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s c r i p t u r eA Mystical Masterpiece Is UnearthedOne of mankind’s deepest esoteric treatises boasts a new English translation.Long hidden, will it be restored to its rightful place among Hindu scriptures?The world is awash in yoga, inlaughing yoga and hot yoga, in fivestarspa yoga, weight-loss yoga andbirthing yoga. But few know the authenticsources, and fewer still dive intothem. One such source, long sequesteredin its original Tamil and a singular brokenEnglish attempt, has been freed from obscurity.The Tirumandiram, the mystical classicby Tamil Saint Tirumular, was released at agala celebration in Chennai, India, on January17, 2010. The ten-volume edition wasproduced by a team of eminent scholarsunder the direction of Dr. T. N. Ganapathy,sponsored by Marshall Govindan Satchitananda,President of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Orderof Acharyas. The ceremony’s guest list wasa testimony to the importance of this text,including heads of the Saiva monasteries atDharmapuram, Tiruvavaduthurai, and Tiruppanandal,and the Union Home Minister,Sri P. Chidambaram.There is good reason to celebrate. Thetranslation is of excellent qualityand the printing is competent. Thebooks have the merit of being precisein the rendering of Tirumular’sTamil into English, taking a neutral,balanced stand on issues of philosphicalinterpretation.There had been previous versionsof the Tirumandiram (alsospelled Tirumantiram) in English,but with different goals in thetranslations. Marshall Govindantells the story in the introduction,“The Tirumandiram is oneof the first texts to emerge in theWest from the gold mine of ancientTamil literature, which untilrecently has been bypassed byscholars outside of South India.While the Sanskrit literature hasbeen mined and studied by Westernscholars for more than 200years, the ancient Tamil languageliterature has been largely ignored.Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami,An elegant rendition: (right)For each mandiram, or verse, thebook presents the original Tamilscript, a transliteration, the Englishtranslation and a commentaryfounder of Hinduism Today and the SaivaSiddhanta Church in Hawaii, USA, commissionedthe late Dr. B. Natarajan to translatethe Tirumandiram in the 1980s.... However,the need for a more accurate translation becameapparent as Tamil speaking specialistspointed out that Dr. B. Natarajan had too oftensacrificed precision for poetic grace.”Truly, Dr. Natarajan’s previous translationmostly resulted from devotion. He was nospecialist in linguistics or the esoterics ofyoga, being an economist by profession, abrilliant man who boldly undertook a momentoustask. But in a book such as the Tirumandiram,written by a sage of the highestattainments, there are many layers of meaningin each verse, and secrets apparent onlyto the initiated, refinements that are elusiveand sometimes cryptic.Marshall explained, “It became apparentthat the non-specialist would need a runningcommentary along with translation, inorder to easily understand the meaning andsignificance of most of the verses. This presentwork fulfills this need and several others.”A Monumental EffortDr. T. N. Ganapathy, the team leader, is awidely respected expert in Siddha philosophy.He was the now retired Chairmanof the Department of Philosophy at RamakrishnaMission Vivekananda College,Chennai. Dr. Ganapathy’s works are impressivein their breadth, discoursing on themesfrom Immanuel Kant (one of his bailiwicks)to Bertrand Russell and the Tamil Siddhas.He is at present the Director of the YogaSiddha Research Project in Chennai, India.His team of translators included T. V.Venkataraman, T. N. Ramachandran, K. R.Arumugam, P. S. Somasundaram and S. N.Kandaswami, all respected scholars. Thebook’s appendix brings two points of viewon monism and dualism in Saiva Siddhanta,one by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and anotherby T. N. Arunachalam, along with achart on the thirty-six tattvas byGeorg Feuerstein.It was not an easy task. “The foremostdifficulty was finding competenttranslators among the Tamilspeakingscholars on this subject,”explains Dr. Ganapathy. “The goalwas so demanding that it made mestagger at times—myself being seventy-eightyears young—and alsomade me wonder whether I was attemptingthe impossible.”He continues, “My concern aboutthe feasibility of bringing out thisseries with commentary was due totwo factors. One was the technicalchallenges that old Tamil grammarpresented. The other was that certainSaivites object to the writing ofa commentary, especially in English,on the sacred text of the Tirumandiram,the only Tirumurai (sacredTamil Saiva scripture) that is botha câttiram (philosophical treatise)and a tottiram (devotional literaryproduct). This traditionalist view issupported in one of the verses by Tirumularhimself: ‘Oh! Fools are theywho try to describe the indescribable/ How can one explain the Onethat is boundless?’”62 hinduism today july/august/september, 2010

“But there is also a statement in the Tirumandiramthat can be interpreted asfavorable to our task, which reads, ‘TheLord with the matted locks stood blemishless/ To those whose mind is like awaveless sea.’ How can the BoundlessOne be bound in translations and commentaries?Tirumular provides the answer:only those with a clear mind, thatis, a waveless mind like the calm deepsea, can comprehend it. Though thetranslators and commentators claim nosuch mind, we seek and obtain protectionin the words of Tirumular.”So, is the commentary authoritative?Not exactly, says Dr. Ganapathy. “Thecommentaries are meant to be guides,pointing to the goal, to the essence, butthemselves are unrealized, mere descriptionsof truth.” By keeping the translationas crystalline as they could, andrelegating all speculation and scholarlyanalysis to the commentary, the translatorscreated a book that will be interestingto several different audiences, fromthe expert scholar or the initiated mysticto the beginning student of South Indianmysticism.However impossible it might have seemed,the task is now finished. Dr. Ganapathystates in the introduction, “In bringing outthe entire Tamil text in translation, saintCekkilar’s words come before me: ‘Thoughimpossible to reach its limit / Insatiable lovedrives me to the task.’ ”h i n d u i s m t o dayA yogi’s treasure:Ten volumes hold 3,000 years of yogic disciplineas penned—more precisely,etched on palm leaves—bySaint TirumularScriptural GreatnessThe Tirumandiram is one of the most importantworks related to yoga, tantra, SaivaSiddhanta philosophy and spirituality everwritten (see the next page for a story of SaintMular and how this book came to be). It isclosely related to the Saiva Agamas, and oftencited as an opus that summarizes them.The book’s first tandiram, or section,prepares the aspirant by defining the philosophyof Saiva Siddhanta. In the secondtandiram, creation and souls are explained,along with the five-fold nature of Lord Siva’sactions. In the third, techniques for sadhanaand yoga are laid out. In the fourth, mantras,yantras and siddhis are described andtaught. In the fifth tandiram, the four margas(charya, kriya, yoga and jnana) are explained,along with four stages of liberationof the soul. In the sixth tandiram, advancedsadhanas that lead to jnana are explained. Inthe seventh, divine conduct is prescribed,which includes worship of the Sivalingam.In the eighth, high states of consciousnessare elucidated; and, finally, in the ninth tandiram,the experiencing of Lord Siva is expoundedand liberated souls studied.Each tandiram takes up one volume of thiscollection. The tenth volume is comprisedof a glossary, a selected bibliography, anindex and an appendix containing two enlighteningdiscourses on the nature of SaivaSiddhanta: whether it is ultimately monisticor dualistic. It is a discussion crucial toSaivites, the culmination of a centuries-longA qualified translator: The eruditeT.N. Ganapathy approached the taskwith reverence and some trepidation,leading a team as talented as himselfdebate that questions the nature of thesoul and whether it ultimately mergeswith Siva in advaitic union.The publisher explains, “It has been achallenge to produce a translation thatwould not take sides in the importantphilosophical debate between Saiva Siddhantins[who are] realistic pluralistsand those who see the Tirumandiramas an expression of the highest mysticalstates of consciousness accessible tothe Yogi, [a stance called] monistic theism.The views of the two sides are in theappendix.”Is there a place in our fast-paced modernsociety for such a deep treatise? Isit meant only for yogis and scholars?Dr. Ganapathy addresses the questionbeautifully in his introduction: “If religiondeals with ultimate Reality and societyis a common system of ultimate values,then there must be a necessary connectionbetween the two. To reveal this necessaryconnection is the purpose of the Tirumandiram.”Dr. Ganapathy states that the Tirumandiram’sontology (a word naming theinvestigation of the nature of being) “isbased on the notion of the Absolute not as aperson, but as a principle and value, an AbsoluteFreedom or a Great Aloneness, calledta∫i urra kê valam in Tirumular’s words.”It’s a book about freedom, liberation, moksa,nirvana or vettaveli.”From its unmatched lofty platform, theTirumandiram proceeds to give guidance ondaily life, prescribing humility, ahimsa, restraintof one’s desires, courage, control of themind, cleanliness and the steadfast cultivationof a pure and unswerving love. Whatelse could be more relevant to our times?Tirumandiram, 10 volumes, 3,766 pages. Ordersoutside of India US$100 plus a flat shipping rate ofUS$50; orders in India Rs. 4,400 plus actual shippingfees. To order visit www.babajiskriyayoga.neth i n d u i s m t o dayjuly/august/september, 2010 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 63

to some understanding of these strange happenings. Through hisspiritual insight he discerned that it was Lord Siva Himself whohad taken his body, leaving him to live thereafter in the body of theTamil cowherd. He took this to be Siva’s message that he shouldkeep the South Indian body and serve in that way.He accepted it all as Siva’s will. Of course, there were certain advantages.For one thing, he could now fluently speak the languageand knew the customs of the South.Saint Tirumular began his mission of establishing the purity ofthe Saivite path soon thereafter when he settled down near Chidambaram.It was there that he began composing the Tiru manti ram.Legend has it that the sage retired to a cave where he would sit insamadhi for a full year without moving. At the end of each year hewould break his meditation long enough to speak out a single Tamilverse giving the substance of that year’s meditations. Each versecomposed in this manner was just four lines long, but the wisdomeach contained was boundless. He wrote over 3,000 verses in all.This may not be accurate by the calendar, but it is true to the spiritand quality of the Tirumantiram, which has within it the wisdom ofthree thousand years of meditation.It takes a bit of meditation to understand the Tiru manti ram;it cannot be fully realized by merely reading orstudying from the books. But the verses of theTirumantiram are understandable if you learnhow to absorb them into yourself. They are importantbecause they tell about what our religionbelieves about inner, spiritual matters—about thesoul and the world and their relationship to Siva.It is very important to remember that what a personis taught to believe creates his or her attitudestoward others and toward the world and stimulatesor suppresses desire. Beliefs create attitudes.You must all study the great scriptures of our religion. These divineutterances of the siddhars will enliven your own inner knowing.The Tirumantiram is similar to the Tirukural in many ways.You can teach them both to the children and apply their wisdomto everyday life. You can use them for guidance in times of troubleand confusion, and they will unerringly guide you along the rightpath. You can read them as hymns after sacred puja in your homeshrine or in the temple precincts. Each verse can be used as a prayer,as a meditation, as a holy reminder of the great path that lies ahead.Understanding it is a difficult work, but don’t be discouraged bythat. Just accept that it could easily take a lifetime, several lifetimes,to understand all that is contained in this scripture, that it is forthose deep into their personal sadhana. It was given by the saint tothose who fully knew of the Vedas and the Agamas, and to understandit you too will have to become more familiar with these otherscriptures, slowly obtaining a greater background.The Tirumantiram has been taken from the past and magicallytransported into the future. Enjoy it. Study it. Meditate upon it. Letit become a part of your inner life, of your understanding of God,man and world.∏πSource of celestial revelations: (below) Nandinathashares Lord Siva’s revelations with hiseight disciples; (right) one of them, Sundaranatha,traveled far south and, in a younger Tamil body,wrote the Tirumantirams . r a ja ms . r a ja mjuly/august/september, 2010 h i n d u i s m t o d ay 65