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
¿¢¸ú¾üÌâÂ
¦¿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