DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (of Vol 2) Dated 11 June 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (of Vol 2) Dated 11 June 2008
(To-day’s e-mail is a continuation of Deivathin Kural # 117 dated 08 June 2008. These are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, over a period of some sixty years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published in Tamil by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each, as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from the middle of Page 862, of volume 2, of the Tamil original. )

18. When I say that, the mentality and attitude for ‘Saranaagati’ will evolve only when girls are married at the same age of seven, exactly like Upanayanam for boys is done at the age of seven, you are likely to respond with the question as to, “How is this possible in the present day world? Is it not illegal too?” I am not telling you to break the orders of the Government. The very people who are now ruling the country, once upon a time, demonstrated as to how to disobey the Government by what was known as the ‘Civil Disobedience Movement’! ‘Just because you have made an act of the Government, that act cannot become binding on us’, they said then. Our Hindus are naturally law abiding and so will not raise a flag of revolt saying, ‘Even if you want to put us behind bars, we will not care. Vivaham is a religious Samskara and it cannot be made into an act of common law. We will not accept the same’.

19. But, that is not the only reason that I am not asking you to do so either. Once you start breaking the rules, that will become a habit and for any and every stupid reason, we will be breaking the law of the land! That is why I am not telling you to do so either! But, without breaking the Law of the Land, there are many avenues for our voice to be heard. We must take all possible efforts to make the Government and politicians, listen to our point of view. While saying this, I know that, more than other religionists, it is the Hindu himself who neither knows nor abides with what the Sastras say about this. There is no gain saying that, ‘Balya Vivaham’, has enormously more advantages than, ‘the hap-hazard gamble of hit in the dark system’, that we have in place now. All that I have to say is that, as per Hindu Dharma Sastra, Balya Vivaham should become the Law of the Land for Hindus. Towards this we should explore all avenues to change the people’s minds and influence the public opinion! By way of persuasion, we should keep on drilling it into people’s minds that Dharma Sastras themselves form sufficiently exhaustive set of rules and regulations, for the Hindu! Let it take some years, may be ten years or hundred or even a thousand years. But the Dharma Sastras should become the law as applicable to the Hindu, in matters concerning his Samskaras and life, which anyhow does not infringe on any other religionist’s life whatsoever.



Detailed Consideration of the Facts.



20. In the early part of the 20th Century, many Indian leaders of repute, joined issue on the subject of women’s age for marriage, amongst Hindus. Their point was that ‘Balya Vivaham’ should not be there. Girls should only be married after they have come of age. That is when they have attained to puberty! With this view, they conducted many meetings, in which were passed many a resolution. They were not non-believers in the Vedas. But they believed that, their view was approved by the Vedas and ‘Balya Vivaham’ was without any sanction from the Vedas.

21. M. Rangachariyar, Sivaswamy Iyer, Sundaram Iyer, Krishna Swamy Iyer, were some of those big-wigs. Later Right Honourable V.S.Srinivasa Sastry, argued a lot on these people’s behalf. They including their followers were all highly qualified in Veda, Sastras and Puranas! They conducted two major public meetings; one by Vaishnavas in Kanchipuram and second by Smarthas in Thiruvaiyaru. Their claim was that as per the Vedas, Marriages used to take place only after attainment of puberty by both men and women! They described the reason why, ‘Balya Vivaham’ was an interim interpolation necessitated by recent history.

22. They said that, when the Indian sub-continent was invaded by ‘Muslims and Turks’, they used to forcibly take away young girls for inclusion into their harems. But they spared the already married women, from this fate. So the custom of ‘Balya Vivaham’ became the custom! Having said this, these pseudo reformists argued that the uncivilized acts of pre-puberty marriages should be got rid of once and forever. (KTSV adds: - There is an interesting anecdote. During the war in East Pakistan / later Bangladesh , I happened to be traveling in side that war torn country. One evening, we were halting for the night in some Government medical facility, quite defunct due to the war. I was approached by one individual. He told me, “Sir! I am very happy that you are liberating this country. You see Sir! I am named Mohammad Yunis Khan. But I am a Hindu, because my Mother told me so. My Mother and many before her were all Hindus. But these Muslims, will any day walk into any Hindu household and take away girls forcibly and convert them into Muslims by compulsion. So, for generations, we are part Muslims and part Hindus. But we are Hindus, because our Mothers say so!)

23. To prove that what they said had the stamp of approval of the Sastras, these Reformists quoted two evidences. One was, some veda mantras that is part of the marriage ceremonies and the other, the highly venerated sastra of Manu Smruty. What do those procedural mantras in Vivaham say? Before that, I have to inform you of yet another concerned factor!

24. This physical body of ours is called the ‘pinda andam’ or ‘micro cosmic egg’. Every part of this body has a ruling deity. For the eyes, it is the Sun. Hands have Indra as the presiding deity or what is known as, ‘Ati Devata’. Similarly, for each year of our life, there is the influence of a particular Devata. For a woman, from the time of birth, till she learns to dress up, she is under the influence of a Devata, known as, ‘Soman’. Then, till she reaches puberty, she is under the influence of, ‘Gandarva’. Soman is Chandra or the Moon. In a girl under Soman’s influence, there is moon like coolness and softness. Then, from the time she starts wearing dresses, she comes under the power of Gandarva. You cannot help noticing the influence of Gandarva. The child becomes more attractive, mischievous, and happy-go-lucky. Then it is the rule of Agni, as she attains to puberty. Now the heat is on! That is the apparent interpretation of a subtle influence. Let it be!

25. Here I quote the Rik Veda Mantra, Rik.X.85, 40-41.

“soma: pratamo vivite gandarvo vivita Uttara: I

truteeyo agnishte pati: tureeyaste manushyajaa: II

somo datat gandarvaaya gandarvo datat agnaye I

rayim cha putraam cha datat agnir mahyam ato imam II”

26. What is the meaning of these mantras, which a prospective husband, utters to his would be wife? “Earlier you were ruled by Soman; then it was Gandarva; then Agni. Now I am the fourth ruler in line from the human kind, to whom they have all successively handed you over!” Since this mantra is uttered during Vivaham, we can deduce that at the time of marriage, the girl has been under the influence of Agni, for some time and so, already reached her ‘Ritu mati’ stage or puberty!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.