DEIVATHIN KURAL # 127 (Vol #3) Dated 20 Sept 2009.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 127 (Vol #3) Dated 20 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 the second para on page 560 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.)

21. The story of the King and Guru seems slightly exaggerated. Unless that is done somehow, people do not give the necessary attention. In the story, the cooks who got the food prepared are the first set of people concerned. The servants who served the food and the King are only connected in a secondary level. The thief is only connected in a round about manner. If his 'Guna Dosham' is powerful enough to affect the otherwise morally upright Guru's behaviour, there could be more influences of the shop keeper and the farmer and so on! If we go on to assess all that before eating, we will never be able to eat anything at all! They say that we are not to investigate the 'Rishi Moolam' and 'Nadi (River) Moolam', that is, the origin or starting point of River and Rishi. Similarly we cannot afford to investigate the origins of all the ingredients that go to make a day's food.

22. That is why Saastraa-s tell us to look at the material per se and two directly involved persons; that is the cook and the server. Since we pay a price and buy the materials used in making the food, we can assume that the subtle ill effects have been countered or nullified. More than the raw materials, it is the cooked food that could be carrying the positive and negative influences of the cook and the server. See to it that these two are of the 'Saattvic'.

23. (Note:- Here the word 'Saattvic' requires to be explained in more detail. All people and materials in this world have three distinct qualities, namely, Saattvic, Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is the best. Rajas comes next. Tamas is the lowest and worst. The three qualities indicate three different attitudes. Each animate and inanimate object in this world may exhibit these qualities in varying degrees on different occasions. The same person may display more of one and less of the other Gunas at times. Sattva is calm, quiet, contained, happy, pleasant, and so on. Rajas is active, outgoing, excited, energetic, bubbling with anticipation and expectations. Tamas is sick, morose, lazy, inert, sloppy, dirty, slouching and lounging. While we have to successively, get over Tamas through Rajas and get over Rajas by way of Sattva; finally we have get beyond Sattva too, if we aim to attain freedom or perfection! For a more detailed analysis of the three Guna-s, see Chapter 14 of the Bhagawat Gita, known as 'Guna Thraya Vibhaga Yoga:'.)

24. As I said, both good and bad influences get transferred to the consumer through the food that he partakes. In olden times, before Brahmins started getting employed and earn, they used to get all their material requirements in kind only as alms donated to them. But whosoever gave them 'daanam', did so with due respect and love, neutralizing any 'dosha' that could have been there. Here too the King had given food to the Guru with respect and love only. But the fact that it was stolen and recovered property, still 'sub judice'; that the negative influences were powerful enough to temporarily cause the Guru to go astray.

25. In the days gone by, I am afraid, normally people were more well behaved and law abiding. Even then, we were warned to be careful by Saastraa-s, so that we may not run the risk of 'Aahaara Dosha'! But, these days when deviation from Saastraa-s is the accepted in-thing, if we make an assessment of the good and bad influences likely to be there, after all good and bad influences cancel out each other; the bad effects are likely to be predominant. So we have to be careful to avoid smuggled and black-market goods! That is why food cooked at home is preferable to the cook and server being unknown or unknowable factor! A wife or mother is preferable as the cook and server, for this reason only.

26. I used a word 'Saattvic'. Food is not only meant for bodily growth. It is also meant to sustain the body so that the man could evolve mentally and spiritually. So the Saastraa-s lay stress on a number of rules and regulations regarding food. Most important Aachaaraa-s are concerning the Do's and Don’ts of food. The food should be amenable and conducive to inculcating the Sattva Guna.

27. To be without anger, agitation, lust, desire, while at the same time not be a dullard, to be calm, cool and collected with a brilliant brain, high efficiency and having the potential and latent power for sustained action when needed; is Sattva Guna. Agitation, anger, excitement and lust are indicative of the Rajas. This is one end of the spectrum. On the other end is Tamas, which is lazy, dull, slipshod, brainless, imbecile idiocy! The central balance is Sattva. Rajas is activity oriented. Where Sattva is predominant, the thoughts and actions are well controlled. There is a stage higher than Sattva too. There one crosses the level of thoughts and actions. If Tamas is falling and failure of the mind, this is complete annihilation of the mind, 'mano Nigraham'! In Tamas, he will be sleeping and in this state of 'Tureeya', he will be in 'Samaadhi'. The difference lies in the fact that in sleep he will be unaware of his self, while in 'Samaadhi', he will be totally aware. He will be aware of his self. Not only his self, but the only Self, call it what you want, as Atma, God, the micro and macro cosmos! We are all feeling and saying 'I', 'I', and so on, thinking ourselves to be great while wrongly identifying ourselves to be simply the mortal human body. The one in the 'Tureeya' state will know clearly this dichotomy between the play of Ego and the Self!

(More about this dichotomy between the Real Self and the Usurper Ego, in the next e-mail.)

Sambhomahadeva.