Part 1 of Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai: Meditative Reading of Sri Muruganar’s Paraphrases

Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai, the ‘Marital Garland of Syllables for Sri Arunachala’, is a song composed in the metaphorical language of bridal mysticism and consists of 108 couplets, in which Śrī Ramaṇa pours out his intense love for God in the form of the sacred hill Aruṇācala, praising his boundless grace and praying to him for the imperishable state of absolute oneness with him, which can be gained only by means of true self-knowledge, since the true form of God or Aruṇācala is nothing other than our own pure awareness, ‘I am’.

 

 

Ramana Sadguru song (in Tamil and English) by Satyamangalam Venkataramaiyyar

   

Decad of Like Gold (Poṉṉaiyotta pattu) by Satyamangalam Venkataramayyar

Regarding the origin of this song, a devotee once asked Bhagavan how many times the author of these songs, Satyamangalam Venkataramayyar, had visited Bhagavan and wondered where he was at that time. Sri Bhagavan replied, “He came only once when we were at the Virupaksha Cave. He wrote the first four songs while he was here, one each day of his stay, and the fifth, the sadguru song, he sent after going to his place. He never again came here, and we know nothing more about him.” A later search revealed no such person called Venkataramayyar in any place called Satyamangalam in Tamilnadu. This demonstrates that this mystery person is Divine itself and hence these five songs are extraordinary for devotees of Bhagavan, on par with Arunachala Stuti Panchakam, composed by Bhagavan.

 

 

Ramana Kummi Pattu (Roundelay) by Satyamangalam Venkataramaiyyar

Regarding the origin of this song, a devotee once asked Bhagavan how many times the author of these songs, Satyamangalam Venkataramayyar, had visited Bhagavan and wondered where he was at that time. Sri Bhagavan replied, “He came only once when we were at the Virupaksha Cave. He wrote the first four songs while he was here, one each day of his stay, and the fifth, the sadguru song, he sent after going to his place. He never again came here, and we know nothing more about him.” A later search revealed no such person called Venkataramayyar in any place called Satyamangalam in Tamilnadu. This demonstrates that this mystery person is Divine itself and hence these five songs are extraordinary for devotees of Bhagavan, on par with Arunachala Stuti Panchakam.

 

 

Always yours: Song composed and sung with music by Yazan Amin

Presented in satsang of Sri Ramana Center of Houston on March 11, 2023.

 

 

Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai (First 12 Verses): Sung in English by Yazan Amin; Poetic Translation by Robert Butler

This song is the first of five prayer songs of Śrī Aruṇācala Stuti Pañcakam composed by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. It consists of 108 verses, and here we are presenting the first 12 verses.