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.