It is the nature of all saints to sing , pray and praise the supreme lord before the start of any work.
The first song of all the saints will be the song in praise of the Lord.
The great saint and siddhar Tirumoolar in his divine Tamil work “Tirumanthiram” has sung the praise of Lord in his first song by describing the greatness and divine qualities of the supreme Lord in both inside and outside the body.
The divine qualities and Lords grace is described in numbers from one to eight. Everything a human needs to know about spirituality is bought out in this first song. All must read and realize this.
The song and the meaning of the song is translated from the Tamil book “MantiraMani Maalai” which is the commentary of the divine work Tirumanthiram. MantiraMani Maalai was written by our Guru Tiru.SivaSelvaraj.
Transliteration of the Song:
“Onravan thaanae , irandavan innarul
Ninranan moonrinul, Naanguunarnthaan ainthu
Venranan aaru virinthanan elumbar
Senranan thaaniru thaanunarnthu etae”
Translation of the Song:
One is He, Two is his sweet grace
In Three he stands, Through Four is he made known,
Five he conquers, Six he expands, Seven Celestials and beyond he pervades
In Eight he stays and is realized
One is He : The Supreme Lord is only one. The Lord who is Paramaathma is within each living beings as Jeevathmaa. Paramathmaa is Jeevaathma. Our soul is tiny atomic part of the Supreme divine light.
Two is his sweet grace : The Supreme Lord showers his grace on the souls by two means. One is called Arakarunai (Compassion that bestows) and other is Marakarunai (Compassion that chastises). Showering grace by making one walk in the path of merit and delivering them is Arakarunai. The lord also showers his grace to the people who walk in the immoral path and have demon like character by chastising them and then delivering them. This form of Lord’s grace is Marakarunai.
In our body soul is one and the way to reach and realize it is through two eyes.
In Three He Stands : The Lord who is as soul in our body displays himself in three places. As divine art of sun in our right eye, As divine art of moon in our left eye and As divine art of Agni/Fire in the intersecting point of two eyes (third eye) in the center of our head. So in three states he stands in our body.
Through Four is he made known : The four vedas Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana speaks about the supreme lord only. These shows us the way to know him through four established paths of Sariyai, Kiriyai, Yogam and Gnanam. The four vedas through these four ways makes one spiritual mature. These four were made known through the four intellectual tools of mind, intelligence, will and selfness and they bestows salvation.
Five He Conquers : The supreme lord does five great divine works of creation, maintenance, destruction, hiding and bestowing grace. Through these five great divine works he delivers the living beings.
If one goes beyond the five senses he will fall in distress. Only by turning the five senses towards the supreme lord will one experience bliss. Our eyes should see only the divine form of the supreme lord. Our ears should hear only the divine names of the supreme lord. Our mouth should speak only the divine words (Mantra) of the lord. Our nose should smell the fragrance of the divine things offered to the lord. Our body in some way should work for the Lord. Only if we turn our senses towards the lord we can win in our life.
Six He Expands: The Supreme Lord as Lord siva with his five face and “Agomugam” as his sixth face emitted divine light through his third eye in the fore head and became the lord of six faces.
In our body the lord expands as six chakaras and becomes the force for the body functions. He becomes our two eyes he expands as white part of eye, iris and the pupil of eye. So in two eyes he expands as six and also as the divine light of eyes. The divine light of eye has the tendency to flow like fire inside our eyes during penance and this is called river of fire. The lord displays this tendency as river of fire when going inside us through our eyes. The divine light of the supreme lord is the one that is available to us as the sixth sense.
Seven Celestials and beyond he pervades : The lord is beyond the six chakras and penetrates the seventh chakra called sakastra chakra and displays himself in the center. Similary he is beyond the seven celestials of upper and lower regions and in the vast open space he displays himself as the supreme divine light. In all our seven type of births he is glittering from within us and showering his grace and delivering us. He is the one who has no beginning and no end.
In Eight he stays and is realized : The Supreme Lord which such opulence and might has become tiny divine light and is residing within our body of nine gates and lording us. So in the temple of our body is where he can be known and realized. In order to realize the supreme lord who is in our body as tiny divine light the only way is eight. Eight is through which he can be realized. Eight represents the first letter of tamil alphabet “A”. Eight represents our eyes. Only through the eyes you can reach and realize the lord. So eight which represents our eye is the lotus feet of lord.
Embrace the lotus feet of lord tightly. Reach and hold the divine light of the eyes through the consciousness. Only by doing penance with this consciousness can one realize the self which is part of the supreme lord.
This first song itself demonstrates the greatness of the divine work tirumanthiram and shows that all the 3000 songs in it provides great divine wisdom.