DEIVATHIN KURAL # 195 (Vol #3) Dated 10 Mar 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 195 (Vol #3) Dated 10 Mar 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 page No 887 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.)

93. Sekkizhar was a minister under a Chozha King. He wrote the book about all the 63 Nayanmar-s, renowned devotees of Siva. Amongst them there are only 12 brahmins, rest are all non-brahmins. They are all revered so much that in Siva temples, in the covered space around the sanctum sanctorum, there are statues representing each one of them. In describing their stories, Sekkizhar does touch upon two things invariably. One is about various Vedic traditions and the second is about how the king took care of the maintenance of 'varna-ashrama-dharma' ! The kings had an important role to play in this, as after all his was the responsibility to maintain social cohesion.

94. The king took care of this 'varna-ashrama-dharma' , so that it automatically ensured that people were disciplined enough. To a large extent this reduced the need for the application of 'raja dhandam' ! Each person had his profession to take care of with a fixed life style and method of earning his keep. You did not have to constantly compete with others all the time. When there is competition, anger, animosity, hate, jealousy, cheating, favouritism, bribing and even murder, takes place. All such complications were obviated, by the lack of competitiveness. Policing and judicial responsibilities of the king were that much less, in the bargain!

95. Though the management of 'varna-ashrama-dharma' was the main job of the king, it neither took too much of his time nor was it a highly stressful task. The reason is that people were voluntarily well behaved and observed the do's and don'ts of their caste and were well within the parameters of behaviour as required in the ashrama they found themselves in. Aberrations were rare. Even when a person like Buddha came on the scene recommending 'no-caste & no-god' concept, despite the tremendous power of attraction that he had, there was no popular ground swell against 'varna-ashrama-dharma' ! Despite convenient interpretations by British historians with vested interest, there was never any popular upraising against the 'varna-ashrama-dharma' ! There was not a single case of a move against the 'sanatana dharma' nor was there ever a chance for any king to force 'varna-ashrama-dharma' down the throat of unwilling masses! For thousands of years such an arrangement could not have sustained undisturbed, unless and until people found personal peace and social stability, in the set up!

96. Such being the case, the kings of yore did not have to waste their time and resources on policing and judicial procedures. So they could devote their time and energy in aesthetically pleasanter ventures. Instead of courts, police stations and jails, they constructed temples, lakes and ponds; free food chatra-s, built roads and planted trees on either side; rewarded learned Pundits and Pouranik-s enabling the common man to know about the saastraa-s; encouraged the pujaris to give talks on Bharatam in folk-music style! To remove hunger of the common man and sustain his moral self discipline, were the main concerns of the rulers those days.

97. People were peace loving. They visited the temples and developed devotion to the deities. They listened to the lectures of Purana, Itihaasaa-s stories and inculcated all the finer aspects and intricacies of dharma and morality. They lived peacefully with each other with mutual respect and admiration for their expertise in their own areas. I feel bad when I relate and compare this with the present day affairs! Instead of becoming aware of dharma and their respective duties, people are becoming more conscious of their rights. There are more temples in ruins becoming relics and brand new well maintained courts of law! Number of cinema halls are ever increasing. They learn all sorts of unlawful illegal acts through the cinema. Then is the lure of the lucre and sensual gratification, leading to general health deterioration and more money spent on the medical bills. Then you have race courses, hotels, dance halls and night clubs! As though all that is not enough, in the name of equality and rights, there are rabble rousers instigating social unrest with political overtones! Thus people have lost physical fitness, mental balance and social peace with ever increasing crime rate!

98. When you build a welfare edifice uncaring for the moral foundations, it can result only in the sort of conditions obtaining now! When you eat and drink anything, without a modicum of self discipline, you can only become unhealthy in mind and body both! Without moral bindings freedom of speech and expression through news papers, television and cinema can only assist in letting you go astray. There are more hospitals coming into being everyday because, people are all the time in the look out for newer and newer treatments for diseases of the mind, body and soul!

99. In the name of increasing money availability, they are opening ever new branches of banks in every village giving them loans. The idea is to get the Indian population to inculcate the habit of taking loans for anything and every thing with the concurrent proliferation of bribes, corruption, cheating and likely foreclosures. Thus get them all branded as beneficiaries of the welfare policies of the government, which in other words is the assured vote banks for the politicians!

100. The biggest welfare of the masses is to inculcate devotion to the divine power of God and the idea of dharmam through self discipline! The Artha and Dharma Saastraa-s were based on this deep rooted idea of discipline. It is this root of dharma that has been cut asunder by the present day politicians in the name of secularism, in the pretext of fighting the imaginary evils of casteism! No modern ideology can replace the fair and equitable system of 'varna ashrama dharma' that was existing in India. Despite the daily deterioration of values that we are seeing practically in all walks of life, politicians simply mouth the inane criticism that the earlier arrangements in ancient India, was lacking humaneness. This they do so as to retain themselves in power and continue to grind their own axes of selfishness, hypocrisy, parochialism and nepotism!

101. Another interesting point! The present day politicians at least in South India often take the name of Thiruvalluvar and his Thirukkural. But they conveniently ignore Thiruvalluvar's injunctions on Raja Dharma. In 'Porut paal', Thiruvalluvar has devoted a whole 'Adhikaram' of ten kurals, named 'Periyarai Pizhayamai' meaning 'not talking ill of our fore fathers or elders'! "The kings should approach the saints and sadhus with due respect and keep them happy", says Thiruvalluvar, so that they may not suffer like Indra, at the hands of Agasthya Muni. Indra lost his status as the King of all Deva-s, when he failed to listen to the advice of Agasthya! Then Thiruvalluvar goes on to say, "...kedal vendin kelaadu seiga...", meaning that, 'if you want to self destruct' do not consult elders!'

102. What is true kindness and humaneness at the level of managing national affairs of state? If we can establish a real state of justice and fairness, without fear of trouble creators in the society and also be able to mend the subsequent behaviour of those who have erred and enable them to steer clear of future pitfalls, that is true love of human kindness.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.