Dear Devotees,
When everything is perceived as the Atma-swarupa, pure love, love of the Self, arises naturally towards everything. This pure love is absolutely different from the intoxicating, transitory and illusory love that arises in the mind for the sense objects.
Sri Muruganar: The state of ecstasy in which one is caught in this love, known as bhakti or prema, is demonstrated by Manikkavachagar’s experience, [recounted in] ‘Tiruvandappahudi’, which thrills the hearts of devotees.
Clad graciously in a brahmin’s glorious form,
He [Siva] summoned me and graciously ruled me.
At once my very bones melted through undying love.
I called aloud, roaring, roaring like the heaving sea,
rose to my feet, collapsed again all in a daze,
rolling over, wailing,
raving like a madman, raging like a drunk,
frightening those who saw, amazing those who heard,
in a state of total derangement
that even a rutting elephant would find unbearable.
Then, when I could bear it no longer,
he fashioned my limbs with a delightful sweetness,
like honey fresh from the bough.
Just as, with flame lit by his beauteous smile,
He brought low the cities of his demon foes,
He did that day, without exception,
destroy in the great fire of His grace
the humble [bodily] dwellings of us His devotees.
To me He became as a nelli fruit in the palm of the hand.
Blessings upon you; I can find no words to express it!
Is this justice? I cannot endure it, dog that I am.
What You have done to me, I do not understand.
For pity, this death itself.
This grace You have granted me, I cannot comprehend!
I have drunk of it, yet still I am not sated.
I have swallowed it down, yet I cannot tolerate it!
Like waves upon the rich, cool Sea of Milk,
Like the ocean when the moon is at the full,
in a way that cannot be described,
He filled my heart to overflowing,
distilling and collecting nectar
in my body’s every pore.
Within the body of this cur, taking up His abode,
He caused ambrosia sweet to flow
through every conduit of my sinful fleshly form,
sending effusive streams of wondrous nectar
rushing up through the hollow of every bone.
Taking my melting heart and making it one [with Him],
He made for me a form saturated [in His grace].
Like an elephant inspecting a field of bright sweet sugar cane,
He came at last, even to me, and transformed me into pure being.
His nature neither Mal nor Brahma knows,
yet with grace He transformed into supreme ambrosia,
making the pure honey of His compassion merge with me.
Tiruvachakam, Tiruvandappahudi
My Goodness! I had not seen anywhere, in any language, such ecstatic expression of Prema and Bhakti!
Thank you,
Anil