DEIVATHIN KURAL # 183 (Vol #3) Dated 02 Feb 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 183 (Vol #3) Dated 02 Feb 2010.
(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 837 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.)

111. Love and Peace Through Music. Vedaantam declares that everything gets confined into the cave of heart in peace. To deposit us into that timeless and space less peace is what music is meant to do. (Please refer to the talk on ‘the aim of music is peace’ in the first volume of Deivathin Kural.) When Parasakthi is seen as Shyamala as the deity of Music, Her heart is soft and melting (mridula swaantaam), and utterly peaceful (saantaam), says poet Kalidasa in Nava Ratna Maalaa. Heart that is melting is Love and Compassion.

112. When music brings peace to your Atma, since everything else is also only Atma, there is a spontaneous ebbing of love for all. This is what is described by the poet as, ‘saantaam, mridula swaantaam’! Since this sweetness is not sensual, music evokes this universal love! To think of it cools ones being. Ambal sweetly playing on the Veena with the lightest touch of her fingers, is lightly elated in the resonating sound and very peacefully cool. Her heart is then very soft and mellow, showering Her Grace on all devotees. On visualizing this the devotees’ hearts are also melting with love, devotion, bliss and quietude!

113. When she is Herself so absorbed as the embodiment of Music, she doesn’t have to deliberately will the audience of devotees to enjoy it. The very fact that she is enjoying the Sapta Swara-s, that the whole world is in that blissful state too! After all, She is the world of all. The poet captures this mood of Her enrapture with the words, “...sa ri ga ma pa da ni rataam taam...”. It is for this purpose of enabling the whole world to enjoy the blissfulness of music that, She is enjoying the music pleasure fully! That would automatically mean that when you enjoy your music, the audience and the whole world is likely to enjoy with you!

114. Exactly like Kalidasa, Thyagaraja Swami of the musical trinity too describes the Easwara in the song 'naada danum anisam' saying, 'sarigamapadani vara sabda swara vidya lolam' that He is sportingly plays with the Sapta Swara-s. The idea that even without any intension on our part, if our hearts are fully absorbed in the music, the peacefulness evolves spontaneously, as stated by Kalidasa, is also being expressed by Thyagaraja Swami in this kriti quoted above. When he uses the words, 'vimala hrudaya' it has the same meaning of 'mrudula swanta', that is, 'a heart brimming with peaceful love towards all'! There is another corollary to this, that is, if you are full of love, you will sing!

115. The same idea has been expressed by other greats of the world of music too, such as by Sadasiva Brhmendra! Music especially Indian Classical music of the Karnatic genre are 99% religiously devotional only. Just singing those songs itself will give much pleasant peacefulness. If by any chance such is not the case, then it means that your mind is preoccupied with some other wants, desires and or aspirations. If name and fame with lure of lucre is the aim, the whole thing will be an exercise in futility. Even then there will be flashes of a taste of that 'santam'! Like the man who is collecting the honey from the honey comb hanging high up in the tree in some not easily accessible spot, undergoes much pain and hazards in his effort, may lick the back of his hands, may get some of its taste. He will not get the full pleasure of it, as he intends to sell it in the market. So is the fate of the one trying to sell music.

116. Even such artists who are trying to earn name, fame and money, at times forget themselves and sing. It is those moments when, they make us the hearers forget ourselves! If you completely get involved in the music like Thyagaraja, sans any other aspirations, then music can be the gate way of heavens, 'moksha dwaar' ! They will know the endless bliss! Their hearts will be innocent and soft like that of a child. People who have interacted with such 'Nadopasaka-s' like Thyagaraja Swami and Gopala Krishna Bharathi, during their life time, have commented on the extreme love and compassion of such people. It is equally true of some of the present day singers too.

117. As Ambal who is called Sakti is thus seen to be like the peaceful ocean of contentment and compassion, similarly the 'Prana Sakti' in each one of us, that is the 'Life Force' can be awakened completely through which the end Adwaita Anubuthi can be experienced. It is known as the Kundalini Yoga. Let me give you a brief description of this. At the lower end of the spinal chord in the human body, is located the power centre called the Mulaadhaaraa. The Kundalini Sakti is in the form of a coiled serpent at this point. There are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingala and Ida, and a hollow canal called Sushumna running through the spinal cord.

118. At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the "Lotus of the Kundalini" that is described as triangular in form in which there is a power called the Kundalini, coiled up. When that Kundalini awakes, it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and as it rises step by step, as it were, it passes through Swadhishtana (at the lower abdomen), Manipuraka ( at the naval), Anahata (near the human heart), Visuddhi (near the Thymus in the throat), Aagnya (in between the eye brows) and reaches Sahasrara at the peak of the head. During this process known as the raising of the Kundalini, layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all the different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain, the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind; the soul finds itself free.

119. When the Prana and Kundalini is pausing through the Anahata, the spontaneous sound of Pranava can be heard. In each of the power centres known as Chakra-s, the Siva Sakti Dampati (couple) will be in different forms (Roopa). In each of the Chakra-s they should be meditated upon, in those forms. In 'Soundarya Lahari', our Aachaaryal has described both Siva and Sakti dancing in Mulaadhaara Chakra, Siva doing theTaandavam and Sakti doing the Laasyam. Siva is Aananda Bhairava here and She is the Samaya. This is not the all destructive dance of ‘samhaara’, but dance of the creative Father and Mother of the world. The dance of Cosmic creation! One of the classic Raagaa-s is ‘Aananda Bhairavi’. That is the name of Samaya here. Ambal is the Aananda Bhairavi. (This has ref to sloka 41 in Soundarya Lahari.)

120. When I say that the whole creation is from the Naadam (that is, sound and so music) and Natanam (that is, dance), we can have an understanding of the great esoteric importance of the Gaandarva Veda. Modern science also says that creation is from vibrations. Vibration is shaking and so is dance. Sound vibration is music. Vibration of the forms so created is dance. All the planets and stars are also all of the time going round and round in a cosmic dance. Even inside a small atom, the electrons are going round and round in a dance of the micro level! The atomic dance of interaction leads to molecules and their dance of inter actions leads to all the formation of compounds and so on from the micro to the macro level and beyond! If creation is from this initial start point, the end also depends on going back to the roots or the source, your real being, the Siva and Sakti! For that again make use of Music and Dance, as the easiest royal path or Raja Yoga!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.