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.