Bhagavan Ramana’s Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam: Sung by Sri Sadhu Om

 

Verse 1

It sits calmly as a hill [seemingly] bereft of awareness [or knowledge], [but] ah, its action is pre-eminent [or wonderful], difficult for anyone to understand. Though from [my] young age, [when I was] bereft of knowledge, Arunachalam shone in [my] awareness [or mind] as something exceedingly great, even [after] coming to know from someone that it is Tiruvannamalai I did not know its poruḷ [substance, reality, truth, import, meaning or significance]. When it enchanted [my] awareness [or mind] and drew [my body] near, at the opportune time of coming near I saw it to be acalam [a hill or what is motionless].    

Verse 2

When [the seer] investigated within the mind who the seer is, I saw what remained when the seer [thereby] became non-existent. The mind does not rise to say ‘I saw’, [so] in what way could the mind rise to say ‘I did not see’? Who has the power to elucidate this [by] speaking, when in ancient times [even] you [as Dakshinamurti] elucidated [it] without speaking? Only to elucidate your state [of silent and motionless pure self-awareness] without speaking, you stood as a hill [or motionlessly] shining [from] earth [to] sky [though actually beyond the limits of both].    

Verse 3

When I approach thinking of you as a form, you yourself stand as a hill on earth. If one thinks of [or meditates upon] your form as formless, one is like someone who wanders about the world in order to see the sky. [But] when without thinking one thinks of your form [that is, when one attends only to ‘I am’, which is your true form], [one’s own] form [one’s ego or separate individuality] will cease to exist like a sugar-form placed in the ocean. When I know myself, what else is my form [other than you]? You, who exist as the great Aruna Hill, [alone] are.    

Verse 4

See, seeking God [while] leaving [or neglecting] you, who exist and shine [eternally in one’s heart as pure awareness, which is the real nature of God], is just [like] seeking darkness [by] taking a lamp. Only to raise [or spread] awareness of yourself, who exist and shine [as the sole reality], you exist in each mata [spiritual philosophy, religion or system of belief] as various forms. If one does not know you, who exist and shine [as the light that illumines the mind, enabling it to know other things], one just [like] a blind person who has no knowledge of the sun. Gem [of pure awareness] called the peerless great Aruna Hill, exist and shine in my heart as one without a second.    

Verse 5

Like the thread in [a string of] gems, you alone shine as the one [real substance] in each soul and each of the many matas [spiritual philosophies, religions or systems of belief]. Like grinding a gem [to polish it], when one grinds the mind on the stone called mind to remove [its] blemishes, the light of your grace will shine forth. Like the light of a gem [whose brightness and colour are unaffected by nearby objects], attachment to any other thing will not occur [in a mind that has thus been polished]. When sunlight has fallen on a photographic film, can any shadow [or image] be imprinted on it? Aruna, hill of intense light, is there anything other than you?    

Verse 6

There is only one substance, you, the heart, the light of awareness. In you exists an extraordinary power, which is not other [than you]. [Appearing] from [that] along with awareness, series of subtle shadowy thoughts [spinning] in the whirl of destiny are seen [on] the mirror [that is] the mind-light as a shadowy world-picture both inside and outside via senses such as the eye, like a shadow-picture that stands out [or is projected] by a lens. Hill of grace, let them cease or let them go on, they do not exist at all apart from you.    

Verse 7

If the thought called ‘I’ does not exist, even one other [thought or thing] will not exist. Until then, if any other thought arises, merge [back within by investigating] thus: to whom [has it appeared]; to me; what is the place from which I rose? Sinking [thereby] within, if one reaches the heart-throne, [one will be] the very emperor [seated under] the shade of a single umbrella [namely God, the supreme lord of this and every other world]. The dream [of duality], which consists of [pairs of opposites such as] inside and outside, the two karmas [good and bad actions], death and birth, happiness and misery, darkness and light, will [then] not exist. [What will exist is] only the infinite ocean of the light of grace called Arunamalai, which dances motionlessly [as ‘I am only I’] in the court of the heart.    

Verse 8

Water showered by clouds, which rise from the ocean, will not stop [even] if obstructed until it reaches its ocean-abode. [Likewise] the embodied soul, which rises from you, will not stop even though it wanders along many paths that it encounters until it reaches you. Though it wanders in the vast sky, for a bird there is no place of rest [there]; except the earth, there is no place [for it to rest]; what it must do is to go the way it came. [Likewise] Aruna-mountain, when the soul goes back the way it came, it will merge in you, the ocean of happiness.