DEIVATHIN KURAL # 74 (Vol # 3) Dated 06 April 2009

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 74 (Vol # 3) Dated 06 April 2009
(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from page 321 of Vol 3 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://advaitham. blogspot. com constantly updated.)
10. Here 'Kadankaaran or Kadankaari' means somebody whom we owe in our previous birth. He might have given us money or material. He is born as our son or daughter, so as to be able to collect their earlier investments! He causes the parents physical labour and expenditure. The account cancels out once all the dues have been paid off! Though it is used as a word for an expression of reluctant complaint, there is some truth in the statement.
11. I was observing that by this process of becoming indebted, along with the man who takes a loan, the giver of the loan also suffers. In the modern trend, it is the lender who seems to suffer more! Since the governments themselves are taking loans and basing many of their big plans on such public loans, it is the man in debt who seems to receive all sorts of special privileges! Our Government's targets seem to be, to make available, all the modern amenities and luxuries of the world. If the nation is to advance spiritually and the satisfaction levels of the masses is to be increased and the jealousy levels is to be brought down, then there is a change required in our priorities. Once you have decided that the standard of life is to be brought at par to the so called advanced nations of the world, then you have already put the cart before the horse! That means that you have already opted for an endless running after a mirage!
12. Having decided that the standard of life in India is to be raised to be at par with rest of the countries of the world, a whole lot of unnecessary things have become necessary inescapables! For making these things available for the common man, the Government goes on planning, endlessly planning, raising more loans within the country and outside the country in the name of balance of payments! Having created the want and dependency on many things unwanted, the population of the country has been trained to constantly fight for more and more pay and income. This leads to inflation, that the more the income more is the need for it! So, the whole lot of people are encouraged to take more and more loans. More banks are opened in all the villages and people are being trained in the art of the intricacies of taking loan, leading to lies, bluffs, fraud, bribes, corruption, and so on! Take loan for one thing and use it for something else. Then corrupt the inspecting staff. Thus is created a parallel economy of black money! This is closely related to vote banks of the politicians! Then there is a campaign for writing off of loans. Whose money is this after all?
13. Not withstanding that, write off of loan becomes applicable even to cases in which individuals have given their personal money to others on loan, through declarations of moratorium and ordinances. We have no objections to helping the poor. But the poor who are normally humble and simple, are being taught the cheap tricks of cheating and corruption on the one hand and on the other are being encouraged to go against their ingrained Dharma that, a loan once incurred should be paid off by the dint of labour and perseverance. From the position of people who were God-fearing and dharma-conscious, they transfer their trust and allegience to the vote-bank and political manipulations, uncaring for moral uprightness! This is the real loss.
14. I am very much aware of how the money lenders used to charge very high rate of interest and fleece the poor unlettered farmer by keeping fictitous accounts in which whatever money was returned, was always entered as interest paid while the capital never reduced but kept appreciating! One mistake of taking loan leads to so many social evils that when unjustifiably the government declares a moratorium, honest money lenders too suffer! So it is best to learn to live within ones income! Many people resort to unfair means, duplicity and stealing, because they took a loan initially without much deliberation! Some become pseudo sannyasi-s, while some who care for their name and reputation end up committing suicide, not only as individuals but the whole family, which makes painful news!
15. As I said earlier, other than the person who has taken a loan and the one who has given the loan; the general public too gets affected for the fear of the risk of being ‘touched’ or ‘contaminated’ or negatively get motivated to play the same game! Cosidering all this Acharyal declared this as the ‘theettu’ to be avoided at all costs! While talking of Paropakaaram, we have to tell the common man as to how not to do ‘para apakaaram’ which corrupts the society. For example all the ‘Ten Commandments’ of the Christians are negative Don’ts instead of the positive Do’s! Similarly, Acharyal clearly warned all and sundry against ‘taking loans’!
16. Amongst the samanya dharma, applicable to all castes at all times, there is 'astheyam'. This means, not stealing! Then there is 'aparigraham', which means, not accumulating and not doing forcible unauthorised occupation! These two negative injunctions too form part of Paropakaaram. Once you guard against these two , you automatically obviate miserliness, splurging and becoming indebted! You help others by obviating the need to be helped yourself!
17. I am going to say something now which may sound odd! Paropakaaram itself is an existing loan! Saastra-s themselves talk of 'runa thrayam', three debts! Anyone born as a human being,already owes Deva-s, Rishi-s and Pithru-s. Yagna-s and Yaga-s clears the outstanding loans due to the Deities. By Veda Adjhyayanam, the debt owed to the Rishi-s is cleared. You have to pay off the loan towards one's forefathers by way of conduct of Srardhams and by siring the next generation who will assist in paying off the debt to forefathers! That is also the reason for adding 'Nru yagnam and Bhoota yagnam' as part of the daily return of compliments to other human beings and other life forms! Thus all the aid, help, paropakaaram that you can do to all others, such as Devata-s, Rishi-s, Pithru-s, other human beings, other life forms static, such as plants and trees and moving, such as crawlers, swimmers and flyers, is all to be considered as paying off of one's debt only! Seen in that light, it does not sound too odd, is it not so?
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.