DEIVATHIN KURAL # 187 (Vol #3) Dated 10 Feb 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 187 (Vol #3) Dated 10 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 page No 852 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.)

11. There has to be a powerful organization to see that the physically strong do not boss over the physically weak, to safe guard the women, to prevent loot and dacoity and to prevent economic offences. Similarly we need a strong organization to deter and prevent armed incursion from across the national borders, which should be capable of arresting and punishing invaders if any! Such an organization should be empowered and be suitably armed to carry out its tasks.

12. The common man does not have to be told as to how he should go about earning his bread. He basically needs freedom to be able to earn his living. He does not need to be told as to how to run a business either. In his own self-interest, with a little bit of guidance he will learn as he progresses. All that is required is that he needs to be told as to, how not to hurt other's interests and how not to undermine ones own permanent interests. That is the job of the Dharma Saastraa-s.

13. When it comes to Artha Saastra, instead of being concerned about the 'artha' of each individual, it is required to take care of the collective responsibilities of the society. In addition it protects the human beings' basic individual's rights of speech, expression, dress, own land or property, practice of customs, tradition, language, religion and so on! If all this is to be done by an organization at a national level, it has to cover everything that the government of a country will have to do.

14. In each country this is the job that has been done in so many different ways, as to how to let the people of a country earn their 'artha' while being protected from internal enemies of the society and as to how to protect a nation's culture and religion from interference from aliens! Later, this led to the coming into being of many 'isms' of various shades of capitalism, communism, aristocracy, democracy and what not! Here it is worthwhile to remember the famous dictum, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!"

15. In the name of democracy, what is happening every where is a mockery of democracy. Elections are supposed to be fair. But in many places it has become a game of numbers. In some places the very government is in the hands of the majority, to the detriment of minority people's rights and freedom! Even then, when it comes to talking, it has become a practice to claim that, the government is protecting all the people's all basic civil rights and the nations culture! I do not want to get involved in the varying pulls of ideology and principles of various 'isms' and 'cracys'. I was only going to say that, 'as it is the government which is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the 'artha' of the people of a nation, in a fair manner, (that is as per 'dharma'), in Artha Saastra, government, its organization and policies, are the subject matter.

[(KTSV adds:-
1. What Periyaval is diffident of mentioning, I feel free to comment upon. The world over, it has become the style to ignore the rules of morality. What ever be the form of Government, unless you are going to be governed by the rules of probity, integrity, rectitude; uprightness; honesty, faith; honour; bonne foi, good faith, bona fides; purity, clean hands., fairness; fair play, justice, equity, impartiality, principle; grace., constancy; faithfulness; fidelity, loyalty; incorruption, incorruptibility., trustworthiness; truth, candour, singleness of heart; veracity; tender conscience (sense of duty)., delicacy, nicety; scrupulousness; scruple; point, point of honour; punctuality., dignity, (repute) and so on; they will all be only so many words! Politics is a "buggers muddle" and Indian politics is more so!

2. In the Indian context, Hindus are supposed to be a majority. Though on paper they are the majority, they are the aggregation of many many minorities who will never see eye to eye with any of the other minorities of the same Hindus, on any subject on earth or elsewhere!

3. India is the only country in this world, where foreigners get voting rights, if they do not have any identification papers, let alone the VISA!)]

16. Artha Saastra and Dharma Saastra. For this major job of protecting the individual's right and society’s rights to live, earn and grow; without any interference from nefarious elements within the country and from outside the country, Artha Saastra has given many rules and regulations. Even before this, Dharma Saastra itself contains many rules and directions on governance. Manu, Yagnyavalkya and others have while deliberating on the duties of the Kshatriya caste, have talked about Raja Dharma. Many kings and dynasties including the Chera, Chola, Pandya, Pallava, Chalukhya, Hoysala and Rajasthani kings; have been proud of the fact that they were strictly adhering to the dictates of Manu Dharma Saastra.

17. I will briefly touch upon the case of Sibi Chakravarty. A dove surrendered to King Sibi, when he was resting in an open space in the upper reaches of his palace. The dove was being chased at that moment by a vulture. When the king extends his hand in protection (‘abhaya hastha’) to anyone, that person need not fear anymore. Here the vulture tells the king, “That dove is my naturally rightful prey! You have no right or business to interfere!” The king was in a quandary. He deliberated for a moment on the correctness of the vulture’s claim. He said, “Yes! You are right. But since I have given protection to this bird, you have to now make a choice of some other thing in lieu!” Then there is much discussion as to what can be the ‘thing in lieu’! Finally it is agreed upon that, the king will cut his own body and give that meat, equivalent to the weight of the dove! Here is the anti-climax of the story. No amount of cutting of his body could equal the weight of that dove! Finally the king had to climb the plate himself to balance the weight of the dove with his whole body!

18. That is some indication of how fair the kings had to be in doing their duties as per dharma saastraa-s. The point driven home is that the kings of In dia had such high ideals to emulate! For that matter, all Upa Veda-s are about such subject matters as having a bearing on this worldly life and existence only and not about any abstract or abstruse subjects of philosophy. Keeping eternal ennoblement of individuals in view as the mission to be attained, they the Smruthies and Dharma Saastraa-s, talked about man’s behaviour as it is required to be, in this worldly life of mutual interactions, not only with other people but even with birds, animals and the plant kingdom!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.