DEIVATHIN KURAL # 12 (Vol # 5) Dated 23 Jun 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 12 (Vol # 5) Dated 23 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 middle of page No 72 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)
114. In religious singing of Bhajans and Abhangs you might have heard a word ‘lolaa’, ‘raasa leela lolaa’. To play for something desired is to be a ‘lolaa’; maybe it is for a smile or the hand of friendship. In our sloka under discussion, it is not the PiLLaiyar himself being referred as ‘leelaa lolaa’, but only his tusk. The tusk of the elephant is a very incessantly active thing. It is often compared with a monkey and the human mind for being excessively active.
115. In the narrow lanes around any temple in South India, you will find a high density collection of all sorts of small shops selling a whole lot of exotic varieties of things. Jostling around will also be the Temple elephant returning from a trip to the nearby lake or river for a wash. The elephant is under the Mahout’s control. But the tusk of the elephant is under nobody’s control! At random it will pick up a clutch of plantains from one shop or a coconut from another and a girl’s trinket from yet another! The shop keepers will be yelling at the mahout that he is not effectively controlling the elephant. So as to obviate the shop keepers’ ire, the mahout does a trick. He will give a flower garland to the elephant and tell him, “Hold the garland high above. We are going to the temple and place the garland on the deity’s neck. So better watch out that your tusk does not come down!” Now the mahout does not have to worry about the shenanigans by the tusk anymore! It is said that similarly this mind of ours should be given a mantra with a rosary to hold it steadily on course instead of meandering about in every which way!
116. We were talking about PiLLaiyar’s tusk, when Siva was doing Shashta Anga PraNaam to AmbaaL, resting his Jathaamudi in her lotus feet, when the crescent moon on his head was suddenly invitingly more visible! Here PiLLaiyar’s front end of the tusk is said to be very playful. Later the poet calls PiLLaiyar himself to be ‘leela abhi raman’. So as to avoid ‘repeating’ the word, here the poet is saying that the tusk was playing mischievously, ‘karaagram leelaa lolam’! The tusker’s front end is ‘karaagram’, which is incessantly mobile searching for something to catch hold for just feeling around or sucking or twisting or turning or breaking; as though it has a life of its own!
117. The shining white crescent moon is like a handful of white threads like the substance in the stem of the lotus flowers. The moon’s rays of light are also cool, soft and nice. AmbaaL Paraasakthi is said to be the Kundalini Shakti in the subtle form in every person’s body, as slim and subtle as the thread of the lotus stem; as Lalitha Sahasranaama says, “bisa tantu taneeyasi”. So PiLLaiyar wished to pull the ‘bisa tantu’ like white streak of light and so extended the tip of his tusk towards that, ‘praasaarya’. If you are sitting in the middle of the dining table and bend to a side to reach for a dish a little away, you may be said to be doing what is known as, ‘praasaarya’. So he tried to get hold of the crescent moon from his father’s jathaamudi that was in his mother’s feet!
118. This baby elephant happens to be your dear son and he is playfully trying to make a grab of the decorative piece of crescent moon on your head. Just imagine as to how happy you would have been as a father? To visualise the scene is thrilling even to us! The moon that has been responsible to have given you a title as ‘Chandra Mouli’, when it is being grabbed by the son, you would have felt more thrilled than when you were first coroneted! So the father is happily being entertained.
119. If that is the case of the father, think of the mother here. She would have been more pleased with the child’s play. The father is falling on her feet in all submission. She was showing that she was annoyed. When her loving son makes a grab for the Dad’s headgear which has given him a name and fame known all over the world, she must have thought, “Very good! Let him learn a lesson from the son, not to be too haughty!” In the child’s play, both the parents forgot their quarrel. Both burst out laughing happily – “hridaya smitaabhyaam” – both were laughing whole heartedly. Her anger was a make believe and so also his submission was in fun. Instead of being only a false smile on their faces it became an event to remember to be recorded for posterity.
120. Forgetting their ‘oodal’, both of them wished to ardently embrace the baby and competed with each other in doing so! They both embrace this Baala Ganesha between them –“hridaya smitaabhyaam ahamaha mikayaa sivaabhyaam” – ‘aham ahamikaya’ – saying ‘I will, I will’ in excess of exuberance they were both embracing the baby between them happily!
121. His name is ‘Siva’ and her name is ‘Sivaa’, that is meaning ‘Sarvamangalaa’. So, ‘sivaabhyaam’ means both of them. They are embracing Vigneshwara –“aalingyamaana: sivaabhyaam” – meaning ‘GaNesha being embraced by both’! The pleasure that parents get in embracing the child is mentioned in ThirukkuraL as, ‘mei theendal’ – KuraL 65. In Saakuntalam, there is a description of how, Dushyanta after years of forswearing Sakuntala, meets his son Bharatha in KaNva Rishi’s Ashram, without knowing him to be his son! The moment he sees him there is an uncontrollable urge to embrace that boy. At this juncture KaLidaasa the author too, has described the extreme pleasure that Dushyanta experiences in holding the baby on his lap and embracing it with his hair standing on ends. Similarly Bhavabooti also has described in ‘Uttara Rama Charita’ as to how Sri Rama meets Lava and Kusa in Vaalmeeki’s Ashram without knowing that they were his sons!
122. So, here Siva and Sivaa were thrilled in embracing this loveable baby Ganesha between them. They are not only embracing the baby, they are also embracing each other in the bargain! With both their hands around the baby, they cannot help embracing each other too, is it not so? So, with or without intension their splendorous touch of each other just cancels all differences of whatever sort. Instantaneously, their ‘oodal’ vanishes ending in ‘koodal’! As the Mother and Father of all existence they have to become one in supreme Love!
123. For those parents, we are all children, amongst whom PiLLaiyar is Numero Uno, Number One, the first Son, the Jyeshta Putra. When their hearts are happy together, we are all blessed by PiLLaiyar’s play. He managed what every child in the world would like to see happening, the parents rid of their differences of opinion and any trace of tiff or quarrel! The sloka does not overtly talk about their ‘oodal’ coming to an end. We have to draw the right conclusions from what the poet has indirectly indicated. This wonderful son who could cause his parent to get over their separation and variance, can grant us any and every one of the four fold ‘Purushartha’ of Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha’ and bless us too!
124. Confirmation That This Sloka is Proof of That Sloka! Siva wanted that AmbaaL should rejoin him. He did Namaskaaram to Her. But the one who granted Siva’s wish is PiLLaiyar! I told you about ‘Nyaayendu Sekharam’ and in connection with the ‘Indu Sekhara’ deviated to ‘Sita -RavaNa Samvaada Jharee’, in explaining which I find that there is supporting logic to my original contention. Thus when we get hold of worthwhile material and analyse them, we stumble on to unexpected treasures of gems. This is clear confirmation for the fact that whichever Deity we may be praying to, that Deity too has to approach Vigneshwara for obviating any obstacle in the process of their ‘Anugraha’! So it is sufficient if we pray to PiLLaiyar for whatever our wishes are to be fulfilled, says the earlier sloka.
125. Here in this sloka, though the poet did not intend talking about my earlier contention, there is a confirmation for that! What do we see here? Siva wanted that AmbaaL should rejoin him. So he is praying to her for reconciliation by falling on her lotus feet. That ‘Aaraadhana’ had no effect. What does Sivaa want? Though she is showing her anger, inwardly she wishes also to be rid of her differences with Easwara. Only thing is that she does not know as how to go about it. But in his prank Vigneshwara manages to grant both their wishes, without even being prayed to! This clearly proves that Vigneshwara is capable of fulfilling his parents’ wishes, without even being mentioned as a prayer to him! So it is confirmed that PiLLaiyar can grant us all our prayers, including the unmentioned ones!
126. If that sloka showed that for us human beings whatever we can wish to get from Gods, it is enough if we pray to Vigneshwara; this sloka went one step beyond that even for the wishes of the Apex Couple of Parvathy – Siva, it is by this PiLLaiyar’s help that it becomes possible! What is easily done is said to be a ‘child’s play’! Here the Child God is achieving the desired result without even trying! It looks as though he just did some prank which resulted in his parents coming together again. There cannot be any doubt anymore that he can grant every one of our felt, desired wishes as well as even those felt needs, which we only thought of but did not know as to how to put in to words! Nyaayendu Sekharam talked about that he is capable of sanctioning all wishes – ‘sarva artha’. Here this sloka in confirmation says that he can sanction even the wishes just thought of and not yet put into words – that is only ‘chintida artha’.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.