DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (Vol #3) Dated 16 Sept 2009.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (Vol #3) Dated 16 Sept 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 the 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 550 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. Next hundred pages [that is about 25 e-mails] are covered under the common heading, 'Aachaaram and Aahaaram', to mean Rituals and Food.)

'Aachaaram and Aahaaram'

1. Haaram and Aahaaram. Chain or Garland and Food. There was a King. He had a Guru. The Guru was a great saintly soul. He often used to visit the King and give him advice on various matters concerning justice, statesmanship, administration and humaneness. One day, as he was deeply involved in the subject matter of his talk, he lost track of time. It was well past noon, that the King requested him to have food in the Palace itself. He said, "I will arrange for your Biksha, here in the Palace itself. I will see to it that it is done worthy of your grace and kindness, specially made for you!"

2. Unable to deny the King's request, the Guru accepted the invitation. As it was sufficiently hot at the end of a good food, the Guru further acceeded to the request of the King to sleep for some time. By the time he woke up after resting, the Guru happened to notice a garland of pearls belonging to the King, hanging by the wall. It was evidently very attractive and costly. Normally a dispassionate man the Guru, not given to flights of fancy, got a strong urge to misappropriate that pearl garland. He suddenly got that 'Haaram' hidden in his clothes.
3. Committed by anyone, theft is a sin. That great soul, the respectable Royal Teacher, without any hesitation, simply walked away to his Ashramam. After some time, there was agitation and pandemonium in the palace, when the fact of disappearance of the pearl garland was noticed. They searched everywhere, not sparing anybody from the suspicion. Guru was never suspected as he was considered above such weaknesses, as proved by his track record!

4. Many were questioned. Enquiry and investigations were conducted quite vigorously, some physically man-handled and some put through embarrassing questioning. But there was no indication of how the garland disappeared. One day went by. That night, the Guru did not have proper sleep. The guilt feeling in the consciousness did not let him rest properly. It was a mixed bag of guilt and some exotic temptations!

5. Heavy food, led to sleeplessness, nightmare and indigestion which were automatically succeeded by loose motions. There was virtually total evacuation and physical debility. As his body became rid of the food of the previous after noon, there was clarity in the mind. He rushed back to the Palace with the pearl garland. He gave back the garland to the King.

6. "I do not know as to what is the reason! Since yesterday afternoon, my mind is in a turmoil. In that very abnormal state, I only did that henious act of stealing and that too when you were my host! Having eaten your food, I do not know as to how I could stoop so far down to steal from you! You punish me as you would a common criminal. Actually, you should be giving me a double punishment. I have not only stolen but, was also responsible for many a person's physical hurt and embarassment! My feelings of guilt will be got rid of, only when you give me exceptional punishment, as many innocent people have suffered due to me", he said!

7. The King laughed. " As I am your disciple, give me some credit as your Anugraha, to discern the truth! You could never have done that. I am sure that the real culprit must have approached you to save him. It is your kindness that so as to save him from possible reprobation and retribution, you have taken it upon your self! Once someone comes and surrenders himself, to save him is the greatness of people like you! I will not accept your confession."

8. The guru felt further bad that, in addition to being a thief, he has become liable to be called a liar! He pleaded repeatedly for his confession to be accepted. "If I am you Guru, you have to listen to me and punish me as I am asking you to do! That is your dharma. Is it not so?"

9. The King after deep mulling over the situation said, "Though I fear to say this, since you are insisting, I have to accept your confession, that you stole the Haaram! But as the judicial authority, I have to look at some of the connected issues too. Even if you were the one to have committed that act, I have to look into, your past reputation, immediate causes and circumstances. I have to look in to what went wrong, to have caused you to have done an act very abnormal! I also have to take in to consideration the fact that, you have come and accepted the act of commission; entirely on your own and surrendered the stolen property! Under this light, I have every right, not to punish you at all and exhonorate you, as permitted by the Saastraa-s!"

10. The Guru further pleaded. "Giving such logic, do not let me go unpunished. I will not be able to face myself if you do so. I must be given at the least, the minimum punishment, because I am not able to identify as to how I got the urge to steal!" The King replied, "Swami, if a man like you cannot analyse and discern as to how and why, you got the urge for aberrant behaviour, how can others do so? So I pray that you do this yourself!" The Guru replied, "OK. My Buddhi which had gone bad yesterday, at least got clear today. I pray to the God who motivated me to accept the crime and take the punishment for what I did'. Saying so, he sat down for meditation.

11. After some time, the Guru declared. "Yes. I am able to see some connection and cause. If I go in to the aspect of what was abnormal in yesterday's events, on your request, I had my food here, instead of my normal routine in the Ashramam. Then only I was criminally motivated, which lasted during the whole of the night. The urge slowly dwindled, as the loose motions took effect today morning and with God's grace I was able to regain my normal state of the mind! So I think that, there was something wrong with the food I had partaken yesterday. To confirm this either way, please investigate and find about the food inputs in yesterday's lunch", the Guru said. The King agreed to do so!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.