Ramana Tamil Padam

[Melvina Kryder]

WowWhat sweet, precious pearls these are! Each one evokes such a feeling of being loved and cared for by Bhagavan. This is indeed an extraordinary series. Thank you so much for posting them. And how very true that if one does not hand over one's worries and burdens to Bhagavan, "one cannot perform, with a one-pointed mind, either devotion or self-enquiry." (from the comments following verse 12) All the more reason to give it all to Bhagavan.

"...make sure that all your burdens are placed on me through the courageous act of depending totally on grace."

The word "courageous" makes me wonder that Bhagavan is indicating that Depending on Grace initially might feel like jumping out of the balcony. This is how atleast I feel when I am practicing the dependence.

David: What is your experience in inculatating this attitude of dependence? How did you start it and how did it culminate? Is it that we initially start with intellectually appreciating it and then slowly try to cultivate it OR is it that it just happens in a moment of Grace?

Regards Murali

It does initially take a bit of courage to let go the 'I am in charge of my life' idea and hand over the running of it to Bhagavan.

I got into the habit of telling Bhagavan about all the events in my life, and then adding 'You take care of this; it's not my responsibility.' I don't ask for anything (or hardly ever!). I just cultivate the idea 'Thy will be done' and leave him to sort out the details. Having found out through doing this repeatedly that he is a far better manager of my life than I ever was, I now find it a pleasant relief, rather than an act of courage, to tell him about a story or a problem, and then just drop it from my mind.

Bringing a story to the attention of a jnani invokes what Bhagavan used to call 'automatic divine activity'. Let Him know what is going on. Trust Him to deal with it, and leave the details to Him.

I posted here yesterday but somehow it did not appear, so I do it again.

The 'promises and declaration' are more than extraordinary. Though the verses are in accord with the teachings of Bhagavan, they don't sound like Bhagavan at all.

I agree that they are highly unusual. However, as I remarked in the introduction, Muruganar put an 'en Padam' ('said Padam') at the end of these verses, indicating that they were statements that he had heard Bhagavan say.

I am tempted to dismiss these verses as a product of poetic imagination of Muruganar.(Many sincere devotees believe he had realized by Bhagavan's Grace).

But this conclusion is dangerous as it may reduce the credibility of all his other writings which are are widely accepted as a treasurehouse of Sri Bhagavan's Teachings.

Even though Bhagavan had gone through Muruganar's works like Guru Vachaka Kovai and thus put His stamp on it, we have also come across instances with the writings of other devotees where Bhagavan does not correct certain mistakes / inaccuracies even after pointing them out.

@Sonachala

These verses are in no way poetic imagination. Muruganar is the foremost of Bhagavan's devotees and all his work, poetry or otherwise was inspired and in this case directly heard from Bhagavan himself. Of course Muruganar may have paraphrased but calling it imagination would be tantamount to saying Muruganar lied and that can't be.

Sonachala

I think the only embellishments here are Muruganar's repeated use of the word 'padam', 'the foot'. It occurs in all 3,000 verses. When Bhagavan referred to himself, he would generally use the term 'Bhagavan'.

If you read the whole work you will find that about 90% of it comprises terse, very accurate statements that Bhagavan made on various aspects of his teachings. Padamalai was not intended to be a work of poetic imagination; it was intended to be a record of what Bhagavan said. I believe that this applies to the 'Promises' chapter as much as it does to the sections on philosophy and practice.

David,

Thank you for all you are writing here.

I wish you would write about gratitude. I was very impressed by by the personal experiences you recounted in an interview with Maalok a few years ago.

Dear Sonachala,

I would believe that they are indeed Bhagavan's statements. On other occasions, he has hinted at the same thing, for instance, likening a devotee who worries to a man who carries his luggage on his head, even after boarding a railway compartment.

Could it be possible that these were utterances made to specific queries to Muruganar, who the Maharshi knew to be a pure devotee? And therefore the change of style?

David, can you please elaborate, if this is true or not?

Thanks to Murali, Anonymous, David and Nandu for your comments.

Muruganar is an exemplary devotee with the highest degree of attainment and I would not cast aspersion on him. It is just that these verses were so irregular and out of character that a doubt arose in my mind.

After reflecting on your responses, I now feel comfortable to accept that it is more likely that these 'controversial' verses were words spoken to Muruganar in 'private' (alone)as we are aware this in not how Bhagavan generally spoke in 'public'(in the presence of other devotees).

David told in an interview that Bhagavan is all things to all people. I think that every message Bhagavan gives is very personal and it can range from one end to other end. Finally, He is a Jnani, an embodiment of the Self and it is from the Self itself that all kinds of paths, all kinds of sadhanas have emerged. So, I think that the Self is capable of giving totally contradictory advise to devotees based on what is sees as fit.

Regards Murali

Dear David, Bhagavan always

prescribed 'surrender' to those

who cannot do 'self-enquiry.'

When during His last days,

Gurram Venkata Subbramaiah

beseeched 'Abhayam' (give me

refuge), He said ' 'icchenu' in

Telugu meaning ' I am giving'.

That is the last assurance of Bhagavan, while He was in His body. This is more evident, when

during His last day, He asked the

attendants: ' Have the peacocks,

which are cooing, been fed?'

All the swaras in the raga are raga chhaya swaras (important notes), and each of them can be adorned with gamakas. Alapanas typically start with the panchama or gandhara and commence with phrases like p m g r s r or g m p m g r s r. One also hears alapanas that commence with the upper shadja. According to Subbarama Dikshitar, the rishabha and the gandhara are jiva swaras [4]. However, judging by most compositions (including varnams) and other improvisational renditions, the nishada is a very prominent note too, and is often used as a nyasa swara. Thus, in practice, uttaranga sancharas dominate alapana/neraval.

The remainder of this article can be divided roughly into four sections. In the first section, we present the lakshana aspects of the raga as illustrated by padams and varnams. In the following two sections, lakshya aspects as seen in neraval/swara and alapana/tanam are presented. In the final section, we provide a brief description of the raga Yamuna Kalyani.

In her demonstration, Charumathi makes several important observations. The (musical) format of the padam is suited for sangatis laden with karvais (pauses) and gamakas, rather than faster paced ornamentation such as the brika. The padam, being a forerunner of the kriti, influenced the evolution of the kriti. Thus, many of the prayogas heard in this Kalyani padam can be heard in the clips featuring neraval/swara/alapana/kriti. Accompanied by M. S. Anantharaman on the violin and Neyveli Narayanan on the mridangam, Charumathi Ramachandran sings the Kalyani padam iddari sanduna. Sangeetha Sivakumar provides vocal support.

We move on to the varnam, which is yet another musical form that lays the foundation for manodharma sangeetha. The first clip features the classic Kalyani varnam in ata tala, vanajakshi. Pallavi Gopala Iyer, one of the early composers of varnams and a senior contemporary of the trinity, authored this varnam the late 18th century [11]. As mentioned earlier, Kalyani can be used with great effect as the first piece in a concert.

Before we proceed to the next section on lakshya aspects, we offer two clips from old 78 rpm recordings as an interlude. The first features a Tamil song, vELai arinthE solluvAi, sung by Turaiyur Rajagopala Sarma [14].

In this section, we present Kalyani as handled in kritis. All too often, one forgets that the primary aim of a kriti is to serve as a blueprint for the raga and as a vehicle for raga delineation. We present two clips where the artistes (M. D. Ramanathan, Madurai Mani Iyer) turn small kritis of Thyagaraja into a major presentation of the raga Kalyani.

In the first of these two, M. D. Ramanathan (MDR) sings a relatively uncommon kriti, bhajana seyave. The listener will note that the kriti rendition is a minor part of the complete presentation. The manodharma of the artiste turns the neraval and swara portions into a substantial treatment of the raga. Also note how MDR uses the nishada in the beginning of the charanam (nada pranava) to launch his neraval (around 1:45 into the clip).

A popular kriti of Thyagaraja is vasudevayani from the opera Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam. Mani Iyer prefaces the kriti with an alapana. The kriti starts at the tara stayi shadja and proceeds downwards. Accordingly, Mani Iyer structures his alapana the same way. It is instructive to note how the alapana moves from the uttaranga to the poorvanga portions (about 5 minutes into the clip).

Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao presents another version of the same kriti in the following clip. His version is closer to that given in the Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini. A. Kanyakumari accompanies him on the violin and Mannargudi Easwaran plays the mridangam in this recording from an AIR concert. Since one of our names features prominently in this kriti, we had no option but to present it in its entirety.

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