DEIVATHIN KURAL # 77 (Vol # 3) Dated 14 April 2009

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 77 (Vol # 3) Dated 14 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 the last para on page 332 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. Differences in distance from the equator also causes certain changes in tradition. Depending on the availability of certain type of grains and pulses, the material used as 'Prasadam' also changes.
The Tradition To Which Born Is Meant For You
11. Despite the differences in the location, status, position, religion, branch of that religion in which a person is born, whatever his ancestors have traditionally evolved as a way of life for that set or community or caste of people; is the best for him. Other wise he becomes a fallen person. sikhaam soothram cha pundram cha samaya achaaram eva cha I poorvair aasrita: kuryaat anyata patito bhavet II
12. 'sikhaam' :- How should the hair be? Muslims shave their hair in the head and have a beard. Sikhs have long hair in the head and beard. Hindu-s have partially shaved of head with a knot made of the balance hair known as 'Kudumi'! There is a ceremony mentioned in the Saastraa-s, for the wearing of the Kudumi. Even in this wearing of Kudumi, there are varieties. 'Sozhiyan, Namboodiri, Chidambaram Deekshidar-s and so on!' Some tie it in the side, or in the front & let it hang on the fore head, and some let it hang in the back. So, the saastram says that you are to cut your hair as per the customs and traditions of your clan!
13. 'soothram':- This does not refer to the 'poonool'. This refers to the detailed works of, Aasvalayana, Aapasthamba and Bhodayana soothra-s which talk of the traditional methods and procedures to be adopted for each branch of the followers of the Veda-s! We are to follow that soothram of that specific branch of the Veda-s to which we are born!
14. 'pundram':- Pundram is what is worn on the fore head. It could be One the Vibhuti ashes in three horizontal lines or Two Gopi Chandan, which is the fine clay of the river bed, worn as a vertical U with its sides extended upwards or Three Namam worn as a the Vaishnavites do with the U made of white lines with a red line in the center or Four a Black dot of the coal! Again there are more than one way of doing all this mainly guided by tradition. Very simply these outer signs do go a long way in imbibing a rightful pride in ones lot, as it does in the Army!
15. 'samaya aachaaram' :- is strictly observing the do's and don'ts of the religion. Hindu religion is like a huge banyan tree, with its roots and branches spread over a vast area. In this you are to follow the customs and traditions of that particular sub-sub-branch in which you are born. Your birth in that community, in that particular family, is not accidental random choice event!! It is precisely meant to be so. Whether you believe that it is as per the laws of nature or an act of God, in this religion, it is one and the same and not something to be rebelled against but accepted and implicitly abided with!
16. 'poorvai : aasrita kuryaat' :- This means, "do as your elders have done!" The direction is to be strictly followed not only in 'sikha, soothram and pundram' but in all other traditional ritual observances too!
17. 'anyataa patito bhavet' :- Otherwise, you become a fallen entity! If you do not follow the ways of your fore fathers and undertake some different wearing of outer signs or start following some other 'sampradaaya', then you become 'patita :'! In Sanskrit, patanam is falling. Patita : is the fallen entity. A woman who is faithful to her marriage vows is 'pati vrataa naari'. If she has slipped and fallen from the straight and narrow path, she is known as 'patitaa', meaning that she has been unfaithful to her husband. Similarly, this man who has deviated from the path of his family will fall further in this and next life too, is the warning of the Saastraa!
18. God has situated us in some place in certain social and family environment of some traditional value system. What does that mean? As a wife has to be obedient and complimentary to a husband, a man born to a certain set up, should try and raise and improve himself from that starting point. He should follow his family traditions and customs. If he says, "No. I will not follow these traditions. I will leave these and adopt some other system", then that is rebellion. Then if he says that he will follow some other 'samaya aachaaram', that is traditions of some other religion then, it is tantamount to prostitution! That is why the saastra says, 'patito bhavet'!
19. It is very important to guard against this. The reformist when he talks sweetly of improving your lot with some cosmetic changes, he does not realize the greater risk that he is subjecting you to! But strictly abiding with the customs and traditions of your family and clan will take you to the highest advancement, that is the very presence of the creator! The weight of generations of refinement is behind tradition, that is known as 'sampradaaya'. When you abide with that, you are controlling your mind, senses, sensory organs, thoughts and actions and disciplining them all. This takes you to the first entrance towards liberation and opens the gates of 'Moksha Dwaar' i.e., 'Chitta Suddhi'. Instead of believing in the established traditions, distrusting them if you keep questioning every step, it only results in a futile interrogation with no functional alternative.
20. Mahatma Gandhi, was a stickler for discipline with a high sense of purity, with devotion to God and traditional values of simple living and high thinking. He could eliminate some of the old rules for Aachara and instill a few new ones of his own in his Ashrama. Having done that, he had to keep a strict watch on the inmates of the Ashrama. Even then there were occasions of blatant transgressions of rules and regulations that, he had to publicly lodge his objections by going on indefinite fasts!
21. Reason is that, the moment you play around with the rules and restrictions in well established systems, one minor change or loosening of control has a cascading effect as though on the overall propriety! The 'adakka gunam', that is the sense of discipline, suffers. Saying that it is a vice like straight-jacket on human independence, the tendency is to break all rules. In such a situation, chaos can be the only outcome! In that too once one reformist is changed or dies, his own followers break whatever control he exercised! They all become reformers themselves! So, the reform movements of reckless, undisciplined leaders as well as those movements with very strict leaders; both eventually suffer the same fate! Nationalism, honesty, sacrifice and such may be the stepping stones. But once in power, we are observing how such movements fritter away their ideals and become monstrosities of selfishness, anarchy, parochialism, nepotism and hypocrisy!
22. That is why Bhagwan Sri Krishna in Gita emphatically stated that, even if there were some things which look like faults, we are not to create confusion in the minds of the common man! Instead those who are leaders should show their trust in the saastraa-s, by personal example. More about this point in the next edition of the e-mail!
(To be continued)
Sambhomahadeva.