DEIVATHIN KURAL # 18 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 July 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 18 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 July 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 111 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)
41. So, now after analysing the relative advantages and disadvantages in directing all our love and devotion to one form, either to God as Rama or KrishNa or AmbaaL or Easwara as Chandra Mowleeswara or simply to one’s Guru; I do not mean to come to the conclusion that it is enough if you are devoted to me only as I am your Guru! (Smilingly PeriyavaaL has a dig at himself self deprecatingly as he is called the Jagat Guru.) In the bargain you cannot just do Namaskaar to me and leave my Chandra MowLi Eswara unattended and uncared for! Without Him who will take care of the Kanchi Kamakoti Matt and who will give us ‘Biksha’ every day? It is our AachaaryaaL Aadi Sankara Bhagavat PaadaaL who has created these organizations known as Sankara Matam in various places in India, enabling them to carry his name and message for generations of devotees, entrusting them with many fold tasks and responsibilities! (‘Biksha’ means alms given to the Sannyasi-s who have officially renounced worldly interests. From a very young age they take up Sanyaasa and remain celibates throughout their lives. Kanchi Kamakoti Matt is one such. The expenditure on their food every day is borne by various individuals, booked well in advance! So what is a simple act of giving alms to them, has assumed a special divine connotation as a means for contributing and participating in the running of Mutt as ‘Biksha Vandanam’!)
42. OK! Set aside and do not unduly be concerned about my problems of existence! Take your case. As I said ‘Variety is the Spice of Life’! Even in the flower garlands offered to God after Rose or Jasmine we like to see at least one ‘Kadamba Maalai’ which has a medley of all types of flowers arranged at random! Then in classical music other than hearing various songs in different Raagas, we wish to hear at least one song in ‘Raaga Maalikaa’ with a change in the Raaga for each stanza! So, though I may lecture you about ‘Ananya Bhakti’ of single exclusive devotion to one particular God or Guru; I also know that talk is about the Ideal to be and not for practice immediately! I told you about Yukti (Idea) and Anubhava (experience). For the present, whatever I am going to tell you about ‘Ananya Bhakti’ let it be an idea to be mulled over and not an immediate direction to bring it to practice.
43. Ananya Bhakti: Practical Difficulties. If you go to the highest levels of Bhakti, you reach the peak of that experience where there is nothing alien to one’s Aatma! You remain as though nailed or rooted to the spot! No more give and take! No more do the dimensions of Space and Time make any difference to you! No more transactions with the world. Short of that level, when the mind is not totally annulled, there is a need for some support on which it can rest fully. That could be the stage of ‘Ananya Bhakti’ with one inalienable aim for such devotion. For all normal human beings to have deep love and devotion to the One God in many of the forms is but natural. When you accept all the Gods with the clarity that they are equally the same, there can be nothing wrong in being devoted to many Gods!
44. To have devotion to only one God or Guru, can give rise to another question. One could have many Gurus. Different Saastraas may have been studied under many tutors. One could have had different Mantra Deeksha from various Gurus. Even if you have not thought about this, I am telling you. Who gave you ‘Brhma Upadesam’ at the time of PooNool? It would have been your Father or if more than one is being given the PooNool on the same day, it could have been your Father’s brother. He is the Guru who has given you the ‘Gayatri Mantra Deeksha’. Gayatri is known as the Mantra Rajam. For one who has been given the Gayatri there is no need for any other Mantra. Many people forget this fact. But they do seek and get ‘Pancha Aktchari’ or Ashta Aktchari Mantras! That means that you have more than one Guru. There is nothing wrong in that. Many of the great saints and Rishis might have had more than one Guru like this. Anyhow Vidya Guru who taught you in your childhood and the one, who gives you Sanyaasa Deeksha in your old age, will mostly be different people. As long as you keep in mind that it is God only who comes to you as various Gurus, there is no problem! There have been great Mahatmas of the past who have sung the praise of both the Gurus!
45. There is one more related point. There are many Matalayas as the Guru Peetams. There could be the present Guru and the next in line as the future head of the organisation like a prince in waiting. May be the earlier elder one may also be alive. Whatever you may call them they have the same status as the Guru. More than all this, whenever we sit down to do Japa or Dhyana, we are supposed to pay our respects to the Guru Parampara (Lineage). So when there are so many Gurus, to think of one Guru as representing God and have Ananya Bhakti for that one Guru may be rather difficult. For some who in the intensity of their fervour are able somehow focus their minds to think that, “He is everything for me. I have handed over my all to him including my possessions, properties and mind. Let him do whatever. Let all the generations of Guru and the Army of Gods be found in him as far as I am concerned!” Such total SaraNaagati may be rare, but does happen; without thirsting after variety and change!
46. Short of the stage of total erasing (mano nigraha:) of our minds, when our mind has been brought to a standstill (manolaya), and we have caught hold of one Guru as our everything, the question arises as to whether we should see God in our Guru or our Guru should be seen as God? There is a very slight difference here. Please be with me in this analysis! I am going to say, that instead of thinking God is here as our Guru, it is far more superior to look at our Guru as God in another form!
47. Do you understand the difference? Let me put it in other words. If God is our Guru, we do not have to go anywhere searching for Guru in human form. We will be devoted to God and let him reach us when it suits him. When you take Guru as Easwara, which I am going to extol; you simply stop assessing him. We do not know God. We cannot correctly recognise even if comes before us. Here is this noble saint before our eyes. For me he is everything including God, Easwara and what not. Let us just be devoted to him.
48. “How is that? We know that there is a God with powers of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence who, creates, sustains and reabsorbs the entire universe! You are telling us not to have any reverence for him and have ‘Ananya Bhakti’ only for another man in human form? How can that be done?” That may be the question in your minds. My answer to that question is as follows. “All the stars and galaxies and worlds may be created or done whatever with. Let him create it or move it or destroy it. How does it matter to you? From that mighty power of God, what do you need? Just an infinitesimal part of the power is enough to cleanse you. This you stuck up in the never ending cycle of Samsaara, need to be released from that cycle. What you need is ‘vimochanam’ or release. His ‘akhilaanda vyavahaara’ is no business of yours. Let it be Maya or Leela. It does not concern you. How does it matter to you when matter itself does not matter! Let him do whatever and it does not in any way your concern! All that you can see or discern is that you are struck. This has to go. For that the only power is Gnaana and that can be given to you by this man who goes by the name of a Guru!”
49. “OK! If this Guru gives me Gnaana, where has he got the power from? He has got it from God only, is it not so? The root basis for everything is God only, is it not so?” OK. That is alright. Let God be the ocean of all grace, powers and capabilities. To cleanse the dirt of your ignorance a small amount of his grace will do most sufficiently. You do not need the ocean or the flow of the Ganges River for that! From that ocean of Grace enough is coming through this Guru to you like the water in the tap. That will erase the ignorance and give you Gnaana and sate the thirst.
50. Some rich man has arranged for feeding Lacs of people for which a mountain of foods have been prepared and laid out. You do not know the Lord who has organised all this. What you need is one plateful of what you can eat. You know this man who knows the Lord. If need be he can bring all your needs in a carrier wherever you are. This representative of the Lord is not even claiming the largesse to be his own. That is how the Guru has been entitled and enabled to do the needful for the devotees. It is sufficient if the disciples of the Guru consider him as the be all and end all. Doing so must be having the Lord’s approval certainly!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.