Deivathin Kural Series - 6

Dated: 13-06-2006.
A carpenter made a wooden carriage, in the form of an Elephant, for the God’s idol in the temple. Another carpenter visited him, accompanied by his son. When the second carpenter, neared the carriage, his son warned him, "Daddy ! Be careful. Don’t go too near the Elephant. He may hurt you ?" The carpenter told his son, "Don’t worry. It is made of wood only. It can not hurt me."
For the child, the Elephant looked too real. The thought that it is an Elephant, hid from the child’s mind that it is made of wood. Simultaneously, though it looked exactly like an Elephant, the carpenter was not afraid because, it’s Elephant-ness was hidden from his mind by the knowledge, that it is made of wood:-
‘The wood hid the Elephant, and
The wood disappeared in the Elephant’........
says, Thirumoolar, in Thirumandiram, a collection of 3000 such poems by him. Thirumoolar was a great poet of yore. He expresses big and complicated ideas, very simply. Why did he says this ? For this we should read the next two lines.
‘The creation hid the creator, and
The creation disappeared in the creator’.......(You should read the original Tamil verse, to enjoy the beauty of the expression. There is a similar poem in Tamil which is quite mis-understood and mis-quoted. It says that, ‘if you see the stone, you don’t see the dog and if you see the dog, you don’t see the stone’.)
Coming back to the original idea, the Elephant and the wood were never different !
They were one and the same. The view changes with the perspective. Similarly the unseen Paramatma or God, and the apparent universe were never different. The doll of the world, is made up of the wood of Paramatma. In our minds the world of space, air, fire, water, and earth,
hides the Reality or Divinity, from our view. For the realized souls however, they see the same God, in everything.
That is all right. Why all these stories ? What we need is a comfortable life, for which we need enough money. We are not concerned with, Paramtma, God, Divinity, Brhmam etc. OK. Let us say that we all become rich. Will that give us a carefree, peaceful life ? Look at the so called Rich countries of the world. Are they peaceful ? Even if every body becomes rich, every individual will desire that he should become richer than others. For achieving that, there will be competition and conflict. It is human nature, not to be satisfied with the available comforts; but desire that it should be more than others. Even if everyone is to get equal comforts, then people will compete with others, that such comforts should be available to themselves first. One small example. See here itself. You all know that at the end of the function here, I give a spoonful of Holy water to each and every person. Every one also knows that, I will not leave the seat till I have served everyone. Still, are you able to quietly and calmly, able to come to me, with the attitude, ‘let me get it in my turn’. You come to me with the idea, that you should get that, ‘uddirini’, of water earlier than others. With that intention, you jump the queue, step on other’s toes, brush aside others, virtually creating a stampede. Till there is competitiveness, no one can have the peace of mind. This cannot be offset by economic prosperity alone. To overcome this competitiveness, one should get the awareness that, there is no one else to compete with. Then only one can have wholesome happiness. So, instead of saying, ‘why bother about self analysis and such things’, be convinced that, Atma Vicharam / self analysis is the Priority One Task. (KTSV Sarma’s comment:- To find out the answer to the question, "Who am I," is Atma Vicharam. The famous Ramana Maharshi, of Thiruvannamalai, says, I Quote, "Every day spent without trying to find the answer to this Self Analysis, is tantamount to suicide".)
If we are not to purchase all the agonies of this world, we must persist with the thought,
‘This world is not what it looks. Not the way it seems to be. This is the Maya of God’. Without this understanding, whatever the economical advancement, whatever the worldly achievements, one will find that this world, is steeped in darkness. We should never give up the effort to attain to the light of knowledge, which chases away the darkness of ignorance. Even if the Sun is to be
lost, the light of Gnanam should not be lost sight of.
Sambhomahadeva.