DEIVATHIN KURAL # 33 (Vol # 5) Dated 04 Aug 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 33 (Vol # 5) Dated 04 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 197 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)
Rudra – Siva – Nataraja - Maheswara
21. In connection with the sloka on Guru, I started discussing the Holy Trinity of Brhma – Vishnu – Maheswara. Somehow or the other the discussion of Brhma got unduly extended. In the sloka it talks of Gurur – Brhma, Gurur – Vishnu: - Gurur – devo Maheswara:. In speaking about it however, people would refer to them as Brhma – Vishnu – Rudra and not Siva. That is the office bearers of Creation, Maintenance and Destruction & Re-absorption are of those three. That is, the Samhaara Murthy is not Siva but Rudra, the Saivites would say. Amongst the many forms of Siva, Rudra is also one. To be more correct, instead of the male gender Siva, they would refer to Sivam as the neuter gender. That Sivam is beyond words, description and comprehension. It is with form and formless. It is Satyam, Sivam, Sundaram, beyond all actions yet to be done. Sivam is not only responsible for Srushti (creation), Sthiti (maintenance), Samhaara (destruction and reabsorption) but also having two more offices namely, Tirodaanam (or Tirobhavam that is Maya) and Anugraham (that is, sanctioning blessings)! These five jobs put together are known as ‘Pancha Krutyam’.
22. Tirodaanam is, as I said above is Maya. How was the universe created and continues to come in to being; none can understand. Modern science can talk about the Big-Bang theory and so many other theories of Genesis by other religions. Our own religion talks of both continuous and continual cyclic theories of creation, sustenance, destruction and re-absorption. But there will never be a final word on this. With some power known as Maya, it is all a show of Magic! That is Tirodaanam. That is the basis of the jobs of the Mummoorthy, Trimurthy or Holy Trinity.
23. The fifth part of the job is ‘Anugraham’. Somehow, as and when the individual life form, the Jeeva, does any work – starting from wishing to intending – to actually doing – there is immediate ‘balance of payments account’ which gets initiated – which we call the Karma! Once created it has to be gone through or experienced. To do so, there has to be a body through which the Jeeva could experience. That body known as ‘Sarira’ has to have both the ‘AntahkaraNa’ – inner equipments of Mind, Intellect and Senses; and ‘PurahkaraNa’ – outer equipments of the Body, eyes, nose, ears, skin and tongue with arms legs and such tools. That is to say, to go through the effect of Karma to be experienced, it is not enough for the body to be just a doll! Then for the Jeeva to reap and harvest his or her Karma – (produce of Karma Vinai) there has to be, the Arena, the Play Ground or Battle Field! That is this world or ‘Jagat’, the stage on which we all arrive, and go after having played our part! To give us the Jeeva these four things, namely ‘Sarira, AntahkaraNa, PurahkaraNa and Jagat’ – is ‘Anugraha’ from God to mean a blessing indeed! Then the biggest ‘Anugraha’ is to enable the Jeeva to get released and relieved from the delusion of Maya to know that the ‘outer – Jeevaatma – Us’ is none other than the ‘inner – Paramaatma – Him or Her or It! That is Mukti or Moksha!
24. Let us recapitulate. In addition to the three well known jobs of God (or Gods), that is Creation, Sustenance and Destruction/Reabsorption, there is the fourth job of Tirodaanam (or Tirobhavam), pulling wool over the eyes of the created Jeeva through Maya; with the fifth job being blessing or Anugraha which gives the arena or stage that is the ‘Jagat’, in which the Jeeva can go through the Karma effects and get released finally. These five jobs of God are known as ‘Pancha Krutya’. Lord Nataraja’s lifted leg known as ‘Thookkiya Thiruvadi’ or ‘Kunchita Padam’ give this final upliftment!
25. Lord Nataraja’s cosmic dance is also called, ‘Pancha Krutya Parama Aananda Thaanadavam’! In the left hand he is holding the ‘Damaruka’, a small two sided drum held in the narrow centre by using the thumb, index and middle fingers. When Lord Nataraja twists the hand right and left using the wrist, the bead at the end of a small string repeatedly strikes against the two surfaces of the drum, whose rhythmic beat creates the worlds. Then his right hand is the ‘Abhaya Hasta’ which protects, governs and administers the worlds. Another hand is holding fire that does the ‘Samhaara’ act. His right leg is planted on ‘Musalaga’ indicative of ‘Tirodaana’ and left leg is lifted high up granting ‘Anugraha’.
26. Nataraja Sivam as Pramatma, is the root, origin and source for all causes and actions. From him for each type of job one Murthy emerges. Thus for Srushti – Sthithi – Samhaara, there are Brhma – Vishnu – Rudra. Then for Tirobhava and Anugraha, we have to have two more officials is it not so? For the ‘Tirobhava Karya’ there is Easwara who is referred to as Maheswara and the sanctioning authority of ‘Anugraha’ is Sadasiva. In short as per Saiva Saastraas, the Muzhu Mudar KadavuL, that is the Primordial God, using Brhma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and Sadasiva, gets these five jobs of Srushti, Sthithi, Samhaara, Tirodaana and Anugraha. In ‘Saaktam’ (in which Devi or AmbaaL is worshipped as the Primordial God), instead of Sivam, Sakthi is said to be, “pancha krutya paraayaNaa” as governing all these five jobs!
27. What has come about so far is that Rudra is the Samhaara Karta, whereas the Guru Sloka takes the name of Maheswara after Brhma and Vishnu as though Maheswara is responsible for the job of Destruction and Re-absorption and not Tirodaana! Instead of going into the intricacies of Saiva Saastraas, we should take it that, Maheswara is a common generic term for Sivam, Siva, Easwara and Rudra, I suppose.
28. In Vaishnavam, Vishnu is not considered as, only the Jagat Paripaalana Karta as part of the Trimurthys. He is the Muzhu Muthar KadavuL. All Devas are subservient to Him, including the Holy Trinity! But, unlike the Saivites, they do not talk of one Devata each for these five major divisions of their jobs. As Pancha Krutya they also talk about Param,Vyuham, Vibhavam, Archai and Antaryaami; but this seems to be some different classification. On a careful analysis, these may include these fivefold duties but, not exactly so. The name Narayana has special significance for them. In Ashtaakshari and Dwayam mantras this name of Narayana occurs. Still they do not claim that Narayana is their Primordial God or any such thing. Anyhow since the very tradition of theirs has the name of Vaishnavam and they have Vishnu Sahasranaama (thousand names of Vishnu) and Vishnu Purana, we can presume that they believe Vishnu to be the Primordial foremost God of theirs. (PeriyavaaL checked with a VaishNava gentleman standing nearby and said that, the Vaishnavas have an important ceremony known as ‘Pacharatram’ in which Narayana is an important Tantra and that Vishnu is the name as evolved from their Vaidic tradition.) (KTSV adds: I am not saying this out of any special knowledge about Vishnavas or any other sect. But, in our Hindu way of life, we have many names of Gods, at least a 1,000 names in their Sahasranaama-s for each one of them based on some description of their self or actions or role playing. But we know that all those names mean and refer to the same God and that all the Gods once again are one and the same God!)
29. Let us go back to the Guru Sloka. In it, first Guru is said to be Brhma and then Vishnu and then Maheswara; as each one of the Trinity, finally it ends saying that Guru is the Muzhu Mudar KadavuL – that is Primordial God saying ‘Guru saakshaat parabrhmaha tasmai sri gurave namaha’. The idea of Pancha Krutya being peculiar to the Saivites, we are not taking that into consideration now. Normally as we generally think of God’s portfolio, we think of the three important jobs. Having taken the names of the Trinity thus and having said that Guru is equal to each one of them; the Sloka goes on to say that the Primordial Muzhu Mudar KadavuL is that Guru and to him our obeisances.
30. Our AachaaryaaL has given one Dakshinamurthy Sloka containing the essence of all Adwaita Saastraas, known as Dakshinamurthy Ashtakam. Ashtakam normally contains eight stanzas. But in this Sloka, though called an Ashtakam, even after the eight stanzas, there are five more. All of them are very beautiful, with the essence of the Adwaita Siddhaanta. The first nine of them are finished with the words, “tasmai sri gurumuthaye idam sri dakshinaa murthaye”.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.