DEIVATHIN KURAL #155 (Vol #4) Dated 03 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #155 (Vol #4) Dated 03 Mar 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 page number 859 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)
501. Soaked in Dharmam and love for all living things as representing the various forms of the same inner Truth; is the only way of raising oneself to the state of the Aatma beyond all differentiations of love and hate. That is what we are all required to endeavour to do. When putting an iron band around a wooden wheel they used to alternately heat the iron band to make it expand just slightly larger than the circumference of the wooden wheel. Having put it around the wooden wheel, they would cool it with water for it to contract to grip the wheel tightly. Then only the grip around the wheel will be long lasting as otherwise it will become loose and make quite an amount of noise. That is how a Jeeva interested in reaching the Aatma and grip it tightly, has to expand in love for the whole of the cosmos and contract itself by the restrictions of Dharma. Jeeva’s lower tendencies will have to be reduced to nothingness and its noble attitudes will have to enlarge.
502. To become completely void of all activities, many actions have to be undertaken such as Karmas, Functions, Rituals, Yagnas and social services will have to be done. When people complain that they are not getting good sleep, what do we tell them? “Go around energetically participating in all activities throughout the day and you will automatically get good sleep in the night”, do we not say so? Thus the work by the body and mind enables good rest. Similarly to get rid of all other senses and feelings, we should imbibe in the highest quality of love in devotion for God as Bhakti. In it we should go to the level of ‘aavesam or paravasam’ (with the control elsewhere) without any need for self control whatsoever! Short of such supreme devotion, if we try to simply get rid of our senses and feelings, it may only lead to the state of dullness like the dead wood! Think about it as to what is more easily plausible, just to become stoic or channelize our bubbling emotions towards god as devotion?
503. When there are a number of people assembled waiting for an event say, they will all be conversing with each other. If you tell them by an announcement by say a loudspeaker to maintain silence, they will all keep quiet for a few seconds. Then one person will nudge the man next to him and say something in a ‘hush hush’ tone. Within a few minutes the decibel level will be back to where it was! To control that noise you have to keep shouting louder saying, “Silence Please, Silence please!” and so on. Instead, if one person starts of “Rama, Rama” or “Siva, Siva”, that too in tune with some Raaga and Taala; you can try and hold all the people’s attention for longer periods. Then with musical instruments and with some changes in Raaga, Taala and Naama; you can keep all the people’s attention may be for the whole night, taking them all to the proverbial Seventh Heaven! Of course, this is not silence but, it is the next best thing. Then when you are completely merged in the chanting of ‘Nama’ or singing of Bhajan, it may take you to silence. Will gossip lead you to that?
504. That is how, when Love is expressed with all its related feelings, all other feelings and ideas will vanish and that love of duality will also dwell in one and take us to the oneness of the devotee with the target of devotion, thereby one may reach the peacefulness of Adwaita Anubhava. That is the only gradual way for overcoming the variety of feelings. There is no short cut to this.
505. For the mind to become devoid of all feelings, love is essential. Yoga Saastram is for stopping all the dynamic oscillations of the mind. Yoga Saastram does not talk about Brhmaanandam or Aatmaanandam, not exactly in those terms. It is aiming at a state of relative peacefulness when the mind is without the competing pulls and pressures. Instead of the mind subsiding into Tamo GuNa of sleep, the intention is for the “Aatma that is the Purusha” without being connected to the mind with perfect isolation from the mind and identification with the supreme spirit, known as Kaivalya Samaadhi, a type of a Moksham that they talk about. Though this is not the same as Buddha’s Soonyam, it is also not the Satchitaananda state of ‘being – aware – happy’ of Adwaita Aananda either! They talk about a state of some live principle within the morass of worldliness.
506. So, having tried to control all the oscillations of the mind with all its varied feelings may be if you reach a state of stoic inertia, it may not be much unacceptable for the people on the path of Yoga. The foremost authority of Yoga was Patanjali Muni, who was well aware of the difficulty of controlling all the varied feelings and Vaasanaas (lingering fragrances and smells) of the mind. That is why; he had suggested the aspirants to develop what he called the ‘prati paksha bhaavanaa’, like a counter assumption; to develop love and devotion to God. Instead of telling us negatively do not do this and that, he listed the ‘yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samaadhi’, as Ashta Anga Yoga (the eight steps). Though the Saadhaks may try to progress by those eight steps, he was also aware of the Asuric forces pulling the Yogi in the opposite direction.
507. That is why, he had suggested that the negative pulls had to be countered with positive attitudes and then the ‘mano Nigraha:’ state of mindlessness had to be reached. Amongst the feelings and sensations he says, there are those which cause us to indulge in more and more of sensual satisfaction and those that raise us to the Paramarthigam. He calls the negative forces as, ‘klishta vrutti’. Klishtam means the ones that cause confusion. ‘Aklishtam’ are the opposite kind of forces that gives clarity of purpose. The klishta vruttis that cause Kaama, Krodha et al cannot be just over come and erased, but have to be cancelled out by the opposite kind of aklishta vruttis such as, love, purity, helpfulness and kindness, he says. Then only the state of Samaadhi can be attained!
508. The aklishta vruttis do not get adhered or attached like the klishta vruttis. Once they are matured fully they enable the state of Samaadhi, after the balance has been achieved. He clearly spells out both the types of those tendencies as to which negative ones has to be countered and balanced by which positive ones. Amongst them ‘Anbu’ or Universal Love is the main one. This is of four parts namely, Maithri (friendship with saintly beings), KaruNa (kindness to people in poverty and problems), Mudita (cheerfulness under all circumstances) and Upeksha (indifference to silly pleasures and if not have liking, at least not have dislike towards people who are dissimilar).
509. Without High Ideals, Higher States are not Achieved! Aklishta vruttis do not inter the individual wholesale as the klishta vruttis do, as we have seen and as they are dwindling out, they take the aspirant to the highest. Thus all the actions motivated by selfishness endlessly tie us up in knots of attachments. The actions as required by the Saastraas, if done dispassionately free us from getting bogged down in the mire of vaasanaas and help us in fetching to ripeness and maturity. Similarly all the actions of devotion keeping God as the other person in our lives too enable us to move from SaguNa Upaasana to merge in the NirguNa Brhmam.
510. About this we can give an example. The sinful habits which make us slaves can be compared with people like the swindler or the black mailer, who get us into their grips and do not loosen their grip till they have taken us for ride and drawn whatever they can out of us. The Dharma Karmas are like the police of this world whose help we seek. Once we are rid of the problem of the offenders, the police have nothing to do with us, is it not so? That is how, once the influence of the evil forces are no more, the Aklishta vruttis let us be.
511. In this it is more important as to how we aspire for the high aims and how sincerely we are ready to work towards the same. Whatever we seriously and sincerely aspire for, God takes us up to that and not beyond, it seems mostly. He is not running a lottery raffle you see! I am saying so because; I am practically seeing this in life, in the case of many persons who do their duties quite sincerely. They go about doing their daily and periodic Karma Anushtaana, are devotional to the God as SaguNa Brhmam; are loving and kind to other people and life forms, with kindness they share their wealth with others in the form of taking care of the poor and downtrodden people as well as guests and visitors; give liberal donations for charity and contribute their might for all and sundry social causes; conduct one after another extremely costly Yaagas such as Vaajpeyam, Aadiraatram, Abdoryaamam and so on endlessly even when they are 90 years old or so. But as long as their aim in life does not include Adwaita Anubhava, they do not come anywhere near Gnaana Saadhana! Those who are totally involved in social service too are like this; go on getting involved in an endless cycle of more to be done! Their minds will be constantly endeavouring to construct a hospital here or an orphanage there. (Nowadays to run a hospital is big business, even better than running a hotel! PeryavaaL is not talking about that here!) Those who visit holy places known as ‘Kshetraadanam’ are also like that only. The places that they have not visited become an obsession. Their crib is that, “I have not been able to visit the Pushkar Mela; or I am sorry that I have never been to Kamaakhya Temple in Assam; or my only ambition is that I should be visiting the Vaishno Devi at Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, one day and so on”! Similarly those who do Naama Sankeertanam keep doing that till their last breath!
512. In old age even when their physical body has given up, their cribs carry on, “Oh! I have not done that Vaajpeyam”; or “for long I have been thinking about organising an orphanage in Rameswaram, still it is only in my mind”; or “throughout my life, I wanted to visit Sabarimala at least once, till date the opportunity has not come about”; or “I have become too old that I am not able participate in that Akhanda Bhajanai in so and so place!” There is hardly anyone whom I come across happily setting aside everything and getting deep in to Aatma Vichaara! There are two possible reasons for this state of unhappiness and reluctance to cross the threshold! (KTSV says – This we will consider in the next issue of Deivathin Kural!)
Sambhomahadeva.