DEIVATHIN KURAL # 85 (Vol # 5) Dated 20 Nov 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 85 (Vol # 5) Dated 20 Nov 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 last para on page No 511 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)
337. To Give The Message of Need for Total Inaction – An Avatara of Dynamic Ebullience! Swami DakshiNa Murthy decided to take an Avatara for this very specific purpose of opening the way for the state of total inaction. ‘By strongly recommending and establishing the state of total inaction, me who has been a supreme example for static stoicism and Mauna (silence), will take an Avatara, visit all parts of India continuously; discuss and debate with all intellectual luminaries both with similar minded views and contradictory convictions; write copiously on Devotion and Adwaita Siddhaantam; and write Bhashyas (commentaries with explanatory notes) on Bhagawat Gita, Brhma Sutra and important Upanishads, firmly establishing Adwaita Siddhaantam through Devotion. As much as I have been keeping quiet in Mauna doing nothing, I have to do the exact opposite of talking as much as possible, propagating the value of silence and stoic inactivity.’ (PeriyavaaL smiles while saying this at the irony of his own statement!) That was the Easwara Sankalpa!
338. Sambu Becomes Sankara. There is a sloka in ‘Maadaveeya Sankara Vijayam’ as follows – “agnaanaantar gahana patitaan aatma vidya upadesai traatum lokaan bhava –tava – sika – taapa – paapasyamaanaan I muktvaa maunam vatavitapino – moolato nishpadantee sambhor – murthy: charati bhuvane sankara aachaarya roopa II” The sloka is written as though addressing Adi Sankara in his direct presence, over flowing with love and respect. So it is in the present tense – ‘charati bhuvane’ – that he is going about in the world – as though being seen in front of one’s eyes.
339. Who is being seen to be going about in the world? That is ‘sambhor murthy’ – sambhu or Siva’s Murthy. One of the names of Siva is ‘Sambhu’ or ‘Sambhomahadeva’! Siva’s devotees are referred as ‘Saivas’ or ‘Saambhava’ or ‘Parama Saambhava’. His consort AmbaaL is ‘Saambhavi’. Amongst many Mantra Deeksha-s ‘Saambhavi Deeksha’ is rather special as being very powerful. OK right, what is the meaning of ‘Sambhu’ and how is that name evolved? ‘Sam’ means eternal bliss or happiness. In Rudra and Chamaka, two types of happiness are mentioned. One is ‘sam’ and the other ‘mayas’. So Rudra is called ‘Sambhu’ and ‘Mayobhu’. Those who have dissected the words for meaning while writing the Bhashya-s have identified the word ‘Mayobhu’ as the source of happiness in Iham and ‘Sambhu’ as the source of bliss in Param that is, the eternal bliss of Moksha.
340. To the ‘Sam’, ‘bhu’ is the spring or source; and the two words put together become ‘Sambhu’. The place of birth or spring or source is the ‘bhu’. As the place of birth for all of us, this earth is called the ‘Bhulokam’. The place of origin for the eternal bliss of ‘sam’ is ‘Sambhu’. When Parameswara is sitting as the Adwaita Brhmam DakshiNa Murthy as the source of Moksha Aananda, he is called ‘Sambhu’. That form of DakshiNa Murthy, sitting under the ‘vata vitapi’ the Vata Vruksham that is the banyan tree, in absolute silence of ‘mauna’ is what is described here. He is called the ‘vata vitapi moola stita’ sitting under the banyan tree close to the base or roots. He is ever silent. Why? To talk, there has to be a second person. When you are all alone, there is no chance for a talk. He is the very form of the knowledge that there is no one else other than himself. That is the Adwaita Brhma Gnaana that we are all the time talking about. All the talking is only till that knowledge is not yet the reality of our Anubhava. Once that knowledge or awareness is inhered, all talking ceases. So, he is ‘mauni’ an epitome of silence. You have to have some matter to talk. To think of the matter there has to be a mind. DakshiNa Murthy Swami is in the truest state of mindlessness. How can a word arise without a thought and how can a thought form when there is no mind? So, he has to be silent only. As the originating source of ‘Sam’, that is as the ‘Sambhu’, to be absolutely silent is his nature.
341. The rivers have a starting point. Somewhere high up on a hill there will be a small pond from which a trickle of water will be flowing out as a very small stream initially. Even that stream may not be easily noticeable. We may see only a stagnant pond. That is how it is slightly north of Gangotri. Then it falls out through the rocks that look like the mouth of a cow, known as ‘Gomukh’ from where the river is said to start. The river Cauvery starts at a hillock Brhmagiri, in Kodagu Desa in the range of hills known as the Sahayadri Mountains. There it is called ‘Thalai Cauvery’ that looks like a small pond of water.
342. What is the use of a small stagnant pool of water somewhere high up in the mountains? May be some animals can use them. May be some enthusiasts interested in trekking and adventure, with some difficulty cross the inaccessible forests, valleys, dales and rivers; and feel happy about their achievement. May be some can write a book about it and some others can read it! But otherwise, what is the use of such a water source? There used to be a proverb which says, ‘vaazh naaLai koduththu vaaNa teertam’, that is to say that you have to stake your life to go to such places as VaaNa Teertam! VaaNa Teertam or BaaNa Teertam is the originating point of the Taamra BharaNi River! That pool of water without any waves or the gurgling sound of water, instead of remaining stagnant as a small pond, when it starts moving down the mountains joining with many other streams becomes a river, it is of much use to the people at large!
343. DakshiNa Murthy as Sambhu used to be remaining silent like a spring at the starting point of a river before commencing its journey towards the ocean. Like some who reach the starting point of the river with great difficulty, some great saints or Maharishis after much effort could go to that DakshiNa Murthy and could benefit spiritually in understanding the very essence of existence. From those few great Maharishis others could draw some solace. But not all people could hope to make such efforts and reach DakshiNa Murthy. At the time about which I am talking, that is some 2,500 years before now, people were ignoring even those Maharishis’ words and going astray, as I had described earlier. Like being lost in the forest of thick undergrowth, people were lost. That is what is meant by ‘agnaanaantar gahana patitaan’ as the sloka quoted earlier says.
344. It is difficult enough if you have lost your way and stuck in a dense forest. Then if that forest is also burning, you can think of how bad it can be. The forest is the simile for Agnaana, which means that you are far away from the path towards Moksha. What does it mean? Bhandam and Moksham are antonyms. Bhandam is being tied up as though you are stuck in chains. It is being tied in the whirl pool of the vicious cycle of life and death. Moksham is the state of freedom. Only the Adwaita Aanandam can give you that freedom. From what you thought of yourself as the small, limited and separate individual, you come to realise that you are the same as the unitary whole of Parabrhmam. Gnaana is that royal path (Raj Path) and Agnaana is the centre of the inaccessible forest on fire. In it ‘Samsaara’ of worldly involvement is the forest fire in which people are being roasted alive! This is what is described in that sloka as ‘bhava –tava – sika – taapa – paapasyamaanaan’.
345. I said that Swami DakshiNa Murthy is sitting silently immobile in Kailasa under the Vata Vruksha like the spring from which the river starts off. What is that spring? It is spring from which the eternal flow of ‘Sam’ starts flowing. That eternal flow is the Gnaana Adwaita Moksham. All other pleasures of life are all fleetingly transient also mixed with a packet of the opposite. That starting point ‘bhu’ of ‘sam’ is ‘Sambhu’, who releases us from the ties of Agnaana and provides the nectar of eternity!
346. Now let us connect up the two. Here people are getting roasted in the forest fire of Agnaana. There DakshiNa Murthy is quietly sitting in total silence cool as the spring of Moksha Sukha. If this forest fire of involvement in the worldly affairs due to Agnaana is to be quenched, we have to bring that ‘teertam’ of the flow of ‘sam’, down to this level, where we are anyhow stuck? Except for some Maharishis like Sanaka, we the common folks of the world are not able to go to those exalted heights! So now what to do? Bhagirath brought the Ganges from the heavens to this mother earth! Who has the power to do such herculean tasks? Who has the power to bring that Siva (who could bear the fall of Ganga from the heavens and let a controlled trickle reach down to the earth,) here? Because he is ever in Adwaita Samaadhi and so completely immoveable, the only way that he can be brought down is, as and when he decides to come down as an Avatara!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.