DEIVATHIN KURAL #160 (Vol #4) Dated 13 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #160 (Vol #4) Dated 13 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 page number 889 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)
553. Start From Today! From today you are all Arjuna-s. Like him you are all in ‘Vishaada Yoga’ that is a state of confusion. Like him you also start off going through all that Sri Krishna told him in Bhagawat Gita and finally arrive at the 73rd Sloka of the 18th Chapter, where he says, “nashto moha:smrutir labdhaa tvat prasaadaat mayaa achyuta I stitosmi gata sandeha: karishye vachanam tava II”. It means, “Destroyed is my delusion as I have gained awareness of the truth through Thy Grace, O Krishna. I remain free from doubts. I will act according to Thy Word.” I pray to Lord Krishna Paramaatma that you all may attain to the same state as Arjuna did!
554. From today, to defeat the demoniacal forces, get all the divine forces mobilised. Do all the duties and rituals that you are required to perform. With the great humility approach God Easwara with utmost devotion. Knowing in your hearts that Being – Awareness – Bliss of Sat – Chit – Ananda Swaroopa is the reality of your Aatma which covers in itself Easwara, the world and all the living beings; try and remind yourself this above truth every time you are enamoured or disgusted with anything or anybody anytime! That will help you in the end, however much the Aatma may seem to be covered by dirty screens as of now. Daily sit down quietly at least for some time with the firm conviction that even now we are that Aatma only. Often even during all your works, jobs and endeavours; think of the ‘action-free, ever peaceful, expansiveness of our true nature. That will relieve us of the attachments and involvements that we are likely to develop during our Karmas and enable us to cut down and off set our debit balances of Karma.
555. As the demoniacal forces are being sorted out, we have to remember that the so called divine forces also have to go. Their requirement is only in the relative ambience. In the state of Adwaita, they also have no role to play! Conduct your worldly affairs sensibly. If we fight our battles thinking of the Lord who told us, “maam anusmara”, then we will avoid getting attached to all other things in life. Then with His help we can be free of the divine forces too. Beyond that we should not get over dependent on that Lord God also in His SaguNa form, so as to be able to merge in the NirguNa form of true reality! As a fore runner of that eventuality, we should be having some Aatma Dhyaanam from the beginning as I have been suggesting.
556. Go Far Beyond the Concepts of Good! If you leave these good forces to hang around they can also distract from our overall aim as they are also good in relation to what is considered as bad and to that extent dependent on the vagaries of the mind only. At the time of the Second World War, Britain, France, America and Russia were the allied Nations on the one side. Germany, Italy and Japan were the Axis forces on the other side. Amongst them the Allied Nations were seemingly the Good forces and the Axis were noticeably the Evil forces. Luckily the Allies won the war. Since then what has happened to them? There are many cleavages amongst them and are opponents as the Iron Curtain and the Non-Communist nations! They have sunk the whole world in situations worse than actual war in what is called the ‘Cold War’!
557. Why go so far? See within this country itself. The white man was ruling and looting this country of its wealth and resources while corrupting a far advanced civilization than their own! From the time we started the Freedom Movement, look at the standard of leadership and their willingness to sacrifice their all for the nation’s well being! Look at the level of motivation and sense of unity that the common man felt those days. Whatever good the Britishers might have done for this country, they were all looking like the devils. And Indians were all Divine Beings come down from the Heavens as though. But what happened since our gaining Independence from the white man? Within our land there are all possible divisions and fissiparous tendencies emerging. In this it has become difficult to call any of these forces as divine! (KTSV adds: I just wish to remind the readers that PeriyavaaL made this statement sometime in the 60/70’s. He passed away in 1994. Thank God that he did not witness the chaos of the present times in the name of ‘coalition – dharma!’)
558. What I am telling you is that, what is seemingly good one moment, over time dissipates and changes. So you may get rid of the known devil by what is seemingly good. But beware! What is good now is not going to remain so forever. By all means, follow the Karma Anushtaana and Bhakti Upaasana sincerely. Those methods or procedures are not going to go bad. But this person doing it may get an ego boost with detestable pride! You have to move on from Karma Yoga to Bhakti to what Sri Krishna called the Sankhya Yoga (of Gnaana Yoga), that He gave as a foundation course even before talking about Karma Yoga. That is not to be forgotten but often mulled over and ruminated upon. Only then without giving a chance for a fight by the divine forces within themselves; the very cause of the conflict being, this man with the notion that he is an individual, unique, separate and special as a Jeeva; will be taken out as a non-existing entity and realise his oneness with the only existing reality of Aatma! Then one day devoid of all conflicts and disputes, if not in this life in one of his future lives, the route to the destination will open out bit by bit.
559. Aatma Vichaara (Meditate about what one is Made of) is Essential for All. Elders have said that out all living beings only the human being is entitled to find the answer for questions about one’s own origins! If there is to be a gate way for this knowledge, only this human animal can open and enter it and learn oneself to be made up of the same stuff as the Parabrhmam. That is why, Avvaiyaar had said, “aridu aridu maanidaraai pirattal aridu”, that (out 8.4 million life forms,) to be born as a human being is difficult and rare! Our AachaaryaaL too said the same thing in ‘Viveka ChoodaamaNi’, “jantoonaam narajanma durlabham”! So, it is essential that all those who are born as human beings should do Aatma Vichaara and try to attain Gnaana.
560. To say that I do not have time for such things is being very dense. We have time for the most stupid things and for transient and flimsy pleasures of life! Then if we say that we do not have time for the most important endeavour of attaining to eternal happiness, there can be nothing more idiotic than that. With Maya, Nature, Mind and such things, why does God orchestrate all this Leela of human and world drama? Through all this He is testing us to see if we raise above all the pitfalls and distractions, to search out the way for eternal happiness. So, till all our Karma account is balanced out, we should be doing our duties, Karma Anushtaanaas relentlessly. Through all this of childhood, teenage, married life, retirement, old age; our business, trading, transacting, eating, playing, enjoyments, entertainment and so on, at different points in our life; we should also be maturing and ripening step by step, towards that end point of Gnaana. One can learn and graduate through all this.
561. But, if we stop with all that and refuse to learn and graduate, is it not wasting one’s life? We might have attained many B.A., M.A., Ph.D., and Doctorate in many disciplines of subjects and so on. After all that, if we do not graduate to this degree of Aatma Gnaana, it means a sheer waste! It is like saying that I collected all materials to make a bone fire but, did not have time for warming my hands and body in the cold! It is like saying that I had time to do all that work but, did not have time to collect the wages! All the other works are for this end, to fetch you to the Aatma. So, it is essential that we must spend some time every day to sit down and do Dhyana, even if it is only a make belief, play acting sort of meditation! Unless we schedule this every day of our lives at least for some five or ten minutes, it will take us back only to the duality and not raise us to the Oneness of Adwaitam! Let us stop giving these lame excuses and try to do Dhyana! We have to make an effort and thereby try and get maturity. To say that I do not have maturity and so cannot try, is to endlessly put the cart before the horse, ad infinitum ad nauseam! (To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.