Many of our great vAggEyakArAs (vAk + gEya kArAs - lyricists + music composers) were experts at packing profound meaning into simple, day-to-day words. AnnamAchArya excelled at this trait hundreds of years ago. Today, I want to discuss with you one song of his - "telisitE mOkshamu" - the profoundness and simplicity of whose words give me goosebumps every time I listen to them.
The original tunes of many of the 12,000 AnnamAchArya kIrthanAs we found are unavailable today. So, many great musicians gave new tunes to them. My favorite tune for this song is made by Shri Nedunuri Krishnamurthi in rAgA HamsAnandi. You can listen to the renditions of Malladi brothers and Chaitanya brothers here. There are other tunes too, for example, this one by Priya sisters.
A great writing can have many interpretations, based on the reader's perspective, experiences and limitations. So I cannot claim that my interpretation of this song is the only one possible. I can, however, perhaps defend that my interpretation is also not incorrect.
This song - "telisitE mOkshamu" - to me, proclaims succinctly that Ignorance and Enlightenment co-exist in any moment, that your perception of life can be on either side. This song prescribes specific attributes of the mind needed to stay on the side of Enlightenment. As this prescription is applicable to every human being, this song, like AnnamAchArya's many other songs, makes a profound contribution towards human spiritual evolution.
telisitae mOkshamu - teliyakunna bandhamu
kalavanTidi brathuku - ghanunikini
If one is in the know, life incidents help them move towards ultimate Freedom. If one is in ignorance, the same life incidents induce further Bondage. Life is actually like a dream, because life incidents themselves are not concrete. It is the person's frame of mind which determines where life incidents take them - towards Freedom or towards Bondage. The frame of mind that AnnamAchArya prescribes so that you can know that life is a dream is "ghana" - a solid, unperturbed, non-vacillating mind.
anayamu sukhamaeDadi -avala du:khamaeDadi
tanuvupai naasalaeni - tatvamatikini
ponigitae paapamaedi -puNyamaedi karmamandu
vonaraga phalamollani - yOgikini yOgikini
"tatvam" is a loaded Sanskrit word. It proclaims "tat-tvam" - THAT is YOU. You are no different from everything around you. All boundaries (where you end and the "other" begins) and comparisons (this is good, but that is not) are unreal. They are caused by the ignorance of a mind that is not yet grounded in tatvam.
A "tatvamati" is a person for whom the experience of "tatvam" is firmly established in his intellect. Such a person experiences that everything is one beautiful, connected, existential whole. Perceiving this oneness of everything also happens to be the very purpose of the great science of yOga. Hence, a "tatvamati" can also be referred to as a "yOgi".
Tatvamatis have no special possessiveness for their body, because they experience it to be no different from anything else. For tatvamatis, life experiences cause neither "sukha" (comfort, joy) nor "du:kha (grief, suffering), because sukha and dukha are only of the physical body & mind.
A yOgi performs actions (karmas), but has no expectation of specific outcomes (fruits) from these actions. yOgis do not worry about whether their actions accumulate good outcomes (punya) or sin (pApa). They simply perceive everything as one, do what they feel is needed, and move on, with no attachment to the outcomes of their actions.
Someone that is a Tatvamati / yOgi is thus free of sukha, du:kha, punya, pApa. The prescription of ghana is not separate / different from the prescription of tatvamati / yOgi. Both are connected traits - we need to have an unvacillating, solid mind that perceives everything as one and acts without attachment to outcomes.
taginayamRtamaedi - talavaga vishamaedi
tegi niraahaariyaina - dheerunikini
pagavaaranaga neri - bandhulanaga neri
vegaTuprapaMchamella - viDichaevivaekiki
"dhI" denotes the mind. "dhIra" is someone with a strong mind, a mind that stays courageous in the face of any challenges or adversities. A dhIra's strength of mind does not come from their food. (Mind, according to the Upanishads, is manufactured from the food we eat. Prana, our life breath, is manufactured from the water we drink.) Whether their food is highly suitable (amRita - nector), or highly unsuitable (visha - poison), a dhIra's mind nevertheless stays strong, disconnected to and uninfluenced by food (niraahari).
"vivEka" is the ability to distinguish between the permanent (true - "sat") and the impermanent (false - "asat"). For a vivEki, there is no difference between people who hate them (pagavAru - enemies) and people whom they are tied to (bandhulu - relatives in common parlance - more accurately, those with who you have some ties). A vivEki is disillusioned with the world and hence detached from it. They know that everything in this prapancha (physical world made up of the five elements - earth, water, fire, air, space) is impermanent. Hence they are not biased towards any person. They have an equal view of everyone.
AnnamAchArya thus adds in this stanza, to his earlier prescriptions of ghana and tatvamati/yogi, two new prescriptions of dhIra and vivEka.
vaevaeluvidhulandu - verapaedi marapaedi
daivamunu namminaTTi - dhanyunikini
SreevaenkaTaeSvaruDu - chittamulO nunnavaaDu
yeevalaedi aavalaedi - yeetanidaasuniki
Now we come to my favorite stanza! "dhanya" denotes one that is fortunate or lucky. The luck that AnnamAchArya refers to here is the good fortune of being a believer in God! In another song of his, he strongly proclaims: "nI valanE nI Sarananiyeda" - I become your devotee only because you choose me to become so.
Becoming a believer in God itself is good fortune (dhanya). For one who got this luck, even when they have thousands of duties (vidhulu), there will be zero fear (verapu) or forgetfulness (marapu). Work will never unsettle these fortunate persons.
"chitta" is another loaded Sanskrit word. It means Awareness or Consciousness. It is a layer far above the mind. Mind, like the body, is physical hence impermanent. But chitta is permanent, and connected to the universal chAItanya.
AnnamAchArya concludes this beautiful song stating that, for a person who has Sri VenkaTEswara firmly established in his chitta, one who is His dAsa (i.e., fully surrendered to Him), there is no this side or that side of the birth-and-death cycle. Such a dAsa can attain mOksha (ultimate Freedom) even when they are in their current, mundane life. Those with this Awareness attain mOksha even in this life (telisitE mOkshamu), and their life feels like just a dream (kala vanTidi brathuku). It does not weigh them down - hence they experience ultimate Enlightenment while being alive.
Everyone of us can attain this ultimate Freedom in our own lives, by cultivating attributes like ghana, tatvamati / yogi, dhIra, vivEka that are described above, and by establishing the Lord firmly in our Awareness.
I sincerely hope that I was able to convey even a small part of my fascination for the amounts of profound meaning and vEdantic thought Shri AnnamAchArya packs into his simple every-day lyrics. This song is just one sample; there are thousands more. tALLapAka AnnamAchArya's songs are like bottomless fountains of truth, knowledge and beauty - the more one digs into them, the more life-enriching things one can find in them.
sarvE janAh sukhinObhavantu.
