OmniLight Invocations 365

Entrance to the site of the radiant symbol (Jothi or orb of light) of OmniLight in the Sathiya Gnana Sabhai (1872), or Hall Of Truth-Knowledge, designed by Ramalingam.

Arutperunjothi Agaval: Couplet: 38

நவந்தவிர் நிலைகளு நண்ணுமோர் நிலையாய்

அவந்தவிர் சிற்சபை யருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி!

In

The

Singular,

Immutable,

Mystic

Consciousness-Space

Which

Holds

In

Attachment

All

States

Of

Detachment,

And

Averts

All

Adversity,

OmniLight Of Supreme Compassion!

Notes:

Starting with couplet 14, these couplets refer to the higher spaces (Tamil: வெளி or Veli) and levels of consciousness in which the OmniLight manifests itself.

Another connotation of the Tamil expression “வெளி” (Veli), and its cognates “அம்பலம்” (Ambalam) and “சபை” (Sabhai), is the public hall, or assembly, or intersubjectively accessible space. Hence, the “public halls” or higher spaces of manifestation of OmniLight described in these couplets are accessible by qualified persons or beings in advanced states of conscious experience.

This couplet starts with the complex Tamil expression “நவந்தவிர்” (navanthavir) which poses a challenge for interpretation. It has been misinterpreted by several commentators, including the distinguished Swami Saravanananda, as a reference to nine states of this or that. This misinterpretation rests on the failure to take note of the suffix “தவிர்” (meaning “eschew, prevent, extirpate”) appended to “நவம்” (whose standard meaning is “nine”, but also refers to affection or attachment).

It makes no sense to understand “நவம்” in its standard sense of “nine” because, then, the expression “நவந்தவிர்” would mean “extirpating the nine”. On this interpretation, the expression remains obscure since we do not know what nine things or factors are referred to. There are different speculations by commentators, but they are not coherent in light of the meaning of the suffix “தவிர்” (meaning “eschew, prevent, extirpate”).

Further, construing “நவந்தவிர்” in terms of “extirpating the nine”, whatever the nine things or factors are, is at odds with the meaning of the rest of the first line “நிலைகளு நண்ணுமோர் நிலையாய்“, i.e., “states or conditions which are attached, united, or integrated with the one, unchanging condition”. The entire first line of this couplet would then mean “conditions which extirpate the nine are united with or integrated with the one, unchanging condition” and becomes very obscure.

The expression “”நவந்தவிர்”, therefore, is best interpreted in terms of extirpation or removal of attachment (attachment is another sense of “நவம்“) , or in other words, detachment or dispassion .

The expression “அவந்தவிர்” at the start of the second line means “averting or extirpating adversity”. The Tamil word “அவம்” (avam) refers to harm or adversity.

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