Deivathin Kural Series - 184

Om Namah Sivaya.

Deivathin Kural # 184 of 21 Apr 2007.

1. These e-mails, are chapter wise translations of the lectures given by, Sri Chandra Sekharendra Swamigal, of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Every day, after the daily Puja, He used to talk, on various aspects concerning Hinduism. These are published, in Tamil, by Vanady Padippagam, T.Nagar, Chennai, as Deivathin Kural, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each. To-day's talk is titled, 'Innal Tharuvathum Aval Innarule!', that is, 'To Put us Through Difficulties, is Also Ambal's Compassion', in pages 863 to 868, of Deivathin Kural, Volume 1.

2. We say that Ambal is love and kindness personified. At the end of 'Lalitha Sahasranamam', one of the thousand names is, 'Avyaja Karunamurthy', meaning, 'loving without logic'.

3. But the world is full of problems. I only know as to how many different varieties of problems, worries, irritations, threats and uncertainties can be there. Whosoever comes to me and opens his or her heart, in the fond hope of relief, reveal that they are full of woes! More pious have more problems! Some of them tell me, 'I have done so many Poojas, visited so many temples, been to so many stations of religious importance, have bathed in so many sacred rivers and temple tanks; then why should I be tried like this. Ambal keeps on giving me more and more of the same dose of difficulties! I do not see as to how people call Her the, 'Karuna Moorthy', whereas She either does not notice my existance, or has only problems in store for me!' Thus they get even annoyed with Ambal. But, if you ask me, I will say that, 'to give us troubles is also Her Grace!' Come to think of it, this is greater kindness!

4. We bemoan our bad luck, thinking of only the good things that we have done in this life, and feel cheated. But however good we might have been; we have a tendency to skip over our own faults. If we impartially analyse ourselves, we will become aware of our own faults and errors of omission and commission. That is this life. How about our previous lives? That we are happily unaware of. 'You reap as you sow', is an inviolable law of nature. Ambal has ordained so! We have sown in our previous lives, the effects of which we are harvesting now. If we get to know about the sins of our own past, we are likely to change our attitude completely. Then we are likely to feel chastened that, 'In all this, the fact that, She has enabled us to even think of Her, by itself is Her extreme kindness. Even though we deserve to be roundly punished, She has been bountiful with Her blessings! Then to doubt Her kindness was as good as adding insult to injury. We were only piling up the demerits by trying to find faults with Mother!'

5. The child eats sand. Mother ties up the child's hands with a cloth. The child feels bad. 'What Mother is this? She has no kindness. She is my worst enemy!', feels the child. Is it without reason that She tied up the child? Was the child not it's own enemy? What ignorance then, to think of the Mother as the 'worst enemy'? However big we are, we are like that child only! The punishment She metes out for our past sins, is keeping us tied down. We do not have the power to untie ourselves. Then we blame Her for keeping us tied down. Like the child trying to eat mud, we tend to repeat our past mistakes. She has tied our hands to prevent us from repeating our sins. Faced with problems, we should think instead on the following lines, 'This is happening due to our past. So, if we continue to persevere with our errant behaviour, we will face more and more of the problems in the future too. Let us draw a line somewhere. Let us pray to Her to give us better sense'.

6. When we enjoy the pleasures of life, do we have a sense of gratitude? Especially when undeserving, if we are blessed with benefits, we call it 'avyaja karuna'. Problems and difficulties we face are also Her Karuna with reason. This is to correct us from errant behaviour. What we consider as good for us, may create many avoidable problems. So, Her Karuna as a corrective is better than being flooded with seeming good things of life! We neither know the past nor the future. Our knowledge is rather limited. So when faced with difficulties, we think of them as bad. If we can have a wider perspective, we will see that, She never does anything bad to us.

7. A man loaded his donkey with a sack of salt and went to a fair. Earlier on that was the mode of carriage. On the way thre was torrential rains. All the salt melted. The trader got very annoyed with God. He thought, 'This is injustice. I am a poor trader. Why should there have been unseasonal rains like this? I will not pray to God Anymore.' He turned back to his village. The path was through a forest. There were thieves waiting in ambush. Those days, they used to have guns in which gunpowder would be filled in from the muzzle end. The thieves would fire a few random shots and all the traders would drop their bags of belongings and take to heels. But this time, due to rains, the gunpowder was soggy wet and did not fire. Instead of the traders, it is the thieves who got panicky and took to their heels, dropping their guns. Now the trader about whom I told you earlier thought, 'Thank God! Rain caused only some loss of salt. But it has saved my life! Oh! God! I shall never in future forget You!' When we do not know the past and future, our's is a narrow vision. The fact of our narrow vision also, is Her play only!

8. Even when we do not know the past and future, look at the level of our 'Ahankara' and pride. I do not know as to what will be our behaviour, if we become 'tri kala gnani', knowing past, present and future! Possibly, once we have that power and know that others do not have it; we may misuse such powers, as many do! Then He is likely to think 'no end of himself'! His nuisance quotient may reach unmanageable proportions. So, our not knowing the past, present and future may the best for us. At least, we can know that we do not know. Let us trust those 'seers' or visionaries, who tell us, "Everything happens for the good, in the past, present and future. There has to be a reason why we face difficulties. If we are to avoid that in the future, and find way of redemption, She is the Way".

9. Ambal is not sadistic. We should never think so. She is for ever our friend, guide, relative, Father and Mother too.

Sambhomahadeva.