283 kaḍava rādu hari ghanamāya (కడవ రాదు హరి ఘనమాయ)

  TALLAPAKA ANNAMACHARYULU

283 కడవ రాదు హరి ఘనమాయ

(kaḍava rādu hari ghanamāya)

తెలుగులో చదవడానికి ఇక్కడ నొక్కండి. 

INTRODUCTION 

Annamacharya proclaims:

“తగు మోక్షమునకుఁ దాపయైన దిదె — 

Tagu Mokshamunaku Dāpayaina Dide.”

Life, he says, is not a bondage but a ladder toward liberation.

The tongue that joyfully utters the name of Hari

is a symbol of divine grace,

of the innate wisdom already within us.

Our pleasures and pains,

when seen as the unfolding of past actions,

acquire pious meaning, coherence, and depth. 

In this song,
the distinction between pleasure and suffering dissolves —
both become steps on the same path toward freedom.

For Annamacharya,

moksha is not a distant reward after death;

it is the clarity of seeing,

 available here, within living.

In mature awareness,

Venkatesha Himself becomes

the quiet mystery behind karma.

There is no need to escape the world —

when faced with courage, devotion, and insight,

the world itself turns sacred.

In such understanding,

human life is not a burden to be endured

but a grace to be recognized.

Moksha is not elsewhere.

It is here,

in this very moment,

in this very awareness. 

అధ్యాత్మ​ కీర్తన	Philosophical Poem
రేకు: 286-3 సంపుటము: 3-496	Copper Plate: 286-3 Vol: 3-496
కడవ రాదు హరి ఘనమాయ । తెగి విడువఁగరాదు వేసరరాదు   ॥పల్లవి॥ చూపుల యెదిటికి సోద్యంబైనది పాపపుణ్యముల ప్రపంచము తీపులు పుట్టించు దినదిన రుచులై పూపల సంసారభోగములు   ॥కడ॥ మనసు లోపలికి మర్మంబైనది జననమరణముల శరీరము వెనవెనకఁ దిరుగు వెడ లంపటమై కనకపుటాసల కర్మములు     ॥కడ॥ తగు మోక్షమునకుఁ దాపయైన దిదె నగి హరిఁ దలఁచిన నాలుకిది వెగటు దీరె శ్రీవేంకటపతియై యగపడె నిపుడు పురాకృతము           ॥కడ॥	kaḍava rādu hari ghanamāya । tegi viḍuvaṃ̐garādu vēsararādu              ॥pallavi॥ cūpula yediṭiki sōdyaṃbainadi pāpapuṇyamula prapaṃcamu tīpulu puṭṭiṃcu dinadina ruculai pūpala saṃsārabhōgamulu              ॥kaḍa॥ manasu lōpaliki marmaṃbainadi jananamaraṇamula śarīramu venavenakaṃ̐ dirugu veḍa laṃpaṭamai kanakapuṭāsala karmamulu              ॥kaḍa॥ tagu mōkṣamunakuṃ̐ dāpayaina dide nagi hariṃ̐ dalaṃ̐cina nālukidi vegaṭu dīre śrīvēṃkaṭapatiyai yagapaḍe nipuḍu purākṛtamu           ॥kaḍa॥

Details and Discussions:

Chorus (Pallavi):

---

కడవ రాదు హరి ఘనమాయ । తెగి

విడువఁగరాదు వేసరరాదు ॥పల్లవి॥

kaḍava rādu hari ghanamāya / tegi

viḍuvaṃ̐garādu vēsararādu       ॥pallavi॥

Telugu Phrase	Meaning
కడవ రాదు హరి ఘనమాయ । తెగి	Its not possible to overcome the illusion created by Hari. Yet with courage
విడువఁగరాదు వేసరరాదు	One should not leave it. One should endure it without vexing, without feeling tired.

---

Literal Meaning: 

O Man! Lord Sri Hari’s maya is impossible to overcome. Yet with courage stay put inside it – patiently and without getting vexed. 

(Annamacharya opens with a paradox — liberation cannot be achieved by force, nor by escape, nor by cleverness. The Maya of Hari is inescapable through effort.)

---

Interpretative Notes:

“విడువఁగరాదు వేసరరాదు” —

do not let go, do not cling —

Annamacharya combines these two opposing ideas

 to reveal a rare inner truth.

In another of his songs, he says:

    తొడరి గాలప్పుడు తూఱ్పెత్తక తాను

    విడిచి మఱచిన వెనక వెదకితే గలదా? ||చదువులోనే|| 

(toDari gAlappuDu tUrpettaka tAnu

viDichi marachina venaka vedakitE galadA?॥chadu॥)

Meaning:

One must  winnow grain in the eastern breeze.

If one misses, what use is it to feel sorrow

 

when we are caught in illusion,

awareness of that very entanglement is knowledge.

You might say — “But this is obvious, isn’t it?”

Yes — and yet it is not.

When we are under illusion, we cannot know that we are.

We realize it only after the moment has passed.

Our awareness is always post-thought — arising after the event.
The wise, however, are aware within the happening itself.
The difference between the two is as vast and obvious.

So if one resolves,

“From now on I will remain aware as things happen,”

one soon sees the futility of it —

what we see thus is artificial.

And such awareness cannot last long.

Therefore, no superficial awareness,

no learned meditation, no austerity or strict discipline

can lead one to the Supreme.

 

Great ones like Annamacharya placed

Truth before our eyes as a living presence.

For man, the only path left is this:

without any craving, to stand silently and inwardly surrendered

— disregarding whatever happens, submitting oneself to the Lord’s grace.

To stand silently and dispassionately may seem easy —

but our thoughts never rest.

Even if we manage to quiet them, is that not yet another artificial act?

Nothing unnatural can enter true meditation.

 

Thus, it becomes clear:

 man has no means of reaching the Divine through effort.

The only true means is surrender (śaraṇāgati) —

the offering of oneself wholly to the Supreme,

free from all relativity, all claim of “I can.”

---

Connection with Western Thoughts

 

The ideas we discussed above —

about man’s inability to transcend illusion through effort —

have, in a certain way, also been intuited in the West.

Especially among thinkers and artists who observed

the human condition with great precision.

One such extraordinary artistic expression is

Giorgio de Chirico’s “Mystery and Melancholy of a Street” (1914).

---

Exploring De Chirico’s

“Mystery and Melancholy of a Street” (1914)

This painting by Giorgio de Chirico awakens in every viewer

a subtle unease —

the question that lives in the heart of existence itself.

The painting is not merely a scene; it is a path of the mind,

a stillness of time filled with silent anxiety. 

At first glance, we see a long piazza —
a pale orange street stretching between two tall buildings.
At the far end of the white building, a long triangular flag flutters —
a symbol of human ego.
Trapped in illusion, man desires a mark of his own —
his self-proclaimed “agenda,”
his flag flying alone in the sky. 

The play of shadow dominates the entire scene.
Light seems to fall not from one direction, but from several,
as if the source itself were uncertain.

We begin to wonder —

what light is this, and where does it come from?

It feels like our own consciousness —

visible, yet whose origin we do not know. 

A little girl runs pushing a hoop.
Light should have touched her — yet she is painted in shadow.
A few steps ahead stands another dark figure —
uncertain whether human or statue.

Between them stands an empty freight van,
its doors open toward the road.
It might be a delivery vehicle — or the hollow vessel of the human body.
Perhaps it is a forewarning —
the burdens the child will one day have to carry. 

De Chirico almost hides the sky from sight.
Our gaze is trapped among the walls, shadows, and road.
The road is empty — and yet carries an immense weight.
It evokes a sense of hidden mystery,
a foreboding stillness,
the feeling that something undefined and tragic is about to unfold.

---

The shadowed girl represents the human mind —
longing for play, pleasure, and effortless life.
The freight van signifies the body of karma.
The dark figure ahead — old age, futility, the void that says “life has passed.”
Behind it, a thin pillar’s shadow —
a faint whisper: “Beyond this, you can do nothing; all is emptiness.”
The empty street — the lonely journey of human existence.

---

Symbolic Reading

The white building stands for the expressed —our constructed consciousness.

The dark building symbolizes the unmanifest —

the storehouse of past and inherited impressions.

The road between them is the human path —

soft in appearance

but filled with unseen pits but decorated in colour.

The little girl’s path is charming but perilous —

the endless cycle of worldly experience.

 the girl and the man, both shown as shadows, are parts of the same illusion.

The process of growing from child to man is itself Māyā. 

---

A Deeper Observation

There is another important point to notice:

All human undertakings today —

 however intelligent, however advanced in knowledge —

still all our moves are

Contained within that same street

between the two buildings (known and the unknown).

Moving within such occupations and efforts,

there is no possible scope for true release.

Every decision taken in our present state of consciousness is baseless —
a movement within illusion itself.

---

Resonance with Annamacharya’s Pallavi

“Kadava Raadu Hari Ghanamāya | Tegi
Viduvaṅgarādu Vēsarārādu”

This painting seems like a visual manifestation of Annamacharya’s very words.
“Kadava Raadu.” — The illusion created by Hari cannot be overcome

Life continues from childhood to old age on that strange orange path

Formed by meeting of conscious and subconscious thoughts

One must not abandon it — “Tegi Viduvaṅgarādu—

for we must search where we lost. 

Vēsarārādu” —

Nor can one endure it easily —

The overwhelming presence of

the known and the unknown layers the Life’s journey difficult to bear.

Curiosity to know overtakes.

Therefore, courage is necessary

The little girl — the human mind,

the empty van — the karmic body,

the buildings and their shadows — the cycles of virtue and sin.

De Chirico, unknowingly, has painted Annamacharya’s line.

---

Final Reflection

In both — the song and the painting —

the same truth glimmers:

Life is a waking dream within Hari’s Māyā.

Even the desire for freedom is driven by illusion itself.

True knowledge is not escape from illusion,

but awareness of its very nature while standing within it.

---

First Stanza:

చూపుల యెదిటికి సోద్యంబైనది

పాపపుణ్యముల ప్రపంచము

తీపులు పుట్టించు దినదిన రుచులై

పూపల సంసారభోగములు             ॥కడ॥

cūpula yediṭiki sōdyaṃbainadi

pāpapuṇyamula prapaṃcamu

tīpulu puṭṭiṃcu dinadina ruculai

pūpala saṃsārabhōgamulu       ॥kaḍa॥

Telugu Phrase	Meaning
చూపుల యెదిటికి సోద్యంబైనది	For the observer this is enticing
పాపపుణ్యముల ప్రపంచము	This mixed world of virtues and sins
తీపులు పుట్టించు దినదిన రుచులై	Day after day they rake up sweet inviting indulgence
పూపల సంసారభోగములు	These sweet worldly pleasures

---

Literal Meaning:

This world, a mixture of virtue and sin, appears wondrous to the eye. Day after day, it brings forth new and enticing flavours — these sweet worldly pleasures that tempt the senses.

---

Interpretative Notes: 

The road in De Chirico’s painting glows in a golden yellow —

it appears enchanting to our eyes,

 just as life, at first glance,

seems joyful and beautiful.

As the time passes, the child in man differentiates acts as Punya and Papa,

there begins the act of separation from the action and actor.

In this mixed world

virtuous acts are often gets submerged beneath the weight of sins.

We must question this.

But, We fear the fear more than the fear itself.

This results in looking for safety-net at the expense of merit.

The punishments of hell drive us to unfelt conformance to moral law.

The mind caught between right and wrong is the original doubt.

That is the seed of all the troubles in the world. 

Connection with De Chirico’s Painting

Annamacharya’s Stanza	De Chirico’s Symbol	Philosophical Meaning
“చూపుల యెదిటికి సోద్యంబైనది” — Appears wondrous to the eyes	The golden-yellow road	Life appears bright and beautiful — but it is illusion.
“పాపపుణ్యముల ప్రపంచము” — The mixed world of virtue and sin	The empty road between two buildings	The human path between the known and the unknown.
“తీపులు పుట్టించు దినదిన రుచులై” — New tempting flavours every day	The little girl running with a hoop	The restless mind chasing temporary joys.
“పూపల సంసారభోగములు” — Sweet worldly pleasures	The empty freight van and deserted space	The human urge to “fill” the emptiness — a kind of treachery “no one watching”.

 

Amazing Conclusion:

When man realizes that

no religion. No scripture can frame

moral laws adequate for his present life,

he slips into the illusion of laissez-faire —

the belief that he is free to live as he pleases.

In doing so, he mistakes freedom for license

and quietly releases himself from the burden of moral responsibility. 

Thus, the disorder we see in the world today
arises from this inner deceit —
this subtle treachery,
this unspoken conviction that morality can be self-exempted. 

The same attitude when taken to extreme ends,

results in extremism,  terrorism we witness today. 

---

 Second Stanza:

మనసు లోపలికి మర్మంబైనది

జననమరణముల శరీరము

వెనవెనకఁ దిరుగు వెడ లంపటమై

కనకపుటాసల కర్మములు ॥కడ॥

manasu lōpaliki marmaṃbainadi

jananamaraṇamula śarīramu

venavenakaṃ̐ dirugu veḍa laṃpaṭamai

kanakapuṭāsala karmamulu       ॥kaḍa॥ 

Telugu Phrase	Meaning
మనసు లోపలికి మర్మంబైనది	Within the mind lies an un-grasped mystery
జననమరణముల శరీరము	This body, bound to birth and death
వెనవెనకఁ దిరుగు వెడ లంపటమై	(లంపటములు = two wooden boards hung from the neck to prevent domestic animals from running away) Restlessly turning again and again, wanting more and more
కనకపుటాసల కర్మములు	the very stuff of karma disguised as Golden desires

Literal Meaning: 

Even when all seems to be understood, some hidden secret within the mind obstructs complete awareness. Though we know this body is bound to birth and death, the heart refuses to accept it. That restless urge — “I want more, still more” — becomes like two wooden boards hung from the neck, a weight that turns golden desires into the very substance of karma.

---

Interpretative Notes: 

In De Chirico’s painting, the little girl running with her hoop

She is much absorbed in her own play and engagement

Not concerned with anything else.

sees the street as a path of play, a golden lane of flowers.

She neither imagines nor accepts

that in the distance she will one day become the shadowed old man.

So too with man —

though he knows change and mortality are inevitable,

his mind refuses to face them.

He runs, delighting in motion, unaware of his destination.

That very movement, born of desire,

slowly tightens into the bondage of karma.

Thus, within illusion,

the mind forges its own chain and mistakes it for freedom 

Stanza–Painting–Meaning Table

Annamacharya’s Line	De Chirico’s Painting Element	Philosophical Interpretation
మనసు లోపలికి మర్మంబైనది Within the mind lies an ungrasped mystery	The unseen source of light — falling from uncertain directions, creating conflicting shadows	Awareness is difficult to define. We come into conscious awareness from an unalert state, and unknowingly slip back again. The conscious awareness we sustain through effort is not true awareness — it is still part of illusion.
జననమరణముల శరీరము This body, bound to birth and death	The empty freight van with open doors at the end of the street	The van symbolizes the transient human body — a vessel through which the soul passes; it hints at mortality, the inevitable cycle of birth and death.
వెనవెనకఁ దిరుగు వెడ లంపటమై Restlessly turning again and again, wanting more and more	The girl running with the hoop, circling endlessly in play	The hoop represents the cycle of craving and repetition; desire moves in circles, making life appear playful while binding the mind in habit.
కనకపుటాసల కర్మములు Golden desires becoming the very stuff of karma	The golden-hued road, gleaming yet empty	What appears beautiful and promising (the golden path) hides the burden of attachment — worldly pleasure turning into karmic entanglement.

Conclusion:

The mind, proud of by its own brightness, chases delight in an endless loop.
The body, transient yet blind, carries its part in that loop as karma.
The path — golden, inviting, and silent — is life itself,
stretching between the known and the unknown.

---

 

Third Stanza:

తగు మోక్షమునకుఁ దాపయైన దిదె

నగి హరిఁ దలఁచిన నాలుకిది

వెగటు దీరె శ్రీవేంకటపతియై

యగపడె నిపుడు పురాకృతము   ॥కడ॥

tagu mōkṣamunakuṃ̐ dāpayaina dide

nagi hariṃ̐ dalaṃ̐cina nālukidi

vegaṭu dīre śrīvēṃkaṭapatiyai

yagapaḍe nipuḍu purākṛtamu   ॥kaḍa॥

Telugu Phrase	Meaning
తగు మోక్షమునకుఁ దాపయైన దిదె	This life (granted to everyone) is a ladder to liberation
నగి హరిఁ దలఁచిన నాలుకిది	The tongue that willingly chants the name of SRIHARI becomes truthful.
వెగటు దీరె శ్రీవేంకటపతియై	All my troubles vanished as I realise SRI VENKATAPATI
యగపడె నిపుడు పురాకృతము	I now understand the very origins of human life and the residues of past deeds.

Literal Meaning:

This life is a ladder toward liberation. The tongue that willingly and constantly remembers Hari is itself a blessing. Now, with the grace of Sri Venkatesha, all my suffering has dissolved, and the tangled web of my past deeds — the merit and the mistakes from previous births - the very cycle of human life — stands revealed to me.

---

Interpretative notes: 

Annamacharya says:

life is a ladder to liberation.

A ladder is meant to be climbed — not admired as a decoration.

To be born as a human is itself a privilege,

and the highest possibility within this privilege is moksha. 

There is another subtle insight here:

only when one becomes aware of the hidden currents of one’s past —

the inner residues left behind by previous births —

does Sri Venkatesha truly appear in one’s consciousness.

Such clarity, free from doubt and fear,

is itself moksha.

In that awareness, living and moksha become indistinguishable. 

De Chirico’s painting gives a parallel vision:
the golden path he paints stretches beyond childhood
and beyond old age as well —
hinting that life extends far beyond the boundaries we assume.
To see this, to recognise that life transcends both birth and decline,
is the true fulfilment of human birth.

---

Final Reflection: 

In this world, the highest wisdom is awareness.

This awareness spans the whole past of humanity and

the immediacy of the present moment.

No one knows the future —

it remains a mystery that must be met in this very movement.

---

 Central Message of this poem:

 Annamacharya’s message is worthy of contemplation

Do not try to run away from Sri Hari’s māyā.
Remain within it — with steadiness and courage —
without frustration, without weariness.

---

X-X-The END-X-X