THIRUMANTHIRAM - Payiram Proem Verses 95-112 of 112 by Saint Thirumular

Thirumanthiram

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE TAMIL SPIRITUAL CLASSIC BY SAINT THIRUMULAR

 

PAYIRAM: PROEM

(Verses 1 to 112)

1 IN PRAISE OF GOD

 

6 IN HUMILITY

 

95: Infinite Greatness!

 

Who can know the greatness of our Lord!

Who can measure His length and breadth!

He is the mighty nameless Flame;

Whose unknown beginnings I venture to speak.

 

96: Poor Qualifications

 

I know not the way singers sing,

I know not the way dancers dance,

I know not the way seekers seek,

I know not the way searchers search.

 

97: Power Of Prayer

 

By words spoken in Truth's luminous accents,

Rising on sweetest music's pious heights

Even Brahma who after Him created this our world,

All, all, seek His imperishable Light.

 

98: God's Deep Mystery

 

At the foot of the Sacred Hills, the Rishis and Devas sat,

Seeking Liberation's endless Bliss,

Devoutly praising, yet knowing not,

So this deep Mystery I here expound.

 

7 THE HOLY HYMNS THREE THOUSAND

 

99: Path To God

 

Three Thousand Holy Hymns, Mula in Tamil composed,

Did He, Nandi, reveal for all the world to know,

Wake early at dawn and pour forth the strains

Surely you'll win the splendid soft repose

Of the Bosom of the Lord.

 

100: General And Specialised Knowledge

 

In the Holy Three Thousand is the Salvation Finale

Of the diverse works, true and good;

In the Divine Three Thousand, original and wise,

All knowledge is, special and general.

 

 

8 THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHY

 

101: Seven Holy Orders

 

Seven are the Holy Order, spiritual and true;

Mula, of the first, from the Himalayas sprung,

In the Tantras Nine and Hymns Three thousand

Propounds the Word of Agama in beauty dight.

 

102: Heads Of Seven Orders

 

Kalanga immanent-living, Agora his very next,

Maligai Deva the goodly and the holy Nadhanta,

Paramananta, who the senses conquered and Bhogadeva,

And Mula here breathing--of the Eternal are they all.

 

103: Hara, Hari And Aya

 

Limitless youth, the beginning, and end

And measuring out the Time, these four considered

Sankara stands supreme and of His devotees

To Hari and Aya infinite Grace goes.

 

104: Trinity--One Continuity

 

He, the Being First, and He, the Emerald-hued,

And He of the glowing, original Lotus-seat--

Are these three separate or one continuous whole?

Thus the world in divisions many wrangle!

 

105: God Is One

 

Beyond the Two Karmas is Isa seated,

The seed of this world, the mighty God become;

"This" and "That" is Isa--so the thoughtless contend,

The dross but know the basest sediment low.

 

106: Nine Aspects Of One Being

 

Siva the First, then the Three, and the Five following,

With whom flourished Bindu and Nada,

Nine are they all, yet one and the same--

All these but names of Sankara First.

 

107: Trinity Are Kin

 

But if we thus the soul of truth probe and bare,

Aya nor Mal to us no alien Beings are

But Indissolubly Kin to Nandi, the Three Eyed

Blessed be ye all by the Heavenly Three.

 

108: Trinity Are Co-Equals

 

Lying prostrate I adored the Milk-hued One,

While countless Devas stood around in melting prayers lost;

Then spoke the Lord to me:

"To Vishnu and Brahma are I equal;

Be it Yours to give the world

The Grace of My Feet."

 

109: All Gods Are But The One Siva

 

Devas here be none, nor humans that breathe,

Save for Siva's grace, Siva in honeyed-Konrai decked;

No other God could dwell in the silence of your soul,

Other Gods you worship, know they but mortals be.

 

110: Assign Not Ranks To Trinity

 

The ignorant know not, from the First did leap

The Light that flamed into Three and Five;

So blindly groping, lost in maze of words,

Isa, Mal and Aya, to graded ranks assign.

 

111: One And Many

 

The Supreme is one, Absolute, without lapse,

In descent thereof, Mal and Aya becoming;

Thus He, the One into many ranked;

By conscious choice a Self-deduction made.

 

112: Siva Is Jeeva

 

In one Part, He, Sadasiva my Lord;

One heavenly Part in Heaven resides;

One Kingly Part, the spirit that the body heaves;

One His Part to all motion transformed.