The Vidya of Vichara – III; “Anbu-Punume”

… Continued from the previous post

In part I of this series, I mentioned that Anma Viddai contains an extraordinary instruction relating to Self-knowledge and the practice of Vichara. This instruction comes in the last verse, which, it may be recalled, was composed by Bhagavan especially as He wanted to include Sri Arunachala in the hymn. In fact, it is in the last line of the hymn, making it a sort of parting advice from Bhagavan. The last line, marvellously rhymed and musical, is:

“Arulum venume; Anbu-punume; Inbu tonume”.

Literally:

“Grace also is needed; have Love; Bliss will blossom forth”.

“Anbu-punume” is translated by different scholars in different versions of Anma Viddai as: “be possessed of love”, “have love”, “love is added”, or “love is needed”. Essentially, Bhagavan in the last line of His hymn is saying that “Love” is an essential ingredient of success in Self-knowledge, in the practice of Vichara. This, in my humble opinion folks, is quite extraordinary and well worth a closer look!

Is Grace the quid-pro-quo for Love?

Going back to the different commentaries and translations of Anma Viddai available, just about every version links the “have Love” ingredient to “Grace”. “Anbu-punume”, after all, comes just after “Arulum venume” in the hymn, and just after Lord Arunachala is mentioned. And then, this is the way we generally tend to look at Grace: that the Grace of the Entity you follow / worship flows towards you in exchange for the love and devotion you, as the sadhaka and devotee, have shown towards the said Entity. The extent of Grace is proportional to the love you bring to the table. Alternately, you have to love in adequate measure, the state of God-hood, or the state of Self-hood, i.e. the state of the Entity you hold sacred, in order to be Graced with that state.   

So, the different commentaries expand on “Anbu-punume”, loosely, as: “have love for ‘Being’”, “have love for the Self”, “have love for Sri Arunachala Siva (or God in any form)” or “have love for Bhagavan”. This then would enable the much needed Grace to flow from the Self, Sri Arunachala, God in any form, or Sri Bhagavan, take your pick.

Personally, I believe that this is too simplistic an interpretation. Firstly, it brings-in plenty of confusion into Vichara. Is the teaching to seek the Source, or is it to show love, devotion, and adoration towards the Divinity? Why then seek the Source? Just show intense love for God, essentially take up the devotional approach fully, be eligible to receive Grace, and be done with it all?

Secondly, and more importantly, if we think about it a bit, we should come to the conclusion ourselves that if Grace were to be the quid-pro-quo for love for an Entity, or anything else besides, it would not be “Grace” then, would it? And so, Bhagavan has consistently held that Grace is ever flowing, Grace is always available. In His teachings, Grace is never the quid-pro-quo for anything, It chooses whom It chooses (on It's own unknown and unfathomable criteria). He would say that the fact you are doing Vichara, is itself because of Grace. And thus, doing Vichara itself qualifies as the fulfillment of mandatory duty on part of the sadhaka. The supreme expression of love for Him, then, is the doing of Vichara alone. And thus, there was no need for Bhagavan to mention “love” separately in Anma Viddai, if it were to be love FOR an Entity or state.

Is the instruction to “add” love during Vichara?

A doubt then may arise that: Is Bhagavan saying that when seeking the Source in Vichara, we have to “add” love to the process? Generate an emotion of love towards a Divinity or the Self? To check this out (no laughing now!), during a few Vichara sessions, I tried to “add” love when deep within and seeking the Source of the “I”. During these attempts, I was careful to keep the emotion as pure as possible, a sort of love in general for things Divine, for Bhagavan, Lord Arunachala, the Great Mother and so on. In my humble opinion, it just cannot be done. The attempt to generate any emotion when in that state, even though it is the most sattvika and pure of emotions, immediately starts a wave of movement in the mind that pops you out of Vichara. Of this then I am absolutely certain, that “love is needed”, is NOT an instruction to include "love" during Vichara. The obvious logical conclusion then is: that you have to come into the Vichara process with all mandatory sentiments as needed, “Love” included, already ingrained in you.

The Importance of “Arulum venume; Anbu-punume”

At this point it might help to pause and consider why Bhagavan’s last line is of some importance. I have already mentioned that I believe it represents the final, parting advice in the hymn from Bhagavan. I also believe that it comes into play for the sadhaka who is doing Vichara as prescribed by Bhagavan earnestly, and having a degree of success in that he is able chase down the “I” until the sense of It is nice and strong within him. He has reached the point now beyond which his efforts cannot go further. It is almost as if there is door there which refuses to open, do what he may [am reminded of Bob Dylan’s fantastic whining - “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door …”]. 

I believe this advice from Bhagavan is given for that moment. Bhagavan is saying that all your efforts can only take you upto that door, and then it is all upto Grace; and the “Love” that you come imbedded with. In effect, given that Grace is ever present and ever flowing, the imbedded Love becomes the key that opens the door, or cuts through the “cit-jada-granthi”, to use a technical term sometimes used by Bhagavan.

Personally, I believe, that Bhagavan is referring to a deep and fundamental requirement in the sadhaka: to have “Love” per se; “Love” that is the flip side of the Self as sat-cid-ananda.

What is this “Love”?

Ironically, it is not having any love at all, i.e. love that is limited and directed for any entity or state, Divine or otherwise. To explain this, let me quote this fascinating extract from Bhagavan Himself:

[From: “Letters from Sri Ramanasramam” by Suri Nagamma; Letter No. 179, titled “The Path of Love”; A young man has been asking Bhagavan why not love God and follow the path of love …]

“… Who else is to be loved? Love itself is God,” said Bhagavan.

“That is why I am asking you whether God could be worshipped through the path of love?” said the questioner.

“That is exactly what I have been saying. Love itself is the actual form of God. If by saying, ‘I do not love this; I do not love that’, you reject all things, that which remains is Swarupa, i.e., the innate Self. That is pure bliss. Call it pure bliss, God, Atma or what you will. That is devotion; that is realization and that is everything,” said Bhagavan.

“The meaning of what you say now is that we should reject all outside things which are bad, and also all those which are good, and love God alone. Is it possible for anyone to reject everything, saying this is no good, that is no good, unless one experiences them?” said some other.

“That is true. To reject the bad, you must love the good. In due course that good also will appear to be an obstacle and will be rejected. Hence, you must necessarily first love what is good. That means you must first love and then reject the thing you love. If you thus reject everything, what remains is the Self alone. That is real love. One who knows the secret of that love finds the world itself full of universal love,” said Bhagavan and resumed silence.

 

So, Bhagavan says, do not have love for anything, but “be Love”. We all know that Bhagavan’s life, and the way He lived it, is itself a great teaching for us. And so, we only have to look to Him to understand what “being Love” means. He embodied Love, Love that was felt instantly by whosoever came into His presence. It was shown in the compassion towards the animals, the plants and trees, the birds, the fierce adherence to sharing equally with all, in the gentleness and politeness of demeanour; in the consideration shown towards the thieves who beat Him, to the bees that were allowed to sting His leg, and in a million other matters. Bhagavan’s life itself gives us the perfect example of “Love”, far beyond the capabilities of ordinary folks like you and me.

The Instruction “Anbu-punume” [“have Love”] 

I can hear someone saying, “Hey, wait a minute! There is a chicken and egg element to this if we are required to have such Love. Such Love is possible only in the Jnani, i.e. post Self-realization; how can we then say that such Love is the pre-requisite for success in Vichara and needed  for Self-realization”?

Yes, that is true. The sadhaka cannot ever reach extent of Love imbedded in Bhagavan, the great Jnani. That can only be when he or she is Self-realized. But it is also clear from the usage in Anma Viddai, that the phrase “Anbu-punume” is intended for the sadhaka, and not as being descriptive of the state of the Jnani. And so, in my humble opinion, it is an instruction that the sadhaka has to also consciously try and generate in him or her, certain specific qualities which come close to, or emulate, the ideal position as exemplified by Bhagavan and the Jnani.

In a sense it all loops back to the character and mental make-up of the sadhaka and the thorny issue of whether there are any pre-requisites at all needed for Vichara and Self-realization. Personally, I believe that there is much merit in the traditional disciplines of “Yama”, “Niyama” etc. that the sadhaka had to undergo in the olden days, as they built up the necessary qualities in him or her in a formal manner. But leaving the formal spiritual training bit aside, howsoever it may come about, the sadhaka has to evolve in character to come close to the ideal of "being Love".

Won’t Vichara by itself handle it?

It can be said that, as far as Vichara is concerned, the process of intense introversion itself builds up these qualities in an informal manner. I agree. In fact, I would add that the sadhaka may take it that if his or her Vichara is periodically getting stuck at times, it is so because certain necessary qualities are still being built up via the process (in a sense, the vasanas are being cleared), and further advancement will happen only when the process is complete. And thus, if he or she is halted at the “door” which refuses to open despite all the knockin’, it will do so only when the “Love” ingrained in the sadhaka approaches a level as explained in Bhagavan’s note above. And the point is, that could still take an eternity if the basic vasanas are too strong to be eliminated quickly.

For Self-knowledge to dawn, I believe, we need every trick in the book. Bhagavan well knows what Vichara can or cannot do, and still, He especially does mention “have Love” in the hymn. And so it can only be that in addition to our Vichara practice, we still need to consciously work on our demeanour, attitude and overall character.

I have come across sadhakas in Sri Ramanasramam who do Vichara for hours in the halls, but then have seen them outside the halls show savage unkindness to others for small transgressions. And not just as a one-off burst of anger. That will not do.

So the love we may have for us and our endeavours, our partner, our family, our possessions, needs to expand to include a much wider circle. We should feel the pain of the hungry doggie limping along on the road, the monkey mother who lost her baby, the tree whose branches were savagely lopped-off by the road maintenance crew, the aged lonely beggar-woman sitting by the roadside with not a friend in the world, the newcomer morosely sitting in the hall struggling with Vichara without a clue as to what its all about and being noisy, the grain of rice that was not consumed but lies forlorn on the plate as if saying “I survived storm and drought and locusts over many months to offer myself to you, but you abandoned me just like that …”; and then we may “be Love”.

These Jnana paths are a little tricky in that we may look at them as dry, sterile acts of almost a hatha-yoga nature; just sit down at Vichara and chase down the “I”, that is all that is needed. In fact, this is also the fundamental misconception regarding Advaita in general. We can find reams written expressing wonder as to how the avowed logician, Sri Sankara, could compose heart-melting hymns like Sri Meenakshi Panchratnam and Sri Saundarya Lahiri to name but two (and so these must be wrongly attributed to him, or there must be 2 or even 3 persons called “Sankara”). I can bet anything that if Bhagavan’s advent had been a 1000 years ago, in times when historic records were poorly made, they would have said today that the writer of Ulladu Narpadu could never have also composed Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai or any of the other devotional hymns; that there must have been 2 people called “Ramana” separated by a 100 years or so, one following the path of Jnana and the other Bhakti. What is poorly understood is that, in fact, a true Advaitist is also the greatest embodiment of Love; of “Rasa” (literally “Juice”, as opposed to being “dry”). Because in the real Advaitist, Love has become “Universalized” in the manner Bhagavan explained in the extract above.

If there is “Love”, doesn’t Vairagya go for a toss?

And then the doubt can be: but the sadhaka is told to have intense vairagya (renunciation); after all, the instruction is that the world is unreal and therefore not worth running after. How then, can he or she be also asked to “be” Love? Well, paradoxically, as vairagya develops in the sadhaka, he or she “feels” more intensely. That is, all the great and pure emotions. We have the great example of Bhagavan again, who would start sobbing when reading devotional stories like those of the Periya Puranam, much to the amazement of those sitting around. The embodiment of vairagya and Jnana would shed profuse tears along with the woman crying away at the loss of her baby, whereas the others hanging about, the worldly ones presumably full of feelings, would sit stone-faced and struggle to show any emotion. Or, He would laugh along when a joke was cracked, a happy story told.

The secret of vairagya is NOT that you don’t “feel”, but that you remain unattached. You don’t go looking for misery to show “feeling” or to do “good”; but if you encounter misery, you do your best to help with love and attention, still remaining unattached to it all. In this connection am reminded of the famous Zen story called “The River” (also called “The Muddy Road” someplaces; the version below is randomly picked off the internet):

Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, were travelling on pilgrimage, when they came to a muddy river crossing. There they saw a lovely young woman dressed in her kimono and finery, obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes. She had to attend a wedding and was all tears not knowing what to do. Without further ado, Tanzan graciously picked her up, held her close to him, and carried her across the muddy river, placing her onto the dry ground. The young woman was very happy and thanked Tanzan profusely. Then he and Ekido continued on their way. Hours later they found themselves at a lodging temple. And here Ekido could no longer restrain himself and gushed forth his complaints: “Surely, it is against the rules, what you did back there…. Touching a woman is simply not allowed…. How could you have done that? … And to have such close contact with her! … This is a violation of all monastic protocol…” Thus he went on with his verbiage. Tanzan listened patiently to the accusations. Finally, during a pause, he said, “Look, I set that girl down back at the crossing. Are you still carrying her?”.

 

Conclusion

I suspect some criticism may be headed my way in that I may be reading too much into one innocuous phrase from Bhagavan. After all, why not just leave it at the traditional point that Grace is needed, and for that you need to love the appropriate Divinity; why bring in such a complex meaning for “Love”?

Well, having pored over Bhagavan writings for so many years now, one thing that I can affirm confidently is that He never wrote anything as just an “innocuous” phrase. Every word and line written by Him has layers of meaning which emerge on deeper reflection. But, certainly, the meaning may shine forth differently for each one of us. The foregoing is how the phrase “Anbu-punume” from Bhagavan in the context of Vichara and Self-knowledge shines for me. And, hey, if your Vichara is getting stuck at a point and you feel you are not getting anywhere, do also try “being Love” as an innate characteristic within, and reflected without in all worldly interactions as well!    :-)

Again, all just a very humble effort at sharing folks …

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Folks, I have been rambling away for a while now on Vichara. Would be very happy to read your views on Vichara as well; maybe on the aspects covered in these three posts, or on different issues altogether, or even just suggestions from personal experience that you feel may be helpful during practice. Look forward to your comments below.

Also, it is now just about a year since this blog was started. Guess, there are not very many people who drop by on any given day ... but those who do, let me take this chance to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for coming by, and bothering to read all the weird stuff churned out!