DEIVATHIN KURAL #141 (Vol #4) Dated 03 Feb 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #141 (Vol #4) Dated 03 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 782 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)
372. From the point of view of both the Jeeva and the Jagat the end point, as it was not like any of the known and existing entities, it was thought to be a cipher, or zero or Sunyata! It was a simple move from, ‘as nothing else’ to ‘nothing’! But in real values how can it ever be equated with a cipher? When all else is dependent on it and without it there can be nothing else, how can it ever be the same as a zero? Instead of keeping ourselves as the centre of existence and keeping that as the centre; it will be seen to be not a cipher but the container of the totality!
373. Just because it is not any of the colours, its brightness and effulgence cannot be denied. In the individual Jeeva, place all his other attributes of body, mind and intellect on one side of an imaginary scale of balance and place the Aatma, the life of him on the other; just note that without the Aatma, he will be no more! Without that, all these things have no relevance, no locus standi! Just an infinitesimal fraction of it is the cause of the refraction through the prism of a diamond or water particle in the cloud for the brilliance of the colours of the spectrum! The practical proof of this is in the experience of great souls and saints over the ages. Those who had firmly established themselves in the eternal reality of their being the Aatma were without any deficiency, in their completeness. Nothing more were either needed or could have been added. Clearer than this is the ‘poornatvam’ of Easwara who creates, sustains, administers and destroys, whose basis is also the same Aatma. As Jeeva has come into being with all his body parts, attributes and anta: karaNa, making him to feel to be a unique individual; Easwara has also got his uniqueness from being associated with Maya. Brhmam with Maya is Easwara, as I said earlier. Then from him have come into being all the multi various worlds, animate living beings and inanimate materials. Thus the Maya acts as the prism in which the light of that Brhmam must have got refracted as the cause of all the inner anta: karanas of all living beings. That source of light, Brhmam must be complete without a need or a want. What Thayumaanavar calls, “sarva paripoorna akhanda tattvam”, (meaning ‘all full indivisible principle’), must be it undoubtedly!
374. To say that Jeeva’s Aatma is total (ParipoorNam) and Easwara’s Aatma is also total (ParipoorNam), is an incorrect statement. There cannot be two different totals! There cannot be two ciphers. Both are the same, cipher being one and the same. When we say that both are the same; that is also a wrong statement, as we give an impression as though they are two different things, which are one! That is the reason for AchaaryaaL to have given a name Adwaitam to mean ‘non-dual’! Certainly there cannot be two ‘poorNam’ as that very word is for the totality. If one totality is in another, one of them is the container and the other a contained part. So, one of them has to be a misnomer. So whatever they may be in anybody’s perspective, they have to be inalienably one. Even the word ‘they’ is wrong here. One Aatma that is true, real, Brhmam, is Easwara, Jeeva and Aatma, as seen from different perspectives. So, to say Jeevaatma and Paramaatma is also a misnomer!
375. Jeevaatma – Paramaatma in Dwaitam and Visihtaadwaitam. We who have got used to think of them as different, Jeevatma is limited in knowledge and capabilities while, Paramaatma is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. We call them ‘Peruir’ and ‘Chitruir’ to mean the big-life and small-life like a difference between a mountain and a mole hill. So we will be led to think of them as two different things or beings. So we think of Jeevaatma and Paramaatma as to two different entities giving raise to Duality. Ramaanuja AachaaryaaL postulated that Jeevaatma coming into being from Paramaatma is not exactly as a potter makes a pot of mud, constituting of things entirely different from his self. The Paramaatma remains as the life of life, as the operating ‘antaryaami’ the indwelling spirit of Jeevaatma. This was a deviation from the principle of Dwaitam and also a slight modification of Adwaitam. He named it Visishtaadwaitam as a ‘Special Adwaitam’! He also said that the Jeevaatma being different from the source Paramaatma can go on being devoted, but can never become Paramaatma itself! The end point is still duality and not oneness.
376. So, OK. Here, what is the Aatma in the Jeevaatma? That is the true inner reality of the Jeeva. It is not the mind, not the anta:karaNam of ‘mano – chitta – buddhi – ahankara’ combo either as accepted by the Dwaitins also. They do say that he is the totally unaffected ‘witness’ – the ‘Saaktchi’. Without talking about the inner experience of the witness, to be two entities of, the Easwara and the devoted Jeeva as the independent, natural and final stage of experience of Moktcha; the description is completed.
377. Dwaitam differs further. In their case the Jeevaatma and Paramaatma are totally different entities which can never be the same. They do not much expatiate of the Aatma part of the constituent. In the final analysis, the Jeeva just remains like a subservient soul. So he serves the Easwara and continues to do so forever. That remains that and this remains this. The Easwara is Satyam (True) and Saantam (Peace) in the state of Moktcha too as the one omniscient power in being. All the Jeevas remain as ‘alpa saktas’ of limited abilities. So Easwara is Paramaatma as the cause, basis, source of all, ever free ‘Sat Chit Aananda’ Swaroopa. He is the God in Heaven, the end destination, Param Daama, Parama Padam.
378. Adwaitins who say that at the end point, it is all one without any differentiation between Jeevaatma and Paramaatma; say that in the relative, transactional world point of view, on the one side is the Jeeva bound by his own desires and Karma effects and at the other end of the spectrum is the Paramaatma, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent as also the Easwara with Maya. It looks as though it is the oneness experts Adwaitins who are differentiating more with a Paramaatma and Jeevaatma with an Easwara with Maya thrown in between! Dwaitins on the other hand treat the duality of the relative and transactional material world as the true reality and say that the Jeevaatma remains at the lower level and Paramaatma forever the supremely higher level always and everytime! Shall we continue this discussion of Jeevaatma and Paramaatma a little further?
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.