Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

(72) UPADESA SARAM — UNNADHI NALUPADHI

Prev Next 27th August, 1946
Sri Bhagavan himself wrote and kept in Telugu
characters the Malayalam version of Upadesa Saram, known
as Kummi Pattu. In 1944, I took it from Bhagavan saying I
would make a copy of it. As I was returning the original
after copying it in my note book, a devotee said to Bhagavan
thus: “Bhagavan wrote Upadesa Saram only when
Muruganar wrote about the lilas of Lord Siva — about Siva
blessing the tapasvis of Daruka Vana, isn’t that so?”
Bhagavan said: “Yes, what he wrote was not merely about
the story of the Daruka Vana tapasvis. He thought of writing
about all the Avatars of the Lord as applying to me, in one
hundred verses. He took up the folk song of ‘Undeepara’ for
the purpose and wrote up to seventy verses. Towards the end
of those seventy verses he wrote about the story of the tapasvis
of Daruka Vana and then requested me to write the remaining
thirty verses as they pertain to upadesa (teaching). ‘You have
done everything. What is there for me to do? You had better
write that also,’ I said, but he did not write them for a long
time. He insisted on my writing them, saying that he did not
know anything about the upadesa portion of it and that
Bhagavan alone could write them. What was I to do? I had
no alternative but to write. After writing those thirty verses,
we called them ‘Upadesa Undiyar’. When that was done, Yogi
Ramiah said he did not know Tamil and so pressed me to
write them in Telugu, and so I wrote them in dwipada. After
that, Nayana said, ‘What about Sanskrit?’ I agreed and wrote
them in Sanskrit also. After I had written them in those three
languages, Kunjuswami, Ramakrishna and others requested
me to write them in Malayalam also, and hence I wrote them
in Kummi Pattu style in Malayalam.”
“So the original is the Tamil, next is the Telugu, then
the Sanskrit and finally the Malayalam version, isn’t it?” I
asked and Bhagavan said, “Yes.” I then continued, “As soon
as Nayana saw those ‘Upadesa Saram’ slokas, it seems he wrote
a light commentary on them?” “Yes, he was then in Mango
Tree (choota) Cave. I wrote the slokas and sent them to him.

Telling the people around him, ‘Can we write even one sloka
like this?’ he wrote a light commentary on the slokas on a day
when there was an eclipse. They were published in 1928,”
said Bhagavan.

I then asked, “How was ‘Unnadhi Nalubadhi’ written?”
“I had to write that also in Tamil at Muruganar’s pressing
request. Yogi Ramiah too was there at the time. He requested
me to write at least the bhava (purport) in Telugu and so I
wrote it in prose. After that Madhava said, ‘What about
Malayalam?’ I said yes and wrote it in that language also in
kili (metre). That will be like a seesamalika verse. That also I
wrote in the Telugu script. You may make a copy of it if you
like,” said Bhagavan.

“Why didn’t Bhagavan write it in Sanskrit?” I asked.

Bhagavan said, “At that time, Nayana, Lakshmana Sarma
and others were here. So I left it to them. Why should I
worry, I thought, and so kept quiet.” I asked, “Did Nayana
write the Sanskrit slokas for ‘Unnadhi Nalubadhi’ at that
time?” Bhagavan said, “No, at the time of writing the verses,
Muruganar and myself were arranging them suitably when
Nayana gave us his advice but did not write the slokas. He
went away to Sirsi after that. While he was there, Viswanathan
and Kapali went and stayed with him for some time.

Meanwhile, Lakshmana Sarma wrote slokas for ‘Unnadhi
Nalubadhi’. The same were forwarded to Nayana, to return
them duly edited. Seeing that, Nayana said he could as well
write the slokas himself rather than correct them, and so
returned them as they were. Subsequently with the help of
Viswanathan and Kapali he wrote slokas to conform exactly
to the Tamil verses and sent them. The former, however,
remained as it was while Nayana’s was published under the
title ‘Sad Darshanam’. Things happen as they should. What
can we do? In accordance with that Sanskrit translation,
Kapali wrote his commentary in English and in Sanskrit.

After that Viswanathan translated it into Tamil.”
“How did the Anubandham (Supplement) happen to be
written?” I asked. “I did not write it for any particular reason.

As and when somebody wanted a verse I wrote one, and all of
them were added on as a supplement. For the first publication,
there were only 30 verses. Afterwards, they became 40. Even
they were written only in the first instance. Subsequently I wrote
them in Telugu and then in Malayalam. Some of the slokas are
from those written by great people in olden days and some by
Lakshmana Sarma who followed the prose written by me,” said
Bhagavan. “Some of the slokas are written by Bhagavan also?” I
said. “I must have written only two or three,” said Bhagavan.

“Bhagavan must have written some of the Telugu verses also,”
I said. “Yes, there must be some. If you like, look at the
manuscript. You will see the details,” said Bhagavan.

Prev Next TOC 71. Akshara Swarupam (The Imperishable Image) 72. Upadesa Saram — Unnadhi Nalupadhi 73. The ‘I’ is the Mind Itself 74. The Golden Jubilee Festivities 75. The Golden Jubilee Celebrations 76. Brahmotsavam 77. Atmakaravritti (The Soul, its Form and Action) 78. Andavane 79. Omkaram–Aksharam 80. Anecdotes Regarding Life at Virupaksha Cave 81. Siva Bhakta Sundaramurti 82. Sundaramurti’s Bond of Servitude