132R శ్రీపతి నీయాజ్ఞ సేసెద మిదివో
(śrīpati nīyājña sēseda
midivō)
Introduction
In this poem,
Annamacharya makes a remarkable observation: “భావము బ్రకృతికిఁ బ్రపంచము” For Prakṛti
(nature), feelings become the world. With our feelings,
experiences and actions, we are intimately connected with the world. We think
we are observing the world; yet the way we experience world is itself part of
the world taking shape around us.
How, then,
are we to recognise this relationship? If something is hidden from us, we can
search for it. But what if it is already within us? This is the question
through which this poem can be approached.
The Pallavi
begins with: “శ్రీపతి నీయాజ్ఞ సేసెద మిదివో” At first,
this appears to be a devotee's declaration that he will obey Śrīpati's command.
But immediately, Annamacharya asks: “పూఁపల మాయలఁ బొరలఁగనేలా” When
experiences appear sweet and attractive, each pulling us in its own direction,
how can we recognise Śrīpati's command while standing amidst pulls of the world?
From here,
the poem gradually takes us from the external world inward—through the body,
the senses, thought, action, saṃsāra, feeling, Prakṛti and the world.
These do not remain separate subjects; they begin to appear as parts of one
interconnected movement.
Finally,
Annamacharya asks: “నీ వంతరాత్మవు నెమకఁగనేలా” If Lord
Veṅkaṭeśvara is already the inner Self of the living being and nature, why
search elsewhere? With this, the poet removes the very basis of our search for
truth. It has to be known from within.
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అధ్యాత్మ
సంకీర్తన
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రాగి రేకు: 135-6 సంపుటము - సంకీర్తన: 2-147
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శ్రీపతి నీయాజ్ఞ సేసెద మిదివో పూఁపల మాయలఁ బొరలఁగనేలా ॥పల్లవి॥ కాయము సుఖదుఃఖములకు మూలము పాయము యింద్రియపరవశము ఆయము రెంటికి నన్నపానములు మోయని మోఁపిది ములుగఁగనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥ తలఁపు పుణ్యపాతకముల మూలము కలిగిన పుట్టువు కర్మగతి ఫల మిది రెంటికి బలుసంసారము కలిగిన వెట్టికి కాదనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥ జీవుఁ డింతటా సృష్టికి మూలము భావము బ్రకృతికిఁ బ్రపంచము చేవగ రెంటికి శ్రీవేంకటేశ్వర నీ వంతరాత్మవు నెమకఁగనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥
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Philosophical POEM
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Copper Plate: 135-6 Volume: 2-147
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śrīpati nīyājña sēseda midivō pūṃ̐pala māyalaṃ̐ boralaṃ̐ganēlā ॥pallavi॥ kāyamu sukhaduḥkhamulaku mūlamu pāyamu yiṃdriyaparavaśamu āyamu reṃṭiki nannapānamulu mōyani mōṃ̐pidi mulugaṃ̐ganēlā ॥śrīpa॥ talaṃ̐pu puṇyapātakamula mūlamu kaligina
puṭṭuvu karmagati phala
midi reṃṭiki balusaṃsāramu kaligina
veṭṭiki kādananēlā ॥śrīpa॥ jīvuṃ̐ ḍiṃtaṭā sṛṣṭiki mūlamu bhāvamu brakṛtikiṃ̐ brapaṃcamu cēvaga reṃṭiki śrīvēṃkaṭēśvara nī vaṃtarātmavu nemakaṃ̐ganēlā ॥śrīpa॥
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Details
and Discussions:
Chorus (Pallavi):
శ్రీపతి
నీయాజ్ఞ సేసెద మిదివో
పూఁపల మాయలఁ
బొరలఁగనేలా ॥పల్లవి॥
śrīpati
nīyājña sēseda midivō
pūṃ̐pala
māyalaṃ̐ boralaṃ̐ganēlā ॥pallavi॥
Literal Sense:
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Poem Line
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Normal Sense
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Philosophical sense
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శ్రీపతి నీయాజ్ఞ సేసెద మిదివో
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O Śrīpati! I shall carry out your command.
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O Śrīpati, I wish to carry out your command. But how am I to
know what I should do and how I should do it?
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పూఁపల మాయలఁ బొరలఁగనేలా
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Why roll about in sweet illusions like sweet delicacies?
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When countless experiences appear before us, sweet and
attractive, how can one, standing in their midst, know your command?
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Deeper Note:
Śrīpati
nīyājña sēseda midivō” appears at first to be the devotee’s declaration that he
will obey Śrīpati’s command. But the immediately following “pūmpala māyalaṃ
boralaṃganēlā” adds a question to that declaration. When countless experiences,
each sweet and attractive, appear before us and each pulling us in their
respective direction, how can we recognise Śrīpati’s command while standing in
their midst?
Our present
mental state can be seen with the help of M. C. Escher’s Another World,
placed below. The picture appears to offer a three-dimensional view, with six
open arches. From each viewpoint we see a bird-like creature with a human face
and horns hanging from chains. The horns hang according to the respective
planes of the picture. Neither the land nor the sky outside the picture tells
us from which direction we are looking. Whichever plane we take as our
reference appears to be the correct one. M. C. Escher is not concluding,
but asking us a simple question: “How can we determine reality based on our
perception?”
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Thus, with
countless experiences appearing before us as sweet and attractive, how can
one, standing in their midst, know Śrīpati’s command? This is what
Annamacharya is asking.
First Stanza:
కాయము సుఖదుఃఖములకు
మూలము
పాయము యింద్రియపరవశము
ఆయము రెంటికి
నన్నపానములు
మోయని మోఁపిది
ములుగఁగనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥
kāyamu
sukhaduḥkhamulaku mūlamu
pāyamu
yiṃdriyaparavaśamu
āyamu
reṃṭiki nannapānamulu
mōyani
mōṃ̐pidi mulugaṃ̐ganēlā ॥śrīpa॥
Literal
Sense:
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కాయము సుఖదుఃఖములకు మూలము
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The body is the basis for the experience of pleasure and pain.
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The body is like a thermometer. It registers the experience of
pleasure and pain, seeks pleasure, and struggles to get away from pain.
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పాయము యింద్రియపరవశము
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Age and the stages of life naturally flow under the influence of the
senses.
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The natural sensory absorption associated with youth and the
associated stages of life drives us, while pushing everything else into a
lesser position.
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ఆయము రెంటికి నన్నపానములు
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It is commonly understood that food and drink are the physical
sustenance of the body and of life.
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Although food and drink are physically essential to the body and the
continuation of life, living is not limited by them.
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మోయని మోఁపిది ములుగఁగనేలా
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Ordinarily, we do not feel that we are carrying the burden of these
things. We take them as natural because we chose to take them upon ourselves.
But why take up their burden and groan later?
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In pleasure, we do not feel any burden. It is in suffering that its
weight becomes apparent. But did you not willingly take these up? Are
pleasure and pain not bound together? Then, O human being, why continue
carrying this burden?
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Deeper Notes:
In a tree,
the soil, water, seed, root, trunk and leaves may appear to be separate entities.
Yet they are parts of one interconnected process of life in nature. In the same
way, the body, age, sensory absorption, food and drink, pleasure and pain,
though appearing to be separate matters, are different layers of one
interconnected process of nature. We come from this very world. We are not
separate from it.
First, look
at Remedios Varo’s Alchemy or the Useless Science (1958), placed below.
A woman sits at a small table, turning a wheel. Strangely, the squares of the
floor continue into her clothing. The floor, the woman, the walls, the building
and the machinery do not appear as separate objects, but as continuations of
one structure. A thread from the small wheel she is turning rises upwards and
joins the intricate machinery of the larger building. She is not standing
outside the system and operating it; she is part of it, carrying out the small
task that belongs to her.
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That is why
Annamacharya says, “మోయని
మోఁపిది mōyani
mōpidi”. We do not appear to be carrying anything from outside. The
very system of which we are a part is moving us. Its weight is not apparent in
pleasure; it becomes heavy in suffering.
Annamacharya
is not speaking about a burden. He is showing how the very movement of life of
which we are a part, with time, gradually comes to be experienced as a burden.
Second Stanza:
తలఁపు పుణ్యపాతకముల
మూలము
కలిగిన పుట్టువు
కర్మగతి
ఫల మిది
రెంటికి బలుసంసారము
కలిగిన వెట్టికి
కాదనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥
talaṃ̐pu
puṇyapātakamula mūlamu
kaligina
puṭṭuvu karmagati
phala
midi reṃṭiki balusaṃsāramu
kaligina
veṭṭiki kādananēlā ॥śrīpa॥
Literal
Sense:
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Philosophical sense
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తలఁపు పుణ్యపాతకముల మూలము
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Thought is the source of the polarisation of merit and sin, and of
division in life.
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It is from our thoughts that the ideas of accumulating merit and
avoiding sin arise. Our life movements are based on them.
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కలిగిన పుట్టువు కర్మగతి
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This life is part of a manifested phenomenon that touches our
understanding. The course of action determines the life.
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What has come into being—what becomes manifest and touches our
awareness—has arisen according to the movement of action. Subsequent actions
draw us further into their own movement.
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ఫల మిది రెంటికి బలుసంసారము
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The result of these two is the strong bond of worldly existence.
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The divisions created through thought, together with the movement of
action arising from them, reinforce one another. Thus, we make life in this
world (saṃsāra) increasingly complicated.
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కలిగిన వెట్టికి కాదననేలా
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Why deny what has come about, after having created it?
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Having created and accumulated this saṃsāra, why now try to escape it?
The very attempt to escape what has arisen becomes another action and
therefore joins the same movement of karma.
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Deep Notes:
“తలఁపు పుణ్యపాతకముల మూలము” — our
thoughts themselves are the source of the division into merit (puṇya)
and sin (pāpa). The effort to accumulate merit and the effort to avoid
sin both begin with thought. To desire one while rejecting the other is itself
a continuation of that movement.
“కలిగిన పుట్టువు కర్మగతి” — every
thought gives rise to a movement; that movement creates the condition for an
action, and that action creates the condition for another action. Thus, karma
becomes the basis for the continuity of action. This is కర్మగతి karmagati. This
means the living being involuntarily continues the action.
“ఫల మిది రెంటికి బలుసంసారము” — the
divisions created through thought and the actions that continue from them
reinforce one another. One problem may lead to another; one experience may
create the desire for another experience. In this way, we ourselves make this
world (saṃsāra) increasingly complicated.
Finally, in
“కలిగిన వెట్టికి
కాదననేలా”, Annamacharya asks: having allowed this saṃsāra
and its bonds to develop all this while, what happens if we now say that we do
not want them? The attempt to reject them is itself another action. That
attempt, too, becomes part of the same (కర్మగతి) karmagati. He is demonstrating
our weakness in accepting what has already come into being as it is.
In another
kīrtana he says: “ఆకాశ
పాకాశ మరుదైన కూటంబు / లోకరంజకము తమలోనిసమ్మతము” This
turbulent world is a rare, impossible and marvellous confluence. To recognise
yourself as a part of it and accept yourself as such is benediction (lokarañjakamu).
“తమలోనిసమ్మతము” — with “ఆకాశ పాకాశము”, he
suggests that traces of past experience, like particles of dust, disturb what
we see and prevent us from observing it clearly. We have no awareness that what
we are seeing may not be correct (refer to the explanation of the Pallavi).
Truth, fragmented into innumerable viewpoints, does not become accessible to
us. Accepting without judgement or remorse is indicated by “తమలోనిసమ్మతము”
“తమలోనిసమ్మతము” also points to the discomfort arising from our
inability to live inwardly at peace with ourselves. Instead of accepting ‘what
is as it is’ whole heartedly, we make attempts to adjust ourselves to it (again
another action) or console ourselves. The only action required is accepting ‘what
is as it is’, instead we bear it in hope of better days. This is a negotiated
settlement. Its price has to be paid.
Here
Annamacharya is not asking us to reject merit or accept sin. He is asking us to
observe the thought operating behind all these attempts—the desire for merit,
the rejection of sin, and the attempt to deny what has come into being.
In the
first stanza, he showed how the very life-system of which we are a part comes
to be experienced as a burden. In this stanza, he shows how the attempt to
free ourselves from that burden can itself add to it.
Progression
of thought in the kīrtana
First
stanza: Being part of the system of nature → the system moves us.
Second
stanza: Thought → division → action → result → saṃsāra → creates next movement.
Third Stanza:
జీవుఁ డింతటా
సృష్టికి మూలము
భావము బ్రకృతికిఁ
బ్రపంచము
చేవగ రెంటికి
శ్రీవేంకటేశ్వర
నీ వంతరాత్మవు
నెమకఁగనేలా ॥శ్రీప॥
jīvuṃ̐
ḍiṃtaṭā sṛṣṭiki mūlamu
bhāvamu
brakṛtikiṃ̐ brapaṃcamu
cēvaga
reṃṭiki śrīvēṃkaṭēśvara
nī
vaṃtarātmavu nemakaṃ̐ganēlā ॥śrīpa॥
Literal
Sense:
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జీవుఁ డింతటా సృష్టికి మూలము
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The living being is the source of the entire creation.
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We do not stand outside creation as separate observers. With our
existence, experience and participation, this movement of creation takes
place. We stand amidst this very movement and take part in it.
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భావము బ్రకృతికిఁ బ్రపంచము
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For Prakṛti, bhāvamu (the feelings of the embodied being)
is the basis for the extension of nature and the world. Without feelings,
neither the world nor bonds can exist.
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We are connected to the world both internally through our feelings and
externally through our physical presence and dependence. Our feelings are
like seeds for the nature around us. They form the basis for movement in
nature and finally become expressed as the world we associate with. The world
we experience is not merely a collection of things outside us; it is the
world as it takes shape through our inner responses and feelings.
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చేవగ రెంటికి శ్రీవేంకటేశ్వర
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(చేవగ = essence, bravery and strength.) Lord Śrī
Veṅkaṭeśvara, You are the basis of both nature and beings.
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Lord Śrī Veṅkaṭeśvara sustains the essence, bravery and strength of
both beings and nature. There is no need to search for another centre outside
this relationship between the living being and Prakṛti.
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నీ వంతరాత్మవు నెమకఁగనేలా
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(నెమకఁగనేలా = Why search elsewhere?) Is it not enough to recognise Lord
Veṅkaṭeśvara as the inner Self of both? What use is there in searching
elsewhere?
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For the poet, on recognising the above, all the constructed
differences cease to exist. He realises that Lord Veṅkaṭeśvara is the inner
essence of both. Finally, he asks: why search elsewhere?
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Deep Notes:
In the
first stanza, the body, youth, sensory absorption, food and drink, pleasure and
pain appeared as layers of one interconnected life-system. In the second
stanza, we saw how thought, merit and sin keep the movement of karmagati
(momentum of Karma) and saṃsāra (world) going. Now Annamacharya shows us
the source of that movement.
“జీవుఁ డింతటా సృష్టికి మూలము”: The living
being does not stand outside creation and experience it from a distance.
Through his experience, thoughts and actions, the movement of saṃsāra
(world) that we have been observing so far continues to expand. In this
sense, the living being himself becomes the source through which his
experienced world takes shape.
There is an
important point here. The living being is not a separate observer of creation;
he is part of its movement. His existence, experience and actions are
themselves part of this movement of creation.
“భావము
బ్రకృతికిఁ బ్రపంచము”: Here Annamacharya shows another layer. It is
through the bhāvamu—the feelings and inner responses of the living being—that Prakṛti
(nature) extends itself as the world.
Without bhāva,
the world as we experience it, and the bonds that arise through that
experience, would not develop in this form. The human being does not stand
outside the world; he is connected to it not only through his physical
existence and dependence, but also from within, through his feelings.
Our
feelings are like seeds in our relationship with Prakṛti. They become the basis
for further movement, and that movement eventually becomes expressed as the
world with which we associate ourselves. The world we experience is therefore
not merely a collection of things existing outside us; it takes shape through
our inner responses and feelings as well.
There is an
important shift here. In the first two stanzas, the movements appeared as
things happening within life. We saw the body, the senses, thought, action,
result and saṃsāra. Now these movements appear in a different
relationship: living being → feeling → Prakṛti → world
What we
ordinarily regard as an external world is therefore not entirely separate from
the movement taking place within us. We may think that we are struggling with
something outside ourselves; yet our own experience is participating in the
formation of the world with which we are struggling.
“చేవగ రెంటికి శ్రీవేంకటేశ్వర”: This is
where Śrī Veṅkaṭeśvara enters. The living being and Prakṛti may appear to be
two separate entities. Yet Annamacharya now points to that which is the essence,
strength and sustaining principle of both—Śrī Veṅkaṭeśvara.
Until this
point, the poet has been following the movement. Now he shows us what lies
within and sustains that movement. The sequence is therefore not merely:
living
being → feeling → Prakṛti → world.
However, there is something that connects
and sustains the whole: And underlying them is the inner Self. “నీ వంతరాత్మవు నెమకఁగనేలా” This makes
the final question particularly powerful: If Lord Venkateswara is the inner
Self of both, why search elsewhere?
We can
search for something that we believe is separate from us. But how can we search
for the inner Self as though it were somewhere else? The moment there is an
intention to search for it as an external object, we have already separated
ourselves from what we are seeking.
This is why
Annamacharya does not end with another explanation. He asks: “Why search?”
The
movement we have followed throughout the poem has brought us here. What
appeared first as body and experience, then as thought and action, and then as saṃsāra,
is now seen as a relationship between the living being, bhāva, Prakṛti
and the world. The poet points to the inner Self as already present in both. So
the question is not where to find it, but why search elsewhere at all?
Progression
of Thought in the Kīrtana
First stanza:
Being part of the system of nature → the system moves us.
Second stanza:
Thought → division → action → result → saṃsāra → creates next movement.
Third stanza:
Living being → feeling → Prakṛti → world → unified by the inner Self.
And this is
where the third stanza becomes extraordinary. Annamacharya has taken us from
the movement of life in the first stanza, through the movement of thought and
action in the second, and now to the relationship underlying the whole movement—all
within a few simple Telugu lines.
Annexure
The
Cycle of Continuance
The
second stanza has a built-in circular movement. Let us understand the same
through the diagram given below.
It is
for this reason that Annamacharya questions our usual or routine experience of labelling
what has come into being as acceptable or rejecting it. This habit
continues the movement. We ordinarily choose Yes (attachment to the
pleasures of this world) or No (rejection of this world); choosing one
necessarily means rejecting the other.
Seeing
Within is observing the movement in which this choice takes place. Here, non-selective
does not mean another choice—it means remaining as it is, without opinion and
without choosing. The movement that continues through choice or rejection is
the cyclic movement. To see that movement from within—that is, to see without a
separation between the observer and what is being observed—is Seeing Within.
X-X-X THE
END X-X-X
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