The Garland

[Guest guest]

 Dear Friends,

 

````I shall no longer be posting the Garland daily .It has been pointed out to

me that the whole

of this text is on David Godman's Site [linked to this site] and that the

rendition I have been

using has been altered somewhat so it is not totally accurate .

Regards to all , in His Grace, Alan

 

 

    

     In the late 1920s Muruganar, an accomplished Tamil poet who had lived with

Bhagavan for

several years, began to collect the verbal teachings of his Guru, Ramana

Maharshi. He recorded

them in four-line Tamil verses. No questions were recorded, just the answers and

statements on a

wide variety of spiritual topics. By the late 1930s, Muruganar had completed

over 800 of these

verses, virtually all of which recorded a direct teaching statement that

Bhagavan had uttered. In

1939 a decision was made to publish these teachings in book form. Bhagavan then

asked Sadhu

Natanananda, a Tamil scholar and devotee, to arrange the verses by subjects

since there was no

particular order or sequence in the material that Muruganar had amassed. After

Natanananda had

done this work and shown it to Bhagavan, Bhagavan himself thoroughly edited the

work, modifying

the sequences and adding many revisions. In addition to making these textual

corrections, Bhagavan

also composed new verses that he added at appropriate places in the text.

Because of the care and

attention that Bhagavan put into checking and revising these verses, we can be

sure that their

contents have his full approval.

     Many of Bhagavan’s verbal teachings were recorded during his lifetime, but

few of them were

reviewed and edited by him. Guru Vachaka Kovai is the biggest collection of

Bhagavan’s spoken

teachings that was thoroughly checked and revised by him during his lifetime. As

such it has a

unique place in the Ramana literature.

     A second edition of the Tamil work was brought out in 1971. This contained

many additional

verses that Muruganar had composed since the first edition of the book came out

in 1939. This new

edition of the work contained a total of 1,284 verses, 1,254 composed by

Muruganar and the

remaining twenty-eight by Bhagavan himself. 

     Muruganar passed away in 1973. In 1980 Sadhu Om, Muruganar’s literary

executor, brought out a

new edition of Guru Vachaka Kovai in which he rendered the original Tamil verses

(which are often

very difficult to decipher unless one has a good knowledge of Tamil literary

conventions) into

Tamil prose. He also added explanatory comments to many of the prose renderings.

This book is the

basis of the version I am including on this site.

     In the late 1970s and early 1980s Michael James and Sadhu Om worked

together on a translation

of Guru Vachaka Kovai. Although all the verses were translated, along with many

of the

commentaries, the work was never published since Michael was not satisfied with

the accuracy of

some of the verses. In a conversation I had with him many years ago he told me

that he wanted to

revise many of the early verses since he felt that some of them were somewhat

loose paraphrases of

the text, rather than literal translations. 

     After Sadhu Om passed away in 1984, Michael suspended work on his

translation of Guru Vachaka

Kovai and switched his attention to other projects, such as bringing out the

unpublished works of

Muruganar and Sadhu Om. His manuscript of Guru Vachaka Kovai has therefore not

been revised for

almost twenty years.

     Over the years I have shown Michael James’ and Sadhu Om’s version of Guru

Vachaka Kovai to

several people, and everyone has appreciated its rigorous literalness. Only one

version of Guru

Vachaka Kovai has ever appeared in English before, the one by Professor

Swaminathan that was

initially serialised in The Mountain Path and later published by Sri

Ramanasramam. Professor

Swaminathan’s version attempted to retain the poetic element of the original,

but in many places

this resulted in a diminution of accuracy. Sadhu Om and Michael James decided

that, since the

verses recorded philosophical statements by Bhagavan, a literal translation

would be of more

interest to readers and devotees since an accurate rendering would fully reveal

all the nuances of

Bhagavan’s teachings on many different subjects.

     A few months ago I asked Michael if I could post his translation on my site

since it appeared

very unlikely that he would get round to making a final version in the near

future. Michael agreed

and asked that it be billed as a ‘work in progress’, not a completed work. I

wish here to express

my gratitude and appreciation to Michael for allowing this incomplete work to be

given a public

airing.

     The manuscript I worked with had many oddities and rough edges, most of

which I have left

untouched. I don’t want to impose my own editorial red pencil on Michael’s

endeavours; I just want

to express a wish that he one day complete the work and bring out a final,

definitive version. I

have, however, standardized some of the spellings and added attributions to the

notes that follow

many of the verses. Both Muruganar and Sadhu Om have written commentaries on

Guru Vachaka Kovai.

When these have been utilized, I have added the appropriate names at the top of

the notes. When

there are no published Tamil sources for the notes, I have attributed them to

Michael James.

However, since Michael worked closely with Sadhu Om as he was preparing these

notes, I think it is

safe to say that most of them represent supplementary verbal comments by Sadhu

Om that Michael

added in order to clarify the original text.

     Finally, Michael wishes to make it known that anyone is free to use this

material. However,

this does not mean that he is giving away any of the rights to this work. He

intends to complete

the editorial work one day and to bring out his own edition of the work.

     I am posting the first third of the work today. The remainder will be added

in installments

over the next few months.

 

The verses 1-501 are split into 4 PDF documents: 

 

1. Guru Vachaka Kovai 1-153 (Verses 1 through 153)

2. Guru Vachaka Kovai 154-265 (Verses 154 through 265)

3. Guru Vachaka Kovai 266-383 (Verses 266 through 383)

4. Guru Vachaka Kovai 384-501 (Verses 384 through 501)

 

Guru Vachaka Kovai Part II

 

5. Guru Vachaka Kovai 502-871 (Verses 502 through 871)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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