DEIVATHIN KURAL #157 (Vol #4) Dated 07 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #157 (Vol #4) Dated 07 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 the middle of page number 872 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)
524. Advices From Thirumoolar and ThiruvaLLuvar. It all boils down to the fact that, depending on your wish you get the sort of Moksham of Adwaita Anubhava or eternal devotion of Dwaita Siddhi. Thiru Moolar said, “Aasai arumingaL! Aasai arumingaL! Easnodaayinum aasai arumingaL”, thereby meaning, “cut your desires, severe your desires; even with God, cut your desires!” This seems different from Thiru VaLLuvar’s advice, “partruga partrarraan partrinai appartrai partruga partru vidarkku!” What he meant was, “If you wish to give up all attachments catch hold of the most dispassionate God’s feet!” Both the advices can be taken to be correct depending upon the devotee’s level of maturity.
525. Thiru Moolar’s advice is not for those who think on the following lines. “The final reality, whatever it is in whatever state, let it be revealed to us in that way. Even when we approach it as SaguNa Brhmam through Dwaita Upaasana, if it is to be revealed to us as NirguNa Brhmam, let it happen so!” His advice is meant for those who are too strongly wedded to the Dwaita Upaasana process and so firmly believe in the Bhakti Marga, that they are not ready for any other variation to it. He is telling them, “Do not do this! Even with Easwara do not develop your desire that He should only be the way you wish as SaguNa Brhmam! Once you believe in a God as Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient; then leave it to His decision instead of imposing your will, wish or desire in whatever form! If God is to be understood more truly as NirguNa Paramaatma, let it be so. Have an open mind to start with, since anyhow it is this very mind that is to be erased finally!” He seems to be saying that the Easwara will grant what you wish and so avoid expressing your wish and let Him do whatever.
526. All desire has to go. If all desire is to go, the mind which is the source of all desires has to go too. For people who aim at Gnaanam with their mind annulled, our AachaaryaaL kept SaguNa Upaasana as the route through which they were to reach that state. Like our AachaaryaaL, Thiru VaLLuvar too is advising the aspirants to get attached to Easwara, so as to give up all other attachments. We have seen before that Easwara being the God in the duality arrangement stops at that level when the devotee’s interest is not to transcend to Adwaitam! Accept the devotion and service from the Saadhak and keep the contract of duality with the devotee. But, here Thiru VaLLuvar calls Him, ‘partru artraan’ instead of calling Him as God or Easwara he is naming Him as the ‘One without any attachments’! Thiru VaLLuvar seems to be saying that, “You may catch hold of His feet so as to get over your attachments, but He as the one above all attachments, will straight lift you to the state of Adwaita Anubhava! Go ahead and do it”, he seems to say. Keeping all this meaning in those two lines, he has told us tersely briefly but precisely.
527. We started our discussion long back on this point of ‘Aasai’ or Kaama that is desire as the source and origin of a whole generation of hazards and problems. Then we saw as to how the desire led to anger, passion, lust, hate, jealousy, greed, miserliness, and so on! We called them the Asura Parampara and as to how they should be countered by cultivating the divine forces of love, kindness, expansiveness, humility and so on. Then we also observed that even these positive forces may prove to be hurdles and so, all other aspirations and ambitions should be seconded to the Love of God. Even here, unless our aim is clearly the essential truth, even Easwara could keep us in suspense by granting many of his unlimited blessings and keeping us happily engaged! So by His Grace we will continue to pray to Him as MaNikka Vaachagar said, “avan aruLaale avan taaL vaNangi”. May be sometime along the line, he may give us the thirst for Gnaana and grant us the same, may be!
528. Still, instead of leaving it for Him to do whatever and whenever, often in between gaps in our Saadhana efforts, instead of getting enamoured of the thrill of satisfaction that we get; we should be aspiring for the state of ‘Nil’ aspirations! That is, we should be constantly reminding ourselves of our destination and not halt on the way. That is the prudent thing to do (vivek).
529. If your question is as to how to avoid getting distracted, from the beginning at least for a short period of time daily, we should deliberate on Adwaitam, may be for five or ten minutes. Whether Adwaitam becomes a part of our experience or not we should be thinking on the following lines as described hereinafter. “However a noble job we may be doing, whatever the greatness of the social service we may be doing, Even if God Himself is to come before us and showers His blessings on us, it is all part of the same Maya only. None of this is Aatma or Aatma Anubhava; not eternal peace; not the real truth; all this is Maya only including this thought! We are that Aatma untouched by anything or any thought, like the clean wide open spaces of the sky am I!” May be for five or ten minutes, may be even for a minute or 30 seconds, we should be telling ourselves, “We are of that stuff not made of anything; nothing can do anything to us” and sit there like the Emperor of the Universe!
530. Even when we are thinking that we are neither made nor unmade by anything, a corner of this mind of ours will be thinking of doing or causing us to think of something or the other! The very instant we tell ourselves that nothing or nobody can do anything to us a small mosquito may make us react violently. But, as we are doing something or being affected or irritated by something else, repeatedly we have to tell ourselves that this doer or being affected person is not the real us! This is part of the imaginary scene before us including the whole world with all its stars and planets and people and events! In such a stage the mind is very much there causing us to think of the Aatma as a third person entity. Instead of being the Aatma, it makes us think about the Aatma in the relative world of Maya, in Dwaitam! Even then, that is the only way that we can get closer to the reality, inch by the inch may be. In Dwaitam itself, there are those which get us stuck deeper and deeper in the mire of involvement and those that enable us to rise above. Thinking about Adwaitam is still Dwaitam only. We have to keep the thought of reiterating that our aim is thoughtlessness. But it does help.
531. Having been like that for some five or ten minutes, then as we get involved item by item, we need not feel bad. Till all the already existing knots are all untied, there will be pulls and pressures. To untie each one of those knots, we have to do as much of morally righteous actions as pooja, visiting religious places and temples, do japa, participate in conduct of Yaagas and do nitya and periodic Karma Anushtaanaas; relentlessly. There will be pulls and pressures, minor and major irritants, problems and so on. Whether we go for Vaikunta Ekadasi at Srirangam or Arudra Darshan in Chidambaram, we may have to suffer in silence being buffeted by unruly crowds or bear the winter cold; going Pada Yatra or Giri Pradakshinam; or doing Anga Pradakshinam around the temple Praahaara; or doing flood relief work subjecting oneself to ‘n’ number of discomforts; or participate earth quake relief; we may have to bear with many problems! But, what else can we do? If we sit down and say “OK! Now I am going to just be Aatma! Period”, in just five minutes, this mind runs to Bombay Airport to New Jersey in U.S of A to Canada! If we try to not do anything and just be doing nothing, we find that it is the most difficult thing in the world, “not to do anything!” The mind and body straight away asks for all sorts of unwanted, avoidable so called pleasures! So despite the problems, we have to persevere with Karma and Bhakti
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.