Verses 773 and 774 of Guru Vachaka Kovai are
grouped together under a chapter heading entitled ‘Being
Still’ or ‘Remaining Still’. The second of these
two verses immediately attracts attention because it states quite
clearly that abiding in swarupa, one’s true state, is
a state of laziness:
The method of true and supreme tapas that
our Lord Ramana declares to be worthwhile and which the mind
should firmly hold onto is this, and no more: ‘Being
still.’ Other than this there are absolutely no thoughts
to think, nor any duties to be contemplated by it.
The lazy state wherein you exist motionlessly
and shine is the state of swarupa. In that supreme
state you have become That. It cannot be attained except by
direct, excellent and rare tapas. You should therefore
honour those who are established in that laziness as holy
beings.
This state is described, perhaps a little
ironically, as ‘lazy’ only because there is no one left
there who can do anything. Muruganar wrote in Padamalai
that Bhagavan bestowed this state on him:
The golden Padam [Bhagavan] completely
abolished my wandering around as a wicked one and made me
shine as a perfect idler.
Even the actions I perform, believing them to be
my own, are in reality the actions of Padam, the
complete and absolute truth.
(Padamalai, pp. 342, 343, vv. 62, 64)
Bhagavan also mentioned this state of laziness in Aksharamanamalai
verse 37:
If I sleep consciously as a lazy one, remaining
still and consuming bliss, this is the supreme state. Is there
any [state] other than this, O Arunachala? If there is, please
tell me!
I have just done a quick check on the two English
versions (Collected Works and Prof. Swaminathan’s Five
Hymns to Arunachala) that are on my bookshelf, and neither of
them mentions the word ‘lazy’ even though it is clearly
mentioned in the verse. I suspect the translators felt that
‘lazy’ as a description of the Self was more than a
little pejorative, so they toned the first phrase down and used
the more euphemistic phrases ‘lying in peaceful repose’
and ‘slumbering in quiet repose’. I would guess they
were trying to convey the idea that it was a state in which
nothing could be done or needed to be done. While this is a true
description of the state being described, the impact of the
original phrase is considerably watered down.
I think that Bhagavan, the author, intended to
convey the full and normal meaning of the word ‘lazy’
when he composed this verse, not some wishy-washy state of
‘quiet repose’. When Muruganar wrote his Tamil
commentary on Aksharamanamalai (Aksharamanamalai Vritti
Urai) and showed it to Bhagavan, Bhagavan endorsed this
interpretation by adding the following verse from Tirumandiram,
one of the canonical scriptures of Saivism, to the section of
Muruganar’s manuscript that dealt with this verse:
The place where the lazy ones dwell is pure space.
The place where the lazy ones rest is pure space.
The consciousness of the lazy ones remains
in the place which the Vedas have abandoned
as beyond their scope.
The lazy ones have gained the state in which they
are sleeping,