DEIVATHIN KURAL # 90 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Oct 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 90 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Oct 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 the middle of page number 502 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that here in 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
158. The moment someone has developed a personality, then he will have his likes and dislikes. Knowingly or unknowingly with or without logic, he will have many personal opinions, bias, hates and so on. When there is no one who claims himself to be an aspirant to be selected and no one as his supporter or fan or voter; only then the selection can be totally impartial and true to justice, without any canvassing, promises neither made and kept nor broken!
159. You can think of one fallacy in this. Though all the names included in the selection process are such as approved by the public, some may be more noticeable or famous already. But, finally the selected person may be relatively an unknown person or not famous! When the child picks up any name at random, such an eventuality will be there. But even now, there are people who do get selected with less than 35% of the votes! So, there can be no system which can be totally fool proof. What we have to see and take note of is that, when after all is said and done these days, the person finally selected with real majority may still not be good morally and behaviourally, while all the names included in the bundles in the ‘Kuda Volai’ method were of irreproachable character, those days. So, a slight difference in popularity should not be so very important as long as ability and behavioural virtue are acceptably good!
160. In the presence of neutral observers from the government and Nambimars, from within the list of acceptable persons available, they could very well have known the order of their popularity. But, this was intentionally not given importance, I feel. Because they probably wished to avoid the likely minority – majority mental set and resultant ill feelings may be that they wished to keep the election without any divisive inputs, as a selection by random choice with divine blessings! Even in modern mathematics it is claimed that instead of any fixed method, it is better to give scope for probability test! Through the child’s random choice, with divine blessings when the selection is made, it can be taken as having majority approval. You try and propose any method there will be some drawbacks in it too. Since, all that happens in this world is a play of so many relative terms without any absoluteness about them some incompleteness will always be there! As they say, “No system can be fool proof for the fool and the clever!” Thus you may find some faults with the Uttara Merur method of selection.
161. For example we do come across people who even after 70 or 80 years of age are capable having a sharp analytical brain, fully aware of ancient traditions as well as modern trends! Naturally you can ask a question as to why should they be kept out of contention only based on age limit? Similarly, just because of being closely related to someone who has been a member, some other worthy person may be kept out of being considered for selection, is another anomaly. You take the father and son combination of Motilal Nehru and Jawahar Lal Nehru for example. Is it correct to keep them out of membership at the same time or one after the other immediately as members of any assembly? Similarly there were Vittal Bhai Patel and Vallabh Bhai Patel, the two illustrious brothers! As I am talking to you, we have the Mudaliyar brothers, A Ramaswamy Mudaliyar and A Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliyar, here in Madras! Just because of being related, we should not presume that their simultaneous utilization in public life will be against the Nation’s interest!
162. Still we cannot afford to forget the difference that exists between a Sabha at the Oor or village level and at District, State and National levels. At a local level since everyone would be knowing each other rather well and the management problems being at a small scale, everyone can be satisfied and many faults or errors can be solved without making a big issue out of them. But when there are other political parties awaiting chances to catch you as catch can, in a bigger assembly, we may not get away with blatant errors. This by itself is reason enough not to let any slip up happen at the lower levels, especially since you can get away with it! So, they have been over precautious, which should be understood and appreciated. It is as though, their motto must have been, “It does not matter if some good points are missed out, we should give no chance for things to go wrong!” With that sort of commitment they did miss out on some conveniences, that we should take note of.
163. That family ties could be damaging to the national interest may not be applicable only in some rare cases. From that point of view, not to let any close relative become a member for three years is as important for honest administration like a spinal cord for the human body. But the fact remains that there are exceptions! May be that you can consider an alternative. As I was suggesting earlier that we could form advisory committees with people who are older than 70 years of age, we could have something like that at every level of administration. But these people should not be having ministerial jobs, control on officials, direct connection with the people of the concerned department and such things. They could be any relation of the assembly or Sabha member. But they should be so noticeably worth being consulted for their intrinsic capabilities and knowledge. I just made some suggestion as it occurred to me. People who have more political and administrative acumen may analyse this further. What is important for us is that, we have noted that during the Sozha period, they ensured that the natural affinity between relatives was not permitted to affect the health of the Oor administration!
164. If you look at the high ideals of those times, we will not be able to see the deficiencies in their system. I am not saying that we should now adopt wholesale their methods and run our present show. Still, I am saying all this only so that, looking and studying at the basic facts of their times, we may suitably adapt whatever is feasible and suitable for the nations requirement now! Even if there are some inconsistencies or deficiencies in the system, looking at the totality of the Uttara Merur Saasanam, it is heartening to note as to how well they had steered clear of partiality, temptation to greed and exploitation of position of power, tendency to misuse political clout and finally how well they had avoided hurt and disappointments for each other!
165. The inheritors of the one who was saying that we should re-establish Rama Rajyam are now talking about establishing Jana Nayakam! (PeriyavaaL is alluding to the Congress Party people as followers of the Nations Father Mahatma Gandhi!) Rama did not create any rules of statesmanship of his own. Without any care for personal views or selfishness, if there was one individual who completely referred to Saastraas and the traditional methods of his ancestors for all the eventualities in his life, it was Sri Ramachandra Murthy! Whatever were the methods and tradition since the time of Manu and Mandata till the time of Dasaratha his father, Rama adhered to!
166. When Dasaratha was fully aware of the fact that his son Rama had all the essential required qualities to become the next king as well as the approval of all the people; he called for the meeting of the Sabha and asked people of their opinion, it is said. There it is said that he called for the representatives of Mlechcha-s too, who were against Vaidic Dharma and consulted them! When you take the opinion of people, everyone’s views should be heard and taken into consideration, which he did, though there is a real danger that when you bring in the common man to comment on major policy matters, things can awfully go wrong.
167. Having so heard all and sundry, it is worth the while to note as to how people like Dasaratha and Rama, took the decisions! At the time of taking decisions there is no place or scope for equality of views! Here, knowledge, awareness, character, morality, age and maturity are the value factors! All the Kings of Raghu Vamsam including Rama, made use of the advice as given by such sage counsels! While listening in, do give a hearing to all and sundry. As Thiru VaLLuvar says, “epporuL yaar vaayk-ketpinum apporuL meipporuL KaaNbadarivu”, listen and find out the true import of views of whomsoever you hear from. Do not we know as to how Rama listened in to the views of people and even sacrificed his own beloved wife, in consequence! I wonder if there is one politician today of that standard! From this we can discern the level of freedom existing those days that even the common man could comment about the Kings and Queens! That is true Jana Nayakam!
168. Even a dog could initiate a complaint and bring the King under litigation as revealed in Uttara Kaandam of Ramayana. When Manu Needhi Sozhan was ruling from Thiruvaarur, a cow could have trust in the system to seek redress of grievances, by registering her complaint by pulling on the ‘Aaraaichi Bell’ and ringing it for all to hear! That is real ‘Jana Nayakam’ when lowest person in the social order is able to sound and contact the highest!
169. But it is not in the interest of the nation, for the governmental machinery to forsake the power of discretion for decision making and leave it in the hands of the common man! That is where you have to draw a line. To do good for the masses without partiality is Jana Nayakam. But to go beyond getting to know about their views and end up dumping the decision making discretion on people incapable of wielding that power, is not good for the country, in whatever form of government. That is why, after gathering people’s opinions, views and grievances; the responsibility to analyse and weigh the pros / cons and arriving at a suitable decision was left in the hands of capable and brilliant people of impeccable behaviour and attitude by those who were trying to establish the Rama/Dharma Rajya!
170. When people devising the Constitution and Rules by which future India is going to function as a Sovereign Democratic Republic; are going about without fixing the Qualitative Requirements of the electors, those elected representatives, managers, administrators, ministers and their leaders; the only thing that could be done by me is to, enlighten you about the old methods of ours! Since you may set aside Ramayana on the grounds of its being a Treta Yuga material not suitable for the modern days, I was talking to you (with effect from Deivathin Kural # 72 of (Vol # 4) Dated 15 Sept 2010), about the methods adopted here in Uttara Merur, only as recently as a thousand years back. I wished to show how the system included in itself all the noble aspects of democracy and good administration without any of the pitfalls of either! If the Britishers are proud of their ‘Unwritten Constitution’, in our Tamil Nadu of India, there was a written constitution as far back as a thousand years back; which was etched and inscribed on stone! This could be told to the whole world with greater pride!
171. Instead of remaining as a story of the past to be proud of, for it to become a forerunner of our Indian way of life, we may be blessed by Sri Ramachandra Murthy!
Sambhomahadeva.