Deivathin Kural # 18 (of Vol 2 ) of 10 Aug 2007.

Om Namah Sivaya.Deivathin Kural # 18 (of Vol 2 ) of 10 Aug 2007.(Continued from Deivathin Kural # 17 of 08 Aug 2007.)41. If the question is as to why there is Chandramouleeswara Puja being conducted every day in the Matam, the reason for that is like this. Acharyal got five Spatika Lingas from Parameswara himself, with the instruction that their 'Aradana' be held non-stop every day. Out of them, Acharyal kept one Spatika Linga each in Sringeri Sarada Peetam and Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Balance three Lingas were kept in Kedarinath, Nepal Pasupathinath and Chidambaram Nataraja Temples. In all these places daily puja is held without a break. (When Kedarinath Temple closes for six months in winter, the Spatika Lingam is taken to Ookimath and the daily puja continues there.) For the sake of uniformity, in all Sankara Matas, Chandra Mouleeswara puja is held every day. Lakshmi Nrusimha Murthy gave a Saligramam to Acharyal. This is also included in the puja. As the Spatika Lingam is representing Siva, the Saligramam represents the Vishnu Swaroopa.42. For Him there is no differentiating between Siva-Vishnu. As He installed the Spatika Lingam in Chidambaram, in Badrinath He has installed Narayana and established a Matam there. The place where the Matam is located is known as Jyothir Math. Thus the three places in the East, North and West, namely Puri, Jyotir Math or Joshimath and Dwaraka are specially famous as Krishna Kshetras. He has not written bhashyam for Siva Sahasranama but did so for Vishnu Sahasranama. Though there is Siva Gita and Devi Gita in Puranas, He has written the bhashyam only for Bhagawat Gita, which Sri Krishna Bhagawan instructed to Arjuna. Not looking at these evidences, He is wrongly thought to be a Saiva. 43. The daily Puja held in the Matam is not only Siva Puja but Panchayathana Puja as explained earlier. Acharyal is an Avatara of both Siva and Uma. It is Umamaheswara, who gave the five Spatika Lingas in Kailasa to Acharyal. So in the daily ritual, Easwara and Ambal are kept as the central deities in which is also included, Vishnu as Lakshmi Narayana and Ganapathy and Surya the Sun. Like Sivarathri and Pradosha puja, Navarathri, Ramanavami, Gokulashtami and Nrusimha Jayanthi; are also held with equal importance in the Matam.44. While sending 'Srimukam' (letter head of the Matam), conveying our blessings for the conduct of any function or celebrations anywhere, do you know as to what our official wordings are? It says, "kriyate Narayana smruthi", meaning therby that, 'for the successful conduct of the function, we are devotedly remembering Narayana'. We do not say that we are remembering Siva. When you all do namaskaram to me, what do I say? I say, "Narayana, Narayana". All Sanakaracharyas do that. This is an arrangement made by Adi Sankara. Naryana is remembered because He is the 'jagat paripalana karta'. That is why, for all good things to happen in this world, Narayana is to be remembered, as directed by Adi Sankara.45. For so long, I have explained as to how, Adwaitins are mistakenly identified as Saivas. Contrary to this, there is another misconception too. There are also some who claim that Adi Sankara was a devotee of only Vishnu. They quote this 'smarana' of Narayana and the fact that other than Prasthana Thraya, Adi Sankara wrote the Bhashyam for Vishnu Sahasranamam; as evidence of their view point. In addition, they refer to the fact that, Adi Sankara has often called the 'Saguna Brhmam / Easwara' as Narayana only.46. But to think of Adi Sankara as Saiva or Vaishnava or Saktha, is to qualify or limit Him. But He is not the devotee of any one God. The reason why He has referred to the Saguna aspect of God as 'Narayana' is because, when the 'trinity' of Brhma - Vishnu - Maheswara; is thought of, it is Vishnu who is the Functional Executive; something like the C.E.O. He is Jagat Palana / Rakshaka.47. Acharyal is simultaneously a Ganapathya, Saiva, Saktha, Vaishnava, Koumara and Soura too. All Smarthas should be so. The ideal Smartha to be emulated is Muththu Swamy Deekchidar. He has described the Parabrhma Swaroopa on a galaxy of devine forms, as varied as Aiyanar, Mariamman, the Nava Grahas or planets. In all forms of God, we look at the aspect of Oneness. We should not have preferences between them and think of them as 'unity in diversity'. From very old times, there have been 'Veera Vaishnavas' and 'Veera Saivas', within Adwaitins, who were hard core fanatics. This is completely contrary to Acharyal's view-point and directions. Like Appayya Deekchidar amongst Adwaitins was a devotee of 'Samba Parameswara' and Leela Sukar was a Parma Bhagawatha Krishna Baktha; without putting down other Gods, we can completely melt in devotion of our own Ishta Devata. 48. This principle (of not decrying other or other's Gods), is at the heart of what is Smartha / Vaidik religion. If you put down other Gods and praise your own; such action has no approval in Vedas. By this test, we Smarthas, who are followers of Adi Sankara, are true and complete Vaidikars. I am not saying so. If I say so, it will be construed as parochial, that I am praising the tradition of my own type of believers of Adwaita. So this not my opinion. 49. Out of the greats of the past, I will quote three stalwarts, on this. Dwaitins, Adwaitins and Visishtadwaitins, all evolve out of Smarthas, as believers and followers of Vedas and Smruthies. So let us go back to Vyasa Maharishi, who is the grand old man who organised the Vedas into Rik, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana; as well as wrote the 18 Puranas, and the Ithihasa of Mahabharatha, containing Bhagawath Gita, Vishnu and Siva Sahasranamas. He mentions, through Bishma Pithamaha, talking about the five religions of yore, "sankyam yoga: pancharathram veda: pasupadam thatha". Amongst them, 'Veda:', is the Veda madam, later known as Smartha. This includes; devotion to God and procedures and rituals evolved for that; Karma, Bakthi and Gnana; intuitive and intellectual analysis of principles and Siddhanta known as Sankhya. All this are included in the revived Smartha Sampradaya of Adi Sankara. In his works such as 'Sivananda Lahari, Soundarya Lahari and Shatpadhi on Vishnu' our Acharyal has approved and accepted (later day Siddhantas of), Dwaitam and Visishtadwaitam, in certain stages of a Sadhaka's evolution. In 'Yoga Taravali', he has packed Patanjali's finer and very subtle principles of Yoga. In His Bhashyams, all the 24 principles of Sankhya have been referred. Thus we observe that our Acharyal has fully absorbed the finer aspects of Sankhya, Yoga and Veda, out of the five listed by Vyasa. 50. That leaves Panchrathram and Pasupadam. Pancharathram recognises Vishnu as the only God and Pasupadam insists that only Siva is the Pasupathi. Rest of all gods are degraded in to subservient roles. That is why Vyasa seemingly mentioned them seperately as other than Veda. Sankhya by itself is only cerebral exercise, devoid of Karma and Bakthi with no chance for Anubhava Gnana. Thus it is comparable to the later day religions such as Buddhism. Though Yoga is a combination of physical, mental and spiritual exercises with emphasis on strict discipline, it is incomplete due to lack of Karma, Upasana and not being integrated with approach to Paramatma tathva. Thus we see that, all the other four religions of yore, that is Pasupadam, Pancharatram, Sankhyam and Yoga remain in some way incomplete or unacceptable. Veda is the complete one which includes aspects of all the other five.51. There was another being of immence power in Tatva Gnana, who was a Gandharva, born as a human being by Ambal's wish, became a Siva Baktha and attained to Kailasa. He was known as Pushpadantar. He has written a poem, 'Siva Mahimna Stotram', meaning, 'poem describing the greatness of Siva'. This slokam is popular throughout North India. Go slightly north of Pune and you can find no Siva Baktha not knowing this stotram. In South India, Thiruppavai, Thiruvembavai, Vinayagar Agaval, have not got that much wider acceptance as this 'Siva Mahimna Stotram'. In that He also makes a mention of, "thrayee sankhyam yoga: pasupathi madam vaishnavam ithi". Thrayee stands for the Vaidik religion. Then 'Sankhyam and Yoga:'. 'Pasupathi madam', is the one which holds Siva as the supreme almighty and all other Gods as 'nin-compoops! '. Vaishnavam is another name for Pancharathram, which extols Vishnu and dismisses all other Gods as 'not worthy of consideration! '52. Both Vyasa and Pushpadanta, have accepted these five religions and compared them with five rivers which finally end in the same oceon. They have accepted even those religions which claim their own God only as the Parabrhmam. Still, since this mentality is not suitable to the Vaidik approach, they have been seperately mentioned. It is interesting to note that Pushpadantar himself is very devoted to Siva but does not hate other Gods or other's views. He is mentioning that all these five religions are like five rivers which drain into the same oceon of Parabrhmam or Parameswara. Despite being a Siva baktha, he does not say that the Pasupadam is a Vaidik Dharmam. Vaidik Dharmam is one which accepts all and does not discard any. That is why it is different from 'Vedam'.53. The third is a poet laureate. Vyasa's words have very high value, for being the original centrist, who reorganised and wrote all the Vedas, Puranas and Mahabharatha. Pushpadantar' s words similarly have very high value because, despite being a devotee of Siva, He calls the 'Siva only' Pasupadam as different from Veda. Not joining any religious side, not praising or decrying any God, the poets words too have a very high value. I am talking about Sri Harshar, who wrote Naishadam, the story of Nala Maharaja. In a situation of high drama of literary merit, He mentions these five religions, while giving a comparative illustration.54. Damayanthi's Swayam Varam is taking place. (Swayam Varam is an age old procedure followed by royal families in which a King interested in marrying off his daughter, enables the Princess to execise her choice and select a suitable match from among an assembled lot of royal guests.) Damayanthi is already in love with Nala. But Indra, Varuna, Agni and Yama too are in the fray, wanting Damayanthi to become their wife. Being Gods, they know very well that Damayanthi's heart is already set on Nala. So each one of the aspirants have come exactly dressed up as Nala. So in the assembly of princes lined up, there are five exactly similar looking Nalas. How is Damayanthi going to make the right choice?55. Here the poet Harsha says, 'as amongst five different religions, people find it difficult to identify the comparatively more truthful Adwaitam', from amongst five Nalas, Damayanthi is in a quandry to identify the true Nala. He says, "panchama koti matre....madanam adwaita tatva iva sathya tarepi loka:". 'Taram' means a comparative value. The poet does not say that the other four religions are wrong. Like Vyasa and Pushpadanta, Harsha also accepts the other religions as true religions. Comparatively, he says that in truth, Adwaitam is higher. So, "sathya thara api adwaita", the poet says. Acharyal has classified truth in to three categories, as Truth, Untruth and a Lie. (See Deivathin Kural # 12 (Vol 2) of 17 June 2007.) Similarly Sri Harshar has rated the Religions. He calls Adwaita as 'Uttama Sathyam' and the other four as, 'Sadarana Sathyam'.56. In Bharatha, in the words of Bhishma. 'Adwaitam' is not mentioned. It is 'Veda:' there. Still, "if you differentiate between Gods and claim greatness exclusively for your own, it is not Veda Madam", is the message there. In Pushpadanta' s words too the same meaning is conveyed, though there too, Veda is called 'Thrayee' and not 'Adwaitam'. Sri Harsha is of the time period much later, when after Adi Sankara, Ramanujacharyar and Madhvar had expanded their philosophyies of Visishtadwaitam and Dwaitam. So Harsha, instead of 'Veda Matham', uses the word 'Adwaitam' itself!Re-capitulate.57. Though on the one hand, a wrong notion was being formed that, Adwaitins are Saivas; after Ramanujacharyar and Madhvar had given their Sidhantas contrary to Adwaitam; the impression that Veda Matham means Adwaitam, also took roots in the public consciousness. This is proved by the fact that the old name of Smartha, continued to be applied only for Adwaitins. 'Smartha' means only 'the one who follows Vedas and Smruthies', and not 'Adwaitins or followers of Sankara', as we have seen before. 58. Similarly, the common names of Sarma and Sastri, came to be continued to be used only by Smarthas. Much before Sankaras time, brahmins used to be known by the general name of Sarma and kshatriyas by the name Varma or Verma. Ravivarma known for his famous painting, must have been a Kshatriya. When a Brahmin boy is given 'Upanayanam' or the sacred thread, we ask, "What Sarman?" and the answer is given, "so and so Sarman". That way Iyengar and Madhva are also Sarma only, the generic name for all brahmins! Now it has come to mean, an Adwaitin, who is also the complete Vaidik follower, who accepts all Gods. Sastri similarly is one who abides by Veda-Dharma- Sastras. This name is also being used by Adwaitin-Smartha only. There may be a rare Madhva or Vaishnava Sastry or Sarma.(To be continued.)Sambhomahadeva.