DEIVATHIN KURAL # 152 (Vol #3) Dated 22 Nov 2009.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 152 (Vol #3) Dated 22 Nov 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 690 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.

15. Fasting and maintaining silence go together. The devotees of Ambal would keep mounam throughout the Navratri / Dasehra with Oru Pozhudu! We talk of many unwanted things, gossip about others, curse and criticize all and sundry, thereby insult Saraswati the Goddess of Speech. As a Prayaschittam (act of expiation), on the star of Saraswati Devi, i.e., Moolam, people used to fast and keep Mounam. (Kanchi Periyaval used to keep Mounam on Moola Nakshatram.) Daily we should be doing Dhyana for at least half an hour, keeping Mounam.

16. Keeping Awake Avoiding Sleep. With fasting and Mounam, yet another abnegation can be added quite profitably! On those days we keep our mouths shut without eating and talking, we could also keep our eyes open to avoid going to sleep! To keep awake the whole night spending the time on Dhyana, Paaraayana, listening to devotional songs being sung, or stories of playful exploits by Krishna in Bhagawatam and such Puraanaas, chanting the Sloka-s and Sahasranama-s and so on! The idea of not closing the eyes is to mean remain wide awake and not go to sleep.

17. Sivaratri and Vaikunta Ekaadasi are both observed like that. It does not mean that you see five or six movies on the CD player and feel that you have accumulated bags of Punyam! With Upavaasam and Bhajan, you have to add the third item of remaining awake the whole day and night. When it says in Gita that 'you cannot attain to Yoga by fasting and keeping awake only', it does not mean that you are not to keep such Vratam. What is meant is that by such Vratam alone is the aim not achieved. On every given opportunity, if you fast, maintain Mounam, keep awake the whole day and night, giving all your mind to the pursuit of divine goals, there is no doubt that you will succeed to Yoga! Elsewhere Krishna Paramatma clarifies that Saastram is the authority when you have doubts, "...tasmaat saastram pramaanam te..."! Let us have no doubt on that point!

18. Start & End Point. Mounam means no expression. Closing your mouth, if you express your views by some sign language, it is no good! Where it is inescapably necessary, you may write and show your response. But the ideal is what is known as 'Kaashta Mounam', meaning, to be as unresponsive as a piece of log! Once you have made up your mind to keep Mounam, no sign language, no writing and showing!

19. Initially one may find it difficult to leave all responsibilities, works and thoughts aside and be silent. You have to set yourself some time limits. A few weeks for using sign language, a few more weeks for writing your response with mounam. Then switch over to total silence. Anyhow the ever active tongue is tied for some time duration thus, I suppose giving raise to the phrase 'tongue tied'!? By this process slowly but steadily, we get control over the mind of ours. By dint of practice we will find that we are getting over our faults and getting really pacified to perfection of real Mounam!

20. Mounam thus started is a method of approach and reverence to God. Then when you attain to perfection, you will silently come to the realization that, the Easwara or God or Rama or whatever name you call him, is no one else but you, him, this, that and everyone and everything! That ideal stage or state is the one when there is complete Mounam of no talk, no sight, no feeling, no thought, the ideal state of real silence, beyond time, beyond space!

21. Even in deep sleep, when an ant moves over us, we scratch it out of existence. When a mosquito starts biting, we smash it to smithereens! When there is a breeze, we pull our blanket more tightly around us. Change the side on which we are lying. In the morning we are not aware of what we had done. That is without the slightest awareness we would have done all that. With no thought of the 'deha aatma buddhi', that is without our wrong identification of ourselves as the physical body, we would have done so much in protecting this body!

22. The nervous system functions under the control of the brain, as we know. Many actions of ours are intended by us known as voluntary actions. But even amongst involuntary reflexes, there is so much of 'body consciousness'. If we feel that we are being tickled, we tend to laugh. With some indications of danger, our hairs stand on end. Faced with real danger, our stomach is in a churn and adrenaline starts flowing. In a crowd, if one person yawns, we all brake out yawning.

23. Think as to how will it be when we are in true Mounam! Even if a python were to move over our body, we will not be aware of it physically, in that, there will be no reflexes! Heat or cold, we will be sitting like a fixed statue in perfect concentration in Dhyana or Samadhi. As the 'deha aatma buddhi' is completely gone, the deep rooted instinct to protect the body will not be there. He is the one who has won over all his senses known as, 'Jitendriya'!

24. When we have trained ourselves to this level of self control, our human weaknesses, compulsions, attitudes and fears would have all gone. The inner fire then would be recognized as the effulgence of the 'Atma Jyoti'! The power of the Sun, Moon and the Stars would all be seen here in us! What was dormant and covered by ashes would suddenly be cognized as incomparably more bright than a million Suns! This small spark of brilliance would lose all its separateness and merge in to that and would become that light of all lights! As we progress all the burning sensual desires will lose their brightness, becoming dimmer and dimmer, finally merging in to that one resplendent luminosity of 'Atma Jyoti'! That is the end!
25. If we are all the time stirring and disturbing the ocean floor, we will never be able to locate the pearl lying there. Our mind is all the time in a churn because of endless thoughts that, the pearl of the inner self is never seen. True Mounam is to stop the endless emanation of thought waves in the mind. For that, this outer silence of the vocal chords is only an enabling prelude. The royal entrance to the kingdom of Yoga is to stop talking says Aadi Sankara Bhagawat Paadaal in Viveka Chudamani, Sloka 367:- "Yogasya pratamam dwaram vaang nirodha:".

26. To Stop Thoughts. With silence of the mouth, everyday we should spend some time in blocking the thought waves, say the Saastraa-s. "...tooshneem kinchit a-chintayet..." which is difficult to achieve. Even when we sit down with that intention, the question remains as to how to stop the flow of thoughts? How not to think of anything? There remains a thought that, ‘we should not think of anything‘! It is said that in Tamil, "...sindayai adakkiye summaa irukkum tiram aridhu...".

27. However, the bright side of it is that, when you sit down with this intention, with regularity of practice, it becomes possible, with God's Grace of course! We can only make an effort. The 'Phala Dhaataa' is God Himself! As Tayumaanavar said, we have to sit down 'summa' and keep on trying to be without a thought. Leave the rest to Him to do the needful! (KTSV adds:- That is why, many Gurus have given this as the Upadesa to their disciples, "...summaa iru... or ...tooshneem bhava... or ...sumneru... or ...oorika undu..", in Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu languages respectively! So have many parents, [Father and Mother being the foremost Guru anyhow], have told their sons or daughters to 'keep quite'! Arunagiri Naathar has also mentioned that he got those two words as the advice from Lord Muruga Himself. We will again refer to him in the next para.)

28. When we try to do this as a Sadhana, at some point in time, the mind will become blank without any thoughts. It will be a vacuum or zero experience of nothingness! It will not be 'Atma Anubhava'. There will be no brilliance or effulgence. The question will come to the mind as to whether, 'this is the experience that we have been waiting for?' Though we will be aware that the mind has come to a stand still, we will also be aware that, "This is not IT".

29. This is not the state of ultimate! I called it the 'Atma Jyoti'! So will it be in the form of a fire? In the English language too it is called the 'Enlightenment and or Illumination'! This is not the Gnaana that analyses and knows another. This is Knowledge itself! This is knowing without a second or another. But the state we are in, is yet another sleep only. Without a thought, there will be vacuum, for a period. Saint Arunagiri Naathar describes this state of affairs as, "...amma porul onrum arindilane...", meaning, '...mother, I did not know any meaning of it!...'. Aadi Sankara calls it 'mano laya:'. This is not yet, 'mano nigraha:'. Not to be afraid, because you are well on your way at the penultimate pause!

(To be Continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.