Kandhar Anubhuti : Verse #3 - What is the Ultimate Truth? (Vaano Punal Paar)

வானோ? புனல் பார் கனல் மாருதமோ?
ஞானோ தயமோ? நவில் நான் மறையோ?
யானோ? மனமோ? எனை ஆண்ட இடம்
தானோ? பொருளாவது சண்முகனே (3)

vaano punal paar Kanal maruthamo
gnaanothayamo navil naan-maraiyo
yaano manamo enai aanda idam 
thaano porulavathu shanmugane! (3)


வானோ - (Is it ) Space?
புனல் - Water
பார் - Earth
கனல் - Fire
மாருதமோ - Or Air?
ஞானோ தயமோ? Is the arise of the Intellect?
நவில் - (Is it) Spoken (or Chanted)
நான் மறையோ - Four Vedas
யானோ -  Is it my Self Identity?
மனமோ? - Or my mind?
எனை ஆண்ட இடம் தானோ? Is it the place where you Offered your Grace?
பொருளாவது - Meaning
சண்முகனே - Six Faced Lord!

Short Meaning
What is the Unchanging Truth, Oh Six Faced Lord? Is it the Five Basic elements? (Space, Air, Fire, Water, Earth) or Is it just intellect? Or is the Four Vedas? Or is it my identity? Or is it my mind? Or is it the Place where you offered your Grace? 

Gloss

In the gloss of the last verse, we briefly touched upon Nirvana Shatakam, where Sri Sankara says He is not the Five Elements and negates what He is not. Sri Arunagiri also follows the same suit - He negates what He is NOT. It seems like a set of rhetorical questions, but He means that The Ultimate Truth is neither of them.

The Five Elements that are often mentioned in Indian Philosophical texts are:

1. Space - Everything exists in Space. Space was the first thing to be created. Space has only one dimension - It exists. No other attribute

2. Air - From space came air - Air has two attributes. It exists and can be felt

3. Fire - From Air came Fire. Fire should not be construed as flame. It is basically energy or heat. Fire can be seen / observed apart from two other attributes. 

4. Water - From Fire came water! Even in chemistry, water molecule is caused in extreme heat by fusion of two hydrogen and one oxygen atom (air and heat , the two previous elements).  Water can be tasted apart from the other three attributes

5. Earth - From water came earth. Apart from the four attributes, earth also has an attribute of smell.

These are collectively referred to as 'Pancha Bhutas' (Five elements) - Everything in the world is made up of varying amount of these five elements. Our body is indeed a collection of all these elements. However, the Ultimate Reality is that we are not either or collection of five elements. 

Then, Sri Arunagiri wonders if the final truth is the Intellect. In Taittriya Upanishad, Sri Bhrigu Maharshi wants to know the Ultimate Truth. 

His first realization is Body is God. He later introspects further and concludes Breath (Prana) is God. He is asked by his father to go deeper, and then deducts that Mind is God. He then digs deeper to deduce that Intellect is God. His father asked him to dig a little deeper to find the truth. Sri Bhrigu realizes that Happiness is God. He never comes back to his father to check if that is the truth. He realizes that Ananda is the form of God, and is God Itself. 

In the line of Taittriya Upanishad, Sri Arunagiri seems to ask is the the Mind? Is it the intellect? 

In Tamil the word மறை means 'to hide' - Since Vedas show the direction to explore the Truth that is hidden, it was also called மறை. The vedas are classified into four - Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana. Sri Arunagiri indicates that though Vedas are very sacred, they only point to the Truth, but not the Truth itself. 

Sri Arunagiri asks if it what he identifies himself as. (யானோ?)

Finally, Sri Arunagiri asks if it is the place where he got the Grace of the Lord. Though the place of realization is very sacred, however, it is not the Ultimate Truth. 

For the second time in the Anubhuti, (after the invocatory verse), Lord Subrahmanya is referred to as 'Shanmukha', the Six faced Lord. 

Lord Shiva, as described in scriptures has Five Faces - Sathyojatham, Vamadevam, Tatpurusham, Ishanam and Aghoram.

In Thirumantiram, one of the Greatest ever Mystical texts in Tamil, describes a sixth face of Lord Shiva which is visible to Greatest of Gods and Saints in their deepest meditative states. This face is called 'Atho Mukham' , and is pointing downwards. 

From this, we can understand that Lord Subrahmanya is none other than the Greatest Form of Lord Shiva. 

The Ancient One of Athomukha

Created Universe vast here below;

In Athomukha He animates all life;

He is Lord of Athomukha Sakti of lotus eye  [Thirumantiram, v524]

The Sakti of the Sadasiva,

Has faces five and hands ten,

Of these, the downward looking face (Athomukha)

Is divine far indeed. [Thirumantiram, v1402]

This information is usually a guarded secret in the texts and is not well known. Infact, out of the 3000 verses, only 4 verses talk about the 6th face of Lord Shiva. All popular texts only talk about the five faces. 

Let us also beseech the Supreme Form of the Lord, the Six Faced Form, Sri Shanmukha to Grant us the Intellect to Know the Ultimate Truth.