by Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) is one of the most revered Hindu sages of the modern era. At age sixteen he underwent a spontaneous experience of death and rebirth that he understood as the realization of the Self, and he spent the remainder of his life at Arunachala in South India, teaching through silence and through the direct inquiry "Who am I?" He composed very little, preferring silence; his Tamil writings are therefore rare and precious.

This poem was written for his mother, Alagammal, as a teaching gift. He took the ordinary domestic activity of making poppadum — a thin lentil bread, prepared by grinding grain, mixing in spices, rolling out the dough, and frying in oil — and turned it into a complete metaphor for the spiritual path. The "black-gram" that must be ground is the ego-self grown in the field of the five bodily sheaths. The rolling-mill of stone is the inquiry "Who am I?" The spices are the practices: association with holy ones, inward turning of mind, restraint of outward sense. The slab of Brahman is where the dough is rolled. The frying pan is the Great Silence.

The verse translation shared here is by an unnamed western devotee of the sage. It was posted to soc.religion.eastern on 18 June 1991 by John Wheeler (Ready Systems), an Advaita Vedanta practitioner and longtime contributor to the group, who introduced it as "a verse translation by a western devotee of the sage."

No need about the world to roam
And suffer from depression.
Make poppadum within the home
According to the lesson
Of "Thou Art That," without compare,
The unique word unspoken.
'Tis not by speech it will declare,
That silence is unbroken
Of him who is the adept sage, the great apotheosis,
With his eternal heritage of Being-Awareness-Bliss.
Make poppadum and after making fry,
Eat, so your craving you may satisfy.

The grain which is the black-gram's yield,
The so-called "self" or "ego,"
Grown in the body's fertile field
Of five-fold sheaths, put into
The roller-mill made out of stone,
Which is the search for Wisdom
(The "Who am I?"). 'Tis thus alone
The self will find it's freedom.
This must be crushed to finest dust
And ground up into fragments
As being the "non-self," and so must
We shatter our attachments.
Make poppadum and after making fry,
Eat, so your craving you may satisfy.

Mix in the juice of square-stemmed vine —
This is association
With holy men. With this combine,
Within the preparation,
Some cumin seed of inward-mind
And pepper of refraining
From outward search through the senses. Grind
with them some salt, which is remaining
Indifferent to the world we see,
With condiment of leanings
Toward virtuous unity —
These are their different meanings.
Make poppadum and after making fry,
Eat, so your craving you may satisfy.

The mixture into dough now blend
And on the stone then place it
Of the mind (by tendencies hardened)
And without ceasing baste it
With heavy strokes of the "I-I,"
Delivered with the pestle
Of inward mind, and slowly
The mind will cease to wrestle.
Then roll out with the pin of peace
Upon the slab of Brahman.
Continue effort without cease
With energetic élan.
Make poppadum and after making fry,
Eat, so your craving you may satisfy.

The poppadum, or soul, is now fit
To put into the fry pan,
(The one infinite symbol, it,
Of the Great Silence) which can
be first prepared by putting in
Some clarified fresh butter
Of the Supreme, and now begin
To heat it till it sputter.
On wisdom's self-effulgent flame
Fry poppadum, I, as That,
Enjoying, all alone the same,
Which bliss we ever aim at.
Make poppadum and after making, eat —
Of perfect peace you will be replete.

Colophon

Composed in Tamil by Sri Ramana Maharshi for his mother, Alagammal, at Arunachala, South India. The verse translation into English is by an unnamed western devotee of the sage. Shared on soc.religion.eastern on 18 June 1991 by John Wheeler ([email protected], Ready Systems), who noted: "This humorous song was written by the sage Ramana Maharshi for his mother. In it, the recipe for making poppadum (a type of Indian bread or cracker) is used as a metaphor for the spiritual path. The original is in Tamil verse." Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the UTZOO Usenet mirror (shiftleft.com) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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