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.