DEIVATHIN KURAL # 105 (Vol # 3) Dated 06 July 2009

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 105 (Vol # 3) Dated 06 July 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 second Para on page 475 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.)

{Note:- From Deivathin Kural # 76 (Vol # 3) dated 10 April 2009, we have been mainly considering the customs and traditions of the Hindu Religion, known as 'Aachaaraa-s' as evolved by the great saints of the Sanaatana Dharma. In this connection you may also refer to relevant comments under the heading 'Differences Between Religions', 'Varna Dharma' and 'Ahimsa', covered in the first volume; and then under the heading 'Veda-s' and the '40 Samskaaraa-s', covered in the second volume; of Periyaval's talks.}

87. Those who have to work hard with physical labour have not been over loaded with too much of Aachaara-s and restrictions, but left with much freedom. It is only the Brahmin who has been loaded with much rules and regulations of cleanliness and behavioral taboos. He has to sacrifice his luxuries and live an ideal life of discipline, for others in the society to emulate!

88. The Ideal and The Functional Feasibility. If all the people of every part of the society were to have a uniform set of rules and duties to perform, no one will follow or observe them! Having clearly understood this, our Rishi-s have evolved a graded set of rules and duties. It is seen that in religions which have general set of rules like the Ten Commandments in Christianity, the rules are generally obeyed or ignored depending on convenience and expedience.

89. You know that in Hinduism, fighting wars has been held as the natural dharma of Kshatriya-s and Ahimsa as that of Brahmins. Whereas there are religions which tell you to offer the second cheek when slapped on one, when it comes to proselytizing and then go on to fight the Crusades across the Mediterranean Ocean with the purpose of spreading their religion! Having spread their dominance over every continent they continued to fight many wars. This went right up to dropping the Atom bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an unpardonable offence by any standards! They continue the process of converting the poor uneducated masses of every corner of the world in to Christianity, in the mistaken belief that they are doing them all a favor, while ensuring their own reserved seat in Heaven!

90. Then you have the Islam which has brooked no opposition from the times of Timoor and Chenghis Khan. Their hoards have spread all over the world ruthlessly destroying and or converting the local populations. Wherever they have not been able to impose themselves with the power of the sword or the gun, they believe in initially establishing a foot hold by trading or service or agriculture, literally hugging the land in unpopulated / scarcely populated areas quietly. Then once well established, they expand and spread virulently in all directions by whatever means such as force, deceit and or skullduggery!

91. It is a historical fact that over thousands of years, out of our infinite belief in ourselves and our ways of 'Athithi Devo Bhava', we have welcomed with open arms, people of different culture or religion or language. Thus India has always been the refuge for all people who were running away from domination by marauding aliens! Thus we been hosting Parsees, Syrian and Assyrians Christians, Turks, Iranians, Jews, South East Asians, Chinese, Tibetans, and people from erstwhile East Pakistan and recently Sri Lankan Tamilians! Then we pride ourselves that we are the only country which has gained independence from colonial powers without resorting to armed struggle!

92. Then is it not being too innocent to ask ourselves as to why we are not preaching and or practicing Ahimsa as Jesus Christ and Gowtham Buddha have done!? By keeping the ideal to be practiced only by some, we have ensured that they observe those aachaaraa-s more sincerely and ardently. Looking at them others adopt such behaviour on their own, that the whole society reflects the spirit of such noble ideals! That is why people of India have always been uniformly very well behaved, to the awe and envy of the rest of the world! We believe in self control, self discipline and correction and improvement by ourselves!

93. That is why 51 out of 63 Nayanmar-s are from communities other than Brahmins! Please note that all the Nayanmar-s are normal human beings who because of their unshakeable devotion to Siva have risen to the level of being revered and adored as Gods. You can see their statues in a line in the inner prahara (the enclosed space around the Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple), of Siva Temples, all over South India! That is another proof of the fact that more than any other community of people any where in the world, our's has been of exemplary moral standards!

94. For example, it is in Buddhism which has Ahimsa as an Ideal, that there are more non-vegetarians per-se than any other religion. In the Hindu religion, castes other than Brahmins are not under any restrictions about partaking non-vegetarian food! Still there are many more vegetarians amongst them, than any other set of people anywhere else! Amongst Buddhists we find that even Bikkus are non-vegetarians!

95. I started saying how it is not reasonable to entrust too many Aachaaraa-s to such communities that have many duties and labour to perform as it is! The distribution of the work load was meant to be equitable. That led to a discussion about Thirukkural and how he was a true supporter of the Vedic system as it was existing before the advent of Jesus Christ! (Approx 36 B.C.)

(To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.