Colophon
Antyavachanam
अन्त्यवचनम्
MERGING SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE FOUNDATION AND FIRST FEW COURSES OF IRAIVAN TEMPLE, Living with Śiva, hinduism’s contemporary culture, LIKE IRAIVAN, IS A MONUMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. THOUGH IT IS THE SECOND BOOK IN the trilogy, it is the final book to be completed, taking its proud place as a 1,000-page tome alongside Dancing with Śiva and Merging with Śiva. The text for the second edition was drawn together, dictated, written and edited by Gurudeva in unfailing daily afternoon sessions with his maṭhavāsis from April, 2000, to June, 2001, on an AirPort (wireless ethernet) network of four Apple Macintosh PowerBook G4 Titanium computers using Farallon’s Timbuktu at an oceanside field office. This book was designed and illustrated by the āchāryas and swāmīs of the Śaiva Siddhānta Yoga Order at Kauai Aadheenam, Kauai’s Hindu Monastery on Hawaii’s Garden Island. This edition was typeset in Adobe InDesign CS2 on a Gigabit Ethernet network of Apple Macintosh PowerBook G4 and PowerMac G5 computers and an Xserve G5. The text is set in Adobe’s Minion family of fonts to which diacritical marks have been added using Fontographer: 12.5-point medium on 15-point linespacing for the body of the book and 8.25 on 9.75 for the glossary and index. Sanskrit and Tamil fonts include those by Ecological Linguistics, Brahmi Type and Srikrishna Patil. Production was supervised by Jainendra Prakash Jain at Shri Jainendra Press in New Delhi, India.§
The cover art is a watercolor by Tiru S. Rajam, 87, of Chennai, India, commissioned for this book in 2000. The painting on the half-title page is by the same artist, a venerable national treasure of South India, musical composer and traditional Tamil Śaivite artist whose work is permanently exhibited in the British Museum in London. The line illustrations used in the highlight boxes on the title pages are also by S. Rajam, drawn from his Periyapuranam and Śiva’s Pranks collections. The vivid oil portrait of Gurudeva on the back cover and the Gaṇeśa on page ii were gifts by India’s renowned artist and national treasure, Sri Indra Sharma, 82, during his sojourn on Kauai in late 1997. He was also commissioned to execute the portrait of Jnanaguru Yogaswami on page iv. The elegant and philosophically rich watercolor paintings that initiate each chapter are the work of Tiru A. Manivelu, 64, commissioned in 2000-2001. The background patterns adorning the title pages were created by a gifted soul of our sannyāsin order based on Manivelu’s paintings.§
The comprehensive index was created by Tirumati Chamundi Sabanathan of Santa Rosa, California, using Sonar Bookends. Sanskrit translation of the chapter titles was provided by Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with proofreading by Dr. Mahesh Mehta of Ontario, Canada, and Dr. P. Jayaraman of New York. Proofreading of the book was completed by Kulapati Easvan Param of Walnut Creek, California, and editing by a brilliant multilingual scholar who wishes to remain anonymous.§
For the transliteration, or spelling, of Sanskrit words we chose the system used by Sir Monier Williams (1819-1899) in his Sanskrit dictionaries. It seemed more natural to us than the system now used in academic texts. Denoting the ch sound and the sh sound are two of the main differences. In the academic system, the ch sound (as in chakra) is spelled with a simple c. We chose ch instead, because in English the c is always sounded as c as in count, or c as in cinder, never as a ch sound, as in charm. We also sought a system that does not require a change in spellings when diacriticals are dropped off. That’s why we also chose to not use the dot under the s for CE, and instead use sh, and to put an i after ṛ, as in ṛishi. A chart of pronunciation is found on page 895.§
A tremendous, historic effort is now underway, for which all three worlds are grateful. Translators around the globe are coming forward to render the three books of our trilogy into an array of tongues. Mrs. Sudha Kulkarni of Pune, India, is translating The Master Course into Marathi. Mr. Sergey Lobanov of Moscow translated Dancing into Russian, and Mr. Alexander Ivantsov of Chernigov, Ukraine, translated Merging. Dr. Cristina Berisso of Redding, California, is bringing the trilogy into Spanish. Mr. Sukumaran Apparu and Kulamata Ahila Devi Ganesan of Malaysia translated Dancing into Malay. Lakshmi Hartmann of Bondorf is bringing Merging into German. Tirumati Damara Shanmugan, founder of the S.H.I.V.A. Braille Foundation of La Mesa, California, has translated the trilogy into braille. Tiru S. Kumarakulasingam of New Malden, England, and Tiru R.V. Subramanian of Greenbelt, Maryland, are dedicated to rendering the trilogy in Tamil, with the assistance of Kulapati Appasamy Kuppusamy of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as typesetter and proofreader. As I write this colophon, these three Tamil elders are laboring on the 365 Nandinātha Sūtras, the core of the the entire Master Course trilogy.§
This is the conclusion of the time-honored Master Course. The teachings contained within the trilogy of Dancing, Living and Merging with Śiva have inspired millions of my devotees in many counties to build temples and make orderly their lives through the past fifty years in various ways, large and small. The tireless efforts of the Saiva Swami Sangam made this all possible. With each and every one who has played a part in the creation of The Master Course we share a well-earned portion of the good karmas that will happen in the lives of all who are exposed, even a little, to these divine truths. May you bask in the glory of good accomplishment.§
