DEIVATHIN KURAL #139 (Vol #4) Dated 30 Jan 2011
DEIVATHIN KURAL #139 (Vol #4) Dated 30 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 770 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)
355. Paramatma: Cause of the World, the in-Dweller. Functionally we have come to understand that there are two entities as Paramatma and Jeevatma. This differentiation has been made in view of the practical world drama. What do we see in this world? Nature seems to impact upon the inanimate things of the world in many ways. The Planets including the Earth are going around the Sun and the Moons are going around the Planets. These changes cause Day and Night; the light and dark fortnights; seasons such as winter, autumn, summer, falls and seasonal changes like winds, rains; etc. By the power of the Sun plants and animals grow. Put together these things make human life possible on Earth. Amongst human beings and other life forms, the male and female together make procreation possible. Then using their brains and power human beings are able to make many more changes and produce and grow food and materials. Each one is born with varying degree of a variety of capabilities and powers. Each person’s past good and bad actions seem to cause them to reap the good and bad returns on a very systematic basis! Thus there are many things inter connected in a number of strings as though in an order the logic of which is not easily discernible! There is one central power or authority which ensures this order which we call the Paramatma. ‘Param’ means the supreme, top and eminent. As He or it is the Cause of all existence and controlling power as well as the Indwelling reality, it is rightly named as the Paramatma!
356. While talking according to the Adwaita Saastraas, I mention about the Jeeva’s body, sense organs and then the inner complex of Anta: KaraNam of mind, buddhi, chittam and ahankaaram; then the Aatma which stands apart from the gross and subtle body parts. Then there is the world arena of Jagat where these Jeevas have similar and different experiences and it’s coming into being, about which I am not talking at all here! In this there are some areas of differences amongst Adwaitins themselves. Here I am giving only the general views in a very simplified manner.
357. Because there is something as the mind in each individual, he or she gets varied experiences from the Jagat. Since the whole series of problems of repeated life and death and accumulation of Karma effects are due to the mind and its predilections, I said that we should control the mind and try to get the direct Aatma Anubhava. OK, it is all right. When the Jeeva controls his mind, for him the worldly experiences come to a halt. But, the world does not cease to exist for others. So the appearance of the world and its disappearance is not dependent on the individual minds imagination only. (KTSV adds: That is, this one man’s imagination creates or erases only his own world and not the objective world of others. That also means what is seen as the world is an overlap of many people’s imagination, though seemingly same, is vastly different for each individual. That is why the same point in space may be Hell for some and Heaven for others! I wish to make another observation here. Each individual is also part of the very world that we are observing or interacting with, in which all the seers, what is seen and the scenery are all continuously changing every moment!)
358. In all this dynamic chaos, there is still some inviolable order, as seen amongst the stellar inhabitants of galaxies, stars and planets in the Macro-Universe; amongst people of the world; and the molecular, atomic and sub-atomic particles in the Micro-Universe. This order cannot be transgressed except while resulting in oddities of quirks of fate! On careful observation these will be seen to be not by some individual’s mind, call it the mind of a Jeeva, except for the oddities and aberrations!
359. It is by this mind that each Jeeva is tied up by the knots of Karma, squirming like a fish stuck in the hook, having been caught by the bait as though! If everything is an imagination of the mind, will anybody imagine such torture for oneself? If everything is mind’s imagination, as seen by us now, as we have a greater penchant for sins, will anybody in the right frame of mind subject oneself to so many punishments for those sins? Moreover, for each Jeeva, other than him there seemingly are so many others; were they all created by his mind? If they are all his creation, he should know as to who is good or bad or what type? In practical life he does not seem to know at all! However much we may closely interact with others, we are not able to correctly assess others. Trustingly we are duped by many. Many are wrongly assessed by us as not worthy of our trust are seen to be gems at a later date! Forget about others, we do not seem to know our selves also properly!
360. Another factor: If you think of others as you mind’s creations, each one of them may think of you as their mind’s creation! So if all the Jeeva-s are creation of some other person, when one man’s mind is annulled and that Jeeva has attained to Release of Mukti, all people of this world should be released at once, is it not so? In practice, we have seen that there have been many great Maha Aatmaa-s who have destroyed their own minds and attained to Mukti but; this world of animate and in-animate existence continues as before! (This aspect is being discussed again later in this very talk!) So the only lesson drawn here is that, this mind of the individual is the cause of his own experiences with others like him and the world; that is with other life forms, happening in his own mind, period. But that is not the cause of everybody else’s experience or their creation and destruction! That also means that there has to be some other cause for the world to be there! In all this endless inter connections and inter-dependencies there cannot be so much apparent Law and Order!
361. Easwara or Brhmam with Characteristics (SaguNa Brhmam). What is that cause? That is the power of Maya. That is the power that shows Brhmam as so many Jeevas and Jagat. Since Parabrhmam is such an entity that there can be nothing other than it, this Maya Shakti also has to be the same only! If it is something else, then the concept that Parabrhmam is the founding constitution (Mool Aadhaar) for all will become a lie! So what we can understand from this is that, Brhmam in addition to being by itself, by its power of Maya can also be as though related to Maya. To be purely by itself is the NirguNa Brhmam and to be with Maya is the SaguNa Brhmam. GuNam means special unique defining characteristics. To be free of any such GuNa is NirguNa. With GuNa is SaguNa. Easwara is the Chief Executive of the Universe, the SaguNa Brhmam. The one Aatma as the created, manipulated puppet is Jeevatma and the puppeteer is the Paramatma, the SaguNa Brhmam that is known as Easwara, for ease of reference.
362. When we say that as Easwara when with the power of Maya, NirGuna Brhmam picture paints or conceptualises the universe, then this Easwara can be said to be the Mahamanas or the Higher Mind. Like the limited mind of the Jeeva imagines, visualises, plans and does things; in the mind of Easwara is this Universe coming in to being and runs the world. As he orchestrating the whole lot of activities of the universe, we could call it the Cosmic Mind! One major difference between these two minds is that, our mind does not know the Aatma. The mind has to go for Aatma to be realised. But Easwara while being the SaguNa Brhmam is also aware of its being NirGuNa Brhmam as these are only different names that we have hoisted on IT!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.
(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 770 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)
355. Paramatma: Cause of the World, the in-Dweller. Functionally we have come to understand that there are two entities as Paramatma and Jeevatma. This differentiation has been made in view of the practical world drama. What do we see in this world? Nature seems to impact upon the inanimate things of the world in many ways. The Planets including the Earth are going around the Sun and the Moons are going around the Planets. These changes cause Day and Night; the light and dark fortnights; seasons such as winter, autumn, summer, falls and seasonal changes like winds, rains; etc. By the power of the Sun plants and animals grow. Put together these things make human life possible on Earth. Amongst human beings and other life forms, the male and female together make procreation possible. Then using their brains and power human beings are able to make many more changes and produce and grow food and materials. Each one is born with varying degree of a variety of capabilities and powers. Each person’s past good and bad actions seem to cause them to reap the good and bad returns on a very systematic basis! Thus there are many things inter connected in a number of strings as though in an order the logic of which is not easily discernible! There is one central power or authority which ensures this order which we call the Paramatma. ‘Param’ means the supreme, top and eminent. As He or it is the Cause of all existence and controlling power as well as the Indwelling reality, it is rightly named as the Paramatma!
356. While talking according to the Adwaita Saastraas, I mention about the Jeeva’s body, sense organs and then the inner complex of Anta: KaraNam of mind, buddhi, chittam and ahankaaram; then the Aatma which stands apart from the gross and subtle body parts. Then there is the world arena of Jagat where these Jeevas have similar and different experiences and it’s coming into being, about which I am not talking at all here! In this there are some areas of differences amongst Adwaitins themselves. Here I am giving only the general views in a very simplified manner.
357. Because there is something as the mind in each individual, he or she gets varied experiences from the Jagat. Since the whole series of problems of repeated life and death and accumulation of Karma effects are due to the mind and its predilections, I said that we should control the mind and try to get the direct Aatma Anubhava. OK, it is all right. When the Jeeva controls his mind, for him the worldly experiences come to a halt. But, the world does not cease to exist for others. So the appearance of the world and its disappearance is not dependent on the individual minds imagination only. (KTSV adds: That is, this one man’s imagination creates or erases only his own world and not the objective world of others. That also means what is seen as the world is an overlap of many people’s imagination, though seemingly same, is vastly different for each individual. That is why the same point in space may be Hell for some and Heaven for others! I wish to make another observation here. Each individual is also part of the very world that we are observing or interacting with, in which all the seers, what is seen and the scenery are all continuously changing every moment!)
358. In all this dynamic chaos, there is still some inviolable order, as seen amongst the stellar inhabitants of galaxies, stars and planets in the Macro-Universe; amongst people of the world; and the molecular, atomic and sub-atomic particles in the Micro-Universe. This order cannot be transgressed except while resulting in oddities of quirks of fate! On careful observation these will be seen to be not by some individual’s mind, call it the mind of a Jeeva, except for the oddities and aberrations!
359. It is by this mind that each Jeeva is tied up by the knots of Karma, squirming like a fish stuck in the hook, having been caught by the bait as though! If everything is an imagination of the mind, will anybody imagine such torture for oneself? If everything is mind’s imagination, as seen by us now, as we have a greater penchant for sins, will anybody in the right frame of mind subject oneself to so many punishments for those sins? Moreover, for each Jeeva, other than him there seemingly are so many others; were they all created by his mind? If they are all his creation, he should know as to who is good or bad or what type? In practical life he does not seem to know at all! However much we may closely interact with others, we are not able to correctly assess others. Trustingly we are duped by many. Many are wrongly assessed by us as not worthy of our trust are seen to be gems at a later date! Forget about others, we do not seem to know our selves also properly!
360. Another factor: If you think of others as you mind’s creations, each one of them may think of you as their mind’s creation! So if all the Jeeva-s are creation of some other person, when one man’s mind is annulled and that Jeeva has attained to Release of Mukti, all people of this world should be released at once, is it not so? In practice, we have seen that there have been many great Maha Aatmaa-s who have destroyed their own minds and attained to Mukti but; this world of animate and in-animate existence continues as before! (This aspect is being discussed again later in this very talk!) So the only lesson drawn here is that, this mind of the individual is the cause of his own experiences with others like him and the world; that is with other life forms, happening in his own mind, period. But that is not the cause of everybody else’s experience or their creation and destruction! That also means that there has to be some other cause for the world to be there! In all this endless inter connections and inter-dependencies there cannot be so much apparent Law and Order!
361. Easwara or Brhmam with Characteristics (SaguNa Brhmam). What is that cause? That is the power of Maya. That is the power that shows Brhmam as so many Jeevas and Jagat. Since Parabrhmam is such an entity that there can be nothing other than it, this Maya Shakti also has to be the same only! If it is something else, then the concept that Parabrhmam is the founding constitution (Mool Aadhaar) for all will become a lie! So what we can understand from this is that, Brhmam in addition to being by itself, by its power of Maya can also be as though related to Maya. To be purely by itself is the NirguNa Brhmam and to be with Maya is the SaguNa Brhmam. GuNam means special unique defining characteristics. To be free of any such GuNa is NirguNa. With GuNa is SaguNa. Easwara is the Chief Executive of the Universe, the SaguNa Brhmam. The one Aatma as the created, manipulated puppet is Jeevatma and the puppeteer is the Paramatma, the SaguNa Brhmam that is known as Easwara, for ease of reference.
362. When we say that as Easwara when with the power of Maya, NirGuna Brhmam picture paints or conceptualises the universe, then this Easwara can be said to be the Mahamanas or the Higher Mind. Like the limited mind of the Jeeva imagines, visualises, plans and does things; in the mind of Easwara is this Universe coming in to being and runs the world. As he orchestrating the whole lot of activities of the universe, we could call it the Cosmic Mind! One major difference between these two minds is that, our mind does not know the Aatma. The mind has to go for Aatma to be realised. But Easwara while being the SaguNa Brhmam is also aware of its being NirGuNa Brhmam as these are only different names that we have hoisted on IT!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.
Labels: posted by Lt Col KTSV Sarma
posted by Lt Col KTSV Sarma (Retd) @ 10:45 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home