OmniLight Invocations 365

A reconstruction of Ramalingam’s appearance based on descriptions by those who knew him. It is missing his footwear. Ramalingam emphasized the use of footwear as a requirement of the care of the body.

Arutperunjothi Agaval: Couplet: 145

மாண்டுழ லாவகை வந்திளங் காலையே

ஆண்டுகொண் டருளிய வருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி

Traipses

Of

Toil,

Travailing

Trips,

Of

Death,

Rebirth,

Terminated,

Transcended,

At

Daybreak,

At

Dawn

Of

My

Youth,

Being

Conquered,

Steered,

Consummately

By OmniLight Of Supreme Compassion!

Note: This autobiographical couplet testifies to Ramalingam’s transcending of the travailing trips of death, and rebirth, even in his early youth, by the supreme steering of OmniLight.

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.