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

 

Verse 1

If you, who by [your] grace took possession of me, are not gracious, giving to me sight of you, what will be my state if I leave this body [after] pining and suffering intensely in [this] dark and miserable world? Without seeing the sun will a lotus blossom? [Likewise] being the sun to the sun, O love called the great hill Aruna, where grace surges as a spring, gushing forth abundantly [will my heart blossom without seeing you?]    

Verse 2

Arunachala, the form of love, [after] taking possession [of me] does it befit [you] to ruin me [by] not granting your love [love for you] to me, who do not have love in which one melts, softening like wax in fire thinking of you in [one’s] heart? O happiness born [ripened or grown] in love, O satiating [or enduring] ambrosia, which wells up in the heart of devotees, what to say? Your iṣṭam [will, wish, desire or liking] is my iṣṭam; that is happiness for me, Lord of my soul [or life].    

Verse 3

By the rope of your grace, pulling [attracting, dragging or carrying away] me, who did not come close [or adhere] to an intention [or inclination] to think of you, the Lord, you stood [determined] to kill [me] without [leaving even] a little life [or without (leaving any distinction between) God and soul]. What wrong did I, this poor wretch, do [to you]? What little obstacle now [prevents you fulfilling your intention to kill me]? For what [reason or purpose] [are you] tormenting me in this way, making [me] half alive? Arunachala, who are God, fulfilling your intention [to annihilate me completely], may [you] live as the [only] one for all eternity.    

Verse 4

Among [all] the people living in the world, from me what benefit did you gain? Protecting [this] poor wretch from falling into desolation [the delusive attractions of this desolate and empty world] and fixing [me] in your state [or at your feet], you kept [me safe in this state of eternal bliss]. Lord, who are the ocean of grace, when I think [of your grace], immense shame [shyness or awe] overwhelms [me]. Arunachala, may you live [flourish, prosper or be glorious]. To praise and adore you, my head bows down.    

Verse 5

Lord, taking me in secret [by robbery, stealth or deceit], you kept [me] at your feet till this day. Lord, to those who ask what your nature is, you kept [me] head bent like a statue. Lord, so that I may not be like a deer [caught in] a net, seek out [and achieve] the destruction of my weariness [or suffering]. Arunachala, who are the Lord [guru or God], whatever be [your] will, who is [this] lonely [destitute] person to know [or understand] it?    

Verse 6

Tat–para [supreme reality], [though I have been] remaining always at [your] feet, I have been [like] a frog [clinging to] the stem of a lotus. If [you] make [me] become a flower-bee drinking the fine honey of [your] state of awareness, there will be salvation [for me]. If I leave [this] life [after constantly remaining like a frog] at the flower of your divine feet, it will be a standing column of shame for you. Light of red spreading rays in the form of a hill. Space of grace subtler than [either physical or mental] space.    

Verse 7

If bhūtas [the five elements], [namely] space, air, fire, water and earth, and bhautikas [everything composed of these elements], which expand [spread out or unfold] as many living beings, do not exist besides you, the space of light [pure awareness], who else am I? O blemishless, if [you] shine without another in the heart as that space [of pure awareness], who am I who come out as [if] another? Arunachala, come out, placing [your] vast lotus-feet on his head [on the head of this ego, the spurious ‘I’ who has come out as if other than you].    

Verse 8

Destroying [in me] the mind [intellect, intelligence, inclination or will] to know the way to live [subsist or survive] in this world, you made [me] worthless. If you keep [me] in this condition, it will not be happiness for anyone, only misery. Dying indeed is better than this life. O supreme, who have assumed the form of Aruna Hill, which shines on earth as the medicine for madness [of desire for the world], to me, who [in spite of] being possessed by madness [of love for you] am bereft of the fruit [of such madness, namely the achievement of ātma–jñāna or pure self-awareness], graciously give the rare medicine by which one joins [or unites with] your feet [or state].    

Verse 9

Supreme, [I am] supreme among those who are destitute of the supreme wisdom to cling without attachment to your feet. [Taking] the burden [the responsibility for saving me] as yours, may you order [or make] my activity to cease. For you, who bear [carry or support everything], what is a burden? Supreme, what I have got [by] separating from you and grasping this world on my head is enough. Arunachala, who are supreme, do not see [or wish] me henceforth to be separate from your feet [or your state].    

Verse 10

I have seen a wonder, the magnetic hill that seizes [or forcibly attracts] the soul. Subduing the mischievous activity of the soul who thinks of it once, pulling [dragging or attracting] [that soul] to face towards itself, the one [or peerless] [infinite self-awareness that shines within the heart as ‘I’], and [thereby] making it acala [motionless] like itself, it accepts [and consumes] that sweet [spiritually ripened and pure] soul as bali [food offered in sacrifice]. What [a wonder] this is! O souls, be saved [by] thinking of the great Aruna Hill, this killer of the soul, who shines in the heart [as ‘I’].    

Verse 11

Like me who think this hill to be the Supreme, how many are those who have [thereby] been destroyed! O people who are wandering about thinking of a means to give up the body, having given up desire for this defective life due to [its] expanding [or unfolding] misery, there is on earth one rare medicine that when thought of once within the mind will kill [ego] without killing [the body]. Know that it certainly is Aruna Hill.