DEIVATHIN KURAL #169 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #169 (Vol #4) Dated 31 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 946 of Vol 4 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)
74. ‘Vaktram’ means both ‘face’ and ‘mouth’. Having used that word for the face of his Guru, had Padmapaadar used any word for the mouth subsequently in that sloka, it was likely to be misconstrued for the face! So, I suppose he left it unsaid for the reader’s imagination to fill in the gap. Poets compare the face, eyes, hands and feet with the lotus in Sanskrit and use such phrases as, ‘mukhambhojam’ ‘nayana kamalam’, ‘paada padmam’ and ‘kara aravindam’; etc. Here Padmapaadar instead of describing the face of AachaaryaaL as a lotus, is calling it the Maanasa Saras and his Bhashyam the honey of the lotus. We have to presume that his mouth is the lotus that he is alluding to. Bhashyam is normally philosophy, hard like the rock. But, even this philosophy, from our AachaaryaaL’s lotus like delicate and beautiful mouth becomes the very pleasant honey!
75. Bhashya’s core meaning of Adwaitam is as sweet as the taste of the honey. To drink that honey sishyas are hovering around like so many bees. Here instead of saying sishyas, the word used is ‘vineya’ that is, the students who are ardent and humble! Like this sloka talking about lotus like face, honey like words and the bee like sishyas, there is another sloka about our AachaaryaaL. That sloka is in a stone inscription of 800 year’s vintage. It will surprise you if I tell you as to where this stone carving was found in! It was found in Cambodia. In it our AachaaryaaL has been referred to as “Bhagawat Sankara”. Here we call him only as Bhagawat PaadaaL, meaning someone who all the time focussed on God’s feet. There they have gone one step higher and referred to him as Bhagawan Himself! In that sloka his feet have been equated with the lotus as “angri pankajam”. It says that all the assembled learned vidwaans have prostrated before him with their heads in his feet with the firm conviction that they will not move away! ‘Bhagawan Sankara’s feet are lotus like that all the learned pundits’ heads are milling around like bees on it’, it says, “nissesha – soorie – moordaa: - ali – maalaa – leedaangri – pankajaat ”.
76. Earlier I mentioned the sloka by Padmapaada on his guru Adi Sankara BhagawatpaadaaL. Here instead of referring to his face or feet as a lotus, the Bhashyam has been referred as the pollen of the lotus. It seems that the students as the bees are partaking the honey of Adwaita Rasa from his lotus like mouth. Here the students are being referred as the ‘vineeta vineya brungaa:’ as the well disciplined bees. In that stone carving in Cambodia, the word ‘nissesha soorie’ means all the learned pundits are all prostrating with their heads resting on AachaaryaaL’s feet without leaving a single person left out! Further, the words in the inscription means; ‘moordaa: = heads, of ali + maala = the whole series of bees.
77. Padmapaadar mentioned the Bhashyam is like the honey while the Cambodian inscription talks of the feet which are like the lotus without talking about Bhashyam. But since all the ‘nissesha soorie’ people are well educated, their prostrating, resting their heads on his feet cannot be construed to be similar to the devotion of the common man. So, it can be derived that instead of being simple devotion and faith, their veneration is based on deep understanding of his words of the Bhashya. Here the ‘paada padmam’ has been mentioned leaving the ‘makarandam’ from the Bhashya to be divined by the reader.
78. Appayya Deekshidar while composing his ‘adika tapitaa’ sloka, says that from the lotus of AachaaryaaL’s mouth the outpouring Adwaita ‘sookti’ flow, washes away our illness of the cycle of births and deaths. The word ‘sookti’ is to be understood as ‘su + ukti = sookti’, that is exquisite articulation. The whole song is here: “adika tapitaa poorva aachaaryaan upetya sahasra rataa saridiva maheen bhaagaan sampraapya souri padodgataa I jayati bhagawat paada sriman mukha ambuja nirgataa janana haraNee sooktir brhma adwaita paraayaNaa II”
79. Here the lotus of the mouth and the flow from there is mentioned. We can easily discern that he is talking about the flow of nectar of AachaaryaaL’s expression. Thus in the three quotations, in the first honey has been mentioned without mentioning the mouth; in the second mouth and honey have been unsaid while talking of the hovering bees and in the third, lotus like mouth and the flow from that have been described leaving the honey to be discerned. In all the three quotations, the poetic beauty of leaving something unsaid to be presumed and mulled over is to be appreciated! Amongst them Padmapaada referring to the disciples as ‘vineya’ is directly related to the matter that we are now discussing.
80. The surprising thing about our AachaaryaaL is not only that his disciples were very humble, he as the ‘Jagat Guru’ was himself an exemplary personification of humility! You must be knowing about his work ‘Soundarya Lahari’. Devotion, mastery of the literary idiom, beauty of the language and word selection, sharpness of the concepts, intricate details of the Mantra Saastra and deep philosophical ideas; are all plentifully evident in it. In addition, that very work has intrinsic power of Mantra. In his vast array of works, that one work is good enough to give him well deserved pride. But, he did not have an iota of pride despite his super human achievements in the fields of devotion, literary works, oratorical conquests, missionary work and physically walking the length and breadth of this vast country visiting every nook and corner; all that done in a matter of 32 years!
81. He never had an idea that he has done anything great! At the end of Soundarya Lahari he tells Universal Mother AmbaaL, “Amma! You who are the ocean of sound and words may please kindly bear with me. I have made an effort to describe you in some 100 odd slokas. You know how it is? It is like what religious minded people do while having a ceremonial dip in the ocean at Setu Teertam at Rameswaram, after each dunking they come up to the surface and pick up water with their two hands and offer it back to the ocean! It is like that symbolical act of theirs only! Like this in all humility, he gives three more examples.
82. Thus despite being the Avatara of Parameswara, he was the very form of ‘Vinaya’. To us who are without any real power roaming about as though there is no end to our abilities, he stands besides ourselves and teaches us, how to pray by saying, “avinayam apanaya” (remove my lack of humility), in the ‘Shat Padi’ sloka. ‘Adakkam’ as they say in Tamil is one quality of real humility needed to be a good student. Once that one asset is there, all other good and salubrious qualities follow the leader one by one. ThiruvaLLuvar also said, “adakkam amararuL uikkum”!
83. From the school days, the children should be trained in humility. A Tamil proverb says, “Aindil vaLaiyaadadu aimbadil vaLaiyaadu”, meaning, ‘what cannot be bent in the childhood cannot be achieved in later years’! As the age increases, with a variety of data inputs as one runs after youthful exploits, power, position and wealth, ‘vinayam’ is a very hard quality to inculcate. The student was called ‘vineyan’ for this reason only!
84. In the Sikh Religion. The student is called the ‘Sishya’ too, which means ‘the one getting Siksha’, the disciple. He not only gets from the Guru education, but also learns discipline and other required character qualities. Nowadays, this word Siksha has come to mean ‘Sangita Siksha’, that is by attending music classes or punishments from the Judge! At times in lighter vein, their learning music itself becomes a punishment for the art of Music!
85. ‘The way a student is supposed to be obedient to his teacher and be humble and disciplined in a Gurukulam, exactly similarly a person joining a religion is required to be with the religious Guru’, was the concept with which Guru Nanak established the Sikh Religion. In it the salient good points of both the Hindu and Muslim religion have been coalesced. Islam is a very strict religion in which the control and restrictions are many in comparison with other religions. It was that sort of discipline that Guru Nanak demanded from his followers. He wanted that his followers should be obedient like the students of a Gurukulam. That is reason why, he called the head of religion as a Guru. All the followers were supposed to be Sishyas. It is this word which became ‘Sikh’. In Punjab the letter ‘sha’ is pronounced as ‘kha’. For example the word ‘havisha’ in Purusha Suktam is pronounced as ‘havika’ in North India. On the same line ‘sishya’ became ‘sika’ or ‘Sikh’. This is my assumption and I may be wrong. But I am sure that I will not be far from the real! Guru is the ‘Sikshak’ and the followers Sishya or ‘Sikh’. Coming back to my point, ‘Vinaya’ is an essential character quality in a student. When ‘avinaya’ goes, ‘vinaya’ will come in. That is what our AachaaryaaL said in the first sloka of Shatpadi!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #168 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #168 (Vol #4) Dated 29 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 940 of Vol 4 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)
60. There is a pot let us say looking beautiful from the outside but, if it has four small holes underneath or even one hole, if it is filled with Amrit or Nectar, it will all ooze out, will it not? That is how, for the outer look we may seem alright, to even ourselves! We may have enough of money, education and other attainments. Still we may have some four holes of dissatisfaction, anger, jealousy and hate; good enough to deny us the Amrit of happiness.
61. That is the reason why, AachaaryaaL has pointed out that as we start the ‘Shatpadi Stotra’, we should be void of these hazards from our minds. For that all that we have to do is to pray to God to do the needful. He shows us the way how. “avinayam apanaya Vishno dhamaya mana: samaya vishaya trushNaam I bhoota dayaam vistaaraya taaraya samsaara saagarata: II”
62. First it is starting with ‘avinaya apanaya’. All of you must be knowing the word ‘vinayam’ which means ‘respectful humility’, the most loveable quality in a student as well as a devotee! ‘Avinaya’ means the opposite of ‘vinayam’ meaning, haughtiness and head weight. This may please be erased he says, ‘apanaya’. We use a word ‘Upanayanam’, which means ‘fetching near’. Nayanam means to fetch. When we give a young boy around the age of five, the ‘PooNool’, which is the holy thread to be worn across the chest from the left shoulder under the right arm pit; we take the boy near the Guru and hand over. The opposite of Upanayanam is ‘apanayanam’. That is to separate and remove. Now we have pride, haughtiness and high headedness. These are to be removed from us. So, we are praying to Maha Vishnu to erase such qualities from us in the very first sentence of the Shatpadi. “avinaya apanaya Vishno!”
63. He is praying as though directly ringing up Vishnu and saying, “Hi! Vishnu, please remove all my negative qualities!” He is not praying as though he is different from the people for whom he is requesting God. He talks as one of us, as though he is praying for himself that his haughtiness may be erased. It automatically means that he is requesting God to “Grant humbleness by removing haughtiness”. What we all have in plenty is ‘avinayam’ is it not so? So, instead of saying give me humility which we do not have, he is saying remove this high headedness.
64. Nowadays, when we speak of culture and being civil, words such as class, courtesy, grace and dignity are much bandied about. We somehow do not include humbleness and humility in them as an essential and noble quality. In the olden times this was not so. The word ‘culture’ in English is very close to the Sanskrit words, ‘Kalaa + Aachaaram = Kalaachaaram’, which meant that you were well educated and had the humbleness that went with it, instead of being conceited and imperious about it! Here education does not mean that you simply knew how to read and write. It meant that you had knowledge of real worth. When you know much, you also know that your knowledge is limited! Saraswathi who is the Goddess for all learning is saying that “kartradu kaimaNNaLavu kallaadadu ulagaLavu” meaning, ‘what I have learnt is a handful and what I have not learnt is as vast as this world”! That is to show how humble we should become with more learning.
65. In the bygone days, the disciple had respectful ‘Vinayam’ towards his preceptor, towards the subject he learnt, towards God and the world. That is the reason why, he could rise to unattainable peaks of excellence in learning about Aatma Vidya. When they were students in the Gurukulam, even if you were the son of the king or a rich merchant or well to do, all the students were required to go and beg for their days rations and hand them over to Guru Patni (wife) to cook. The aim was to inculcate utmost humility in the disciple.
66. Those days, the Guru taught Vinayam as the first lesson in the syllabus! He taught this to his students by being a model of the qualities the student was to absorb in truthfulness, studiousness, sincerity and integrity. Nowadays the situation is quite the contrary in which, the pot is also leaking and the rope used to lift the pot from the depths of the water well is also threadbare!
67. Similarly the king of the land too gave special attention to inculcate the quality of Vinayam in his citizens more than anything else. The Saastraas while talking of the duties of a king have given the pride of place to this important quality to be imparted to his people more than his other duties of governance such as protection and administration (vinaya daanam first and then rakshaNam and bharaNam). This was done by ensuring good education, instructions on justice and morality, abiding with religious tenets and beliefs and trust in God. Self contentedness, self control, soft and pleasant behaviour, accommodation for others needs and view points and being kindly to others are all part of this essential human trait of what we call gentlemanliness! True education is to impart this to students. That is why the student was known as, ‘Vineyan’.
68. Adi Sankara Our AachaaryaaL, His Sishyas and Their Vinayam. One of Adi Sankara’s students by the name of PadmapadaachaaryaaL has written a slokam on his Guru. It starts with the words, “yat vaktra maanasa sara: ”. I am not going to go into all the details of the sloka. Suffice it to quote the fourth line where it says, “vineeta vineya brungaa:” the portion connected with what I am saying here.
69. How is the mind of Adi Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL? Adi Sankara’s sishya Padmapaada, who lived with his Guru all the time during the voyage, covering the length and breadth of this country Bharatvarsh by foot, describes his Guru’s face thus. It is as expansive as an ocean whose shores cannot be seen, whose waters are pellucid, cool and nice, like the ‘maanasa saras or maanasarovar’ in the Himalayas. We cannot see the mind. We can see only the face which is a mirror of the mind as it is said that, ‘face is the index of the mind’! We may hide our minds without showing it on our face, like an actor on the stage. But Great people like our Acharyal have no reservation about being like an open book. His face is also like the ‘maanasarovar’. If there is a lake, there has to be lotus flowers. Which is that lotus on his face? It is his mouth which is all the time talking of the highest truths, ennobling thoughts, intricately beautiful principles and which treats the drained and spent populace approaching him with words of solace with extreme compassion. It is that mouth which is the lotus flower in the face of his that is like the ‘maanasarovar’ lake!
70. When you have a lotus flower, there has to be pollen and nectar. Which are these from the lotus mouth of AachaaryaaL? His Upadesas which were basically so many spoken words (later came to be recorded as ‘bhashyams’), are the nectar and the important messages in them for the future and eternity are the pollen. The root word ‘bhaash’ is the spoken word, while ‘bhaasha’ is language and ‘sambhashaN’ is conversation.
71. As the sloka starts with ‘yat vaktra’, the word ‘vaktra’ means ‘face’. Face is the ‘maanasa saras’. The bhaashyam emerging from the face is the nectar from the flower. Still, in the sloka, the face has been directly compared with the ‘maanasa saras’ and the spoken words of have been directly related to the nectar and pollen by the phrase, ‘bhaashya aravinda makarandam’. It is not mentioned that the mouth is that lotus flower but, left to our imagination. I can think of a reason for this.
72. In Sanskrit and Tamil languages there is an amusing co-incidence. There is no separate word for the part of the face known as the mouth in Sanskrit. There are many synonyms for the face such as, ‘mukha, vaktra, aananam and aasyam’. The name for face also is used for the word ‘mouth’ in Sanskrit. In Tamil there is no word for ‘face’, it has ‘mugam’ which is derived from the Sanskrit ‘Mukha’. You can say in a lighter vein that there is no ‘mouth’ in Sanskrit and that there is no ‘face’ in Tamil!
73. So, it seems that in the olden days, the students studying Sanskrit in ‘Gatika Sthanam’ and Tamil in ‘PaLLis’ used to make fun of each other mutually. (Like it happens nowadays when people form virulently political Parties in the name of Languages and fight pitched battles, it never happened those days. It was done more in fun than in a serious attitude.) The Tamil student used to have a dig at the Sanskrit student that he has no ‘mouth’ and the retort from the student of Sanskrit was that the Tamil student had no ‘face’!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #167 (Vol #4) Dated 27 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #167 (Vol #4) Dated 27 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 933 of Vol 4 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)
48. Even when dharma as per one’s caste and ashrama was being meticulously observed, the Brahmin had the restrictions of Aparigraham (not wishing for anything more than the barest minimum) and a ban on travel to foreign countries across the seas; while the Vaisya had the duty and licence as permitted by the Saastraas, to venture even across the oceans in search of materials and resources for trade and commerce. The reason is very clear to discern. Plentiful availability of wealth with the Vaisya trickles to the society invariably. Even if the Vaisyas were self indulgent in matters of luxury, by their contributions for the society’s wellbeing they more than make up for all their sins. As the days wear off, their love of luxury will wane and interest in public welfare will increase. They may have a huge bungalow to start with, but as they see the plight of poor people, they will provide for many poor people’s sustenance and living space.
49. So, the point is that all the people cannot be Gnaanis or aspirants to become Gnaanis either. They may be destitutes or Arthaarthees also. As long as you believe in God and start praying to Him, the very devotion will refine your attitude with passage of time. Desires will get moderated and you will start praying with a sense of gratitude, instead of for overcoming problems and diseases. Then you will start praying for Gnaanam and dispassion. Then this will also stop and Bhakti will be for the pure pleasure of being a devotee! So we can take it that there is much sense in Bhagawan Sri Krishna bracketing all these four type of devotees together as “sukrudina: janaa;” and “udhaaraa: sarva evaite”!
50. Towards the end of Soundarya Lahari there is a slokam which starts with the words, “Saraswathya Lakshmya” which conveys that AmbaaL bestows on the devotee all the worldly attainments such as education, money, beautiful physique, position, power, name and fame; from the beginning and then, goes on to severe all attachments of the devotee and grant the supreme happiness of Paramaananda. So I suppose that, up to a stage in ones refinement and progress, there is nothing wrong in wishing for these worldly achievements and pray for them. Somehow if you inculcate the habit of praying for something, that very act will develop you to the level where, you do not have to pray for anything anymore, but divine grace!
51. Unfulfilled Prayers and Agnosticism. Are we granted whatever we pray for? Not necessarily. Sometimes our prayers are gainful and on other occasions they may not be fulfilled. But because they are not heeded to, we do not stop praying to God! Whatever little bit of devotion we have, we do experience some solace in it. So, even when our prayers are futile, we do not give up on our devotion.
52. Many people come to me also with some prayers such that their girl is to be married, that their son is to get a job, some disease is to be cured or some case in the court is to be won and such things. Not all their prayers are fulfilled at once. Still, that does not mean that they lose their trust and faith straight away. Somehow we know inwardly that our prayers may or may not be fulfilled. But, we do not give up on our faith. Very rarely do we become non-believers because of failed prayers. People who are agnostic are so from some conviction based on their own sense of logic and reasoning, rather than a sense of disappointment! That is why Krishna Paramaatma said, “Whether you are a Gnaani already or desirous of Gnaana or Aartan or Arthaarthee; as long as you have come to me with your prayers for whatever reason, you are also my devotee and I shall save you!”
53. Prayers for Self Improvement. In this life whatever prayers we have or not, till we get the wholesome feeling that we have no deficiency no demands and that we do not have to pray for anything; as long as we remain devoted to Him, that very fact will be a pacifier. God knows best as to what we need and when we need it! He will give it to us without our asking for anything. Still, there is an inner satisfaction in submitting our longings to Him. Thus, what we need to ask Him for is our self improvement, AachaaryaaL tells us in the first sloka of Shatpadi.
54. In SubrahmaNya Bhujangam, our AachaaryaaL has told us as to how by the greatness of Patra – Vibhuti of Senthil Naatha Murugan as Vaidya Naathan (that is the divine doctor), all diseases are cured. In that sloka for the sake of destitute Aartan, he demonstrates as to how to be a devotee and pray. In Kanakadaara Sthavam, as though approving the Arthaarthee’s demand for more wealth, he prays to Goddess Lakshmi to shower gold while saying, “dadyaat ...draviNaambudaaraa”. But here in this Shatpadi, instead of acting as the Aartan or Arthaarthee, he teaches us as to how the Jigyaasoo should pray for attainment of Gnaana!
55. Vishnu for Gnaanam Also. Maha Vishnu is the functional C.E.O for this world who manages all the transactions, business, law and order. To take care of the destitute and greedy is anyhow His job! Above all this does He not have the power to sanction dispassion and Gnaana? No! The Brhma Vidya AachaaryaaLs themselves have prioritised Him as the top most to be prayed as, “naraayanam padmabhuvam”, for obtaining Adwaita Anubhava! The very C.E.O., who involves us and lords over us, is also the power who can relieve us of this involvement and be the Gnaana AachaaryaaL, to whom we can very well pray to.
56. For the people who are mistakenly of the view that, ‘only Siva will give us Mukti and Gnaanam, may better learn that Vishnu can also impart the Aatma Gnaanam’; with that intention only, our AachaaryaaL has written this Shatpadi, I feel. That is why, he has prayed to Vishnu to grant all the preparatory requirements for the cleansing mind of ours in this sloka. Our AachaaryaaL has taught us that Maha Vishnu will grant us iha – bhogam and para – gnaanam and also as to how we should pray for the latter especially in this sloka.
57. Not only in Shatpadi, in many other slokas too, our AachaaryaaL has addressed Maha Vishnu as Gnaana Dhaata only. In ‘Bhaja Govindam’ song also, he has prayed to ‘Govinda’ for Gnaana Vairaagyam mainly, saying in the last poem that a devotee who has unshakeable faith in the lotus feet of his Guru, by discipline finally sees that God in his own heart! He has further done a Stotram ‘Harimeede’ in pure Adwaitam, in which in each sloka, he has ended that Hari that is Vishnu, removes all confusion of darkness from one’s life, ending every stanza with the words, “tam samsaara dwaanta vinaasam harimeede”! There are many such examples that can be quoted to prove this point that, for removal of ignorance and attaining to Gnaana, it is Vishnu that we should pray to!
58. Cleanse the Mind. Our AachaaryaaL starts the Shatpadi Stotram with the prayer that unless we cleanse our own minds we can never hope to find a way out of the ignorance. Whatever may be the luxuries we are having, unless we have the right attitude, we are prone to be confused, fearful and sorrowful. Even when we have none of the luxuries, if we have the right attitude, we will not feel any problem. As Appar sang, “inbame ennaaLum tunbamillai”, meaning, ‘happiness forever, never a problem’, we can be eternally happy with that attitude!
59. What is that right attitude? That is next point to be understood. Our mind is continuously craving for something or the other; money, position, status, name and fame. So forever it is disgruntled and disappointed with whatever it has. Can you ever satisfy the mind? No! Like the end of the rainbow which can never be found or the horizon that is always far away, it has a fresh demand when the previous one is fulfilled. It is compared with the fire, which burns fiercer when fed. The more you put in it, more voracious it becomes. When you have stopped this tendency, it means that you have the right attitude! As long as we have desire and the ‘anartha parampara’ that arise out of it such as, disappointment, sense of deficiency, jealousy, hate, competition and sorrow; peace of mind will never be found. Till then however much well read or rich, serenity, amity and contentment are never ours. That is why Thyaga Iyer said, “saantamu lekha soukyamu ledu”, which seems to be an exact reflection of what Bhagawan Sri Krishna said in Gita (2-66), “ashantasya kuta: sukham”, meaning, how can an agitated man ever find comfort? This mind uncontrolled can never be peaceful. To train one’s own mind to be peaceful and contented at all times is to have the right attitude.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #166 (Vol #4) Dated 25 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #166 (Vol #4) Dated 25 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 928 of Vol 4 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)
38. The Gnaani when ‘antar mukha’ (inward looking) is anyhow simply enjoying the Paramaatma Rasa and is purely in a state of bliss. When he is aware of the outer world, then too, for him the inner and outer is all the same Narayana Swaroopa. He sees all as Brhma Roopa and so is in the same uninterrupted state of bliss! He has no aim or mission. He has no needs or wants; no necessities, no prayers and no demands. He loves God because he has become another form of Love! This is the cleanest state of devotion known as ‘ahaituka bhakti’, meaning ‘devotion not for any reason or logic or gain’! This state is what Sukha AachaaryaaL has described in Bhagawatam. He will not pray to God even when someone cuts him with a sword because, he is of the firm conviction that he is not this body but Aatma, in and out. So, without a prayer, he will be loveable towards God as well as the one who has cut him.
39. Where is this love in comparison with the devotion of the Aartan who is praying for help, relief and sustenance? Further lower is the state of the Arthaarthee who despite having enough is asking for more! It looks as though the devotion of the Arthaarthee should not be considered as devotion at all! But Bhagawan Sri Krishna has mentioned the Aartan begging for alms, the Arthaarthee being greedy for more, the Jigyaasoo asking for Gnaana and the Gnaani in the same category as people who pray to Him! Moreover He calls them all as ‘sukrudina: janaa:’ as people who have done well with evident appreciation! After two more slokas, He says that all of them are very good indeed, “udhaaraa: sarva evaite”! Why did He, Bhagawan Sri Krishna bracket them all together as his Bhaktaas who are ‘skrudina:’ and also ‘udhaaraa:’, keeping Gnaani, the one aspiring to be a Gnaani, the man looking for relief and sustenance and the one asking for more?
40. The answer is that, there is scope for any type of prayer in our worldly life. In this life we are faced with many problems one after the other or at times many of them together. Whatever they may be, to be unworried about them and to pray to God because we love being devoted is the best. There can be no objection to that. But in practice none of us are able to be like that. Some Maya is in control and making us subject to it. Our AachaaryaaL too said, “maha maya viswam bhramayasi”, meaning that ‘the Maha Maya is befuddling the world’. We are stuck in it. We are all thinking that this world is real and our body is the reality and continuing with our life. In this life when faced with a defeat, insult to our honour, disease, discomfort, dues out and such problems we do feel the pinch of it. It is great if we are unaffected by them!
41. Not to go under and not to give up in all such circumstances, knowing maya to be only an illusion, is how we should be. We should be training our minds to be so, right from the beginning for that only. Whether we become so clear headed like that one day or not, be set aside temporarily. But, today we are feeling its effects, is it not so? When a thorn pierces our foot, do we not feel the pain? In the delirium of fever, do we not cry about it? Some misunderstanding with one’s wife, some disgusting incident in the office, some cash or material loss; do not these things erode our peace of mind? Some requirement at home, a promotion overdue, a responsibility to get one’s daughter married, a seat in the college for the son, failing productivity on the shop floor, plummeting sales graph; there are many such pulls and pressures for which we are running from pillar to post, do we not?
42. In this, we go to places for a specific purpose and are disappointed by failing to achieve what we went for. What to do on those occasions? We find it difficult to console ourselves, talking about the Karma principle and having to do Nish Kamya Karma and things like that as given in the Bhagawat Gita, does not console us. Instead of taking it easy, we tend to take it hard as something inside continues to irritate us. What to do on such occasions? Yes there is God. He is the one doing all this, managing and orchestrating and conducting the whole world, elders say! He is of course doing all this on some Dharmic law, not easily understood by all of us, OK! He is said to be the very form of mercy and grace, an ocean of bliss, say many great saints! He is the one who has got us embroiled like this, in this worldly life. Let Him take care of us. It is better that we handover all our problems to Him and let Him do whatever. So there can be nothing wrong in handing over all our problems to Him! There is one such way of looking at it.
43. People are very rare indeed who have (or wish to have), an attitude of, “come what may, I shall forever be unattached like the drop of water on the lotus leaf”! 90% of people are such who bother about life’s ups and downs; with or without understanding and comprehension, wish to make it free of problems. To solve their problems God has the ability, right, kindness and compassion. So, to approach, beg and beseech Him, is the most appropriate thing to do, opine some.
44. “God has given you a mind, body and intellect. You are part of a family, community and nation. To take care of the family and do your duties for your people and nation is your responsibility. For these things do you not go to doctors, bankers, government officials and so on, to take their help? So now, what is wrong in taking the help of God, who is above all such? There is nothing to be ashamed about being devoted to God and praying for whatever! Even if you wish to have the various human agencies be favourable to your cause, you need God’s blessings. So let God be the first one, to be prayed to. When you are matured enough not to fall on any human feet, then you may discontinue praying to God for such favours!” That will be their advice.
45. When you think about it deeply, you will note that we have limited capabilities. We cannot achieve everything on our own. So, believing that the power of God is omnipotent, this ‘Aartan’ prays to God, is it not so? This is but, natural. So Bhagawan appreciates such devotees also as ‘sukrutina:’ probably. Man who normally thinks no end to himself, somewhere along the line realizes his limitations and comes to the conclusion that God is the only recourse, in all humility. So he prays to God and that is to be appreciated to that extent, even if it is for worldly material gain only. To pray to God with faith and belief, is after all good! Please note that Bhagawan Sri Krishna says in Gita (7-11), “as long as it is not against morally righteous Dharma, his just desires are also I only”. That is, “dharma viruddo bhooteshu kaamosmi bharatarshabha”! Wrongful desires are forbidden. As long as it is within Dharma, God accepts them as your right.
46. OK! When a man is well furnished and catered for, then how can it be that his demand for more is also part of this right? How can such men of wants, ‘arthaarthee’ also be included in that lot of ‘sukrutina:’? We should not keep even a small bit more than what is needed essentially to conduct this life. That is the norm. This is eulogised as ‘aparigraham’ in the dharma Saastraas. Greed is to be put down. So, why did Krishna Paramaatma call him a ‘sukrutina:’? We can give some sort of an explanation for this.
47. That is, in this world, there are many things to be done for social service on charity for destitute and poor people. Temples and common facilities have to be maintained and repaired. Schools and hospitals have to constructed and run. Orphanages and old age people’s homes have to be run. Not all of them can be money making concerns, but run on no profit basis. A whole lot of money is required for such purposes. Even after government grants and well to do people’s donations, still more may be required. An ‘arthaarthee’ after catering for his essential needs may pray to God for money for such purposes. We can take it that god accepts such demands and prayers.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #165 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #165 (Vol #4) Dated 23 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 920 of Vol 4 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)
28. The last two lined sloka with this Shatpadi is like a phalasruti which is not really a phalasruti! What I mean is that, normally at the end of all such slokas and poems, the phalasruti would have been added either by the author originally or by somebody along the line, detailing the gains that one is likely to get by chanting that sloka. It is not exactly like that here. I will talk about it later at the end of my talk about Shatpadi, since the last poem should be talked about only at the end, is it not so? Now I am going to talk about the title of the Shatpadi.
29. Padam is a word used with many meanings. In learning the Vedas there are many methods of learning them, such as, Padam, Kramam and finally Ganam. Here padam is chanting the Vedas word by word. Kramam is one in which different combinations of the words are chanted, changing the order in which they occur in the scripture, as per some set patterns. When you have learnt them all, and finally when you have learnt the Ganam method, you get the title Gana PaadigaL after which you can become a research student or go in for Adhyapakam as a Teacher or Purohitam as a practicing Pundit. Shatpadi Stotram is supposed to have six padam or stanzas. Instead of each line of the slokas being called a padam, four lines put together makes a padam. So, six such stanzas collectively are known as Shatpadi.
30. Instead of the one fourth portion the whole slokam too are called the ‘padam’ on occasions. Jaya Deva’s Gita Govindam for example is called the Ashta Padi. Here each stanza is a padam. In Tamil too, if we take a Padikam or Pasuram, we ask as to, “how many ‘Adi’ does it have”? Here too ‘Adi’ is the whole stanza instead of just a line. As you may know that ‘Adi’ also means feet. If it is a Keertanam, instead of padam or paadam, we say that it contains so many ‘SaraNam’-s. As you may know again that this word SaraNam also means elsewhere feet or legs! When you move step by step, in Tamil it is said “adi mel adi vaithu” and in Sanskrit it is “pade pade”. So, we can take it also that we progress step by step, through the sloka of six steps, Shatpadi.
31. Here there is a pun (‘Sladai or Sleshai’) also on the word Shatpadi. Padam means a ‘kaal’ or leg, as you already know. ‘Kaal’ once again means both a quarter and a leg, as I have already told you. So, the word Shatpadi could also mean an animal with six legs. Man has two legs. Animals have four legs. Snake has no legs. Centipede has hundred legs as its name suggests! Which is the animal with six legs? It is the beetle called the ‘Vandu’ in Tamil. So, Shatpadi Stotram is the Vandu Stotram. Why should this slokam with six stanzas be called the Shatpadi or Vandu Stotram is a mystery, which is made clear only in the last stanza of two lines that is the seventh stanza! Story tellers, novel and fiction writers keep up the tempo of mystery and unanswered questions till the very end of the narrative, do not they? Exactly similarly our AachaaryaaL also clarifies the reason why he named this as the ‘Vandu Stotram’ only in the last two lines of the Shatpadi, the seventh sloka! Those well read in literature and involved in studying the scriptures with devotion will anyhow understand from the very beginning, without my having to explain. Some of you may have already got it. For those who have not, I am also going to make you understand only at the very end! Now let us start with the first sloka. In the first one, AachaaryaaL is telling us as to what are the things we should be praying for.
32. What to Pray For? There are many views on what we should be praying for. In this worldly life we have countless problems, worries, dilemmas and irritants. Bodily difficulties, mental conflicts, fear, real or imaginary insults, lack of funds and resources; are there endlessly. If we are unwell we go to the doctor. If we are short of funds we go to the people who can give us loan or the banker. If the problem is due to some spirits or planetary influence, we go to the experts in those lines. For many other problems we go to government officers. While doing all this we also pray to God! Whomsoever we are approaching for our problems, for that person to act favourably to us, we pray to God. Doctor will only give medicines. For it to be effective on our body system, we pray to God! We are going to someone for help. What happens if we meet with an accident enroute? So we pray to God!
33. There are some people of the opinion that it is wrong to pray to God for these things. Problems come up due to our Karma. So these problems are part of the system of Karma and its effects. God as the Karma Phaladaata is the one giving us these problems so as to correct our behaviour and attitude! So, we should never be praying to God for these prosaic, run-of-the-mill situations. God knows as to what to give us and when! So, we should never be praying for anything. To think of God is a pleasure, is it not so? We should be thinking of Him for that reason only. The benefit of devotion is the peace of mind that results. That is the main thing. Instead, to pray to God for all small and temporary gains is to misuse His name and power. So we should never ask for anything. The only thing we can pray for is our inner cleansing, so that we may not be tempted to go the wrong way.
34. Here what God Himself tells us on this matter is the authority. Let us see what Sri Krishna Paramaatma has to say on this issue, in Bhagawat Gita, Chapter 7, Slokam 16:- “chaturvidaa bhajante maam janaa: sukrutina: Arjuna! I aartho jigyaasoo: arthaarthee gnaani cha bharatarshabha II” What he conveys is as follows:- “There are four types of people praying to Me! One is an Aartan, second is a Jigyaasoo, third is an Arthaarthee and the fourth is the Gnaani. First He mentions the Aartan. He is the one in trouble, poor, sorrowful, destitute, diseased having endless problems. In ache and agony, he prays to God to reduce his loads and problems.
35. The second type is the Jigyaasoo. He is the Saadhak aspirant, who wishes to know. He is asking for knowledge, awareness and Gnaanam. He is also a beggar only in a way. He may not be begging and may be happily singing the praise of God and doing Aaraadhana, Pooja, Japa, Upaasana and Dhyana. These very acts will save him from being scatter brained and give him focus. That is the reason Upaasana is highly recommended by AachaaryaaL. He does not have to ask for Gnaanam. As long as he is happily praying, God will absorb him in his Nishkriya, NirguNa roopa. Instead of being separately as an individual amongst many like him, to become one with the reality of existence is that Gnaanam. To go to that stage is all the preparatory efforts of Karma, Bhakti, Upaasana and Dhyaanam. The Jigyaasoo beseeches God for that only.
36. Third is the Arthaarthee. The first mentioned Aartan is different from this man who is after gaining money, wealth and resources. This ‘tha’ is different from the earlier ‘ta’ in Aartan. (In Sanskrit, the consonants ‘ka, cha, ta, tha, pa’ have each four different sounds such as, ‘ka, kha, ga, gha; cha, chha, ja, jha; ta, tta, da, dda; tha, ththa, dha dhdha; pa, ppa, ba, bha’, which are not available like that in Tamil or English. So it is difficult to explain this, especially in a translation.) Suffice it to say that this ‘Arthaarthee is different from the earlier mentioned Aartan.
37. Aartan also wishes to have money because he is poor. But this latter one is not suffering due to being poor. This man wants more of everything. He prays to God for more of wealth, money, resources, luxury, promotion, possessions, status, name and fame! Fourth is the Gnaani, who too is praying to God, but not for a purpose! He has become one with God, while continuing to be a devotee. He just loves to love God! All his Pooja, Dhyaanam and such things might have come to a stop. Not necessarily will he be in Nirvikalpa Samaadhi all the time. While in Samaadhi he enjoys his oneness with the only truth. On other occasions he does interact with all people of the world with the clarity that they are all another guise of the same supreme reality. Whether it is a boy or a girl or another person of whatever sex of whatever age; he sees the same God in all of them and enjoys the Role – Playing by God. He knows that all are his form only, “vaasudevas sarvam iti”, as Vasudeva Himself said in the Gita. He simply takes pleasure in meeting them all, as our AachaaryaaL says in Baja Govindam, “nandati nandati nandati eva”!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #164 (Vol #4) Dated 21 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #164 (Vol #4) Dated 21 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 912 of Vol 4 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)
19. We were looking at Vruttam and Jaati as two different Chandas. In Vruttam each Vowel with or without a consonant is measured as one Aksharam. In Jaati, each Vowel could be one or two Aksharam depending on whether it is ‘Kuril’ (short) or ‘Nedil’ (long). They are given different values known as ‘Maatra’ based on the fact as to how short or long they are being pronounced. In Sanskrit, this Kuril is known as ‘Hraswam’ and Nedil is known as ‘Deergam’. The same two words are also known as ‘Laghu’ and ‘Guru’ respectively as per grammer. Each Lagu letter is one Maatra and Guru letter (which could be single or combined), is treated as two Maatras. When a Lagu letter of one maatra ends in ‘m’ known as Anuswaaram, it gets two maatraas. So also, a Lagu letter ending in Visargam, indicated by two vertical dots, also gets two maatraas. Like ‘Raama:’, which is to be pronounced as ‘Raamaha’ would be calculated as; Raa = two maatraas and ma: = two maatraas so also ‘Raama:’, add up to four maatraas.
20. Like in Vruttam, in Jaati too, there could be many Chandas. In each Chandas, in the four lines, there are rules as to how many maatraas they will add up to in each line or paadam. Not necessarily will all the lines, (that is paadams), will be equal, depending on different Chandas. In some Chandas, first two lines may be equal and third and fourth equal; or 1st & 3rd ; 2nd & 4th lines may be equal; or they may all be unique.
21. In ‘Suklaam’, we had earlier calculated that ‘su’ was one aksharam and ‘klaam’ was one more in the vruttam style, is it not so? Here the same ‘suklaam’ is calculated as four maatraas. There is another peculiarity. These chandas in Jaati may be having their own names. But, by tradition those individual names of the chandas are also called as ‘so and so’ vruttam, for example ‘Aryaa Vruttam’ is a name of a chandas in the Jaati. On Kamaakshi AmbaaL there is a famous poem by the name of Mooka Panchasati, having 500 poems, which I have mentioned in my earlier talks. The first 100 poems are in the Aryaa Vruttam. That portion of the Sloka is called Arya Sadakam. As highly beloved, honoured and respected deity AmbaaL has a name as Aryaa. Using her name as well as the name of the Chandas, that portion of the 100 Slokas has been named Arya Sadakam.
22. As I said a few minutes back, in Jaati all the four lines may not have equal number of maatraas in each line (paadam) of the song. Even in Vruttam there are such Chandas in which the number of aksharaas in each line are not all equal. If the lines 1&2 and 3&4 or 1&3 and 2&4 are matching, it is known as ‘ardha sama vruttam’. If each line has different number of letters, it is known as ‘visama vruttam’! This possibly led to the commonly used word in Tamil where ‘Vishamam’ has come to mean mischief, though its real meaning is only ‘vi + samam = visamam’ that is, unequal. Where all the lines in a poem are not composed of equal number of letters, it is known as ‘vishama vruttam’! Instead of being unbiased, if you are talking one thing, with a shade of another meaning while giving scope for a third interpretation it is called, ‘trisamam’.
23. Even numbers are ‘samam’ and odd numbers are called ‘vishamam’. As Manmata has five arrows, he is referred as ‘vishama saran’ and Siva with three eyes is called, ‘vishma netran’! As we see that in English too, the word odd has a meaning other than just, in usages such as, ‘odd behaviour’ and ‘odd explanantion’. Normally the vruttams are equal only. Ardha sama and vishama vruttams are rare indeed. But among Jaati, oddness is common, like in Arya Vruttam (which is not really a vruttam but only a Jaati), the first and third paadam are of 12 maatraas, second paadam is of 18 maatraas and the last line has 15 maatraas!
24. This Shat padi Stotram we are discussing is in Arya Jati. In its first sloka, the first paadam or line is, “avinaya mabaniya vishno”. If we count the maatraas, ‘a-vi-na-ya-ma-bi-na-ya’ contains all eight lagu aksharaas without any anuswaaram or visargam. That adds up to eight maatraas. Next word is ‘vishno’ in which ‘vi’ though being a lagu, being followed by a conjunct consonant, gets two maatraas and ‘shno’ having two maatraas. So, the total of the first line is 12 maatraas.
25. The second line is ‘damaya mana: samaya vishaya mruga trushNaam’. ‘da ma ya ma’ adds to four. Next ‘na’ has a visarga, so na: is two maatraas. Then, ‘sa ma ya vi sha ya m ru ga’, are all clean lagu. Even this ‘mru’ is not the guru maatra as it does not sound like the longish ‘ooo’ and so it is a lagu maatra only. That adds up to another eight. That totals to 14 aksharaas in the second line so far. Then is the word ‘trushNaam’, ‘thru’ + ‘shNaam’ adds up to four. So in the second line / paadam there are 18 maatraas.
26. Third paadam is ‘bhu(2) ta(1) da(1) yaam(2) vi(2) staa(2) ra(1) ya(1), is having 12 maatraas like in the first line. (After ‘vi’ which is normally only one maatra, as it is followed by two consonants ‘s’ and ‘t’, the ‘vi’ also becomes two maatraas!). This first sloka’s last line is: ‘dhaa(2) ra(1) ya(1) sam(2) saa (2) ra(1) saa(2) ga(1) ra(1) ta:(2)’, totalling 15 maatraas.
25. In Arya meter itself there is one slightly different as ‘Geeti’. In that also the first and third lines are of 12 maatraas. But the second and fourth, both have 18 maatraas. This is known as ‘ardha sama maatra Jaati. In Mooka Panchasatee, the Arya Sadakam is in this Jaati. The first slokam in this is “kaaraNa para chidroopaa kancheepura seemni kaama peeta gataaI kaachana viharati karuNa kaashmeera stabaka komaLaangalataa II”
26. In this the first paadam: ‘kaa (2) ra Na pa ra (each 1) chi (2 because it is followed by double mei ezhuthu) dru (2) paa (2) – totalling 12 maatraas. The second paadam: kaa (2) nchi (2) pu (1) ra (1) see (2) mni (1) kaa (2) ma (1) pee (2) ta ga (1 each) taa (2) – totalling 18 maatraas. The third paadam: kaa (2) cha na vi ha ra ti ka ru (each 1 = 8) Naa (2) – totalling 12 maatraas. The fourth paadam: kaa (2) shmee (2) ra (2 because it is followed by double mei Ezhuthu) sta (2) ba ka (1 each) ko (2) ma (1) Laa (2) nga (2) la (1) taa(2) – totalling 18.
27. The Shatpadi under discussion as written by our Aachaaryaal has used the Jaati Chandas. He is a pure Adwaitin alright! But he has made use of as much variety as possible in this sloka. In each one of the stanzas, the first and third lines both have 12 maatraas; each second line has 18 maatraas and each fourth line has 15 maatraas. It will be very interesting to count maatraas in each paadam. Do not count in terms of Uyir and Mei Ezhuthu; but count in terms of lagu and guru aksharaas and you will see a pattern. It is the super duper capability of his in use of the words that the words, sounds and their meanings will so merge and coalesce with each other that we as the reader will feel that things are just appropriate. Even a child will feel so at home with the sloka that it will commit it to memory in a jiffy! If we leave what is seemingly the phalasruti (phalasruti means that which gives a description of what are the gains in chanting this sloka), there are six stanzas.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #163 (Vol #4) Dated 19 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #163 (Vol #4) Dated 19 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 904 of Vol 4 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)
11. We were talking about ‘Shat Padi’. Pada / padi / padam / paadam are words from the same Sanskrit root word, having a number of closely related meanings such as, a step, a word, a foot, a poetic meter, one fourth and so on. A poem with four lines became a padam and the word ‘padyam’ which means ‘poetry’ also evolved from there. The question may arise as to why only poetry should get the name Padyam as having evolved from the word (padam = word), when prose which is also full of words, is called Gadyam? Every song is in the form of poetry. Poems such as the songs sung traditionally in social get together like in a marriage for Nalangu and Oonjal are called ‘Pattiyam’, not to be mistaken with ‘pathyam’ meant to be restrictions on diet when undergoing treatment! ‘Paatti’ in Tamil stands for Grand Mother. So, since the varied songs in marriage functions are sung mainly by old women, may be those songs could better be called, ‘Paattiyam’ instead of ‘Pattiyam’.
12. Padam is one fourth of a Sloka. Let me give examples. Let us take what is normally well known or thought to be well known sloka ‘sukhlaam bharatharam’, which is in ‘Anushtup Chandas’ meter. It is supposed to have 32 letters divided into four parts of 8 letters each, as four Paadams. The counting in other languages may be different. In Sanskrit, individual single letters as well as composite letters combining more than one letter; are all one letter only. For example in the word ‘Suklaam’, in English it can be considered as seven letters; in Tamil as five letters. In Sanskrit, in ‘suklam’, su in one and klaam is one making it two akshar or letters only. The portion ‘klaam’ is a combination of ‘k + l + m’ with ‘aa’ giving it the Life as the ‘uyir’ aksharam! Similarly ‘vishnum’ is made up of vi + shnum; in this ‘shnum’ is ‘s + n + m’ with a ‘u’ giving it the Life as the ‘uyir’ aksharam! That is to say that while calculating the number of letters in a word in Sanskrit, we have to give attention to how the ‘vowels’ known as ‘swara:’ combines the consonants known as ‘vyanjanaani’.
13. Let us work out as to how many letters are there in the whole Stotra. Before that let us go into to preliminary grammer of Sanskrit, just a little bit. We see that in Sanskrit there are ‘Swaraa:’ which are Vowels; ‘Vyanjanaani’ which are Consonants; ‘Swara-Yukta Vyanjanaani’ which are Consonants with vowels and finally ‘Samyukta Vyanjanaani’ which are Conjunct Consonants. Each one of the Consonants with Swara will be counted as one letter. Thus the ‘klaam’ in ‘Suklaam’ and ‘shnum’ in ‘Vishnum’ (are both Conjunct Consonants and) will count as one letter each only, whatever may be the method of counting in the other languages.
14. su – klaam – bha – ra – tha – ram – vi – shnum / sa – si – var – Nam – cha – tur – bhu – jam / pra – san – na – va – da – nam – dya – yet / sar – va – vi – gna – upa – saan – ta – ye. That comes to 32 Aksharaas. First Paadam is, “sukhlaam bharatharam vishnum” ; the second Paadam is, “sasi varNam chaturbhujam” ; the third is, “prasanna vadanam dyaayet” ; and the fourth is, “sarva vignopa saantaye” ; each containing 8 letters or Aksharaas, totalling 32 Aksharaas in 4 Paadams. OK. That is all right. Now let us look at ‘Shat Padi’. Does it mean a poem having six Padis with eight Aksharaas each? No! Not necessarily. Each poem contains only four lines. That is the way they are. Then what is this ‘Shat Padi’?
15. Before we look at ‘Shat Padi’ Stotram let me explain some more subtle differences between Sanskrit / Tamil grammer as well as between Vaishnavas and Saiva Siddhantis view points. I told you about ‘Swara:’, ‘Vyanjanaani’, ‘Swara-Yukta Vyanjanaani and Samyukta Vyanjanaani’; in para 13 above. In Tamil the Vowels are known as Uyir letters and the consonants are known as Mei letters. Uyir has a meaning of Life and Mei has a meaning of Body. Mei also means True. Till there is Life in the body, it is real and so it is Mei and True! The moment Uyir that is Life goes out, this body which was till now Mei / true becomes Poi or Untrue! Similarly Vaishnavas, who believe in Ramanujacharya as their AachaaryaaL, call the body as Sareeram and the Life in the body as Sareeri. All the worlds and people are God’s body, the Sareeram. The Life in all of them is the Sareeri that is God! As the Life in the individual body, the Life in all of them is that one God only. That is Maha Vishnu as per the Vaishnavas and that is Siva as per the Saiva Siddhantis.
16. What we see everywhere is only the body. We do not see the Life. That is why the Sareeram / body itself was called the Mei or True Life. But, when the unseen Life goes out, the body that was called the Mei becomes dead or good for nothing, untrue. There is a song which says, “When even the mei becomes untrue”! Similarly, this Jeeva Loka peopled with all sorts of Life Forms becomes a Lie without God in it! But, the Vaishnavite and Saiva Siddhantis do not call the whole world as Maya as Adwaitins do. Here they make use the concept of ‘Uyir – Mei – Uyirmei’ letters as in Tamil Grammer, for understanding the relationship.
17. Uyir Ezhuththu are the Vowels. Mei Ezhuththu are the consonants. Uyir-Mei are the combined ones namely Consonants with vowels and Conjunct consonants. By this separation as Uyir Ezhuthu and Mei Ezhuthu; it means that letters with Uyir or Life in them are the living ones and it is they which impart life into the lifeless consonants. So also this Sareeram or the body without life is as good as dead wood and so also the consonants without vowels are lifeless! However, the consonants with or without life of the vowels do exist, do not they? So they cannot be said to be totally ‘persona non grata’, that is that, they cannot be said to be non-existing! They do have existence but, may not be as alive. Similarly all the bodies do have some relative reality and so cannot be totally discarded. Even dead wood does exist, does it not? Instead of calling it all Maya as non-existing appearances; they the Saiva Siddhantis give this above logic. Instead of all as one Aatma, they give some such explanation for relative existence of the dual world.
18. In truth Adi Sankara too does not say that all Jeevas and the whole Lokam is all a lie. In truth itself he talks of many levels. But here I have not come to fight about Truth and Siddhaantam. AachaaryaaL himself has forbidden us from fighting on such differences of views. That is why he has taught us this Shat Padi Stotram, which I started explaining. In trying to tell you about how the sloka has six feet and as to how it came to be called the Vandu Stotram, I have gone far afield. Let us anoint Lord Ganesha with ‘Sukhlaam Bharatharam’ and start all over again!
18. Now let us come back to the Shat Padi Stotram. In ‘Sthapadi’ Stotram each line does not have equal number of eight Aksharaas, as in the ‘Suklaam bharatharam’ Sloka that we have seen earlier. There is a ‘Chandas Saastram’ which is like an authority on Grammer governing the rules and regulations about poetry in Sanskrit, especially about the Meters. It talks of two different kinds of Meters. In one Meter, each letter with a vowel or Uyir Ezhuthu is one Akshara. Such a Meter is called the Vruttam. In Tamil when they sing with ‘Raga’ intonations less the timing of ‘Taal’, it is called singing in Vruttam. May be that system evolved from here. The meter other than Vruttam is called the Jaati.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #162 (Vol #4) Dated 17 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #162 (Vol #4) Dated 17 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 second para on page number 900 of Vol 4 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)
BHAKTI THAT IS DEVOTION
“VANDU STOTRAM”
1. Adwaitam, Theory and Practice. Sri Adi Sankara Bhagawat PadaaL has written such treatises on Adwaitam astonishing all the intelligentsia of the world, by his ‘Prasthana Thraya’ of his Bhashyam on the ten Upanishad, Brhma Sutra and Bhagawat Gita. On his own he has written many original ones, namely Viveka ChoodaamaNi, Upadesa Saahasri and many more such. To differentiate these from the Bhashyams, these are called ‘Prakarana Granthas’.
2. The Adwaita Tattvam (principle of Adwaitam) is the One Huge Idea behind all ideas, concepts and principles that can ever be anytime anywhere! The world that we believe to be true is unreal Maya. Paramaatma is the only reality. We, who are thinking ourselves to be Jeevaatma as something different from Paramaatma, are in reality the same as God! This world and the man are all the same as Brhmam, says Adwaitam. By the authority of the Vedas, that is also called the Sruti, our AachaaryaaL has established this fact as strong as the Rock of Gibraltar. Even the Rock of Gibraltar may one day be shattered in an earth quake, but his Siddhantam will stand the test of time till eternity.
3. But, this simple inalienable truth seems to be beyond the grasp and comprehension of many of us! Though logically and sensibly analysed, whatever our AachaaryaaL says becomes reasonably understood theoretically to some of us; even for them when it comes to practically relating it to the worldly life, we and the theory of Adwaitam seem to be at the two ends of the spectrum! What is the use of understanding with our brains and our mind that this Jeevan and Brhmam are one and the same? We who are all the time running helter-skelter physically and mentally are not able to equate us with the ‘action-free, ever static, peaceful Para Brhmam’! The only truth that we can relate to is fickle minded selves and the ever changing world around us. If the mind stops, the world will also disappear and we will be as the Brhmam, OK true. But this mind is never under our control and never stops for a moment, what to do? So, Adwaitam is never being experienced by us, even if we accept it as true.
4. Still to get this Adwaita Anubhava, we have to go from here to that stage. We have to make a start from where we are, with what we see and know as true and reliable. We have to start practicing the Karma Anushtaanaas, leaving, dropping and discarding the things that are untrue and progress step by step to the only reality of Adwaitam in experience. AachaaryaaL was not unaware of this practical difficulty. He was a very practical man. Out of infinite kindness, he knew that his Bhashyam and Prakarana Granthas would not be of much use to the common man. Though he was in the pinnacles of Himalayan heights in knowledge and experience, he has come down to our level and is guiding us step by step, holding our hands as though, taking us higher and higher!
5. To stop this mind on its tracks, first its random movements like a mad dog has to be controlled by doing our appointed duties like a disciplined soldier. AachaaryaaL has required all of us to do our appointed duties which are meant for the welfare of the society at large without selfish motivation, as that would enable cleansing of our minds to a large extent. When we are focussed on our duties, the mind is automatically prevented from uncontrolled running hither and thither. With such employment on the one hand the mind is trained to develop ‘Chitta Aikaagrata’ (that is capacity to focus) and secondly by giving more attention to socially useful activities rather than personal satisfaction and selfishness, it is refined and weaned away from its deleterious tendencies.
6. As we go on training our minds to focus like this, it becomes eligible to finally abide and dissolve in Aatma. For this the best is to venerate, idolize and cherish the SaguNa Brhmam as the repository of all wonderful, salubrious and divine qualities as the aim of our devotion. The mind in the process becomes filled with such worship, void of all other thoughts. It stops all its random vacillations dwelling totally on the Ishta Devata. Now it is in a ripe position for Easwara to take him beyond the Dwaita Bhakti to Adwaita Anubhava, by the Grace of God, to completely drop off all sense of separateness and become one with Oneness! For this purpose, our AachaaryaaL has required all of us to follow Bhakti Upaasana as seriously as Karma Anushtaana. He not only directed us to do so, but has written many slokas soaked in devotion as though to teach us as to how to go about being devoted!
7. Out of many such Slokas that he has authored ‘Soundarya Lahari’ on AmbaaL and ‘Sivananda Lahari’ on Siva, both contain 100 slokas each. Then instead of being so long, there are many smaller ones he has written virtually on all Gods and Goddesses as there can be many Ishta Devatas such as, Ganesha, Subrahmanya, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Aanjaneya and so on. We should all be learning at least some of them and commit them to our heart.
8. The greatness of Adi Sankara as an author is that, he could put into simple words, both very high philosophy and soul stirring noble sentiments. While writing the Bhashyams for Prasthana Thrayam and Prakarana Granthas, if his language might have been difficult to decipher for even very advanced and learned scholars, his Bhakti Slokas are easily understandable by the masses and children.
9. In them there is this one called the ‘Vandu Stotram’ (that happens to be the heading given to to-days talk by PeriyavaaL)! Vandu in Tamil is a common name for all insects with six legs such as the beetle. This Stotram is not about a beetle. It is called the ‘Shat – Padi’ meaning, having six stanzas. Like we have ‘Panchakam’ for the Sloka with five stanzas and ‘Ashtotram’ for the Sloka with eight stanzas. ‘Shat Padi’ means that it has six legs. ‘Shat’ = Six. ‘Padi’ = feet or ‘Kaal’ in Tamil. In Tamil Kaal also means ¼ or quarter and a foot. You see, man has two legs and two hands. Since each leg is one fourth of those four limbs, it is 1/4th. Since this sloka has six stanzas or six feet and a Vandu also has six feet, with bit of pun on Kaal and Shat Padi, it came to be called the Vandu Stotram.
10. This one with six stanzas is on the C.E.O of the Universe Maha Vishnu. It has easy to pronounce words and intensity of sentiments that can easily touch your heart. If we fully understand this simple sloka, we can bring Maha Vishnu in to our Drawing room and Adi Sankara in to our hearts or the other way around too! Not only that we can get to know Maha Vishnu and Adi Sankara intimately, we can know ourselves also. To know ourselves is after all, the aim of Adwaitam. Thus this ‘Shat Padi can take us to the commanding heights of Adwaitam through the simple means of a Stotra by Adi Sankara on Maha Vishnu dripping with the devotion!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #161 (Vol #4) Dated 15 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #161 (Vol #4) Dated 15 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 second para on page number 894 of Vol 4 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)
562. We put across all sorts of lame excuses for not trying sit down for meditation even for a few minutes, because we lack in self confidence and also because our faith in the words of our elders is so flimsy! Where there is a will there is a way. If we have the clear intention to annul the untruthful mind of ours and make an effort to realise the Aatma, there is certainly a chance of opening the door to Self Realization.
563. What is the reason for the lack of will power? We are so scatter brained that we do not feel the need to find the way out. If we are stuck in torrential rains or out in the open under scorching sunshine, think of the intensity with which we will be looking for an open gate or door in somebody’s house, will we not? Our immediate need of the moment is to find some opening that we will be knocking on closed doors urging them to open. Like that if we feel the urge to enter the portals of the inner Aatma from the heat of the sunshine or the spattering of incessant rain, we will do so. As we are complacently, foolishly looking for silly pleasures, we are not making the effort, possibly. (KTSV adds: Jesus Christ is said to have advised the masses, “Knock! The doors shalt be opened. Ask! Thou shalt be given!” Does it not sound as though, he was also exhorting the masses to put in some similar effort?)
564. For such people, by pointing out the problems of life and its lack of reality, creating the urge and thirst for knowledge of the truth and for pointing out the way; is the job of organizations like this Kaamakoti Matam. People like me are entrusted with the responsibility to draw your attention to this need. So, I request you all to give it a deep consideration. Is your life now quite happy and free of problems? Though there may be some occasions for some happiness and satisfaction, often does it not happen that we are buffeted by various pulls and pressures? Is it not true that we are never able to say, “I am quite happy without any fear, worry or sorrow!”? Put your hands on your chest and tell me the truth! My statement is true, is it not so? OK. Why is it so? Why are we subjected to so many pulls, pressures and discomfitures?
565. If you think about it, you will see that nobody is able to keep quiet even for a few moments. Either we are doing something or the other or thinking about doing something. Endlessly we go on planning, scheming or doing wishful thinking. All that comes to destroy peace in our lives are originating from these actions of ours. Then when we do have some time to spare, we are on the lookout for entertainment or some vicarious pleasure! At the same time we all know very well that we are happiest when we do not have anything to do. Like two and two makes four, we all know that ‘no work means happiest’!
566. The next question is, “Why do any work?” Think about it! We know that everything that we do is to fulfil some desire of ours. Our actions done out of anger or delusion or infatuation or by any other feeling, on deeper analysis will be known to be based on some desire that would be lurking underneath. May be it is just a desire that we wish others to know that we are very duty conscious! OK, then if you try to see if you can stop doing that work, you will also see that it is next to impossible! Our innate nature is driving us to do something or the other. So, if you want to know what the Saastraas say about this, let me tell you. They say, “Do whatever you have to do but, cut down on doing things to satisfy your desires. Instead of doing things purely for personal selfish gains, let us start doing them for the sake of the society’s welfare. As many types of works are there, they have been nicely apportioned as swadharma. Start doing your duties as per that.
567. Then we will know that the swadharma Karma Anushtaana are meant to enable us to curtain personal desires and not to destroy them completely. They only divert our attention from being selfish. Added to that is the principle of Bhakti. The source of desires is the mind. From the senses if you focus on Easwara, the selfish desires can be controlled. In the beginning since people are predominantly identifying themselves with the gross body, the actions by the body are cleansed and the focus shifts from the gross to the subtle. As you go on making an effort to cut down on personal desires and work for the common benefit of all; to a large extent the pulls and pressures of life ease off and a fair amount of peace and happiness evolves automatically.
568. Even then, if you further think about it, you will find that complete peace and permanent calmness does not result. We will be aware of many complaints and discomfitures. May be we will feel that our efforts are not being properly appreciated. Even in our devotion to God, we will be aware of not experiencing God’s Grace inwardly. God’s real nature is not so clear through devotion. As we will not still know God’s real nature, inwardly we will also not know our own real nature. Because deep in Bhakti, we will still be aware of not really knowing the one who is devoted (that is the Self) and the one who is the target of our devotion (that is the God)!
569. Now when you think of it deeply, to get over our desires is still not the end! For the mind that is deep in devotion, will know of persisting deficiencies, problems and regrets; will also know that finally the mind has to go too. Then only the battle is over and eternal peace attained. At that stage if we sincerely study the books on Gnaana; we will know that it is the Aatma that is Easwara and Jeeva and also seen as the world at large! Instead of the peripheral mind it is the deep inner mind, the cleansed mind that will comprehend the deeper truths of Vedanta. Then, only then, we will be ready to knock on the door, like the man stuck in scorching Sun or the man stranded in floods; we will be looking for some opening. For that to happen from the beginning we have to start with some ‘Aatma Dhyaana’.
570. Aatma cannot be deliberated upon, yes! It is not a matter subject to even Dhyaana or anything else. May be that are we not able to comprehend even a little bit when we hear such things as, “It is unaffected by anything like the deep vast oceans; it is like the wide open expanse of Space; it is the undivided whole, absolute peace”? Do we not feel a thrill and expansiveness in ourselves? Let it be an imagination or delusion. Such a thought may only be a thought. But, it does not hurt anyone. As long as it causes us to keep quiet and gives us peace and lessens our feverishness, it is great indeed. We who are constantly hurting the world by our sense organs and mind; are made to just be without any action; even if only for a few minutes every day; that is Aatma Dhyaanam! If we start off like this, eventually the real will make it known to us by revelation on its own. So, once we become aware that we are stuck up in a never ending struggle, wish and seek peace of mind and body; there will be a mind for it and there will be a way!
571. Being the Maya SwaroopiNi, as all of these so many ‘I, Me and Myself’, having subjected all of us to all these conflicts and pulls and pressures; simultaneously motivating us also towards Aatma Gnaana; that AmbaaL, by her Gnaana Swaroopa may grant us eternal peace, I pray! For this She has to Will it so. For Her the will and the way are the same, which is also the goal! Still, instead of doing everything just by Her will, making us her tools, as though we can make so many efforts with aspirations; She plays Her Leela. So I pray to Her to make us enter the process of undertaking the journey towards Aatma Aananda. In the end, opening the gates of Gnaanam may She grant us the peaceful bliss of Adwaita Aananda. Let us all pray, “gnaana vairaagya siddhyartam bikshaam dehi cha Paarvathi”!
(With that the series of talks on Adwaitam come to an end. Next we will go on to Bhakti that is Devotion.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #160 (Vol #4) Dated 13 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #160 (Vol #4) Dated 13 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 889 of Vol 4 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)
553. Start From Today! From today you are all Arjuna-s. Like him you are all in ‘Vishaada Yoga’ that is a state of confusion. Like him you also start off going through all that Sri Krishna told him in Bhagawat Gita and finally arrive at the 73rd Sloka of the 18th Chapter, where he says, “nashto moha:smrutir labdhaa tvat prasaadaat mayaa achyuta I stitosmi gata sandeha: karishye vachanam tava II”. It means, “Destroyed is my delusion as I have gained awareness of the truth through Thy Grace, O Krishna. I remain free from doubts. I will act according to Thy Word.” I pray to Lord Krishna Paramaatma that you all may attain to the same state as Arjuna did!
554. From today, to defeat the demoniacal forces, get all the divine forces mobilised. Do all the duties and rituals that you are required to perform. With the great humility approach God Easwara with utmost devotion. Knowing in your hearts that Being – Awareness – Bliss of Sat – Chit – Ananda Swaroopa is the reality of your Aatma which covers in itself Easwara, the world and all the living beings; try and remind yourself this above truth every time you are enamoured or disgusted with anything or anybody anytime! That will help you in the end, however much the Aatma may seem to be covered by dirty screens as of now. Daily sit down quietly at least for some time with the firm conviction that even now we are that Aatma only. Often even during all your works, jobs and endeavours; think of the ‘action-free, ever peaceful, expansiveness of our true nature. That will relieve us of the attachments and involvements that we are likely to develop during our Karmas and enable us to cut down and off set our debit balances of Karma.
555. As the demoniacal forces are being sorted out, we have to remember that the so called divine forces also have to go. Their requirement is only in the relative ambience. In the state of Adwaita, they also have no role to play! Conduct your worldly affairs sensibly. If we fight our battles thinking of the Lord who told us, “maam anusmara”, then we will avoid getting attached to all other things in life. Then with His help we can be free of the divine forces too. Beyond that we should not get over dependent on that Lord God also in His SaguNa form, so as to be able to merge in the NirguNa form of true reality! As a fore runner of that eventuality, we should be having some Aatma Dhyaanam from the beginning as I have been suggesting.
556. Go Far Beyond the Concepts of Good! If you leave these good forces to hang around they can also distract from our overall aim as they are also good in relation to what is considered as bad and to that extent dependent on the vagaries of the mind only. At the time of the Second World War, Britain, France, America and Russia were the allied Nations on the one side. Germany, Italy and Japan were the Axis forces on the other side. Amongst them the Allied Nations were seemingly the Good forces and the Axis were noticeably the Evil forces. Luckily the Allies won the war. Since then what has happened to them? There are many cleavages amongst them and are opponents as the Iron Curtain and the Non-Communist nations! They have sunk the whole world in situations worse than actual war in what is called the ‘Cold War’!
557. Why go so far? See within this country itself. The white man was ruling and looting this country of its wealth and resources while corrupting a far advanced civilization than their own! From the time we started the Freedom Movement, look at the standard of leadership and their willingness to sacrifice their all for the nation’s well being! Look at the level of motivation and sense of unity that the common man felt those days. Whatever good the Britishers might have done for this country, they were all looking like the devils. And Indians were all Divine Beings come down from the Heavens as though. But what happened since our gaining Independence from the white man? Within our land there are all possible divisions and fissiparous tendencies emerging. In this it has become difficult to call any of these forces as divine! (KTSV adds: I just wish to remind the readers that PeriyavaaL made this statement sometime in the 60/70’s. He passed away in 1994. Thank God that he did not witness the chaos of the present times in the name of ‘coalition – dharma!’)
558. What I am telling you is that, what is seemingly good one moment, over time dissipates and changes. So you may get rid of the known devil by what is seemingly good. But beware! What is good now is not going to remain so forever. By all means, follow the Karma Anushtaana and Bhakti Upaasana sincerely. Those methods or procedures are not going to go bad. But this person doing it may get an ego boost with detestable pride! You have to move on from Karma Yoga to Bhakti to what Sri Krishna called the Sankhya Yoga (of Gnaana Yoga), that He gave as a foundation course even before talking about Karma Yoga. That is not to be forgotten but often mulled over and ruminated upon. Only then without giving a chance for a fight by the divine forces within themselves; the very cause of the conflict being, this man with the notion that he is an individual, unique, separate and special as a Jeeva; will be taken out as a non-existing entity and realise his oneness with the only existing reality of Aatma! Then one day devoid of all conflicts and disputes, if not in this life in one of his future lives, the route to the destination will open out bit by bit.
559. Aatma Vichaara (Meditate about what one is Made of) is Essential for All. Elders have said that out all living beings only the human being is entitled to find the answer for questions about one’s own origins! If there is to be a gate way for this knowledge, only this human animal can open and enter it and learn oneself to be made up of the same stuff as the Parabrhmam. That is why, Avvaiyaar had said, “aridu aridu maanidaraai pirattal aridu”, that (out 8.4 million life forms,) to be born as a human being is difficult and rare! Our AachaaryaaL too said the same thing in ‘Viveka ChoodaamaNi’, “jantoonaam narajanma durlabham”! So, it is essential that all those who are born as human beings should do Aatma Vichaara and try to attain Gnaana.
560. To say that I do not have time for such things is being very dense. We have time for the most stupid things and for transient and flimsy pleasures of life! Then if we say that we do not have time for the most important endeavour of attaining to eternal happiness, there can be nothing more idiotic than that. With Maya, Nature, Mind and such things, why does God orchestrate all this Leela of human and world drama? Through all this He is testing us to see if we raise above all the pitfalls and distractions, to search out the way for eternal happiness. So, till all our Karma account is balanced out, we should be doing our duties, Karma Anushtaanaas relentlessly. Through all this of childhood, teenage, married life, retirement, old age; our business, trading, transacting, eating, playing, enjoyments, entertainment and so on, at different points in our life; we should also be maturing and ripening step by step, towards that end point of Gnaana. One can learn and graduate through all this.
561. But, if we stop with all that and refuse to learn and graduate, is it not wasting one’s life? We might have attained many B.A., M.A., Ph.D., and Doctorate in many disciplines of subjects and so on. After all that, if we do not graduate to this degree of Aatma Gnaana, it means a sheer waste! It is like saying that I collected all materials to make a bone fire but, did not have time for warming my hands and body in the cold! It is like saying that I had time to do all that work but, did not have time to collect the wages! All the other works are for this end, to fetch you to the Aatma. So, it is essential that we must spend some time every day to sit down and do Dhyana, even if it is only a make belief, play acting sort of meditation! Unless we schedule this every day of our lives at least for some five or ten minutes, it will take us back only to the duality and not raise us to the Oneness of Adwaitam! Let us stop giving these lame excuses and try to do Dhyana! We have to make an effort and thereby try and get maturity. To say that I do not have maturity and so cannot try, is to endlessly put the cart before the horse, ad infinitum ad nauseam! (To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #159 (Vol #4) Dated 11 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #159 (Vol #4) Dated 11 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 884 of Vol 4 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)
542. Arjuna’s natural inclination is for Karma Yoga because of his being a representative of the warrior class of people whose dominant quality is effervescent and dynamic Rajo GuNa. So also most of the people of the world today are of that type only. Other than doing their duties effectively, maximum that can be expected of such people is to surrender to the will of God without much discussion about subtle esoteric issues! If you tell them, “You be Brhmam or be the Aatma”, it will make no dent in their minds! When you make a statue of intricate artistry, to start with, the sculptor will only make an outline which will look rather crude. Later to quote Michaelangelo, “You carefully remove whatever is not to be there in the statue” and you arrive at a masterpiece of art! That is what Sri Krishna is doing with Arjuna. Remember that Arjuna represents all the aspirants of the world at the cross roads in their life befuddled by the doubts and confusion of existence as to how to proceed further!
543. “Doing ones duty as required by Swadharma is not the be all and end all. Then you have to give up this thought also that you should stick to Swadharma. You are not yet matured enough in Gnaana to go beyond the dichotomy of Dharma vis a vis Adharma. Not only you, nobody by themselves, can attain to Gnaana without my assistance! To enable you to cross over that threshold is my business. Your job is to simply surrender leaving everything in my hands.” Putting all these ideas together in the end of the 18th Chapter, Sri Krishna ends His narration of the Gita.
544. Many people have not understood this correctly. Keeping Arjuna’s natural inclination for action as he has been advised to follow the Saadhana through Karma Marga ending in surrender, this has been construed as the final advice for all aspirants in spirituality! So, they claim that Bhakti and Surrender as the essence of Gita and not Gnaana. Since for Arjuna and people like him, Adwaita Gnaana will almost be an unattainable utopia, Sri Krishna ended with mentioning, “Forget about Dharma and Adharma, you simply do your duty and surrender and I shall do the needful”, was His message. That would be the correct interpretation.
545. “Still, the truth of all truths is also to be told. Arjuna should also be told about Aatma. He and others like him should also be given a glimpse of there being a state beyond all Karma and Bhakti. They should not remain ignorant of it, after the whole of Gita has been said and done! There is no more Saadhana, no more effort; nothing to be achieved. In that you just be - just be aware - and just be aware blissfully.” So having told him to fight, He told him to surrender unto Him. Having fully explained about Aatma and Brhmam and Adwaita Moksham throughout at various places in the 18 Chapters of the Gita, He ends with an easy way of ‘how to do it’ proviso.
546. Even in the last chapter, He talked more about the Gnaana – Sanyaasa – Yoga quite extensively. Logically, it seems that He should have finished with that final mission in life only, is it not so? But with abundant pity and compassion, looking at the disciple’s level and comprehension, He finished not so logically but more psychologically. Thus He turned around ‘His Sermon on the Chariot’ in such a manner as to raise the morale of His disciple to the highest, encouraging him to place all his trust in devotion and surrender that is, Bhakti and SaraNaagati!
547. “Taking Sanyaasa, becoming a Gnaani, having got relieved from pride, desire, anger and such things, without any thought of ‘me and mine’ the devotee thus becomes an embodiment of absolute peace entitled to become Brhmam. Then he goes on to realise his own self as the Aatma with a vision of total equanimity, one with all living beings”. That is what He tells Arjuna in Slokas 53 to 54 of Bhagawat Gita in the 18th Chapter. That is the point in the Gita where His Sermon rightfully reaches its pinnacle of glory. Here is where logically it could have been wound up! Then He may have thought, “What is this? Having raised Arjuna to the highest peak, I seem to have whisked away the ladder by which he could have climbed down to Mother Earth. No, No! Let me give him an easy way out. Already I have given the way of respectful adoration (Bhaya – Bhakti) and shown him a vision of my Cosmic Form of (Vishwa Roopa Dharshan) thereby creating loving devotion (Prema – Bhakti). Now let me show him the way of surrender (Prapatti – SaraNaagati).” That must have been how He decided to go about it. Finally our AachaaryaaL Adi Sankara in explanation in his Bhashyam, says that Prapatti is the same as Paraa Bhakti and Gnaanam. Having laid out tha path of Karma and launched Arjuna on his endeavour and having given him a vision of His Cosmic Form, suitably Sri Krishna finished His Sermon on the Chariot in SaraNaagati!
548. The Adwaita Foundation by Gita. In the whole of Gita, the concept of Gnaanam has been extensively elaborated. That is why our AachaaryaaL had selected Bhagawat Gita as one of the Three Basic Scriptures known as ‘Prasthaana Thraya’, namely Ten selected Upanishads, Brhma Sutra and Bhagawat Gita and gave his Bhashyam for them containing extensive notes, interpretations, references to other scriptures and answers to all possible questions, points and counter points! He says that Bhagawan Sri Krishna, with the intension of instilling a sense of interest in Aatma, before even advising him on Karma Yoga, had dwelt upon Gnaanam quite extensively from the beginning of Bhagawat Gita.
549. Gita Upadesam rightly starts of in the 11th Sloka of the 2nd Chapter. All that is preceding is more as introduction describing the setting and background with reference to the context. In the very first Sloka of the Upadesa, He says, “Gnaani does not worry about the living and dead. The reason for that is because ‘there is nobody who has not been there before’! Everybody is the death-free, eternal, inestimable, inscrutable, immeasurable, unfathomable and unlimited Aatma. It has something as a body which is the thing that dies.” Thus He goes on talking purely in the language of Adwaitam. After some 20 Slokas of such pure Adwaita Gnaanam only, He comes on to how Arjuna should go about solving the situation facing him, changing the thrust from Brhmam to Karma.
550. Poorva and Uttara Meemaamsai-s proceed from Dharma to Karma to Brhmam, as I told you earlier. Actually since there was no talk at all about God, Brhmam and Aatma in Poorva Meemaamsai; and as it was all about Dharma and Karma; Vedaantam had to counter it and correct the imbalance. So as not to let the same mistake occur, before initiating Arjuna in observance of Swadharma Anushtaana, Bhagwan Sri Krishna has laid a strong foundation of Brhma Gnaana.
551. Swadharma Karma was the particular line in which He wanted Arjuna to be launched in. But before that, He wanted that Arjuna should be aware of the principles of Gnaanam which Krishna called by the name of ‘Saankhyam’ and started on that. Having finished talking about Saankhya Yoga (in Gita 2.39), He tells Arjuna, “I have now finished with Sankhya Yoga, now listen to ‘bhudhyaa yukto yayaa paartha karma bhandam prahaasyasi’ ; how you can now go about doing your Karma, without getting too attached to it” Then also throughout that chapter, in the next 33 Slokas, He talks about how to go beyond the pull of the three GuNas through Karma Yoga, how to do away with all the pairs of opposites, finally describing in detail the character qualities of a Stita Pragnya, (a man who has steady wisdom and is merged in the superconscious state)!
552. For a man who was confused about what was his appointed role in life, thinking that attachment for the relatives is the only Dharma even when they were unrightfully and immorally arraigned against him; Sri Krishna has given a guided tour of the higher rarefied regions to be reached, without any confusion or doubt, ending His talk in describing a Stita Pragnya, who would be calm and contented like the unmoving full ocean.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL #158 (Vol #4) Dated 09 Mar 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #158 (Vol #4) Dated 09 Mar 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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 number 878 of Vol 4 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)
532. Whatever the problems and hurdles in doing ones duties and devotional activities, we have to do them with this clarity that these problems are the ones that obviate greater problems. It is like the pin prick of the preventive medicines which obviate a later day incisive and invasive surgery. If you say ‘No’ to them, you are inviting greater problems. Instead of Bhakti for God, you start trusting the ephemeral, adding to the load of your baggage!
533. So, the conviction that, “I have no other duty than to adhere to Adwaitam”, should be the base note known as, ‘Aadhaara Sruti’ in music. With that base note you can sing many notes without any aberrations in concert and in tune. Many duties and responsibilities can be managed sincerely without a blemish and with perfection. If you do not have the base ‘Aadhaara Sruti’ continuously, the music will not be in symphony! When you do deep scrutiny and research in to Sabda Brhmam (also known as Naada Brhmam), the process is known as ‘Anusandaanam’ that will take us deep in to total soundless silence; SaguNa Upaasana will fetch us to NirguNa Brhmam!
534. Whatever work you do, or duties you perform, the weight should be left to Him and the responsibility mentally signed off to the real Karta, the Doer! Without anxiety and passion, the job should be done perfectly, correctly. That is Nish – Kamya – Karma. That is devotion and trust. This way you can unload all your heavy responsibilities with the surety of success. “I am not the doer. Nobody, nothing can do anything to me!” This man from the limited self will just drop all sense of separateness and know himself to be That in Reality. (KTSV adds: Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi says, the man travelling in the train, knowing that it is the engine that is pulling the whole train, will and should put down all his loads and sit down happily, should he not? Similarly when you know that God is running the whole show, why carry the mental load?)
535. To Work without Feeling it to be a Burden! Then, Easwara may get many works done out of such a man, for the welfare of the society at large, as such a person will be most efficient and will not generate problems of his own! Janaka the father of Sita is often quoted as having been such a Brhma Gnaani while still taking care of an empire! Have you noticed children fast asleep and drinking milk? It is the highest level of efficiency when you do not even know that you are working. Patra Giriyaar asks, “When will I enjoy the sleep without sleeping?” That is the state of working without the thinking that one is hard at work! That stage is far away for most of us, as of now.
536. It is not as though Easwara makes every Gnaani become a common purpose robot like this. There may be some inside a cave in some far away mountain, otherwise inaccessible to human beings in Nirvikalpa Samaadhi. There may be some Gnaanis lecturing and advising people like the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Swami Dayananda Saraswathy. There are also some like Swami Sivananda, Chinmayananda and Mata Amirtanandamayi heading worldwide organizations. Their work involves as much of corporate management covering all the aspects of material, financial and man management as well as public relations, advertisement, media coverage, human resources development and training the followers while sticking to Dharma AacharaN and Karma Anushtaana along with elaborate conduct of pooja, bhajans and yagnaas! All that means so much more Karma that will take the followers to Nishkarma.
537. Whatever the duties, services, Karma Anushtaanaas or Upaasana procedures and such things that we have to do; we should also try and avoid getting too fond of those very activities. Once fondness and desire happens, you know that the whole lot of ‘Anartha Parampara’ also starts off. So all these actions as part of whatever Saadhanaas we do are still only unavoidable Maya and not the real truth! Our aim remains the Aatma which is not directly attainable, that we are using these methods. Hence there is the need to constantly remind ourselves of the Adwaita aim.
538. If we have to come face to face with our own Aatma, this soiled, dirty, oscillating mind of ours has to be cleansed and stabilized. As in dirty, turbid and shaking water we cannot see what is inside, to get the mind translucent, we have to cleanse the mind with Karma and stabilize the same with Bhakti. From the very beginning as we do our duties and services, we have to keep developing our devotion in parallel. He being the Karta (or Doer) as well as the Phala Daata (or Giver of Effect for all our actions); unless we offer all our actions at his feet, it will not be Nish-Kaamya-Karma. For what is otherwise a very dry thing, this Nish-Kaamya-Karma; it is this devotion to Easwara that will soften and lubricate the process. As the batter for bread is softened and becomes easier for handling by adding Ghee, our actions should be made soft and nice by adding devotion. While doing all this we should constantly guard against Saadhana – Ahankaram / Abhimaanam, that is, pride that we are the ones doing all this! As I said earlier, from the beginning the aim of Aatma Anubhava should never be lost sight of!
539. Thus the three royal paths of Karma – Bhakti – Gnaana have to go hand in hand, right from the word ‘Go’. It is this point that Bhagwan Sri Krishna has clarified in Gita. He told Arjuna, “yudhyasva” – saying “Come on yaar, fight”. Krishna got him fully involved in action. Arjuna had complained as to why he should go to war, since he was going to become a Gnaani! Krishna told him, “Nothing doing. “yudhyasva vigata: jwara:”, Krishna said. What does that phrase “vigata: jwara:” mean? It means, ‘devoid of fever’! Arjuna was affected by the fever of his ill placed, mistaken attachments to relatives, even when they were lined up ready to kill him! His mind was agitated and delirious with a false sense of what is right and wrong!
540. Because of the mistaken notion Arjuna was thinking of, taking up Sanyaasa, giving up all claims to the royalty and leading the life of a beggar! Sri Krishna’s immediate task was to correct him and move him in the Karma Marga. So he started talking about the Karma Marga expanding on the idea of Nish – Kamya – Karma. Since the Gita was meant to be an advice for Arjuna as a man of the caste of Kshatriyas, the Karma marga had to be emphasised. But this is not to be mistaken that the main thrust of the Bhagawat Gita is only Karma Yoga. It was meant for Arjuna as a soldier (with Rajo GuNa predominant) and not for a Saadhak in the spiritual path. But with reference to the context, the initial need of the hour was to get rid of his delusion.
541. But, instead of its being dry performance of duties only; Sri Krishna added a qualifying clause. He said, “maam anusmara yudhya cha” (Gita 8.7.). “Fight for your rights. But do it ‘thinking of Me!’ Use all your fighting prowess and abilities, while keeping your mind with devotion focussed on Me! This is the fight between divine and evil forces and so you have to fight keeping God on your side.” Under the situation maximum that Arjuna could do was surrender in devotion and not Brhma NirvaaNa in Gnaana! That is how, He told Arjuna, later in the 18th chapter of the Gita, “Leave all complications of trying to analyse as to what is Dharma and Adharma and simply surrender unto Me!” That is the meaning of “sarva dharmaan parityajya maam ekam saraNam vraja”! That is the message of Bhagawat Gita as Sri Krishna promises, “because I will take you across to the everlasting plenitude of Moksha, do not worry!”
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.