word.
Our Gurunathan is He indeed.
--Natchintanai. 1-3.
As the lyric closes on the high octave of sweet serenity, we breathe a word of prayer to Our Gurunathan to guide us by a fraction of the divine grace, as was ministered to him by his Guru, so as to enable us to dissolve the ego by the panacea of desirelessness. “Unless the Divine Guru guides us to the Turth, of what use are the words spread out in books?” “Words and books,” says St. Tirumular, “are mere useless tissue dangling from goat's neck.”
In this Poem, Swami illumines everyone with the resplendent gleam of the Guru's Grace, which frees the soul of its finite limitations and gives it the wisdom of Siva--Sivathuvam. Once the veil of obscuration is removed, the soul lightens with Sivajnanam. Umapathi Sivachariar in Tiruvarutpayan asks the question, “How can the world know Him who without being known came down to breathe His Grace?” V.3. Swami answers this question in this magnificat on Our Gurunathan.
He recounts how Chellappa Swami came down as a 'madman,' to ensnare men, and the world did not know him. Swami hails his Guru and remembers him every split second of his life, because his Guru imparted in secret, the lore of self-knowledge unto him. It is only when the Guru's grace works on an Anma, can it know the 'truth about the doer, the deeds done and the fruits thereof, and the Lord who brings the fruit home to the Anma.' Tiruvarutpayan--V.16 & 17. The Lord's grace that permeates the whole world also irradiates withn the Anma. With illumination comes renunciation--purification--and perfect resignation. The grammar of this scale of Grace experienced by Swami is given in Tiruvarutpayan--VIII. 4.5 'To stand behind Grace is the true way of uniting oneself with it; in advaithic union is supreme felicity.'
According to St. Manicavasagar, it is the benign Grace of the Guru that ensures both the realisation of the self as well as of Sivam, the absolute beyond, the universal everywhere, and the life of the individual within.
“Thee oh transcendent One,
Benignly manifest on earth,
Diffusing grace in human form!
I see thus the splendour of my Guru,”
--Tiruvacagam IV. Potri Tiruvahaval.
Sage Chellappa Swami came into the life of Siva YogaSwami at Nallur Theradi, even as the coming of the Guru under the Kuruntha tree at Perunturai to Varthavur-Adigal.
“......... In Perunturai, Himself did come
And on this earth, a gracious Form
Descending did He reveal the Primal Braham;
Such informing Grace, He alone can grant.”
--Tiruvacagam, The Holy word. 43.I.
With the descent of Grace, Swami declared that all the taint of the accumulated deeds of yore wrought by the domination of the tattvas dissolved, and he experienced the truth of the self and the gnosis of God. The validity of his experience is testified by the songs of matchless love, which reflect the intimate communion of the soul with the ParaSivam.
St. Tirujnanasambandar has also enjoined in one of his Devarams, that the mode in which the Guru imparts His Grace and makes each anma His own, is not to be analysed by logic, reason or doctrine. St. Sundarar refers to his divine Guide as Pitha or madman. We recall St. Manicavasagar's utter amazement at the manifestation of Guru's Grace in his life:
“He gave His sacred Grace, that falseness all
Might flee and showed His golden Feet.
Himself the Truth, He stood in presence there,
This matchless miracle, I cannot tell.”
--Tiruvacagam. 41.I.
Swami's testimony on his Guru's Grace reveals an integrated experience of a transcendent state of consciousness, which is neither subjective nor objective, as it bears no relation between the experiencer and the experienced. In the transcendental consciousness, Reality is its own immediate witness, its own self-awareness, and its own freedom of complete being. There is nothing which is not revealed in it.
In the lyric of Our Gurunathan, Swami speaks of the deepest experience of Reality, when God's revelation and Guru's Grace, seem to be two sides of the One Eternal Truth. We shall turn to the great Seer, St. Tirumular to hear what he has to say on this perennial subject of the Guru's dynamic power of Grace ineffable:
Formless Himself, God is the home of all forms.
Sourceless Himself, He is the seed of all things;
Unattached Himself, He's the weaver of all attachments;
Yet only a Guru can open to us the door of Realisation.”
The prince among the ascetic mystics of Saivism, Pattinattadigal too shares with Swami, the experience of the sovereign sway of Guru's grace in enabling the Anma to know everything in their true nature, power and essence:
“Sooner did I get thy Grace, Oh Siva!
Than the veil of maya was torn, the steadfast
Turiya Jnana came to me, and having imbibed it,
I knew myself, I knew the objects around,
I knew all thy various manifestations!
Those who do not see Thee are of the manner
Of those who do not know themselves.”
--Tiruvidaimaruthur--Mummanikovai XIth Tirumurai
In the last verse of Enkal Gurunthan, occurs the lines, 'Thou art what Thou art,' connoting union with the absolute Truth. There is total and perfect consonance between the will of man and the will of God. In the closing refrain, the vibrant mantra AUM mingles in the light of consciousness, interpenetrating light and sound, when ultimately the soul merges in the beatitude of eneffable Peace.
The knower who realises that the Supreme shines in and through all life does not waste words. He becomes the most enlightened among men, and he is the whole universe. Heaven, earth, sky, mind and life-breath are all woven into him. He is the one and only existence. Truth wins ever, and not untruth. with Truth is paved the road to the Divine. On that road walk the great Yogis, Sages and Seers with desires all subdued, to the goal of the Supreme abode of Truth. Truth is the only pathway to God.
St. Tayumanavar describes in a psalm of great beauty in Chidambara Rahasyam (21), his experience of felicity supernal, as eluding all analysis and beyond the realm of duality. It is the realisation of the infinite wisdom of sempiternal silence, through the operation of the Guru's Grace; “Every single one of the innumerable barriers of the finite bonds gets dissolved in the luminous stillness of union with the eternal Siva.”
“And dispensing the true knowledge of natural and unique silence, which destroys all bondage and in which there is no meditation nor ego, no space, no time, no direction, no association, no elimination, no differentiation, no expression, no phenomena of night and day, no end, no beginning, no middle, no interior nor an aggregate of all these.”
“Grace shows further--that, though all these are eliminated, It is not void, but is natural eternal Being, inexpressible in words, not manifesting as ego, but is the Reality engulfing all, having swallowed all ignorance like day dissolving night, and absorbed unhindered all knowledge, changing the person into Itself.” “It shines in silence, Self Effulgent.” St. Tayumanavar--22. Such is the essence of the undifferentiated quiescence (Mounam) glorified as beatific bliss by all the sanctified saints, and attained by Swami.
“Our Gurunathan is He who made me
Realise the Serene Peace of the voiceless word.”
--Natchintanai. 3.
It is the summation of Swami's at-one-ment with His Siva-Guru.
Silence is the primordial and modeless state of being. It is a state of eternal rest and eternal work in simultaneity. There Self, our-Self, him-Self both sleeps and wakes, sees and sees not; night and day of supernal time and darkness and sunshine are not like our night and day in succession but simultaneous. In this pure consciousness, the soul experiences Sivanubhuti, and there is no separation whatsover ever after.
In an exquisite state of integration, in the plenum of infinite tranquillity, the God-Guru and the perfected Anma commune in felicitous peace. It is the call of the Deep unto the Deep. The great Teacher Siva YogaSwami proclaims the summum bonum of the Guru's Grace in lines that haunt our memory with the perfume of eternity:
“All words lead to the haven of voiceless stillness.
All acts lead at last to the calm of tranquil awareness.
All, All is poised in the pleroma of sublime serenity.”
--Natchintanai. 380.