DEIVATHIN KURAL # 159 (Vol #3) Dated 07 Dec 2009.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 159 (Vol #3) Dated 07 Dec 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 No 730 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://Advaitam. blogspot. com constantly updated.)

12. Each Upaveda is from one of the four Veda-s, that is the root. In the case of Ayur Veda, it is the Rik Veda. Since the derivative gets sustenance from the original root Veda, it has another name, ‘Poushtikam’! Similarly, Dhanur Vedam is derived from Yajur, Gandarva is from Sama and Artha Saastra from Atharva Veda. In Dhanur Veda, while the missiles such as Varuna or Aagneya or Brhma Asthra-s are launched, the respective Mantra-s of Varuna or Agni or Brhma are to be chanted. Here it is the mantra shakti which gives the power to the missile and not the material of which the missile is made of. You could use a sword or a spike or a darbha grass as a missile! It does not matter as to what material the missile is made of! These mantra-s are to be found in Atharva Veda. To that extent, the Dhanur Veda is based on both Yajur and Atharva Veda-s.

13. There is a word in Sanskrit 'vasthu' which is a generic word for, 'thing, matter, material or item'. The same word slightly modified as, 'vaastu' has meanings such as, 'site, premises, building, cellar' and so on. Vaastu saastram is an applied science for sculpture and civil engineering. 'This Saastra and allied subjects, should also be considered as a Upa Veda', was the opinion of one Sri.Shukla, who gave a presentation in Ilayathangudi Sadas, when I was camping there some time back.

14. He pointed out that very renowned scholars such as Brigu Maharishi had evolved this saastra and that no other Upaveda has such well known Maharishi as authors. Veda-s are not attributed to any one author anyhow! This Saastra covers the details of construction of a city, temple, palace, individual houses and so on. When initially a plot of land is purchased or a house or any building is to be constructed, it is the Vaastu Purusha, who is invoked in the form of a person with his head, hands, legs and so on are worked out. If the various parts of the building do not follow the requirements as given in that Saastra, then it leads to avoidable problems affecting the occupants lives. Now a days, we do not do anything as per Vaastu Saastraa-s, but go by rules as given in books on town-planning and in the bargain, experiencing all the possible abnormalities described in Vaastu Saastra! Very recently however, people have started consulting Vaastu experts.

15. There are two slight deviations here. One is that, Susrudar an important contributor to Ayur Veda, considers it to be part of Atharva Veda and not Rik Veda. There is one Stapatya Saastra Veda, which talks of the various tools, instruments and their usage, for construction of basement, flooring, walls, roofs, arches and so on, thus covering partly civil and mechanical engineering aspects. Anyhow, the art of sculpture and construction, come under Vaastu Saastra. But in the general opinion, it is the Artha Saastra of economics and trade, that is considered as a Upaveda!
16. Ayur Vedam is a Saastram which tells us the method of caring for the human body and advices for its longevity. The main cause for early demise are diseases. So, Ayur Veda covers all the health, hygiene, medicines, their preparations, methods of application, preventive and curative aspects, for sustained human life. Why should we do it? Why should we take care of the body so much? Anyhow, one day or the other it is going to dissipate and die. We are all mortals. How does it matter when we die? Great Gnaani-s tell us not to fear death. Till it is there, one is constantly subjected to the pulls and pressures of the senses! The great Saints have never bothered about elongating their lives, is it not so? Such may be your questions.
17. Let it be. It is alright for you to ask an intelligent question such as, 'when we cannot avoid death, what is the use of taking so much care of this human body?'. What happens in practical life? Is it the great Mahatma's attitude of dispassion and our own intelligence or intuition that comes into play? No. What comes into play is generally what is our deep rooted 'deha atma buddhi'! The lightest discomfort takes priority over all other things. A small speck in the banyan or under wear can irritate and divert our attention. The pleasure of winning a lakh of rupees in a lottery may be seen as a matter of no consequence, if we are suffering from a cold or loose motion! There may be a man suffering from leprosy, with a stinking body lying on the road, crying his hearts out as to when will he be relieved of this agony of existence! Let him become aware of a truck hurtling towards him and he realizes that he is about to be run over! Now see his reaction. In a jiffy, he would have jumped out of his push cart and rolled away from the path of the on rushing truck, in trying to save himself! The idea that we are this body is so much ingrained in our subconcience that we have no other identity of ourselves! All said and done, this human body is very precious! Even a ninety-nine year old man would still like to postpone his death by taking his medicines regularly and extend his life a little more!
18. This is one aspect. Another is our attitude towards the physical being of our wife or husband or our own children. We wish that they should live long. Even if we were to die, we feel that they should live long enough. Anyhow we pray to God that they should not pass away when we are still alive! If they fall ill, we are ready to take care of them at what ever cost money wise and what ever our own physical discomforts! You must have read about how, Babar prayed to Allah to give part of his life span to his son Humayun. Thus to take care of one's own self and kith and kin has been the innate nature in all human beings and animals. Whether it is a huge elephant or a tiny worm, we are ready to go to any length of effort, in trying to protect our this body!

19. Instead of breaking this natural tendency of ours, we should go along with our nature, while simultaneously try and slowly bring it around towards divine consciousness, is the method of our ancestors. Like when your vehicle that you are driving is swerving, you do not try to violently turn it in the opposite direction but go in to the error and gradually bring it around, do we not? Our ancestors method is to go with the trend to grow, learn our Veda-s, dharma, duties as a bachelor, get married, beget children and lead the life of a responsible house holder and citizen; while doing all this as per our ordained duties as given in the Saastraa-s, so as to mature ourselves into a divine person. This is their way, for which we should be live our full quota of life as a healthy human being for which they have given us the Ayur Veda!
20. Not only this. Though this seems to be the apparent aim, there is an inner aim. We are born as human beings only because of the fact that we have done a lot of sinful acts and so are going through life without ever knowing as to what is best for us! At least now, we have to start expiating for our sins and cancel/counter the over due negative accounts. For this we have to do a whole lot of meritorious acts to compensate for. That can be done only when we live long enough to do acts of 'Paropakaaram'! We have to do much 'sram daan', that is, donate physical efforts. To cancel out the back log of negative karma, we have to strive hard doing Yaaga-s, Nava Avarana Pooja, climb the Thirupati Mountain by the foot path, go to paada yaatra to Sabarimala or Badrinath or Vaishno Devi temple, do 108 or 1008 Gayatri Mantra-s and so on! To do such things we need to continue to live and have the body in ship-shape!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.