THE PATH OF WISDOM
It was Viswanatha Swami who revealed to me the depth of Bhagavan’s work in Tamil poetry. He not only applauded the greatness of his poems, but also divulged their hidden spiritual meaning. He said, “We have to meditate on each and every word uttered and written by Bhagavan. It will then reveal, most assuredly, its true significance and take us to spiritual clarity and inner ecstasy.” I requested him to give me an example so that I too could follow his example and enjoy such spiritual fulfillment!
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He then shared the following with me. “You know, the very first verse in Aksharamanamalai, the Marital Garland of Letters, is enough to exemplify this. The Tamil words used by Bhagavan are, ‘Arunachalam yena ahamey …’ This means ‘Thou dost root out the ego of those who meditate on Thee in the Heart, oh Arunachala’, or ‘Arunachala! Thou dost root out the ego of those who dwell on their spiritual identity with Thee’. Both the alternatives indicate that we should have the surrendered attitude that holding Arunachala in our Heart will give us Self-realization.”
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Viswanatha Swami continued, “It can also be read as, ‘ahamey Arunachalam yena…’ This second interpretation is really very profound! It means meditating on Arunachala as one’s own Heart (not in one’s Heart), instantly destroys all forms of ego-movement. The word Arunachala is split as aruna + achala, which means, Self + Stillness. Externally it is the sacred red mountain. Absorbed internally, it is one’s Heart, the seat of the Self. Has not Bhagavan in the second verse of his Five Stanzas to Arunachala, ecstatically adored it as, ‘Heart is thy name, oh Arunachala’? And, again, in the sixth verse of his Eight Stanzas to Arunachala, exclaimed, ‘Thou art thyself the Self-luminous Heart’?
Arunachalam Yena Ahamey – meditating on Arunachala in the Heart – is bhakti marga. Ahamey Arunachalam Yena – meditating on Arunachala as one’s own Heart is jnana marga.”
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“Bhagavan once explained the deep meaning of the word, aham. ‘A’ is the first letter in the Sanskrit alphabet and ‘ha’ the last letter. Thus, the single word aham, symbolically encompasses whole of existence. Hence, aham or the entire existence is Arunachala. How profound it is!” Saying this, Viswanatha Swami went into ecstasy and took me too, into that state.
So let us merge in the meditation, “Self is Arunachala!”
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