DEIVATHIN KURAL #152 (Vol #4) Dated 25 Feb 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #152 (Vol #4) Dated 25 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 845 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)
472. Only people who are ignorant of the facts will say that, “The claim that everything is Maya can make you think that even Dharmam is a relative term of Dwaitam and so can be a lie! So, this is likely to cause us to think that we have the liberty to act in whatever fashion, whenever we wish to.” Our AachaaryaaL has never sanctioned or approved of conducting a ‘demonstration’ of the concept of Maya to the common man. Not only our AacharyaaL, any of the great Adwaitins have never said anything as though to convey the impression that people could act based on their whims and fancies, just because of Maya. Neither did they say so nor did they encourage such propaganda!
473. When the effect of Maya lifts from our minds, all differentiation between good and bad, comparison and contrast, between any and every extremes of the ends of the spectrum just drops. It all becomes one! Till that experience becomes sustained sans confusion; one has to act as though the differentiations are all real. Those great Adwaitins only recommended and advised, “Do what is Dharma. Avoid Adharma like the plague. Observe meticulously and sincerely all the Karma Anushtaanaas as required by the Saastraas. Those experts who are well trained in Hata Yoga, having made their bodies as hard as granite, may be able to munch glass pieces and iron nails; or drink acid and digest them! But you cannot tell a normal untrained man to do all that! When the mind has been elevated from its normal stage of bodily – identity to stand firmly rooted in Aatma Consciousness then all Adharma and Sins will become digestible; not till then! (Please do not take this as a license for doing unlawful and illegal activities contrary to not only the Law of the Land but also the tenets of the Dharma Saastraas! What happens is a change in perception and understanding.) Till then we are patients who badly need the medicine of Dharma and not try to copy the expert Hata Yogi and eat iron nails!
474. Gnaani and Effect of Karma. Gnaani is one who has gone beyond the limitations of Dharma and Adharma, Paapa and PuNya, good and bad. He has transgressed the confines of all restrictions of the relative world, as having seen through the illusion of what is Maya. At the level lower than being simply the Aatma; that is in the Dwaitam of these dualities are the opposites of positive and negative; good and bad; happiness and sadness; darkness and light; as well as sinful deeds and noble deeds; Dharmam and Adharmam and such duads and triads of the world of Maya. None of the variations of Maya affect the Aatma. Similarly, the Gnaani who has come to comprehend the Aatma on the one hand and understand his own not being a separate entity other than the Aatma on the other, is unaffected by the Maya.
475. This does not mean however that he could intentionally do any sinful activity of Adharma against any other living beings or that it is a license to do so either! He has no Buddhi or decided intention to do anything. In other words Gnaani is ‘sankalpa rahita:’ or ‘sarva sankalpa parityaagi’, that is devoid of any intentions or one who has given up all such decision to do anything. “Buddhe: paratastu sa:”, as Sri Krishna says in Bhagawat Gita, that such a person is fully established in Aatma which is beyond the reach of the mind. Such a person is not for or against anything. His status is well defined by the world, ‘nivikalpa’.
476. Amongst the Karma effect still held in account against his name the portion that is known as ‘praarabda’ is pending, to go through which, he has this present body. What was accumulated as negative and positive ‘sanchitam’, have all been burnt off by the fire of Gnaana. He has also ensured that there is no ‘aagaami’ balances yet to be gone through, which could cause yet another life in this world. The balance of Karma effect known as ‘praarabda’ is what cannot be burnt off. It is like the arrow that has been shot from the bow that cannot be stopped. The arrows still held in the back – pack may be removed and thrown away. We may not place an order for fresh stocks or refuse to accept what has already been ordered. This is how the ‘sanchita’ and ‘aagaami’ part of the ‘Karma Vinai’ may be got rid of. Even when I am saying all this, it does not mean that the Gnaani wilfully does these things. He just progresses in his quest of Aatma Anubhava of Self Realization and these things happen. But what he cannot undo is the ‘praarabda’, which literally means ‘pre-obtained’!
477. Even when the ‘praarabda’ of pre-destined things happen to him seemingly as observed in our eyes, he would not be affected by them at all. For example due to the past Karmas, he may get some very serious illness or disease. Or people may spread rumour or canards about him. But he would hardly ever pay any attention to the disease or the rumour or be affected by them whatsoever! Instead, if he is well looked after like an Emperor or gets much name and fame or adulation, reception and fussed with; he or she would not be at all influenced by any of these things. That is to say that, the Gnaani does not do anything deliberately. ‘Under the influence of the ‘praarabda’ let life take its own course’, would be his attitude. About Gnaani’s ‘praarabdam’ there is a slightly different opinion too.
478. This different opinion is what as Sri Krishna says in Bhagawat Gita Ch.IV – Sloka 37 that, “gnaanagni: sarva karmaaNi bhasmasaat kurute”, meaning, ‘the fire of Gnaana burns off all Karma effects into ashes’, in which even the ‘praarabdam’ is included. Since after all when the dawn of Gnaana happens all darkness can be no more! The mind and Karma are all destroyed. It is all part of Maya and that is no more with the advent of Gnaana. So, there is no logic in saying that amongst the karma accounts of ‘praarabdam, aagaami and sanchitam’ one remains and the other two are destroyed! You can further question that, “since it is very well possible to retract even the arrow that has left on its trajectory towards the target, by the power of Mantras, why should we talk as though there are gradations even in the final act of Self Realization?”
479. AachaaryaaL in his Bhashyam for the Bhagawat Gita has said that other than ‘praarabdam’ others are destroyed. But he has also said in ‘VivekachudamaNi’ in Slokas 445 to 463, which explains the situation in a slightly different light. As long as some trace of body consciousness is still persisting, the ‘praarabdam’ will continue to be sticking on and the moment ‘deha – aatma – buddhi’ is no more, ‘praarabdam’ is also no more. For such a Gnaani, body, life, birth, karma and all connected things become a dream! He has woken up from the dream. It is the witnesses in his life who see him as a body, may be the ones who notice that he is seemingly undergoing the effects of the Karma. Then Aacaaryaal goes on to say that, “For people who may ask as to how a Gnaani can exist in this dual world of Maya, as though to placate their views somewhat, we tend to say that some trace of ‘praarabdam’ keeps having its effect!”
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.