DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (Vol #4) Dated 02 Jan 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (Vol #4) Dated 02 Jan 2011

(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 693 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)
248. Here we have come to PerumaaL after having climbed seven hills one after the other. Similarly we have to cross and get over the pull of the sense organs, mind, buddhi and ego to reach the Aatma. If you ask as to whether the mountains represent PerumaaL, the answer has to be a no. The last step of the seventh hill is also not the destination. Beyond that also, He is beyond the beyond, as it is said, “appaalukkum appaal”! Like that He is none of these aspects of the inner being known as ‘anta: karaNa’. The highest reach of the buddhi is still not Aatma. But to get a glimpse of what I am saying, you have to try and reach those heights. Standing in the foot hills of Thiruppati, if you wish to have PerumaaL’s darshan, will you not be asking for the impossible? Our condition is exactly similar to expect self realization from the abyss of ignorance that we are presently in! Like climbing each of the heights en route, we have to do our ordained duties of rituals, read the scriptures and absorb the message, grasp the essentials, meditate on them, control the mind, intellect and ego; then and only then may you be successful in attaining to Aatma Saatchaatkaara! There is no shortcut to this! To the Thirupati, you may go by bus or car or even by helicopter if you are a political bigwig. But for the inner journey, there is no shortcut. Then finally there is no effort. All your efforts come to a standstill and PerumaaL is just there giving you Darshan!
249. When you start climbing the Thirumala Hills, from the initial ‘muzhangaal murichchaan’ you keep gaining height and keep crossing the seven hills and finally you give up and He takes over! (KTSV Adds:- This word ‘muzhangaal murichchaan’ is special. It means literally the ‘knee breaker’! As you start the trek towards the seven hills of ‘Ezhu malai’, the initial climb up to Gaali Gopuram is steep and the toughest! Gaali Gopuram means the Wind Tower. That place always has gale size winds blowing all the time. For one, the climb up to it takes the wind out of you and for another it is as though Mother Nature has arranged to fan the devotees to indicate that the worst part of the climb is already behind you! Later the climb is comparatively gradual and easier. I have noticed the same phenomena in the 13 KM stretch to Vaishno Devi in Katra, J&K and the climb from the Pamba River to Sabari Malai Ayyappan In Kerala also!) To get back to the topic of discussion, all the things which were emphasising and reinforcing our idea of individuality and separateness will have to drop off, for that realization to occur at the end of our Saadhana. When you go to such places, you should use only the beaten track. If you say that you are something special and will find your own way, you are welcome to get stuck in thorny bushes and gorges! They are also Thirupati hill only! For our Saadhana, whatever are the royal pathways, as clearly laid out by our forefathers are the beaten tracks. For this inner journey too, there are no short cuts. In the route to Thirumala, using the clearly marked paved pathway, we can hope to complete it successfully. If you use short cuts, you can go astray in deep forests. Both good and bad paths are in the Thirumala of the seven hills only. So also all good and bad methods put in as efforts in the inner journey towards self realization too are from the same Aatma only. Note the word ‘from’ Aatma and not Aatma itself!
250. Even when you opt for the beaten track in your walk up to the Seven Hills, there could be problems. Monkeys can trouble you quite aggressively. There could be thieves. Hands, legs and the whole body may ache! Similarly in our Saadhana too, even when we are avoiding the known temptations and sins, there could be certain other problems cropping up! With a firm clarity and resolve, these have to be got over and proceed further. Then finally you reach Thirupati and after a long never ending Queue, enter the sanctum sanctorum, you just stand there sans effort, sans thoughts and get the Dharshan of the Eternal Reality of God in all His Splendour! All that effort and endeavour in climbing the Seven Hills, we did. But at the end did we do Him? He is just there forever! When all so called good and bad drops off, Aatma just happens to come into our perception and comprehension on Its Own! We cannot create the Aatma! We can only drop off our assumed identity by our Saadhana and newly reach the ever present Eternity!
251. To recap, the gist of what I have been telling you all along is that, all the problems of life can be traced back to desire which generates a series of hazards namely, anger, infatuation, pride, jealousy, greed and so on! So, this desire is what is required to be controlled. Even this Kaama, that is Desire is not the root cause; it happens in the mind and is fulfilled by the transactions of the sense organs. So to control the desire and its relatives we have to control the mind and sense organs. As total control is not possible, between the good and bad inclinations, the bad ones have to be offset by the good tendencies. Between what is good and bad, how do you control the bad ones by the good ones? If you are afraid, do something as though you are courageous. If it is dark, switch on the light. Similarly when you have to decide whether to give the beggar alms or not and how much to give; quickly give whatever your hand picks up without further ado! Use the Buddhi for this. As you progress thus, better watch out, as there is another risk ready to crop up on the horizon that is complacent pride! When that Buddhi also subsides in the Aatma with God’s Grace, you reach the live centre of it all – “nallaarkkum pollaarkkum nadu ninra nadu”, meaning the central neutral point between all good and bad, that is the universal mean, of Aatma Swaroopa! That is how Bhagawan Sri Krishna closes his argument in reply to Arjuna’s question about how to get over these compulsive sinful tendencies of man, the 43rd and last sloka of chapter 3, in Bhagawat Gita. “evam buddhe: param bhuddhvaa sanstaabhya aatmaanam aatmanaa, jahi shatrum maha bhaaho kaama roopam dhuraasadam ”.
252. The quoted sloka means, “Thus knowing Him Who is superior to the intellect and restraining the self by the Self, slay thou, O mighty armed Arjuna, the enemy in the form of desire, hard to conquer!” Restrain the lower self by the higher Self. Subdue the lower mind by the higher mind. It is difficult to conquer desire because it is of a highly complex and incomprehensible nature. But a man of discrimination and dispassion who does constant and intense Saadhana can conquer it quite easily. Desire is the quality of Rajas. If you increase the Saattvic quality in you, you can conquer desire. Rajas cannot stand before Sattva. Even though desire is hard to conquer, it is not impossible. The simple and direct method is to appeal to the Indwelling Presence (God) through prayer and Japa.
253. Control Aatma by Aatma! Look at the way Sri Krishna has used the words. To say ‘control the mind by buddhi’, He says, “samstabhya aatmaanam aatmanaa”. The direct meaning is to tightly control the self by the Self. Take this word ‘samstabhya’. The non moving pillar or post is called the ‘sthambham’. That is to cause the self to be rooted to a complete stand-still stop, freeze, ceaze state! Who is to do that and by whom? Stop and tie down this self in the Self itself by itself! This is the direct purport of the words of the Gita! Aatma anyhow does not have any job, preferences, inclinations, activities and or tendencies. It cannot be controlled either, as it is that which is totally free! So what is the need for doing so?
254. What is meant is that, as I said before, in the present condition in which we find ourselves to be thinking of the prevarications of our mind as our selves! We have replaced the reality with a mind created fictitious entity as our true Self! We take for granted all the mind’s vacillations as our true being and that we take it to be the Aatma! It is the lower mind that is uncontrollable. But there is a background reality of the higher mind, which is watching and noticing this unacceptable state of affairs. It is that ‘ever present witness’ who has to come in now to take control of the situation! Adi Sankara in his commentary on these words, ‘aatmaanam aatmanaa’, to mean self by Self says “samskrutena manasaa”, which means ‘by the purified and cleansed mind’. That is the Buddhi. Unclean mind runs after titillations. The cleansed mind knows better. So, by the cleansed buddhi, you have to control your own mind! Then the buddhi will also have to subside instead of taking over the reins! Here it is that Divinity plays the most important finesse or trump card or whatever you may call it. The mind can come up to this level of controlling the lower part of the mind by the higher part. Then it can only aspire and perspire! Here He has to be kind enough to Bless!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.