TALLAPAKA ANNAMACHARYULU
284 విచార మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును
(vicāra
mennaṃ̐ḍu lēdu vīriḍi jīvulakunu)
తెలుగులో చదవడానికి ఇక్కడ నొక్కండి.
INTRODUCTION
Annamacharya
is astonishing.
His observations on time are nothing short of mind-blowing.
Many may disagree with me — and that’s fine.
The
point is this:
An idea that is almost inconceivable,
Something we struggle even to put into words,
Unfolds effortlessly before our eyes through him.
Annamacharya
sees such a phenomenon,
Stands in the presence of it,
And then crafts a poem
That can be etched on the very soul of time.
A
fifteenth-century insight like this
Completely pulls the ground from beneath our feet.
All
our modern theories collapse.
He disarms us — gently, effortlessly —
With a logic that cuts across every decorated idea we hold.
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అధ్యాత్మ
కీర్తన
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Philosophical Poem
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రేకు: 157-3
సంపుటము: 2-271
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Copper
Plate: 157-3 Vol: 2-271
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విచార మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును పచారించేరు బ్రదుకు బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు ॥పల్లవి॥
పొద్దువొడచుటయును పొరిఁ గూఁగుటయె కాని అద్దుకొని మిగులఁగ నందేమి లేదు వొద్దికఁ బుట్టుటయును వుడుగఁ జూచుటె కాని కొద్దితోడఁ గాలమేమి గురియై నిలువదు ॥విచా॥
అన్నము భుజించేదియు నాఁకలి గొనేదెకాని యెన్నికకుఁ జెప్పిచూప నేదియు లేదు ఇన్నిటఁ దిరిగాడేది ఇంటికి వచ్చేదే కాని పన్ని తననిలుకడ భావించ లేదు ॥విచా॥
జవ్వనము మోఁచేదియు సరి ముదుసేదే కాని తవ్వి కట్టుకొనే దేది దాఁచే దేది నవ్వుతా నలమేల్మంగనాయక శ్రీవేంకటేశ రవ్వల నీ వేలికవు రక్షించు మిఁకను ॥విచా॥
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vicāra mennaṃ̐ḍu lēdu vīriḍi
jīvulakunu pacāriṃcēru braduku
brahmanāṭanuṃḍiyu ॥pallavi॥
podduvoḍacuṭayunu poriṃ̐
gūṃ̐guṭaye kāni addukoni migulaṃ̐ga naṃdēmi
lēdu voddikaṃ̐ buṭṭuṭayunu
vuḍugaṃ̐ jūcuṭe kāni kodditōḍaṃ̐ gālamēmi guriyai
niluvadu ॥vicā॥
annamu bhujiṃcēdiyu nāṃ̐kali
gonēdekāni yennikakuṃ̐ jeppicūpa nēdiyu
lēdu inniṭaṃ̐ dirigāḍēdi iṃṭiki
vaccēdē kāni panni tananilukaḍa bhāviṃca
lēdu ॥vicā॥
javvanamu mōṃ̐cēdiyu sari
mudusēdē kāni tavvi kaṭṭukonē dēdi dāṃ̐cē
dēdi navvutā nalamēlmaṃganāyaka
śrīvēṃkaṭēśa ravvala nī vēlikavu rakṣiṃcu
miṃ̐kanu ॥vicā॥
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Details
and Discussions:
Chorus (Pallavi):
విచార మెన్నఁడు
లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును
పచారించేరు
బ్రదుకు బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు ॥పల్లవి॥
vicāra mennaṃ̐ḍu lēdu vīriḍi
jīvulakunu
pacāriṃcēru braduku
brahmanāṭanuṃḍiyu ॥pallavi॥
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Telugu Phrase
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Meaning
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విచార
మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును
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(వీరిడి = foolish) These foolish people never repent
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పచారించేరు
బ్రదుకు బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు
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(పచారించేరు = reject; బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు
= for very long time, from the beginning) for they reject true-life for very
long time
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Literal Meaning:
From
the beginning of creation till this very moment, these deluded beings, without
proper reflection or discrimination, have been rejecting the true essence of
life — the divine truth — and have been wasting their time in ignorance.
Interpretative Notes:
విచార మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును
“They never reflect…”
Annamacharya
begins with a sharp warning.
“Such beings” refers to people who,
no
matter how long they live,
never
pause even for a moment to ask:
How is my life unfolding?
Why am I living?
What is the real nature of existence?
For
them, the door of discernment has never been opened.
పచారించేరు బ్రదుకు బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు
“From
the beginning, they reject true life…”
Because
they never reflect,
they consistently reject
the
real, meaningful essence of life that stands right before their eyes.
Day
after day, they drag their lives away from the path of truth.
This is not a new mistake —
it is an ancient human weakness, existing since primordial times.
The
First Human Problem — Imitation
Human
life begins with psychological dependence.
As
children, we imagine that parents “know the truth.”
Later it becomes teachers, elders, and society.
This imitation begins innocently.
But
slowly,
imitation becomes mental dependence.
Then
we start learning from the world around us:
What is “a good life”?
What is “happiness”?
Who is “successful”?
We
take the lives of the wealthy, the influential,
and
the celebrated as standards and try to replicate them.
We
begin living on borrowed definitions.
We swallow other people’s ideals —
often like medicine, without resistance.
Thus,
we experience not real joy,
but vicarious, borrowed satisfaction.
Shows
like Bigg Boss flourish because
they
offer this continuous vicarious pleasure —
living
through others’ lives.
Oscar
Wilde expressed this brilliantly:
“Most people are other people.
Their
thoughts are someone else’s opinions.”
Most of us fear original thinking for ourselves,
because
independent thought demands responsibility.
Imitation requires no such burden.
and so it feels safe.
The
Bhagavad Gita (3.21) recognizes this tendency:
“People follow what they perceive as the superior.”
But we rarely question
whether
those we imitate are truly wise —
we
follow based on name, status, or wealth, leading to blind imitation.
However,
The Gita (3.17) shows the opposite state:
the one who finds satisfaction within oneself —
self-sufficient, not dependent on imitation —
that is where true seeing begins.
This
is exactly what Annamacharya is pointing to:
A
life trapped in imitation has been rejecting true living for ages.
That
is the meaning of:
“They
have been rejecting real life since ancient times.”
The
core message of this Pallavi:
The day we stop living by other people’s opinions
is the day our real life begins.
First Stanza:
పొద్దువొడచుటయును
పొరిఁ గూఁగుటయె కాని
అద్దుకొని
మిగులఁగ నందేమి లేదు
వొద్దికఁ
బుట్టుటయును వుడుగఁ జూచుటె కాని
కొద్దితోడఁ
గాలమేమి గురియై నిలువదు ॥విచా॥
podduvoḍacuṭayunu poriṃ̐
gūṃ̐guṭaye kāni
addukoni migulaṃ̐ga naṃdēmi
lēdu
voddikaṃ̐ buṭṭuṭayunu vuḍugaṃ̐
jūcuṭe kāni
kodditōḍaṃ̐ gālamēmi guriyai
niluvadu ॥vicā॥
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Telugu Phrase
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Meaning
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పొద్దువొడచుటయును పొరిఁ గూఁగుటయె కాని
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The sun
rises, then sun sets that all.
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అద్దుకొని మిగులఁగ నందేమి లేదు
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By
touching/dissecting these time dependent actions, you cannot find anything in
them
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వొద్దికఁ బుట్టుటయును వుడుగఁ జూచుటె కాని
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(వుడుగఁ జూచుటె = విడువక చూచుట,
continuous observation) By closely observing continuous births
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కొద్దితోడఁ
గాలమేమి గురియై నిలువదు
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This short
period of time is not a suitable to make any meaningful conclusions
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Literal
Meaning:
By
touching/dissecting these time dependent events like sun rise and set, you
cannot find anything substantial in them. This human life is a short period of
time is not a suitable to make any meaningful conclusions on continuous birth
and death cycles.
Interpretative Notes:
అద్దుకొని
మిగులఁగ నందేమి లేదు
“Nothing
remains even if you grasp it”
Sunrise and
sunset are repeated movements within time.
They certainly occur,
but they are motions produced by the illusion of time itself.
Relying on
time-bound events
while living inside time
cannot lead us to any final truth.
A mind conditioned by time
cannot use time as a measure
to discover the timeless.
(Therefore,
man’s discernment remain incomplete
= విచార మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును)
కొద్దితోడఁ
గాలమేమి గురియై నిలువదు
“This short
span of life cannot conclude anything”
Birth and
death occur endlessly before our eyes.
But the span of human life is so limited
that it cannot serve as a sufficient basis
for determining any conclusion
on the nature of existence.
In this stanza, Annamacharya tells us:
We must abandon the illusion that
truth can be known through time-based
observations.
We observe time
while standing inside the very field of time—
and therefore, the “truth” we derive from it
will always slip out of our hands.
Sunrise and sunset,
birth and death—
all these are
scenes authored by time,
curtains that conceal the real.
To know truth,
we must step beyond
the glamour and deception of time itself.
Second Stanza:
అన్నము
భుజించేదియు నాఁకలి గొనేదెకాని
యెన్నికకుఁ
జెప్పిచూప నేదియు లేదు
ఇన్నిటఁ
దిరిగాడేది ఇంటికి వచ్చేదే కాని
పన్ని
తననిలుకడ భావించ లేదు ॥విచా॥
annamu bhujiṃcēdiyu nāṃ̐kali
gonēdekāni
yennikakuṃ̐ jeppicūpa nēdiyu
lēdu
inniṭaṃ̐ dirigāḍēdi iṃṭiki
vaccēdē kāni
panni tananilukaḍa bhāviṃca
lēdu ॥vicā॥
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Telugu Phrase
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Meaning
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అన్నము
భుజించేదియు నాఁకలి గొనేదెకాని
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That one which gets hungry consumes food, yet
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యెన్నికకుఁ జెప్పిచూప నేదియు లేదు
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if one tries to count, grasp or articulate it,
nothing definite can be pointed out.
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ఇన్నిటఁ
దిరిగాడేది ఇంటికి వచ్చేదే కాని
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(Whatever)
it is that roams amidst all experiences returns again to what it considers
its home. yet
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పన్ని
తననిలుకడ భావించ లేదు
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Yet it does not notice the order, the sequence, or
the abiding nature behind this movement.
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Literal Meaning:
Whatever
experiences hunger is the same that eats the food. But if we try to define or
enumerate what exactly is happening, nothing clear can be concluded. Whatever
wanders through all experiences — that same ‘something’ returns again into that
which it knows as home. Yet, it does not observe or recognise the pattern, the
cycle, the continuity, or the underlying stable nature behind all this
movement.
Implied Meaning:
In
this stanza, Annamacharya points to
the
experiencer behind all human experience.
There
is something within us that
feels hunger, tastes food,
takes part in experiences
and moves on to the next.
This
“something” undergoes every experience in life.
After each experience it returns to its own inner state — its “home”.
We
may remember experiences,
but we do not know the one that experiences.
We
witness a stream of experiences,
but the continuous awareness that
enjoys
them without interruption,
remains unnoticed.
Interpretative Notes:
“పన్ని తననిలుకడ భావించ లేదు”
Here
Annamacharya indicates
the
very principle that can apprehend the Eternal.
This is not a description; it is a direct pointer to a real state.
It does not belong to envelope of time.
Everything else is shaped by time.
He
is pointing to the subtle, original locus of true knowledge.
That
“home” is within us.
But our attention never falls on it.
Because
all our attention goes outward —
to movement:
Food, taste, emotion, travel, experience
When
movement becomes the focus,
stillness gets concealed.
All
inner movement occurs within time.
Every experience lives within the enclosure of time.
But
that which is beyond time —
the original witnessing state —
remains unseen.
Connection with surreal painting “Eyes on the Table”
Please have
a clean look at Remedios Varo’s surreal painting
“Eyes on
the Table” (1938).
A floating
table hovers in mid-air,
bearing an
antique pair of spectacles with eyelids attached.
The strange
image suggests a mind adrift — unstable, ungrounded.
The eyes,
though, are not looking outward but inward,
pointing us
to the essential task:
to turn
vision within.
To look
without bias into the depths of oneself is profoundly difficult —
yet it is
only by such inner seeing that may reveal that permanent thing.
Attempting
to See the Silent Gap
Consider
A tick–space–tick
interval in any clock —
whether a wall clock or an atomic clock —
resembles:
attention
→ inattention → attention
When
we try to attend to something,
we move from inattention into attention;
we do not remain in attention continuously.
The
silent interval between the ticks,
that unnoticed gap,
is our true “home.”
Our
attention is born of effort, not natural
(this
also resembles Bhagavad-Gita 4-18)
Movement
hides Stillness
Let
us attempt to see that silent gap.
as it cannot be grasped directly;
As Annamacharya implies:
“Conscious
knowing is not ‘knowing’ at all.”
The second (the unknown) is not graspable.
And
this is not easy.
As
long as the activity called “conscious knowing” is present,
the silent knowing (awareness) remain subdued.
All
attempts to forcibly quieten this
“conscious
knowing” are unnatural.
Understanding
this,
to stay put “neutral” between the
opposite pulls
“effort”
and “in-effort”
remaining completely still is true equanimity.
In
that state there is possibility of coming upon the awareness.
Gita
Connection
This
is exactly what the Gita declares:
“अकर्तारं स पश्यति Akartāraṁ
sa paśyati” —
The ‘non-doership’ is the true seer.
The
still mind alone is the witness.
(Bhagavad
Gita 13.30)
Third
Stanza:
జవ్వనము
మోఁచేదియు సరి ముదుసేదే కాని
తవ్వి
కట్టుకొనే దేది దాఁచే దేది
నవ్వుతా
నలమేల్మంగనాయక శ్రీవేంకటేశ
రవ్వల
నీ వేలికవు రక్షించు మిఁకను ॥విచా॥
javvanamu mōṃ̐cēdiyu sari
mudusēdē kāni
tavvi kaṭṭukonē dēdi dāṃ̐cē
dēdi
navvutā nalamēlmaṃganāyaka
śrīvēṃkaṭēśa
ravvala nī vēlikavu rakṣiṃcu
miṃ̐kanu ॥vicā॥
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Telugu Phrase
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Meaning
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జవ్వనము మోఁచేదియు సరి ముదుసేదే కాని
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The one that carries the youth and equally the ripe age,
yet
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తవ్వి కట్టుకొనే దేది దాఁచే దేది
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Digging into these natural phases, you gain nothing. What is
the one that hides (reality from our view?)
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నవ్వుతా నలమేల్మంగనాయక శ్రీవేంకటేశ
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Happily smiling the Lord Venkatesa along with Alamelumanga
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రవ్వల నీ వేలికవు రక్షించు మిఁకను
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You are the lord of our fragmentary existence and save us.
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Literal Meaning:
Youth and
old age are worn out by the same underlying principle; both are merely phases
of the same body. By digging deeper into the body, what can you really grasp?
And more importantly, what is it that hides the truth? O Lord Venkatesha,
Consort of Alamelmanga, You must be smiling at our confusion! We are like
fragments and cracks — You alone must protect us now.
Interpretative notes:
“జవ్వనము మోఁచేదియు సరి ముదుసేదే కాని”
(youth
and old age bear the same principle)
What
we see outwardly —
youth or old age —
never reveals the true nature of the body.
Age is a surface signal, not an insight into its reality.
It tells us nothing about what the body truly is.
తవ్వి కట్టుకొనే దేది?”
“What
do we gain by examining the body?
This
naturally leads to the deeper question:
Even if we probe it from within, no permanent truth is found.
Because
the eternal is not material.
As the Gita (13.13) states,
it lies beyond the reach of matter,
beyond existence and non-existence.
“దాఁచే దేది?”
What
is hiding the truth?
Annamacharya
now sharpens the inquiry:
What hides the eternal truth?
The
answer is not mysterious —
it is not Truth that hides.
It is our own ignorance.
As
the Gita (5.15) says:
“Knowledge is covered by ignorance;
thus beings fall into delusion.”
రవ్వల నీ వేలికవు
You
are the Lord of these fragments
Here
Annamacharya points to
the
fragmented nature of human existence.
Within us:
a little goodness, a little deception,
some devotion, some rebellion,
some clarity, some confusion —
an entity made of fragments.
These
cracks distort perception.
Just as dust in the air scatters sunlight
and allows us to see only partial rays,
our inner fragments break the wholeness of Truth.
We
perceive in pieces
because we live in pieces.
పచారించేరు బ్రదుకు బ్రహ్మనాటనుండియు
(we reject the truth)
We
cling to the certainty of the familiar —
what we already know.
Letting go of this becomes difficult.
The
known feels safe;
the unknown feels threatening.
This
very psychological habit
is the true veil that hides the real.
“దాఁచే దేది?”
Who
hides the truth? We ourselves
విచార మెన్నఁడు లేదు వీరిడి జీవులకును
(We
spend life of self satisfaction)
Human
life, body, and mind
are marvellous yet profoundly complex.
They appear like an assembly
of diverse and often contradictory forces.
The
body is a ladder
intended for realising the One Truth.
Meditation is what gathers these scattered fragments
onto a single thread.
The
nature of perception
All
our observations arise
from the reactions of memory.
But
when the mind becomes still,
it sees the futility of these reactions.
It does not respond,
does not rush to interpret.
Only
in that silence
does the unity of existence —
the world as one continuous consciousness —
become visible.
Until
the mind is quiet,
Truth cannot be seen.
Central
Message of this poem:
Annamacharya’s message is worthy of
contemplation
A life
without reflection can not grasp the essence of Living
X-X-The
END-X-X
