DEIVATHIN KURAL # 37 (of Vol 3) Dated 02 Jan 2009

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 37 (of Vol 3) Dated 02 Jan 2009

(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 last para on page number 157, 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.
Plan Mudradikari
213. If someone does follow the Sanaatana Dharma with understanding and strictly adheres to all the rules, do's and don'ts; his actions of aachaaram, anushtaanam, viratam and earnings are all meant for others. None of them are for his own self. This high philosophy, instead of being only an idea in books and peoples minds, shining as a living dharma for many thousands of years; somehow became defunct and extinct, in recent years. This noble ideal, had to be revived. With that intention, from 1940, in the villages of Tanjavur we identified a few persons and gave them the title of Mudradikari. They were to collect people and involve them in commonly needed social service activities. They took up poorta dharmam jobs of, digging wells and ponds, protection and maintenance of temple premises, including, removal of over growth of grass and weeds.
214. Whosoever is born as a Hindu, should give at least a handful of grass to the cow. Those who have a garden, should grow 'Agathi Keerai'(a verdant plant whose leaves are very much liked by the cattle and also nutritious) and 'Arugam Pul'(a type of grass, a favorite of cows and elephants), for feeding the cows. Many people used to do that. This dharma was known as, "go grasam". 'Go' in Sanskrit means the cow and 'grasam' is the grass. May be that, the English word 'grass' evolved out of the 'grasam'! When all lands are becoming human living areas and covered by roads and houses, if we have some space in our own houses, we should try and grow this 'Agathi Keerai and Arugam Pul' and feed the cows.
215. For these things, we have to do some sacrifice or incur expenditure. Instead, if we just collect the pared discards of vegetable peelings from a number of houses, we will be doing the service of removing discarded waste from others houses, while simultaneously feeding the cows to their hearts content! By repeatedly talking about this, I could motivate many people to start this. It is still continuing in most of those places.
216. To mechanically put some money in the slit of the Hundi box meant to collect donations, is not a great sacrifice. That too in these times of inflation, every one can and should contribute like that also. But, better than putting it in the mouth of the Hundi box, when you directly feed a live animal, the pleasure and satisfaction we get is certainly many fold and unique. In doing Seva, that is service, this is the most important aspect! Instead of the money and labour talk; two living beings should interact. Two sets of eyes should meet and enjoy the sharing!
217. People who are participating together in an act of service, do interact. When the receiving beings also enter this live communication, and the mutual love and compassion is shared as an expression of our mutual love of God; then the experience is raised from the mundane to the highest! So, the essential of service is to make it as an offering to God.
218. It is one thing to take care of the cow, when it is giving us milk. But after it has come to the end of its productivity, to take care of the animal till it is alive, is our inalienable duty! It is equivalent to our duty towards our own Mother. In all God's creation, cow is the greatest contributor for human welfare. No body can match its sacrifice. She is to be treated as Mother for all of us. (KTSV adds:- These days, we can and should include the buffaloes too in the same category worthy of our veneration.)
219. You will be surprised to know that even in a Muslim country like Afghanistan, they had banned cow slaughter, many years back! In our country, the Britishers who are fond of beef eating, found it convenient to benefit by making this a matter of Hindu - Muslim confrontation. Whatever the Government, whatever the Act of Law, it is our sacred duty to ensure that, cows are not taken to the slaughter houses! In this we should learn a lesson from Gujratis and Marvari-s. May be because theirs are the places where Sri Krishna Bhagawan had lived, they are rather keen on protection of Cows.
220. Just a few decades back, we used to have a 'pasu Matam' in each village and take care of these animals. In later years we seem to have lost interest in this important Dharma! In North India, we still have, 'pinjarbol-s' and 'gho saalaa-s'. It is alright to make acts of the law to prevent slaughter of the cows for beef. But unless we make proper arrangements for their care, feeding and protection, we will be failing in our duties. On the one hand, this is 'Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' and also 'Lakshmi Pooja'. (KTSV adds:- While in US of A, I noticed that there were farms for uncared for animals such as, pets, horses, cows and stray dogs! Not everyone in this world are driven only by the love of lucre!)
221. Service of digging a pond, which I spoke about earlier, I tried to emphasize in my talks in many villages and requested the assemblage to put it into action immediately. There was good response. The actual act of digging a pond, with everybody in the village physically participating, was a wonderful sight! My direction was that, instead of working for money, it should be a voluntary 'Seva'. For poor people, we had planned to give free food. It was very heartening to note that even very poor had come with their lunch packs! When they worked with spontaneous vim and vigor, it just confirmed the fact that, “our poor people have not lost all their innate fineness of culture and humaneness! It is only our mistake as leaders, that we have not made proper use of their goodness of character and attitude!”
222. As it happens in a ‘Rathotsavam’ of pulling the huge decorated chariot of the Temple, during festivals, I saw big land owner Mirasdar-s, highly placed office bearers of the government, Vedic scholars of ‘touch-me-not-stand-apart’ purity; Srouthi’s wife and Grass-cutting maiden; joining hands and actively participating in the physical labour; it thrilled me. Let the later achievement by this effort be set aside, the very fact of their’s thus working together, was in itself an achievement! That our whole society is together like this is good enough!
223. Once near Mayavaram, on a moon lit night, all the people were thus working with one aim of digging a pond. I was in attendance. They were digging for bringing out the cool waters. The moon light was showering its own cool beams on us. Through the act of service, all the people’s hearts were pouring out a coolly pleasant shower of love! I had to go for some other work. Later I came to know that their enthusiasm was lessened because of my going away! I plead guilty!
(To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.