tiruvAcagam or The Sacred Utterances of the Tamil Poet, Saint and ...

Introduction to the Sacred Cento
Hymn V - thirucathakam
THE SACRED CENTO. - RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM.
This remarkable poem contains a hundred especially flowing and harmonious verses of varying metres. These are
divided into ten decades, and the whole are connected by the law which requires that the last word of each verse shall
begin the following verse. The whole ten lyrics with their hundred verses are thus linked together. This arrangement,
which is very common in Tamil, is called AnthAthi, which I venture to translate 'anaphoretic verse'. This cento is
intended to exhibit the progress of the soul through the successful stages of religious experience till it loses itself in the
rapture of complete union with the Supreme. The general titile given by one editor is equivalent to 'The Varying
Phases of Religious Enthusiasm' at least this is the nearest expression for it that I can find in English. The poem is
supposed to have been composed in Tiru-peran-turai immediately after the departure of the Saints, for some time
MAnikka-VAcagar's companions, who passed through fire and went home to Civan. From the border of the tank,
where the divine conflagration had arisen, into he midst of which his companions had thrown themselves, he returned
to the Kondral tree, where he spent a long period in solitary meditation, of which these poems are the sum. He surveys
his past experiences, contemplates the work assigned him and while he begins the series of sacred poems by which he
was to establish the Caiva system n the hearts of his fellow-countrymen, he never ceases to complain in most touching
language, that he is not permitted at once to follow his Master and brethren into the rest and glory of Paradise. This is
indeed the burthen of much of his poetry.
The titles of the ten decades, into which the poem is divided, indicate in some measure the course of his thoughts
and the character of his mental conflicts. There is a most pathetic alternation of rapturous and realising devotion with
coldness and apathy, and even, it seems of temporary abandonment to gross sensuality. It is to be doubted whether the
whole of these verses are of one period, and I should prefer to think that they really embody his meditations and
solloquies up to the period of his final settlement in Cithambaram.
DECAD 1.
THE COGNITION OF THE TRUE.
1. Humble access to the New Master
My frame before Thy fragrant foot is quivering like al1 opening bud;-
My hands above my head I raise;while tears pour down, my melting soul,
The false renouncing,, praises Thee;-with songs of triumph praises Thee,-
Nor suffer I adoring hand to rest;-O Master, look on me ! (4)
II. Self-surrender. He accepts the ascetic life.
I ask not bliss of Indra, MAl, or Ayan;-though my house and home
Be ruin'd, friendship form I none save with Thine own;-though hell's abys
I enter, I unmurmuring go, if grace divine appoint my lot;-
O King I no other god save Thee I ponder, our Transcendent Good ! (8)
III. He is despised as a mad enthusiast.
Transcendent Good ! Owner and Sire ! Thy servant melting thinks on Thee.
In raptures meet I utter forth my fever'd soul's ecstatic joys,
Still wandering from town to town; while men cry out, 'A madman this;'
And each one speaks, with mind distraught, discordant words. O,
when come death ? (12)
IV. None to be worshipped but Civan
Erewhile was Dakshan's offering death. They ate the flesh, and poison feared
' Our Father,' cried our friends and worshipt Him with suppliant voice.