Dedication
Samarpanam
சமர்ப்பணம்
THIS DEDICATION IS THREE-FOLD: FIRST TO HONOR MY SATGURU, SIVA YOGASWAMI, THE LAUDED AND PROCLAIMED PONTIFF OF THE THREE MILLION JAFFNA Tamil peoples, the 161st successor in the esteemed line of the Nandinatha Sampradaya’s Kailasa Parampara, and to Tiru Mylvaganam, whom Yogaswami requested to squeeze grapes into juice for me with his own hands while I sat facing the devotees at the satguru’s left side in 1949. Mylvaganam was also present at the opening of the Sri Subramuniya Ashram in Alaveddy in the early 70s, and years later at the opening of the Subramuniya Kottam in Kopay, where he lives today. In recent years, despite the terrible conflicts in his country, this great man translated 800 of our English verses into modern Tamil which appear in this edition for the next generation. Long ago, Yogaswami gave a sadhana to him to memorize Tirukural and to recite some of the verses daily. Humorously, the youthful, Oxford-educated Mylvaganam said, “Swami, what if I forget some days?” Yogaswami said, “Then I will come as a centipede and bite you.” Mylvaganam has testified now, at 90 years of age, that he has been bitten forty times or more, always soon after he had neglected to recite the verses. He said, “I now see that Yogaswami was preparing me to translate for Gurudeva into modern Tamil all the verses I memorized so many years ago.” We also dedicate this book to Justice of Peace Tiru S. Subramaniam, who witnessed Satguru Yogaswami’s giving me, as a gesture of ordination, a slap on the back as I was leaving his compound one morning, by which he transferred his samskaras, or vital divine spiritual energies.§