New book Edited by David Godman: Padamalai

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New book: Padamalai

 

Guru Vachaka Kovai, Muruganar's Tamil-verse record of Bhagavan's

teachings, is well known to Bhagavan's devotees. What is less well

known is that Muruganar recorded many other teaching statements by

Bhagavan. Over fifteen hundred of these two-line verses can be found

in a long, 3,059-verse Tamil poem entitled Padamalai. This work was

first published in 1996 by the Delhi Ramana Kendra in volume nine of

Ramana Jnana Bodham. In Padamalai, which can be translated as 'A

Garland for the Feet', the direct statements by Bhagavan are all

indicated by the words 'en Padam' that occur at the end of each

quotation. These can be translated as 'So says Padam'. In these

direct teaching statements Padam refers to Bhagavan himself.

Elsewhere in the work, when Muruganar writes about Padam, he is

referring to the formless Self, as the following few verses indicate:

 

 

That which is known as Padam is not something that is limited. It is

complete perfection, the form of pure consciousness.

 

Because it bears and sustains the whole world, the completely

perfect being-consciousness is termed Padam [the feet].

 

True Padam, the space of consciousness, abides and shines as the

pure consciousness that is beyond knowledge and ignorance.

 

Padam is the true light that shines as the basis for all that is

seen as sentient and insentient.

 

The extremely wonderful Padam has fashioned the entire world

from the clay of shining consciousness, one's real nature.(1)

 

 

 

As he was composing this work, Muruganar made no attempt to

organise the material in a sequential or thematic way. This is what

he had to say in his introduction to the poem:

 

 

 

What is said early on [in the work] gets mentioned repeatedly later,

making it appear that repetition is its theme. Unlike the work of

great ones, this does not contain in large amounts an extensive and

deep philosophy that would give the work solidity and subtlety. Even

if a few subtle ideas have serendipitously appeared here, like the

letters seen in snail tracks, they are not present in any orderly and

connected sequence. Can the words uttered by the mad, the ignorant

and the devout be subject to a critical analysis? Following on from

this, I can say that this work has been sung as a peculiar expression

of my mental inclinations. However, in its own way, it is a congenial

support for the extremely purifying remembrance of the divine feet of

the Lord, the reality. For this reason alone, let devotees, the wise

ones who possess love, recognise and preserve this Padamalai, which

has come into being through grace-madness, as an auxiliary means for

remembrance, chanting it with the above-mentioned attitude.

 

http://www.davidgodman.org/books/padamalai.shtml#bk5