You Sparkle in My Sea of Midnight Blue

(an inspired take on Suttum Vizhi Sudar, a Tamil poem by Bharathi)

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Bharathi’s inner experience of the Divine came in many forms – one particularly being his inner experience of the ‘complete Feminine’, One he refers to as ‘Kannamma’ as seen in this poem, One whose transcendence he experiences as manifest and immanent in every emotion of the girl / woman and no different from nature (Prakriti). It’s very likely that he referred to this inner Feminine as ‘Kannamma’, because the term comes closest to the intimacy of his worldly connection with his wife (Chellammal), whom he saw as a divine manifestation of ParāShakti.

While his poem stems from his experience, which is his alone, we on the other hand are left to interpret his experience intellectually, and experientially in a personal way. Intellectually, through the words, language constructs he uses, the socio-cultural context under which he is operating, his own life experiences and conditioning etc.
Experientially we relate to his experience by plumbing our personal stories and through our conditionings and desires to ‘recreate’ an internal experience that attempts to mirror Bharathi’s.

And so we see the poem as a lover’s passionate ode, as a father’s boundless joy, and in myriad other ways the reader imagines. A million interpretations for a million facets of experiencing love.

The deep mystic that Bharathi was, a more nuanced look at the poem as a spiritual journey of his soul driven by the sole desire to seek union with the One (Brahman, Absolute, Supreme Godhead), provides a beautiful looking glass into the bard’s inner unfolding process.

The first 8 verses can be seen as Bharathi’s spiritual monologue with his ‘inner Para Shakti’ (aka Kannamma or the complete Feminine), where he extols her beauty and sees nature as Her very embodiment.

The first 2 verses introduce the reader to Bharathi’s experience of relating to emotions of Kannamma, as manifest in nature and not apart from it.

In the first verse, her flash of anger is so powerful yet seductive that he is enthralled – he wishes to look away (like the light of the sun, too bright to look upon), yet is drawn to her beauty (like the reflected light of the moon that offers a gentle radiance). Juxtaposing the sun and the moon in the same sentence is an interesting choice by the bard, that reminds me of the worship of God as the Divine Mother (Shakti / Deà) as the Creatrix, also referred to as the Solar Mother. “It is said that when souls fall into Mayā and cease to live in blissful union with the Divine Mother, Her Light becomes unbearable for mere mortals to look upon. So she gives birth to her Daughter, who is apart from Her, yet One with Her, and who brings a reflected light of the Mother that mortals (those separated from their Self) can look upon, just as the moon reflects the bright light of the sun.”

In the second verse he sees the stormy nature of clouds and rain reflected in her eyes, when she is in a dark mood. To compare her eyes to dark skies is curious, as he could have easily used the example of a black raven or burnt coal, but to compare it to dark skies suggests a gathering storm, swirling in its pent up energy. And with this analogy we get a hint of the emotion he sees in her, we understand her mood. Now, rather than run for cover, cower, he willingly surrenders into the beauteous whirlpool of her swirling energy, with no second, nay first thought.

In the next 5 verses we see the bard describing her characteristics as being no different from nature – observing her sashay, her swagger, particularly its interplay with the embedded diamonds in the sari she wears, which he compares to a dark starry night. He delights in her smile that lights up in a kaleidoscope of colors, comparing it to that of a wild garden. He keenly listens to her heart’s ceaseless murmurs, relating the experience to waves washing ashore, and finally he relishes the honey sweetness of her voice, which is no different from the cuckoo’s.

In the 8th verse, he is utterly in love with all of nature in every moment, which is nothing but the external manifestation of his inner Feminine. As within so without. In this verse, the bard evokes so beautifully an important stage in his journey (any soul’s journey), where he begins to see and ultimately only sees Goddess in everything external. மருவல் காதல் கொண்டேன் (maruval kādhal kondaen) is his succinct description of Gnosis, his ‘born-again’ experience, kundalini awakening to the Divine Holy (Feminine) Spirit!

Now that the bard has awoken the last few verses are eye-opening because they are situated firmly in Truth.

Especially in the last 4 verses – Sāthiram pesugirai… – he speaks with clarity when he says to Her – “scripture, rituals, spiritual practices (sadhana, mantra, yantra, prayers) etc., that you quote as a means to unite with you (vaduvai muraigaL), can wait, as they are distractions, tools or merely pointers to reach you, when in fact I already experience You everywhere, within and without”. And he goes on to say “let us leave these byzantine (bridal) rituals for the intellectuals / elderly / wise, for I know my moksha / my samadhi / my divine marriage can be easily sealed with a kiss from You. I await the same impatiently…”.

He very cleverly articulates that he has had a direct, mystical experience of the divine, which can be found only in the individual spiritual evolution, and not within the confines of intellectual dogma. Such an experience cannot be bound by time or space, because rituals, traditions, dogma by definition require structures bound by time, space and causation, whereas the experience of the Divine can only be had in the present moment, in a kiss!

The interesting suggestion through all this is that Bharathi is (we are) the bride of Kannamma and Her kiss is Her grace that brings Bharathi’s Self-Realization (and our’s), and divine union with Source possible. In essence the kiss cements the marriage of the inner Masculine (Sada Siva / Purusha) with the inner Feminine (Adi Parā Shakti / Prakriti) in order to experience the One.

This ultimately is his journey, my journey, your journey.