DEIVATHIN KURAL # 08 (Vol # 5) Dated 15 Jun 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 08 (Vol # 5) Dated 15 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 second para on page No 49 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)
75. This is a well known story. Manmatha the Cupid (also known as Kaama) tried to distract Siva when He was deep in meditation. Siva in anger opened His eyes, including the third eye! Six sparks flew out from the third eye, erasing Manmatha the Cupid. The six (Six in Tamil is AaRu) sparks were received by the Ganges River (River in Tamil is also AaRu), in SaravaNa Poigai, turned into six Babies. Parvathi pacified Siva, came to SaravaNa Poigai, collected the six Babies from Karthigai Women and the six Babies became one SubrahmaNya, the second son of Siva. Parvathy pleaded with Siva for the continued life of Manmatha and he was granted the same to live unseen. Symbolically Parvathy took Manmatha’s sugar cane bow and flower arrows as her own! That is how till date we see the effect of Manmatha in action but, do not see him in person! So, the River Ganges is Siva’s second wife and Subrahmanya Swami is known as Ganga Putra!
76. PiLLaiyar the first son continues to treat her the Ganga also as His Mother and claims the name of ‘Dwai Mathura’, (meaning Dual Mother’s son) though His younger brother SubrahmaNya should actually claim that title rightfully! The fact that PiLLaiyar claims that title of ‘Dwai Mathura’ is indicative of his large heartedness with love towards all, so that the step mother may not feel neglected. Whereas PiLLaiyar was created by Parvathy by collecting the sandal paste, turmeric and other fragrant unguents from her own body by her own hands! This eternal celibate GaNesha looked at all women as his mother only! Though in a lighter vein (Soundarya Lahari Sloka 51), AmbaaL is said to have looked at Ganga as a competitor for Siva’s attention ‘sa rosha’; PiLLaiyar looked at her as his mother only!
77. To gambol in the waters of a river is a favourite sport for elephants. You cannot say the same thing about other animals such as a cow, buffalo, lion and tiger. They would rather avoid a river except when necessary. Buffalo prefers stagnant water and or a mix of water with grime and muck, may be to get rid of the insects pestering its body! Only elephant is fond of water sports. It has this special equipment of a trunk with which it can suck in water and create a fountain of water to play with others. With that big body, the elephant loves to play in water swimming effortlessly. In the forests when the elephants move about in big herds, it is a scene to be seen and enjoyed the way they are thrilled when they reach a water source and create a commotion in fun and frolic. May be that since PiLLaiyar has an elephant face, he has this special love and attraction for Ganga as a mother. There is beautiful description of elephants playing in water in Bhagawatham in the story about Gajendra Moksham!
78. If someone is noticeably hard hearted it is the normal custom to ask him as to whether “He is also born in a mother’s womb?” If and when we point out someone as the son of such and such a mother, we automatically indicate that he is a warm hearted and loving person. As ‘Dwai Mathura’ he is doubly warm hearted. Then his name itself is ‘Pillay’ (which means a son), like we have so many names in English ending with a suffix of ‘son’, such as ‘Frederickson, Williamson or Peterson’! He is the respectable son of two mothers, this PiLLaiyar!
79. If he is ‘Dwai Mathura’, his younger brother SubrahmaNya is known as ‘Shan Mathura’, as he is the son of the Karthigai PeNdir (women) who breast fed the six babies in SaravaNa Poigai, a lake being an off shoot of the Ganges, immediately after their being born. Come to think of it, this younger brother SubrahmaNya has two mothers plus six! Parvathy as Siva’s consort, Ganga as the recipient of the six sparks at Saravana Poigai and the six Karthigai Women who took care of the six babies! In the ‘Shan Mathura’ Parvathy and Ganga are not included! As the son of Karthigai PeNdir, he has another name as Karthikeya.
80. The Problem about Ayyappa’s Mother! Talking about the mothers of PiLLaiyar and SubrahmaNya, one funny incident comes to my mind. There is a third son of Parvathy – Parameswara couple. He is the Ayyappa who is becoming much famous recently. (In the last few decades the number of devotees going to Ayyappa temple in forests of Kerala after a vow of abstinence for 42 days, has increased many folds reaching astronomical proportions!) He is said to have been born with Siva as the Father and Mahavishnu as the Mother in his Mohini Avatara. Though I am saying that it is a funny thing, this episode has given much grist to the so called ‘Paguthu Aridal Iyakkam’ of Tamil Nadu who are critical of all Hindu Religious beliefs!
81. The story is like this. In the 16th Century, there was one Appayya Deekshidar a great scholar, singer poet of Tamil Nadu. Though a hard core Adwaitin, he was an ardent devotee of Siva. Those days the devotees of Maha Vishnu were rather aggressive in spreading their own beliefs and sect. Appayya Deekshidar’s efforts were as a counter to that. So he was forced as though to establish and propagate the superiority of Siva and Siva Worship. His contemporary was one Tatachaariyaar who had the patronage of end rulers of the Vijayanagara dynasty. He was an ardent devotee of the Vaishnava tradition doing much to convert the general public to become pro-VishNu and anti-Siva! This was the cause against which Appayya Deekshidar was highly motivated. Though true Hinduism is one which accommodates and embraces all variety of views and sects; at times there have been such spikes of odd and errant behaviour by some, off and on! Though Tatachaariyar’s line was anti-Siva, Appayya Deekshidar was not against Maha Vishnu at all. As I said earlier, he used to refer to AmbaaL, Siva and Vishnu as ‘Ratna Thrayam’ the three gems of the Hindu religion as the very forms of the Parabrhmam! He has quoted many references from the Sruti and Smruti scriptures to prove his points.
82. Once a King went to a temple with both Tatachaariyar and Appayya Deekshidar. That king might have been Ramaraya of Vijayanagara Dynasty or Velur Chinna Bomma Naickar or Tanjore Veera Nrusimha Bhupaala. The name of the King is not important. The fact was that the King went accompanied by these two very learned stalwarts of devotees of Siva and Vishnu. In the temple there was a statue of Ayyappa the Saastha. Unlike the normal posture of sitting on his haunches, this Ayyappa was having his index finger on his nose in deep thought as though! The King asked as to why the Devata seems to be in a novel posture?
83. The temple authorities answered the King. “This statue had been made many years back, we do not know when. The Sthapathy who sculpted the statue, is said to have had a vision of Ayyappa in a posture of puzzle and perplexity. He made it as seen by him, without knowing the reason as to why Ayyappa was in such a state of quandary. At that time the Sthapathy had said that, some time in the future an all knowing pundit (‘sarvagna’) will visit the temple and explain the reason for Ayyappa’s perplexity and then the statue will regain the normal posture, as seen in all other temples. Since then many great people have visited this temple and have given many reasons for Ayyappa’s quandary. But since the reasoning was not correct, till date the statue continues to be like this.” The King looked at the two erudite scholars accompanying him questioningly.
(To be continued. We will know as to why Ayyappa had his index finger on his nose in a posture of contemplation in the next e-mail.)
Sambhomahadeva.