In continuation of my previous four articles, which were explanatory paraphrases of
Upadesa Undiyar,
Ulladu Narpadu,
Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham and
Ekatma Panchakam, the following is the fifth of seven extracts from the introductory page that I have drafted for
Sri Ramanopadesa Noonmalai:
அப்பளப் பாட்டு (
Appala-p-pattu), the ‘
Appalam Song’, is a Tamil song that Sri Ramana composed for his mother one day in about 1914 or 1915, when she asked him to help her make some
appalams (a thin crisp wafer made of gram flour and other ingredients, also known as
parpata,
pappadam,
poppadum or
pappad, which can either be fried or toasted over a naked flame or in hot embers). He responded by composing this song, in which he compares each of the ingredients, implements and actions required to make an
appalam to the qualities and practices required for us to experience true self-knowledge.
In the
pallavi or refrain (which completes the meaning of the
anupallavi and each of the four verses) he simply says, ‘Making
appalam, see; eating it, fulfil [or destroy] your desire’. The
appalam that he asks us to prepare is the
appalam of true self-knowledge, and what he asks us to see is who we really are. By eating this
appalam — that is, by experiencing true self-knowledge — we will satisfy our hunger for infinite happiness, and thus we will destroy all our other desires, which are all just distorted forms of our fundamental desire for real happiness.