DEIVATHIN KURAL # 104 (Vol # 5) Dated 29 Dec 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 104 (Vol # 5) Dated 29 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 643 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)
(Note: There is a contradiction in terms of the likely dates of these events as well as the names of the sons of Chandra Sarma as per the experts in History and research analysts of the Saastraas. PeriyavaaL has gone mostly by what is given in the Patanjali Charitram and the general belief that is prevalent all over India. We can safely slide through avoiding any controversy and go by what PeriyavaaL has said.)
525. Chandra Sarma intended to go back to his Guru Gowda Paada from whom he had received Maha Bhashya Upadesa, for Sanyaasa Deeksha also. He came to know that his Guru had gone to the Himalayas and taken Sannyaasa Deeksha from Suka Brhmam and was still in the area of Badrikashram only. Earlier his Guru had asked him a question about ‘nishta pratyaya’. Now the disciple wanted ‘Brhma Nishta’ Upadesa from the same Guru! Guru Gowda Paada was thrilled to receive his old disciple. He was more than pleased to give his disciple Sannyaasa Deeksha now. From that time his ‘poorva ashrama’ name Chandra Sarma was gone to be renamed as ‘Govinda Bhagawat Paada’. Sri Krishna is the Jagat Guru. Out of his names Govinda is something special. This Chandra Sarma aka Govinda Bhagawat Paada is the one to become the Guru of our Adi Sankara later in this narrative. As Govinda is the name of the Jagat Guru for all the worlds and also our AachaaryaaL’s own immediate Guru, he seems to have had a special liking for that name that he made the whole world reiterate his famous, “Baja Govindam, Baja Govindam, Baja Govindam” song!
526. Sanyaasis in Guru Parampara. Starting from Narayana to Suka Brhmam, in our traditional lineage, nobody was a Sanyaasi as such as we know of them. None of them had shaved off the hair on their head, wearing the ochre robes and or removed their Yagnyopaveeta that is, PooNool! That is so in the case of the ever silent Aadi Guru DakshiNa Murthy too. Like Narayana and Brhma, DakshiNa Murthy has remained a divine being. It is only human beings who have to go through the four Ashramas namely Brhmacharyam, Gruhastam, Vanaprastam and Sanyasam. Vasishta, Shakti, Parasara and Vyasa are Rishis who cannot be considered as simply human beings but a class apart! They could recognise the breath of Easwara in the form of Mantras in the open spaces of the Universe (known by the generic name of Aakaasa), by their super human abilities, receive those Mantras and could transmit them for the benefit of the humanity at large. So the definition of Rishis is ‘Mantra Drashtas’ or the Seers of Mantras.
527. Some human beings tend to develop their human powers to such levels that they go beyond the limits of human capabilities. With those powers, they have also ‘Ashta Maha Siddhies’ and many other divine abilities not as something special but, as part of their ordinary abilities. So for the purposes of classification, we have three, namely Deiveekam (divine beings), Maanusham (human beings) and Aasuram (Asura or non- divine beings). With those three we have a fourth class of beings known as Aarsham (the Rishis). In terms of protocol we have Aarsham after Deiveekam and before Maanusham, as people who started as human beings, went beyond human capabilities but remained short of becoming divine beings! From Vasishta to Vyaasa they were all like that only. None of them were Sanyaasis who had cut and thrown away their PooNool or shaved their heads or taken to wearing of the ochre clothes. But they were all attained souls who had realized their Self or in other words attained Brhma Gnaana! That is, they were already arrived at the destination that is aimed to be reached through the act of taking Sannyaasa Ashrama! (We do not have to even say that DakshiNa Murthy, Narayana and Brhma; had Brhma Gnaana already!)
528. Then was Suka. In what condition was he? He was in such a condition that from childhood or even before birth, he had the clarity of Adwaita Gnaana. So, nowhere is there any talk about his taking up Sanyaasa either. No shaving off the hair on the head; no removal of PooNool as he never got Upanayanam; and no ochre clothes as he never wore any clothes at all! Such people who never had body – consciousness’ requiring wearing of clothes, were known as Digambara or Avaduta. Avaduta is somebody who has forsaken all. In Digambara, there are two words as ‘dig’ and ‘ambara’; ‘dig’ means cardinal directions and ‘ambara’ means clothes. For example ‘pitaambara’ which Sri Krishna is said to be wearing is the ‘yellow cloth’. For the Digambara the very directions are his clothes. How is that? When we are wearing clothes we are enveloped by the clothes in all directions? When there are no clothes we are enveloped and surrounded in all directions by those very directions! That is what is meant by Digambara. We ordinary folk say that they are NirvaaNa, meaning that they are naked. Knowingly or unknowingly we are correct in saying that, as they are in ‘NirvaaNa’ the truest and highest state of awareness when you are totally unaware of the world and surroundings! Suka Brhmam was in such a state.
529. NirvaaNa. The Jain and Buddhist religions are often thought of and spoken about as one religion by people from other religions due to paucity of understanding. Amongst Jains there are more people who do not wear clothes than amongst Buddhists. They are called ‘Sramanas’, which is known as ‘Samanas’ in Tamil or even ‘Amanas’ or ‘Ammanam’ which means ‘naked’! Relating their ‘Ammanam’ or nakedness with Buddhists’ NirvaNa’ may be due to the fact that these two words are almost considered as synonymous!
530. The direct meaning of NirvaaNa is ‘to blow out light of the Deepak or candle’. To blow off and extinguish the burning and bright light is NirvaaNa. Nothing else can be so obliterated as you can do with the glow of the lamp in less than even a fraction of second! Even water has to be heated, boiled and dried. Even then it becomes only water vapour. Similarly the other five ‘Boothas’ too can never be done away with. Even when you think that you have obliterated them, they will be existent in some other form not seen by the eyes! Matter can never be destroyed. For the fire to burn, we need oxygen; but the fire is not to be thought of as made up of the atoms of oxygen. Agni or fire, as it is not made up of atoms its roopa or form can be obliterated. To get so extinguished is NirvaaNa. Amongst Boothas the most powerful and virulent is this Agni. Even a small spark if fire is difficult to be tolerated. Even that small spark can burn out a whole village or forest! Remember the famous statement of Maha Kavi Bharathiyaar? “Agni – kkunjonru kanden, athai maraththinil oru pondinil vaiththen. Vendu thaNindadu kaadu”. That means, ‘I found a spark and kept it in a small hole in the tree and the forest burned and abated!’ None of the other Boothas has such potency. Only a fire’s form can be so done away with. Can you do that to a wind? You can try and create a vacuum within an enclosed space but, there will still be some air. It is like the process of division of one by two and you get half. Further as you go on halving the resultant fraction, can you ever finish?
531. The ‘Jeevaatma Bhaavam’ is something that is a body with eyes, ears and other parts, their millions of experiences with a strong sense of its being a unique ‘something’! That inner being called the ‘anta: karaNam’, with Manas (mind), Chittam (will), Buddhi (intellect) and Ahankaaram (ego); causing that each individual to feel separate and unique! These four entities though having no independent existence are beyond any control of even that one individual. So one goes on endlessly gratifying the desires of that ‘anta: karaNam’. The sense that ‘I am this body’ thus gets established with roots that are deeply and strongly embedded. With much potency like the Agni it is capable of heating, singeing, frying, drying, scorching and scalding! To cause that sense of individuality to be extinguished as we do with Agni was given the name ‘NirvaaNa’! Slowly but steadily after progressing step by step in the path of Saadhana or endeavour, that destination is reached when in the last step, almost at the threshold, there is a tornado of ‘Easwara Anugraha’ or God’s Grace, that in one fell sweep removes the sense of ‘dehaatma buddhi’ or ‘Jeevaatma Bhaava’ of being a separate individual entity. That process is very aptly given the name of ‘NirvaaNa’!
532. There is a mistaken belief that Buddha was the first one to give this process the name of NirvaaNa. Much before him, in our Saastraas this liberation of the being from the tyranny of ‘dehaatma buddhi’ or ‘Jeevaatma Bhaava’ has been christened as ‘NirvaaNa’! In the Bhagawat Gita (II – 72), Sri Krishna in defining the ‘Stitapragna’ (the one merged in Gnaana) says that he ‘brhma NirvaaNam ruchchati’, meaning that he reaches ‘Brhma NirvaaNam’. Three chapters later in the chapter on Sanyaasa Yoga (V – 24, 25 and 26th slokas) he says that the Yogi “abiding in his Self, totally merging in the inner effulgence, while still living in this mortal body experiences ‘Brhma NirvaaNa’!”
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.