OmniLight Invocations 365

A reconstruction of Ramalingam’s appearance based on descriptions by those who knew him. The Tamil words below the image express his sincere wish: May All Beings Attain Bliss and Flourish!

Vivekananda in New York in 1895.

“Tossed to and fro, from wave to wave

in this seething, surging sea

Of passions strong and sorrows deep,

grief is, and joy to be,

Where life is living death, alas! and death—

who knows but ’tis

Another start, another round of this old wheel

of grief and bliss?“

Vivekananda: “MY PLAY IS DONE” (Written in the Spring of 1895 in New York)

"Many a House of Life
     Held me—Seeking Ever Him Wrought
     These Prisons of the Senses, Sorrow-Fraught;
          Sore was My Ceaseless Strife!

          But Now,
     Thou Builder of this Tabernacle—Thou!
     I Know Thee!  Never Shalt Thou Build Again
          These Walls of Pain,

     Nor Raise the Roof-Tree of Deceits, Nor Lay
          Fresh Rafters on the Clay:
     Broken Thy House is, and the Ridge-Pole Split!
          Delusion Fashioned it!
     Safe Pass I Thence—Deliverance to Obtain."
(Buddha's Exultation On Attaining Emancipation From Saṃsāra  in The Light Of Asia by Edwin Arnold)

“The Black Sea at night” by Ivan Aivazovsky  (1817–1900) – Source: Wikipedia

Tibetan thangka showing the Wheel of Life (bhavacakra) – “Wheel of Samsara” – Yama (God of Death) holding the wheel of life: “The images in the hub of the wheel represent the three poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion. The second layer represents karma. The third layer represents the six realms of cyclic existence. The fourth layer represents the twelve links of dependent origination. The fierce figure holding the wheel represents impermanence. The moon above the wheel represents liberation from cyclic existence.
The Buddha pointing to the moon indicates that liberation is possible.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Arutperunjothi Agaval: Couplet: 8

எல்லையில் பிறப்பெனு மிருங்கடல் கடத்தியென்

அல்லலை நீக்கிய வருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி

Saṃsāra,

Site

Of

Suffering,

Dark,

Dread

Ocean

Of

Endless

Waves

Of

Birth,

Death,

Rebirth,

Crossed

Decisively,

Dukkha

Destroyed,

Despair

Ceased,

Consummately,

By the Supreme Compassion of OmniLight!

Note: This autobiographical couplet testifies to Ramalingam’s attainment of liberation, by the supreme compassion of OmniLight, from the “wheel of life”, the cycle of birth, rebirth, and death.

In his own words, this was the result of intense, one-pointed aspiration for the OmniLight, sustained inner austerity of renunciation of distracting worldly desires, and the development of compassion for living beings.

The Arutperunjothi Agaval is Ramalingam’s magnum opus of enlightenment poetry composed in 798 couplets in 1872. 

In later posts, I will offer commentaries on these verses.