DEIVATHIN KURAL #169 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #169 (Vol #4) Dated 31 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 946 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)
74. ‘Vaktram’ means both ‘face’ and ‘mouth’. Having used that word for the face of his Guru, had Padmapaadar used any word for the mouth subsequently in that sloka, it was likely to be misconstrued for the face! So, I suppose he left it unsaid for the reader’s imagination to fill in the gap. Poets compare the face, eyes, hands and feet with the lotus in Sanskrit and use such phrases as, ‘mukhambhojam’ ‘nayana kamalam’, ‘paada padmam’ and ‘kara aravindam’; etc. Here Padmapaadar instead of describing the face of AachaaryaaL as a lotus, is calling it the Maanasa Saras and his Bhashyam the honey of the lotus. We have to presume that his mouth is the lotus that he is alluding to. Bhashyam is normally philosophy, hard like the rock. But, even this philosophy, from our AachaaryaaL’s lotus like delicate and beautiful mouth becomes the very pleasant honey!
75. Bhashya’s core meaning of Adwaitam is as sweet as the taste of the honey. To drink that honey sishyas are hovering around like so many bees. Here instead of saying sishyas, the word used is ‘vineya’ that is, the students who are ardent and humble! Like this sloka talking about lotus like face, honey like words and the bee like sishyas, there is another sloka about our AachaaryaaL. That sloka is in a stone inscription of 800 year’s vintage. It will surprise you if I tell you as to where this stone carving was found in! It was found in Cambodia. In it our AachaaryaaL has been referred to as “Bhagawat Sankara”. Here we call him only as Bhagawat PaadaaL, meaning someone who all the time focussed on God’s feet. There they have gone one step higher and referred to him as Bhagawan Himself! In that sloka his feet have been equated with the lotus as “angri pankajam”. It says that all the assembled learned vidwaans have prostrated before him with their heads in his feet with the firm conviction that they will not move away! ‘Bhagawan Sankara’s feet are lotus like that all the learned pundits’ heads are milling around like bees on it’, it says, “nissesha – soorie – moordaa: - ali – maalaa – leedaangri – pankajaat ”.
76. Earlier I mentioned the sloka by Padmapaada on his guru Adi Sankara BhagawatpaadaaL. Here instead of referring to his face or feet as a lotus, the Bhashyam has been referred as the pollen of the lotus. It seems that the students as the bees are partaking the honey of Adwaita Rasa from his lotus like mouth. Here the students are being referred as the ‘vineeta vineya brungaa:’ as the well disciplined bees. In that stone carving in Cambodia, the word ‘nissesha soorie’ means all the learned pundits are all prostrating with their heads resting on AachaaryaaL’s feet without leaving a single person left out! Further, the words in the inscription means; ‘moordaa: = heads, of ali + maala = the whole series of bees.
77. Padmapaadar mentioned the Bhashyam is like the honey while the Cambodian inscription talks of the feet which are like the lotus without talking about Bhashyam. But since all the ‘nissesha soorie’ people are well educated, their prostrating, resting their heads on his feet cannot be construed to be similar to the devotion of the common man. So, it can be derived that instead of being simple devotion and faith, their veneration is based on deep understanding of his words of the Bhashya. Here the ‘paada padmam’ has been mentioned leaving the ‘makarandam’ from the Bhashya to be divined by the reader.
78. Appayya Deekshidar while composing his ‘adika tapitaa’ sloka, says that from the lotus of AachaaryaaL’s mouth the outpouring Adwaita ‘sookti’ flow, washes away our illness of the cycle of births and deaths. The word ‘sookti’ is to be understood as ‘su + ukti = sookti’, that is exquisite articulation. The whole song is here: “adika tapitaa poorva aachaaryaan upetya sahasra rataa saridiva maheen bhaagaan sampraapya souri padodgataa I jayati bhagawat paada sriman mukha ambuja nirgataa janana haraNee sooktir brhma adwaita paraayaNaa II”
79. Here the lotus of the mouth and the flow from there is mentioned. We can easily discern that he is talking about the flow of nectar of AachaaryaaL’s expression. Thus in the three quotations, in the first honey has been mentioned without mentioning the mouth; in the second mouth and honey have been unsaid while talking of the hovering bees and in the third, lotus like mouth and the flow from that have been described leaving the honey to be discerned. In all the three quotations, the poetic beauty of leaving something unsaid to be presumed and mulled over is to be appreciated! Amongst them Padmapaada referring to the disciples as ‘vineya’ is directly related to the matter that we are now discussing.
80. The surprising thing about our AachaaryaaL is not only that his disciples were very humble, he as the ‘Jagat Guru’ was himself an exemplary personification of humility! You must be knowing about his work ‘Soundarya Lahari’. Devotion, mastery of the literary idiom, beauty of the language and word selection, sharpness of the concepts, intricate details of the Mantra Saastra and deep philosophical ideas; are all plentifully evident in it. In addition, that very work has intrinsic power of Mantra. In his vast array of works, that one work is good enough to give him well deserved pride. But, he did not have an iota of pride despite his super human achievements in the fields of devotion, literary works, oratorical conquests, missionary work and physically walking the length and breadth of this vast country visiting every nook and corner; all that done in a matter of 32 years!
81. He never had an idea that he has done anything great! At the end of Soundarya Lahari he tells Universal Mother AmbaaL, “Amma! You who are the ocean of sound and words may please kindly bear with me. I have made an effort to describe you in some 100 odd slokas. You know how it is? It is like what religious minded people do while having a ceremonial dip in the ocean at Setu Teertam at Rameswaram, after each dunking they come up to the surface and pick up water with their two hands and offer it back to the ocean! It is like that symbolical act of theirs only! Like this in all humility, he gives three more examples.
82. Thus despite being the Avatara of Parameswara, he was the very form of ‘Vinaya’. To us who are without any real power roaming about as though there is no end to our abilities, he stands besides ourselves and teaches us, how to pray by saying, “avinayam apanaya” (remove my lack of humility), in the ‘Shat Padi’ sloka. ‘Adakkam’ as they say in Tamil is one quality of real humility needed to be a good student. Once that one asset is there, all other good and salubrious qualities follow the leader one by one. ThiruvaLLuvar also said, “adakkam amararuL uikkum”!
83. From the school days, the children should be trained in humility. A Tamil proverb says, “Aindil vaLaiyaadadu aimbadil vaLaiyaadu”, meaning, ‘what cannot be bent in the childhood cannot be achieved in later years’! As the age increases, with a variety of data inputs as one runs after youthful exploits, power, position and wealth, ‘vinayam’ is a very hard quality to inculcate. The student was called ‘vineyan’ for this reason only!
84. In the Sikh Religion. The student is called the ‘Sishya’ too, which means ‘the one getting Siksha’, the disciple. He not only gets from the Guru education, but also learns discipline and other required character qualities. Nowadays, this word Siksha has come to mean ‘Sangita Siksha’, that is by attending music classes or punishments from the Judge! At times in lighter vein, their learning music itself becomes a punishment for the art of Music!
85. ‘The way a student is supposed to be obedient to his teacher and be humble and disciplined in a Gurukulam, exactly similarly a person joining a religion is required to be with the religious Guru’, was the concept with which Guru Nanak established the Sikh Religion. In it the salient good points of both the Hindu and Muslim religion have been coalesced. Islam is a very strict religion in which the control and restrictions are many in comparison with other religions. It was that sort of discipline that Guru Nanak demanded from his followers. He wanted that his followers should be obedient like the students of a Gurukulam. That is reason why, he called the head of religion as a Guru. All the followers were supposed to be Sishyas. It is this word which became ‘Sikh’. In Punjab the letter ‘sha’ is pronounced as ‘kha’. For example the word ‘havisha’ in Purusha Suktam is pronounced as ‘havika’ in North India. On the same line ‘sishya’ became ‘sika’ or ‘Sikh’. This is my assumption and I may be wrong. But I am sure that I will not be far from the real! Guru is the ‘Sikshak’ and the followers Sishya or ‘Sikh’. Coming back to my point, ‘Vinaya’ is an essential character quality in a student. When ‘avinaya’ goes, ‘vinaya’ will come in. That is what our AachaaryaaL said in the first sloka of Shatpadi!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.