The Psychoanalysis of Appar - Part 2

The Rituals and Gaining Visions of the Metaphysical Eyes

Appar 4:3 TiruvaiyaaRu

The Tantric philosophies are not merely discursive where different points of views are endlessly debated and which in the end leads to nowhere. The Siddhas are very fond of saying “vaarttaiyaal onRumillai’ - simple verbal disputes are worthless.

We get the same message in this verse of Appar where he enjoys SEEING the depths and in that affirming the truth for himself. Philosophy in Tamil is known as Mey UNarvu, i.e. a discipline concerned with truth-experiences and to practice philosophy in this sense, one should try  to GAIN truth-experiences after truth-experiences to FREE oneself from the IGNORANCE which is already there. The IGNORANCE here is also understood as a kind Metaphysical Blindness and which means that the primary task of Philosophy is the destruction of this BLINDNESS.

It also follows that such a blindness can be destroyed only by gaining VISIONS or darsanas that violate this blindness and throws LIGHT into metaphysical realms that have remained closed for witnessing hitherto.

Appar describes some rituals that he practiced and because of which he managed to gain a viison of the Dance of Siva Sakti in the love behavior of even the domestic fowl.

2.

போழ் இளங் கண்ணியினானைப் பூந்துகிலாளோடும் பாடி

வாழியம் போற்றியென்று ஏத்தி வட்டமிட்டு ஆடா வருவேன்

ஆழி வலவன் நின்று ஏத்தும் ஐயாறு வந்தடைகின்ற போது

கோழி பெடையொடுங் கூடிக் குளிர்ந்து வருவன கண்டேன்

கண்டேன் அவர் திருப்பாதம் கண்டறியாதன கண்டேன்

உரை:

பிளந்து குறைக்கப்பட்ட பிறை மதியினை கண்ணியாக சிரசில் அணிந்த சந்திரிசேகர சிவபெருமானை, அழகிய பூந்துகில் உடுத்தி எழில் நிறைந்தவளாகத் தோன்றும் உமை அம்மையோடு இணைத்துப் பாடி,  இவ்வாறே என்றும் வாழ்க வென்றும் உமது திருவுள்ளம் போற்றி என்று ஏத்திப் பாடுவதோடு  வட்டமிட்டு ஆடியும்  செல்வேன். தனது வலது கையில் சுதர்சன் எனும்  சக்கரத்தை ஏந்தியவாறு, தனக்கு அந்த சக்கரத்தை அருள் செய்த சிவபெருமானை நின்று ஏத்தும் ஐயாறு எனும் சிவத்தலத்தை வந்து அடைகின்ற போது வழியில்,  கோழி தத்தம் பெடையொடு கூடி காமவேட்கைக் குறைந்து குளிர்ந்து வருவன கண்டேன்.அதுபொழுது ஊனக் கண்ணால் காண்டற்கு அரிதாகிய சிவபெருமான் நாதவிந்துக்களை பெண்னென ஆணென உயிரினங்கள் எழுமாறு அசைத்தாடும் ஆனந்தத் தாண்டவத்து திருப்பாதங்களை ஞானக்கண்ணிற் கண்டேன்; அதுவரையிலும் நான் கண்டறியாதிருந்த ஆழ் உண்மைகளைக் கண்டு மகிழ்ந்தேன்.

2.

pooz iLaG kaNNiyinaanaip puuntukiLoodum paadi

vaaziyam pooRriyenRu eeththi vadaamiddu aadaa varuveen

aazi valavan ninRu eettum AiyaaRu vawthakinRa pootu

koozi pedaiyoduG kuudik kuLirntu varavana kaNdeen

       kaNdeen avar titupaatam kaNdaRiyaatana kandeen

Meaning:

I was coming singing the praise of Civa who as Candrasekaran wears the divided Moon with Uma of flower-silk attire, saying long Live! Praise be to you ! and so forth and dancing away moving in circles. Theý as I neared the AiyaaRu where stands Vishnu with the Disc on His right hand and praising Siva, I saw on the way, the cockerels coming with the hen having cooled themselves in sexual union. At that point I saw with my mental eyes, the Divine Feet of Siva (where he creates the male and females of all species with agitating the Natam and Bindu). Thus I saw what are impossible to witness with the fleshy eyes alone.

Comments:

There are many repetitions here especially the crucial phrase “ kaNdeen  . . . “ But there are also differences as well. While in the first verse it was the elephants,  we have here a shift to the chicken, the domestic fowl and by which perhaps Appar is trying to show that sexuality is  universal. Here the reference to the actual coitus is quite unmistakable. The fowl have cooled themselves with sexual union and which is a quite wellknown feature of sex. In fact the word for sex in Tamil - kaamam- is derived from Sumerian ki-aga i.e. Tamil kaaGkai: heat. The surge of sexual desires creates internal heat, the Kaama Agni, the Fire of Kaama and which is also the muula-agni, the Fire in the loins. Thus it seems that the activation of sexual desires is perhaps something that happens in the depths and creatures simply respond to it.

However the preconditions that Appar mentions here are very interesting. One is that he in addition to singing hymns also dances and that too going round and round. Secondly he selectively mentions VishNu as the wearer of the Disc and who also worships Civa, who is said to have gifted the disc to Vishnu in the first place.

Is there any connection between these preconditions and his claims that he saw the normally impossible?

I see the connections as follows.

The disc of Tirumaal, is called su-darsan, that which facilitates the divine (su> ku> koo) vision (taru-san> darsan) and as such it is linked to the vision that Appar is excited about, the transductive perception that allows him to seen the Dance of Siva and Sakti in the Depths of love behavior of even the fowl. But this su-darsan is just a local manifestation of what is called by the Siddhas the Ravi-Mati, the Sun-Moon complex and which is the transmutation of Pure Energy, the Sakti by Natam and Bindu. Thus the Sudarsan is the vision provider but as Natam-Bindu complex something that can be enjoyed only in the Suzi Munai Nadi, that stream of energy where both Natam and Bindu are co-present.

And it is here that we see the link between the Sudarsan and dancing away going round and round. This conditioning of the bodily movement arrests the mind from worldly preoccupations and draws it into the Suzi Munai Nadi, the seeing not through the Ida Kalai and Pingkalai, the visions of the fleshy eyes and which disclose only the physical. The soul moving with its darsanas conditioned by Suzi Munai enjoys transductive perceptions and in which the METAPHYSICAL become available for seeing.

ULLAGANAR

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )