Ponnolir Pattu

Gold-bright

1. Of gold-bright form, full-blown lotus-faced one! Personification of rare realisation, spreading fragrance all over the earth! Having heard of your fame, poor as I am, I looked for you throughout the world and reached you here, my gracious Lord! Wise Ramana! Hill of Light!

2. O Brahmin who dwells in Virupaksha Cave on the sacred Hill of Light called Sonagiri! O primordial, eternal treasure, O Ramana, the pure! Make me your own without testing me. You are indeed the Supreme Being!

3. Life of supreme consciousness-bliss, honey of the Bliss of Siva, thick syrup of rare bliss, unbroken one, O Ramana! Considering you as the celestial tree to fulfil my wish, eagerly I ran to you. Knowledge incarnate, pure Being, save me by your glance of grace.

4. Let me place your soft holy feet on my head, at this very moment, to gain the life free from pain and be cured of the disease of recurring births! Ramana, reborn in Self, living silent in Arunachala, unknown even to the Gods, tell me when shall I attain you, O pupil of my eyes!

5. Poor me! I know how to praise you – as the pupil [of my eye]. I know nothing else. Can you be unaware, how by your side, I cry in anguish? Put down the spectre of my ego and strike it with the axe of knowledge, so that it may leave me here and now! Hail Sundara Ramana!

6. Certainly Ramana is the universe with the sun, the moon and the stars! Ramana is the diamond flame of light shining in the heart! Ramana is the Lord sporting in the merry-go-round of the unstained Vedas! Ramana is the beatific Lord of Knowledge!

7. Moon-crested Ramana! You can in a trice efface the mind once stilled, and fix it at the holy feet of [Arunachaleswara] which were not known even to Brahma and Vishnu who were anxious to find them in days of yore. Allay my intense grief. O Sole Reality! Life of Yoga!

8. Ramana of profound yoga-knowledge! Unrivalled beauty! You hold within yourself the Fire of the Look of Wisdom, which wipes away the names and forms of the vast universe. Spreading flame! Hail, Holy Lord on Sonagiri!

9. Lord Ramana! I sought your holy feet. You are knowledge untiring, silence and the supreme thing beyond thought. Your heart is the centre that unifies the individual and the supreme. You are the ultimate reality that endures beyond birth and death.

10. Long live Ramana, ever abiding on Sonagiri! Hail Siva with Ganga betwixt his matted hair and the Virupaksha cave! Long live this golden hymn of Venkataramana, which rids one of all ills!