DEIVATHIN KURAL #171 (Vol #4) Dated 04 Apr 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #171 (Vol #4) Dated 04 Apr 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 960 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)
98. The Appropriateness of Mirage in The Desert. This life in the world is compared with a dream. But the comparison with the mirage in a desert is more appropriate. Dream is almost real till one is dreaming. Once you wake up to the world, it becomes completely annulled as the dream of one dreamer only. Like that till we are unaware of the truth (& attain Gnaana), the world seems to be real. Once we attain to Gnaana we realize that there is nothing of the world at all and that the one truth of Paramartha Satyam is seen as all the multifarious materials and living beings! So this Maya is often compared with a dream.
99. “OK. If that is so, after one wakes up from the dream as we do not see the dream world anymore, the Gnaani should not be seeing this world anymore. But, even great Gnaanis like Sukha and our AachaaryaaL had some idea of a world with its people, because of which they gave their Upadesas for the upliftment of all those people who still believe this world to be true. If you do not see the world at all, who should advice whom? Does it not mean that the world did not disappear for them?” That can be the logic of your question. Here the example of the mirage gives the appropriate answer to your doubts. Someone sees a mirage. Either he is told or he realizes that it is not real water in the mirage. Now even after realization he is still seeing the mirage, which seems like real water to his eyes also. It is not like waking up from a dream. So, he tells others, “Do not run after the mirage. It is not real. There is no water there!”
100. The phrase ‘mruga thrishNa’ has become a synonym for the mirage itself. In Sanskrit literature on decorative figure of speech it is mentioned as a sample for an ‘aNi’. Thirumoolar calls the five senses, ‘paal pasu aindu’. Here Bhagawat PaadaaL compares the five senses with deers. “Finally as the deer herd running after the water of the mirage dies of thirst and exhaustion, these five senses run after flimsy pleasures in vain! Please prevent us from such a fate, my dear Father Vishno! Control this thirst of the senses’ – ‘samaya vishaya mruga thrishNaam’, he prays to Maha Vishnu. This life in this world is like a desert. Whatever is seen as a pleasure in this world is a mirage!
101. Once a place is a desert there is no water except in some seasons and in all other seasons there is only mirage. If you ask the geologist as to what was that areas’ condition before its becoming a desert, you will be surprised. What was vast stretches of water as lakes or seas are the areas that have now become deserts, they say. If you dig the deserts’ surface, you find skeletons of whales and such life forms as shells and snails that would normally be found in water sources only! This is clear evidence of the fact that what were vast water sources once upon a time are now seen as deserts. When major earth quakes happens the surface of the earth goes through many changes. Many areas gain in height creating land locked lakes. Then with scorching heat of the Sun and changes in seasons these areas dry up into deserts with no rivers draining into them.
102. As the earth came into being mankind started living in the portion of land with rivers supplying water and arable land plentifully available for agriculture. Just to think of how all these things came into being is wonderful, flabbergasting and strange. But finally I am lecturing you for so long that all this is a lie, a bluff, mirage and mruga thrishNa! Like the mirage is surprisingly miraculous, everything in this ‘world of maya’ is highly mystifying! Here there is a mountain, there a valley. Starting as so many rivulets they combine to make a water channel. Look at the variety of landscapes of plateau, plains, oceans, rivers, mountains, forests, sea shores with different climates! They have all some logic of existence with a specific purpose of enabling survival of some form of life on this planet!
103. Then there are so many flora and fauna. When it comes to life forms there is a whole series of classifications based on their mobility, such as Sthavara(static) and Jungama(mobile); based on how they are born such as Andajam (from egg), Swedajam (from the sweat), Udbijam (rising from the earth) and Jarayujam (from the womb). Then there is a classification based on what is their main habitat such as living on the surface of land, living in water, or amphibious and some live on other animals as parasites. They could be walkers or crawlers, swimmers or flyers. Then there is a classification as single and multi – cellular organisms. Finally an important classification is based on the life forms’ having one, two, three, four, five and six senses. Grasses, plants, trees and mountains have a single sense of touch. Shell and snails have the sense of touch and taste. All types of ants have the sense of touch, taste and smell. Crabs and praying mantis have the senses of touch, taste, smell and sight. Other animals have hearing in addition to these four senses. Human being (and to some extent some of the other animals) have all these five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing in addition to the sixth sense of analysis / comparison and contrast and discerning what is good or OK and what is bad or not OK!
104. The interesting point is how they all serve each other’s purpose in some way or other. They are all Paramaatma’s Leela called the Nature mutually fitting into huge edifice of inter dependability and mutual usefulness and service. In this there are some aberrations, as otherwise, the world will be too perfect and be considered as all truth! That is why at times there are earth quakes or the volcano becoming active and some areas that was an ocean becomes a desert! Right from the beginning in the areas meant to be fit for human habitation, man’s basic needs of water, arable lands, flora and fauna are there. But in the areas now becoming deserts and becoming part of land mass, there is neither water nor much of plant life. Just because it has now become part of the land mass, rules of nature are not changed. What was an area of flowing water becomes dry without a drop of water.
105. Regarding the deserts, I want to share with you, the finding of my own ‘research’ on the subject. Geologists say that what is the Sahara desert today was an ocean once upon a time. You may know the story in Ramayana as to how the 60 thousand sons of Sagara kept digging in search of the stolen anointed horse, created a large cleavage on earth. The ocean so created by the sons of Sagara, became a synonym for Saagara the ocean. It is this word that came to be called the Sahara when Saagara became a desert as per my research. Another of my finding is that in India in Rajasthan, major portion of the earth is a desert. Desert in Sanskrit is known as ‘maruvaatika’. That is how the people of that area are known as ‘Maarvaadees’.
106. What was once the life-giving and life-sustaining water source became a waterless desert. This desert like life on earth once came from the source of life Paramaatma. But the life sustaining power is missing because of Kaama, Krodha and such mirage like currents. That is the flow that AachaaryaaL has referred to as the “vishaya mruga thrishNa”. First he prayed for ‘vinaya’ and simplicity. Then he says that we should be controlling the senses from running after the mirage of various types of desires and the thirst for such flitting pleasures.
107. There could be a question here. “First the outer control has to be established on the senses and then only the inner control of the mind can happen. But why is that AachaaryaaL is first praying for ‘Taanti’ the inner control of the mind and then ‘Shanti’ the control of outer manifestations of the senses?” The reason for this, in my opinion is that, for the aim of mind control, the control of the senses is a tool. One may try to control the senses for reasons other than mind control too. If you have some illness of the eye, we are told not to see cinema and the Tele Vision. If we have ulcer in the stomach, we are told not to eat hard to digest materials such as meat and spicy food. The ‘Adakkam’ of the mind is not recommended so that we may control a particular sense. The senses have to be won over for over all ennoblement. So, he prayed for the aim or mission first and then asked for granting of the tools.
108. “Remove my uncontrolled rebellious nature of ‘avinaya’ and control my mind. Tie up in knots the sense organs of mine which are running after the mirage of objects of the senses”, he tells Vishnu, thereby telling us all as to what we should pray for. If a man becomes simply humble and gets control of his mind and senses; at the personal level, he has nothing more to wish for and his efforts come to an end there, period!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.