Bhadragiriyar was a king who became a votary of Siva(God). He wrote two line snippets which are called “cribs”. The cribs about life are written in his penchant to reach god (tamil – meignana pulambalgal). His period of existence is not known but research points to the fact that he could have been a contemporary to pattinathaar.

I really loved this snippet. Ancient (Sangakaala(?)) tamil is so diferent from current (valakku) tamil. So my translation is questionable! Nevertheless, here is my take:

1) When will I stop researching origins and instead focus on practicing love?

Aren’t we lost in origins? It starts right from theological questioning on life, existence, re-birth etc. Why do I need to KNOW the answer to these questions? Isn’t it just enough if I live a life of love? The lower level of thinking on origin would be about birth origins – leading to racism, casteism, religious fanaticism. The lowest level could even be favoring one’s own kid over neighbor’s or brother’s! Why do I look for these origins? Do they mean anything?

I found a book on “Chanakya for corporate life” in a book store. Certainly the parables of Chanakya, bhadragiriyar etc are applicable in modern day corporate life as well. I would replace origins with “pre-conceived notions (about originator)” and love with “objectivity”. Shouldn’t a good leader stop having pre-conceived notions and focus on objectivity!

This crib has a beautiful “uruvagam” (metaphor) – Aruvi vizhi (waterfalls eye) – used in the context: love like a person who would cry (feel) for another being with tears falling like waterfalls.

I will tell you one more reason why I love the “cribs”. They don’t preach. For example if the above point was to be made by a thirukural or a bhagavat gita or a kuran or a bible, it would have just preached: “Don’t focus too much on life origins, but instead focus on practicing love!”. The cribs are written from the perspective of a flawed person – an incomplete human being! Every crib ends with “ekkalam”. In English translation, let’s say, every crib will start with “When will I”. They highlight human frailties – inability to come out of one thing to reach a stage where you know you should be! Gandhi said “Knowing ones own weakness is his biggest strength!”.

Going back to the snippet: Why do people research origins? I think human mind wants reasons, has a natural curiosity and for the lower levels has an interest in things closely related – the reason why facebook is such a huge hit! Any thoughts?

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Epilogue: if you liked this, you may want to follow “bhadragiriyar” in twitter. You owe a beer to my friend Arvindh Rajesh (which he doesn’t drink so u can treat me instead) who has written a bot to post a “crib” in twitter twice every week – tuesdays and thursdays!. You can help by posting translation or even writing “urai” in valakku thamizh. If you are in a real hurry to read all – go here: http://projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/pdf/pm0074.pdf

In many of his cribs, bhadragiriyar talks about inability to control material desires. I don’t know if one needs to control them. I’ll say un-attachment over material things whether you enjoy them or not is important. But truly the guy is awesome – here’s to illustrate the beauty: His diplomatism might be lost in my translation “When will my thoughts be like that (single-minded thoughts) of a separated casanova who is searching for his previously intimate lover?” :-) To state in simple terms: “When will I search for Siva with single-minded obsession like how a seperated casonova would search for his previously intimate lover”. In tamil “koodip pirinthuvitta kombanaiyai kaanamal / thedith thavippavan pol sinthai vaippathu ekkalam?” Happy reading!