DEIVATHIN KURAL #140 (Vol #4) Dated 01 Feb 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #140 (Vol #4) Dated 01 Feb 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 774 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)
363. Easwara as Referred in Vedanta is not Siva. When the word Easwara is mentioned we are not to understand that it refers to Siva, though normally it has come to mean that in common parlance. Like in villages we have Easwaran Koil and PerumaaL Koil for Siva and Vishnu temples. Maha Vishnu instead of being referred as Easwara is referred as Bhagawan and PerumaaL. The devotees of Bhagawan are called Bhagawata-s as traditionally understood. But in old Vedanta Saastraas – including in Ramanuja’s Visishtadwaitam, this was not so. In them all (including in Ramanuja’s) the Paramatma Sakti which creates, sustains and reabsorbs all the Jeeva and Jada (animate and inanimate) prapancham of the universe, that I referred shortly as the Cosmic Mind; has been referred as the Easwara only! Those who established Maha Vishnu as that power also referred to Him as Easwara only.
364. Later in practice the VishNavas stopped using this word for avoiding its being mistaken as a reference to Siva. For all that the first Aachaarya of these Vaishnavas was Naada Muni and his father’s name was Easwara Bhattar! Before Ramanuja, in that lineage two Gurus are mentioned. One is AaLavandaar and his Guru and grand-father was Naada Muni. His father was Easwara Bhattar. Those days, without referring to any particular deity, God was referred as Aandavan (meaning the Ruling power), which also meant the same as Easwara as the power that executes and manages the show.
365. Easwara Upaasana. So, though in Adwaita Saastraas Aatma is said to be beyond the individual’s senses and mind and worldly concerns; there is a power that is running the show within the relative world with supreme executive responsibilities, that is somehow controlling the individual’s life as per his own good and bad Karmas! This individual’s mind has to come to own responsibility to the extent of its known fallibilities and develop dispassion to the level of doing one’s duties without hankering after the returns; thereby get the clarity and focus of the mind to be able to dissolve itself and return to its origins! That is the path for extricating ourselves as advised by our Adi Sankara AachaaryaaL.
366. For attaining to clarity of the mind, we must do the Karma as given in the Saastraas; for focussing of this scattered mind we have to resort to one-pointed devotion to Easwara. This will cause the mind to dissolve itself and obtain the maturity to erase itself unto Aatma, when Aatma Vichara is possible. This infinitesimal small mind has to subserviently be devoted to the Cosmic Mind, the Easwara for Him to decide to relieve this Jeeva from the clutches of involvement to do an about turn inwards! Manikka Vaachagar says in Tamil, “avan aruLaale avan taaL vaNangi”, to mean, ‘pray to Him by His Grace’! The same sentiment is echoed in the first sloka of Avadoota Gita, “Easwara anugrahaad eva pumsaam Adwaita vaasanaa”, meaning that, ‘by Easwara’s Grace only human beings turn towards the fragrance of Adwaita!’ So, as we carry on investigating the basis of our true reality, we start with the body, body parts of the Karma Indriyas and Gnaana Indriyas, then the mind, Anta: KaraNa and below all that is the Aatma. Having said that, we have to accept that there is the Cosmic Mind capable of creating, sustaining and resituating all the Jeevas and Jagat, also known as the Easwara.
367. Reality Search from the Point of View of Jeeva and Jagat. Going from the Micro to the Macro level, we mention the body as the first thing to be identified as ourselves; then the body parts for action and awareness; then the senses; then mind as the basis of the senses; finally Aatma as the basis of the mind; while going deeper and deeper inwardly within. This is about one individual Jeeva’s body only. Then we notice that Jeeva’s sensual tastes which are controlling tendencies. Then we note that, all that is controlled by his individual mind. The end point in this journey is the essential truth of the Aatma. We should never call it the Aatma of that individual. There is no ownership or relativity at the Aatma since it is attained only when the separateness and individuality goes! It is not a property of someone’s! It is not realised till Jeevatvam is there! But between the individual and the Aatma, without encountering Easwara the journey is complete. Individual  senses  body  mind  anta:karaNam  Aatma. Instead of analysing from the individual’s point of view, if we proceed from the Jeeva – Jada – Jagat Prapancham angle, then we will encounter the Easwara principle also!
368. As the basic truth of the world and universe ‘Brhmam’ is accepted. ‘Brh’ is the Big, huge, vast and bigger than the biggest! For all the billions and trillions of animate life forms and further zillions of inanimate things; looking at the time frame of past present and future with infinitesimal nano and pico seconds to the vast oceans of time as eras, kalpas, and chatur - yugas; visualizing the vastness of the expanse of space encompassing these galaxies of stars and milky way; one is flabbergasted and overwhelmed with wonder and awe! That which is beyond time and space is bigger than the biggest the Mahat Brhmam! That is causal, basis and the root of all existence! For the individual soul we said that it is the Aatma. So the same Aatma is the Brhmam of all too. From either ends of the Jeeva and Jagat, the origins and final destination happens to be the same for inner and outer worlds, call it what you want as Param Aatma or Mahat Brhmam!
369. Instead of saying the Aatma itself is Brhmam, saying it the other way that Brhmam is itself Aatma is more appropriate! Though they both refer to one and the same thing, Aatma is considered as the life of one person while Brhmam has a wider connotation as the Indwelling spirit of all animate and inanimate of creepers, crawlers, fliers, walkers and runners; static life forms and all flora and fauna! “Brhmam itself is the Aatma”. What is seen as so many is also you and me, him and her, this and that, is the same one Aatma. Sarva Aatma, seen as many instead of being analysed from the individual’s point of view, when seen from the overall perspective will be seen to be the Easwara Swaroopa as the Cosmic Mind which by Maya is exhibited as so many also. He is the creating, experiencing, enjoying, sustaining witness of all forever! Let me put this differently.
370. Jeeva / Easwara Aatma. When we analyse as to what is the basis of the existence of each individual Jeeva, we successively identify, his body, senses, mind and Aatma. Similarly looking from the macro view it is the Easwara the creator manipulator whose basis is the non acting Brhmam. This mind is so active but, its basis of Aatma is non active and non reactive. Its presence is negatively noticed in sleep and swoon, while positively noticed in Samaadhi. Like there is Aatma behind the Jeeva, there has to be one behind the Easwara and that is Paramaatma. This Easwara as the basis of the world with so many forms, shapes, qualities, things and actions; when in its pure uncorrupted condition has to be without names, forms, qualities and activity. Now if you ask me as to how it can create so many gradations and variety, my answer would be to take your mind to the concept of White Light and the spectrum of Vibgyor! From the colourless white light is born the whole range of colours by refraction. We see that in the natures display of the Rainbow and in the colourless Diamond that scatters all the colours from various angles! That is how there is unity in diversity and variety in unity. That is the NirguNa Brhmam of the Adwaitin’s, ‘nirguNa, nishkriya, naama roopa rahita brhmam’ , meaning the Brhmam sans qualities, characteristics, name, form and free of any activity whatsoever!
371. We saw earlier that the Jeeva’s Aatma is such. Now we see that the Easwara’s Parama Aatma is also like that. Once again we may also notice that this Aatma and Parama Aatma cannot be two different things, but one and the same! How is that? Whether you take it as the individual’s Aatma or Easwara’s Aatma, we noted that it is free of any qualifying and conditioning adjectives! This is not like this. This is not like that, as they say in Vedantam, ‘neti, neti iti!’ So is it a cipher? It cannot be a cipher or non-existing non-entity either. It has to be the entity containing the whole universe! When you go to numbers and integers, it can be one, two and many. This contains the whole with the symbol U, which stands for the Universal set. There cannot be two different universal set one for Aatma the basis of Jeeva and another for the Aatma, the basis of Easwara! Both are the same!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.