DEIVATHIN KURAL # 127 (of Vol 2) Dated 30 June 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 127 (of Vol 2) Dated 30 June 2008



(To-day’s e-mail is a continuation of Deivathin Kural # 126 dated 28 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 second paragraph of page number 906, of volume 2, of the Tamil original. )



110. Whatever may be the situation now, we can never know for certain as to what the future holds. Only a few generations back we thought that in United States of America Dollar is sown and harvested. That country was thought to be Heaven on Earth. What do we know now? We know now that the people of that country have more deficiencies and complaints than anyone else in the world. Having gained the highest of material benefits, they are experiencing a vacuum in their inner beings. Running after mirages all of the time, some are becoming aware of their hollow, meaningless, purposelessness! Floating on Dollars, they are aware of the fact that they are missing out on anything and everything of real value.

111. Given the slightest chance, they are unbalanced into anarchy of loot, murder, rape and so on. There are more number of school masters, ministers, mayors, senators and preachers; found lacking in basic human values and stoop down to the lowest crimes of molesting minor children and so on! We know now that, Yoga, Dhyana, meditation, Bhajan-s, Gnaana Vichara and so on are becoming extremely popular in U S of A. While the Multi National Corporate world operating out of America, are hard at their effort to impose their hollow culture on rest of the world, when it comes to real value and meaningfulness for their life, they are turning more and more towards East and especially to India!

112. From this it can be gathered that what looked too good for two generations, is not so good after all but, really too bad! Then people run for redemption and relief. May be some time later some sensible people of our country may come to realize that Sastra-s are well intentioned only. May be some aberrations might have crept in due to individual behavioral quirks. But the checks and balances are in-built in to the system. Already there is some awakening amongst people. What looks like a small baby-horse is later found-out to be a donkey. Similarly people of this Reformist movement may come back to their senses and may come to realize that the mistake was not in the Sastra-s, but may be some interpretations were flawed.

113. In Gita Sri Krishna talks of two types of welfare measures. Some are, “…yad agre visham iva, parinaame amritopamam…” meaning, ‘what tastes bitter like poison initially, later proves to be nectar like in its effect!’ That is how ‘Aalahaala’ visham came first and ‘Amirtam’ came later. What was initially felt to be bitter and detested by individuals, family and society as too restrictive; could be identified to be capable of taking us to the permanent beneficence.

114. Here ‘visham’ is temporary and ‘amitam’ is permanent. Against this is the other welfare measure. What looks pleasing and wonderful initially turns out to be harmful and deleterious in a subtle way in later stages, like the forbidden drugs being indulged in by the sports world. Here ‘amirtam’ is temporary and ‘visham’ is permanent. “…yad agre amirtopamam, parinaame visham iva…” is the American scene. What is hated there in USA itself is now catching here like wild fire! So there is no surety that things would not turn a full cycle, and along with the trend of globalization, Hindu Sastra-s may find their rightful place of eminence and real value once again. When individual satisfaction and social order become completely chaotic, people may correctly identify what is initially very sweet as proving to be very harmful later; and then it may dawn on them that Hindu Sastra-s are ‘the only method out of all this madness!’

115. So, it is my duty to keep these ideas, concepts, mantras and procedures do not go completely forgotten and out of practice! When the ‘poison has reached the head’ there should at least be some still available to administer the anti-dote! So I have to take all the measures necessary to nurture and preserve the Veda-s and Vedik methods. Though the law does prohibit ‘Balya Vivaham’ in action, it does not debar me from talking. So I have to carry on talking about it, non stop, to make it available at least to Hindus and at the very least to the Brahmins amongst the Hindus!

Follow the Dictates of Sastra-s in Money Matters at the Least.

116. Before we will be permitted to abide with the Sastra-s in matters of the minimum age for eligibility for marriage, we should first get used to conducting the marriage strictly as a Religious Samskara and not as a social event with contractual financial obligations. At least in matters of money, we should do exactly as in the Sastra-s. As I had said earlier, Vivaham is not a financial transaction. Even if we are not doing anything else as given in the Sastra-s, instead of making it in to an economic problem, let us conduct the marriages by cutting down the cost to the barest minimum as required in the Sastra-s! Vivaham like Upanayanam is a Religious Samskara, which is not meant to be a matter of pomp and show! In it, the newly-weds are to be given new clothes(cotton will do most sufficiently), Thiru Maangalyam in Gold(not too much gaudy or costly), food for the close relatives, some honorarium for the Nadaswaram orchestra party and the Purohitar who conducts the function as a Dakshinaa. This I am sure can be borne by any house holder without much strain.

117. Even those who are rich should cut down on pomp and show. Because their functions become something like a precedent. If they have too much money, instead of spending on grandiose feasts and music and dance, the money could be spent in getting a poor girl married. If they do that, wasteful expenditure becomes investment in ‘Punya’ that is the opposite of ‘Sin’. While getting his own girl married, if every rich man saves a poor girl from tears and agony, this could become a better precedent. Like ‘mass Upanayanam-s’, ‘mass marriages could become the way of the society! Think about it!

118. Now-a-days, I am told that the marriage hall itself gobbles half the outlay! Yes, however much one may try to cut down the expenditures, we can not conduct marriages in the apartments and flats of to-day. For such things, there is a need for people to come forward and create community halls, which should be run on ‘No profit-No loss’ basis.

119. There was a time when girls out of shame used to run away from the very mention of the word ‘marriage’. Then was the time, when women used to feel desperate as to who will take care of them and get them married! Now is the time when women are deliberating if they could free lance their way through life as a single! Thus, the important under current of the life of our culture, known as ‘Stree Dharma’ is getting cancerously infected and eroded.

120. My heart-burn is due to the fact that, no one is even remotely interested in correcting the wrongs. Not only that, no one is even aware that things are going wrong, seriously wrong. Then in the name of human psychology and this and that, the wrongs are being enlarged and expanded. Stories, fiction, serials on television and cinema are all further adding salt to the wounds, by explaining away and making virtue out of sheer vice, talking about, life as a single, extra marital sex, repeated cycles of marriages and divorces, same sex marriages and so on ad infinitum ad nauseam!

121. If you ask about it, whom to ask? In the name of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of imagination and freedom of Art that, in this so called democratic world everything is freedom except for the ‘age old Sastra-s’!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.