61. Thy throat the black sea's poison drank, as 'twere ambrosia sweet,
O deer-skin wearer, Uma's lord, king of the gods on high;
Kailasa's hill is Thine abode, and when Thy lovers cry
"Forgive our sin," great One, forgiveness is Thy duty meet;
For with Thee is great grace, lord of celestial beings all,
Who dwell'st in Avaduturai, where peacocks dance and call.

The dreadful fate in store for irreligious men that is of being slowly killed by sore sickness, then being born again to a joyless life that circles round once more to death in unending cycles of dreariness.

The 'letters five' in no. 63 refer to the five-syllabled phrase na-mah-Si-va-ya, whose praise is chanted in vv. 53-55.

62. The ill-starred town without a house of God,
Wherein white ash on no man's brow doth glow,
The town where pious praises are unsung,
Where are no wayside shrines men's faith to show,
Where none blow joyfully the conch-shell white,
Where spread no canopies, no flags appear,
Where none make flowery offerings ere they eat,
Call it no town, 'tis but a jungle drear.

63. If men speak not His name in letters five,
Nor e'er the fire-formed Siva's praise repeat,
And never walk in reverence round His shrine,
And pluck no flowers for offering ere they eat,
If they for healing wear no sacred ash,
I'll tell you whereunto such men were born,
'Twas that foul plagues might torture them to death,
Then death bring rebirths endlessly forlorn.

Our last fragment from Apparswami is in the minor key, in which so many of his refrains are pitched. It seems to prove, contrary to tradition, that Appar was once a married man.

64. Immersed in painful cherishing
Of child and wedded wife,
No room is there in me to feel
Thy power, Lord of my life.
O whereunto came I to birth?
To cherish this false world?
Or watch it, bubble-like, appear,
Then be to nothing hurled?

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SUNDARAMURTI

SUNDARAMURTI SWAMI AND HIS HYMNS

III.