DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Dec 2010

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol #4) Dated 31 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 page number 687 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)
240. Then superior to the mind is the Buddhi, which is a Sanskrit word which combines in itself the meanings of prescience, intellect and knowledge. He says, “manasastu paraa buddihi”. In the mind there is no end to generations of feelings and thoughts! Mind never evaluates between good and bad. This moment you may think of helping someone and the very next second, your mind may be working out if it can take advantage of the situation! Whereas it is the Buddhi which evaluates as to what is preferably good and what is avoidably bad. When many thoughts clamour for attention, the comparative analysis is done by the Buddhi. The mind runs after what is attractive, ever changing its choices. Buddhi is the decision maker. The difference between them is subtle and often mistaken for the other in our talks.
241. In our inner being of ‘anta: karaNam’, there are four parts of manas, buddhi, chittam and ahankaara, that can be mind, intellect, will and ego respectively. But generally when we say mind, we mean all these four aspects. There is another division of this as the lower and higher mind. It is the lower mind that is basically interested in feelings and sensations uncaring for good and bad; while it is the higher mind that is deliberate, prudent and balanced. In our practical life this is not the way we have understood them. Even clever planning and execution is thought of as the work of the buddhi. Whether good or bad, to run after sensational possibilities and be indecisive is the mind and to be decisive with clarity is the job of the buddhi.
242. Finally, there is nothing good or bad; both are part of Maya only. Aatma in its true state without being related to the ‘anta: karaNa’, devoid of the vacillations of the mind, even without the certainty of the buddhi, it is like the Samaadhi state of the Gnaani. We do not know about that state. But we do know of the very similar state of deep sleep even without any dream; that is still the work of the ‘anta: karaNa’. Was there any good or bad in that state? Both good and bad are unrelated to Aatma and imagined by the buddhi part of ‘anta: karaNa’. That is, even buddhi can be too clever for itself.
243. Bhagwan has already declared that out of the three basic causes of Kaama, buddhi is also one, as already seen by us. How can the basis of desire be the final destination? This buddhi capable of differentiating between good and bad also stops at that level. That is love for doing good, may be. Beyond that, it will not point out or take us to the Aatma! When that Aatma is stand alone, it is this Maya that deludes us to think of Aatma to be the individual Jeevan. So also all good and bad are part of Maya’s play and buddhi stops at that. So, you have to progress beyond this mind including the buddhi.
244. Buddhi’s basis is Aatma, the most superior, highest of the high. That is what is referred to as the ‘tat’ in ‘tat sat’; or as ‘that’ in ‘I am that I am’ or ‘that is it’ in our day to day conversations! What is ‘sat’? That which is ever without any change eternally is ‘sat’. To be as it is, is truth. That truth in other words is ‘sat yam’, that is Aatma only. The word ‘tat’ is that, instead of being male or female, the neuter gender. That which is ‘tat & sat’ when referring to God in the male form is Easwara and in the female form is AmbaaL. Except for ardent followers of AmbaaL of the cult of Saaktam, it is normally the tradition to refer to God as He. The proverb goes as, “avan anri ore aNuvum asaiyaadu”, to mean, ‘not an atom can move without Him’! Nammaazhvaar too starts off Thiru Vaai Mozhi with the words, “uyarvara uyar nalam udaiyavan evan avan?” meaning, “Who is that He with the highest goodness beyond compare!”? In the Sanskrit language, there is a method of meditation on Paramaatma as one with this Jeevaatma, in which you are to keep chanting “Soham, Hamsa: Hamsas soham”, meaning, ‘He I am, I am He’. Here the same ‘tat’ of ‘tat sat’ is being referred as ‘sa:’ in male gender. We chant ‘Purusha Suktam’ in which the Paramaatma is referred to as He the Man, the Purusha! In Sankhya Saastra, Aatma is said to be Purusha and the Nature that is ever changing as the power of Maya, the quintessential female! What stands without dissipation, change or permutation like a rock is the Aatma, the Male, the ‘sa:’. The never static, ever changing principle is the Female, ‘saa’ ! These two are the ‘Sivam and Sakti’, as essential male and female, parents of all existence. Krishna Paramaatma refers to the Aatma as superior to this buddhi, as ‘sa:’, a He; “buddhe: paratastu sa:”.
245. Padippadiyaaga Aatma Nilaikku. (That is to take us to the state of Aatma, step by step.) Everything other than Aatma is all Maya that is, a lie or untruth. We are not able to see it like that. Because in all this lie and untruth, there are some flashes of the reflection of the Real. As I told you before, because of the true Aatma’s reflection, we get flashes of the truth of Aatma Chaitanya in the untrue senses, mind and buddhi! This reflected truth is not out and out a lie. There is a special word for it in Sanskrit known as, ‘prati bhaasika satyam’ as given in Adwaita Saastraas! (To get this point very clear, you have to go back to translations of the first volume under the heading ‘Maya’ and the second volume under the heading ‘How is the world a lie?”.)
246. In the powerful flow of the Maya, it is well neigh impossible to raise ourselves to the level of total oneness where there is no differentiation between good and bad. So, even when that final stage is beyond both good and bad, through the morally and humanly correct and righteous path we have to progress towards the final stage, step by step. If you were to ask as to how we can to do this, they our elders, give a few examples. Use a thorn to remove an existing intruding one and then throw away both. Now, it is clear that we are involved in many things bad and sinful. We are irretrievably caught in a mesh of desire, anger, greed, fear and sadness! There is no meaning in asking questions such as, “How did this Aatma which is not in any way connected to anything, get stuck like this?” Aatma is not stuck. It is your own notion of being an individual that is deluded to think that it is stuck! In Adwaita Saastraas having said many things about this state of affairs and Maya; they go on to say that, this Maya is ‘anirvachaneeyam’ which means, that nothing can be said about it!
247. There is no gain in carrying out a research on how we got stuck up in this Maya! If a snake is entwined in your leg, will you be worried about finding out as to how such a state of affairs happened to come about or about how to get rid of the snake by cajoling it to go for may be a glass of milk? That is how, we who are stuck in the binding ties of Maya have to try and find a way out of this maze! Here there is hope! The Saints, Sages, Rishis, Munis and Saadhus of whom there have been many in this land of Bharath Desh, have shown the way with mile stones and direction pointers aplenty towards that one destination. From the untruth of senses, mind and buddhi with traces of truth in them; we have to progress to the complete unpolluted truth of the real. In these things too each step is higher than the previous with the ratio of truth increasing all the time, we have to keep progressing. From the experience of the senses progress towards that of the mind and then the intellect of the buddhi’s to arrive at Aatma Anubhava. The most important point is that once you have launched yourself in this journey, you will arrive at the destination of Aatma Adwaita Anubhava. That is the only ‘vachaneeyam’ part that can be guaranteed in this world of Maya!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.