Tirumantiram - TANTRA ONE - 14 THE GLORY OF RAINS, 15 THE GLORY OF GIVING, 16 IN THE PRAISE OF CHARITABLE, 17 WAY OF THE UNCHARITABLE

Tirumantiram

English translation of the Tamil Spiritual Classic by Saint Tirumular

 

TANTRA ONE

14 THE GLORY OF RAINS, 15 THE GLORY OF GIVING, 16 IN THE PRAISE OF CHARITABLE, 17 WAY OF THE UNCHARITABLE

 

248: Vegetation Blooms

 

The fertilising flood of rains outpouring

Makes trees and plants bloom enriched with sap;

The areca palm, coconut, cane and plantain green,

And vomica to Samadhi's nectar leading--Stand laden rich with crop.

 

 

249: Descent of Divine Stream in Yoga

 

The heaven-sent torrent leaps rushing down rocky eights;

So does the silent divine stream from heart's inner core,

Foamless, pure, clear, crystalline,

Boundless, free--from my Holy Master, e'er pour.

 

 

15 THE GLORY OF GIVING

 

250: Share Your Food With Others

 

Give freely to all; discriminate not o'er much;

See food served to others ere sitting down to eat;

Heap not perishing gold, eat not in greedy haste;

The crow calls its brood to share its food, howe'er sweet.

 

 

16 IN PRAISE OF THE CHARITABLE

 

251: The Charitable Realize the Self

 

Who the self realise, seek and adore the Feet of the Lord;

Who the self realise, most freely give in charity;

Who the self realise, Lord of Tattvas become;

Who the self realise, Kin to the Lord in dear amity.

 

 

252: Charity is Within Reach of All

 

Easy to all to offer in worship a green leaf to the Lord,

Easy to all to give a mouthful to the cow,

Easy to all to give a handful, sitting down to eat,

Easy to all, good, kind words on others to bestow.

 

 

253: Evils of Hoarding

 

The food that feeds the needy--that alone true charity is;

True men they who that simple truth do find;

But they who hoard, like water in pool past access,

To eat and gorge--to Charity's ways are they blind.

 

 

254: Give Charity When You Have

 

Dirt driven away, with Wisdom you fill not your mind;

In days of plenty, empty is your charity's exchequer;

What avails it, though wide awake, if hell-fire spreads around,

What avails it, then, if impoverished of heart you are?

 

 

255: Give Charity Here and Now

 

Of yourself knowing little, caring naught for your good,

Unmindful e'en of poverty of tender youth taking no care,

Before Death's stern, relentless summons arrives,

Let noble charities your redeeming goodness declare.

 

 

256: By Your Charities Lord Knows You

 

To him who renounces, no kith or kin has he;

To him condemned to beg, no true delights has he;

To him who charityless is, the Lord denies His Presence;

By the measure of thy charity done, the Lord is known to thee.

 

 

257: Charity Leads to Life Eternal

 

Some in charity overflow; by such noble deeds done,

Noble gods they become in human beings' high esteem;

And the many who hold this fleshly body their dear God,

To them comes Death, saying; "I, your God supreme."

 

 

258: Charity and Devotion Twin Escorts to Heaven

 

Our life's boat across the foaming sea of Karma flies;

Twin the pathways to dispel the labour and the strain;

Glory giving tapas and charity the heavenly escorts,

To us and our dear kin from life's battle vain.

 

 

259: Charity is Your Life's Prop

 

Earthly desires to worldly objects attached,

No end know; but in charity's noble way,

E'en the little things you give, sure props provide;

All the rest meekly take as the Lord's gift for the day.

 

 

17 WAY OF THE UNCHARITABLE

 

260: The Hoarders are Sinners

 

The ripened nux vomica falls profitless on ground;

Such the barren wealth of those who charities deny;

With usurious greed they bury deep their treasures,

The hardened sinners, true fruit unknowing, thus live and die.

 

 

261: Life is Fleeting; Give While You Live

 

The aeons pass, the unreturning ages go;

The allotted span of life daily dwindles away;

This irksome body, as if squeezed by some power unknown,

Perishes: seeing this yet, they learn not charity's way.

 

 

262: Give and Escape Hell

 

Charity denying, they know not the Lord's Feet to praise,

Nor enter they the precincts of the City of Siva's Grace;

Their ears inclined to those who falsehoods preach,

They stand to sin enslaved, condemned to hell's hot embrace.

 

 

263: All Ailments Assail, If in Charity You Fail

 

Consumption and anaemia, asthma and colic pain--

Such the lot of those who nothing in charity give;

Snake and thunder, sore throat and fleshly ills,

Approach not them that others' needs relieve.

 

 

264: End is Nigh; Do not Deny

 

The Lord adored by all the world, yet they praise not,

To the needy poor, even the smallest bit ye deny,

Nor'll ye tend the garden e'en with one potful of water;

Will ye for ever stand in Hell? Ye whose end is nigh.

 

 

265: Loneliness Comes of Denial

 

Unescorted, alone, the charity-less their last journey make,

And miss their track; journeying thus, in birth-cycle caught

They know not how the binding Karmas to dispel,

And so slip and fall to be irretrievably lost.

 

 

266: Compassion Leads to God

 

They, whose hearts melt in charity, see the Feet of the Lord,

The steadfast of faith attain Swarga's might,

But those sinful ones of charity befeft, helpless, forsaken,

Engulfed in passions low, pass into eternal night.

 

 

267: Denial Leads to Misery

 

Bliss and pain--these two woven into the web of life,

Result from deeds of our own devising;

The bliss of giving they knew, and yet the fools gave not,

The shrivelled of heart, to charity unwise, its glory unknowing.

 

 

268: Denial Leads to Sinful State

 

The Lord of blemishless glory, from death and birth immune,

Permits none to enjoy bliss, unearned by worthy deed;

Giving and gifting--of these always think;

Deny and cause pain;

You stand condemned to the Pasu state indeed.

 

 

269: Giving is Aiming True

 

Seek not wealth that many reckon as life indeed,

Nor waste your days on fools, of wisdom dark,

But turn your feet to the eternal Home and praise the Lord,

Then true bowman you prove, hitting straight the mark.