DEIVATHIN KURAL # 36 (of Vol 3) Dated 31 Dec 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 36 (of Vol 3) Dated 31 Dec 2008

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyavaal 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 para on page number 153, of Vol 3, of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein the word 'man' includes 'woman' too. )
(Note:- These e-mails are all available at http://advaitham.blogspot.com constantly up-dated.
202. For women who have gone astray, some female homes known as Seva Sadan are created, having all comforts and facilities. This may seem a much welcome humanitarian measure. However, this may further encourage loss of self control! So, to talk of national and social service, leaving religion out of it, is the fallacy! In all this the path breaking pioneer was Appar Swami who said, "yen kadan pani seidu kidappade!". That means, 'my job is to serve'.
203. What did he do? By his service of singing, he melted everybody's hearts with devotion towards God! Moreover, he had a huge labour force of agriculturists, following him to each temple. While he was singing, they used to clean up the entire temple premises, tend to the plants, water them and so on. Thus he combined composing and singing devotional songs, in praise of God with social and community service!
204. As pointed out by Appar, we have to have devotion to God as universal parents and serve all human beings as His children. That is the way to get over all hatred, duplicity and narrow parochialism. Instead a child like innocence, integrity and unity, will evolve with keenness for service! Truly huge works will be done as part of fun and play. There will be a breeze of happiness and a breath of fragrant freshness. The rules and regulations of 'dharma aachaaram', that is 'religious discipline', are not to be negated in doing social service. Instead, national and social service should be closely related to religious discipline!
205. Before we do anything for ourselves or the society, we should do things for God. Not that He needs our service. We need to remember Him constantly. Say on Deepavali we wear new clothes after an oil bath. Before that we should give some oil, sweets, eatables and new clothes to not so well off people. Not only that. We should see to it that all the idols of the Gods and Goddesses including the 63 Naayanmaar-s statues, in the nearby temple get smeared with oil, the Abhishekam, that is being anointed with fragrant unguents and then get decorated with new clothes and flowers. Then only our celebrations should commence.
206. Similarly for the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal, other than white washing and cleaning ones own house, we should help the poor to clean up their residences. More than that, all of us should be collecting in the Temple in our area and clean the area, white wash, paint, anoint the stone statues. remove the cob-webs, de-weed, wash, mop and spruce-up the whole premises!
207. What is the dirt and thorns in our minds, that has led to the situation, that our temples have been left uncared for! When we clean up the temple premises, we are washing our minds too. Then our minds and hearts would become golden, fit enough to become a God's abode. Thiru Moolar says that, to do service to the mobile man is as good as serving the dancing Nataraja. But first he says that you should offer your bit to God. Then only a handful of rice for the hungry after you give some grass for the cattle. If you are not in a position to help with money and material, at least talk sweetly with others, he says. I quote the 'Mandiram':-
"yaavarkumaam iraivark oru pachchilai - yaavarkumaam pasuvuk oru vaayurai - yaavarkumaam unnumbodu oru kaippidi - yaavarkumaam pirarku innurai thaane" Take care of first God, then others, then yourself! In doing so at least be soft spoken!
208. Social service and God's service cannot and should not be divorced from each other. Many people complain that, "God should look at them and their condition with open eyes and take pity on them!" The ocean of mercy, God is all the time observing us like the Sun. Only as the Earth turns away and it becomes night, exactly similarly, we are turning away from God and feeling forsaken by Him! If we open our eyes to the problems of this world, that we as human beings have created and do what we can to ameliorate the situation; then we will become sensitive enough to be aware of the immense kind heartedness of that ocean of Grace that is God!
209. We should keep our eyes open, to see and be aware of the infinite variety of ways of suffering of human beings and other life forms, so as to be able to help in whatever way we can. That is not enough. We should try and bring that awareness in them too that, the reason for their problems is of their own making of 'running away from God!' If you enable them to take one step in the reverse direction, you have done your bit in Paropakaaram, Thondu, Social Service, call it whatever!
210. Let those from other religions ask, if there is any mention of social service in the Hindu religion. But I am saying now that, we have reached a stage that we have to safe guard this religion from further erosion, by putting up a fence of mass public service activities! To-day, the Hindu Religion is like a fenceless 'poramboke or darkhaast' land. From this condition, we have to reach a stage where the Hindu has to imbibe a feeling that there are people to take care of this religion! All rank and file of this religion have to develop the trust that, self respecting individuals can and will thrive, within this religion! That can happen only by more and more mass public welfare activities inter-knitting the whole fabric of what is Hindu religion!
211. When all the Hindu-s join hands to do social service, then only from a common-no-man's-land, this religion can truly become a majority religion! Presently it is more divided into so many sects and isms, that it is smaller than the smallest minorities! When the feeling of belonging together develops in all its component parts, then only all this conversion in to other religions will come to an end. As of now any 'Tom, Dick and Harry' can lure the Hindu in to their whatever religion! For this, we do not have to fight with people of other religions. It is our own hardness and disinterest that has to go. If we embrace all people of all walks of life in true love and compassion, instead of the ulterior motive of spreading the religion; that itself will provide the mutual protection from further erosion!
212. Instead of making a show of receiving me with garlands and presenting a 'poorna-kumbam', if you can bring in unity and integrity between all Hindu-s through mutual support of 'paropakaaram'; that will be the best reception you can offer me!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.