DEIVATHIN KURAL # 69 (Vol # 5) Dated 19 Oct 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 69 (Vol # 5) Dated 19 Oct 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 page No 415 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that here in 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
193. Like all of us, even an Avatara Purusha will allow the feelings of anger, sadness, fear and such. He lets such feelings affect him at the mind level, I feel because at the inner level anyhow he is totally and absolutely unaffected. Normally a person who is an Aatma Gnaani will not bother about whatever be the conditions to which his body is subjected to, such as cold as in the arctic tundra or heat as obtains in the arid Saharan desert. But one’s mind is still different from the Aatma isn’t it? He could not possibly completely delink himself from his mind. He is a man who has come as a Jeevan, still subjected to the Maya / Prakruti. The very mind is a creation of the Maya. It is by sheer will that the Gnaani has got the mind under his control. So he cannot possibly allow the mind to give scope for feelings such as anger, desire and or sadness. Only God is above all this subjectivity to Maya. He is born as another one like us, by his own volition, still remaining uncontrolled by Maya. Durga Sapta Sati says, “gnaaninaam api chetaamsi devi bhagawati hi saa I bhalaad aakrushya mohaaya mahamaayaa prayachchati II”, meaning, ‘the (chit) mind and intellect of even a Gnaani is forcibly attracted and driven into delusion by the great power of Maha Maya’. Similar can never be the state of God himself, because the power of Parasakti the Maha Maya is all his. As all by himself as Parabrhmam or as an Avatara amongst the mortal human beings, whenever and wherever he wishes, he could call forth or dismiss the Maha Maya. That is why she is called Para Shakti, the power above all, except I suppose the Para Brhmam.
194. When he comes amongst us as an Avatara, so as to interact with us, encourage us and show us the way, so that his disguise may fit him properly, without any hesitation or fear he allows the whole spectrum of feelings of the mind to be exhibited. So an Avatara Purusha can display all these feelings of anger, fear, passion and even disgust. Like a Gnaani lets his body suffer in silence, the Avatara Purusha allows his mind the full play of feelings. But, that cannot and will not affect his state of being the Paramaatma. It cannot come in the way of his main aim of ‘Dharma Sthaapana’, that is the Re-establishment of Moral Standards in the society. Slightly, seemingly he may look as though he is falling and failing. But he will recover and straighten up and overcome. For him all this is only play acting!
195. We Should Have no Doubts About Avatara-s. In this play, the Avatara Purusha may go up to the other extreme as though he has come under the control of Maya. Lest we may suspect him, he has clarified that he has Maya under his strict control by his statement, “prakrutim swaam adhishtaaya”. In AachaaryaaL’s story, is there one single action of his which can be looked at with the doubt as to why should he have done that? In Kaladi for the ease of his old Mother, he caused the river to flow nearer so that she may not have to walk a long distance to have a dip in the river every day! He sang the Kanaka Dhaaraa Sthavam and caused Maha Laxmi to rain gold to help out a poor woman who had the kindness and compassion, that she went to any length of efforts so that she may be able to give some alms to the young child who had come to the door of her hut saying, ‘Bhavati bikshaam dehi’, meaning, ‘kindly give me alms’. Then in the north, he controlled the flood of the Narmada River. Having displayed such super human abilities even as a child or a small boy, in Kaasi when the Presiding Deity of that place, Viswanatha Swami came in front of him dressed as a Pariah, he told him to stay away and not come too close. Then he took advices from him and did a bodily prostration at the feet of Viswanatha Swami. On that incident if a question arises in our minds as to why should he have been so crude, we should get a clarification in our minds by remembering the statement in Gita as to how, God comes amongst us keeping the Maya under his control and not doubt his ‘all knowingness’!
196. With the Avatara-s it will seemingly look as though there is the effect of Maya. But Maya cannot be in a state of ownership as it does with all of us. Avatara is the owner and Maya is under his control and not otherwise. But instead of being the autocratic owner – chief, he is a playful one who lets the Maya seemingly rule over him, but in a jiffy throws away its reign aside. The one who cries in the pain of separation from his beloved asking every tree, plant, sun and moon if they have seen Sita being taken away; is the same one who constructs a bridge over the raging ocean; fights and wins a battle against the Asuras and then when his wife comes back to him lovingly, tells her in all clarity, “I got you out of imprisonment because of the fact that it was my duty to do so! Now you can go wherever you want as I have no attachment!” The divine power that kills Sakatasura as though in a child’s play, also displays human frailty the next moment, in getting a thrashing from cowherd girls for stealing and eating butter! Once we understand that the Avatara can alternate between either ends of the extremes, we will not ask the question as to, ‘How can it be? How is that there are so many irreconcilable contradictions?’
197. Deterioration of Dharma as Never Before. What Krishna Paramaatma said about Avatara is exactly the very reasons of Sankara Avatara. Did he not say that he will be born amongst us whenever Dharmam dwindles and Adharmam is on the ascendant? That sort of a situation was obtaining some 2,500 years after Krishna Paramaatma dropped his mortal coil. We have talked enough about the state of affairs existing then. In short, the situation was not exactly as it was at the time of Sri Krishna’s Avatara, when both Pravrutti and Nivrutti Dharmas were badly being affected. The situation was much worse. If prior to Krishna’s time, Pravrutti Marga was being observed for benefits of Iham and Param, instead of being observed as Karma Yoga; with that, further worsening of the situation happened now prior to Sankara’s birth. At the least at the time of Krishna people were still adherents of the injunctions of the Vedas. But at the time of Sankara, a whole lot of people had come into being, who were against the methods and teachings of the Vedas! Even in the Nivrutti Marga the aim was indicated to be something like Gnaana but actually a Zero or Soonyata or something like a ‘Thrisangu Swarga’ which is neither here nor there! At least in the known past of history and of Puranas, there has never been such a state affairs, ever before! So, all said and done, there was a crying need for the arrival of God on the scene as an Avatara, to protect and save the Pravrutti and Nivrutti Margas from total extinction.
198. There was one major difference in the work cut out for the Avatara-s of the past and Sankara Avatara now. The main aim of Avatara-s as we had seen earlier was always, ‘paritraaNaaya saadhoonaam and vinaashaaya cha dushkrutaam’, that is to, ‘save and protect the well behaved saintly ones and destroy the ill behaved renegades’. There was never a problem with the first clause of, ‘protecting the well behaved adherents’. In the earlier times majority of people were well behaved adherents to the ways of the Vedas and with the arrival of the Avatara on the scene, there was rejuvenation amongst them instantly. Even now there was not much of a problem on this score as, whatever number of Saadhoos that were there were very happy for having obtained a leader who so willingly espoused their cause! The major problem was with the second clause of ‘vinaashaaya cha dushkrutaam’!
199. In Krishna Avatara and before, the misbehaved renegades were easily identifiable as being some Rakshasaas, Asuras and some tyrant kings. But at the time of Sankara this task had taken some different dimensions! The problem was ‘how to identify or classify anybody as a friend or foe?’ One could not easily isolate the opponents. There was no one who looked or behaved like a Kamsa, Jarasanda and or Kaalanemi. There were more who looked like normal human beings, like the Duryodana and other Kauravas widely spread amongst the populace. At least the Duryodana and other Kauravas were openly crudely behaved and cruel. But at the time of our AachaaryaaL’s arrival on the scene, there were more seemingly talking good, acting good but advocating such things which could not even be correctly identified as Adharmam! Except for a few, the whole lot of people were stuck in the flow of Adharma Pravaaham! In this stage, what is the method to be adopted for the destruction of ‘dushkrutaam’? Mass destruction cannot be the answer anyhow. You do not need an Avatara Purusha for what is achieved by Pralaya that is the Armageddon, the universal holocaust! This is what I called the problem faced by God himself!
200. When there was nobody as an Asura physically identifiable and demoniacal tendencies have entered majority of people’s minds, how to solve the problem? How to carry out the task of ‘Dushta Samhaaram’? Vishwamitra had the Dharmic idea of conducting some special Yagnas. Some Asuras interfered in the conduct of such Yagnas. Rama and Lakshmana fought against the miscreants and destroyed them and so they did, ‘dushta nigraham and sishta paripaalanam’. Project the same scenario in to Kali Yuga. First of all the devil would have got into Vishwamitra’s mind and he may not have decided to conduct the Yagna or even if he does, the purpose would have been something nefarious! Then how is the purpose of the Avatara to be achieved? How is ‘dushta sikshaNam (punishing the miscreants), sishta rakshaNam (protecting the well behaved) and dharmoddaaraNam (raise the moral standards)’, are to be achieved? We could not have found the solution. Our AachaaryaaL did! From the physical, the battle field had moved in to the minds of the people and so the battle had to be fought there!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.