Deivathin Kural # 38 of (Vol 2) of 23 Oct 2007.

Om Namah Sivaya.

Deivathin Kural # 38 of (Vol 2) of 23 Oct 2007.

(Continued from DK # 37 of 22 Oct 2007.)

184. Are the Vedam and Vedantam at variance with each other? Whatever is said in the earlier portions of Vedam in Karma Kandam, all that seem to be annulled and set aside by the subsequent Gnana Kandam of the Upanishads. In Karma Kandam, we are directed and tought so many devotional procedures. Later in the Upanishad the same Vedam declares that, "The one doing Puja to Gods is an idiot! He is as good as an animal!" This is funny! The same Vedam in the end is totally contradicting what it says in the early stages. The Karma Kandam and Gnana Kandam, seems to differ so much that, Vedam now-a-days seems to mean the Karma Kandam and Vedantam is the Upanishad and the twain shall never meet!

185. In Gita, God has enlarged upon Vedantam, in all its varied aspects and applications. While doing so, He has soundly criticised the Veda's compulsions of Karma Kandam. If you think that it is Buddha and Mahavira, who were highly critical of the Veda, think again. The Very God, in the form of Krishna Paramatma, has blasted, those who are too preoccupied with their conduct of Nitya Karma Anushtanas, Yagnas and Tarpanas and so on! Whatever is said in the Second Chapter of Bhagawat Gita 42 to 45, I am going to quote now. "Flowery speech is uttered by the unwise, taking pleasure in the eulogising words of the Vedas, O Arjuna, saying, 'there is nothing else.' Life in Heaven is also transitory. After the fruits of the good actions are exhausted, one has to come to this earth-plane. Full of desires. having Heaven as their goal, leading to yet new births as a result of their works, they continue to prescribe various methods abounding in specific actions, for the attainment of pleasure and power. Once You are so attached to pleasure, position and power, You can never be weaned away. For such, even the slightest interest in Meditation and Samadhi, can be ruled out. Vedas deal with the three Gunas or attributes of Nature; You be above those three attributes. O Arjuna, free yourself from the pairs of opposites. Ever remain in the quality of Sattva, freed from the thoughts of, acquisition, accumulation and preservation; ad infinitum, ad nauseum!"

186. In Chapter IX, slokas 20 and 21, He repeats this advice of guarding against the tendency to amass and accumulate. In Chapter XI, sloka 48, He clearly says that He is unattainable by Veda Adhyayana and Yagna! I am sure that, You people are likely to get annoyed with me that, having sung the praise of Vedas, for so many days / (e-mail, Deivathin Kural # 26 of 24 Sept 2007 onwards, to be precise), if I now talk against Veda Adhyayana and conduct of Yagnas. There is no self contradiction here. We in our normal state, are totally incapable of stopping our minds from its oscillations and do Dhyanam and Meditation. Then to identify, comprehend and understand the true nature of the Atma; is all, 'rather too tall an order!' All the Veda Karma Anushtanam are all there to slowly, gradually build us up to the required level of maturity!

187. As long as we think of the worldly life as real, all that the Vedam does is to keep us well cared for and protected from going astray. We pray to many Devatas, for our and our family's welfare. Since we think of the world as real, we have to take care of not only ourselves, but also, others of the family, society, country and so on. This interest area slowly expands to include the humanity as a whole and all the Gods too. Through the Gods we wish the welfare of all the life forms! As the world is real, all the Devatas are real, Heaven is also real. A happy life here should be followed by a happy life in Heavens too. Nothing wrong in wishing and looking forward to all this. But the problem will be, if and when we stop at that! Wanting happiness here, happiness there and happiness everywhere, leads to "...punar api jananam, punar api maranam...punar api janani jatare sayanam...iha samsare bahu dustare...krupaya pare pahi murare...", of Bhaja Govindam (of the cycle of repeated births and deaths) only!

188. It will be like losing the sight of the forest, for being too engrossed in the sight of the tree. It will be never coming to realize that our very nature is one of Happiness, in our search for happiness. It will be like the story of the musk deer, who searched everywhere, not knowing that the fragrance attracting him was its own umblical secretion.

189. At the starting point, since we are not able think of this world, with all its sensual attractions as not true, Vedam tells us, as follows. "OK. Think of the World as true. These are the Dos and these are the Don'ts. Since it is not easily possible to think of the one Parabrhmam as a shapeless, formless, nameless, attributeless entity; revere and pray to this galaxy of Gods, representing every known and unknown thing of nature." While praying to these Gods, doing all these Karmas of Puja, Punaskara, Tharpana and Yagna; we should be arriving at a condition of such Realization and Comprehension; that everything else drops off or comes to an automatic stand still. Instead of praying to many Gods, we should be arriving at the understanding of Adwaita Gnana, that You, Me, the World and God; are not seperate but one. Actually there is no Me, Mine and I. It is for this realization that, 'clarity and one pointedness of mind' are required and as a prerequisite for which, are all the Karmas ordained.

190. All the Upasana and Karma Anushtanam, is to be done, with this clarity, for which we have to train our mind not to run after sense gratification only. This is not being done only for some temporary advantages. We should be clear that, we are not doing business with the Devatas, looking for Deals and Bargains. 'I give you 'Aahuti' in Yagna and you do me a favour' is not the contract with the Devatas. We are training our minds to be able to do, 'Nishkamya Karma'. Otherwise, we will be nowhere near the Final Truth. Even if we land up in Heaven, it will be only an extension of the business exchanges. You have to come back to the Earth again, again go through the mill, again graduate from being selfish to becoming large hearted! To stagnate and not progress, is being stupid!

191. First, it is a mistake to say that, I will not do the Karma Anushtana. Later it is a blunder to get stuck in the groove of Karma Anushtana and reaping the benefits! Now-a-days, there are many who want to go to the Post Graduation and Doctorate without the primary and secondary education! They say, "Who needs all these Yagnas and Adhyayana and things like that. I will directly read the Upanishads and do Pranayama and Meditation. Result is that, people can do mental gymnastics of discussing high sounding philosophies! In experience, none of them seem to have evolved into experienced, quite, peaceful, dispassionate, 'Atma Gnanis'! To leave the initial preparatories undone can only warp the personality. If this is a mistake in one extreme; it is another mistake to get stuck with Karma, at the other end of the spectrum!

192. You have to go through the first class, second class and so on; and then only graduate to the University Degree level of a Bachelor of Arts! If you are adamant that you must go to B.A. straight away, nobody is going to permit that; and even if you are permitted, you are likely to be shaky for not being grounded properly in the basics. It is another classic blunder to keep failing in the basics and refuse to progress! In olden times, say at the time of Adi Sankara, or even before, at the time of Mahabharatha, there were more of those, who were stuck in the groove of Karma. Periyaval calls them, 'The Karmadars!'. That is why Adi Sankara fought with Mandana Mishra (by way of debate only). This is the reason that, Sri Krishna censures those who are stuck in the groove of 'Karma <--->Gratification'. What is seemingly a criticism of the Vedas, is only against those refusing to grow into maturity, who instead of understanding the purpose of the Vedas, have remained stagnating! He can never censure the Vedas. Vedas are His breath! It is to save and protect the Vedas, that he has taken birth, repeatedly on this earth!

193. If He comes as an Avatara now, He would take on all these upstarts aspiring to be precocious, ie., those who give no value to all the Veda Karmas, but want to take up discussion of the Upanishads straight away! Actually I feel that He would come down more heavily on these presumptuous fellows. It seems that, He would be harsher now, than He was with the 'Stuck with Karma Characters'. Because this is a greater mistake.
Anyhow everyone has to go through the basics. If a person fails in the lower classes, with special coaching he or she can be pushed up. But, when someone says that, "I will start with B.A., he has no chance nor can you bring him to senses. (Everyone cannot be a Ramana Maharishi or Amritanandamayi Mata!)

194. There is no conflict between Vedas and Vedantam. To prepare us for the later Vedantam is the earlier part of Vedas. Yes, it is this worldly. It is very much concerned with all the Deities and Devatas. We, the World, including everything that is there in this world; You, Me, Sun, Moon, Mountains, Oceons, Rivers and Deities are all seemingly different and in reality one and the same. So all the prayers, karmas, yaagas and tarpanams; are all ways of reinforcing this in our minds and being. Thus the anushtana will eventually take us to the complete realization of Vedantam and Gnana Kandam!

195. The thought comes to my mind that when a person gives up the Karma Anushtana, not only does he deny himself the benefits of Veda Adhyayanam and the effect of Chanting of Mantras. Whatever benefit the world was to draw from him and through him is also denied to the world. For him who has taken Sanyasa, the world may be unreal; but for the others, it is real enough to cause plenty of problems. So, is it not a loss for the world when someone takes up Sanyasa and becomes a Gnani? However, on further analysis, it is clear that, a Gnani does much favour to the world by his very being a Gnani! He does not have to take part in a Yagnam because, his whole life is a sacrifice. He gives his 'self' as 'Ahuti' in the Yagna of Life. Whether he thinks of this world as 'Maya' or God's Play / Leela; there is an endless flow of benefit to the society through such great souls. Why do people flock to him, like ants around jaggery? Though he has delinked himself from the society, society does not leave him or her. They leave one family and the whole world becomes their family!

196. The reason for the Gnani's popularity is the fact that, God's grace tangibly flows through them to the people. Their very proximity or what is called the 'Sannidaanam' in Sanskrit, is so powerfully beneficial. Without any intention on their part, that is without 'Sankalpa'; their very glance is capable of causing tremendous good. When they have reached a level of understanding that there is no God other their self, they automatically become hugely, immensely, beneficial, without an iota of pride in them! One man reaching that level is so useful to the world, that there is no action required to be done by Him or Her!

197. There are people who divide the Hindu religion in to Veda Karma Anushtana and Vedanta; as though they are entirely apart, not only in the historical time but also in content. They level a criticism against this religion on the following lines, as described hereinafter. "These Hindus have no concern for their own or for the world. Their main concern is individual salvation. Dhyana, Yoga and Samadhi; are all for personal aggrandisement. They do not care for Love, brotherhood and social consciousness; as done by Christ, Mohammad Nabhi and Buddha." But, this is far from the truth. It is wrong to divide the Hindu religion as though, the Veda and Vedanta are two different portions, not complimentary to each other. The same man who becomes the 'sarva sankalpa rahita: sarva aarambha parithyagi' (meaning the one who has given up all intentions and initiatives) in later life, is the one who was part and parcel of the society, as the student, teacher, brahmin, farmer, carpenter, black or gold smith, poet, dancer, artist, architect, sculptor and soldier; and doing or supporting the conduct of all Yagna Karmas, festivals and religious celebrations. After he has become a reclusive renunciate too; the world stands to benefit a lot, from him.

198. So, the criticism that I quoted in the previous paragraph, is not only fallacious, but gives raise to another question. What is more important, individual salvation or collective social welfare? (For the latter aim of collective social welfare, there are enough non-religious organizations at various levels.) But, I am not asking this question either, as to what is more important for a religion. The question that I am asking is this. If a religion does not let you personally experience 'what is God' (and become a Gnani), who needs that religion? How is it of any relevance whether such a religion remains or vanishes?

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.