DEIVATHIN KURAL # 44 (Vol #4) Dated 21 July 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 44 (Vol #4) Dated 21 July 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 number 249 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 updated constantly)

339. There is a post script in English in page 249 of the Tamil original of Deivathin Kural (which is being translated in these e-mails), in which some History Professor has opined that PeriyavaaL is possibly referring to a book named “The Oxford History of India” written by one Mr.Vincent Smith, from which the following extract is quoted! QUOTE. “It must be clearly understood that Brahmanical Hinduism continued to exist and to claim innumerable adherents throughout the ages. It may well be doubted if Buddhism can be correctly described as having been the prevailing religion of India as a whole at any time. The phrase ‘Buddhist period’ to be found in many books is false and misleading. Neither a Buddhist nor a Jain period ever existed. From time to time Buddhism and Jainism obtained exceptional success and an unusually large percentage of adherents in the population of one kingdom or another, but neither heresy ever superseded Brahminical Hinduism.” UNQUOTE. (That just about confirms what PeriyavaaL has been talking about in the past few paragraphs! Now we will continue with his narration.)
340. Having started talking about education, if you ask me as to why I am talking about these things, such as Buddhism and Jainism and whether they were ever predominant religions covering the whole Indian Sub-continent or not, please do not jump to the conclusion that these are not related! Education should be such that it informs us of truth and not fiction, is it not so? Presently in the education being imparted to our children it is being said that, within a short period of the start of civilised living, Buddha and Mahavira took birth and shook the foundations as though of the social life of this country and their views and concepts were widely prevalent in this land for long periods of time! This is the history our children are being taught! This is wrong and it has to be pointed out that it is wrong! Education should not be misused as a propaganda machine! If you simply establish a University and form a text-book-committee and so on; that is not the end of education! Such arrangements do not come anywhere near the lofty ideals of what was the Guru – Sishya relationship! The Guru Kula arrangement centred on the individual and personal, physical, mental and moral cleanliness and purity of the highest order!
341. When we say that Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL or Thiru Gnaana Sambandar re-established the Hindu Dharma, it means that they during their life time rejuvenated people’s belief in the Sanaatana Dharma that had become dormant and discredited or put a dampener on those other religions that had become ascendant. More importantly they re-built the trust and belief in the Hindu Sanaatana Dharma, in the minds of the people whom you could call, the intelligentsia. The sociological aspect of the trades, professions and crafts based on the caste to which you are born, did not change but continued as before. This was neither changed nor reintroduced or enforced by anybody whatsoever. It was all as it were!
342. The greatness of Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL was that he achieved much more than what one man could do, with no conceit whatsoever! He debated in public with many learned scholars of his time who differed with him in understating of the meaning of existence and defeated them all, while some of them became his disciples. He virtually drove the non-Vaidic Religions of Buddhism and Jainism out of this country almost. He established the Aachaarya Peetam-s at Sringeri, Dwaraka, Jyotishmat, Puri and Kanchi; (in the South, West, North and Eastern part of India and South again.) At Kanchi the final place he gave up his mortal coil at the young age of 32! From these Peetam-s generations of Jagatguru Sakaracharya-s have been continuing to work towards maintaining the traditions of Sruti and Smruti holding the flag of Adwaita high.
343. He wrote extensively so many Bhashyam-s (word for word meaning with comments) for already existing Scriptures; wrote so many original treatises on principles and concepts of philosophy (like Atma Boda:, Tatva Boda:, Viveka ChudamaNi and such works) and also devotional sloka-s on every God or Goddess of the temples he visited. He did all this while going around the whole of India three times on foot! If you go to any temple in any corner of India, you would find that he has been there and left his indelible mark in terms of some Yantra or Chakra or some such thing! For example, in a place known as Alampur, located SW of Sri Sailam and East of Kurnool in the present day Andhra Pradesh, he has pacified the extremely fierce Kali Roopa of Jugulamba. In Guruvayoor Krishna temple, he has installed the ‘Bakti Chakra’ which is influencing people’s minds to turn to devotion as tangibly seen till date, while in Thirupathi Balaji Temple the Lakshmi Chakra that he has installed, is making that temple the richest in the world today! I have given you only a short summary of his super human achievements! But the point is that in doing all this, he has not spoken about himself or beaten his own trumpet in any of his books or elsewhere! This is the main reason why there are so many versions about his life and people are not able to correctly fix his time in the history of the country!
344. There is a famous saying that all of William Shakespeare’s writings are not his but written by somebody else by that name! Similarly there are claims about, there having been more than one Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL! But there is one place in his writing which gives us some idea of what was the condition existing in his times. He says that, “there was no ‘Saarvabouman’ (meaning omnipotent Emporer) existing at that time”! In the Bhashyam for Brhma Sutram, {1st Adhyaya, 3rd Paadam, 33rd Sutram}, he mentions that ‘once upon a time there was direct communication between human beings and Gods’. (That any how throws a shadow of doubt on the claim that we in the 21 Century are much advanced scientifically! May be as the Vedic scholors claim we in the 5000th year of Kali Yuga approximately, may be, actually on the down ward trend! In the scale of each Chatur Yuga that lasts for 43, 20,000 years and there have been many such cycles of Chatur Yugas!)
345. Having said that there was a time when human beings could directly communicate with Gods, he says, “It is not correct to ask me as to how is this possible? In these present days, (that is, he is talking about his time, i.e., during the time of Adi Sankara), when there is no one worthy of being called a ‘Saarva bouman’, you cannot think that they have never been there! Just because the Varna Ashrama Dharma is presently not as it should be, it is not correct to argue that it was never in perfect condition!” Now you tell me as to what does all this mean?
346. What it means is this. Even if an all powerful ‘Saarvabouman’ was there as an Emperor of the whole of India, at the time of Adi Sankara, even if we take it that, hypothetically it was possible that just by his decree or edict, Varna Ashrama Dharma could have been brought back to its original shape, there was no such Emperor at that time! So if it was brought back to shape after Adi Sankara, it all means that it was never dead and out!
347. When Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL says that there was no ‘Saarvabouman’ in his time, it fits in with the fact that, there was no Empire covering the whole of this country, but only smaller kingdoms. That is also the time when the country was also subject to influx of foreign invasions and forays! Though the Buddhism and Jainism had made inroads, the Varna Ashrama Dharma was not totally defunct! But Yes! As pointed out by Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL, at that time, Varna Ashrama Dharma was not as ‘vyavast’ or well organized, as it should have been.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.