DEIVATHIN KURAL # 156 (Vol #3) Dated 30 Nov 2009.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 156 (Vol #3) Dated 30 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 last para on page No 713 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.

25. In olden times the highest govenmental official who supervised the accounts was known as the ‘Perum Kanakku’ which is similar to the A.G’s Ofiices of to-day. The office at the unit level was known as ‘Kanakka Pillai’. ‘Pillai’ here indicates the scaled down version of the office and not the name of a caste. Though he was lower down in the heirarchy, he used to know all the tricks of the trade. In olden times the District Collector was required to start training in his job for a period as this Kanakka Pillai’s assistant.
26. It is sad to note that we have all come to some sort of a ground understanding that, as long as we can show on paper, that the debit and credit side tallies, accounts are OK! It is rather painful to note that, even this matching of the credit and debit has been given the ‘go bye’ at further higher levels of finance minister and such, that deficit financing has become an accepted policy at national, corporate and international levels, I am told! Simply they, the Governments make up the deficiency by printing more currency notes reportedly. All told, in the name of modern methods people’s needs have been endlessly enhanced, for which all prices and expenditure has been increased, thus resulting in all people becoming debt prone, lacking peace and quiet. Needs, income and expenses should all be kept under control. (KTSV adds:- I am surprised at the topical relevance of what Periyaval is saying in to-days world of Global Warming and Financial Meltdown! Global Warming is resultant out of reckless over exploitation of the Earth’s resources and Financial Meltdown is happening because of unprincipled deficit financing by individuals, companies, corporates and Governments!)
27. Income and expenses is there not only in money matters. It is applicable to all our transactions. If we speak too much it is like expense. If we get told off, it is part of income! What we say is gone from us and so an expense. What we receive is income even if it happens to be so many curses! Day and night, we are breathing, inhaling and exhaling. That is also income and outgo only! ‘Pranayamam, mantra japam, soham dhyanam’, have all been evolved so that there can be some control on this breathing. Hurried breathing cuts down ones longevity as also it affects the pulse rate and Blood Pressure. So we should be controlling our breath. In a day we should not be breathing more than 21,600 times. That is, each breath should last at least 4 seconds. When we are in a hurry or angry or agitated for whatever reasons, the breath will finish in one or two seconds. That is why, while doing pranayamam, we are trained to go to the other extreme of controlling the breath for longer periods! Our longivity and the level stage of ‘samadhi’ are both dependent on the breath being controlled. This is so because the breath that is ‘Prana’ and the life force that is ‘Atma’ are both arising from one and the same source.
28. The accounts that we show the world may be balanced by not so very correct or even unfair means. (Periyaval uses a phrase in Tamil, ‘mattai thookki aattil pottu’, which literally means, you lift the cows and put them in the column for goats and such! That is something like equating oranges with apples!) But, we should be accountable to our own self or our own conscience. Then we cannot do any hanky panky and expect to win! All our actions are under one scrutiny of God, who is called the, ‘…sarvadee saakshi bootham…’, meaning the witness of everything for all times! You can never dupe Him! He can never be fooled. For all our past sins, we have to place equal quantity of good deeds of equal weight on the other side to compensate. That account book is in His hands. Only when we do illimitable amount of good deeds can that account be balanced. For that we have to develop the right mental attitude. Before that, our thoughts, action, comforts for ourselves, expenditure on personal things, food, dress and all such things should be under scrutiny at all times. We should never lose sight of the fact that, this calculatedness is for our everlasting gain. Instead of looking only at the balance in our purse and bank account, we should start looking at this ‘punya laabham vs paapa nashtam’, that is, ‘gain through good deeds and loss through sins’!
29. To be calculative in what we earn and spend in terms of not only money, but also in all our good deeds and sinful actions, is based on the principle of ‘aparigraham’! Parigraham means accumulation. Opposite of that, Aparigraham means refusing to accumulate. Do not add to yourself even an iota, more than the barest minimum that is essential for you to be able to live is the ‘Aparigraha Dharmam’! (KTSV adds:- We will continue from here in the next e-mail. In the mean while think of how uniquely appropriate this principle could be for a world whose population is doubling itself every ten years! )

Sambhomahadeva.