DEIVATHIN KURAL # 108 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Nov 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 108 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Nov 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 start of page number 598 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)

114. It seems that when the Britishers were ruling this country, they used to send notices to the land owners asking for ‘kisti’, meaning property and land tax. The land owners used to feel very annoyed and insulted about the over taxation. But, they had no avenues to put up their complaint. Bribery and corruption was there, but not as rampant as it is nowadays! Not that the British officers were totally above board either. Since there was no way that one could represent ones grievances about the tax, people used to pay the taxes quite reluctantly. But they would have it in their minds to take revenge somehow or the other.
115. At the end of Indian winter season, around the middle of December, there would be Radha Kalyana Mahotsavam to which they would invite the British officer. After the function he would be offered good food with all pomp and show. At the end of the dinner, he would be shown the plate containing beetle leaves, areca nut and sandal wood paste and encouraged to taste the Paan Taamboolam! Some people will hover around the visitor telling each other to anoint the guest with the sandal wood paste. Someone will remove his shirt somebody else would apply the liquid paste all over his bare chest and back. Yet others would very condescendingly fan him with their shawls. For the first time after coming to India, the Britisher would be obliged to remember the cold of England! In all that fun, they would have had their vendetta for over taxation! I also wanted to show that the Sandal Wood Paste which normally is a source of happiness, on occasions can be used as a weapon of revenge! That is to say “aLavukku meerinaal amirtamum visham”, meaning ‘beyond certain limits even nectar can be poison’!
116. I was talking about how one desire gobbles up another, like the child which throws away the doll in her hands for the chocolate extended in her direction. With some good intentions a person instead of other places lands up in the temple. There he is waiting for the Utsav Deity to be taken out in ‘purappaadu’. There is a milling crowd. He over hears a conversation in which it is mentioned that the last show for a cinema that he had not seen will be on, in a few minutes. He immediately slips out of the assemblage to go for the movie! This can happen the other way around also, that someone lands in the temple after standing in a queue for a movie. Whatever it is, desire is transitory and fickle. Neither is it fully overcome nor digested or done with forever! Generally it happens that at the time of troubles, we start visiting the temples, perambulate the ‘Nava Grahas’ or do ‘dobir-karanam’ in front of Ganesha or listen to ‘puraaNa pravachanam’ in the temple. With a slight change in the well being one shifts to cinema, race course and club!
117. More than anything else, we love our own bodies. Mostly when we refer to ourselves, we are referring to our physical body only. Within that body also we have special attraction to some of the body parts. Anyhow we all give too much attention to the face and keep looking at the mirror adjusting some bit of our hair or the other. We all know as to how extreme case of self love is known as narcissism. In fact we all suffer by it variously. When we say that we are tall or fair or dark or handsome, we are referring to the body only. Let someone whom we love step on our toe accidentally, we may immediately tick off that person. That is why we keep applying soap, cosmetic, scents and shampoo endlessly to this body of ours and keep decorating it.
118. In the finger there is an injury which gets septic. With high running fever, we go to the doctor. He says that he may have to amputate the finger. In our fear that the gangrenous condition may spread to the whole hand, we get ready to lose the very same finger in which we had worn a diamond ring! We got very annoyed when someone stepped on our toe. Now with diabetes and uncured toe, even at the cost of losing a leg, we wish to save our life. If the heart has certain ailments, our diet is drastically controlled. We are ready for any bland diet because our love for the heart is more than the prevarications of the tongue! Then we cheat on the diet in our weaker moments! We have the dreaded T.B. The doctor says that we have to have a certain course of injections over a period and as a side effect of the drug our hearing may be impaired. We tell the doctor, “It is alright Doctor even if I become deaf! Please save my lungs!”
119. There was a gentleman who was very fond of his son. His money was also very dear to him. He never knew as to whom or what did he love more. The son fell ill with some disease. The next few years saw a continuous drain on his resources. The only lesson learnt was that his love for the son was more dominant than his love for the lucre! There are supposed to be three strong attractions known as, ‘eeshaNa thrayam’ namely ‘vitteshaNaa, putreshaNaa and dhaareshaNaa’ that is, passion for the money, son and wife respectively. It is from this word ‘eeshaNaa’ the word ‘eeshikkoLvadu’ has come into being for adhering attraction! The way cooked food sticks to the utensil is known as ‘pattu or partru’. That sort of passionate adherence is ‘eeshaNaa’. Both are sticking and binding attractions for each other. The son was finally cured by the time more than half of his wealth was spent. In the mean time, his wife died and he got married a second time! Then you know what happened? Listening to his second wive’s words, he physically chased his son out of his household! PutreshaNaa was more dominant than Vitteshanaa earlier. Now this second DhareshaNaa was powerful enough to overcome his PutreshaNaa!
120. Then he had some stomach trouble. Doctors cured him with some efforts and advised him to have things such as Paal Gova (made of cheese) and Badam Halva (made of almonds) and such things of high nutrition, but in small quantities. So, at a condition when he was not as rich as in earlier times, he started treating himself with such things on the quiet without telling his wife. Now his love for himself had overcome even his second DhareshaNaa! So what you consider yourself as me or I, takes precedence over everything else! Even in that, at various times, there are different priorities. Our hero then had a heart attack and was ready to give up high nutrition diet at once! Do not ask me for his address because, his behaviour is not different from any so called normal average human being! As I said earlier, within our body some parts are dearer and their dearness also changes with time. Normally the parts of the body which enable sensual enjoyment are dearer than other body parts. When you have to make a choice between any part of the body and continued living, living takes precedence over all body parts. That is how there are people who remain in coma for months even when totally paralysed with brain dead, with enormous expenditure for such maintenance! Even when you are totally unaware of existence, in a state of pure vegetation, there is love for continued living!
121. Mind is the Interface between Atma and body parts for senses. There is this mind behind all body parts for action (karma indriyas) and for awareness (gnaana indriyas), as the interface between them and Atma. All the experiences are felt by the mind only. But we must understand that this mind is capable of experiencing all these things even without the help of any of these body parts, by imagination itself!
We will come to that shortly.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.