DEIVATHIN KURAL # 28 (Vol # 5) Dated 25 July 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 28 (Vol # 5) Dated 25 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 second para on page No 170 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)
144. In the last edition we discussed the reason why it is better to go through Guru and leave it to him to deal with God as he finds it fit. Now let us relate to how Guru deals with us. When we make a mistake he promptly points out and corrects us. If need be he also does not hesitate to tick us off sufficiently strongly. This deters us from our tendency to go astray. We start thinking about the likely consequences that may happen, if the information reaches his ears. The more the Guru is advanced in his own refinement spiritually, his own powers of omniscience would be more and he would know even without being told by anyone! So, he would know without being told, if and ever we make a mistake. At times they may not reveal their super human powers fully. But the fear in our hearts that we cannot hide anything from him will save us from going astray.
145. Similarly, when we do something good he would also know without being told. Or we may ensure that it reaches his ears out of pride. Whatever way he gets to know, he will bless us and encourage us alright. However he is not likely to openly praise as that would cause ‘approval seeking behaviour’ in us and further boost our ‘ahankaara’ which is the main hurdle in our progress. He is likely to show his appreciation in a more subtle manner. Anyhow for our progress in the spiritual line, he is sure to encourage us to control our sinful activities of ‘Paapa’ with disincentives and increase our noble activities of ‘Punya’ with incentives! This sort of immediate double pronged approach of incentives and disincentives that is so apparent in our interactions with a Guru is not so easily discernible with God!
146. More than all this he can correct us better than we can do ourselves when it comes to control of our proclivity towards sinful behaviour. Actually he takes off part our load and prays for us. His prayers are more powerful and effective than what we can ever do. For our sake he prays, argues and even fights with God and goes to the extent of giving orders to God, as I explained with examples. That is why Guru is to be venerated as more than God as believed in certain circles in North India, known as ‘Guru – Vaad’. Those who have that type of deep love, unshakeable trust and faith in Guru know as to how peaceful they are in their devotion to Guru than devotion to God!
147. If you ask me as to how can that be so, we have to firstly understand that Guru and God are not in a popularity contest! When we do not know for certain as to whether God is listening to our prayers and watching over our good and bad actions or not; how can there be certainty that he will get us out of the rut of our existence? Though we believe that there is a God listening to all our prayers, we are also simultaneously having doubts about that very belief! Any Award, praise, pay and promotion that we get; we attribute to our own effort and greatness! When it comes to brick-bats, loss and failures, we blame the world and feel that there is no justice in this world and question the very existence of God! So, in our doubts, fears and sorrow the very foundation of our faith is shaken. But those who have entrusted their fate in the hands of the Guru are peacefully complacent and serene without any doubts.
148. In the case of God, he is one for all millions and zillions of life forms. So amongst such multitudes the question as to whether God will remember to do the needful for us or not, remains dubious and uncertain. It looks as though god is sitting in heavens unconcerned and impersonal. But Guru in contrast, seems to be there specially meant for us who evinces personal attention on us. Instead of being responsible for the whole world, Guru seems to be accumulating only those whom he will reform and ennoble. Thus this personal rapport between us and the Guru is what gives us the feeling that he is ours!
149. Whatever God does, in our ignorant perspective, it seems to be something done by nature mechanically. We do not get the feeling that he is the doer. Till we attain to gnaana, whatever God does seems to be more incidental than intentional, whereas in what the Guru does we see a personal touch, which gives us confidence and assurance. Let us say that the table is full of eats of all varieties. But if there is nobody to attend and serve, do we enjoy it when we have to fill our plates on our own? But, even if it is only some porridge, when given with loving care by our mother saying “Come my dear child have this”, does not that personal touch add all the charm? Can this pleasure be there in however elaborate be the arrangement for the feast laid out? May be somebody has obviously taken the pains to cook it and laid it out only for us to partake! When we do not know as to who has made it and there is no one to be taking care of us, the pleasure and thrill seems missing! That is the difference between the God’s largesse and Guru’s Anugraha.
150. Till we also become capable of experiencing God’s Grace, Bounty and Anugraha like Sundara Murthy Swami and many other devotees of God like him who could directly interact with God, we will be subject to repeated bouts of doubt and ambiguity. One more point of interest. People say that all the problems and difficulties are also from God only, to the extent that our Ahankaara and the Devil are said to be his creation and his play only! Parasakti is said to be forcibly subjecting even highly evolved souls (Maha Gnaanis) to delusion and confusion! (Durga Saptasatee: I. 55 – 6.) They end their statement with saying that, “We can never know, understand or comprehend God’s ways!” Bhagawaan Sri Krishna himself says in Bhagawat Gita (XVIII – 61) that, “Like the merry go round in an amusement park, God makes people chase each other in a never ending cycle of Maya!” So thinking of God one is likely to fear as to what further play is in store for us! I quote: “Easwara: sarva bhootaanaam hruddeshe Arjuna tishtati I bhraamayan sarva bhootaani yantraa roodhaani maayaya II” This means: “The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, causing all beings, by His illusive power, to revolve as if mounted on a merry go round!”
151. Guru is not like that. Easwara is for both Gnaana and Maya. Whereas Guru is for opening our eyes to Gnaana by removal of ‘Agnaana’ that is Maya. You can never say that he gets pleasure by playing around with us. His self appointed duty is to get rid of all our troubles, confusion and ignorance. So there is no question of doubt or fear in our dealings with him. That is why it is said that being devoted to the Guru is that is ‘Guru Smarana’ is more peaceful.
152. What is ‘Guru Smarana’? ‘Guru Smarana’ that is to meditate on Guru is to think of his form or Roopa, his actions and quality, thereby dissolve our own minds completely; that is to make our minds stand still, dwelling on the Guru. For so long I have been talking to you as to how advantageous it is to be devoted to the Guru as compared to devotion for God. Let me dwell on it a little more. All the doings of God remain beyond our understanding and comprehension. There is no direct contact or touch between us and God. We have to think of what He has done for so many other devotees. It is very good if that fills our minds and heart. The way God has helped his devotees such as, how Droupadi was saved from disgrace and humiliation when Duchasana was trying to disrobe her; or how Kuchela was boosted from utter penury to abundance and affluence; or how Gajendra was recovered from the mortal drag of the crocodile; and so on and so forth; are all examples of how God can help the devotee in trouble. There are many such descriptions of God’s actions in Puranas. Sri Krishna’s Raas Leela, His Gitopadesa on the Kurukshetra battle field, Easwara’s Aananda Thaandava, Dakshinamurthy’s Upadesa to Sanaka and others, Rama’s advices to various people on various occasions throughout the Ramayana, - like that there is an abundance of examples for our minds to dwell on during meditation.
153. But, in our half baked state of maturity, instead of going deep in to the excellent ‘Kalyana Gunas’ of God, our minds quickly find excuses to run away at a tangent somewhere else. The main stumbling block is our preoccupation with our own plight in life! Then we think, “It is alright if He did all that to so many others but what has He done for us? Where is God and where are we? Can we be so lucky enough to get God’s Grace flowing to us?” Like that we may have some unsubstantiated questions and doubts. That is not the case with Guru Smarana. Actually if we sincerely search our own minds, we will know how much we should be indebted. If we have even the least amount of a sense of gratitude we will know the depth of Guru’s kindness. How much he perseveres for the cleansing of our self and improvement! In addition there is the human touch on which we are so dependent. There is no gainsaying the fact as given in the sloka – “gurur brhma gurur vishnu gurur devo maheswara: I guru saalchaat parabrhma: tasmai sri gurave namaha”.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.