DEIVATHIN KURAL # 85 (Vol # 3) Dated 10 May 2009

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 85 (Vol # 3) Dated 10 May 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 middle of page 374 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.)
93. People get the wrong impression that whatever these Swamiji-s do is the way that it is to be done! They are all deeply reluctant to leave the original religion to which they belong. So they do use the bells and conches while doing the pooja-s, do Akhanda Parayana of religious scripts, conduct elaborate Yaaga-s and Yagna-s in much large scales. People get the impression that these are the real propagators of the Hindu Religion and so join them! To clinch the issue, these Swamiji-s call forth qualified experienced Pandits of well established reputation in Sanatana Dharma and practices of Aachaara and conduct Vidvat Sadas. These experts in Veda-s are honoured with awards and remuneration! So, the observers of the spectacle are motivated to join, thinking that thereby they are also making up for reneging their duties earlier. What they do not realize is that these are all mainly publicity stunts!
94. What happens when get closer to the facts? Though the scale and magnitude is definitely higher, there are many deviations from what is given in the Saastraa-s! Most importantly, in the name of equality, not so well qualified persons are given various important posts such as Hodha, Brhma and so on. Then as a matter of convenience, certain liberties are taken with rules of restrictions and penances. Come to think of it, our own Saastraa-s talk of many alternatives in materials used and procedures to make it as 'devotee friendly' as possible. Still in these large scale conduct of Yaaga / Yagnaa-s, the deviation in materials used and procedures are far from the acceptable!
95. When you are conducting an experiment in the lab for example, you cannot play around with the parameters such as temperatures, duration, materials, dresses and equipment to be used and so on! If you do, the results will never be as predicted by Science in earlier such endevours. You cannot have personal opinions on such things. The same applies to Karma-s as per the Saastraa-s too! If you do something out of the way, something awfully goes wrong, some equipment fails and people may even get badly injured! With the Karmic experiments the immediate effects that go wrong are not necessarily evident! So it gives you the mistaken notion that you can experiment in any outlandish way! This is the difference between Science and Saastraa-s. The effects of experimentation in Science are immediately seen - 'Drushtam'. In the case of Saastraa-s the results are not-seen - 'Adrushtam'! The beneficial effects when you do correctly and the adverse effects when you play around with the rules; remain not so very evident. After all God is known to be an actor behind the scenes. When so many Yagna-s, mass Parayana-s, Laksha / Koti (Lac / Crore) Archana-s and such are being conducted, the very fact that there is a vast increase in chaotical occurrences of disturbances, natural and unnatural calamities; is indicative of the ineffectiveness of such experiments in the application of Karma as per Saastraa-s!
96. Modern Vedantins. Instead of going away from the religion separately, there are another set of people who claim to be the true protectors of our Religion. They recommend discarding and disposing all the Karma-s as non-essentials, while retaining only the 'Philosophy' portion called the Vedanta. For them everything other than Vedanta is all the husks and riff-raff to be discarded! Without Anushtaana Karma, we can never raise the 'Aam Aadmi' the Common Man, successively over a number of life times (unseen) or in one life time (seen); to the level of 'Chitta Shuddhi' required for realization of any of the points of Vedanta that they talk about! Without 'Chitta Shuddhi' not a word of the Vedanta can be comprehended in the right perspective! I do not mind endlessly repeating myself that without relentless hard work 'Chitta Shuddhi' can never be yours, without which Vedanta can never be understood, comprehended, absorbed or assimilated! That is why even these Vedantins who got rid of all Karma, made the followers work at handicrafts or spin threads from cotton or some such manual labour, to keep them busy!
97. The point I am making is that, these efforts to reform this very scientific religion are all exercises in futility. Instead our minds should be working towards how well to do one's duties as ordained in the Saastraa-s as per the caste, creed, Jaati, family job or profession in which we are born! Saastraa-s initially has given the man that sort of a Karma, to suit his mental attitudes and physical capabilities, so as to enable him to gain means to satisfy his sensual urges and physical needs. Thus over a period, the pull of these senses lessen. As the mind becomes cleansed, the need to work out your Karma-s become less and less, when meditation becomes easy and natural and you attain to the level of 'Krita Krutyaha', meaning, 'one who has done what ever he was required to do!' Instead, if you start from the beginning on the lines of Dhyana and Vedanta, what happens?
98. Instead of answering this question in my own words, let me quote what Sri Krishna Bhagawan says in Gita [3.6.] I quote:- "karmendriyaani samyamya ya aaste manasaa smaran I Indriyaartaan vimoodhaatma mityaachaara : sa uchyate II" That means: If you say 'There is no realization in work and so we can forget about all this work and directly enter into meditation at the mind level, that is Dhyana, what does the mind do? Does it think of God who is anyhow unthinkable? It simply thinks of those sensual pleasures only; ['indriyaartaan manasaa smaran'] . Unless the whole system is cleansed through sincere hard work involving all the senses, the mind will never raise above its base inclinations!"
99. Outside, this individual may be identified with many superlatives as a great 'Philosopher, Tattvagnaani, Rishi, Bhagwan' and so on. (Especially now-a-days with the proliferation of the printed media and all the TV channels covering News, they seem to have only the superlative degree of comparison in all their expressions!) Whatever such adjectives added to their names, however much they may shine on paper and or speech, they are all 'vimoodhaatma' says Bhagwan! He calls them 'idiots'!
100. Not only that! This man whom we value as a great thinker, philosopher and reformer, who is saving us from blind beliefs and inane rituals, He calls him 'mityaachaara:', simply a hypocrite who does not practice what he preaches and does not know what he is talking! In Tamil this man is known as "vaay vedaanti", 'one who speaks of Vedanta only in talk! He has forsaken all Karma and says that everything depends upon The cleanliness of the mind. But he is play acting as a great Vedantin! He talks of high ideals while his mind is wallowing in base desires and sensual gratification only! I am very sad to be telling you all this. But, the fact remains that while they are all the time talking about Vedanta, their actions are not so much above board and rather full of lapses. Let those who follow the Aachaara-s be not very intelligent, somewhat selfish with not much of compassion in them. But, at the least they are not so full of lapses. That is the power of discipline inculcated by the Aachaara-s!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.