DEIVATHIN KURAL # 135 (Vol #4) Dated 22 Jan 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 135 (Vol #4) Dated 22 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 747 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)
321. ‘To Go’ is the Mind only and Not the Body! So, to avoid all problems and be happily off we have to be rid of the delusion created by the mind and become aware of the inner reality of our selves. When you are one with the real Self the wrong identification with the body will go. Then even if the body is affected by any disease, it will not be much of a bother! If you wrongly come to the conclusion that since all the problems are related to being embodied and decide to do away with the body, I told you already that to commit suicide is not the answer. Even if this body goes, this life will take other gross or subtle forms (sthula or sookshma sareeras). By those bodies too, it will still have to suffer whatever it has to. So, death of the body is no solution. The conviction that we have in this body as ourselves, is what is required to be discarded. The ignorance that causes us to think of ourselves to be just this person, that ignorance has to go! Not only the wrong identification with the body, even the thought that ‘I am this Body – Mind – Intellect combination as myself’, has to go. Once you have this thought, there is a mind which thinks and a man who is thought of! That is again duality. Two means that there is cause for fear. So the thought and the thinking mind both have to vanish and just be – that is Aatma Saatchaatkaaram! That is our true state.
322. In that true ‘I’, how did this sense of separateness, Jeeva Bhava, the physical body and mind come into being? If the answer is that by the power of Maya, Aatma becomes a Jeeva with a body and mind; the question arises as to ‘Why’? There does not seem to be any convincing reply for this! When the Brhmam was contentedly happy, why should it create this Maya and thereby become incomplete and then aspire for completion? What is this? The only reply for this can be, ‘WE DO NOT KNOW!’ What was already the totality has to first create this Maya, reduce itself to something less and then search for fulfilment?! This is something like tying a cloth around your eyes and then search for yourself in a self created blindness! Why should the Brhmam play like this?
323. “Play means that there is no purpose. OK! After all playing games means that there can be no logic or arguments. It is played for fun sake! Why make a big issue out of it? In Brhmam there is a play, a Leela for no rhyme or reason. Just leave it at that!” If the reply is like that, and again if you ask, “What is the reason for that”, what can I say? Then we are shut up with the reply, “Do not ask such stupid questions!” Then we are tongue tied but dissatisfied!
324. If we say that, ‘in this life time this body is a result of the Karma of our past life’, then the question arises as to why that life happen to come about? After endless regression, when the first time it happened, it could not have been due to Karma! So how did it all start? Jeeva means that it has a life of its own. If it was never to be born as a Jeeva, it would have remained the Aatma. Aatma is never born or not what comes into being. So it could not have become a Jeeva that comes into being! In Brhma Sutram itself, there are seemingly mutually contradictory statements! For example at the very start, (Brhma Sutram 1.1.2) it says that life (Janma) happens from Brhma. Then slightly later (Brhma Sutram 2.3.16, 17.), it says that ‘what is life (Janma) is an assumption because of the physical body and not real!’ It also says that Aatma is uncreated and eternal. The Dwaitins (dualists) cannot reconcile this! If they take that Aatma is not created and is eternal as true as a reference to Jeeva Aatma too, then it cannot be accepted as evolving from Brhmam! How can an eternal thing evolve from something else? In Adwaitam, we accept temporarily a differentiation as Paramatma and Jeevatma for the sake of discussions and interactions of the worldly business only. Otherwise, we do not accept the differentiation between Jeevatma and Paramatma as two or many at all. The existence is of only one Aatma, call it what you want as Aatma or Brhmam. That it is a permanent thing that is creation free as the Brhma Sutram says, we accept in total. In that one Aatma all the Jeevas and the world are only appearances like the mirage. Since the appearances of all Jeevas are from that, all life forms can be said to have evolved from that only. That is acceptable. But if you ask me as to, “why should all the life forms and the world come into being, and then all this generations of so many life times, depending on Karma, good and bad sustaining repeated births and deaths and incarnations?”, it becomes impossible to answer!
325. If you think of these puzzles our heads start reeling. When was the first Jeeva created and where? How did this come about? If we ask such questions, we are told, “Do not ask such questions! Jeevan never comes into being. It is the same as the eternal Paramatma principle which is without a start and or end.” Put in other words, we are told that, “Maya creates the illusion in Aatma as though it is a Jeeva! It is wrong to ask questions such as where and when, because both space and time are not absolute and only illusory constructs in Maya! What is the meaning of asking as to when was Maya started? It has never started and has never been!” We are wonder struck into silence!
326. There is just one thing which is somewhat a solace. Whether Jeeva or Maya is without a start or both are such, they do have an end. One is Aadi (genesis) and the other is Antham (end). Without a start and end is only Paramatma. Maya has an end. The moment you have Gnaanam, Maya is no more. Its effect is only till we are ignorant. The instant you are aware of the reality, Jeeva ends in Paramatma and becomes that like the rivers joining the ocean. Then no Janma, no body, no duality with all the problems of Dwaitam such as desire, fear, hate and so on!
327. Jeevatma as it is without a start as well as without an end is the view of dualists. Its end if at all is to be in the presence of God’s proximity permanently. That is the attainable end for repeated births and deaths of this worldly life they say! If this is Dwaitam, Visishtadwaitam makes a slight modification, as per which, having recognised the immanent divinity in each one of us to permanently abide in that knowledge is Moksham. Here replacing Vishnu for Siva as the presiding deity is Saiva Siddhantam. What they say is that, like there are stars in the sky even in day time, though they are invisible because of the brilliant Sun. Similarly in Moksham, the Jeevas remain ever permanently fixed though unseen without being destroyed. Similarly all the Jeevatma remain merged in Paramatma having lost their separatedness! So even in Moksham, the three remain as Pasu (Jeevatma), Pathi (Paramatma) and Paasam (the connecting link of the Jagat)! We need not worry about these slight nuances of differences. Once you reach that stage, it does not matter as to who is right and who is wrong! At that level, these differences are only matters that are immaterial! Let us be happy with that.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.