DEIVATHIN KURAL # 32 (Vol # 5) Dated 02 Aug 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 32 (Vol # 5) Dated 02 Aug 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 191 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)
11. In a branch of the Vedas known as Brahmanas, Brhma also called Prajapati is said to have done some mistakes. As the Vedas are the basic authority for all Hindus, for this reason of Prajapati’s mistakes, if I say that Vaishnavas also must have stopped worshipping Brhma; even such a statement does not hold good! For long after the Vedas had been evolved, there has been worshipping of Brhma, as revealed by the Puranas. Many of the Asuras have done much tapasya and got the boons from Brhma. Then having got the boons and become more powerful, the Asuras invariably started misusing the powers so obtained. They used to stop the Yaaga Karmas thereby deny the Devas their share of the Havis in the Yaagas. Thus whenever the Devas were in trouble, they have first gone to Brhma only with their problems, seeking relief. The general observation from all this is that, though not as the foremost first God, he has been worshipped as one amongst the holy Trinity. Then this worshipping of Brhma has been stopped for some reason by both Saivites and Vaishnavites. Why?
12. Come every day break, we the common folk start doing errors, mistakes and sins galore! Such being the case, I do not like to talk about the blunders said to have been done by these Gods at all! That too when the agnostics and people from other religions are ready to criticize at the drop of a hat saying, ’see they call them Gods and they do all sorts of errors worse than human beings!’ So I am of the opinion that it is enough to look at it from the Saivites point of view and we do not have to see the Vishnavites view point. I will make one more observation on this issue.
13. Brhma is one of Vishnu’s sons. There is another son called Manmatha, the God of Love. Both were born without any connection with Maha Lakshmi. Brhma was born in the Maha Vishnu’s Naval of a Lotus. In the case of Manmatha, he was created just by a thought to have a baby – instantly there was a child. So he is called the ‘maanaseeka putra’, that is the mind born son of Vishnu. There is a third son of Vishnu that he got through Siva in Mohini Avatara. He is worshipped and has huge following which is growing in numbers nowadays! Only for Brhma and Manmatha, there is no worship and or festivals! For this, one idea strikes my mind as the possible reasoning.
14. Both Manmatha and Brhma are the cause of our repeatedly being born in this world. Manmatha causes the urge for procreation and Brhma is the cause for all creation and deciding power of each soul’s fate or ‘Thalai Ezhuthu’! All the problems of life are identified because of our being born with a mind is it not so? All efforts through almost all religions are towards ‘Janma Nivrutti’ that is extrication from the cycle of birth and death, isn’t it? So, Brhma and Manmatha as the cause of all worldly involvement, are not worshipped I suppose. The very urge for sex, the cause for the coming into being of the next generation, seems not in our control and is the reason for many related faults and errors in our behaviour. Anyhow Manmatha was not the main topic of our discussion. I only happened to mention him also in passing. We were mainly discussing as to how Guru who is considered as an embodiment of each of the trio amongst whom only Brhma is not worshipped! May be all philosophical analysis leads to the conclusion that all the problems of life are due to being born in the world. So may be, we stopped praying to Brhma as the cause for our very coming in to this world!
15. Now your may wonder, ‘There were times when Brhma was also much worshipped. What is the reason for our changed attitude about Brhma?’ In the olden times the level and intensity of sins committed by man were not of the order as happening now. Even Nature’s fury is due to human indiscretion only. Evil influences have always been there. But neither were they so intense nor so wide spread. The main difference between the past and present in this matter is the difficulty in identifying the friend and foe! As the days run into months and years, the problems facing the world have become more and more complex. So, in earlier times to be alive and the journey of a life time was not so much of an agony. Everywhere there were more causes and opportunities for celebrations and religious activities. Meeting others were pleasureful experiences, each anecdote and event to be gone through and mulled over, being full of happy moments; unlike the present moment when one has to be all the time conscious of prices, increasing costs, systemic failures, protests, bunds, accidents and Nature’s fury! Gone are the days when there were many Avataras, Mahaans, Rishis and Saints. So in the olden times we may not have had much reason not to worship Brhma and possibly would have been beholden to him for having given us the chance to enjoy every moment of our lives.
16. The Idols in Vaishnava Temples. In the Vaishnava temples we do not come across the Nava Grahas representing the nine planets of the Solar system. The PerumaaL, with him the statues of Thayaar the Mother, his Avataras such as Rama, Krishna and so on; his immediate followers such as Garuda and Hanuman; his devotees known as Aazhvaars; would complete the picture. The Nava Grahas will be out of place in their temples. About Vaishnavas, it is said ‘marandum puram thozhaar’ meaning, that they will not worship others even absent-mindedly! For them PerumaaL is all to whom they are supposed to have surrendered their all. Equivalent principle of ‘Prapatti’ or ‘SaraNaagati’ that is total surrender is to be found in the Muslim religion for Allah and amongst the followers of Saiva Siddhantam for Siva. They do not believe in other Gods at all!
17. Brhma is Vishnu’s son. He behaved with due respects towards his father as revealed in many a PuraaNa. But he has not been hanging around Vaikundam but managed his own offices of creation of the universe. Maha Vishnu who is considered as the ‘Muzhu-Muthar-KadavuL’ by the VaishNavaas, plays his part as one of the Holy Trinity, as the sustaining, nourishing and maintaining power, Brhma takes the role of creating with an equal status, though being the son of Maha Vishnu. So possibly in the VaishNava temples, they give a place to only his followers or ardent devotees such as Aazhvaars and not to anybody else with an equal status. That is their way I suppose.
18. Brhma in Aagamaa-s. Despite what I have said so far, for one amongst the Holy Trinity, who simultaneously chants the Vedaa-s by his four mouths and creates all the worlds by the power of those Mantraas themselves, in the Aagama Saastraas they have required that Brhma’s statue be kept on the Vimaana over the GarbaGraha (that is the edifice over the sanctum sanctorum). Discerning devotees will be able locate him there.
19. He is the one who gives the individual soul his life time of existence. Any document or writing can be erased and rewritten but, not the ‘Thalai Ezhuthu’ that is also known as ‘Brhma Lipi’! Think of it. If you cannot have one more breath of existence, you cannot have one less too, whatever you may do to extend your life time by ‘Kaaya Kalpa’ or modern medicines! Brhma decides the life span of every entity of existence by a system of absolute logic based on our own actions in life. To blame him for doing such a perfect job is to curse the arrow when the one who shot at us is standing there; that is ourselves! In our past lives we have done we do not know what all, adding to the load of this life time, as Praarabdam. The freedom to evade that is just not there. But the freedom is always there to extricate ourselves by dissipating the past accruals by doing PuNya Karma in this life time while all the time guarding against additions of demerits by way of Ahankaara, hate, jealousy, greed and so on.
20. Brhma did not give us this life time based on some random data! All our past accruals may not be cancelled out in this life time. One day or the other this body will come to a stop by what is known as the Deha Dharma. There may be some more account to be settled or balanced. For every one who dies, cannot be given Moksham or Release till all the accounts are settled! He cannot just go back to eternal divinity of Nityaananda! Then there can be a period as Aavi, Pei-Pisaasu, or Ghosts of ethereal existence. Then one is born again and given yet another opportunity to make amends and change directions! Here is where Brhma’s role comes in. There is no meaning in denigrating his not very enviable role playing. But in the state that we find ourselves in, it is true that we do not find much solace in worshipping him and rather prefer to go to Vishnu or Siva! So we do not exhibit much devotion for Brhma I suppose in our temples too!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.