DEIVATHIN KURAL # 138 (Vol #4) Dated 28 Jan 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 138 (Vol #4) Dated 28 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 the last para on page number 762 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)
344. Desire arises in the mind for whom or what? It is always for something other than itself. What comes in the way, thereby causing anger, fear and sorrow is also yet another something other than itself. Without another what remains as ONE is Adwaitam. Instead of there being only one, to be many is Dwaitam. The correct meaning of Dwaitam is Duality and not many. Paramatma is one and Jeevatma is a different one. To be thus made of two things is Dwaitam. This Jeevatma is made of body, mind, buddhi, senses and ego; put together known as Anta: Karana. Then there are many things experienced or interacted with by the Jeevatma, put together known as Dwaita Prapancham.
345. The complex of body, mind and Anta: karaNam; together are known as the Jeevatma, that is man (in English) or Manushya (in Sanskrit), both derived from the fact that he is basically so strongly identified with the mind! Out of all animals, since he is known to be capable of thinking, which includes in itself memory, imagination, analysis and logical reasoning, man is said to have the most refined sixth sense! But from what we have seen, this capacity to think seems to be the cause of endless problems of birth, actions and life. With that as the basis of the capacity to think, but beyond its grasp and comprehension there is this Aatma as the bedrock of our very being and it seems to be the reality in the background!
346. Without any help from anything, how is that this mind has this ability to think? When we face this question, it occurs to us that, this mind may also be independently having that power to think without a touch of the Dwaita Prapancham, like the Aatma! How is that possible? All the problems as we have already analysed and identified are from whatever is located in the outer world. To make or get something outside our own, we are trying so hard in life like a dog running hither and thither! Having obtained that something as ours, then we are concerned about how to retain it in our possession. Then that thing may vanish or dissipate or somebody can take it away! Thinking of such things we are ready to break into tears and feel angry and fear! If only this mind can start thinking by itself, without any reference to the outer world, how nice it would be! But here lies the dilemma. It is here that the mischief of Maya is most effective. The mind is just not capable of standing on its own! The moment it has to stand alone it will cease to be! Without thoughts about something else, the mind is a non-entity! It is just incapable of thinking without an objective. Try and see for yourself if you can form any thought in your mind without an objective or in other words, it is just not capable of subjective thinking!
347. Other than thinking it is capable of sensing and feeling, that is cognizing the sensory inputs from the sense organs. Whatever it experiences or feels or enjoys are all about things alien to it! The whole range of feelings that this mind feels are about the things about which it is getting the inputs from the sensory organs. When we have food we take the cooked rice with a ladle, soup with a serving spoon, sugar or the pickle with a spoon. Similarly the inputs to the mind are from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Though the experiencer is the mind, it requires the input devices and in turn they need different exclusive things such as scenery, sounds, scents, tastes and materials for the sense of touch.
348. Even without inputs from the senses, the mind is capable of imagining things. That leads to a whole range of expectations, aspirations, trepidations, fears and apprehensions! In doing all this it is looking out at things other than itself and never is it able to think of itself and feel fulfilment! Mind concocts stories, creates novels and authors even epics. It has the capability to versify words in to poetry which is the noblest form of expression! But it is always about other characters, natural scenes, feelings and events. Even when it is about its own feelings, it is never about itself! It is never capable of subjective analysis!
349. If it ever sits down for self analysis, it will know that it has no independent existence! Related to itself, its happiness, its agonies, its likes and dislikes, its ideas and experiences; it has plenty. By that same token it also knows that none of those things are its true form. They are related to the mind and by that very logic are not the mind! Raman has a house, lands, wife and children. None of them are he! Raman has a mind too. Unrelated to anything else, can that mind define itself? No! So, this mind which is never capable of keeping quiet, without thinking of something or the other, about others is never able to do self analysis. It will always get involved with the world of duality!
350. Aatma that Stands Alone! You can never feel or know the Aatma as an object. So, to focus the mind without thoughts in itself will actually mean, instead to focus our attention without the mind on our true Self, the Aatma, that which stands alone by itself the true Self! Mind can never experience what is ‘manoteetam’, meaning that which is beyond the mind! The characteristics of the Mind and Aatma are exact opposites! Aatma cannot be known or experienced by the mind. Mind knows everything other than itself and Aatma. Aatma knows only itself and nothing else! Mind is Dwaitam and Aatma is Adwaitam.
351. But, without Aatma there can be no mind. If Aatma is the real form of the Self, can that man or person have anything which is not dependent on that Self? If he has no sense of the self, how can he have a mind? It is the Aatma by Maya is seen as the mind. It is the Aatma which is seen as so many individual life forms as Jeevas, say the Adwaita Saastraas.
352. Example of Electricity. To understand these subtle points of Aatma and Mind, science helps with an oft repeated example. The same electricity is more or less powerful as 50 Watts and 100 Watts in different bulbs; seen as different colours; as sound in a audio instrument; as heat or cold in a stove or air conditioner; and thus as various outputs in different appliances. The same electricity is also seen as the power within the atom, between the atoms and molecules; and also as thunder and lightning in the atmosphere! None of these capabilities can be said to define the characteristics of electricity! Looking at the electrical appliance we cannot say that electricity is green or that it is capable of jazz music or generate cold air! There are not many types of electricities! Only one by that name is there. So is Adwaitam! That one Aatma by the power of Maya is responsible for all the animate life forms and inanimate materials and their interactions and all the drama of this world and universe!
353. Paramatma and Jeevatma-s. If it is true that it is one Aatma which is seen as so many people, life forms and things due to Maya; it is also clear that there cannot be separate things as Paramatma and Jeevaatma! Like all the appearances, what is seen as so many Jeevaatma should also be one and the same Aatma. Instead of everyone having a separate Aatma, this one is the inner life of all.
354. When you take one body of one person, from his head to foot, there are many body parts, each uniquely different doing some important duty in the outer and inner being as Karmendriyas, namely hands giving, receiving, operating tools such as hammer and chisel, screw driver, scalpel and so on; legs moving the body in running, walking, skiing, crawling; genitals enjoying and procreating; anus and urinary tract passing urine and stools; Gnaanendriyas for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling the touch; flesh, fat, bones, blood, mucus, marrow, hair and nails; then Anta: Karana of mind, buddhi, chittam, ahankaara, and so on! All of them put together is one living thing. Some religions accept rebirth and reincarnation as per which this manas-buddhi-ahankara-chittam combo is taken away from one body to the next to continue with accumulated balance account of good and bad Karma. Some religions do not accept this reincarnation and do not have a clear explanation for the endless range of gradation of knowledge, luck and abilities with which people and life forms are born in this world! For all of the varieties there is one life that is one Aatma, that is seen as so many Jeevaatma-s. It is also the same Paramatma says Adwaitam!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.