DEIVATHIN KURAL # 111 (Vol #4) Dated 05 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 111 (Vol #4) Dated 05 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 614 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)
136. Desire Harms All Noble Qualities. Amongst the deleterious side effects of desire that takes the shape of Paapam in our accounts on the debit side, is lying and bluffing. The progenitor for lies is also Mr Desire only! Manu and such greats of yore have deemed for all people certain basic norms for behaviour which includes, Ahimsa (non-cruelty), Satyam (Truth), Abjuring of Stealing, Purity, and Cleanliness (physical and moral). All these five noble qualities are destroyed by this desire! Let us look a little more closely this point.
137. Why do we hurt others? We hurt and kill animals because of our desire for eating their meat. When we desire other’s properties, we wish to obtain that even by hurting that person! When do we abjure truth? When we cannot obtain something by fair means, we wish to get it by hook or crook, copiously lying on the way! We are ready to save our property or status or reputation say, which we desire, we speak many lies and are ready to bluff and cheat. We forego our rules of cleanliness and observation of regular rituals, so as to satisfy our sensual desires. Our discipline and control over senses is lost purely because of our desires. That is, we let go of all the five Dharmas listed by Manu simply so as to satisfy our crass desires! The root cause of all our sins of commission and omission is from our being slaves of our desires!
138. So, we come back to where we started the daily occurrence of the war between Devas and Asuras, between good and evil, in each one of us. It is the inner struggle in each one of us that goes on forever between the divine tendencies and demonic inclinations! The source of all the devilish forces is desire. Even the seemingly good desires of ours also are cause of pain and sorrow. Because, whatever the great desire, it is still an eroding power, an itch! Dissatisfaction in the mind about others or about the way things are is the reason for wanting to correct others or improve the situation! This thirst to change is desire. The existence of desire means that there is a mind behind this. The presence of mind means endless complications! We have already seen as to how this mind is other than Atma. That is Dwaitam, the cause of all troubles and fear! It is this mind which, when the wholesome Paramatma wears the garb of Jeevatma, that causes it to become or assume minuteness and mortality! At the highest level it can only be touching and falling head over heels on the Paramatma. At the other extreme, it will be borrowing and drawing on Paramatma’s grace, kindness and power in borrowed glory! It can never let go of its separateness and so can never enjoy the expansiveness of that, till it dissolves itself completely!
139. To say that we can enjoy unsullied, endless pleasures in Heaven or Kailasam or Vaikundam or Shangrila is all experiences of the mind only. Those who follow the concepts of Dwaitam and Visishtadwaitam say that this is pure unadulterated happiness. But even there, those whom they call Jeevan Muktas are said to be remaining as apart from God, are experiencing Paramatma with a mind of their own. So, it is still short of complete wholesomeness, thereby being subjected to the pangs of separation and concomitant deficiencies and sorrows as revealed by the Puranas. Even AmbaaL, Mahalakshmi, Narada, Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana, Sanat Kumara, Brungi Maharshi and such greats too, while being with God still with their own minds have been subjected to anger, curses, suffering the agony of separation and being born again and such. Then they have again missed his company and so have undergone untold miseries; as revealed by the various stories of PuraNas. That is why, to cut asunder all other ties, connect up with God, says ThiruvaLLuvar in this ThrukkuraL, “partruga partratraan patrinai – appartrai partruga partru vidarkku”. Thirumoolar goes beyond that and says, “aasai arumingaL aasai arumingaL easanodaayinum aasai armingal”, to mean, ‘cut your desires, cut your desires; even with God cut your desires’!
140. Erase Desire to Stop Wars. Though seemingly giving happiness, these desires are basically trouble creators as easily discerned. For example, when it is itching, scratching it evidently gives us some pleasure. But doing so leads to aggravation of the wound or whatever! So we refrain from scratching. All desires are itches only. All methods of satisfying that itch amounts to scratching, aggravating and causing it to become septic! So to be rid of desires is the only way out of this dilemma. Then only the inner war between good and evil will come to an end and peace obtained. How to do that? Hundreds, thousands, lacs, millions and crores; the number of desires go on! You win over one, another rises. You manage that new one and the old one comes up again saying, “See, I am still alive! I am not yet done with you!”
141. Do Desires Die When the Body Dies? “OK. Because of the body being there, we have desires. Because of desires we are subjected to suffering, fear, ridicule, anger, jealousy, hate and so on! All these are related to this bodily being only, is it not so? Do the dead people suffer from these feelings of shame and deprivation? So, should we pray for death? Should we commit suicide by jumping into a well or hang by a rope?” No! That is not the answer either! It is wrong to think that the dead have no more desires or aspirations and the resultant fear, disappointments and insult. Not that they are completely rid of it all. Depending upon their credit and debit balances of accumulated effects of Karma, they enjoy and or suffer in Heaven or Hell and are reborn to continue from where they left off, may be in a different location, in a different form anyhow!
142. That is, that body is gone. Another body has been assumed. If it happens to be a human body, the process of accumulating Paapa and PuNya (demerits and merits), starts off again. Whatever the form some good and happy and some bad and painful experiences are in store for you! You could become a cow and stand in the concrete jungles of today, wondering as to where are all the green pastures gone that you saw some time somewhere in the eerie past, of earlier life times? You can become a bull and pull a cart or become a horse and take part in the race course. You can become a dog and be a pet in U.S. of A, and suffer from such diseases as obesity and diabetes or be one of the mongrels in the streets of Indian cities, barking and howling all of the time! Choice is yours! But you cannot get rid of desire or all the other concomitant problems, including another life and another body just by death!
143. Especially suicide solves nothing. It rather adds to the demerits in a very big way as ‘PraaNa Haththie’ as one of the Maha Paapaas! For this there are special treatment cells meant for you! Nowadays, many opt for this as the easy way out, after having done horrendous misdeeds when they are about to be caught or find themselves in a quandary! They simply pick up a revolver and shoot. But the fact remains that they have solved nothing. It does not absolve you of any of your misdeeds or responsibilities. Even when this gross body goes, a subtle body remains. The effects of our past actions, thoughts, desires, aspirations, likes, dislikes and experiences which were in store for you and were cut short; continue as balance credit / debit accounts of merits and demerits with the inner being! Suicide does not absolve or solve anything!
144. Instead of committing suicide, if we die a natural death, we go through the merits and demerits in heaven or hell and take birth again in one of 8.4 million Yonis or life forms. The suicide’s subtle body has to suffer in that state as a ghost. Sometimes not being able to satisfy its thirst or hunger, this ghost has to get into someone else’s body and suffer the ignominy of being chased by ghost-busters by beating you with a bunch of neem branches and leaves! It does not stop there. You will be reborn. Whatever one ran away from, the same conditions, the same situation will recur! Whatever the thing you wanted to avoid, for which you shot yourself or swallowed poison, will have to be faced. The same losses or diseases or embarrassment will take place because, you can never run away from yourself that is your - self! That is why the Dharma Saastraas have opined that Aatma Haththie is one of the Maha Paapaas! Luckily, suicide is considered as an offence by the Indian Penal Code also. With all other problems one has to be prepared to take the beatings by the tiny branches of the neem tree as an extra, when we commit suicide! (KTSV adds: Now relate what we have read today, with what Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi says! Ramana says that every day spent without making an effort to know as to who we are, we are committing suicide!)
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva,