Thoughts & Lights Translated Of Yennamum Vannamum

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Then Sri Akka asked me to write the foreword to the English translation of her book "Yennamum Vannamum", I was very reluctant. Sri Akka (formally known as Pujyashree Mathioli Saraswathy) is the founder of Nandalala Seva Samithi in India and the Nandalala Mission in the U.S and elsewhere. To most of us who have known her for years, she is an aspect of Divinity. But despite her incredibly full schedule attending to the social services that is a hallmark of her organization, and the hours she spends with her devotees, she writes and releases a new book every Christmas. She writes under the pseudonym "Mathioli", and her books range from story books for children to works of literary art in Tamil. I had been warned that this book fell under the latter category, with long philosophical passages that required deep contemplation. My Tamil language fluency isn't as sharp as it used to be, and having to read this book sounded like a lot of work. Hence my initial reluctance. Nevertheless, I had many hours to kill on a long flight during a business trip, so I started with the Tamil version.

A page and a half into the first chapter, and I was concerned that it was going to be long flight. The book starts with a a philosophical passage about how our ego sometimes blinds us from doing the right thing, and karma catches up with us eventually. And then the familiar story of Ravana begins, and I settle down into my seat comfortably. Ravana is a valiant warrior, yet loses the war to Rama - all because the weapons he obtained from Siva failed him because he had used them to maim Jatayu, a most unrighteous use of his sacred weapons.

An hour later, I am still deeply engrossed in the book, and reading through the fourth story, now my favorite story in the book. This story is about how God prefers the actions of an old lady to those of an emperor who built a magnificent temple that still stands today. The emperor's thoughts were tainted by a tinge of ego when he was building the temple, but the old lady's thoughts were only about serving the men who were building the temple.

I continue reading the rest of the book without interruption. The book has 18 stories, each of which illustrate how the thoughts in our minds ("Ennam") are expressed as actions, and how the actions are the myriad forms of expressions of these thoughts ("Vannam"). The story of Urmila who chose to act nonchalantly when Rama was banished to the forest for fourteen years shows how her actions were colored by her intention to make sure Lakshmana was not distracted by thoughts of home when he was serving Rama and Sita in the forest. There are stories of noble thoughts like devotion, dedication, sacrifice, surrender, and the expression of those thoughts as visible actions. There are stories about the basest thoughts like arrogance and anger, and how their expression results in sorrow or salvation. Collectively, the stories illustrate that a single thought in our mind could result in a million different varieties of action, and a million thoughts in our mind can be expressed in a single colorful deed.

At the end of the business trip, I am already looking forward to reading Mrs. Padma Narayanan's English translation of this book (Thoughts & Lights) on the flight back home. Sri Akka's books illustrate some of the highest virtues truth, devotion, humility, prayer, service usually in the context of a story. Some of Her books are for children, and can be read as simple stories. Others, like this book, have a short discussion on a particular ideal like humility, and an illustrative story to bring out its virtue in daily life. But it is also written in a very literate, poetic style in Tamil, with extensive use of alliteration. The story provides the momentum, the philosophy requires contemplation, and the language and phrasing binds the two into a work of literary art.