DEIVATHIN KURAL # 07 (Vol # 5) Dated 13 Jun 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 07 (Vol # 5) Dated 13 Jun 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti 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 first para on page No 44 of Vol 5 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)
65. Though the mind of ours may spread its roots of interest in all directions, you have to let it go in its own way and slowly but steadily endeavour to bring it back to the path to attain ‘chitta eikagratha’ of one pointed focus. Right from the beginning it cannot be suppressed. If you force the mind like that, the mind will rebel and will either become depressed or go in the opposite direction towards madness. What our religion does, is to let it enjoy the thrill by the variety of salubrious qualities of divine beings and start emulating them. Make the mind appreciate the eternal value systems of noble souls and start imbibing them in one’s life gradually. The aim is to enable the mind to cleanse itself and as it matures cause it to tend towards the morally upright and socially correct behaviour, thereby slowly start being interested in Adwaitic principles.
66. So, in Hinduism we have a whole series of equally wonderful Divine beings to choose from; PiLLaiyar, SubrahmaNya Swami, AmbaaL, Siva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Aiyappa and the Nava Graha-s. Differences galore are already fitted in, in matters of procedures of worship; soulful prayers as Bhajans, Abhangs, Tevaram and Divya Prabhandam songs; decorations of the Utsava Murthys, temple premises and the whole city and its surroundings; fasting followed by feasts of choice delicacies as eats of all tastes to be offered as Neivedyam-s; with different important days for celebration spread throughout the year! The idea is to get us interested in the high value systems of life, without becoming aware that we are being tutored to do so! Let us raise ourselves by ourselves, weaning this mind of ours from its deep involvement in the affairs of this world, making the process pleasureful in the bargain in which this ‘many God’s’ arrangement does help immensely!
67. Children become very happy and interested when you show them multi coloured pictures or toys. We are all only children in matters spiritual. So, instead of being ashamed of the ‘Pantheon of all those Hindu Gods and Goddesses’, without the boredom of having only One God; let us play with all of them with the idea of ‘more the merrier’! As far as possible let us enjoy the sweet feelings of elation from our sense of devotion to our Gods, all of them. For the present let us revel in, ‘mixture, Avial (a South Indian culinary preparation of all varieties of Vegetables in curd with grinded coconut), kichdi (a North Indian preparation of rice, cereals, pulses and vegetables) or goulash’ and go on to the oneness of Adwaitam, whenever it happens!
68. To highlight greatness of the subject taken up for discussion, it was depicted that as per ‘tat hetu nyaayam’ it is enough if you restrict yourself to worship of Vigneshwara alone and that would serve the purpose or fit the bill. But it is not to mean that we should all give up our devotion to all other Gods or that they should all be packed for the dust bin of posterity! The very gentleman who wrote this sloka used to worship all the Gods. Instead of restricting to Vigneshwara Pooja, he was much used to Siva Aaraadhana. It is not enough to intellectually establish a concept. It is the human mind that seems to have a greater say on how we respond to these things. Once it is a matter of Bhakti that is, Devotion; we are told to set aside the Buddhi and Intellect!
69. So let the Buddhi level Nyaayam remain whatever it happens to be, in our present stage if that does not give us satisfaction. Let us go about for Ishta Devata worship, Sakala Devata Pooja that is, all deities worship or a suitable mix of both depending on which period or date is important for a particular God as per the calendar! Simultaneously analysing the situation sensibly, we see that all that we want or need, can be obtained through worship to this one God certainly. Even while worshipping any God for any required or felt benefit, while doing the initial ‘sukhlaam bharatharam’ tapping on our heads with our knuckles thinking of Ganesha, let us be clear in our hearts and minds that with this one God on our side, our life’s endeavour will prove to be fruitful, successful, and meaningful!
70. Because Ganesha is capable of granting all the benefits that could accrue by prayers to any of the Gods, the last line of the sloka says, “sarvaartha prati paadaneika chaturo dwaimaaturo (a)vyaat sa na:”. That would mean, ‘PiLLaiyar Himself could either grant all our wishes or whatever is needed for our recovery and refinement or by His influence and recommendation cause other deities to do the needful, as He is capable of that, ‘sarvaartha pratipaadaneika chatura:’. ‘sarvaartham’ means all aims to be achieved. For this human life there are supposed to be four types of ‘aims or tasks to be achieved’! They are called, “dharma – artha – kaama – moksha”, meaning ‘righteousness – means or wealth – desires to be fulfilled and release from being bounded!’ This PiLLaiyar is very much capable of giving all that we ask or need, of this worldly and the other worldly (of ‘Iham and Param’)! That also means that there can be nothing that he cannot grant!
71. Kaama or desire which is the main motivator for our passionate involvement in ‘Iham’ of this worldly life gets us so bogged down, that we become incapable of raising above and thinking of the other side of life that is ‘Param’ at all. If so, what is the use of our existence that too as the most refined of all life forms, capable of reasonable thinking, logical analysis and intelligent conclusions? That is why to correctly prioritize our fourfold aims of life, Dharma has been kept as the first, to mean that we may endeavour to fulfil our needs, wants and desires of Artha and Kaama in an orderly and Dharmic rightful way, keeping the eventual aim of Release from involvement , in one’s mind always!
72. Kaama that is all types of desires small and big are ever in our minds. To fulfil those desires we need many things, resources, status, influences, opportunities and power. This is what is provided by the next item in the agenda, the ‘Artha’. This Artha also first of all enables us to live up to the requirements of Dharma. So Dharma is like a common denominator for the other three lest we get bogged down by Adharmic methods for obtaining Artha and fulfilling Kaama! If we go astray from the Dharmic, it is not only that the fourth item of Moksha is denied to us, but we get in to a never ending vicious cycle. But if we adhere to the ways of Dharma in obtaining Artha and enjoying the Kaama, as time passes and we mature with experience, we will be automatically guided to the final aim of Moksha.
73. The one who could give us all the fourfold ‘Purushartha of Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha’ is this, ‘pratipaadana – eka – chathura:’ who could give us all that we need for our eventual ennoblement. That is this ‘dvai – maathura:’, meaning this man with ‘two mothers’! How is that? We have known him by many names as, GaNesa, Vigneswara, Vinayaka, Gajanana (elephant faced), Lambodara (big bellied) and so on! But never do we know him to have two mothers! In the sloka anyhow his name has not been otherwise mentioned!
74. Who are those two mothers? One is AmbaaL, OK. The other is Ganga, the River Ganges, who is sitting on Easwara’s matted locks! It is the custom to consider her as Siva’s second wife. AmbaaL’s eyes are capable of depicting love, pleasure, compassion, anger, fear, surprise, humour, expectation, pride, pain, disgust and disappointment. Though they are said to display different shades of all the Rasas on various occasions; as described in ‘Soundarya Lahari’ (Sloka 51); on seeing this other Lady Ganges, Ambal is described as feeling a mix of anger, jealousy and dislike; ‘sa roshaa gangaayaam’! But this PiLLaiyar as an embodiment of love and respect treats her equally as a mother and claims the name of the Son of two Mothers ‘dwai maathura’!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.