PART ONE

Eleven Verses to Sri Arunachala

1.   Now that by Thy grace Thou hast claimed me, what
will become of me unless Thou manifest Thyself to me, and
I, yearning wistfully for Thee, and harassed by the darkness
of the world, and lost? Oh love, in the shape of Arunachala,
can the lotus blossom without sight of the sun? Thou art the
sun of suns; Thou causest grace to well up in abundance and
pour forth as a stream!

2.   Arunachala, Thou form of grace itself! Once having
claimed me, loveless though I be, how canst Thou let me now
be lost, and fail to fill me so with love that I must pine for
Thee unceasingly and melt within like wax over the fire? Oh
nectar springing up in the Heart of devotees! Haven of my
refuge! Let Thy pleasure be mine, for that way lies my joy,
Lord of my life!

3.   Drawing me with the cords of Thy grace, although I
had not even dimly thought of Thee, Thou didst decide to kill
me outright. How then has one so weak as I offended Thee
that Thou dost leave the task unfinished?1 Why dost Thou
torture me thus, keeping me suspended between life and death?
Oh Arunachala! Fulfil Thy wish, and long survive me all alone,
Oh Lord!

4.   What did it profit Thee to choose out, me, from all
those struggling in samsara,2 to rescue my helpless self from
being lost and hold me at Thy feet? Lord of the ocean of
grace! Even to think of Thee puts me to shame. (Long) mayst
Thou live! I bow my head to Thee and bless Thee!

¹Alternatively: What austerities left incomplete in previous births have won me
Thy special favour. (Cf. The Marital Garland of Letters, verse 25 b). What more is
left for me to gain or to fulfil?

²Samsara is the universal flux of manifestation.

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5.   Lord! Thou didst capture me by stealth and all these
days hast held me at Thy feet! Lord! Thou hast made me (to
stand) with hanging head, (dumb) like an image when asked
what is Thy nature.3 Lord! Deign to ease me in my weariness,
struggling like a deer that is trapped. Lord Arunachala! What
can be Thy will? (Yet) who am I to comprehend Thee?

6.   Lord of my life! I am ever at Thy feet, like a frog
(which clings) to the stem of the lotus; make me instead a
honeybee which (from the blossom of the Heart) sucks the
sweet honey of Pure Consciousness; then shall I have
deliverance. If I am lost while clinging to Thy lotus feet, it
will be for Thee a standing column of ignominy, Oh blazing
pillar of light, called Arunachala! Oh (wide) expanse of grace,
more subtle than ether!

7.   Oh pure one! If the five elements, the living beings
and every manifest thing is nothing but Thy all-embracing
Light, how then can I (alone) be separate from Thee? Since
Thou shinest in the Heart, a single expanse without duality,
how then can I come forth distinct therefrom? Show Thyself
planting Thy lotus feet upon the head of the ego as it emerges!

8.   Thou hast withheld from me all knowledge of gradual
attainment while living in the world, and set me at peace;
such a care indeed is blissful and not painful to anyone, for
death in life is in truth glorious.4 Grant me, wasteful and mad
(for Thee), the sovereign remedy of clinging to Thy Feet!

³Alternatively: Thou has made me (rest tense) like a bent bow when asked what
is Thy nature.

⁴Alternatively: Thou has destroyed my ability to earn my living in the world
and made a wastrel of me; this condition is miserable and unhappy; to die is
better than to live in such ignominy.

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9.   Oh Transcendent! I am the first of those who have
not the supreme wisdom to clasp Thy feet in freedom from
attachment. Ordain Thou that my burden be transferred to
Thee and my freewill effaced, for what indeed can be a burden
to the sustainer (of the universe)? Lord Supreme! I have had
enough (of the fruits) of carrying (the burden of) this world
upon my head, parted from Thee. Arunachala, Supreme Self!
Think no more to keep me at a distance from Thy feet!

10.     I have discovered a new thing! This hill, the lodestone
of lives, arrests the movements of anyone who so much as
thinks of it, draws him face to face with it, and fixes him
motionless like itself, to feed upon his soul thus ripened. What
(a wonder) is this! Oh souls! beware of It and live!5 Such a
destroyer of lives is this magnificent Arunachala, which shines
within the Heart!

11.     How many are there who have been ruined like me
for thinking this hill to be the supreme?6 Oh men who,
disgusted with this life of intense misery, seek a means of
giving up the body, there is on earth a rare drug which, without
actually killing him, will annihilate anyone who so much as
thinks of it. Know that it is none other than this Arunachala!

⁵Alternatively: Oh souls! Think upon it and be saved!

⁶Alternatively: How many are there who have lost (their ego) for having thought
this hill to be the supreme?