0097.Abhirami Andhadhi Slogan 95 Poem by rajagopal. h..

To Surrender unto Abhirami’s Feet

Tamil Transliteration

Nanndrae varughinum theedae vilaighinum nann arivadhu
Ondraeyumillai unakkae param enakku ulla ellaam
Andrae unadhendru aliththu vittaen azhiyaadha ghunakk
Kundrae arutkadalae imavaan petra koamalamae

Translation

Immortal treasure of character with rock base!
Grace Ocean! Beautiful Abhirami, progeny beautiful of
The king of Himalayas, brimming with youth!
My imagined Possessions enlisted as mine
Made them thine that day itself, nothing left,
I have become immune to sensing good or bad
Landing on me, I am your responsibility
As I have saddled myself onto you my Mother!

Translation

Abhirami! You are of great character as solid as a rock; also you are grace personified; you are the child of Himavan the king of Himalayas; I have entrusted all my belongings unto you; henceforth whether it is luck or misfortune, I have nothing to sense them; I have made myself your burden.

Commentary

I feel I am incompetent to make a commentary on such a great masterpiece.
I stand in front of Abhirami with folded hands with a prayer to accept this inconspicuous dust also as Her child like many other children who are in the queue.

I remember a story.

One person was very friendly with the Almighty; wherever he went Almighty walked with him; this was supported by the two foot prints appearing along with his imprints; when he had bad times in the cycle of his life the steps accompanying him vanished; this person asked Almighty the reason for his leaving him when he was facing hardships; Almighty replied that He was carrying him on His back and the two steps he was seeing were of Almighty.

If this can happen to every one of us…. oh the thought itself gives an elation of moods and a sense of freedom and care free feeling

Sri Ramakrishna gives the analogy of a kitten, depending on its mother, to illustrate self-surrender. The mother cat carries the kitten in its mouth, securely holding it, and sometimes puts it on the master’s bed, sometimes on the roof behind a pile of wood. But whatever it does, it does for the good of the kitten. That type of dependence is complete surrender, complete reliance, on God. The aspirant yearns for God and God alone. He does not want anything but God. He does not calculate how much material gain he can reap by his surrender. There is no trading in his surrender. Our Epics like the Mahabharata are replete with stories which delineate such self-surrender. Prahlada and Ambarisha are some of the shining examples they have held before us.

Saranaagathi denotes surrender; “Surrender Unto the Lord”. Surrender is also called as “ AtmaNivedana” is the highest form of Bhakti or Devotion, where the Self is surrendered to God in entirety. This Surrender is the culmination of the sadhana of Bhakti and Jnana.
Saranaagathi in its true sense is the ultimate aim of all branches of yoga – Karma, Jnana and Bhakti. In Saranaagathi, the devotee is just like a small child, barely months old, which surrenders itself completely and exclusively to the mother’s care, because the child is innately assured of mother’s caring for it. The child does not depend on its self even for a small work. The devotee also becomes completely child-like, entrusting everything into the hands of God.
In most of our day-to-day lives and actions, we have very little “ Saranaagathi” to the Divine. We act as independent beings, and perform all actions of grown-up adults, with the feeling that we have enough mental and physical capabilities to take care of ourselves.
But, there is also a “Surrender” that we do here, but in the reverse direction. We surrender to the world around us. We surrender to our temptations, to our sensual pleasures, relationships, emotions, what to speak of big things, even to the smallest thing like “taste buds”, we surrender ourselves.
Self-effort and self-surrender, are two meaningful words which are often loosely employed; and are more often than not mistaken as contradictory to one another. Self-effort is usually associated and aligned with the follower of the path of jnana and self-surrender with that of the follower of bhakti. Under such circumstances it will look paradoxical to say that both these attitudes can, nay should be found in a spiritual aspirant.


11 1 2009