ANNAMACHARYULU
223.
వెన్న చేతఁబట్టి నేయి వెదకినట్టు
venna chEtabaTTi
nEyi vedakinaTTu
తెలుగులో చదవడానికి ఇక్కడ నొక్కండి.
Introduction:
Annamacharya composed countless keertanas,
each exploring truth from a unique angle — yet no matter the direction,
what shines through is the same undivided Brahman.
In this keertana, he shows us — almost like holding up
a mirror — that all our physical efforts to reach the Divine are ultimately
futile.
Once that truth sinks in, what
remains?
Not struggle, but stillness.
Not doing, but being.
To rest, unmoved, in inner silence — that, he says, is the highest path.
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అధ్యాత్మ కీర్తన |
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రేకు:
321-1 సంపుటము:
4-118 |
Copper
Leaf: 321-1 Volume: 4-118 |
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వెన్న చేతఁబట్టి నేయి వెదకినట్టు
యెన్నఁగ నీవుండఁగాను యెక్కడో చూచేను ॥పల్లవి॥ కన్నులు మిన్నులు దాఁకీ కాయ మీడ వున్నఁగానే
తిన్నని వీనులు మెట్టీ దిక్కులనెల్ల
యిన్నిటి కొడయఁడవై యిందిరేశ నీవు నాలో
నున్నరూపు గానలేను వూహించి ఇపుడు ॥వెన్న॥ కాయము పాయము గీరీ కాల మీడ నుండఁగానే
ఆయపు మనసు ముంచీ నన్నిటియందు
యేయెడ నాలోనున్న యీశ్వర నీ నిలయము
పాయకుండఁ గోరలేను పాయము నాకెట్టిదో ॥వెన్న॥ ఇహమే పరము గోరీ యీడ నిట్టె వుండఁగాను
మహిలో శ్రీవేంకటేశ మహిమెట్టిదో
అహరహమును నీ వంతర్యామివై
సహజమై యుండఁ గంటి చాలు నిఁక నాకు ॥వెన్న॥
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venna chEtabaTTi
nEyi vedakinaTTu
yennaga nIvuMDagAnu
yekkaDO chUchEnu ॥pallavi॥ kannulu minnulu
dAkI kAya mIDa vunnagAnE
tinnani vInulu
meTTI dikkulanella
yinniTi koDayaDavai
yiMdirESa nIvu nAlO
nunnarUpu
gAnalEnu vUhiMchi ipuDu ॥venna॥ kAyamu pAyamu
gIrI kAla mIDa nuMDagAnE
Ayapu manasu
muMchI nanniTiyaMdu
yEyeDa nAlOnunna
yISvara nI nilayamu
pAyakuMDa
gOralEnu pAyamu nAkeTTidO ॥venna॥ ihamE paramu
gOrI yIDa niTTe vuMDagAnu
mahilO
SrIvEMkaTESa mahimeTTidO
aharahamunu nI
vaMtaryAmivai
sahajamai yuMDa
gaMTi chAlu nika nAku ॥venna॥
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Details and explanations:
Literal Meaning: Searching everywhere with a stick in the pot
is pure folly,
Like trying to find ghee while holding butter in your hand is just confusion.
To obtain ghee, the butter must be gently warmed.
Likewise, to realize that You (Divine) dwell within me, It’s not outside, but
requires the courage to look deep inside.
Without this courage, we remain lost and drenched on the endless paths of world.
This chorus (pallavi) can be meaningfully interpreted alongside The Human Condition, a surrealist painting by René Magritte.
The mind, however, wants to believe both are the same — even though we have no certainty to justify that belief. The painting's insight reflects our own lives: the mind, quick to draw conclusions from limited sensory cues, mistakes appearances for truth. By relying solely on the external world as our scale and measure, we sideline the deeper capacity for inner seeing — the true consciousness within.
Like Magritte’s painting, our awareness is caught in a quiet confusion: what is real, and what is constructed? Is the scene before us the world itself, or our mental projection of it? We attempt to grasp reality by sketching its outlines, modelling its forms, translating its patterns into logic or mathematics — hoping, somehow, to reach what we call “truth.”
This very paradox echoes in Annamacharya’s pallavi:
"Like holding butter in hand and searching
for ghee,
Though YOU are within me always, I keep looking for YOU elsewhere."
The realization that You are within hasn’t yet dawned. And so I search outside — absurdly, like one seeking ghee while already holding butter. Magritte’s canvas captures the same inward irony — the mind’s blind insistence on looking elsewhere.
That painting — like our own inner canvas — is
a projection born of the psyche. What we see, we ourselves have shaped.
We will return to this idea with deeper insight in the commentary on the third
stanza.
First Stanza:
Literal Meaning: I
leave my body right here,
and send my eyes searching across the skies.
I strain my ears in every direction,
hoping to hear the sound of Your footsteps —
believing You must be somewhere far away.
But You are the master of these very senses.
And the truth — that You dwell within me —
is a depth even my imagination cannot reach.
Let us understand this verse by immersing in an
immaculate art piece by MC Escher titled “Relativity”
Each person believes their truth, their effort,
their direction —
seeking the divine in ways that feel natural to them.
But the silence in the painting says something else:
every path begins in the mind.
The steps we walk are only symbols of belief — not of truth.
This is precisely what Annamacharya reflects in
his verse:
We extend all our senses outward in search of God —
yet fail to imagine the divine within.
Spend time with the image,
and the illusion becomes clear:
The search itself is the mirage.
There is nowhere to go.
That stillness — that unmoving truth —
is the heart of the verse.
Second Stanza:
కాయము = body; పాయము = youth; గీరీ = arrogance; ఆయపు మనసు = a mind that accumulates; ముంచీ నన్నిటియందు = makes me dip in all sorts of activities; యేయెడ = where; పాయకుండఁ గోరలేను పాయము నాకెట్టిదో = I cannot seek you without leaving these things = (implied meaning) = I want to have these material comforts and those bliss of being with you.
Literal Meaning: My life today — filled with the pride of body,
youth, and ego — keeps drowning me in endless activity.
In such a state, how can I recognize you, who dwell within me?
Without letting go of all this, it’s impossible to truly seek you.
And yet… I still wish to find you without giving any of it up!
Third Stanza:
Literal Meaning: Though I live in this world —
there isn’t the slightest distance between me and my longing for you.
Still... I remain like this, doing nothing at all.
I may not fully grasp the greatness of your majesty, O Venkatesha…
But one truth has become clear to me —
You dwell within everything, always — naturally, effortlessly, as the
indwelling presence.
That truth alone is enough...
Explanation:
On René Magritte’s The Human
Condition: A Parallel (also referred in Chorus).
René
Magritte’s painting The Human Condition, with its image of a canvas
partially covering a window, speaks to the inner workings of our mind — the
images we construct and take to be reality.
The scene
painted on the canvas blends seamlessly with the landscape outside the window.
As viewers, we cannot distinguish what is real and what is merely a reflection.
Though the idea may not be entirely new, its impact on the mind is profound —
because it confronts the reality we have manufactured for ourselves.
In this
painting, the canvas becomes a metaphor for the imagery painted upon the
surface of the mind.
Wanting to remove it,
replace it, or erase it — all these are just different ways of distorting
truth.
One who fully understands
this — to borrow Annamacharya’s words —
" yIDa niTTe vuMDagAnu"
—
remains as he
is, without agitation, without delusion, accepting even his inner limitations
without resistance. That is the supreme state of being.
In such a state, the
mental canvas gradually fades away.
The seen
image and the truth behind it become one.
And in that
moment, what remains is a pure experience:
of the divine
— present in everything, at all times — effortlessly, silently, immanently.
In that state, the mind harbours
no desires.
The truth alone suffices.
That is
the heart of Annamacharya.
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