MUNICHARRYA PANCHAKAM (Five verses on the Way of the Sages) Sree Narayana Guru

Translated by Guru Muni Narayana Prasad

This work in Sanskrit was dictated to a disciple Unnipparam Vaidyar (later Swami Sachidananda), when he was traveling with Guru in a country boat, around the year 1910. Sivalinga Swami, another of Guru’s disciples, wrote a commentary on it in 1911.

For whom the folded arm serves as a comfortable pillow,

For whom the earth becomes his bedstead,

Whose footsteps make the earth free of its sins,

For such a silent recluse (muni)

Of what real use is any other kind of wealth?

He really over-enjoys the enjoyables of all kinds

Just by attaining the state of realizing, “That Thou Art”. – 1

That silent recluse sometimes appears as 

The most expert among those who do verbally

Express themselves well.

Sometimes he does appear as one of restrained words

While being really wise.

He roams around sometimes as though he is stupid.

Though he sometimes is found dwelling somewhere 

He moves away from there.

Even as he assumes the changeful body, 

Meant to be destroyed in course of time,

He always meditatively perceives within

His being the indestructible ultimate Consciousness. – 2

Undisturbed, the muni is used to sleep by the road

Eating the food he gets unasked and undesired, but

Provided by providence, just to keep the body alive.

Convinced of the oneness of himself and the Supreme Self,

He perceives always the one Self alone (in everything).

He thus remains well finding himself shining

In the real state of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss,

The indestructible, the incomparable. – 3

Turning himself away from this world and the other,

And intending to go beyond the duality

Of the real and the unreal, the muni attains and remains

In the transcendental state well known as turiya (the fourth),

The unthinkable and ungraspable, the extremely subtle,

But equally great, and devoid of any blemishes,

The still state deep like an ocean,

And beyond all arguments

As to the real and the unreal. – 4

An abode owned by him, forest areas, river bank,

Or even uninhabited places wherever be he lives,

The yogi’s mind resides always in Brahman.

Perceiving everything well in the Self or himself,

And treating the entire world merely as mirage-like,

The muni incessantly enjoys the blissfulness of being

One with the Transcendental Brahman,

Beyond all compare. - 5