DEIVATHIN KURAL # 1 (Vol #4) Dated 24 April 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 1 (Vol #4) Dated 24 April 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. Today we are proceeding from page One of Vol 4 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.)

MANGALA AARAMBAM – AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING

1. Peria Idathu Pillai. (The child from the big place!) Even if the baby is too small, if it happens to be from a rich family of high status, people will try to be very kind to it and do all sorts of antics to evoke a smile form that baby! Earlier on they used to say, ‘Prince of Wales, or Raja ka Beta’. Later possibly ‘Zamindar’s or Mirasdar’s or Collector’s son’ and may be nowadays, they are saying ‘the child of an M.L.A. (a political big wig)’! Even if that child is not being very attractive or is being difficult, people will act as though he or she is the darling of all connoisseurs!
2. Do you know the reason why? Through being not very pleasing towards the baby, they do not want to antagonize the father, who can prove to be a pain on the side, for the visitor! Mostly people may accept being berated. But they are likely to react negatively if their child is looked down upon! There is a saying in Tamil that even for the crow, its offspring is golden (kakkai-k-kum tan kunju pon kunju). So, if a man higher in status and social standing gets annoyed, just because his child has been ignored or not praised, it may adversely affect the visitors job in hand! So, it is better to show a bit of assumed affection and appreciation of imaginary good qualities in that child.
3. As against this, the shortest route to a parent’s heart is through praising of their child! They will be happy, their hearts thrilled. By this process, one can get anything out of them. It is always difficult to satisfy the elders. But to win the heart of a baby is ever so easy. A toffee or a doll will do. If nothing else, some monkey trick will do most sufficiently! The child will be happy and so will the parents be in the bargain.
4. Now if you go about asking successively as to who is that ‘piLLai (son) + yar (who)? = piLLayar’, son of a Mirasdar, a Zamindar, an M.L.A., Minister, Chief Minister, Prime Minister, President of the Nation and so on. The quest will have to lead you on to the Supreme Ruler of all Universes, the God. Now has he got a son? Yes! He is the same one you have been searching for, He is one known as ‘PiLLayar ‘Himself!
5. Above all Kings and Presidents, He is the Son of Lord God of them all. He is the elder son. The first child is ‘Saadhu’, quiet and well behaved. He is easy to be pleased. But that is not to mean that you can afford to be careless. He has a mighty impressive look of an elephant, capable of putting hurdles in the way, if you are not careful. He has shown that He could put some blocks in the way for His own Parents! Thereby he warns us not to be flippant about Him! If you do some pooja to please Him as ‘chinna ejamaan’ or ‘Chota Saheb’ or the ‘Young Lord’; He is pleased and Parvathy Parameswara are pleased too!
6. After all, they are the Master and Mistress of the whole worlds of moving and non-moving, animate and inanimate life forms. We can get all the benefits from them. But, to do Siva Pooja or Am-baaL Pooja is full of too many procedural difficulties. They are called ‘aasu toshi and kshipra prasadini’ to mean, ‘those who are easily satisfied and grant plenty of benefits’. However, there are too many Do’s and Don’ts when you go to their temples, stand here only, do Namaskarams here, don’t use so and so flower, and so on! In Sri Chakra Pooja, if you make a mistake in ‘Madi / Aachaaram’ (in observance of the rules and regulations,) it can have adverse effects on generations yet to be born, we are told. They say that if you misuse Siva’s property, your progeny is ad-versely affected! Such things are fearsome to even think of! Re-lated to all this it is certainly easier to take refuge in our PiLLayar.
7. He is easily approached and satisfied. He is there everywhere. We only have to pull a clutch of the ubiquitous ‘Arugam Pul’, the grass that grows everywhere and put it on Him and He is happy with that! Out of all flowers, you need only the ‘Erukkan Poo’, that is not sold, that nobody decorate their hair with, available in plenty in the wild; if you pick up a few of them and offer them at His feet, with no expenses involved, you have done it! He is not very choosy about the fruits too! Some ‘pirappam(small fruits 7mm thick with a slightly hard skin, whose name I do not know in English!) or some jam fruit; will fit the bill. If you can get some banana and jack fruit to thrill Him, you can get a coconut that will chill Him!
8. Even that coconut, you may smash it on hard ground so that the pieces scatter in all directions, making children happy to pick up the pieces. With that, PiLLayar is very happy because He is a fan of the children who are His fans. Breaking coconuts like that is known as ‘Chidaru Thengai’! (Refer to Deivathin Kural #1 to 4 of Volume 3 dated Oct 2008.)
9. If you are a man of further means, then you can specially make some ‘Modakam’, (cakes of rice paste with fillings of shredded coconut sweetened with jaggery, sealed with the same rice paste and steamed), instead of toffees. You only have to show him all this and eat and share with others. ‘Modakam’ means ‘happiness’! He looks as though bubbling happiness has taken a form, as a baby elephant. So we do not have to do something to tickle Him. If we go to Him and stand beside Him, He is happy. Thus we can earn His goodwill and through Him the blessings of His parents!
10. There is no problem in going near Him. We do not have to take pains to go somewhere. Every nook and corner, river bank and on the side of a pond or a lake, under a Aala Maram (banyan tree) and Arasa Maram, (king of trees) He is there everywhere, with or without a roof over His head! No rules and restrictions such as, ‘you cannot go that side of the flag pole; we should not walk between the Nandi and Siva; we cannot enter inside the sanctum sanctorum; and such regulations’. All that He has is one room or in the open air with the sky for a roof or just under the canopy of the tree! He does not differentiate between the castes. No special effort need be made to enter the temple. All open spaces are His!
11. If a child has to respected specially and show all difference as due to his status, the custom was to give a formal introduction known as, ‘pravaram’. There is a sloka of ‘pravaram’ for PiLLayar as under:- “matamaha maha sailam mahastat abhitaamaham I kaaraNam jagataam vande kantadu pari vaaraNam II” As per tradition, ‘pravaram’ should be talking about the great-grand-father too! But, here it stops with the grandfather of the Mother side first, that too!

(Let us continue with the introduction that is ‘pravaram’, in the next e-mail.)

Sambhomahadeva.