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 be dropped before another vowel, a final ‘m’ to be dropped before another ‘m’, an extra ‘v’ or ‘y’ to be inserted between two vowels, certain initial consonants to be doubled after a final vowel, or certain final consonants to mutate into another related consonant before certain other consonants), and the resulting string of coalesced words is then split according to the poetic metre, which in this case consists of four feet per line.

Therefore when interpreting a verse, the first step is the make a padacchēda (pada-c-chēda or ‘word-separation’), that is, to split it into separate words. For this verse, the padacchēda is as follows:

அகம் எனும் மூல அவித்தை அகன்றிட ‘அகம் அகம்’ ஆக அல்லும் பகல் அற அகம் ஒளிர் ஆத்ம-தேவன் பதத்தினில் அக-மகிழ்வு ஆக அனிசம் ரமிக்கவே.

aham eṉum mūla aviddai ahaṉḏṟiḍa ‘aham aham’ āha allum pahal aṟa aham oḷir ātma-dēvan padattiṉil aha-mahiṙvu āha aṉiśam ramikkavē.

The meaning and grammar of each of these words is as follows:

அகம் (aham) {Sanskrit nominative first person singular pronoun} ‘I’
எனும் (eṉum) {quotative relative participle} which is called
மூல அவித்தை (mūla aviddai) {Sanskrit compound noun, mūla avidyā} root [fundamental] ignorance
அகன்றிட (ahaṉḏṟiḍa) {infinitive used to indicate aim or purpose} to leave, to vanish, so that [it] vanishes
அகம் அகம் (aham aham) ‘I [am] I’
ஆக (āha) {infinitive used adverbially} to become, to be, as
அல்லும் (allum) {அல், al, with the suffix உம், um, meaning ‘and’} night [or darkness] and
பகல் (pahal) day, daytime, daylight
அற (aṟa) {infinitive used adverbially} to cease, to separate, so that [it] ceases, without, devoid of
அகம் (aham) ‘I’, inside, within
ஒளிர் (oḷir) {verbal root used as a relative participle} which [or who] shines
ஆத்ம-தேவன் (ātma-dēvan) {personal form of Sanskrit compound noun, ātma-dēva} God, [who is] self
பதத்தினில் (padattiṉil) {locative form of பதம், padam, the Tamil form of a Sanskrit noun, pada} in [or at] foot, standpoint, state, abode
அக-மகிழ்வு (aha-mahiṙvu) inner joy, happiness of self
ஆக (āha) {infinitive used adverbially} to become, to be, as
அனிசம் (aṉiśam) {Sanskrit adverb, aniśa} uninterruptedly, incessantly, continually, always
ரமிக்கவே (ramikkavē) {infinitive used as a respectful optative, with the intensifying suffix ஏ, ē} only to rejoice, may we rejoice, let us rejoice, let us revel

Thus the meaning of this verse is:

So that the fundamental ignorance (mūla avidya) called ‘I’ [the ego] vanishes, let us rejoice incessantly as the happiness of self at the feet [or in the state] of ātma-dēva [God, who is self], who shines within as ‘I [am] I’ without [any differences such as] night and day [or darkness and light].

This verse is centred around one of Sri Ramana’s favourite words, அகம் (aham), which in Tamil has two distinct but quite similar meanings. As a word borrowed from Sanskrit, it is the nominative first person singular pronoun, ‘I’ (which according to the context can denote either our real self or our false ego), and as a word of pure Tamil origin it means inside, within, heart, mind, home and so on (see the meanings for அகம்⁵ and அகம்¹ respectively on page 12 of the Tamil Lexicon).

In this verse Sri Ramana clearly implies that in order to eradicate our false ‘I’ or ego, which is our mūla avidya or fundamental ignorance of our real self, we must abide uninterruptedly in self as self, which is the true form of God and infinite happiness.

How are we to abide thus in self as self? Since being self is the same as knowing self, as Sri Ramana teaches us in verse 26 of Upadēśa Undiyār, we can be nothing other than self only by attending to and thereby knowing nothing other than self.

This truth is also clearly indicated by him in verses 8 and 9 of Upadēśa Undiyār. In verse 8 he describes self-attentiveness as ananya-bhāva, ‘otherless meditation’ or ‘meditation on what is not other [than oneself]’, saying that it is the best among all forms of meditation, and in verse 9 he says that by the strength of such self-meditation we will be in sat-bhāva (our ‘true being’ or ‘state of being’), which transcends bhāvana (imagination or meditation as a mental activity), and that being thus is para-bhakti tattva — the true state of supreme devotion.

Therefore to eradicate our fundamental self-ignorance, which causes us to mistake this body-bound mind to be ‘I’, we must abide perpetually as self, our sat-bhāva or ‘true being’, and to abide thus we must vigilantly and persistently practise being keenly self-attentive.

This is why in this verse Sri Ramana focuses our attention on ‘I’ by repeating the word அகம் (aham) five times, as he also does in several other verses, such as verse 3 of Śrī Aruṇācala Pañcaratnam and verses 9 and 40 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham.