DEIVATHIN KURAL # 122 (Vol # 5) Dated 03 Feb 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 122 (Vol # 5) Dated 03 Feb 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 the page No 756 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)
702. Offering our Minds and Silent Mananam (Remembrance). I have been saying that Sankara Jayanthi should be celebrated by all the followers of Sanatana Dharma in greater numbers, as Sankara was the one who made it possible for all other such holy days to be remembered and solemnized. Let such reverence and solemnity for it evolve whenever it may. For the present what we should do is that, we should offer our minds to our Guru Aadi Sankara Bhagawat PaadaaL on that Sankara Jayanthi day. Before we celebrate with materials and body, by mind we should do Mananam. By saying this, I am not ruling out other types of celebration but, emphasizing the importance of inner devotion. The celebration should be conducted with all our hearts and minds.
703. Let us now give our minds to our AachaaryaaL for some time. More than enjoying by talking and hearing about the greatness of the Avatara Mahima and such things, to the extent possible let us surrender our minds to Him. That is the greatest thrill. If we can bring him into our minds and retain him there for some time, that is the biggest happiness. That is the peacefulness in which all our aspirations and indifference will get dissolved. More than thinking of God, thinking of his feet, that is, surrendering to God, is more efficacious. Instead of remembering God, who being responsible for all the good and bad actions of ours, still punishes us for our bad Karma; it is better to think of Bhagawat PaadaaL who doing only good, has come to improve us and save us from ourselves, however much the fools that we are!
704. How to offer our minds on a platter as though, without thinking of all sorts of ideas? How to simply bring him and seat him in our minds? I will tell you an easy method. Simply chant in your minds, without even moving your lips and say, “Jaya Jaya Sankara, Hara Hara Sankara!” By this process he will come into our minds. What was the procedure taught by Thiru Gnaana Sambandar for removing all the worries of the world? Wasn’t it to chant the name of Hara? He said, “aazhga theeyadellaam! aran naamame soozhga, vaiyagamum thuyar theergave!”? So let us add Sankara’s name to Hara’s and sing their victory by saying ‘Jaya Jaya’. Nothing more is required, no lectures, no Upanyasam and no mental gymnastics!
705. “Why are you troubling yourself in vain, making clever arguments thereby hurting your own throat? Are you not intelligent enough to simply think of Sambu’s lotus feet and enjoy Parama Aananda” – says our AachaaryaaL himself! I quote – “vruda kanda kshobam vahasi tarasa tarka vachasa padaambhojam sambhor bhaja parama soukhyam vraja sudhee:” (Sivanandalahari 6th Sloka, second half). He calls us “Good Baby! My Dear child, you are a sensible and smart child isn’t it?” That is the meaning of the last word ‘sudhee’! So in this holy of holy times, I shall give no further lecture. Whatever we say, there can be a difference of opinion. So let us not have any more lectures. For some time let us just say within our minds “Jaya Jaya Sankara, Hara Hara Sankara”. Let there be no sound coming out. Even if we are not able to do Yoga, Dhyana and go in to Samadhi, let us just do this ‘Maanasika Japa’ and for this itself our AachaaryaaL will come and do Anugraha!
706. I have been telling you all that, AachaaryaaL’s Utsavam and the day to day routine in this Matam, should be run by physical, material and monetary contributions from you all. I have been asking you to devote a week exclusively for the work in the Matam at least once a year. For those located within the distance of an hour or so, give one day of your week to the Matam, I have been saying. More than all that, your chanting today for five minutes “Jaya Jaya Sankara, Hara Hara Sankara”, bringing your minds to a stand-still and chanting within; that will be the greatest tribute to his memory. That will be a greater festival and a greater contribution to the running of the Matam. For your well being, for the Matam to run efficiently and for you to get the maximum benefit out of the existence of the Matam, nothing more than this Japa is required. The contribution by your minds is more valuable than with material and money. Instead of chanting aloud, keep chanting within, “Jaya Jaya Sankara, Hara Hara Sankara”, till I say ‘Arohara’! [Thus for a few minutes PeriyavaaL makes all the assemblage do Maanasika Japa. Then when he chants loudly ‘Arohara’, they also repeat with him and then when he says, “Govinda naama Sankeertanam” the audience erupts with the shout of “Govindaa, Govindaa!” That day’s Upanyasam was completed in this way. But we will continue with our translation.]
707. The Power of the Name. AryaambaaL delivered a boy baby. Avatara had taken place. Parents, elders and all the people in the village were happy. In ‘Sankara Vijayam’ it says that all over the world there were many good omens and the people spreading the non-Vedic religions noticed many contra indications. Immediately Sivaguru the father conducted the Samskaara known as Jaatakarma. On the 11th day, they did the PuNyaaha Vachanam and Naama KaraNam. Everybody knows that he gave the name Sankara to the new born baby. Do you know why? As his father had prayed to Siva aka Easwara and as the baby was born with his blessings, he gave one of the names of Easwara. Why was this one name selected from amongst a thousand names? When elders do something, even when they do something off handed, there will be much inner meanings. Similarly the totally inactive Sambhu is the one who becomes the dynamic ‘do – gooder’ that is, ‘sam – karam loka sankaram’, as the one who does all the good for the whole world! Like that, the father Sivaguru might have been prompted by an inner urge to name the child as ‘Sankara’.
708. When naming a thing or person, there are two methods. One is the ‘Roody’ and the other is Yougikam’ methods. Roody is the random selection of letters to make a name, like many people do nowadays in naming their children or products, call them names such as ‘Qrxy’, ‘Niira Radia’ and ‘Bumstead’! The other is to look in to the apparent qualities and characteristics of the person, known already or hopefully expected. In the case of our AachaaryaaL, ‘Sankara’ was both by the Roody as well as by Yougikam methods. There is one more reason for that particular name. That the birth took place in so and so month, such and such a fortnight, on a particular day or titi after Amavasya; the numbers are changed to letters and a name is so made. This used to be known as the ‘Katapayaadi Sankhyai’ method. By this method also, his name came out to be ‘Sankara’!
709. In the olden times, there were no printing presses. So people could not have had everything in books which can be referred to, as and when required. So everything had to be committed to memory registered in the minds. So, people were all walking and talking libraries and encyclopaedias. That is why all our Saastraas are in the form of so many slokas, which could be read, reiterated and remembered. That is why the Bhakti, Dharma, Gnaana Saastraas and PuraNas and Itihaasaas were all in the poetical form, no prose. Other arts and sciences, GaNitam, Bharatham, Rasa Vaadam, Shilpa, Vaastu and even Kaama Saastra; were slokas. Even Dictionary was in the verse.
710. You may wonder now as to how Maths can be in the verse form! But then, in those days, even maths was in the verse form. In maths there will be lot of numbers, isn’t it? In it, each letter would indicate a number. Putting the numbers together, it will make a word whose meaning will be in numbers. Since the letters started in this procedure with letters ‘ka’, ‘ta’, ‘pa’, and ‘ya’; each indicating a digit, the system was known as ‘katapaya aadhi sankhyai’ method. Its rule says, “kaadi nava; taadi nava; paadi pancha; yaadyashta”.
711. Let me explain – ‘kaadi nava’. In the Sanskrit alphabets we have consonant letters. In the ‘Ka’ series, we have ‘ka, kha, ga, and gha’, the first four letters. They represent numbers one to four and then the nasal ‘ngna’ is for number five. Then we have ‘cha, chha, ja, jha’ which represent six, seven, eight and nine respectively. Now similarly – ‘taadi nava’ – means, ‘ta = 1; tha = 2; da = 3; dha = 4; Na = 5; then, tha = 6; thha = 7; Dha = 8 Dhha = 9’. ‘Paadi pancha’ means, ‘pa = 1; pha = 2; ba = 3; bha = 4; ma = 5’. ‘Yaadyashta’ means that ‘ya, ra, la, va, Sa, sha, sa, ha’ represent numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 respectively.
712. Now let me tell you as to how to indicate numbers with consonants and words made out of them. Let us take the word ‘Jaya’, which I said is very auspicious and closely connected to our AachaaryaaL and used as a number by itself in the ‘Katapayadi’ system. In the word ‘Jaya’, ‘Ja’ comes eighth in the ‘kaadi nava’ after ka – kha – ga – gha – ngna – cha – chha, and so ‘ja’ indicates number 8. The letter ‘ya’ is number one in ‘yaadhyashta’. Put together, ‘Jaya’ indicates ‘81’. Here, there is another rule by which the numbers are to be counted ‘Right to Left’, that is ‘angaanaam vaamato gati:’, here ‘vaama’ means ‘in the reverse order’. So, this number becomes 18!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.