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Appala Pattu

tr. by Prof.K.Swaminathan

Try and make some appalams,
Eat them and your longing satisfy.

Don't roam the world disconsolate.
Heed the word unique, unspoken
Taught by the teacher true who teaches
The truth of Being-Awareness-Bliss.

  1. Take the black-gram, Ego-self,
    Growing in the five-fold body-field
    And grind it in the quern,
    The wisdom-quest of "Who am I?"
    Reducing it to the finest flour.
  2. Mix it with pirandai-juice,
    Which is holy company.
    Add mind-control, the cummin-seed,
    The pepper of self-restraint.
    The salt of non-attachment,
    And asafoetida, the aroma
      of virtuous inclination
  3. In the heart-mortar place the dough.
    And the mind-pestle inward turned,
    Pound it hard with storkes of 'I', 'I',
    Then flatten it with the rolling pin
    of stillness on the level slab (of Being),
    Work away, untiring, steady, cheerful.
  4. Put the appalam in the ghee of Brahman
    Held in the pan of infinite silence
    And fry it over the fire of knowledge.
    Now as I transmuted into That,
    Eat and taste the Self as Self,
    Abiding as the Self alone.