Deivathin Kural Series - 30

Om Namah Sivaya.
19 July 2006.


1.These e-mails are translations of talks given by the erstwhile Pontiff of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over more than sixty years, published by Vanady Padippagam, T.Nagar, Chennai, India, in ten volumes, in the Tamil language. The english version is likely to be available very soon. These e-mails are simply an effort on the part of the sender, to share some of his bliss, as it is said, 'Yam perra peru peruga ivvaiyagam'.

2. To-day's e-mail is the translation of what is given in pages, 124 to 129, in volume I, under the heading, 'Peyarillada Madam', ie., 'The Nameless Religion'. From page 124 to 284, Periyaval has grouped them under the Heading, Vaidika Madam. (As you know, Man herein includesWoman and vice versa.)
3. What we call the Hindu Religion, nowadayas, actually does not have this name. Hindu means Love. The one who hates cruelty, is a Hindu. This is an interesting statement, but not the meaning of the word. In our olden literatures, there is no such word as, 'Hindu'. Hindus is a name given to the people of this country by foreigners. Foreigners coming in to India, from the North and West, came across the Sindu river. The river was called the Indus, and accordingly, the country came to be called India and it's people the Hindus. It is a funny thing, as to how these names come in to being. You call a place a name and then, places beyond that, also get the same or a derivative name. In North India, whenever a Bairagi begs, people used to give alms. Bairagis had a crib that South Indians do not do so. They sing a song, in which there is a line, that goes like this. 'illa po po kahe telungi'. The song coveys that the Telugu speaking people, chase Bairagis away, saying, 'illai po po'. This is to say in Tamil, 'no alms, go go'. From North India, the Bairagis evidently came down South to Tamil Nadu, through, the Telugu speaking Andhra. The Bairagi must have been told to go away, in Tamil. Understanding neither Tamil nor Telugu, he ends up calling the Tamilians as Telungi. A similar case is one in which, the people of Andhra Pradesh, call Tamil speaking people as, 'Aravam vadu'. The lower portion of Andhra Pradesh, towards South is called, 'Arva desh'. So Tamil Nadu located further South also gets to be called 'Aravam vadu'. Similarly, the foreigners ended up calling the vast sub continent beyond the Indus river, as India and their religion as Hindu.
4. But Hindu is not our original name. What we call, 'Vaidika or Sanathana Madam', is also not our real name. When we search in the Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas, this religion has no name whatsoever. When I thought about this, I felt very bad! Let it be kept aside.
5. One day some one told me, that 'Ramu has arrived'. Slightly absent minded, I asked, 'which Ramu?'. The counter question came, 'Are there many Ramus, that You have to ask, Which Ramu?'.
I got it. In our village, there were four boys of the same name. For identification, they were called, 'black Ramu, small Ramu, big Ramu and white Ramu'. Absent mindedly I had asked, 'which Ramu?',
even when there was only one person being referred. I immediately also understood as to why, there is no name for our religion. When there are many of a kind, there is a need for identification. When there is only one there is no need for a name!
6. Other than our Religion, all other Religion's names have evolved from some Great Being. Buddhism has come from Budda. There was no Buddhism before Buddha. Jainism is from, Maha Vira Jina.
Christianity is fron Jesus Christ. So thus,every Religion has come into being, from some Great Soul and there was no such Religion before Him. Before the evolution of any such religion, our religion was there. No one man created this Religion. Before the advent of any other religion, this was spread all over the Globe. Since there was no other religion, it had no name. There was no need to name it. I was not feeling bad any more and I had more respect for my own religion.
7. OK, OK, let us accept it to be the oldest of Religions. But the question arises as to who is the original founder of the Religion? It has been impossible to find out as to who could have been the original founder of this nameless religion, however much one may search. If we ask the question as to whether, we should call Veda Vyasa, who organised the Vedas in to four parts and wrote the Brhma Sutra, or Sri Krishna who gave Bagawat Gita, or some one like that, the answer promptly comes to mind that, they are all talking about or quoting Vedas,already existing prior to them. Then if we try to identify the Great Sages or Brhma Rishis, who were the First ever people quoting the Veda Mantras; again, we come to noughts. The Rishis invariably, emphatically, have said that, they are not the authors
of those Mantras. When we chant Each Mantra, we touch the Head with a particular Rishi's name. But they say, that they are only those to whom, the Mantra was revealed. The Mantras were made available through them and not composed by them. 'When we subdued our minds and sat in Meditation, the Mantras were seen by us in the Akasa. We are only Mantra Seers and not Creators,' they say. Mantra Drashtas and not Mantra Kartas.
8. All sounds are originated in Space only. The sight evolves out of that. Modern Science says that the Universe is created by vibrations in space. By the power of their 'Tapasya', the Rishis saw the Mantras and their sounds, in space. But the mantras are not their creations. The mantras are, 'apourusheyam', or not-man-made. The Vedas are Devine breaths. The Rishis found them and gave them to the World. When we get to know this, the regret that our religion is nameless, becomes a matter of pride and pleasure. We will feel happy that we are heir to a religion, which has the Devine Breath as the Vedas, from which the rest of the religion has evolved.
Sambhomahadeva.