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.