Moondu dhegam marandhu muppadha
Vaazhvinil kudi yaerinaan;
Thondrum ichchaga vaazhvinir kaLi
Yaadhu nindridu thondralaan.


Word meaning
moondru dhegam = three (types of) bodies; marandhu = forgetting; muppadham = three stages; vaazhvu = life; kudi eru = enter (as in a house to live); icchaga (ij jaga) = this world; kaLi = enjoy;

Meaning
Our satguru Ramanan has transcended the three bodies, namely, sthula, sukshuma, kaaraNa (physical, subtle, causal) sariras. He is established in the sat-chit-ananda (truth bliss consciousness) stage as God-form and he is not swayed my the attractions of this illusory world.

SV refers to the same point in verse 5 of kummi paatu:
 Moondru sareeramum thaan marandhaan Avan 
Moondru avasthaigaLum than ozhithaan …
Meaning
Ramana has transcended the three bodies (namely, the gross ‘sthula’ body, the subtle ‘sukshuma’ body and the causal ‘karana’ body), …The three bodies are sthula sarira, which is gross body, suskhuma sarira, the subtle body and karana sarira, the causal body. The first is sustained by food, the second is composed of subtle energies and intellect, and the third is made of vasanas or samskaras (impressions from previous lives that cause this body to be born). With the death experience when he was a young boy, Bhagavan transcended all these limitations of bodies.  

The second part of the verse reflects Bhagavan’s outlook after the death experience. SV says Bhagavan had no enjoyment in what this worldly, material life had to offer. 

After the death experience in Madurai, he used to go into samadhi often. Once when he was supposed to be doing some school work, he went into samadhi, which prompted his elder brother to say, ‘what is the use of all this?’ Instead of the remark hurting him, Bhagavan saw that his brother was right and decided to leave.
On reaching Arunachala, his Father, he didn’t touch money (except once when a devotee, and an ashram worker asked him to bless it). He had no interest in enjoying various types of food.  When a devotee cooked over 30 types of dishes once, Bhagavan said, ’Why all these different dishes and unnecessary effort?’. Another occasion he said, ‘For you people you find enjoyment in diversity/separateness (binnam), for me it is in unity (abinnam)’ and made a ball of all the food items on his leaf plate and ate. After the first visit to the sanctum sanatorium of the Arunachaleswara temple, Bhagavan never entered the temple again. The material world as we see it had no charm for Bhagavan. Once when someone said they can arrange a train take Bhagavan around the country so he can bless people across the nation, he said, ‘But I don’t see anything’, which reminds us of him saying ‘there are no others’ when someone asked how to treat others.
.

AruNai eesan eduth aNaindhidum
Anban en guru naayagan;
KaruNaiye vadivaga nindridu
Karpaga tharu vaaginon

Word meaning
AruNai eesan = Arunachala Siva; aNaindhidu = embraced in a protective manner; anban = dear one; naayagan = chief, lord; karuNai = compassion; karpagam = wish fulfilling celestial tree

Meaning
Bhagavan was adopted and raised by Arunachala himself. He is the object of my affection and love, my guru. He is verily the form of compassion and grace, he bestows the wishes of his devotees like the wish fulfilling celestial tree, kalpatharu.

The moment young Venkataraman heard the magic word Arunachala from his relative, he was possessed by His grace. From then on, every step of Bhagavan’s journey was conducted by Arunachala himself. Bhagavan makes many references to this ‘unsought domination’ in aksharamanamalai and other works.

In Arunachala padhigam, verse 3, he says: 
‘Irai unai ninayum eNNamae naNNa
Enai unadharut kayitral eerthu …’
Meaning, Arunachala! Even though I had no thought of you ever, you drew me to yourself with your rope of grace’. 

In verse 3 of aksharamana malai he says:
Agampugundh eerthu un aga gugai siraiyai
amarvithadhen kol Arunachala 

Meaning
Arunacahala! You entered my home (that is my heart, because agam means both heart and home), took me and imprisoned me in your home (here Bhagavan says un aga gugai which means your heart cave). What to say of your grace? 

In the book Uniqueness of Ramana Maharishi, the author makes an interesting observation on how totally surrendered Bhagavan was when he came to Arunachala:
When he reached Tiruvannamalai, he threw away the packet of sweets that had been given to him by Muthukrishna Bhagavatar’s sister. He was not anxious for the morrow. He tore off from his dhoti a strip for his kaupina and threw away the rest. He did not take an extra kaupina nor did he think of using the remaining cloth as a towel. This is total surrender. He had come to his Father and he had implicit faith that his bare needs would be looked after.

Swami Vivekananda once said that when a Master comes, he brings his own people. We see that in Bhagavan’s life. Arunachala took over Bhagavan and sent hundreds and hundreds of devotees to feed him and take care of him until his last day. 

Sitting in the lap of his Father, Ramana radiated his grace to everyone who came to him, which manifested in different ways for different devotees. While many approached him to overcome material issues, sooner or later they ripened to a state where they asked only to be fit for his grace. A devotee who wanted a promotion desperately went to Bhagavan with that intention, but as he got closer to him, he started praying, ‘Bhagavan please free me from this desire for material things like promotion.’

‘God’s very nature is grace’, says Sri Bhagavan, who is Arunachala himself, adding, ‘… and this can be experienced at all times only when a person surrenders’.

Let us surrender at the feet of Bhagavan Ramana and be drenched in his grace.

Vaadhu seidhidu maayai thannai
VaLaithu nindru midhithavan;
Soodhu sei pulanodu vanjaga
Choozh vinai thogai atravan.

Word meaning
vaadhu = argument; maayai = illusion, illusory; vaLaithu = bend, twist; midhi = to step on; soodhu = cunning, deceptive; pulan = sensory organs; vanjaga = cunning; soozh (becomes choozh if the previous word ends in ‘ch’ sound) = surround, envelope; vinai = karma, result of past action; atravan = one without (something).

Meaning
Our Ramana surrounded the illusory world of useless arguments and stepped on it (destroying it). He is free from the karmas resulting from the cunning (five) sensory organs.

It is only when we are in a state of duality all the differences are apparent and  provide a cause for differences in views, opinions, perspectives and arguments. Once in the state of advaita, there is no other, a state explained by Bhagavan succinctly in this dialogue:

Q: How do we treat others?
Bhagavan: “There are no others.”

Also from Bhagavan’s ‘Who am I’:
“When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition’s and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear,” and "When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense- organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear.”

Thayumanavar says: 
Yaedhuku summa iru manamae endru unakku
Bodhitha uNmai engae poga vittai - vaddhukju
Vandhu edhirtha mallarai pol vaadhaadiyae un 
Pundhi enna bodham enna po

Oh mind, why did you not heed the truth “be still” that was taught to you? You kept arguing with everyone just like a wrestler ready to fight anyone who gets into the ring – the ignorant fool that you are. What use is your intellect and the teaching (taught to you)?

‘Vaadhu seidhidu maayai thannai VaLaithu nindru midhithavan’ is reminiscent of a story from Lord Krishna and how he vanquished the venomous snake Kaliya who was poisoning the Yamuna river. Krishna defeated him and danced on his head (vaLaithu nindru mindithavan means he who bent (maya) and stepped on it).

The senses are likened to thieves in Aksharamana malai (aimbula kaLvar agathinil pugum podh agathil nee ilayo arunachala) and fierce, venomous animals by other sages. SV declares that Ramana is free from the grip of these deceiving, cunning monsters that are our senses.
​
‘vinai thogai’ could mean remainder of vinai (karma) and thogai is that which hangs on or remains (thokki nirthal). In Tamil grammar, it means a noun that plays across the three tenses as in ‘kudi neer’ which means drink water, drinking water and water that will be drunk in future. We can also take it to mean Bhagavan has transcended the three divisions of Time into past, present and the future as he is beyond Time and Space.

Amala gnana arut perun gadal
AruNaian giri thannilae;
Vimalame uru vaagi vandhoru
Virupa nar gugai maevinan.

Word meaning
amala = without impurities; gnana(m) = wisdom; perunkadal = big ocean; aruNaiyangiri = Arunachala, Tiruvannamalai; vimalam = pure, flawless, also Shiva; uru(v)aagi = became form, took form; virupa nar gugai = virupaksha (good) cave; 

Meaning
Sri Ramana, who is the pure ocean of wisdom, is established in the Virupaksha cave in Tiruvannamalai as purity itself.

A gnani lives like a water droplet on a lotus leaf, says Bhagavan in Upadesa Undiyar verse 34., in the world but not of it. He is not tainted by the impurities of the material world. Bhagavan says in Dialogues I, ‘Whether he (a gnani) moves about, or talks or acts, it is all the One Real in which he acts or moves or talks. He has nothing apart from the one supreme Truth.’ He is above and beyond all impurities, hence SV calls Bhagavan ‘amalan’. 

He is ‘arul perum kadal’, literally, grace big ocean, a description vouchsafed by all his devotees. We have to let go and surrender completely to be drenched and carried away by his grace. “With whichever vessel you go to the ocean you can get only that much water,” says Bhagavan, “if it is merely a cup, you will get a cup of water, if it is a bucket, you will get a bucket. Go and loot the whole ocean.” ‘Vimalan’ meaning spotless, flawless, also refers to Lord Shiva. Saint Manickavasagar in Sivapuranam, calls him, ‘meyya, vimala, vidaipaagaa’. As we’ve seen so far in Stuthi Pacnhakam, SV makes no distinction between Arunachala and Bhagavan. They are one and the same.

Azhagu sundaran anbinil varum
Amudha vaaridhi aruNaiyaan;
Mazhavidai poruL aruL padaithidu
Vadivila vadi vaanavan.


Word meaning
Azhagu, sundaram = beauty, also Bhagavan’s parents’ names; anbinil = in love, affection; amudham = nectar; vaaridhi = sea; aruNaiyaan = Bhagavan who is Arunachala himself; mazhu = weapon held by Shiva; vidai = bull, nandi; aruL = grace; vadivu = form. 


Meaning


Born to the blessed couple Azhagammai and Sundarar, Ramana lives in (and as) Arunachala as an ocean of sweet grace. Just as the nameless and formless Supreme Divinity descended to the earth as Lord Shiva carrying ‘mazhu’ (among other weapons) and riding his bull Nandi, Ramana, who is grace personified, is seated majestically in Arunachala as form and formlessness.


Bhagavan was born to Azhagammai and Sundareswarar. They are referred to as Azhagu and Sundara. Coincidentally, their name means the same thing, beauty. We see this in the second verse of Bhagavan’s Aksharamana malai (from T.R.Kanakammal’s Nool Thirattu Urai): 


Azhagu Sundram pol agamum neeyumutra
 binnamai iruppom Arunachala


Meaning: 
Arunachala! Azhagu and Sundaram while they seem to be different words they mean the same thing, beauty. Like that, while you and I may look to be different, in reality we are the same.


Explanation:
Azhagu, a Tamil word and Sundaram, a Sanskrit word while they seem different on the surface, in truth their meaning is the same. Like our eyes, which are two but what the eyes see is the same single object.


In the first verse Bhagavan worships Arunachala, the source of Self, in this verse he references his parents who are the source of his physical form. (Kanakammal writes Bhagavan worships ‘Uyirukkku ammaiappan’ in the first verse. Uyir is jiva, the life force within us all. Ammaiappan means mother and father.) Bhagavan’s parents are Azhagammai and Sundaresa Iyer. Like this Arunachala, you and I mean the same indivisible thing.


Azhagu and Sunadaram refer to jiva and the Lord respectively. All the saints and mahaans of the world have remembered their parents at some point in their writings. Thiruvalluvar, (the Tamil poet who composed Thirukkural), in his first verse mentions them as aadhi and bhagavan  (the verse is: agara mudhala ezhuthellam aadhi baghavan mudhattre ulagu).


The ocean of grace that is Bhagavan sits in his throne majestically says SV (veetru iruththal is to sit majestically in a throne). While recounting the days when he used to go for ‘biksha’ on the streets of Tiruvannamalai, Bhagavan said he would stand outside a house and clap, someone would come and give him food, which he would eat and wipe the hand on his matter hair and go back to the hill. “Those days I used to feel like an emperor’, he used to recollect. 
Dilip Kumar Roy, in Face to Face with Bhagavan says:
Dressed in a bare koupin (loincloth) he yet sat ensconced in grandeur of plenary peace and egoless bliss which we could but speculate upon, yet never fathom.


Bhagavan is both form and formless. “He is a link between what we call the concrete world and the Unmanifest”, says Ella Mailart, a Swiss devotee. 
Lakshmana Swami, Gudur, says, “As I gazed at the scene I had the knowledge and the experience that the real Ramana Maharshi was not the body I saw before me, it was the formless effulgent Self …”
Ramaswami Pillai has had darshan of Rama in Bhagavan and also as Formlessness, just as Lord Shiva is formlessness and has the form of Arunachala.

 Pugazhum ponnula gathu vaanavar
Potri nindru pugazndhidum;
Thigazhu nannila maanthiruchuzhi
thannil vandha dhayabaran.


Word meaning
pugazhum = praising; pon ulagam = golden world; vaanavar = devas, celestial (vaan, short for vaanam means sky); potri = praise and worship; dhayabaran = compassionate being


Meaning
In Thiruchuzhi, a Siva sthala, praised by even the celestial beings living in the golden world of Mount Meru, was born our lord of great compassion, Ramana! 


Tiruchuzhi, where Bhagavan was born, has a special place in Saivite history as it is one of the ‘pedal petra thalams’ where Sundarar, one of the venerable Shiva saints (nayanmars) and poet, sang verses worshipping the deity, Bhuminathar, here [any temple where the nayanmars went and sang in praise of the the deity earns the distinction of ‘pedal petra thalam’ literally meaning ‘song begotten place’].


Legend has it that during one of the cyclical dissolution of the world there was a massive flood that was swallowing everything in its path (called pralaya). The king of Tiruchuzhi prayed to Lord Siva to spare this place, and Siva agreed. He made a hole in the ground with his Trishul and the flood water swirled through the hole thus leaving the city intact. Swirl in Tamil is called ‘chuzhi’, and ‘thiru’ is a mark of respect and is a prefix for something holy.


Legend also has it that the deity here was worshipped by Vishnu, Indra, Surya (Sun), Sage Gowthama, Arjuna among others which is summed up in the first line that says even celestials came to worship here. Mount Meru is considered to the centre of physical and spiritual universes in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Refrain
Ramana Sadguru Ramana Sadguru
Ramana Sadguru Raayanae
Ramana Sadguru Ramana Sadguru
Ramana Sadguru Raayanae

Word meaning
sadhguru, sat guru = true guru; raayan = variation of rajan; king

Meaning
SV is calling Bhagavan, inviting him, in this verse, saying, Ramana, you are the real guru, you are the lord. 

Raayan is a title for kings of certain regions, for instance KrishnaDeva Raaya was a king of Vijayanagara empire. Raghavanedra Swamy, a 17th century saint born in Bhuvanagiri, near Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, who followed the Dvaitha tradition, was fondly called ‘raayaru’ as well. He entered into live samadhi (it’s a process where a brindavana is built and the person enters it and the structure is completed around him). It is in Mantralaya.

There is an interesting incident around this song, as Viswanatha Swami narrates:
There was also a devotee from Chidambaram, Subrahmanya Iyer, who often sang with great fervour Tiruvachagam, hymns in praise of Arunachala by Bhagavan, and songs in praise of Bhagavan also. One morning when he began a song with the refrain, “Ramana Satguru, Ramana Satguru, Ramana Satguru Rayane,” Bhagavan also joined in the singing. The devotee got amused and began to laugh at Bhagavan himself singing his own praise. He expressed his amusement and Bhagavan replied, “What is extraordinary about it? Why should one limit Ramana to a form of six feet? Is it not the all-pervading Divinity that you adore when you sing ‘Ramana Satguru, Ramana Satguru?’ Why should I not also join in the singing?”

 Vaazhi vaazhi ramaNa maga guru
Vaazhi vaazhi aruNa maga giri
Vaazhi vaengadan vaai solum paadalgal
Vaazhi oozhi thoranbargaL vaazhiye

Word meaning
vaazhi = long live; maga (maha_ = big, great; vaengadan = the author, Venkataraman; vadai = mouth; paaadalgal = songs; oozhi = eon, long period of time.

Meaning
Long live the great guru, Ramana! Long live the great hill Arunachala! Long live the songs emanating from the mouth of Vengadan (Venkatan, the author’s short name, Venkataraman become Venkatan, and in Tami, the ’n’ and ‘k’ together usually form ‘nga' sound, making it Vengadan). Long live the dear devotees for a long time to come.

Eth thisaiyarum anbarum idhiyae
Aththan aththan ena thozhu dhaethuvar
Muththan aananda moana ramaNanai
Saththu chithena thaavi thozhivarae

Word meaning
eth thisaiyarum = people from all directions (thisai, dhisai = direction); aththan = lord;  thozhudhal = worshipping; mutthan = one has attained mukti; aanandan = blissful one; moanam = silence, stillness; saththu = truth; thaavi = leaping;

Devotees and disciples from every corner of the the world come and worship  and praise Ramana saying, ‘You are our God’. They worship him as the one who is established in Silence, one who has attained moksha while living in the physical body, who knows no birth or death.

Reading the many experiences of devotees, we can see  how Bhagavan’s unmoving presence in his Arunachala attracted people from as far as Peru and Japan to Israel, UK and the US, and other countries in between. As Bhagavan said, Self has no time or space. 

It is said that Lord Shiva took an avatar as Adi Shankara and travelled the length and breadth of Bharata, re-established the then weakening Sanatana Dharma through convincing debates with those belonging to other sects. In his short 32 years, he composed innumerable works and treatises, not to mention slokas, for generations to look up to as an authoritative source and for daily practice. Centuries later, the same lord took avatar as Bhagavan Ramana and decided to stay rooted to one place and make the world come to him and taught them through silence. In the introductory verse to Dakshinamurthy Sthothira, Bhagavan clearly states in the last line  ‘… sonna van sankaran thunnu mennuLLe’ meaning ‘Shankara from inside me is saying these verses’, demonstrating there is they are one and the same.

Swami Vivekananda, a monk with a mission, went around the world preaching the necessities of following Sanatana Dharma and its inclusive greatness. Coincidentally, it was on the 1st of September 1896 that he delivered the rousing speech at the Parliament of Religions, the very same day Bhagavan set foot in Arunachala from where he never moved, even for a day!

Here’s an interesting experience of a couple-devotee from Peru (At the feet of Bhagavan):

MR. and Mrs S. were visitors from Peru to the Ashram. They had heard of the Maharshi and His greatness, of how He was accepted by Arunachala, and how He and Arunachala are one. To the couple, Sri Maharshi’s presence on earth seemed the second coming of the Christ Himself, so they had longed for years to meet this God-Man once in their lives. They were too poor to find the money for their passage to India. But in their burning desire to see the God-Man in flesh and blood, they laid by each week a few coins out of their small wages, and in a few years they had enough money to become deck-passengers without
the pleasant luxury of the higher classes on the ship. So they sailed for several months, and at last reached India and Tiruvannamalai. The couple narrated all their story to Bhagavan, all the privations they had undergone to have a look at Sri Maharshi. Bhagavan was all kindness to them. He heard their story with great concern, and then remarked: “You need not have taken all this trouble. You could well have thought of me from where you were, and so could have had all the consolation of a personal visit.” This remark ofSri Bhagavan they could not easily understand, nor did it give them any consolation as they sat at His feet like Mary. Sri Maharshi did not want to disturb their pleasure in being In His immediate vicinity, and so He left them at that. Later in the evening Sri Maharshi was enquiring about
their day-to-day life, and incidentally their talk turned to Peru. The couple began picturing the landscape of Peru and were describing the sea-coast and the beach of their own town. Just then Maharshi remarked: “Is not the beach of your town paved with marble slabs, and are not coconut palms planted in between? Are there not marble benches in rows facing the sea there and did you not often sit on the fifth of those with your wife?” This remark of Sri Maharshi created great astonishment in the couple. How could Sri Bhagavan, who had never gone out of Tiruvannamalai, know so intimately such minute details about their own place? Sri Maharshi only smiled and remarked: “It does not matter how I can tell. Enough if you know that in the Self there is no Space-Time.” This confirmed in the minds of the couple Sri  Maharshi’s original statement that they could well have thought of Him even at their own home and so obtained His blessings.

Thangum inbam thadhumbidu paadalan
Sangai indri jagath oLir gnaniyaan
Gangai thangu kadavuL uruvunaan
Ingu thangum iraivan ramaNanae

Word meaning
Thangum = staying; indium = pleasure, happiness; thadhumbu = overflow; sangai = doubt; jagath = world; olin = shine, shining; Gangai thangu kadavuL = Lord Shiva; ingu = here (in Arunachala). 

Meaning
Ramana, my lord, is praised by numerous songs that the devotees find pleasing. Without a doubt he is pervades everywhere shining as a wisdom-sun. He is the form of the one who has river Ganga in his matted locks. He is the lord who lives in Annamalai. 
When Ganga flowed down the heavens as a result of great penance done by Bhagiratha who practised severe austerities for a thousand years to help his ancestors escape the curse of sage Kapila, and reach the abode of gods, she came down in a ferocious torrent (even today when a task needs super human effort, it is referred to as requiring Bhagirtha Prayathna, meaning efforts of Bhagiratha’s proportions). 

So he prayed to Lord Shiva who held her in his matted locks and let her down as seven different rivers. Hence he is knows as Gangadhara, the one with Ganga on his head. 

SV asserts in this verse that Ramana Bhagavan, residing here in Arunachala, is none other than Lord Shiva who has river Ganga in is locks.

SV declares that without a doubt, Bhagavan, through numerous  sweet songs composed in his praise by devotees,  pervades every space shining as the sun of wisdom, much like in an earlier verse where likened Bhagavan to the ‘unsetting sun’ (sadhodhaya saurian), guiding us to truth.