Hymnotherapy in Arutkural -2
Dr.K.Loganathan

Dear Friends,

We have already the criteria that would distinguish the RIGHT sort of hymns from the dubious. The right emerges as agamas i.e. spontaneous productions in the bosom of a person whose heart is pure and divine and who has
conquered and overcome  the earth bounding worldly desires. Now we shall consider what would be the essential substance of such songs  because of such genesis.

Ecstatic  Exultation.

The genuine hymns are born of ecstasies of final Releasement and hence are not just simply articulations of profound insights  even of the metaphysical kind. They are BEYOND such metaphorical allusions, the gaining of
illuminations that destroy the inner darkness. It's all over now'  the soul is in the FINAL HOME and hence there is exultation that are essentially expressions of thankfulness without knowing exactly how to thank.

                     pukazthalum pooRRalum ponnadikad ceeravaaraRRalaum
                      nikazthaRkuriya neduum paaddil

                    Ò¸ú¾Öõ §À¡üÈÖõ ¦À¡ýÉʸ𠧺ÃÅÃüÈÖõ
                     ¿¢¸ú¾üÌâ ¦¿Þ¯õ À¡ðÊø

One feels so pure and clean with only noble thoughts in the bosom that brings about its own delight , a delight that   no where else to be found. One radiates an inner purity , an absolute cleanness  that has been only a distant possibility but now an existential reality. One is deeply in it and because of it feel so elated.

                      uLLaththin azukkinai  uthaRiya meyyanbar
                     vallithin iRaivaaztha vanpaadal

                       ¯ûÇò¾¢ý «Ø츢¨É ¯¾È¢Â ¦ÁöÂýÀ÷
                      ÅøÄ¢¾¢ý ­¨ÈÅ¡úò¾ ÅýÀ¡¼ø
 
A Rhythm of its Own
 
Each song or for that matter each poetry,  has its own rhythm and rhyme. Each  abstract metaphysical poetry has to read be with a cadence and pauses of its own for the real meaning to emerge.   There are  prosodic contours with which they have to read in order to bring out the deeper meanings. In this way the hymns too have own their own pattern of rhythm that is called the paN or iraagam   that allows it to be SUNG in tunes that arrest the listeners and uplift them through their peculiar  cadence. Such rhythmic cadence is an expression of tensionless state of Being  that constitutes the existential ground for the emergence of the hymn in the first place.

                         nOyum nodiyum nuzaiyaaavakaik kaakkum
                        aayacciir paNNin aanRicai

                          §¿¡Ôõ ¦¿¡ÊÔõ ѨÆ¡Ũ¸ì  ¸¡ìÌõ
                          ¬Â÷ô Àñ½¢ý ¬ýÈ¢¨º

And singing the hymn in its original cadence with which the hymn itself emerges or unfolds itself as an agama, a text that emerges on its own , reinforces the same purity underlying the birth of the hymn itself. Singing and melting into the lyrics that comes along with own cadence lifts the listener to the same DIVINE ground that the hymn itself has its place of birth.

                             uLLam maNakkum oLiyaanaR  Reyviikam
                         paNNalac ciirpaadi yaada

                         ¯ûÇõ Á½ìÌõ ´Æ¢Â¡¿ü ¦ÈöÅ£¸õ
                         Àñ½Äî º£÷À¡Ê ¡¼

And there is a good reason for it. For there is the SEEING of the distant deities, feeling their real presence  and this direct perception of the deities evokes a musical quality of their own. For archetypes or deities have as their body a mantra-complex (mantra thirumEni) and its vision will not fail to evoke a lyrics of it own as enunciated by these mantras.

                             thUraththulakin thonmai  theyvangkaL makiznthu
                             vaaraththin valamvaru mulaku

                            àÃòÐĸ¢ý ¦¾¡ý¨Á ¦¾öÅí¸û Á¸¢úóÐ
                            Å¡Ãí¸Ç¢ý ÅÄõÅÕ ÓÄÌ

Defeats Slavery

The desires that kindle the bosom  of a person and which  constitutes the motivational dynamics of it own,   have as the Deep Structure a way on Being in which one overcomes these and emerge victorious. All earthly desires are like hunger for food which though it subside for a while on having a good meal, it  reemerges creating the same pressures within and assailing the person again and again. All earthly desires are like this including the sexual economic and political. Enjoying them do not provide the SATURATION that would finally FREE us from desiring anything at all and hence pining for this and that. Genuine hymns,  because of their intrinsic power of redemption  uplift the individual to such states of Being and therefore provide a genuine freedom , a freedom that makes a person truly autonomous
and independent.

                     meyyadiyaar uLLaththil meeviyezum inpaadal
                     poyadimai pookum punitham

                   ¦ÁöÂÊ¡÷ ¯ûÇò¾¢ø §ÁÅ¢¦ÂØõ ­ýÀ¡¼ø
                   ¦À¡öÂʨÁ §À¡Ìõ ÒÉ¢¾õ
 

Not only that. The entry into the divine grounds that such lyrical hymns afford also help to burn off the deposits in the  Unconscious that are the outcomes of one's own past misdeeds.  The outcome of such misdeeds, even buried underground so that there is  a seeming escape from them , there is no real escaping  as  such. They get lodged in the Unconscious in the Freudian sense and keep on emerging into the conscious and subconscious creating  moods that immensely  painful  disturbing and depressing.   The singing and listening to such hymns burns off these deposits by lifting the individual into the realms of FIRE of the sort that  can be reached only by such hymns.
 
                       aadavallaan asaiththidum aziyaavamutha kaanangkaL
                      paadavallaarkkup paavangkaL pOm

                    ¬¼ÅøÄ¡ý «¨ºò¾¢Îõ «Æ¢Â¡ÅÓ¾ ¸¡Éí¸û
                     À¡¼ÅøÄ¡÷ì ÌôÀ¡Åí¸û §À¡õ


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