AruNai vaazhum azhagan amudhan en
KaruNai vaazhum kadavuLan kaathciyaan
Tharuna gnana sadhodhaya sooriyan
PoruNalam tharum pooraNa bodhagan
Word meaning
AruNai = Arunachala; vaazhum = living; azhagan = beautiful person; amudhan = sweet like nectar; karuNai = compassion; kadavuL = god; kaatchi = sight, object seen; tharuNa = youthful; poruL = material things; poorana = full, wholesome; bodhagan = teacher;
Meaning
My Ramana living in Arunachala is sweet like nectar to me. He is the form of compassion and gnana who shines like the sun that never sets. He is god that bestows material wealth and other boons his seekers need.
SV considers Bhagavan as God himself, as he has done throughout this work where he makes no distinction between Arunachaleswara and Bhagavan. Mortals like us, limited by our five senses and our ignorance, have not seen god. The closest we can come to seeing God are great souls like Bhagavan who, for the sake of devotees, take the human form to bestow on us what we need and serve as a staunch guide to help us escape from samsara.
Kanchi Sage, Paramacharya, says this about guru and god:
“Guru is Iswara in human form, but who is, however free from the triple functions of creation, preservation and destruction which pertain only to Iswara. If we have absolute faith in him, the Guru will shower us with all for which we go to God. In fact, God is needed only we cannot find a Guru. Guru bhakti is even higher than and more efficacious than Deiva bhakti. Sri Vedanta Desikar has declared that he does not consider God higher than the Guru. According to a verse, when God is angry, the Guru protects you but when the Guru himself is angry, there is no protector in the world. If we surrender ourselves absolutely without any reservations to the Guru, he will save us from all sorrows and show us the way to salvation. It is due to lack of Guru bhakti that Iswara bhakti is waning in the hearts of men."
SV sees Bhagavan as a youthful guru, taruna gnana sadhodhaya sooriyan meaning ‘youthful wisdom un-setting sun’. This finds a parallel in Adi Shanakra’s Sri Dakshinamurthy Stotra where the lord who is youthful is sitting under a banyan tree teaching his older disciples through silence. On more than one occasion, people have drawn comparisons between Bhagavan and Dakshinamurthy.
Sloka
Mouna Vyakhya prakatitha, para,
Brahma thathwam yuvanam,
Varshishtha anthevasad rishiganai,
Ravrutham brahma nishtai,
Acharyendram kara kalihtha chin,
Mudram ananda roopam,
Swathmaramam mudhitha vadanam,
Dakshinamurthim eede.
Meaning
I praise and salute that Dakshinamrthy,
Who faces the south,
Who explains the true nature of the supreme Brahman,
Through his state of silence,
Who is young in looks,
Who is surrounded by disciples who are old Sages,
Whose minds are fixed on Brahman,
Who is the greatest of teachers,
Who shows the Chinmudhra by his hand,
Who is personification of happiness,
Who is in the state of extreme joy within himself,
And who has a smiling face.
(from Hindupdia, http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sri_Dakshinamurthy_Stotram
KaruNai vaazhum kadavuLan kaathciyaan
Tharuna gnana sadhodhaya sooriyan
PoruNalam tharum pooraNa bodhagan
Word meaning
AruNai = Arunachala; vaazhum = living; azhagan = beautiful person; amudhan = sweet like nectar; karuNai = compassion; kadavuL = god; kaatchi = sight, object seen; tharuNa = youthful; poruL = material things; poorana = full, wholesome; bodhagan = teacher;
Meaning
My Ramana living in Arunachala is sweet like nectar to me. He is the form of compassion and gnana who shines like the sun that never sets. He is god that bestows material wealth and other boons his seekers need.
SV considers Bhagavan as God himself, as he has done throughout this work where he makes no distinction between Arunachaleswara and Bhagavan. Mortals like us, limited by our five senses and our ignorance, have not seen god. The closest we can come to seeing God are great souls like Bhagavan who, for the sake of devotees, take the human form to bestow on us what we need and serve as a staunch guide to help us escape from samsara.
Kanchi Sage, Paramacharya, says this about guru and god:
“Guru is Iswara in human form, but who is, however free from the triple functions of creation, preservation and destruction which pertain only to Iswara. If we have absolute faith in him, the Guru will shower us with all for which we go to God. In fact, God is needed only we cannot find a Guru. Guru bhakti is even higher than and more efficacious than Deiva bhakti. Sri Vedanta Desikar has declared that he does not consider God higher than the Guru. According to a verse, when God is angry, the Guru protects you but when the Guru himself is angry, there is no protector in the world. If we surrender ourselves absolutely without any reservations to the Guru, he will save us from all sorrows and show us the way to salvation. It is due to lack of Guru bhakti that Iswara bhakti is waning in the hearts of men."
SV sees Bhagavan as a youthful guru, taruna gnana sadhodhaya sooriyan meaning ‘youthful wisdom un-setting sun’. This finds a parallel in Adi Shanakra’s Sri Dakshinamurthy Stotra where the lord who is youthful is sitting under a banyan tree teaching his older disciples through silence. On more than one occasion, people have drawn comparisons between Bhagavan and Dakshinamurthy.
Sloka
Mouna Vyakhya prakatitha, para,
Brahma thathwam yuvanam,
Varshishtha anthevasad rishiganai,
Ravrutham brahma nishtai,
Acharyendram kara kalihtha chin,
Mudram ananda roopam,
Swathmaramam mudhitha vadanam,
Dakshinamurthim eede.
Meaning
I praise and salute that Dakshinamrthy,
Who faces the south,
Who explains the true nature of the supreme Brahman,
Through his state of silence,
Who is young in looks,
Who is surrounded by disciples who are old Sages,
Whose minds are fixed on Brahman,
Who is the greatest of teachers,
Who shows the Chinmudhra by his hand,
Who is personification of happiness,
Who is in the state of extreme joy within himself,
And who has a smiling face.
(from Hindupdia, http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sri_Dakshinamurthy_Stotram
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