Deivathin Kural Series - 73

Om Namah Sivaya.
Deivathin Kural # 73 of 25 Sept 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'. When he adds any personal observations he uses the phrase, 'KTSV adds'.
2. To-days chapter is from his lecture, titled, 'Eliya Vazhvu, ie., 'Simple Living', in pages 363 to 366, in Volume 1 of Deivathin Kural. Unless specifically mentioned, he or man includes, she or woman.
3. Now-a-days, we hear a lot of talk about making efforts to raise the standard of living. Government says that all planning is for this purpose. Everybody do need, enough food, clothing and accommodation. For this the Government should plan. By running after more and more materials, standard of life will not be raised. In fact, the standard or quality of life, is not dependent on proliferation of possessions. 'Mana niraivu', or contentedness, is to be achieved in the mind and not elsewhere. Having increased one's own requirements, if you run from pillar to post, with anxiety and aspiration, you can only end up increasing your own blood pressure with eventual collapse. We are seeing this in all walks of life. Our people are avidly copying the western world, for the satisfaction of the senses. But the westerners, who have attained to the top of their life, are flocking to our country in hoards, to get to know, Yoga, Vedanta and Bakthi. They come here because they realize that the senses are insatiable. If we do not learn a lesson out of this, it is simply bad luck.
4. If someone has a bureau full of clothes; goes to hotels and eats whatever his eyes alight on; has his house air conditioned and so on; does not mean that he has achieved a 'standard' in life. If his heart is full, then he has attained a 'standard'. The contentedness can never be achieved by outer materials. As you keep accumulating things, we will aspire for more and more luxury goods. Seeing us, others will also start having this thirst. Those who cannot afford them, will be either frustrated or spurred on to henious methods. This leads to competetiveness, jealousy, hatered and heartburn. Till the urge is in you, that you need this or you want that; you remain incomplete, poverty stricken. If your pocket is empty, you want some money. If you have a few thousand rupees, you feel that your requirements will be met by a few lacs. The process goes on, in the case of Carorepathis and Millionaires. By having more money, we become poorer.
5. As the possessions proliferate, devine aspirations dwindle. Kindness, love, tolerance and humaneness vanish. In the so called advanced nations, we see so much of depravity, meanness, purposelessness, drift, lack of morality, and selfishness. We are inviting all that here too, with 'Poorna Kumbam'. Modern life has come to mean; thinking unwanted things as essentials; to get those things, search for money by 'hook or crook', to the utter neglect of 'self-improvement'. Where is the time for art, culture, literature, poetry and so on, when all the time is spent on self-serving process of amassing? We have lost peaceful life forever, because we have forgotten the beauty of the word, 'enough'.
6. Now no body has fullness. In social life too, mutual love and respect is gone, and replaced by jealousy and hate. If one man is 'showy', others will look down on him and some may envy him. But when the whole society is running after wealth and lucre; competition, comparison, dislike, jealousy, hate and other added crimes multiply. Can anybody satisfy all his wants? Mahatma Gandhi once said, 'There is enough in this world for everyone's need; but there is not enough for even one man's greed!'. When everybody is greedy, then what happens?
7. So, it is better for the rich to live a simple life, is better for them and others in the society. In olden times, it was like that. For those who were caring for the vedas, the kings were prepared to give any amount of wealth. But they did not like to live a life of ostentation. They were enjoined by the Sastras to refrain from pomposity. They were not to develop love for materials. We can gues this from some of the words in Tamil. 'Venkala Panai' and 'Vaira Olai', for example. All the utensils in everyone's households were made of baked clay. They were called, so-and-so pot or 'panai'.
So, when brass utensil came to be used, it became a brass-panai. Same way, the women wore palm-leaf-ear-ornament. Even the Goddess was described as having a 'panai-olai' or palm-leaf ornament. In Syamala Dandakam, the Goddess Lakshmi is described to be adorned with, 'tharalee thala batha thadanga busha viseshanvithe'. Later even when the ear-stud came to be made of diamonds, the 'olai' word for palm leaf, got connected to it. In olden times, even the well to do, would live in houses similar to other's. People were wary of flaunting their wealth. The exceptions were those of the houses of Kings and Ministers. Some of the very rich businessmen of Vaisya caste would have some big residences. They benefitted the artists in sculpture and architecture, in doing so. But the Brahmins who lived the life of, 'friends, guides and philosophers', to the society, lived in modest accommodations only. 'Siruga katti peruga vazh', was the catch phrase, meaning, 'construct small and live big'! In all matters the Brahmin was to live a simple life.
8. If the palace of the King was a house of splendour, the biggest was always the Temple, the House of Gods. For the God, the best of everything was offerred. When there was a Temple festival, it was as though the whole town was celebrating a Marriage Ceremony. For individual beings, there was never a dinner party or a 'high tea', as it is called. When people with the wherewithal, could live a simple life, others did not feel envious. But later when they gave up Veda Rakshanam and village life, and came to the towns, and fell into the money hunting process, the mutual amiability in the society was the victim. To go back to simple living now, is a herculean task!
9. Till Gandhi was alive, there was atleast some talk of, 'simple living'. Now the idea has gone out of currency. We have to make an effort to atleast turn people's mind towards such ideals. We have to live like that to demonstrate to others. To live a simple life, to do one's duties, to be happy, by cutting down our requirements, to develop such mentality, May God Chandramouleeswara, bless us all.
Sambhomahadeva.