DEIVATHIN KURAL # 103 (Vol # 5) Dated 27 Dec 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 103 (Vol # 5) Dated 27 Dec 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 page No 637 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)

515. How can a Brahmin marry a girl from the Vysya community you may wonder! But we should not forget that we are talking about an incident that happened long back. As we believe to the best of our knowledge, our AachaaryaaL’s Avatara is dated some 2,500 years back. We are looking at what happened when his Guru Govinda Bhagawat Paada was known as Chandra Sarma. Yoga Siddha Purushas like Gowda Paada and Govinda Bhagawat Paada could have lived for many hundreds of years unlike the common folks like us! As far as we can trace back there may be an unfathomable time gap here because, the spread of 72 non-Vedic religions do not get even a mention in the life history of the Guru and Parama Guru of our AachaaryaaL! The root Sanaatana Dharma was prevalent everywhere. We know that Suka AachaaryaaL is of the period of end of Dvapara Yuga and start of Kali Yuga. So these two AachaaryaaLs may be of the interregnum known as Yuga Sandhi, between 2,500 and 5,000 years back. May be Kali Yuga’s mischievous prevarications were not yet so noticeable then. There could have been many Brahmins who were still safe guarding the luminous power of their Brahma Tejas then.
516. One thing we must take note of. If the fire is powerful enough and the water is less then, water will be dried and evaporated. If the fire is small and water is more the fire can be extinguished. When the Brhma Tejas was more powerful, even when they happened to intermix with non-brahmins of lesser severity of Aachaara leading to even marriage and getting of progeny, it led to an up-gradation and ennoblement of the non-brahmin. That is how it was those days. A Brahmin had to be full of ‘Brhma Varchas’ with a tremendous self control, uncaring for women, wealth, progeny, possessions and properties. If he was like that, other castes would consider it a privilege to offer their daughters in marriage to such Brahmins as an opportunity for getting excellent offspring in their midst. He having obliged may walk out after the child is born or after imparting some education to the child, without getting mired in relationships. This custom in practice in earlier times is not approved or recommended in this Kali Yuga when ‘Brhma Varchas’ is noticeably dwindling. May be it was a socially acceptable practice in the early part of the Kali Yuga! (KTSV observes: May be this word ‘Varchas’ is the origin for the English word ‘Virtues’ as the words are very close in the meanings. The above practice may be explainable by the modern day studies of Genes / DNA and RNA.)
517. This is not acceptable for later day periods and virtually forbidden in the present day world. AachaaryaaL talks about people of his age itself as ‘alpa veeryatvaat’ ‘heena veeryeshuvaa vaartamaanikeshu manushyeshu’; to mean ‘nowadays people are of lesser potency and power’! That is some 2,500 years before now! (Refer to AachaaryaaL’s Bhashyam for BrhadaaraNyaka Upanishad 1.4.10.) Though he did his best to rekindle that Brhma Tejas and made it shine bright and effulgent, once again nowadays, the situation is worse than before! Now further mixing of castes instead of lifting up the lower castes will only lead to further deterioration of whatever Brhma Tejas that is there in the Brahmins!
518. In the times of Chandra Sarma instead of personal desire for it, due to some necessities as applicable to specific situations, there could have been some rare occasions of Brahmins conceding to such inter caste liaisons. That is why that Vysya father must have been keen on enabling his daughter to wed this brilliant young Brahmin evidently. But Chandra Sarma was not at all keen about this. Having earned the Maha Bhashyam after so much of effort and perseverance, he was mainly interested in teaching the Maha Bhashyam to worthy students. He was not for getting involved in the binding fetters of a family and household! So he started to go from there saying that he had no intention to get married. His dispassion and lack of interest in getting married further added fuel to the fire of the father and daughter’s firm resolve to get him anyhow!
519. The father was very clear that he was not going to let this lad get away. He said, “Your very life is her dole and charity out of human kindness to you, let alone being a Brahmin! We have every right to demand you as a son-in-law. Come to the King’s court. Let us find a solution to our dispute as per the King’s orders!” So, they went to the King’s court. One look at Chandra Sarma with his apparent brilliance and intelligence borne out of years of self control, Karma Anushtaana and Vidya Shoba; the King was already thinking of giving his daughter in marriage to this boy, even before the Vysya father could come out with his complaint! The King was deliberating, “This boy is looking very good. He has an attractiveness that goes beyond just the physical. We have been searching for an eligible match for our daughter everywhere! This Brahmin youth is the ideal choice. Let us check up with our minister if such a marriage has approval of the Saastraas.” He called forth the nearest servant, “Hey, who is there? Call my chief minister here at once!”
520. The minister came there. Normally the ministers used to be well read Brahmins. As he entered the place, one look at Chandra Sarma was enough to make him a fan of Chandra Sarma. The funny thing was that he also had a daughter of marriageable age. He was thinking, “Oh I see! It is evidently my good luck. The King knowing the fact that I have a daughter ready for marriage, has called me to tell me that he has selected this boy as my future son-in-law!” Before he could open his mouth, the King was enquiring the rules as per the Saastraas if it permits a Kshatriya girl to be wedded to a Brahmin boy!
521. The Minister clarified the situation saying that the proposal had the approval of the Saastraas. He further added a Brahmin boy with Brhma Tejas and Varchas could marry in the same Muhurtam (that is, auspices moment) a girl each from each one of the four Varnas, that is, Kshathriyas, Brahmins, Vysya and Sudras! He also put up his request to get his daughter also married to this boy! The king happily agreed that half the job is over. Unexpectedly getting a clarification for his case, the Vysya father who had brought this boy to the King’s court, also pleaded for his case, as to how his daughter had nursed and revived the Brahmin boy from near death situation! The King happily agreed to this plea also! So the appeal from three would be Father-in-laws had the King’s sanction and approval from the Saastraas! To make the three-quarters case wholesome, there was also a girl from the fourth caste waiting on the side lines!
522. Her case was this. She was a good looking girl of excellent character from the shepherd community. She used to serve the wayfarer mendicant Saadhus with milk and butter and take care of their creature comforts. They had blessed her that she is so noble and virtuous that she will one day get married to a Brahmin boy! They had given her description and signs to be able to recognise him when she sees him. That prediction was coming true now as this Chandra Sarma just evidently is the one indicated by those Saadhus! One after another seeing how it all developed, Chandra Sarma realised that this was just the Easwara Sankalpa (God’s wish) in addition to the King’s orders, that he should not only marry, but marry four girls one from each caste! Having decided not to ever get married, he ended up tying four knots to four different girls!
523. When you do get married, then you have to manage the Gruhasta Ashrama Dharma. Chandra Sarma got a son each from his wives and they were all intelligent children. Chandra Sarma educated all of them and taught them the Maha Bhashyam. To save the traditional Dharma Anushtaanaas one child is enough. The first born is called ‘Dharmaja’ given the responsibility to do Karmas. The children born after that are only ‘Karmaja’, who are to stand on their own and make a living. Amongst Namboodri Brahmins the household property goes to the eldest only. Because the ancestral property is also meant for works related to Dharma only. Similarly in royalty too the crown automatically goes to the eldest son only and not distributed amongst all the children. After the birth of a son each Chandra Sarma remained with Indriya Nigraha (that is, self control). By his superior intellectual acumen, his children were also quite brilliant. Since he had the responsibility to spread the knowledge of the Maha Bhashyam, he taught them all that he had ever learnt. Having spent some years on this, knowing that Maha Bhashyam will spread amongst the people after this, he gave up the married life and walked away as a mendicant nomad Sanyaasi.
524. The readers may like to know as to what happened to his children, quite rightly. As given in the Patanjali Charitram the son born to the Brahmin lady is the intellectual giant Vararuchi, known in the world of Sanskrit literature as next only to PaaNini and Patanjali, also known as Kaatyaayana. He was one of the Nava Ratna (Nine Gems) of the Vikrama Aaditya’s court! The boy born to the Kshatriya wife was this Vikrama Aditya himself! The third wife, the Vysya lady who took good care of Chandra Sarma when he was totally lost to the world, begot a son named Patti. He was Vikrama Aaditya’s Chief Minister. He has written a book known as ‘Patti Kaavyam’ that explains the rules of grammer through the story of Ramayana! The son born to the lady from the fourth caste was known as Bartruhari, who was a great poet and moralist as well as an Adwaitin and became as famous as the other three brothers of his!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.