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English-Translation

The Nenju Vidu Thoothu in Translation By Sekkizhar Adi-p-Podi T.N. Ramachandran

Nenju Vidu Thoothu (Message through the Heart) Of 
Saint Umapathi Devanayanar 
Rendered into English Heroic Verse without rhyme 
By Sekkizhar Adi-p-Podi T.N. Ramachandran


The Nature of God
The nimbus-hued Maal of flowery navel
The Four-Faced decked with lotus chaplet golden
As boar and swan, burrowed the earth and winged the sky
But could not of His Nature know;again,
Neither Indra, nor dwellers ethereal
Nor others of all the different worlds,
Nor habitants of Mantra-mountain great,
And billowy seas, nor Mantras, Vedas,
Nor Naada and Vintu-the crown and flower
Of Vedas, His Nature can comprehend.
He who is for ever easy of access
(To the godly) is past both speech and logic;
He is small as He is the subtlest;
His Frame His Consort shares; invisible
He is formless who hath a form as well
And a formless-form too and none of these;
He is the deathless One who is the Life
Of mortals’ life; He is sooth is the true one
To the devoutly true; he indeed is the Deed
Behind the deed; unto the false He is 
The false one fictitious; He is the Father-
The Lord-God, the dweller in His Flock

The Nature of Soul

Though I be eternal as the Bright one
I abided not in the abiding state true.
But fared orth for ever in transmigration
Of all kinds of birth that are engendered
In ovum, or sweat, or seed, or matrix
And suffered deaths innumerable times;
Even then, the more fool that I really am
For ever bound to eat of the two-fold deed!
Unschooled, with low knowledge condemned was!
To join the Lokayaths; than arrow
Faster I sped forth and did evil deeds
That my family to shame did expose;
Heinous murder, larceny, lechery,
I sought after and in them all wallowed;
I’d not seek to know what ought to be known;
Unto the mind folorn and buddhi errant,
And to arrogance by buddhi begot,
I slaved, grew weary as body wearied,
And did waste as my body wasted, sure;
I know not of my life’s sorrows to relate.

The Nature of Bond

To flint-hearted Lust, Wrath, Passion, Pride, Envy
And to the faculties ten and matras ten,
To the five elements illimitable,
To brain-pervading felony three-fold,
Gunaas three-fold, malaas three-fold and states 
Three-fold and to deeds two-fold which all things
Embrace, to the invisible airs ten,
To relations, the very form of deeds two-fold
And to wealth rare, I slaved and hard did work
Deep immersed in boundless fear and cruelty
Ignoring the pursuit of the path great
That leads to the great God, serpent-cinctured
But stood plunged, all bewildered in billows
Of buffeting sea of deed-breading tools;
Dawning wisdom iparts the saving truth
That TRUER KINSMAN than THOU, there is none.
They that really realise this truth, the knowledge
Of Life, and the Great Being that truly is
The knowledge behind the knowledge of Life
Are the absolutely liberated;
Others in the net of bewilderment
Are entangled sure; thus did speak the poet 
Of divine afflatus, Valluvar great.
His words of truth I ignored and did toid
To propitiate full the sense five,
And in this did persist relentlessly
Only to sink deep in the sea of sin;
Caught was I by the net of damozels’ eyes
Where I learnt the fine art of lechery;
Little knowing the true state I blabbered
Full many a word of cruel import.
For ever in the cycle of birth and death
I involved myself: Behold, oh my Heart
The decadent plight of my piteous life!
Now hearken with care to what I relate.

The Sate of God

He is the One enthroned on the Silver Mount;
His smile of frown did to cinders reduce;
The forts of those that respected Him not;
He is the bright Light supreme that issues
From the summation of Vedas boundless;
He is the Alpha, the Immaculate;
The One to whom blemish is alien;
He’s known only by the knowledge of those
That possess enlightened knowledge divine;
In their bosoms he enters to abide
He is the One of Space righteous that sustains
The inner space of Space; He is the Light
That lights the light by the Grace begotten;
He is the Gracious One, the Giver of grace
To Grace; immensurable He doth stand 
Pervading all; He’s alrady with them
That think on Him; He is not to be known
Bye mere knowledge; He is the fadeless One
Of effulgence, the blooming brilliance
All-pervasive; the flame immutable
One earth; the blemishless One invisible
Save to the  inner eye; the One immanent
And transcendent too; of the ineffable
God’s glory, I ……… fetter’d of deeds two-fold……
Will relate to you, as in my power
It lies; now I bid thee listen with care.

The Ten Insignia

	(1) The Mountain

He is beyond the touch of paasam manifold
And His is the Mountain of Love and Grace.

	(2) The River

From the Mountain of Righteousness supreme
Down descends His River, winding its course
T the delight to earthly lives; destroys
Doubt, theft, fear, lust, murder, wrath and effects
Of all the deeds; runs with bosom-thrilling
Sounds of “Aum” through Vedas and Aagamas
Grace-abounding; dashes forth uprooting
The thicket of triple mala and passes
Beyond the shore of scriptures and instruction
To quell experience empirical;
Removes the five-fold passion and desire
Yclept the long-renowned body, mouth, eyes
Nose and ear; wipes out full the weakening
Speech, feet, hands, and organs excretory
And genitals; gushes torrentially
To pull down the irremovable bondage
Forest-like; and rolls on everywhere to dash
To pieces, by its grace, the mind, buddhi
Ahamkar and chittha ever distracting;
On it flows washing three gunaas away;
The confounding of sense ceases as it
Courses with thrill supreme through the human frame
To sever the lust bred by damozels
Whose bosoms boast of sandal paste fragrant
And to fill the fields of passionlessness;
Forth it proceeds to purify the abodes
Of Sun, Moon and Agni and in justness
Is firm attached to the bases six and spreads
In the realm beyond the ten airs mighty 
And higher soars beyond the elemetns five
To transcend Ayan, Ara, Mahesa
And Sadaa-Siva and all thetatwas too
Of Naada and Vintu and the fathomless
Zero which it doth subdue and again
Passes beyond the land of knowledge great,
Absorbent of all the innumerables.
(Thus) it grants to Souls clarified and from
Doubts freed, its Own Knowledge which his Moksha,
And dwells in all flesh inseparable..... …. …
And as its own, entering their very lives
Like the coursing beyond the five bodily states
Towards the great sempiternal haven
Of every-lasting effulgence great, doth fun
His River of Bliss Stream, Grace-abounding,
Perpetual coolth, from deception free.

	(3) The country

Comprehension and practice of Sruti
And Aagamas lead to perennial bliss
Which is His Country inaccessible.

	(4) The Town

His Town is the dwelling of such souls which
Learning by mastery of arts, eight times eight,
Have cut asunder the source of all desires;
Placid remains their Chinta in Silence
Unique of Siva-Gnanam soused for ever.

	(5) The Garland

A flood of tears bred by love cascade from
The eyes of devotees; their Chinta
Is serene, of confounding doubts well-cleared;
Theirs is realisation; constantly thrilled
Their bodily hairs stand ever erect;
Of falsehood they will have none; their hearts true
Atremble melt with love unbounded for Him;
The great Grace that draws these hearts is His Garland.

	(6) The Horse

His is the Horse which abides recondite
In the thought of those thinkers who reside
Beyond the dark realm of space, universe,
Mountains, seas, under-worlds-all seven-fold,
Transcending the five organs, the elements
Life and feeling; they are knowledge, and are 
All things as well as the reverse thereof.

	(7) The Elephant

Penertrating beyond the nether worlds
By rare words pictured, it is the support
Of seven-fold-middle and upper-worlds;
Is ineffable and effable and is of
The form life and soul of Vedas and six
Angaas; it quells the vast cruel sorrowing
Paasam and smites the sea of birth to turn
Dustily dry; again it doth fiercely scorch
Doubt-breeding lust, anger, miserliness,
Moham and madam and extirpates action
Which causes the cycle of birth and death:
It does away with the false theories
Of all the vociferous religions;
Utterly extirpates fear and murder;
It speeds dripping ichor of grace divine
Into the grove of tattwas and feeds on bliss
Of honey with delight; the Vedas four
It doth wear as its two pairs of bright tusks;
It is the Tusker of Divine Gnosis

	(8) The Banner

His Banner non-pareil wafteth beyond
The religions six and clears the world
Of its burthensome misery immense.

	(9) The Drum

Queling the rebellious flesh they do
Worship the First one in their enthroned hearts;
They are oned with Him and are immune from
Births future; by yogic process they stay
The straying airs in their bodies; the wind
Ethereal too they detained and cause the glow
Of flame ever uniform and achieve bliss
Of the sound of their lives is wrought His Drum.

	(10) The Fiat
In all the worlds created and sustained by
Ayan and Maal, beyond them and everywhere,
In the upper worlds and in the city
Of grace unperceivable, reigns His Fiat.

	(11) God’s Greatness

He is of boundless knowledge; yet He is 
Not to be seen by mere knowledge; He rules
Over the realm of all arts and knowledge 
By sense utterly incomprehensible;
A subtel Trickester is He who fills the worlds
And all the cardinal points with His light;
He’s the One beginningless and endless;
He stands as the root of all, the seed as well;
He is that which germinates from the seed;
He is the body and the tanmatras,
The elements and the pure space of Zero,
The void and the things beyond the mere void.

	(12) Gnaana Acharya

Unto me e senseless one He granted
Heaven, my fall into the cruel wav-tossed
Sea of birth averting; He is my Lord!
The Saints great Sampandhan! His blessed feet
Worshipped by all, he planted on my poor crown;
My King is He; the Rider of the Bull;
He’s the meaning of the words of the wise;
The First One beyond compare; self effulgent;
He needeth no happiness from without.
In the hallowed form mighty of Guru
Sans gunaa or mark he stood, the great Lord!
He did snap the bondage, the cause of birth;
He abides in Tillai where dwell the learned,
To mere intellect inaccessible.

	(13) The Abolition of Malaa

He the Lord ethereal came in procession;
I adored Him, seeing others Him adore;
He threw his eyes on me; in that instant
Abolished was the bunch of my malaa
Five-fold, and He transformed my very thought
Uprooting the tattwass-six and ninety,
Hard to narrate; to me my inner spa 
Of honied ambrosia, he did reveal
And demonstrate that the sacred ashes white,
The form of Siva’s devotee and worship
Of Siva alone to be true; ‘Riches
And life domestic are false’, he declared;
He did inculcate the inner content
Of the Pentad of Syllables sacred
And how to chant and count and meditate
On it; He taught me to look within too
Fearless, and trim the inner taper aflame
And merge with the inly light of that lamp
Bright with boundless effulgence beautiful;
Thus abides the Lord like homey in bloom;
He is to be contemplated even so;
He showed me His light wrought of grace sans form
And in place sans gunaa or mark
Bade me rest; my life and all He did 
Unto Himself draw and with me did mate
In a flooding grace of intoxication;
He made me forget my thievery and did
Transform my knowledge into wisdom true;
He made me lose my I-ness and My-ness;
My cycle of birth and death he snapped;
He is past speech; He’s inaccessible
To any, howsoever great he be; He is 
Of divine attributes eight-fold; He is 
The Wielder great of the letter matchless.
He is the Songster great and Dancer grand;
He abides in Koodal with a vast court endowed;
He is not to be seen by the frivolous.
The unfriendly and the flippant; He is
The sight of the seer; from Him the Paanar
A gift of seat wrought of wood did receive;
More incarnadine than russet sun-set
Is He who is beyond Maal’s prehension;
All things He fills with His omnipresence;
By his grace He snapt the cycle of birth 
And death, ever revolving like the fan, 
Simoon, beetle and rotating wheel of fire.
He is the falsity of the false ones;
He is the embosomed truth of them who know;
His hand doth wield the axe; Oh my Bosom!
Hearken attentively now to the course 
Of thy journey to the Father’s Abode.

	(14) The Goal

With each dawning day, himselfhe perfumes
Gormondises, wars vestment velveteen
And longs to be soused in the merry sea
Of sexy chits of flower-decked locks
And maintains that this life Epicurean
Is indeed mukti; other joys aren’t mukti.
Like a devil of darkness he doth lie;
Beware him, the Lokayath; go not near him;
Go not near them who not having seen the Lord
But only themselves give out; “I am Brahm”;
Be not trapped by the doctrine Buddhistic
Which says; “It is no slaughter to eat the slaughtered;
The only Deity sure is righteousness,
And right conduct is nothing but patience.”
With contentment false, their bodies’ hairs pluck
And discard shamelessly their accoutrement;
They maintain that mukti is controlling
The sense five; go not near these deceptive Jains.
Believe not as true, the words of the Brahmins
Who chant hoary Vedaas of goodly words
Composed, but know not their import or use.
Shun the base who in their hearts do contemn
God-given ashes and God’s own Temple;
Befriend not fools who have little regard
For the true form of tapas, worship, grace,
And knowledge true; shut thine eyes on them all
Who adore dying gods and hate Siva.

	(15) The message

His eyes cast looks of grace on us and thus 
Ruled us; He is the great saint Sambandhan;
He is the Beyond that lives beyond the End;
He unto His Court, before him prostrate,
Adoringly hail Him high and wish Him
Victory eternal and praise Him thus;
“You once did peel the skin of the warring mammoth!
Be stung by the arrows of Manmathan?
Will they think on wealth fleeting and flee Thee
To wallow in Hell cruel? Or will they
Be trapped by religions vociferous?
Will they stand confounded many a time?
Will they be witched by the dames whose bright teeth
The pearl do excel and be thus fuddled
By lewd desire for union with them?
Will they both day and night take notes of what
The stats twenty-seven and planets nine
Foretell? O great One whose Eye to cinders
Did Manmathan reduce! Setting her mind
On the sea of bliss, the damsel hath clean
Forgotten her own self; You must rid her
Of her sorrows.”  Say thus and beg of Him
Grant her His roseate feet of lotus;
So praying, beseech Him adoringly
Again and again; from Him His chaplet
Of cassia get; extol Him and of Him take
Leave to come back and live with me for ever.

		* * *

 To rid the deeds begotten by damsels
Whose eyes deceptive pierce like arrow.
Oh my Bosom! Fare forth to fetch the garland
Of the great Saint Sambandhan who averted 
My fall into painful transmigration
And come back filled with memorised bliss. 

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