Sumati Satakam 3

ఎప్పుడు సంపదగలిగిన
అప్పుడు బంధువులు వత్తురది ఎట్లన్నన్
తెప్పలుగ చెరువు నిండిన
కప్పలు పదివేలు చేరు గదరా సుమతీ
eppudu sampada galigina
appudu banDuvulu vattiradi etlannan
teppaluga ceruvu nindina
kappalu padivElucEru gadarA sumatI

ఎప్పుడు = whenever
సంపదగలిగిన = riches come
అప్పుడు = then
బంధువులు వత్తురు = relatives will come
అది ఎట్లన్నన్ = If you ask how It is
తెప్పలుగ = plentiful
చెరువు నిండిన = if the tank is full (with water)
కప్పలు = frogs
పదివేలు = ten thousand
చేరు = will join
గదరా సుమతీ

When riches come to you relatives will also come to you. It is like when there are good rains and the tank is full, frogs will appear there in thousands. Another simple fact and the same as in the earlier padyam.
People will not really like you when you are poor. They will even keep distance from you, lest you may ask for some assistance. But when you are rich or you get to become rich, all these relatives who earlier have deserted you will come back to you as if nothing happened.
In all the Satakams, there will be a simple proposition and the same will be illustrated with some worldly phenomenon which is very well known.
Here the matter of relatives coming back is likened to the act of frogs. Frogs leave the tank when it dries up. Biology says that frogs will also dry up and wait till there is water. But, the poet does not take that into account. He simply says that the frogs will come back in thousands when the rains come and the tank is full of water. Frogs are not exactly in love with the tank. What they need is water. They will come when there is water.
Relatives also do not love you if you are poor. They are in love with the money that you have. So, they come to you only when you have money. People! Frog people! That is what the poet means.

Sumati satakam 2

చుట్టములు గాని వారలు
చుట్టములము నీకటంచు సొంపు దలిర్పన్‌
నెట్టుకొని యాశ్రయింతురు
గట్టిగ ద్రవ్యంబు గలుగ గదరా సుమతీ

Cuttamulu gAnivAralu
Cuttamulamu nIkatabcu sompu dalirpan
Nettukoni yashrayinturu
Gattiga dravyambu galuga gadarA sumati
చుట్టములు గాని వారలు = Those who are not your relatives
చుట్టములము నీకటంచు = saying that we are your relatives
సొంపు దలిర్పన్‌ = in a beautiful manner
నెట్టుకొని యాశ్రయింతురు come to your umbrage forcefully
గట్టిగ ద్రవ్యంబు గలుగ = when you beget a lot of property
గదరా సుమతీ isn’t it Oh! Wise one!
In Baddean’s Sumati satakam there are quite a few poem that explain the effect of wealth. Here he very simply says that when you acquire a lot of money and material, even those who are not your relatives will come to you against your wishes. They will claim that they are your relatives, per force.
Baddena, to me used the word “nettukoni” which literally means after pushing. If one has to be accepted as a friend or relative, it has to be with the acceptance of both the parties. Here, if you are rich, your acceptance becomes irrelevant. The way people push themselves into your domain, you will, perhaps, not have an option of accepting them.
In Telugu classical poetry there is a rule that the second letters in all the lines of the poem are the same. Cuttamu has a tta. Nettukoni has a tta. Then when the matter of the money has came the word used is not exactly necessary there. Money is not hard (gattiga). Interestingly in English money is sometimes called hard cash if it is cash and not kind, that is material. This is a coincidence. Baddena with this word meant a lot of wealth!
It is simply said here that if you become rich everyone claims that they are related to you. They expect you to share some of your wealth with them. A simple truth!

Sumati Satakam 1

Today I am starting with Sumati Satakam. People have liked the entries on Vemana Satakam. We will resume them after some time. Next few entries will be on Sumati Satakam. Kindly add your comments when you visit the blog. That will tell me where I am heading to and help me do the job better.

Here is the first entry. There is no sequence justification though.

తన కోపమె తన శత్రువు,
తన శాంతమె తనకు రక్ష, దయ చుట్టంబౌ
తన సంతోషమె స్వర్గము,
తన దుఃఖమె నరక మండ్రు తథ్యము సుమతీ
Tana kOpame tana satruvu
Tana sAntame tanaku raksha, daya cuttambou
Tana santOSame swargamu
Tana dukhame narakamandru, taTyamu sumati

తన కోపమె = one’s anger
తన శత్రువు,= is one’s enemy
తన శాంతమె = one’s peace
తనకు రక్ష, = is one’s protection
దయ = mercy
చుట్టంబౌ= will be a relative
తన సంతోషమె = one’s happiness
స్వర్గము,= is heaven
తన దుఃఖమె = one’s sorrow
నరకమండ్రు = is hell, they say
తథ్యము = this is a fact
సుమతీ = Oh! The one with good mind! ( The refrain in this Satakam or the hundred verses)

తన కోపమే తనను శత్రువులువలె బాధించును. తన శాంతమే తనను రక్షించును. తన దయయే తనకు చుట్టమువలె సహాయపడును. తన ఆనందమే తనకు ఇంద్రలోక సౌఖ్యము. తన దుఖమే తనకు నరకమగును. ఇది నిజము.
Oh, wise man! The knowledgeable people say that if one is having anger, it will trouble him like an enemy. But if one has a peaceful and tolerant countenance, it will protect him. If one is merciful and takes a sympathetic stand towards people, it will help him like as if it is a relative. If one is happy, there would be a feeling of being in the heaven. On the contrary if one is in sorrowful situation, life will be nothing less than hell.
Baddena, a poet philosopher composed poems in the form of Kanda (a metre in Telugu classical poetry) on the human qualities and virtues as well as vices. To write a good Kanda padyam was considered a great poetic feet. That too if it contains a lot of meaning in those four short lines, it would be a real treat to the reader. The refrain at the end of these verses is “Sumati”. Mati is the mind with the capacity of discrimination. “Su” is a qualifying word which means good. Baddena gave these verses to only those with understanding. A good word is as good as is understood. Music, however wonderful, is useless for a deaf person. Same is the case with good words. Sumati satakam is such a well known work that any Telugu person worth his salt will know at least one poem from it.
In this poem Baddena tells us about the mental status and the effect thereof. These verses hardly need any explanation. That is the beauty of these works. Anger harms. Good feelings will elevate your mood further. Happiness puts you on the top of the world, whereas sorrow throws one into an abyss called sorrow. One has to know how to control these feelings and keep self in good stead.
If we try to comment in detail, any amount of discussion can happen here.
I request friends who visit the blog to add a couple of words themselves about the poem.
Thanks.

Vemana 10

ఎంత చదువు చదివి ఎన్నెన్ని విన్నను
హీనుడవగుణంబు మానలేడు
బొగ్గుపాల గడుగ పోవునా మలినంబు
విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ
Enta caduvu cadivi ennenni vinnanu
hInudavaguNambu manalEdu
boggupAla gaduga pOvunA malinambu
viswadABirAma vinura vEma

ఎంత చదువు చదివి = however much educated
ఎన్నెన్ని విన్నను = however much he listens
హీనుడు = a mean man
అవగుణంబు = lowly characters
మానలేడు = can not stop
బొగ్గుపాల గడుగ = if coal is washed in milk
పోవునా మలినంబు = will the dirt go
విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ

However much educated, or listens to people, a bad man can never stop his bad ways. It is like even after washing in milk, coal will not lose its dirty appaerance.

Vemana in this verse refers to the futility of formal education without the the ethics and culture. Eduaction in ancient style is by study and listening to the masters. Even these things will give the right benefit in only the right kind of people, means Vemana. If a person by birth or habit is immersed in bad ways, eduaction of this type can not make him mend his ways.
Vemana comments on two things here. One is education without the completeness i.e. culture. Another is the unchanging ways of bad people.
It is common knowledge that this world has two kinds of bad people. One without education another kind belongs to bad people with education.
You look at all the happenings that appear in news. It is always some well educated people invlved in bad acts and crimes of all sorts. Politics usedto be run by the intelligentsia at one point. Now it is perhaps in the hands of many people who are no doubt educated. By no means all of them can be called good.
In every instance Vemana has a good simily to illustrate the point. Coal is dirty. You can wash it. Not with water but with milk.
Milk is supposed to be purifying even the sinners. Vemana takes a jibe at tradition by taking milk and not water to make the coal clean. Water is an ordinary purifier. Milk is a superior one to water. Vemana hence says, even if washed with milk, coal will not lose its quality of making things dirty when it comes into contact. A bad man creates few more bad people. A good man may not be able to turn people int good people. One only has to look for interpretation of each and every word Vemana uses. Everyt word has a purpose, it appears.

If one wants to comment on what Vemana tells in three lines, one can perhaps write a big book. It is the brevity that gives Vemana the palce that he has in the firmament of litearture.
Being able to tell in fewer words is a skill that is not easily possible.

Vemana 9

ఎంత సేవచేసి యేపాటు పడినను
రాచమూక నమ్మరాదురన్న
పాముతోడిపొందు పదివేలకైనను
విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ

Enta sEva cEsi yE pAtupadinanu
rAcamUka nammarAduranna
pAmutOdipondu padivElakainanu
viswadABirAma vinura vEma

ఎంత సేవచేసి = however much you serve
యేపాటు పడినను = however much you struggleరాచమూక = the royal crowd
నమ్మరాదురన్న= you should not believe oh! Brother!పాముతోడిపొందు = The company of a snake
పదివేలకైనను = even if Ten thousands are offeredవిశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ
It is interesting to see how Vemana denounced the rich and the mighty.
In this verse there is not much of hidden detail to understand. The fact is so simply told that you don’t require any commentary at all. Vemana tells that however much you have served them and struggled during that service, you should not believe the royal class. It is to say that those from the class that is used to being served, there is no habit of remembering the service or being grateful for the service. Vemana compares such association with rich people with living in the company of a snake. A snake is a snake. It takes a bite when it feels like. It does not think about whom it is harming. Similarly a rich person will not reciprocate the goodness just because the person happens to be one who served them at a point of time.
The third line gives the feeling of an incomplete expression. But it is the beauty of poetry where the creator expects the readers to imagine words that he has imagined. Even if a lot of money is offered, the company of a snake is not acceptable. It is not even suggestible. This is what Vemana means by the words in the third line.
There is no royal class, now a days in the society. May be we can attribute the word to the rich people who do not think of being kind to their servants.

వేమన 8

ఎలుకతోకదెచ్చి యేడాది యుతికిన
నలుపునలుపేగాని తెలుపుగాదు
కొయ్యబొమ్మదెచ్చి కొట్టిన పలుకదు
విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ
elukatOkadecci EdAdi yutikina
nalupu nalupEgAni telupugAdu
koyyabommadecci kottina palukadu
viswdABirAma vinurvEma

This poem is also there in another form. in that instead of toka it is said tolu.
Vemana says that change is not possible easily. He never talks of humans in the verse. To me what he means is that humans are also like the rats skin and wooden statue.
To tell the meaning straight now,
You bring the tail or skin of a rat and wash for an year.
It would remain black and necer turn white.
It is like bringing a wooden doll or statue and hitting it again and again. It would never utter a word.
What Vemana means here is that one should know to what end you are taking the trouble of doing something. Before starting a work you should know the result expected and also the possibility of such a result. If you try to achieve the unachievable, no one can be blamed for the end result or the lack of it.
Trying to change people is also like this effort of making a wooden doll speak. But here, sustained effort may give some result.
There is a lot understand in this poem.

Vemana 7

నేరనన్నవాడు నెఱజాణ మహిలోన

నేర్తునన్నవాడు వార్తకాడు

ఊరకున్నవాడె యుత్తమోత్తముడయా

విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ.

nEranannavAdu nerajANa mahilOna

nErtunannavAdu vArtakAdu

UrakunnavAdu uttamOttamudayA

viswadABirAma vinura vEma

This padyam has a different version also. In that version the last line says

UrakunnavAdu uttama yOgira

నేరనన్నవాడు = One who says he does not know or learnt

నెఱజాణ = crafty person

మహిలోన = in this world, in this earth

నేర్తునన్నవాడు = one who saya heknows or has learnt

వార్తకాడు = good at speaking, one who creates news

ఊరకున్నవాడె = one who kept quiet or kept silent

యుత్తమోత్తముడయా = is the best man

విశ్వదాభిరామ వినురవేమ.

This is one of the not so very well known padyams of Vemana.

When I narrated this to a gentleman, he immediately said, it is escapism.

I did not really think there is any escapism in it.

The padyam says, one who claims that he does not know anything is a learned man. It is because, if you say you know, you have to get into a discussion and perhaps a controversy also. It is not exactly maintaning neutrality at the time of crisis, but is pleading ignorance when you know it is not the right place or time.

Vemana says, one who says he knows is only good at talking. VartakAdu is a word which is not in much use in Telugu. In Tamil vArta is a word. Similarly vArta in Telugu is news. Was it like this in Veman's time? I believe it was. Vemana used this word , perhaps for the poetry's sake. Even then it means what exactly it has to. If you are good at creating news or talking, indulge in some discussion!

In the third line which has two versions, Vemana says, one who keeps quiet without saying either he knows, or he does not know, is the best of the best according to the Telugu version used here. The second version adds a quality and calls such a person a Yogi. Yogi is a little superior to the best man.

You know when to say yes, when to sy no, and also when to keep silent. Then you are a Yogi.

If people understand more from this padyam, I heartily welcome them to share their views.

Let me confess, I am not an expert on anything. The kind of response I am seeing makes me indulge in thsees writings.