DEIVATHIN KURAL # 111 (Vol # 5) Dated 12 Jan 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 111 (Vol # 5) Dated 12 Jan 2012

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from page No 690 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that here in 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
595. Addressing Brhma and other Devatas, Sambu said, “I will do the needful to solve your problem myself. I will be born as a human being for the main task of eradicating the pseudo religions and re-establish the Sanatana Dharma. Most importantly I shall write the Bhashyam for Brhma Sutra through which I shall reassert the purpose of the Vedas and bring back civility, morality and honesty in all our dealings. Forgetting that all the existence is made of one Parabrhmam people are blind to the fact that the indwelling spirit in every iota of existence is one and the same. We mistake the body which is constantly changing, aging, getting ill, to be the Self which is eternal, changeless and universal! This is the cause for all ignorance and faulty understanding. Being deluded by the power of Maya, people have opted for variety, separation and individuality, tending to forget the background of oneness. With the name as Sankara, I shall assume a Sanyasi Avatara and by the power of Aatma Gnaana remove all darkness and ignorance from the face of the Earth. In completing this task I will take help from four disciples of mine. Like in the Avataras by Maha Vishnu his four hands were a part of him these four disciples will be like my four arms.” In a continuous torrent Sambhu just showered them with benevolent sanctions – “ityuktvopara taan devaan uvaacha Girija priyaha”! Girija Priya-ha means the ‘AmbaaL’s sweet heart’! Even though DakshiNa Murthy is alone, AmbaaL is never apart from him. His Sankara Avatara was inclusive of Sambhu and AmbaaL!
596. His words:
“manoratam pooraishye Maanusham avalambya va: I
dushtaachaara vinaasaaya dharma samstaapanaaya cha II
bhaashyam kurvan brhma sutra taatparyaarta vinirNayam I
mohana prakruti dwaita dwaantam adyaatma bhaanubhi: II
chaturbi: sahita: sishyai: chaturair harivat bhujai: I
yateendra: sankaro naamnaa bhavishyaami maheetale II”
Even before the Devas came to him, he was ready with his plan for Avatara it seems. Even the name Sankara is also his own selection. This is one more proof of the special power of the name Sankara. He had also pre-decided that he will be a Sanyaasi by saying ‘Yateendra: ‘, which means Indra among renunciates, as ‘yati’ means a Sanyaasi!
597. There are two words ‘yama’ and ‘yata’ from the same root dhatu. Both indicate the act of keeping under control. Yama has that name as his job is to punish the errant Jeevas. The Jeevas go astray due to the promptings of the five input devices known as Indriyas and the manas or mind! The man, who has got his mind and Indriyas under control, is a Sanyaasi and so he is also a Yama. But the difference lies in the fact that instead of controlling others and being a pain on the side for them, he is exercising self control. So to make it nice sounding we put a ‘sam’ before that ‘yam’ and call such a person, ‘samyami’! This same self control of mind, heart, senses and their actions is conveyed by the word ‘Yati’. Easwara as he decided to take an Avatara as a Yati, that too as a Yateendra, meaning a man of eminence amongst such people; he had also decided to write his Magnum Opus, the Bhashyam for Brhma Sutra! That is what is conveyed by ‘bhashyam kurvan brhma sutra’!
597. Avatara of Devas. Easwara full of compassion wished to bolster up the morale of the Devas who were complaining to him as weaklings. So he enacted a play at the time of Avatara as though he would take help from each one of them! At the time of Tripura Samhaara, all the Devas gave him one weapon or equipment one by one and kept them before him. Without using any one of them, Easwara simply LOL! That laughter became a fire that scorched and burnt the Tripura Asuras! God wished to re-enact that scene in a slightly different way! In the drama of Easwara’s Avatara, it is given in some versions of Sankara Vijayam that he gave specific roles to different Devas. The whole of the army of monkeys at the time of Rama Avatara are supposed to be Avataras of various Devas.
598. Easwara had said that he will be assuming the Avatara role with four specially supporting cast, didn’t he? They were Maha Vishnu as Padma Paada; Vayu as Hastaamalaka; Agni as Thotaka; and Brhma as Sureshwara. With Brhma, Saraswathi also situated herself on earth and SarasavaaNi. SubrahmaNya Swami as the ever young one, came before all others as Kumarila Bhatta. Indra came as the King Sudhanva. Padma Paada, Hastaamalaka and Thotaka; took Sannyaasa directly from Brhmacharya like our AachaaryaaL did. Sureshwara was in Gruhasta Ashrama, older than AachaaryaaL in age and a staunch advocate of Meemaamsaka Vaada which was intolerant of Adwaita. He had argued with AachaaryaaL and lost in debate before becoming his disciple. In Gruhasta Ashrama, his name was Mandana Mishra and in Sanyaasa he was known as Sureshwara. He is Brhma’s Avatara.
599. In the Vedic Karmas, the most important is the Yagnya Karma that is managed by four officials working together and their overall supervisor is called the Brhma. May be that is the reason that Brhma’s Amsa Avatara became an ardent Karma Meemaamsaka. SubrahmaNya Swami’s Amsa was born as Kumarila another Karma Meemaamsaka, as a Brahmin he was famous as a Bhatta. The main thing in Yagnya is Agni the fire and Agni is Subrahmanya, the six sparks from the third eye of Easwara! He was also one to have been objecting the Adwaita Vedaanta, that his point of view was known as ‘Bhaatta Mada or Religion’! He had a dispute with Aachaaryal and finally at the end of it accepted the Gnaana Marga. But he did not take up Sanyaasa or become a disciple of our AachaaryaaL. I will tell you the reason why of his action later as, if I say that now, your interest in the story will wane!
600. AachaaryaaL stood for Gnaana Marga and the older Brhma and the younger SubrahmaNya; both stood for Meemaamsaka that is, Karma Marga and fought with him. You could possibly nurture a question as to why as Devas instead of assisting the Avatara Purusha, they fought with Easwara! Yes they fought, it is true. At the same time they assisted him also in a big way. More than his other disciples, their help was monumental. The funny point is that, as the proponents of the Karma Meemaamsai they were ardent opponents of Adwaita Siddhaantam. By that very fact they were also the greatest benefactors in our Sankara AachaaryaaL’s work. Whatever the amount of effort required to counter the Buddhism was reduced by half in countering their religion of Meemaamsai. Once the fallacy of their ways was proved beyond doubt, it was easy to argue against what Buddhism stood for!
601. Buddhism contradicts the Vedic religion’s Karma Anushtaana, Bhakti Upaasana and Gnaana Siddhaantam – all three completely! Still to some extent their principled point of view of Siddhaantam goes parallel to Adwaita. True to the adage, parallel lines never meet! They also accept Maya and believe in completely annihilating the mind. Then after the mind has been annulled or erased, we say that the residual balance is the effulgence and brilliance of Pari PoorNa Brhmam; whereas they talk about ‘Soonyata’ or in other words –Nothingness! This is a major deviation. There are some more subtle differences. But, those differences being too abstruse, it is extremely difficult to explain and make those things understood. All told still, the idea of NirvaNa is one area where Sanatana Dharma and Buddhism come very near each other. In the area of devotion, since Buddhists do not accept the existence of something like a God or Swami, there is a basic divergence of views with us. In the matter of karma Anushtaanaas, since it is forbidden to conduct Yagnya at all, there is total antipathy. Then they do not go with the VarNa – Ashrama Dharmas, and so apportioning of duties for various groups of people is also not acceptable to them!
602. In all these differences and oneness of understanding, as I have said earlier, Bhakti that is, Devotion is one area that is there in all of us naturally in the world, to which ever denomination or religion we may belong. When we look closely at any part of this world, the macro or micro part of it, one cannot help being flabbergasted and spell bound at the enormity, complexity, intricacy and orderliness of it all. Then every thinking brain has to come to the conclusion that all this cannot be the result of random chance but have to be systematic and controlled happenings, with a zillion feed backs, checks and balances! So naturally there has to be one controlling power, call it God or whatever! Actually it is more difficult to prove that there is no God, for which you have to resort to very complicated recondite logic! Buddhists did that and their followers did not know how to counter it. They were ready to accept Buddhism for reasons other than this, which I have explained earlier elsewhere. Then the followers of Buddhism did something very beautiful. They started praying to Buddha and other religious leaders down the line, calling them God or Bhagawan or whatever! So then, Buddhists had to give some space for devotional activities in their religion too! These things I have explained earlier in detail.
603. Such being the situation, to bring the masses back to the right Vedic religious Bhakti Marga, our AachaaryaaL did not have to argue or debate much! When it comes to matters intellectual such as Gnaana, much debates, arguments and counter arguments can be there. In matters of devotion that comes naturally in the heart even without understanding and comprehension, not much of arguments need be there. By simply composing many slokas soaked in devotion, by the power of Mantras making the existing temples live with divine vibrations as places of worship and by cleansing the methods of worship, making them easy and humane; cruel and crude methods of worship like Kaapalikam and Vaama Aachaara were easily done away with. To a large extent our AachaaryaaL preferred not to argue with the intellectual gymnastics of Buddhists, as he was well aware that nothing much can be gained by debates, as devotion is a matter of the heart and not the brains! So our AachaaryaaL clearly established the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent principle as the material and purposeful cause for all existence including Maya and left it at that. This material cause and purposeful cause are called ‘upaadaana and nimitta kaaraNa’ in Sanskrit. I must proceed further only after explaining these two points more clearly.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.