Tamil Metaphysical Meaning
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The Metaphysical Meaning of “Tamil” by Saint Ramalingam Rajesh Kothandaraman California, USA 1 Introduction and Motivation: The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word 'Tamil' as 'sweetness’. Prof.Franklin Southworth suggests that the name ‘Thamizh’ comes from tammil > tamil 'selfspeak', or 'one's own speech'. In the Tamil Classic Spiritual literature Thirumandiram , Saint Thirumoolar says {Translation] Me, having been begotten by the Almighty so well To explain Himself in that excelling Thamizh experience so well. In the above song Thirumoolar uses the word ‘Thamizh’ to refer to some kind of experience than the conventional meaning of language. Also in another song he uses this word as a verb. So all this points to that there should be more meaning to the word ‘Thamizh’ that is inclusive of the meaning ‘sweetness’. Such a meaning does exist and was given by the great Yogi, Siddha and Poet Saint Ramalingam aka Vallalar. In the context of explaining some difficult passages of Sanskrit to a Sanskrit scholar who had the firm view of Sanskrit is the Mother of all languages, Vallalar wrote an explanation of Thamizh to explain its metaphysical meaning. It was published as part of Urainadai [1] (The Prose and Collected Letters of Vallalar) much later. 2 Metaphysical Approach Vallalar uses a metaphysical approach to explain the meaning of Tamil. Metaphysics deals with the fundamental nature of being and the world and denotes philosophical enquiry of a nonempirical character into the nature of existence. All parts of knowledge have their origin in Metaphysics, similar to the visible has its basis in the invisible. Forms and Numbers are the ways the mind perceives Metaphysics and Plato says the study of the properties of numbers habituates the mind to be contemplation of pure Truth, and raises us above the material universe. This is because numbers and alphabets are symbols of some higher reality, representing the Truth of a Higher Plane. These symbols are instruments (like eyes) to perceive the Higher reality. Thiruvalluvar puts forth in Kural 392 “Those called Numbers and Letters, the wise declare, are eyes to live with”. Vallalar adopts a metaphysical approach to explain numerically and alphabetically and unravel the Higher Truth behind it. Tamil has 12 vowels and 18 consonants, the remaining letters are derived from the compound table shown below. Tamil defines vowels and consonants as Uyir Ezhuthu, Mei Ezhuthu meaning Soul letters,
description
This document describes the metaphysical meaning of Tamil given by Saint Ramalingam. Its very unique that a language's name has a metaphysical meaning and deeply connects to spirituality.
Transcript of Tamil Metaphysical Meaning
The Metaphysical Meaning of “Tamil” by Saint Ramalingam
Rajesh Kothandaraman California, USA
1 Introduction and Motivation:
The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word 'Tamil' as 'sweetness’. Prof.Franklin Southworth suggests that the name ‘Thamizh’ comes from tam-‐mil -‐-‐> tam-‐il 'self-‐speak', or 'one's own speech'. In the Tamil Classic Spiritual literature Thirumandiram , Saint Thirumoolar says
{Translation] Me, having been begotten by the Almighty so well To explain Himself in that excelling Thamizh experience so well.
In the above song Thirumoolar uses the word ‘Thamizh’ to refer to some kind of experience than the conventional meaning of language. Also in another song he uses this word as a verb. So all this points to that there should be more meaning to the word ‘Thamizh’ that is inclusive of the meaning ‘sweetness’. Such a meaning does exist and was given by the great Yogi, Siddha and Poet Saint Ramalingam aka Vallalar. In the context of explaining some difficult passages of Sanskrit to a Sanskrit scholar who had the firm view of Sanskrit is the Mother of all languages, Vallalar wrote an explanation of Thamizh to explain its metaphysical meaning. It was published as part of Urainadai [1] (The Prose and Collected Letters of Vallalar) much later.
2 Metaphysical Approach
Vallalar uses a metaphysical approach to explain the meaning of Tamil. Metaphysics deals with the fundamental nature of being and the world and denotes philosophical enquiry of a non-‐empirical character into the nature of existence. All parts of knowledge have their origin in Metaphysics, similar to the visible has its basis in the invisible. Forms and Numbers are the ways the mind perceives Metaphysics and Plato says the study of the properties of numbers habituates the mind to be contemplation of pure Truth, and raises us above the material universe. This is because numbers and alphabets are symbols of some higher reality, representing the Truth of a Higher Plane. These symbols are instruments (like eyes) to perceive the Higher reality. Thiruvalluvar puts forth in Kural 392 “Those called Numbers and Letters, the wise declare, are eyes to live with”. Vallalar adopts a metaphysical approach to explain numerically and alphabetically and unravel the Higher Truth behind it.
Tamil has 12 vowels and 18 consonants, the remaining letters are derived from the compound table shown below. Tamil defines vowels and consonants as Uyir Ezhuthu, Mei Ezhuthu meaning Soul letters,
Body letters respectively. As the name implies this embeds a deep spiritual concept in it. ‘Uyir’ in Tamil means literally ‘Life’ but metaphysically means ‘Soul’ and that includes ‘Life’. ‘Mei’ means ‘Physical Body’. The vowels and consonants combine together to form the vowel-‐consonant alphabet called the Soul-‐Body letter (Uyir-‐Mei Ezhuthu). Metaphysically this means the Soul gives life to the body and becomes a living being, so the vowels activate the consonants to produce conjugants. Soul + Body =Life. The Tamil alphabets in a compound table is shown below
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Tamil compound table Vowels
Consonants
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3 Some Terms and Definitions
Before getting into the actual translation of Vallalar’s explanation, some terms require explanation. This helps in understanding the translation. These terms were taken from the Urainadai and given below.
SIVAM or SatChitAnanda
Vallalar describes, the meaning of Sivam is SatChitAnanda . In this ‘Sat’ is ‘Sikaram’, ‘Chit’ is ‘Vakaram’ and ‘Ananda’ is ‘Makaram’. The meaning of these terms are as follows.
Sikaram -‐ Sat -‐ That Exists as containing Everything -‐ Truth
Vakaram -‐ Chit -‐ That exists as Expressing Everything -‐ Consciousness
Makaram -‐ Ananda -‐ Delight filled by Sat and Chit -‐ Infinite Delight
While the term ‘Sivam’ is usually associated with the Hindu religious God, Vallalar’s definition of Sivam goes beyond religion, extremely simple, yet very powerful and descriptive. More simply, Sat -‐ that exists as everything, Chit -‐ that is being everything.
The Term ‘Supramental ‘
Sri Aurobindo, the great Yogi, Mystic Philosopher defines Supramental as Self Existent Truth Consciousness. This exactly translates to the definition Vallalar gives to term ‘Siva’. Specifically he calls ‘Suddha Sivam’. The term ‘Suddham’ was used to mean it is beyond religious experiences and translates exactly to ‘Supra’ that means ‘above’ or ‘beyond’. Thus the term ‘Suddha Sivam’ exactly translates to ‘Supramental Divine’ and the term ‘Suddha Sanmarkkam’ to ‘Path to Supramental Truth’
Ten Commandments to Experience Sivam or Supramental Divine
Vallalar around 1860s in a letter to his disciple explained the ten stages/steps to experience the Supramental. It starts from Tattwas (Physical, Vital Life, Mental) and ends in Supramental. The actual steps as follows:
1. Tattwas Form : Becoming aware that the Physical Body to Mind are not the True Self.
2. Tattwas Perception : The Tattwas (Physical, Vital, Mind) do not know the True Self. Becoming aware that we are Consciousness put into Form
3. Tattwas Purification : Realizing that ‘this’ veiled the Conscious being
4. Spiritual Form : Impure Ego replaced by the True Self through Divine Grace
5. Spiritual Perception : Being Delighted that we are Consciousness put into Form
6. Spiritual Purification : Being Passive and Receptive to the Descent of Divine Grace
7. Supramental Form : Perceiving One Divine infinitely everywhere, that All is Sivam
8. Supramental Perception: Soul Being Delighted or living in that Consciousness
9. Supramental Yoga : Performing Yoga in that Consciousness of ‘Oneness with All’.
10. Supramental Boga : Become One with Supramental Divine and exist.
The above 10 stages can be broadly classified to 3 stages (Pyschicisation -‐> Spiritualisation -‐> Supramentalisation 3x3 = 9 stages + 1 Supreme Stage) and matches perfectly with the ‘Triple Transformation of the Individual’ explained by Sri Aurobindo. These stages are
1. Psychic Transformation 2. Spiritual Transformation 3. Supramental Transformation
These stages are dealt in great detail and depth in his magnum opus ‘The Life Divine’.
Triple Beings
Three types of beings (Life) are classified in Urainadai. They are: Sakalar, Pralayakalar, Vignanakalar.
Sakalar – Human beings have Ego, Maya, Karma Pralayakalar – Overmental Beings have Ego and Maya Vignanakalar – Supramental Beings have Ego alone.
Here Vallalar calls the Ego as natural, Maya as the artificial part of natural, Karma (or action) as artificial. Sakalar are ordinary Human beings, Pralayakalar are Overmental beings, Vignanakalar are Supramental beings. Pure 9 types, Impure 9 types, so total 18.
As explained in [9], “Overmental is a plane where the full power of truth does not exist. It is a plane where truths can protect themselves and act, eliminating the destructive influence of ignorance. In the next Supramental Plane, Truth is self-‐existent. Here there is no ignorance. Power of Supermind can enter into ignorance, reach its foundation of truth, unite all of them and from there transform ignorance into knowledge”. The Ego mentioned above for Vignanakalar or Supramental beings refer to some sort of individualization as Mother explains in the Mother’s Agenda [7]. It is the essence or the essential purpose of individualization WITHOUT the ego’s limits and that is what Vallalar refers Ego as natural.
Thakaram
‘Thakaram’ refers to Physical Body. ‘Thakara Vitthai’ means perfection or transformation of Physical Body into Pure body.
In Urainadai, in many places while explaining the crux of the difficult words Vallalar says their meaning will come out in more detail later in the days of Sanmarkka. In ‘Perupadesam’ final great sermon before dematerialization of his deathless body in 1874 he mentions that people who will teach this Path will not be available in near future for sometime, and elsewhere mentions they will come to teach the same Path. It is no coincidence Sri Aurobindo and The Mother came to Pondicherry (near Vadalur) after 40 years and did a more detailed research on the same Path (Integral Yoga is essentially Suddha Sanmarkka if one keenly analyze and not desperate to find the differences) and explained in great detail the Triple Transformation of the individual that leads to Supramentalization. Sri Aurobindo himself mentioned that he directly received the teachings from a Higher Consciousness in mental silence. Vallalar’s teachings were in Tamil, not widely published during his time and many religious sections were against his teachings as he went beyond the religious experiences to the Supramental Divine and had the complete body transformation by the Grace of Vast Grace Light Divine [1][2][3]. The body transformation of Vallalar and his connection with Sri Aurobindo, The Mother and Tirumoolar is dealt in great detail in Thulasiram’s “ArutPerumJothi and Deathless Body Vol 1 & 2” book.
The original explanation of ‘Thamizh’ by Vallalar in Tamil is given in the following page. This is followed by English translation in italics font and our explanation in normal font.
Sacred Hall of Truth Consciousness
Tamil is Th -‐-‐ A – M – E – Zh formed of 5 units of measure. Th, Im, Zh represents Art of Physical Consciousness (Jada Chit Kalai). A, E – Art of Consciousness Proper (Chit Kalai).
A -‐ represents the One Divine or First Primordial God, first syllable of AUM-‐ SiVaYaNaMa that expresses the Cosmic Consciousness.
E -‐ represents the Soul Consciousness syllable, expresses the Consciousness always inseparable from the Divine and showing up as the One becoming the Infinitely Many manifested differences.
The explanation of [Th,Im,Zh] representing the Physical Body for the Soul where the Divine becoming basis of all Soul Consciousness arts is as follows
Th – 7th consonant
M – 10th consonant,
Zh – 15th Natural Truth Specialty Syllable
The language, that was taught by Sambu (Being who is the Cause of Universe) from beginning less time, -‐ according to Pure Siddhantha was taught by Divine Grace and Command -‐ , that was celebrated as the Father of all languages by wise men, and stand completed meaning ‘sweetness’, Natural Truth Specialty Language Thamizh’s Pure Siddhantic Explanation as follows
Vallalar – Saint Ramalingam
Significance of Th + A
In the 10 commandments to Natural Truth Experience, with the Tattwas Form (Tatwaa Roopa ) as the beginning, becoming One with the Supramental Divine as the end, the before mentioned ‘Th’ in 7th position represents the Supramental Form Natural Truth Command. The ‘A’ Akaram expressing the Cosmic Consciousness Form AUM’s inner meaning is the manifestation syllable. As Akaram is the first syllable of the 12 soul syllables (vowels) and represents the Primordial God or Supramental Divine, that is the Natural Truth’s Evolutionary Perfection Goal for the 9 states from Brahma to ParaSiva. So, the Supramental Divine Essence takes form in the Physical Ethereal Plane (Thakara akasa), gets involved and manifested in the Physical. This is Involution. [ Vyaktam – manifestion [13]]. So Akaram represents Divine’s Involution and manifestation into the Physical.
The first Kural says
"A" is the first and source of all the letters. Even so is God Primordial the first and source of all the world.
With ‘A’ taking the position 1, 1 represents the Divine and is the source of everything, identity number. All numbers could be derived from 1 as it exists in every number. Further ‘A’ is called the Moolanga Pranavam. Mooladhara is considered the center of Physical Consciousness Proper. It is the ‘root; or ‘foundation’ chakra, the centre at the bottom of the spine which is the main support of the physical consciousness and the material parts of the nature” [13]. Hence ‘A’ represents Divine’s Involution into the Physical.
Sri Aurobindo
Significance of M + E
The ‘M’ dissolution sound of ‘AUM’ Pranava (‘A’ – Creation, ‘U’ – Protection, ‘M’ – Dissolution) and turns out to be the Truth Delight (Sat + Ananda) for the Liberated Souls and Inconscient Darkness for Involved Souls and at the end of the Conception Pralaya at the birth and in Life it becomes Supramental and Soul’s Base (10 represents Physical Base) for the Jiva or Psychic Consciousness Force
The ‘E’ Ekaram being the 3rd alphabet denotes the third of the three Spiritual Beings, the Supramental Being who stand above the lower Human Beings and higher Overmental Beings. So, the Conscious Soul beings who always manifest and Evolve based on the Divine Command –Physical Base relationship should be marked as rightful to experience the Supreme Aim of Integral Perfect Delight. This is Evolution. Ekaram represents man’s evolution into Divine.
The number 10 is the number of manifestation signifies something established in manifestation. In real life, base 10 is the foundation of all practical mathematics hence the basis of all that we measure and perceive in this universe. The number 3 denotes to the Supramental being (Vignanakalar) of the three beings briefed in the ‘Triple Beings’ section. More details can be found in Sri Aurobindo’s works, The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga [4][5].
Pralaya is a non-mental, non-astral, non-material state of existence somewhere between death and rebirth, where the life impulse is in abeyance. An experience of perfect peace and unending bliss prior to taking the next incarnation [10]
The Mother
Significance of ZH
Standing in the last syllable position as 15th of the 18 consonants, in the “Sivayoga land of Bharatham” uniquely found only in the Swadesh out of 56 lands mentioned in Pauranika Tattwa, being a common right to Classical Tamil and Colloquial Tamil. Zh taking the 15th position represents the Divine Grace revelation experience through PanchaDasakshra ( Panchakshra Triple works 5 x 3 = 15, NAMASIVAYA x AUM ) to easily learn and experience the essence of “Rig, Yajur, Sama Sanskritic Vedas” that belong to the first of the three Tamil departments(Iyal, Isai, Natakam). Tamil contains the Supreme Truth secrets of Devaram, Thiruvasagam and Thirumandiram Sastra-‐Stotras by MahaPurushas Sri Manickavasakar, Sambandhar, Navaraiyar, Sundarar, Thirumoolar. Unlike Sanskrit, Marathi, Telugu languages where even after being in complete concentration and living in high consciousness collectively with other sadhaks and analyze and refine the different sounds, it is very difficult to make lessons and get Bhasyam, Vyakhyanam,Tika Tippani tools (commentary, elaborate expositions and explanations of difficult words and phrases) and even if we get these, extremely difficult to get the teachers who teach with these tools, Tamil has low letter count, sounds light, conjunctive sandhi being very easy, very elegant to write and express poetically, without feminine decorations like pompous sounding aksharas or word decorations, and could absorb and govern any language’s structural features (chandasus ). Unique to its language, among the special high, middle and low aksharas -‐ zh,ir,in, ‘zh’ the Natural Truth’s special sound denotes the highest state of Pure Supra-‐Monic Delight Experience. So ‘zh’ represents Perfect Delight (Ananda).
In the context of the claim, Tamil easily leads to experience of Sanskritic Vedas, it is commonly observed by the scholars who know both the languages and look at the issue unbiasedly. Sri Aurobindo himself, a great exponent in Sanskrit, in his book ‘The Secret of the Veda’ in ‘The Foundations of the Psychological Theory’ chapter, says its only through Tamil he found the missing links and relations of Sanskrit [6].
and it lead him to plunge into the origins and laws of development of human language itself.
Vallalar’s mention that the first department of Tamil (Principles Iyal, Music-‐Isai, Drama-‐Natakam) includes the Rig, Yajur and Sama Vedas shows the encompassing nature of Tamil. This is consistent with Sri Aurobindo’s observation that it is through Tamil that he first came to perceive the embryology of Aryan tongues. Regarding the difficulties and complexities of Sanskrit, Sri Aurobindo says
“Sanskrit ought still to have a future as a language of the learned and it will not be a good day for India when the ancient tongue ceases entirely to be written or spoken. But if it is to survive, it must get rid of the curse of the heavy pedantic style contracted by it in its decline with the lumbering impossible compounds and the overweight of hairsplitting erudition”
Similar views regarding the complexity and difficulty of learning Sanskrit have been expressed by other great personalities like Swami Vivekananda. So Tamil actually helps understanding of Sanskrit more easily.
Summary of the meaning of ‘Thamizh’
With time the Evolutionary Force converts the Inconscient Dark Nature into Grace Light, and the resulting spiritual consciousness force (pure soul) experiencing the Natural Truth called the Vast Grace Light also called the ” Supramental Divine Delight Perfection” through Pure Monic Oneness is called Thamizh.
So the conclusion of this summary is: Tamil Language easily leads to Supramental Divine Experience.
Sacred Hall of Truth Consciousness
Vallalar refers the Evolutionary Force to be the agent that converts Inconscient Darkness to Grace Light. The term ‘Paribaka Sakthi’ means Evolutionary Force. (similar to the term ‘Parinama Valarchi’ that
means Evolution) . So summarized simply in terms of meaning of the letters
Th – Divine Command to take Form in Physical A – Divine Essence Involution into Human Being & Manifestation M – Complete Manifestation and Dissolution I – Evolution of Human Being into Supramental Being Zh -‐ Total Perfect Delight through Oneness
And in the order of sequence in terms of numbers 7 -‐-‐> 1 -‐-‐> 10 -‐-‐> 3 -‐-‐> 15
Command -‐> Involution -‐> Dissolution -‐> Evolution -‐> Delight = Th + A + M + I + ZH
This essentially turns out to be the Divine involving into physical as human being, manifesting and evolving into the Supramental Being to experience the Perfect Oneness Delight. Experiencing this Oneness delight (becoming one with everything) is essentially Compassion to every being or Sweetness, hence this meaning for “Thamizh”. The whole explanation starts and ends with an invocation ‘ThiruChitAmbalam’ meaning “Sacred Hall of Truth Consciousness”, Thiru (Sacred) + Chit (Truth Consciousness) + Ambalam (Hall). As Layne Little explains this is the method Vallalar use to awaken the visionary within and center the awareness at a point within his psyche where the tumultuous mind was quieted [11]. Similar method is also practiced in other mystical schools like Rosicrucian Tradition.
5 Conclusion
Vallalar’s explanation of the meaning of Thamizh enhances our understanding of Saint Tirumoolar’s reference to ‘Thamizh’ experience in his song.. It should be noted however, Vallalar’s conclusion that Tamil easily leads to Supramental experience does NOT mean other languages do not lead to
Supramental experience. Also this should not be taken as comparison with other Aryan Languages like Sanskrit. Rather it should be seen as evolution and bifurcation of languages that grew in complexity. Later, in 1873 ‘Perubadesam’ Vallalar says there are mistakes even in Tholkappiam and Paniniyam (Tamil and Sanskrit Grammar) and advised not to give too much importance to them. This comes in the light, grammar comes latter than the sounds and gets more complicated in their details. So it is important to do a lot of future research on the origins of human speech and sacred sounds that are common to all languages, as that leads us towards unity with the One Primordial Source or Supramental Divine, than on the many details and comparisons of languages which lead to more divisions. Tamil will contribute a lot to this grand unification of human language. Ultimately, all languages are relations of one and another. It is worth emphasizing that the One becomes the Infinite Many. One is The Divine. Many are the languages and arts.
P.S. Vallalar a social reformer too, started a school teaching Sanmarka with Tamil, Sanskrit and English as its languages as early as 1867. Due to lack of response he left it to take effect at its own time. Almost 100 years later, in 1968 The Mother started Auroville, the ‘Universal Township of Human Unity’ to realize human unity in diversity where its languages are Tamil , Sanskrit, English and French. Also the Mother noted in 1969, that teaching will be given in all the languages spoken on earth.
Sathya Gnana Sabai in Vadalur Matirmandir in Auroville References
1. Vallalar, “Urainadai – Prose of Vallalar” 2. Vallalar, “Thiruvarutpa – Songs of Divine Grace” 3. Vallalar, “ArutPerumJothi Agaval -‐ Vast Grace Light Divine Call” 4. Sri Aurobindo, “The Life Divine” 5. Sri Aurobindo, “The Synthesis of Yoga” 6. Sri Aurobindo, “The Secret of the Veda”
7. Mother’s Agenda -‐ Feb 3, 1968 8. Thulasiram, “ArutPerumJothi and Deathless Body” Vol1 and 2. 9. http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/KnowledgeBase/Spirit/SriAurobindoTheMother.htm 10. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/key/key-‐glo3.htm 11. Layne Little, A Single Flame's Light: Reflections on the Poetry of Ramalingar 12. Record of Yoga Glossary
