DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Dec 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 687 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
240. Then superior to the mind is the Buddhi, which is a Sanskrit word which combines in itself the meanings of prescience, intellect and knowledge. He says, “manasastu paraa buddihi”. In the mind there is no end to generations of feelings and thoughts! Mind never evaluates between good and bad. This moment you may think of helping someone and the very next second, your mind may be working out if it can take advantage of the situation! Whereas it is the Buddhi which evaluates as to what is preferably good and what is avoidably bad. When many thoughts clamour for attention, the comparative analysis is done by the Buddhi. The mind runs after what is attractive, ever changing its choices. Buddhi is the decision maker. The difference between them is subtle and often mistaken for the other in our talks.
241. In our inner being of ‘anta: karaNam’, there are four parts of manas, buddhi, chittam and ahankaara, that can be mind, intellect, will and ego respectively. But generally when we say mind, we mean all these four aspects. There is another division of this as the lower and higher mind. It is the lower mind that is basically interested in feelings and sensations uncaring for good and bad; while it is the higher mind that is deliberate, prudent and balanced. In our practical life this is not the way we have understood them. Even clever planning and execution is thought of as the work of the buddhi. Whether good or bad, to run after sensational possibilities and be indecisive is the mind and to be decisive with clarity is the job of the buddhi.
242. Finally, there is nothing good or bad; both are part of Maya only. Aatma in its true state without being related to the ‘anta: karaNa’, devoid of the vacillations of the mind, even without the certainty of the buddhi, it is like the Samaadhi state of the Gnaani. We do not know about that state. But we do know of the very similar state of deep sleep even without any dream; that is still the work of the ‘anta: karaNa’. Was there any good or bad in that state? Both good and bad are unrelated to Aatma and imagined by the buddhi part of ‘anta: karaNa’. That is, even buddhi can be too clever for itself.
243. Bhagwan has already declared that out of the three basic causes of Kaama, buddhi is also one, as already seen by us. How can the basis of desire be the final destination? This buddhi capable of differentiating between good and bad also stops at that level. That is love for doing good, may be. Beyond that, it will not point out or take us to the Aatma! When that Aatma is stand alone, it is this Maya that deludes us to think of Aatma to be the individual Jeevan. So also all good and bad are part of Maya’s play and buddhi stops at that. So, you have to progress beyond this mind including the buddhi.
244. Buddhi’s basis is Aatma, the most superior, highest of the high. That is what is referred to as the ‘tat’ in ‘tat sat’; or as ‘that’ in ‘I am that I am’ or ‘that is it’ in our day to day conversations! What is ‘sat’? That which is ever without any change eternally is ‘sat’. To be as it is, is truth. That truth in other words is ‘sat yam’, that is Aatma only. The word ‘tat’ is that, instead of being male or female, the neuter gender. That which is ‘tat & sat’ when referring to God in the male form is Easwara and in the female form is AmbaaL. Except for ardent followers of AmbaaL of the cult of Saaktam, it is normally the tradition to refer to God as He. The proverb goes as, “avan anri ore aNuvum asaiyaadu”, to mean, ‘not an atom can move without Him’! Nammaazhvaar too starts off Thiru Vaai Mozhi with the words, “uyarvara uyar nalam udaiyavan evan avan?” meaning, “Who is that He with the highest goodness beyond compare!”? In the Sanskrit language, there is a method of meditation on Paramaatma as one with this Jeevaatma, in which you are to keep chanting “Soham, Hamsa: Hamsas soham”, meaning, ‘He I am, I am He’. Here the same ‘tat’ of ‘tat sat’ is being referred as ‘sa:’ in male gender. We chant ‘Purusha Suktam’ in which the Paramaatma is referred to as He the Man, the Purusha! In Sankhya Saastra, Aatma is said to be Purusha and the Nature that is ever changing as the power of Maya, the quintessential female! What stands without dissipation, change or permutation like a rock is the Aatma, the Male, the ‘sa:’. The never static, ever changing principle is the Female, ‘saa’ ! These two are the ‘Sivam and Sakti’, as essential male and female, parents of all existence. Krishna Paramaatma refers to the Aatma as superior to this buddhi, as ‘sa:’, a He; “buddhe: paratastu sa:”.
245. Padippadiyaaga Aatma Nilaikku. (That is to take us to the state of Aatma, step by step.) Everything other than Aatma is all Maya that is, a lie or untruth. We are not able to see it like that. Because in all this lie and untruth, there are some flashes of the reflection of the Real. As I told you before, because of the true Aatma’s reflection, we get flashes of the truth of Aatma Chaitanya in the untrue senses, mind and buddhi! This reflected truth is not out and out a lie. There is a special word for it in Sanskrit known as, ‘prati bhaasika satyam’ as given in Adwaita Saastraas! (To get this point very clear, you have to go back to translations of the first volume under the heading ‘Maya’ and the second volume under the heading ‘How is the world a lie?”.)
246. In the powerful flow of the Maya, it is well neigh impossible to raise ourselves to the level of total oneness where there is no differentiation between good and bad. So, even when that final stage is beyond both good and bad, through the morally and humanly correct and righteous path we have to progress towards the final stage, step by step. If you were to ask as to how we can to do this, they our elders, give a few examples. Use a thorn to remove an existing intruding one and then throw away both. Now, it is clear that we are involved in many things bad and sinful. We are irretrievably caught in a mesh of desire, anger, greed, fear and sadness! There is no meaning in asking questions such as, “How did this Aatma which is not in any way connected to anything, get stuck like this?” Aatma is not stuck. It is your own notion of being an individual that is deluded to think that it is stuck! In Adwaita Saastraas having said many things about this state of affairs and Maya; they go on to say that, this Maya is ‘anirvachaneeyam’ which means, that nothing can be said about it!
247. There is no gain in carrying out a research on how we got stuck up in this Maya! If a snake is entwined in your leg, will you be worried about finding out as to how such a state of affairs happened to come about or about how to get rid of the snake by cajoling it to go for may be a glass of milk? That is how, we who are stuck in the binding ties of Maya have to try and find a way out of this maze! Here there is hope! The Saints, Sages, Rishis, Munis and Saadhus of whom there have been many in this land of Bharath Desh, have shown the way with mile stones and direction pointers aplenty towards that one destination. From the untruth of senses, mind and buddhi with traces of truth in them; we have to progress to the complete unpolluted truth of the real. In these things too each step is higher than the previous with the ratio of truth increasing all the time, we have to keep progressing. From the experience of the senses progress towards that of the mind and then the intellect of the buddhi’s to arrive at Aatma Anubhava. The most important point is that once you have launched yourself in this journey, you will arrive at the destination of Aatma Adwaita Anubhava. That is the only ‘vachaneeyam’ part that can be guaranteed in this world of Maya!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 123 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 123 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Dec 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 682 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
233. If you wonder as to why Sri Krishna Paramatma is praising these sense organs as superior, the answer can only be that, it is his way of expression! Anything has good and bad points in them. Even poison can be used as anti-dote on certain occasions. So wherever a thing can be appreciated, He will not fail to do so! We are noticing and recognizing all the objects of the world by our eye sight, hearing by the ears; tasting by our tongues, touching by the skin and smelling by the nose; and decrying that these are constantly waylaying us and making us more objective than being subjective, as required in the spiritual path! But, simultaneously, we must take note of the fact that these bodily equipments which are available free of cost to every individual with birth, are far superior to anything man made as yet, in the fields of audio or video or electronic sensors receiving and transmitting information!
234. So, to the extent possible we must appreciate where it is due. Even when He knows that a thing is extremely bad, and man should be encouraged to not get habituated to it, the point to be considered is as to whether everybody can be mature enough to desist from such habits. So, we have to see it from the point of view of answering the question if there are any good points in the subject item which can be made use of in gradually weaning the individual away from the bad habit and thus maturing his attitude. That is what God does and so do the elders of yore, which is being referred to by that word “aahu :”, to mean ‘they say’. Since man is naturally weak, he does not have the will power and firm resolve to leave his bad habits. So, God and elders of the society will say such things in a manner to enable man to be weaned progressively from his bad habits.
235. To pray to God for passing in examinations or obtaining wealth or removal of problems or diseases etc are all examples of lack of wisdom and prudence. To love and pray to God out of pure love for God is the true devotion. But Bhagawan Sri Krishna talks highly of people who pray to God asking for wealth and removal of problems, (Gita, 7-18). When you pray to God for some favour, at least there is some belief that He is Omnipotent. Then once you also realise his Omniscience, then as a devotee you will know that you do not have to tell God to do anything! His way on the other hand is likely to be that, “let them become devotees first, then they can be given the maturity progressively”. You do not have to think of God with Love even. Like Kamsa and Sisupala, even if we were to think of Him with anger and hate, He will do well for us! He is capable of identifying the slight traces of good in what is utterly evil. His method as well as that of Veda Dharma is to successively refine and reform, causing us to leave good and bad along the way, encouraging us towards perfection. You may ask, ‘as to why should we leave good things?’ I will come back to that question later. The essence of the principle of Adwaita is in dropping all discrimination, favouritism and preferences!
236. Money is not all bad as it can be used for helping others and given as donation. So there is nothing wrong in asking for it from God. Similarly, only if a person is in good physical and mental health can he be of use to the family and society. Then only when you have good health can you think of God without being distracted. So, for Bhajan, Keertan and Meditation, good health is necessary. God will grant that and include them in the list of superior beings! In fact bad health, poverty and other problems of life are really of no criteria whatsoever, to be bundled out wholesale as part of irrelevant Maya effect only. But at the initial stages, in a not yet matured individual, these things may seem to be insurmountable! He should not be permitted to become hardened by his problems that he becomes cruel without any compassion. If he were to ignore his illness as part of Maya, without understanding the implications and gaining the maturity of mind, he could become simply a cry baby without any trust in even God. That should not be permitted to happen either. Actually he should be developing the attitude of treating good luck and bad luck at par. Before he develops this equal vision, if he were to decide, because others are seen doing that, he will not pray to God for removal of problems; problems of life may be permitted to grow beyond manageable limits and he in the mean time may not have learnt dispassion and detachment!
237. The elders who evolved the Saastraas and Sri Krishna who has given Bhagawat Gita as the quintessence of all the Saastraas, (as one would take out butter by churning curd); have for many reasons as I have described above, treated human beings with kid’s gloves as though, with the aim of gradually enabling them on the path of Karma, Bhakti and Gnaana progressively. That is how, people have been encouraged to put in superhuman efforts in all arts, sciences, fine arts and handicrafts, while not losing sight of the noble reaches of human endeavour! That is how, the sense organs have been mentioned as superior. One is able to get many beautiful, divine, clean and blissful experiences through these senses, do we not? There are superlative beauties of the nature one experiences, whether in deserts or mountains or on the sea shore or valleys or gorges. Then you are standing in the proximity of AmbaaL’s sanctum sanctorum in Kamakshi Temple in Kanchipuram, let us say; the Bhattar is singing the Lalita Sahasranama to a number of Ragas. The fragrance of agar, punugu, jawwadu and camphor is wafting in to you through the nostrils. Your mind is going through an out of the world experience, all due to the inputs from the sense organs of eyes, nose, ears and body! You are virtually drinking the divinity through your sensory organs! Let someone sing a composition by Thyagaraja Swami or Thayum Aanavar, in lilting voice true to the Raga and true to the Sruti and Laya, I assure you that you will also be melting with the words and every nuance of the rendering! Through the ears divinity will be flowing into you then! Though these Indriyas, the sensory organs of the body, are normally driving us towards avoidable things; till we grow in maturity towards ripeness, they can be made use of on the right lines for refinement and ennoblement. For that we have to train them by visiting temples, doing pooja, getting involved in socially responsible works, learning prayer songs, listening to Pravachans and spending time in Satsang. Since they can be made use of thus, they are superior!
238. If you take each sensory organ and look at is as a God given tool – that is not an inert machine but one with life – it will be seen to be a superior animated instrument that can be an aid in our journey! This small eye is capable of taking in a whole range of hills or a vast expanse of a riverside and the ocean in which it is pouring in, all its waters! Between these two eyes, they can give you a three dimensional picture and with the help of the mind bring back a similar scenery of the past! It recognises a whole range of colours and tones. Similarly the ears can recognise the sounds and calls made by various birds, animals and instruments. This tongue is capable of recognising thousands of taste differences. If you take the sense of touch, it is the greatest of surprises! Say there is a well 70 or 80 feet deep with some 20 to 30 feet of water. This gentleman puts a bamboo pole long enough to touch something lying in the bottom for days together and identify as to what it is, its shape, size, hardness or softness etc, with tremendous accuracy! So, there is nothing wrong in declaring them as superior bodily equipments at all!
239. Finally the great miracle is that, all these colours, sounds, smells etc are given by these senses to the mind and it is the mind which is like a living computer on whose commands these sensory organs just function like an inanimate thing! The life force, the current of Chaitanya, is from the mind. So, having said that the sensory organs are superior, Bhagawan says that the mind is superior to them; “indriyebhya param mana: ”, as these sensory organs are only instruments of the mind and so naturally superior to them!
(To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 122 (Vol #4) Dated 27 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 122 (Vol #4) Dated 27 Dec 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 677 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
226. The Defeat of the Army of Asuras is Victory for Aatma. I told you that the Aatma, Krishna talks about, is just being sans any action. That does not mean however that it is just a zero vacuum! It is not inert but happily intelligent consciousness (Chaitanya and Awareness). To be is ‘Sat’. Instead of being inert, to be aware of being is ‘Chit’. Instead of feeling that awareness is from experiencing some outer thing, to be aware of an inherent nature is happiness. Put together as ‘sat, chit, and aanandam’, as Satchidaanandam, it is a word defining the non-definable Aatma. This instead of being a result of some happiness from some knowledge about something other than one’s self is inherent knowledge and experience of the inner self. So we happen to use the word ‘just’ that is closer in meaning of the Sanskrit word ‘kevalam’. Reaching that stage without the mind and body, (that is, without thinking and without construing the body to be oneself), because of that the ‘Kaama, Krodha and all such derivative devilish armies can be defeated, effaced and erased. Only then victory of the Aatma happens. By death only the present body can be done away with and not do away with the cycle of repeated births and deaths. Otherwise, even after death, another body in the next life, yaatana body in hell, ghoulish body after suicide and such bodies will come into being. So the knowledge or awareness that “I am not this body”, is the only solution and not death!
227. Though in Gita it is said that the root cause of all problems is Kaama, that is, desire and its derivatives; even this Kaama is only an effect and its cause is the Mind. Elsewhere He has clarified this by saying that the final aim is to destroy the Mind and attain the victory of Aatma! To the extent that we know, Desire is the root cause of all disastrous evil tendencies. So, from our present level the maximum that we can endeavour is to control this Desire. Whenever we are in trouble, the direct reason that we can show is this Desire only. Often we have seen elders telling, “Did you not desire? Now better suffer the consequences!” So, the proximate cause that we can identify is this desire. That is why, Krishna pointed this out.
228. But, the statement that ‘It is white ant of desire that repeatedly erodes our system’, is not totally right. Simultaneously, it is not far wrong either! Mind is the cause of desires. For the mind and all the world of duality is Maya. That is the Mother Bug! Let it be so. But, for man, the individual Jeevan, the state of being bound is created by Maya through this mind only and so, it is only this mind that can be targeted to be tackled and destroyed. That is what the maximum that we can aim at. For the desire too, the direct cause is our Rajo GuNa. He clarifies that it is “rajo guNa samudbhava:” – ‘desire is born of our Rajo GuNa’.
229. Out of the three GuNas, Satva – Rajo – Tamo, Satva is balanced and lucid; Tamo is languid and lazy inaction. It is Rajo GuNa that is, restlessly and incessantly causing us to keep on doing something or the other. When the Mind of ours is fully absorbed in this Rajo GuNa that Desire is born. When I say this, it is clear that all these GuNas are depending on the mind only. So, even Rajo GuNa is not the cause of evil tendencies directly but, the mind itself the culprit, as can be seen. But these three GuNas of the mind and the mind are the work of Maya only. So, finally Maya is the root cause. Still we can do nothing about the might of Maya. All that we can hope for is to try and control the mind. If there is a tremendous rain, can we do anything about the rain? The only thing we can do is to close all the windows and doors. The very rain may make it difficult to even close the windows. But with some effort we may be able to close them. So as far as we can see, for all the untoward thoughts and desires and its variations, it is the mind the generating point. Desire starts from there. It is the mind’s thirst and itch that is the reason as we have seen already.
230. Here though He points out Desire as the proximate cause, he takes Arjuna ahead that the basis of desire is the mind. At the very start of Gitopadesa, for all the evil tendencies He has given him a complete list of all the army of evil tendencies. “Thoughts connect man with things that are items to be enjoyed. “By that connection desire is born,” He says; “(‘sangaat jaayate kaama:’); from desire krodham; from krodha: is born moha; from moha confusion of the mind; from that confusion mind’s deterioration; by which man becomes useless” – (Gita 2. 62-63). Kaama is not the root cause. It starts from thinking of a connection with objects. Thoughts generate from mind. (Here it is worthwhile to note what Ramana Maharishi has to say about this. “There are not two minds – one good and the other evil; the mind is only one. It is the residual impressions (vasanas) that are of two kinds – auspicious and inauspicious. When the mind is under the influence of auspicious impressions it is called good; and when it is under the influence of inauspicious impressions it is regarded as evil.)
231. As Maya creates separate individuality making use of the mind, combining the mind and Maya, elders have coined a word, ‘manmaya’. That is the root cause for all our problems. If this is got rid of, the pull of all the evil tendencies of Kaama and its progenies will disappear and peace and eternal comfort can be obtained. At the place where I started (in Gita the third chapter about Kaama and Krodha) Bhagawan Sri Krishna has pointed out that it is Kaama and its derivatives that tempt man on the evil paths. He goes on to describe as to how for this fire of desire, the senses, buddhi and mind are the bases from where they operate. He further clarifies that combining these three Maya causes the creation of a sense of separate, individual identity as a unique entity (of jeevatvam) in the minds of all living beings, which is the reason for all evil tendencies. This is what is called the ‘manmaya’. For the thirst and hunger of all the sensual organs and their vicissitudes it is the mind, which is Enemy No 1. But you have to use the mind itself to win over the mind, like removing a thorn using a thorn! So, the uncontrolled mind is made up of the sensual organs and the controlling part of the mind is the buddhi or intellect.
232. Talking about these three aspects of our being, He goes on to put them in an order (in Gita 3.42.) as follows:- “indriyaaNi paraaNyaahur indriyebhya: param mana: I manasastu paraa buddhir buddhe: parata astu sa:”, meaning, ‘they say that the senses are superior (to the body); superior to the senses is the mind; superior to the mind is the intellect; and He (the Self) is superior to the intellect also.’ He starts with saying that the senses are higher. “paraaNi’ means superior and “aahu:” means ‘they say’. Compared with the physical body which is gross, external and limited; the senses are certainly superior as they are more subtle, internal and have a wider range of activity. The mind is superior to the senses as they cannot do anything independently and are under the control of the mind. The intellect is superior to the mind because it is endowed with the faculty of discrimination, reasoning and logical analysis. When the mind is in a state of confusion, intellect comes to its rescue. The Self, the witness, is superior even to the intellect, as the intellect borrows its light from the Self.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 121 (Vol #4) Dated 25 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 121 (Vol #4) Dated 25 Dec 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 672 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
218. The main point to understand is the difference between the possessor and the possession, owner and the owned. When we say that so and so is mine, it means that it is not us. When we point out to something or somebody and say, “This is my book, my pen, my house, my bank deposit, my husband and so on”, it means that they belong to me. It also means that they are my possession or relative and not me! Similarly when we say that this is my hand, my leg or my body and so on; it also means that I am not the hand or leg or the body. But, mostly none of us know as to who we are except in relation to something or somebody else!
219. Now, this body is not me. The four things by which this ‘anta: karaNam’ is made up of, namely, ‘mano, buddhi, ahankaara and chittam’, that is, ‘mind, brain, ego and intellect’ respectively are our tools or equipments and not us or me. On many occasions we say “my hand, my leg and my body,” is it not so? “After the operation, my eyes are seeing better or my ears are hearing better,” we say. In all this we are correctly recognizing ourselves to be the owner. Even about our anta: karaNam we say things such as, “I do not know your mind about it’ or “Do you mind?”, “I should beat my buddhi with a pair of sandals for committing such a stupid mistake”, or “He is not talking; it is his ahankaara or ego that is talking” and so on! So, for all these possessions, there has to be a possessor and that is the Aatma!? Something or somebody can be mine. But the ‘I’ cannot me mine! The owner is the Aatma.
220. In our talks if we ever say, “My Aatma or his Aatma”, it is wrong, a mistake that we commit as we do not understand what we are saying. Normally when do we talk about Aatma? If somebody is suffering too much, we say “It is sad that his Aatma is suffering a lot!” Or we say, “Restless Aatma!” When someone dies we place an insertion in the ‘Obituary’ column in the News Papers, ‘Mr So and so passed away on so and so date. Let his Aatma find peace!’ These are all misuse of the word. Aatma neither suffers nor is restless nor has to find peace! In all such occasions, we are referring to the individual, who is the reflected image of Aatma, the Jeevan as his self; and make these statements!
221. Let me emphasise this point again. What we think of ourselves is the combination of four separate entities of ‘mano, buddhi, ahankaara and chitta’ that has the collective name of ‘anta: karaNa’. These are all varyingly mixed up to make up our assumed idea of who we are. In fact all this put together is only a part of the reflected image of the Aatma, which is never divisible into parts! It is like dipping a cup or mug in the ocean and calling the filled cup or mug of water, the ocean! Whereas, Aatma does not do anything, let alone think of anything as its own. It knows itself and not anything apart from its self as an object, to claim it to be its possession. When everything that this Jeevan claims as his own, is all the same whole indivisible Aatma, it is no way affected by these imaginary divisions and identifications.
222. All the happiness we know of are all about this limited reflected edition of Aatma, Mr Jeevan and his ego and ahankaara! Its happiness is from fulfilment of its desires, while Aatma has no desires. You know that you can have desires about something only when it is other than oneself! Aatma knows of everything to be itself and does not know of anything other than itself. So how can Aatma have desire for anything and how can Mr Jeevan, who does not know of Aatma, have love or desire for it? In other words, Aatma can never be the target of desire and neither have desire for anything else!
223. But, it is said so in the Upanishad. Yagnyavalkya Maharishi is advising his wife Maitreyi, in Bruhad Aarnyaka Upanishad 2.4 and 5. Instead of using the word ‘desire’ he uses the word ‘priyam’. The two words are very close in meaning, but not exactly the same. What we desire, we have priyam. What is ‘apriyam’ is not desired. He was dividing his entire worldly possessions between his two wives, before adopting the Sannyaasa order Ashrama in his life. She asks him, if that apportioning of property will give her eternal happiness. Rishi Yagnyavalkya gives her a long reply worth reading in the original. We are giving a brief account of it here. He replies her in the following manner.
224. “When the wife has love for her husband, it is not for his sake but for the sake of the self. The husband also loves his wife not for her sake, but for his own sake. So also all love and priyam that anyone has for anything or anyone else is not for that thing or person but for one’s self! That is why vittam that is money is desired.” I hope you remember a story I told you some time back in these talks. A very greedy man spent all his wealth for his son; then left his son for his second wife; then when he fell ill, he gave her up for his own treatment; then for saving his eye sight was ready to get amputated; that is for gnaanendriya he could forego his karmendriya! Life goes on like that trading off something for something else temporarily thought to be more valuable! Then he was ready to give up everything including self respect to be able to forget the world in intoxication! Like adding innumerable bogies to the goods train, I have given too many examples. Now I am sure that you will be ready to give up anything for the sake of a clear understanding of the whole issue!
225. If the love of lucre is for the sake of the wealth, he would not be ready to spend it for the son. Then if the love for the son was so great, he would not be ready to ignore him for a second wife. Then the love for the second wife is also seen to be not really for her sake. She could not have been dumped for his own treatment. Then successively amongst body parts too, karmendriya is given up for gnaanendriya and then one’s own life seems to be priority one. Then finally one’s own self seems to be the most important. Actually this was so right from the beginning. These are all mistaken priorities as Aatma is the thing for which Sannyaasa is taken giving up everything else! When you come to it, Aatma does not need anything from anybody else. All this is done to satisfy the mind only and when you try to find out as to what is the mind you will come to know that there is a big Nothing! When even the mind is annulled and is removed from the scene, we will see that our love for the Aatma is the main motivator! So instead of going through all this rigmarole, can we not be clear from the beginning? Can we not try and control this mind and make it our tool rather than be its slave? Then we will see the beauty of Bhagawan’s advice, “tatasto niyamyeitat aatmanyeva vasam nayet”, and start doing so from this moment onwards!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 120 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 120 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Dec 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 666 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
210. What can be done by Maya and what is the scope of the reach of God’s Grace are not questions that can be answered by our limited abilities! Since even our capacity for argument is also the making of the Maya only, its sweep does not have to be within our grasp. It is clear that the actionless, peaceful Aatma is what is seen as we, who are all the time stupidly doing something or the other! What is the use of saying that this statement is illogical? Apparently it is seen to be true also! So, the same power of God which is the cause of all existence also can make us the stupid beings, go back to Aatma!
211. This buddhi and the documents cannot prove that when the mind stands aside, ‘Aatma Saaktchatkaaram’ (or Self Realization) happens. The opposite can also not be proved! This cannot be substantiated by modern scientists by research and analysis as they claim ‘seeing is believing’! The proof is in countless number of the great saints who have been there in this land, with completely annulled minds, floating in the ocean of Atmaananda! Sadasiva BrhmendraaL was like that! He may not have noticed even if you cut his hand. In Kodumudi, he was in Samaadhi, while sitting on the shores of the River Kaveri. There was a flood which took him away and buried him in the sands. Later somebody accidentally noticed something underfoot and started digging. The spade happened hit some body part and there was blood all over the place. People realised that there was somebody there and carefully removed the covering sand and dug him out. Sadasiva BrhmendraaL, just got up coolly from the scene and walked away happily! That is a story 300 years old, which may or may not be believed.
212. But even in recent times there have been many such reports about great saints of superlative attainments who have been observed by our own kith and kin! In Kumbakonam there was this Mouna Swamigal about whom people talk with awe and respect. It is reported that he would be in continuous meditation of total concentration for hours or even days! If he had gone into Samaadhi with his eyes open, the eyes will remain open. Even if you try and touch his eyes, they will not flinch or close. Devotees will push some food into his mouth, out of which some may go inside and much may just remain there, invested by ants and insects with the lower lips hanging swollen due to the insect bites. In the face you could detect an effulgence that cannot be there but for the inner glow! In a normal human being, even when the mind is not involved in sleep due to the absence of Aatma Gnaana, instead of the shine of effulgence, we have unmentionable pallor of idiocy on our face! As a reflection of their inner effulgence there will be a beautiful smile of bliss on the face of Aatma Gnaanis! If he has not munched or gulped what was placed on his mouth for two or three days, the devotees would clean up his face and mouth and again try to feed Mouna Swami. I have heard such things about other great Yogis too. People would put some sugar in their mouth and hours later it would not have even become wet! These are the proof that there could be people who have risen far above the pull of body consciousness and worldly attractions and pleasures. They could be experiencing the highest pleasures of Aatmaanandam and totally merged in it.
213. Similarly there was one Baskarananda in Kaasi, who had been seen by many to be a Brhma Gnaani. Then there has been Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi of Thrivannamalai in this very 20th century (1879 – 1950). As a young boy of 17 years of age he came to Lord Arunachala with abundant love and was instantly lost to this world. He went and plonked himself in the underground Pataala Lingam shrine, inside the main Arunachaleswara Temple. He was unaware of being invested by worms and insects eating through his flesh, till he was accidentally located and so, protected, saved and nurtured back to health initially by Seshadri Swami, another great saint on his own. Such people’s state of Aatmaananda is confirmed by the effect their presence has on visitors. Many people from this country and many foreigners visit him in the Ramana Ashrama on the southern slopes of that hill of Arunachala. “We went their battered with many mental and other concerns and agonies. Once we sat in front of Ramana Maharishi, we were rid of all our worries and problems”, they all say uniformly. Many become great Saadhaks in the spiritual line. Even those who return to the worldly ways, steer a clear path of high morality and social diligence. They all are in one voice when they talk about the unique experience of peace during their stay in the Ashram. He never gave lectures like me, but conveyed the inner calmness through silence except for answering the questions that the devotees asked. His silence is so profound that many got the suitable responses without ever having to ask any questions! You can never have the same sort of responses from visitors, if he is just someone sleeping like a log!
214. He lived till 1950 at the Arunachala Hill. The proverb says that the proof of the pudding is in eating. Similarly the proof of the greatness of such saints is in the ennobling effect their proximity had on thousands of their followers. Their very life and every word spoken by them in the normal course of events are Upadesa in themselves! The Grace, Love and Compassion from such Gnaanis is not from a vacuum of Sunyata but rather the peace of completeness. Though their power of Anugraha may be felt by the recipients as temporary, in fact it is eternal. It also points out that given the right effort on the individual’s part, the same state could be attained by every one of us, with God’s Grace! In fact, towards the end of his mortal existence, Ramana had a cancerous growth in his hand which was operated upon thrice successively. Every time Ramana refused to be administered any anaesthesia. This, when he was70 years of age going on 71! Sukha Brhmam in the distant past and recently Sadasiva Brhmendra, used to roam about hills, valleys and moats; with the barest of dresses like a child. Ramana’s dress was a simple piece of cloth around the loins! Their ‘deha abhimaanam’ that is, body consciousness was at zero level and ‘aatma anubhuti’ was 100%. The fact that those with ‘aatma anubhuti’ even when they were sitting like a statue in ‘nirvikalpa samaadhi’, were in a state of absolute bliss, was evidently visible to all who were lucky enough to witness that!
215. Jeevan Muktas. Even when their ‘aatma nishta’ is disturbed, their inner absorption does not change. The change is only in our vision. We see them static and then we see them moving! Even when we think they are aware of the outer, they are completely absorbed in Aatma. They are completely released from the binding ties of the mind and body! That is why they are considered as Jeevan Muktas! Have you ever noticed a baby suckling on its Mother’s breast even while sleeping? That is how they are, while fully absorbed inwardly seem to be moving, interacting, conversing, doing things and play acting as though annoyed or shedding tears! Even when they themselves may say that the inner is ‘a zero or soonyam or paazh’, it is a state of total and complete bliss.
216. The fact that I am trying to prove to you that ‘aatma anubhava’ is a state not of ‘soonyata’ but of completeness of happiness; is making me laugh at myself! What we call bliss or happiness is edifyingly the defining characteristic of Aatma. Take the earlier example that I had given of a lamp inside a pot with holes through which the light is flooding out and falling on objects. If those objects happen to raise a question as to whether the lamp inside the pot is lighted or not, imagine how ridiculous it will be!
217. You know what a dog does? It picks up an old bone and starts biting on it because of the lingering smell of the meat that was once sticking to that bone. There can be no gain from that bone for the dog. But, the very act of biting that hard object piercing its gums, there will be blood oozing in the dog’s mouth. The dog will go on thinking the blood to be coming from that bone and continue its efforts! Exactly similarly all the happiness that we seem to get is from our own Self, the Aatma only. Like the blood from the dog’s own mouth, it is the happiness in our own selves only! All the thrill, bliss and happiness is from within. Instead of being fully absorbed in it, we are after the reflected glory only! Then we are deluded to think that the happiness is from the objects without! Bliss is a subjective experience and not objective. Our real us, me and myself is Aatma only and not the mind, ego, body, senses and intellect!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 119 (Vol #4) Dated 21 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 119 (Vol #4) Dated 21 Dec 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 660 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
201. In deep sleep, the mind is at rest. On occasions the mind is not fully at rest and is slightly awake varyingly. These are the times when the mind creates dreams. Some of the suppressed ideas related to some of our experiences of the wakeful stage, on matters fearful or sensuous, or seemingly ridiculous incidents get super-imposed on these dreams. The mind then lets out these ideas without any logic or order or control. During our sleep, these dreams are so realistic that at times we wake up in a sweat or in panic, with our heart beats racing! After we wake up, we wonder as to how we happened to see such uncoordinated mad dreams! People of high morality who are well advanced on the path of devotion have come complaining to people like me, crying as to why they should be experiencing such dreams and asking for solving the issue!
202. By all this, instead of the Samaadhi that is obtained by our sustained efforts at Saadhana, as a gift of God much above what is Nature; we can see that sleep can never provide any relief to the battle between Devas and Asuras, that is, between our own inner noble and crass tendencies! In sleep and dream, the Asuras can come calling any time in all their battle field preparedness! We may be having a dream as though we are praying in a Temple of God and the dream may suddenly take a most embarrassing twist! The mind’s confusion and our stock of suppressed desires can cause these at any time during our sleep. So, sleep can only be a stop-gap arrangement for peace as a resting place for the tired body and mind. Even if we do get some peace it is the sleep of an inert piece of a log and not the Aatmaanandam!
203. To pull the mind (that is ever oscillating and vacillating), inwards and tell it to ‘think of the inner Aatma that has no character qualities and is completely inactive’, compelling it to obey the order, is like training a dog. Despite repeated failures; some time along the way, when the mind is simply too tired to do anything; the inner Aatma will be seen to shine in effulgent glory all on its own! That is the only way to experience the Aatmaanandam of glorious scintillating peace! “yato yato nischarati manas chanchalam astiram I tatas tato niyamyaitad aatmanyeva vasham nayet II”, says Bhagawaan Sri Krishna (B.G. 6.26.). In this verse the Lord gives the method to control the mind. Just as you may drag the bull again and again to your house when it runs out; so also you have to drag this mind to your point or centre or Lakshya again and again when it runs towards external objects. If you give cotton seed extract, sugar, plantains, etc., to the bull, it will not run away but will remain in your house. Even so, if you make your mind taste the eternal bliss of the Self within, little by little by the practice of concentration, it will gradually abide in the Self only and will not run towards external objects of the senses. Sound and other objects only make the mind restless and unsteady. By knowing the defects of the objects of sensual pleasure, by understanding their illusory nature, by the cultivation of discrimination between the Real and unreal and also dispassion, and by making the mind understand the glory and splendour of the Self you can wean the mind entirely away from sensual objects and fix it firmly on the Self.
204. Having said that, “Aatma or Self is beyond the mind; it is all just by itself unrelated to anything”, if you now say “pull the mind by its horns and handover to Aatma”, what does it mean? How will this Aatma that is supra-mental, supraliminal and does not do any action, take it upon itself and keep this mind in its control? These questions are but natural. Yes! Aatma is supra-mental, supraliminal and actionless. But it is the basis of the existence of this Maya which has no locus standi otherwise, that this mind is able to do all that it does. This point has been well explained as to how the mind draws upon itself the power, identity and existence from the Aatma only. If by Maya this strange power of mind has been permitted to play around unfettered, it should also be possible to pull it back within itself and dissolve!
205. What is Maya? That is the power of Easwara! It is also known as AmbaaL or Parasakti. The being-consciousness-bliss of Aatma is reflected like the sunlight by a mirror, enabling the individual’s inner being called, ‘anta: karaNam’ to claim and own life, feelings and intellect! This ‘anta:karaNam’ is a conglomeration of four things. One is ‘chittam’ as the repository and source of thoughts. Second is the ‘manas’ which experiences and feels. Third is the ‘buddhi’ or the subtle brain which analyses data. Fourth is the ‘ahankaara’, that is ego or pride with the sense of being an individual as, I, me and mine! These four aspects of ‘chittam, manas, buddhi and ahankaara’ put together makeup the inner core of being known as ‘anta: karaNam’!
206. There is another method of depicting this point of how to hand over the mind to Aatma’s control. The space is spread everywhere. In that space let us say that there is a pot. There is space in that pot also. What is spread everywhere is called the ‘mahaakaasa’ and what is inside the pot is said to be ‘gataakaasa’. What is infinite, indivisible and spread all over as mahaakaasa, becomes the divided, finite and confined in the pot as gataakaasa! Similarly the infinite Aatma is seen as Jeeva the individual! Both are the same Aatma Chaitanya of the ever effulgent being-awareness-bliss! What is seen as finite gataakaasa can be understood as the infinite mahaakaasa till the pot is there and will also be seen as one and the same when the pot brakes!
207. Those who put up objections as to how can this mind be controlled and handed over to the Aatma, are the ones who are most likely to tell us in ordinary conversations things such as, “Mind your tongue and better control your mind!” If the latter statement is in the region of the possible, how can the former be impossible? All that I am saying is for the person who feels that he is as yet a Jeevan only and not the Aatma! The very fact that he feels himself to be a ‘not yet realised soul’ is proof of an active mind, which is the cause of his ignorance. He can never pull or control his mind. In fact it is he who is pulled and controlled by his mind. Without a power superior to the mind available, he can never pull or control his mind. What entity or power is going to do so? Will the mind itself do that? Is not its nature to run hither and thither after every fancy uncontrollably?
208. Here is where the ‘God’s Grace and Compassion’ that comes into play! Maanikka Vaasagar’s very famous phrase, “avan aruLaale avan thaaL vaNangi”, comes into play here to mean, ‘paying obeisance to Him by His Grace!’ He is the Creator of the world with all its life forms. This mind is also one of His creations only. The mind which is attracted by all and sundry objects, have to get pulled towards Easwara also by the Grace of God only! When its very nature is fickle, how can it subside on itself? When Arjuna said, “chanchalam hi mana: krishna” – Krishna said, “I agree with you that the mind is very much uncontrollable, being frivolous and irresolute”. Having thus agreed, He at once also said that, by stead fast dispassion and resolute practice over time, this mind of ours can also be got under control. However, the question remains as to, will that mind let this individual practice with dispassion? The only answer to such questions is that, it is His Grace that has to come into play! It is the Easwara Sankalpa that has to come into play out of sheer pity on us that ‘This poor Jeevan, despite all his draw backs has launched himself on to this adventure of re-identifying his Self and controlling his mind; he needs to be assisted’ and grant His Grace to enable the individual along the way to progress!
209. Unlike this limited edition of the Jeevan, Easwara is Omniscient and Omnipotent easily capable of subjecting this mind to control and subservience! The mind could not control itself. So, Easwara captures the mind in His own Aatma Swaroopa. Jeevan can only try to make an effort. Beyond that it is Him the creator of all including this world drama of Maya, who could undo the Maya and make this individual realise his oneness with the entirety! So, for the ever active mind to become static and dissolve itself in the Aatma is not a matter for discussion and debate. It is Maya that has caused this delusion and it is for Maya to vanish, enabling reality to become apparently that! Mind can never catch or even approach the Aatma. But what we know is that it is this mind that is forever keeping us under its control. So, there is no other recourse than making use of the mind itself for all our efforts, tests, trials and Saadhana! This mind itself has to wish to surrender and turn itself over to the care and control of the Aatma. That is one thought we can keep on trying to practice repeatedly and resolutely without any other thought about success or failure. Then after all, there is something known as the Grace of the Lord God, is it not? That will take care of the rest. It will make the mind vanish and Grant us the oneness with the only reality of Aatma! That is what is said by Bhagwan Sri Krishna in Bhagawat Gita, in the last Chapter 18, Sloka 62. “tameva saraNam gachcha sarva bhaavena bhaarata I tat prasaadaat param shaantim sthaanam praapsyasi shaasvatam II”, meaning, ‘Go unto Him in total surrender, with your entire Being, O Arjuna; by His Grace thou shalt obtain supreme peace and the eternal abode!’
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (Vol #4) Dated 19 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (Vol #4) Dated 19 Dec 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 last para on page number 654 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
193. With greater and greater powers if there is more happiness, it does not mean however that happiness is from that power. There is no direct co-relation between power and happiness. When someone is able to dominate people under him it gives some satisfaction to his ego. That thrill or happiness cannot be construed as in the rightness of how it should be. It increases happiness for the reason that, the number of persons who could dominate us, is dwindling. So, we are able to Lord it over others while others’ control over us is less. The very fact of expansion of the limits of our freedom gives us a thrill. When we are simply a clerk, we are humble and quiet. When we are promoted to office superintend, when the control over us lessens, we also find our freedom is expanding and our area of control expands! That gives us the thrill.
194. There are some who are in higher positions of pay, perks and power, with many working under him. More than the people working under him, he may have to dance to the tune of some higher ups or politicians. Often they may feel that they do not have the freedom available to some of their own juniors! So, it is clear that more than the pay, perks and power, it is freedom that gives us more happiness and satisfaction! There are many who after having been the C.E.Os of big companies opt for starting their own companies at a much scaled down version! If you ask them as to why they are ready to forego their position, power and perks and are opting for the hard work of running their own company, there reply is likely to be something on the following lines. “Oh, that! Though there were many privileges, I was much under the control of those Directors! I rather prefer the freedom that I am now experiencing!” So, the point to understand is that, satisfaction and thrill are due to freedom and independence and not just more power!
195. That is why, while talking of Parasakti’s Paramaanandam, instead of conveying that it is due to the mighty power of Parasakti, the word ‘swaatmananda’ is mentioned. So, instead of greater powers, lack of control by others over and super-vision is more important! So even She the Parasakti, instead of the power to dominate others, is happier in the independence of the Self, Aatma! There is no direct relation between Aatma and Sakti that is Power. Power is a show affecting other things adversely or otherwise. As there is no inner and outer for Aatma and as there is nothing other than itself; it does not affect anything or get affected. Sakti points to the duality of Dwaitam and Aatma is about the Oneness of Adwaitam! “Even the very Parasakti, without any happiness from her powers, finds happiness in experiencing Aatma and thus only knows or feels the highest level of happiness”, is what is meant by that line in Lalita Sahasranaama, “swaatma ananda lavee boota brhmaadya ananda santati:”.
196. Sakti is full of ‘gunamayam’ (qualities) and ‘karyamayam’ (work). Aatma is ‘nirguna, nishkriya’, (no qualities, no work). That is what is ‘Sivam’! So, ‘Aatmaanandam’ is also ‘Sivaanandam’ in other words. Even for Parasakti, the Aanandam is in Aatma that is in Sivam! She being the Dakshina Murthy, is giving the ‘Sivaanandam’ to all says the Lalita Sahasranaama, “dakshiNa murthy roopiNi sanakaadi samaaraadhya siva gnaana pradaayini”! That sense of freedom available to that great Parasakti as Aatmaanandam can be available to us also! When it comes to that, there is no difference as the Aatma of Parasakti with Omnipotence and we as the Aatma with limited abilities and the mosquito’s Aatma. All that, is the one and the same Aatma though it is wearing the garb of Omnipotence as Parasakti. We are a fraction of that and the mosquito still the same with a further limitation. So, we could also have the happiness many times more than what Brhma (who is said to have human beings’ unit one quanta of happiness as multiplied by 1followed by 14 zeros), could possibly have, when we have the Aatmaanandam! We cannot know just now as to how that Aatmaanandam or Sivaanandam could be. Even the fact that AmbaaL who is billion times more dynamically active than us, enjoys that Aatmaanandam only when She is actionless, totally merged in the Self without any sense of feeling; it cannot be understood. In complete peace She is wholesomely happy!
197. Sleep Stage. Unknown happiness about which we are unaware is no happiness! Here there is Tagore’s poem Gitanjali on the table and we are blind, say! What is the use of its being a great poem? Similar is the state of deep sleep, when there is only Aatma without any of the modifications of the mind or the seen – world. The Aatma to which we are blind and about which we are unaware, is as good as not being there. To be in a state of being aware of the Aatma and its bliss is the state of Samaadhi! That state of Samaadhi can never be attained without any effort, as spuriously being claimed by some of the modern day Adwaitins, who want everything on a silver platter to be spoon fed to them, that too with a silver spoon! Nature has so arranged sleep for all life forms when we are not only unaware of Aatma, but we are also unaware of the other problems and sadness of our lives! So, the Aatmaanandam is not available for all and sundry! But it is available for all who are ready to believe and trust the Grace of God to be the inner Truth of our very being and are ready to work hard for that Self Realization! In this struggle we are fighting against our own fissiparous tendencies! So this is the greatest battle ever fought by any human being. The only bright side of it is the fact that there have been many who have fought this battle and won and India as a country has had a long line of such greats from time immemorial till date!
198. Just a little time ago I had given the example of a lamp in a pot with holes. If the holes are very fine and rare, only some rare glimpse of the lamp inside will be seen outside. Like that in sensual experiences some rare insight of the Aatma is obtained. This happens in the wakeful state of our being, known as ‘jaagrat’, when we are basically aware of our body, mind, intellect and the world of others and objects. To understand the state of ‘sushupti’ that is our sleep, I have to slightly change the ‘upamaa’. (We normally do not come across a pot with holes and there are rarely any occasions when we keep a lamp inside! Though the similarity is not completely off grid, when you think of the human body as the pot and the five senses are the holes and the lamp is the Aatma) Instead of the pot in the example, think of a basket with a lamp inside. When it is breezy and the lamp is small enough, at times a basket made of cane or bamboo slivers inter woven, may be kept over it to prevent it from being blown off. Then the rays of the light will come out of the basket through small holes in the basket. But the inverted surface of the brim of the basket may be uneven to let air pass through and a sudden whiff or drought could still blow off the lamp. So, now if you put a woollen blanket over it which will let some air through for the lamp to burn but not let it blow off, that is the condition in ‘Sushupti’ or deep sleep. There is light and it is not seen. At least in wakeful state, we get some glimpses without knowing it or correctly identifying it. In sleep there is only darkness about that source of light. Compared to these two stages of ignorance, Aatma Anubhava is one of being enlightened awareness of pure effulgence as the light itself!
199. Without an effort on our part, sleep comes over us, with our eye lids drooping and mind in the process of withdrawal from all worldly things. It is clearly seen to be a power beyond us. So it is not within our powers to make it happen also! “Somehow I woke up at the stroke of midnight. Then however much I tried, I just could not sleep. Today, I am just not my normal self at all”, we complain! It is very clearly seen to be a natural force that plays tricks with us. This is true even when we take sleeping tablets thinking that we are making sleep happen as though by our will!
200. Dream Stage. Sleep can be made to happen by taking sleeping tablets or an oil bath. But that sleep may or may not be deep enough. Often we have sleep in which our mind is not completely turned off. On those occasions, there will be possibilities of a dream caused by the mind of ours.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 117 (Vol #4) Dated 17 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 117 (Vol #4) Dated 17 Dec 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 last para on page number 649 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
185. In fact there is no happiness due to things outside us. The light of the Aatma is reflected on our inner self and falls on the things outside through the senses and by Maya are seen as attractive. In Dakshina Murthy sloka this idea is well explained by our AachaaryaaL. Think of a pot with a number of holes in which a lamp is lighted. Similarly inside this physical body there is subtle and causal bodies, at the centre of which is Aatma as the light of Awareness and Bliss. The light is reflected by Maya as ‘Happy – Rays’ (Ananda Rasmi) through the (five Indriyas ) holes of the tools of cognition. On whichever thing this Ananda Rasmi falls on, gets lighted. Without knowing that the items are getting lighted up by the source of light within our own inner being; we tend to think as though the attraction is from outside, like the sparrow which fell in love with its own image on seeing it for the first time in the mirror! It is a fraction of gnosis and bliss of the Aatma that the Jeevan (the Living Being) gets from within, which is ignorantly thought to be awareness and bliss from those things outside!
186. There is a thatched roof made of intertwined coconut leaves. The Sun’s rays are coming in through the holes in the roof. A child under the Pandal Roof is likely to think that the light is from the roof. The child is not aware of the Sun outside and its light coming through the holes in the roof. We are like that child, unaware of the source of the light of knowledge and happiness, as Aatma Jyoti from within ourselves. In this body that hides the source, the five senses are like the holes in the Pandal. We are deluded to think that the light and happiness experienced are from things outside ourselves! Our expectation to get happiness and satisfaction from the body is similar to wishing to get the light of the Sun from the thatched roof that is actually hiding the Sun! As, it is all bright light when the intervening Pandal is removed, if we drop the idea of being the body, we can become and know ourselves to be the ever effulgent Aatma!
187. A little bit of investigation will reveal that none of the things outside of us can give us the happiness by themselves. If a cashmere shawl were to be the source of our happiness, it should do so at all times, is it not so? But however much soft and nice it may be, in summer time we will not be able tolerate even its touch. So happiness is not in the shawl. There may be a Raga named Aananda Bhairavi, wonderful to hear at all times. But, even that Raga may not be welcome when we are grieving the death of someone close to us! When someone is running a fever, will good sweets and ice-cream be acceptable? We can carry on in this vein to show that happiness in not from things outside. The mistaken notion that happiness is from these things foreign to us, is from the mind! When this mind is at a standstill in sleep, is there anything that gives happiness? No! One is sleeping sans the working of the mind. There is something recording the fact of his being however.
188. For so long (as also during so many e-mails), I have been discussing the fact that, whatever the happiness as can be felt or discerned by the mind, is not lasting and that with some amount of happiness, at once many times more discomfort, uneasiness and sorrow are caused and felt. Like we saw or happen to notice some rays of the light through some gaps in the Pandal which otherwise is only preventing Sun light, the mind is only capable of small bits of happiness in an otherwise environment of sadness. Only when we rise above the manipulations of the mind and go directly to the Aatma, can we have some idea of what can be the eternal bliss! Being the very embodiment of happiness, this man Jeevan the Aatma is constantly running helter skelter for happiness. In our books on Adwaita this fact has been compared with the musk deer, which was roaming around the forest in search of the fragrance without knowing that the smell was emanating from its own naval. When the mind is dead in Samadhi, this complete happiness of Aatma Aananda will be fully known; but it cannot be captured in words and conveyed or communicated to each other!
189. The Peaceful Bliss Not Comprehensible by the Mind! In the state we are in, in which we know our minds and not the Aatma, Happiness is seen as a state bubbling with energy and Peacefulness seems to be a state of inaction. So, these senses of sight, smell, hearing et al being some powers / forces; one is likely to wonder as to how happiness can be felt in the total peacefulness of the Aatma?! But at the same time how can we expect that the ways of Aatma, its peacefulness and bliss should be a matter within our range of comprehension? After all, we have already noted that this Aatma is beyond our minds! So, its gnosis, senses, feelings, happiness and peace can only be known to it and not to the mind. Within our own body, can we see with our ears or hear with our eyes? If we continue with this logic, we can see that there can be such pleasures as not known to our senses. It can be full of peace, quiet and happy at the same time!
190. What is Saantam? To abide with oneself sans movements is this peacefulness or Saantam. Since the happiness of the mind is ever dependent on other things; that is because of experiencing something other than itself; and since, it is ever pining for those objects; it is never capable of abiding within. But for the Aatma there is no other and all are within. So, there is no objectivity, but only subjectivity! So there is happiness, lasting, eternal and permanent sans aspiration, expectation and perspiration!
191. When the mind gets super human capabilities, successively there are Gandarvas, Pithrus, Devas, Indra, Bruhaspati, Prajapati and Brhma; each capable hundred times greater quantum of happiness; says the Chapter on Ananda Valli in Taitreeya Upanishad. Every time it increases the level, it also increases the level of happiness a 100 times to the previous. Then it goes on to say also that at each step, the happiness of the Man versed in the Vedas and not smitten by passion is the same (‘sa eko brahmaNaHa aanandaha srtriyasya cha kaama hatasya’ ). So, finally what is in Brhma is, 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 times more than a Man’s; which is however the same as of the one who is versed in the Vedas and is not smitten by passion! We cannot know it just now, but we can attain to it when we live by the Saastraas and have overcome ‘Kaama’, that is Desire and that is what I have been talking to you for so long; under the heading of Adwaitam! Man feels a certain pleasure in drinking a cup of coffee or listening to a good song. Can a cow or a monkey know that happiness? Thus at the end of many levels of happiness, the highest of it all is what is called the ‘Aatma Aanandam’!
192. Even Parasakthi’s Aanandam is in Saanta Aatma. In Lalita Sahasranama, there is a name for her as, “swaatmaananda lavee boota brhmaadyaananda santati:” , which means that all the happiness of all the life forms from the lowest to the highest Brhma becomes only a fraction of her ‘Aatma Aananda’! The reason why our own level of Aananda is so low is due to the fact there are many good and bad influences on us. We cannot help being subjected to all of them. But higher the Devata under whose control we are subjected to; the lower levels will have no influence on us and our level of happiness increases. So finally there is Brhma, whose level being very high, his happiness level is also higher. But even he is lower than his Father Maha Vishnu! So he is also bound under some control. But then MahaVishnu’s happiness too is made light of, in comparison to AmbaaL’s. There is another ‘But’!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 116 (Vol #4) Dated 15 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 116 (Vol #4) Dated 15 Dec 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 second para on page number 645 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
177. In good sleep the mischief by the mind is not there. Only Aatma is there sans an awareness of ‘aatma anubhavam’, that is, an experience of our real being! Mark my words sans an awareness of ‘aatma anubhavam’! We are aware of having had a good sleep, as we say so when we wake up, after we wake up. But, we are not aware of the comfort or peace that we had, during sleep. At that time we were lying like a piece of wood. We ourselves have reduced ourselves to the state of an inanimate material, happily! We feel highly insulted when anybody else calls us, “Hey! You Jadam”! Then how can it be that, we demean ourselves to the status of a piece of a log and do so happily! Is it not an insult to the very fact of Creation that the human being as the system of Body – Mind – Intellect complex should put itself down to such low levels one third of the time every day?
178. You may have your reservations on the following lines. “As Man has evolved from the inanimate state of materials (of a Jada), from single celled beings to multi cellular beings; one sense beings to animals with five senses; to the human being with the sixth sense also; Man is at the top of the ladder of creation! It is not in the rightness of things for him to deny his eminence and behave like a piece of lifeless matter and aspire for becoming thoughtless, actionless and inert!” I would agree with all that. But please also note that, his being endowed with all the six senses is also sometimes the source of many of his problems, especially the thinking, analysing, recording, calculating, remembering, imagining and processing capabilities of his mind / brain / intellect conglomerate! That conglomerate of ‘mano – buddhi – chitta – ahankaaram’ is also the source of many intricate philosophical conceptualizations; classical music and dance; minute and magnificent sculptures; works of arts and crafts; capable of social service, love, compassion and sacrifice! So this mind has to be delinked from all the things that derail it and directed towards such super human efforts above the six senses and not permitted to be wasted in the crass cycle of catering, pandering and gratifying the senses and animal instincts!
179. As instructed by Bhagawan Sri Krishna, we have to use the two pronged tactics of Vairaagyam and Abhyaasam that is ‘Dispassion and Practice’! Repeatedly the devilish forces have to be kept under the thumb and divine forces have to be encouraged to prevail. That is the starting point for this process of ‘Return to Reality’! Preferring something and discarding something else, we are ourselves getting in to the grip of untold number of Love – Hate relationships. Instead, to train ourselves to stand apart from such selectivity is Vairaagyam or dispassion. Without giving in to the likes and dislikes of this mind, while training ourselves to be dispassionate, we should also endeavour to act for the sake of ‘Dharma Samrakshana’, that is, for the upholding of moral values and our own refinement and ennoblement, by the ways as given in the Saastraas. In doing so there will be many Do’s and Don’ts; victories and losses; embarrassment and praises. These have to be accepted with equal felicity. That is Vairaagyam. To repeatedly and relentlessly persist with dispassion is the ‘Abhyaasam’ that Bhagwan is talking about. Practicing exercises is called ‘Deha abhyaasam’ in which, over a long time, we have to train every part of the body to do those exercises, bending and stretching. Then over time it becomes easy and second nature to us. Is it not so? That is how this mind which is running in beastly and ogre like pursuits has to be restrained and pulled back to move in the right directions by relentless persistence and repeated practice!
180. Thus the six senses which are all above the inert and inanimate existence, have to be successively made to rise from base tendencies of ogre, animal, human to the level of divinity and finally dissolving it in the highest one of Aatma. Finally we have to drop all these six senses also. But that will not be the same as being like a log of wood; but much above that, as the firmament on which all these senses are based; without which these senses cannot function; to be well aware of that Aatma of peaceful state of Samaadhi! When we have worked hard and become tired or worn out because of all the intellectual and cerebral gymnastics, we need to have some rest due to which we may sleep for some time. This should not be misconstrued as ‘gnaana nishtai or shaanta samaadhi’ !
181. The Peace of Happy Awareness. The peace of the inner core of our being is not the same as, quietness and nothingness of death. The Nirvaana that Buddha talked about is the peace and quietude of nothingness known as Soonyam. But what our Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL showed up from the Upanishads is that the peace and quietude of our inner core of our being of the Aatma is all Bliss, Truth, Knowledge, Awareness and Peacefulness. That is the PoorNa Anubhava, that is, the totality of all experience and not experience of Soonya or Nothingness! How else can this experience of Life Principle be, which is never dead, even after the body is no more? It has to be Sat – Chit – Aanandam; of Being – Awareness – Bliss. When we say that the Aatma is an embodiment of Gnaana; we mean that it cannot be an inert, inanimate, thing devoid of gnosis. So it is the life of life, knowledge of knowledge where awareness, life and being coalesce, inclusive of all noble feelings! That is God, Aatma and also Gnaana!
182. I told you earlier that Atma is not connected or related to anything else. So there is nothing for it to know or be aware of. So the only thing it can know or be aware of is itself! No other mind or instruments of knowledge can know it because, there is no other thing. So when the mind ceases to be, in Samaadhi, the being is aware of itself and that experience is known as ‘Aatma Anubhava’! ‘Aatma Anubhava’ is not known or experienced in sleep.
183. If your question is, “How can Aatma be Aananda (Happiness)”, I am tempted to counter question, “How else can it be”? When something is without any restrictions totally free, there is no way that it can be unhappy. The compulsions of mind, instigations of the senses, and imperatives of duties towards family, society, nation and humanity are the things that bind us and cause all the sorrows and problems of our lives. Aatma has no such compulsions. At the same time it is not devoid of knowledge or feelings. It would certainly know of its boundlessness. Such supreme state of freedom has to be supreme state of unlimited happiness too. Even within limitations, we do feel happiness temporarily. So the state of eternal, unlimited freedom of the Aatma cannot be anything other than pure happiness forever! Aatma, that does not have the feelings that we have towards others such as anger, annoyance, fear and disgust; is eternally purely happy.
184. We have someone to lord it over us always. Over everything else, we are slaves to our external and internal nature. Then there is an officer controlling us in all walks of life; who in turn is controlled by his wife. Everybody and everything including Nature is controlled by Lord God Easwara. Even He, when He is Easwara and Devotee, is said to be manipulated by the devotee’s wishes. So, He is also not free after all! As I said before, the moment there is Dwaitam, there is no freedom (Swaadeenam); only slavery (Paraadeenam)! When there is nothing to Lord it over and no partition to divide and distribute; that Akhanda, Adwaita, Aatma, alone can know of the Akahanda – aatma – anandam that is the indivisible total happiness of the Self! In our day to day lives, we get just a glimpse of that illimitable ocean of eternal bliss! With one or two drops of that vastness, Maya enables the individual to experience some amount of thrill with his five senses further amplified by the mind by imagination! The whole world is running in circles after that sense of thrill and happiness, not knowing that the source is hidden here inside each one of us!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 115 (Vol #4) Dated 13 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 115 (Vol #4) Dated 13 Dec 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 639 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
169. State of Being and Action. When the mind is blank without any thought and the body is still without any action, in sleep or swoon or Samadhi, I said that this Jeevan is the same as Aatma. That is the state of Being. The moment the mind and body are active, this state of Being is hidden and the state of action is apparent. Was there any action on the part of the Aatma for this change of state? No! Simply, it is there. This state of Being is known as ‘Kevalam’. It does not mean some demeaning state. Somehow such a connotation has come to be in Tamil as a meaning. Actually to be actionless in the pure state of Being is ‘Kaivalyam’, ‘Kaivalya Status or Kaivalya Moksham’, sans body, action or thought, without any relation or reference to the world!
170. Moksham is given different meanings and names by different Siddhaantis, that is, philosophers of varying conceptual points of view. Adwaitis call it, ‘Brhma or Aatma Saaktchaatkaaram; Saivites call it Siva Saayujyam; Vaishnavites say VishNu Saayujyam; Buddhists name it NirvaaNam; Nyaaya and Vaiseshika Siddhantis call it Apavargam and in Jaina and Yoga it is known as ‘Kevala Stiti or Kaivalyam’! Instead of this state of just being, the moment there is mind, thoughts and action; the whole lot of millions and zillions of inconsequential traditions burst out with all the varieties beyond our imagination!
171. The Outcome of the Hunger of Desires. Once there is the mind, it has thousands of hungry desires in satisfying which, come out a whole army of anger, greed, lies, jealousy, and hate battalions. After all that, is there any abating of desires? No! Just looking for happiness all these avenues of creation of unhappiness get going, clamouring for our attention, effort and time. There is not a single mode of pure happiness! They all come hand in hand with a plethora of problems causing sorrow and embarrassment. If you eat snacks of odds and sorts, there is some thrill along with the problem of stomach ache, obesity and unwholesome eating habits! This is so not only in the case of hunger of the stomach! In the case of eyes, ears, thoughts, money and so on too, the satisfying of the hunger is also coupled with arrival of problems. When you look at the child playing, you feel happy. You suffer four times that when the baby is running fever! There is happiness in getting money, even if it is only say, arrears of pay or recurring deposit saved over the years. At once there is the fear and apprehension of taxes, people asking for donation and theft! Our earning a living, getting married, begetting children, accumulation of wealth, going to cinema and club, visiting places; is all for the sake of obtaining happiness, is it not so? With the happiness, we tend to get plenty of sadness, worry, fear, anger, embarrassment, jealousy, hate and so on. Amongst all such, are we able to keep any of those thrills and satisfactions forever? Answer is an emphatic ‘No’!
172. The moment we have a desire for something, we have a worry as to how to obtain that or reach there. If someone else is also trying for the same then there is an irritation and anger with the other competing with us. If the other gets it we have jealousy and if we attain it we have pride and wish to show the other down! Thus as a result of the original desire many other desires or demerits accrue. Having got what we have aspired for there is some flimsy satisfaction followed by further planning and or scheming. That something which we desired for, causes us to take many actions restlessly. Then if we sleep, the instant we are awake, our mind is again on the prowl, without knowing any peace or contentment, making us do so many things. In between there are some small victories, celebrations followed by further ambition like a flow or even a flood of continuous dissatisfaction in which we are carried away, very far away!
173. There are problems galore in the process of obtaining, retaining, avoiding and discarding any of these things in life! These problems come together. If obtaining had certain amount of problems, doing without or getting rid of the habit has more quanta of problems. If you eat well you have to digest it also well. Good staff is to be recruited and bad material has to be got rid of. Enemies have to be sorted out and friends to be nurtured and cultivated. Whatever are the obstacles in one’s effort, have to be solved or sidelined. For every desire of ours there are such concomitant matters to be pulled in or pushed out of the way. By both these actions there are problems. You eat good food. Either it is creating digestion problems or creates the urge for more of it or we want the same cook. Indigestion causes diseases and the doctor charges exorbitantly. The worker we dismissed is out to take revenge and the one whom we employed is asking for increase of pay! Then when we find that he is too avaricious, we may have to get rid of him and employ the first one! What we eat today is after all, the next day’s excreta! Life is too full of such compulsions! As though fearing enemies is not enough, one has to be afraid of over familiarity with existing friends. They may also feel so exactly similarly! That is how, Shakespeare is supposed to have said, “Marry in haste and repent at leisure!” The more we analyse in this line, more one is convinced that, “To do any action is simply madness”!
174. When the Aatma is without any work and involvement, see how wonderful that state of Being is. We do not know about Samadhi and Swoon. We do know and are very happy with the state of sleep, evidently as seen by its popularity. Young and old, rich and poor, man, animal and all sorts of living things are so universally fond of sleep. Even the insomniac is fond of sleep and only not able to sleep, for some reason. That is because, when we are purely as the Aatma, there is no urge to possess or discard. We cannot possess our selves. If we are yet to possess ourselves, are we something else, now? Can we be something other than us? The answer to both these questions is a, “No”! Similarly we cannot get rid of ourselves, as who has to do the discarding and who is to be there in balance? We can neither take ourselves nor leave ourselves. As we are forever us only, we cannot create ourselves.
175. AmbaaL is thus described as the Aatma Roopam (form of self), in Lalita Sahasranama, as “heyopaadeya varjitaa”. ‘Heyam’ is what is to be got rid of and ‘upaadeyam’ is what is to be obtained. She is complete in Herself without a need or requirement; She is also not having any blemish to be erased or got rid of! So She is “heyopaadeya varjitaa”. Since we feel the needs and requirements, we are trying to obtain them. Then we feel that there is something to be got rid of or discarded, we are trying to erase or do without or drop those habits! So we are all the time doing something due to our mistaken notions about ourselves or being ignorant of our real self! That is why in sleep, there is so much peace. No pull of desires and no irritation of intolerance. The only time the Deva – Asura battle is not happening in us, is when we are asleep. That is God’s Grace being experienced by all of us every day and night! Even if we are full of such demerits that we do not deserve His Grace, still we are enabled possibly to sleep so that, at least for those seven to eight hours, we may not trouble others!
176. “What do you mean Swamiji? So, what are you telling us to do or not to do? Without the inner conflict between the Asuric (evil) and Divine forces and without the mind with its desires and concomitant pulls and pressures; all the people of the world should be sleeping all of the time? Should we all be having a stock of sleeping tablets and keep going back to sleep whenever we wake up?” “No! That is not what is being said or intended.”
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 114 (Vol #4) Dated 11 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 114 (Vol #4) Dated 11 Dec 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 633 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
162. Everything in life has to go through the changes as per the life-cycle of birth, childhood, growth, maturity, attenuation and death. As we have seen, death is not an end but is a part of the process of change, metamorphosis, transformation and continuation of the cycle! This change is called, ‘vikaaram’ in Sanskrit. In Tamil this word is wrongly understood as ‘goram or kuroopam’ to mean something horrible. Anything shattered or destroyed is ugly to look at. But in nature, this process of death is also accompanied with transformation into something else. Flower becomes the fruit. Pupa becomes the butterfly. There is a principle of Life that goes on effecting this change into another. Only the form changes. Flower withers to become the fruit. The worm transforms in to a butterfly or wasp. Without interference from us humans this change over is smooth. If we pluck the flower, it may not become a fruit. Then the flower simply withers. Till it is in touch with the tree, connected to the tree or plant then the withering flower becomes a fruit. Similarly our bodies and minds are repeatedly destroyed the fundamental life principle goes on. That is the Aatma. That principle of Life is not the breath. Even when the breathing stops and the body is dead, Aatma is forever. Having been there a few seconds back, this mind and body have ceased to be as it was or have changed; they cannot be the real self. Because they are all the time changing and never the same, they cannot be the reality! But, though the mind and body may be changing all the time, our sense of being as ‘I’ has not undergone any change! So if we set aside all the things that are changing, and identify the eternal changeless reality of ourselves, that will be seen to be this thing that I am calling the Aatma! That Aatma is our only reality.
163. When we are unaware of our body and our mind in deep sleep; or in a swoon; or in deep meditation; we are unaware of the body and the world but, simply aware of being. In that state of being aware, it is Aatma only, which we refer to as ‘I’, if at all we refer to! That is, in that state of pure awareness, there is nobody else with whom to respond or converse. But later we may say, as Jesus Christ said, “I am that I am”. That is the eternity and infinity in comprehension. Is there any difference between our thinking of us as ‘I’ when we were a small child and the ‘I’ today? No! When we were only a baby or later when we knew of the world and many things else; while in the hospital bed or when we were healthy; when we were poor or after becoming wealthy; when we were experiencing many of the sorrows and pleasures of the world; this ‘I’ has remained as the constant witness to all our experiences! This ‘I’ is the one basic foundation, the common strata, the reference point; as Sri Krishna says in Bhagawat Gita 7.7., “...sutre maNigaNaa iva...”, as the string of continuity holding the beads in a rosary.
164. Real Aatma and the Fictitious Mind. ‘Nijam’ is a word that is normally construed to mean ‘truthful or real’. Actually it means ‘our nature’ that is our normal behaviour and attitude. In both aspects of our reality and natural self is one and the same Aatma and not the mind. To the extent that we believe to be our minds, the mind dupes us to think of it as our reality. Not just one disguise but many garbs and disguises it assumes! In Pazhani, they dress up the God Dandayudha PaaNi in many different decorations, one after the other. In between the curtain will be drawn to close the view. Then the curtain will be pulled aside, and they will anoint him with clarified butter, rose water, plain water, ashes of the Vibhuti, honey and so on. For some time He will be the Aandi PaNdaaram, next the King, followed by the Hunter’s garb. Like that we have been changing our disguises, have we not? As a young child, we have been running around naked, eating anything without a care in the world! Then we have been dressed up as a school going boy. Then as a teen-ager we have been doing monkey tricks to impress youngsters of the opposite sex. Then we think of our self as modern or sophisticated, as a father, as a lecturer and so on. In all these ‘I am’, is the first thought followed by any one of these adjectives. In all these disguises and varied roles, there is one basic reality of continuity.
165. In cinema or stage, there is an actor. In one scene he may appear as Rama and in another he could be Krishna or Ravana. Some time as a rich man and some time as a poor man. Despite the changes, he remains the same man, is it not so? Similarly the life principle in each one of us, despite the multi various roles that we may play is the one Aatma. Not only that, it is that one-life-principle in all of us, the people of the world! As that actor is some time without make-up, there is a real person sans cloths, sans make-up, sans body and sans mind! Without a thought, without a conflict, confusion, tension and competition, there is this real being without the Deva-Asura battle, being-aware-bliss or what is called in Sanskrit as ‘Sat-Chit-Anandam’. That is the highest peaceful state of reality as the sub-stratum of all existence.
166. The interesting point is that without that one peaceful Aatma, this bundle of restless bundle of contradiction, the mind cannot be there. There is a famous dictum, “avan anri vor aNuvum asaiyaadu”, which means that without Him not an atom can move! Without that one life-principle, the mind cannot exist even, let alone make any move or wear a make-up! As the mind controls most of our bodily actions, this mind borrows heavily for its existence and identity from the Aatma, especially for thinking and desiring. The mind causes the body to do many things but, to do so it draws its power from the Aatma. A subtle point to note here is that Aatma by itself is undifferentiated as a being and power as one, without any separation whatsoever, completely devoid of any action or thought or intention! The moment you have ‘sankalpa’, there is an intention and it is in tension, like a taut wire! So, nowadays when often I hear the phrase, ‘Aatmashakti’ being loosely mentioned, as though ‘Aatma’ and ‘Shakti’ can have separate existence or evolving out of each other. The moment something can be good or bad, there can also be the separation into many, with all sorts of powers! Till then, there is no place for ‘Shakti’ in ‘Aatma’, which is whole and complete by itself as the only Universal entity inclusive of ‘Shakti’! Emphasizing the obvious, in oneness, there is no separation!
167. Now, there can be the question remaining in your minds as to how can it be that, “Without Aatma, there is no action and not an atom can move! Then it is also said that Aatma is not related to any thought or action! How can we reconcile these two apparent contradictions?” That is Maya! This Maya can never be comprehended, however much we may deliberate upon it! Though not connected to anything, it looks as though totally connected with all, by the power of Maya. To make this point somewhat understood a few examples are given. That is, by the presence of the Sun, all the plants grow, seasons change, living things start doing their actions with sun rise. All the power and energy on earth is from the Sun. Without the Sun, there will be no life on earth and none of the things that happen will occur. So, Sun is the only power in being. Still it cannot be directly held as the doer of all that happens on earth!
168. When the Sun sets, there is no light. We light up lamps or street lights. With that light, one man reads the scriptures and another reads useless trash! With the light, many people do many lawful activities and some do illegal exploits! Can we hold the light to be responsible for what happens by its presence? Similarly without doership, by its very presence, Aatma enables occurrence of many activities, including your reading of this idea!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 113 (Vol #4) Dated 09 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 113 (Vol #4) Dated 09 Dec 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 last para on page number 627 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
154. Sri Krishna is telling Arjuna that this Desire who is a ‘Maha Paapma’ who is in control of Arjuna’s Senses, Mind and Intellect is constantly hiding reality from his view and understanding. “Control yourself and win over it by killing it completely”, He says. It is alright to say ‘kill it’. But, how is it to be done? What we decide that we should never be doing, that very thing comes up again with renewed vigour, is it not so? Then what are we supposed to do? To control our desires we have to control the mind because, that is the source from which the desires raise. Arjuna cries that this mind is uncontrollable. This is well discussed in Chapter 6 of the Bhagawat Gita. He says, “chanchalam hi manah krishna pramaathi balavat drudam I tasya aham nigraham manye vaayoriva sudushkaram II”
155. “The mind verily is restless, turbulent, strong and unyielding, O Krishna; I deem it as difficult to control as to control the wind.” The mind constantly changes its objects and so is ever restless. Krishna is derived from the word Krish which means ‘to scrape’. He scrapes all the sins, evils and the causes of evil from the hearts of His devotees. Therefore He is called Krishna. The mind is not only restless but also turbulent or impetuous, strong and obstinate. It produces violent agitation in the body and the senses. The mind is drawn by objects in all directions. It works always in conjunction with the five senses and the body. Therefore it makes them subject to external influences. It is even more difficult to control it than to control the wind. The mind is born of Vayutanmatra (wind root-element). That is the reason why it is as restless as the wind. Maathi is to churn. Pramaathi is to churn rather deeply. This chanchalam mind is unsteady and is churning me strongly and forcibly. Tasya – its; nigraham – control; vaayoriva – like the wind; sudushkaram – impossible; manye – I think.
156. Krishna, the Blessed Lord said: “Undoubtedly, O mighty-armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and is restless; but by practice and dispassion it may be restrained.” To the whimpering Arjuna, Krishna readily agrees sympathetically, instead of starting on the negative. But at once, he encourages Arjuna to make the impossible, possible through dispassion and practice. “asamshayam mahaabaaho mano durnigraham chalam I” “chalam” – fickle; “asamshayam” – undoubtedly it is true that this mind is very fickle and wobbly; “dur nigraham” – difficult to control; “maha baahu” – you mighty armed. Krishna as we can see is playing on Arjuna’s pride as a great fighter. He is telling him that as he is an expert in the art of combat and warfare, he should fight his inner battles too with equal vim and vigour! Yes. Yes. I agree with you that it is not easy to control, this minds of human beings. But it can be done with two things. One is “vairaagyam” – determined dispassion and “abhyaasam” – practice. “However much it may derail, distract and cause you to go astray, you are not to give up trying to control it. Repeatedly, you have to bring it back to the right path. If you keep at it, sometime or the other, it has to become your slave and not master! A clear decision not to have desire in anything with readiness to stand up regardless of how many times we fall together will fetch you to the goal post finally!
157. “yato yato nischarati manahschanchalam astiram I tatastato niyamyaitat aatmanyeva vasham nayet II” “yato yato” – for whatever reason; “chanchalam” – fickle and; “astiram” – unsteady; “manaha” – this mind; “nischarati” – runs outside; “tatastataha” – from each one of those desires; “etat” – this mind; “niyamya” – forcibly controlling; “aatmani eva” – in the Aatma itself; “vasam nayet” – secure. As many times as it runs off chasing after desires, this mind has to be brought back from each one of them and made to subside in the Self! Thus He has brought the Jeevan back to his real inner identity of the Aatma.
158. When we are thinking of our self as a separate individual entity, the mind seems to be our real self. Each one of us has a an individual name, caste, colour, characteristic, so and so father, mother, wife, son or daughter, job, education and so on. Some are peaceful, some quick to anger, another happy-go-lucky, some clever, some idiotic. If you look deeply into all this, these are all peripheral and seemingly only and not real! He is the type of man as made out by his mind, which he thinks is his reality!
159. There are three occasions when his mind is defunct. That is when he sleeps or under anaesthesia or in deep meditation. At that moment, he has no thought what so ever and also has no idea of separateness or individuality. At that stage, all are equal. The King and pauper are one. The King does not know of his royalty and the pauper does not know of his poverty. A physically fit athlete and a weakling; a well read scholar with all the letters of the alphabet as suffixes after his name and an unread and unlettered country brute known as ‘nir akshara gutchi’; are all the same in that condition, without any separate character qualities to differentiate them. When the mind is at a stand still there are no enemies and no friends, no difference in age, gender, nationality or status! When the mind is functional, there is a separate identity to all the crores of people of the world while they are all ONE when the mind is blank! But they are all there without any qualifying restrictions of separateness. The life in all of them is one and the same oneness. That is the Self or Aatma. It never dies. There is no change to which it is subjected.
160. Any change, in a way is a type of death. What is death? It is a change from what it was to become something else! Is it not so? Flower becomes a ripe fruit after going through the intervening state of being unripe! The worm pupa becomes the chrysalis which in turn becomes the butter fly. The young child grows into teenager to adult to the old man with grey hair with failing health, falling teeth, impaired hearing and poor eye sight! Seasons change, years run into each other. One form dies and another is formed. Our body keeps changing all the time. Scientists say that there is not a single cell in the body that was there seven years back! It is not en bloc change every seven years either. The cells are dying and being replaced all the time. Though we are thinking of this body to be ourselves, some part of it is dying this very moment. Then what are we considering as our, me or I or myself? From a tiny toddler who did not know as to how to walk, by the time you are say, 70 years old, each cell in our body has been overhauled individually, died and replaced variedly at least ten times! Then who is this person? He still thinks the body to be him! What a crisis of identity!
161. Then if we take our mind to be ourselves, for the past so many days, I have been telling you as to how this mind is forever fickle, changing and vacillating. Last second it was crying, the next second angry, next annoyed, next happy and next we do not know as to what it is going to be! Look at the way your mind has grown and changed from being baby onwards. So many concepts, ideas, likes, dislikes, pre-conceptions, preferences, understandings, dilemmas, perplexities and imponderables! Then is the endemic problem of forgetfulness that has been going on with us as a constant companion from our childhood! We have forgotten many things along the way. Most importantly we have forgotten our origin or source and the fact that the only constancy of life is change!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.