Sri Ramana’s mangalam verse to Vivekacudamani
When Sri Ramana translated Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi into Tamil prose, he composed a maṅgalam or ‘auspicious introductory verse’ for it. Recently a friend asked me to translate this verse, because he was not satisfied with the translation of it on page 212 of The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi , which is as follows: Rejoice eternally! The Heart rejoices at the feet of the Lord, who is the Self, shining within as ‘I-I’ eternally, so that there is no alternation of night and day. This will result in removal of ignorance of the Self. The original Tamil verse is: அகமெனு மூல வவித்தை யகன்றிட வகமக மாக வல்லும் பகலற வகமொளி ராத்ம தேவன் பதத்தினி லகமகிழ் வாக வனிசம் ரமிக்கவே. ahameṉu mūla vaviddai yahaṉḏṟiḍa vahamaha māha vallum pahalaṟa vahamoḷi rātma dēvan padattiṉi lahamahiṙ vāha vaṉiśam ramikkavē . In a Tamil verse the words are coalesced according to natural euphonic principles of syllable-conjunction called puṇarcci or sandhi (which for example will cause in certain circumstances a final ‘u’ to ...