DEIVATHIN KURAL # 123 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 Feb 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 123 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 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 last para on page No 763 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)
713. In Bhagawat Gita, Chapter VI, Sloka 11, Sri Krishna while talking about doing Japa, sitting in an Aasana, mentions a phrase ‘sailaagina kushottaram’. ‘Saila’ means cloth from which words like ‘Selai’ and ‘Saree’ have evolved. ‘Aginam’ means animal skin. ‘Kusha’ means a type of grass. Put together, the phrase ‘saila – agina – kusha – uttaram’ means ‘sitting on a seat made of a layer of cloth over the ground, covered by a layer of tiger or deer skin on which another layer of Darba Grass is spread’ and we sit over it for Dhyana. Then what will happen? The grass will irritate and sometimes cut the skin of our legs and bottom. Then the hair in the tiger / deer skin may also irritate our skin. Then what are we to do? Simply reverse the order. First spread the grass on the ground over which you spread the ‘aginam’ of animal skin. On top of that you spread the body friendly cotton cloth and sit on it, quite comfortably and do Dhyana. Like that, you have to reverse the order of 81 and get 18 as the number indicated by ‘Jaya’. 18 is a very successful winning number. So as to explain that, I gave you the above example of ‘sailaagina kushottaram’!
714. You might have heard of the basic 72 Ragas in Classic Karnatic Music known as MeLa Karta Raagaas. In Karnatic Music a Raagaa is made up of seven Swaras (Notes) in Aarohanam (ascending order) with the eighth Swara as a repetition of the first Swara in a higher pitch and again seven Swaras in Avarohanam (descending order). When the Raagaa has all the Swaras, seven-up and seven-down, it is known as the SampoorNa Raaga (complete) aka MeLa Karta Raagaas. Now the other Raagaas evolve with just one note being different from the previous adjoining Raaga and is called the Janya (evolved or derived) Raagaa. There was one gentleman by the name of Venkatamaki who serialised the Raagaas thus and put them in a matrix and thereby did a remarkable service of eternal value for the Carnatic Classical Music. He was the son of Govinda Deekshidar, who was responsible for the coming into being of the Tanjavur Nayak Dynasty, an able administrator and adviser of those kings and a great philanthrophist too.
715. Venkatamaki gave prefixes to each of the existing names to the Raagaas (as per the already prevalent system) of the MeLa Karta Raagaas, so that its position can be easily identified from which one can correctly make out the Swaras it is supposed to contain. This prefix was arrived at using ‘Katapayaadi Sankhyai’ method. For example SankarabaraNam was the 29th and Kalyani was the 65th MeLa Karta Raagaas. By the ‘Katapayaadi Sankhyai’ method SankarabaraNam was called the ‘Dheera SankarabaraNam’ and Kalyani was called the ‘Mecha Kalyani’. In the word ‘Dheera’, ‘dhee’ is from ‘Dhaadi Nava’ and so the Ninth and ‘ra’ in Yaadyashta is the number 2; together they make 92, which is to be read as 29 and so, SankarabaraNam is the 29th MeLa. In ‘Mecha’, ‘ma’ in ‘Paadi Pancha’ is the fifth and ‘cha’ in Kaadi Nava is the sixth; together they make 56 which is to be read as 65. So the Kalyani is the 65th MeLa!
716. Our AachaaryaaL’s Siddhi Day in ‘Katapayaadi’! Before telling you about our AachaaryaaL’s Jayanthi by this calculation, let me tell you about the day in which he dropped his human coil, known as the Siddhi Day. There is book known as the ‘PuNya Sloka Manjari’ which tells us of the ‘Siddhi Day’, starting from that of our AachaaryaaL till the 55th Peeta Adhipathi, giving their names, town or village , place where they attained Siddhi, the particular time when they dropped the human coil, are all given. Then after some five or six changes in the Peeta Adhipathi-s, a gentleman added a ‘Parichishtam’ or supplement for the AachaaryaaLs who have been there from Number 56 to 60.
717. In the main ‘PuNya Sloka Manjari’, the PuNya Sloka that tells us of our AachaaryaaL’s ‘Aaraadhana Day’ (that is the day on which he attained to Siddhi) is as follows: - “mahesa amsaat jaata: maduram upadishta adhvaya naya: maha moha dvaanta prasamana ravi: shaNmada guru: I phale swasmin swaayushi saracharaabde apisakaler vililaye raktaakshiN-yativrusha sidaikaadasi-pare II”. In this, the first part talks of the greatness of AachaaryaaL. Born as an Amsa of Easwara; giving Upadesa of Adwaitam rendering it sweet by his Bhashyam; establishing the six religions irrevocably as ShaNmadam; shining bright as the Sun of Gnaana removing all darkness; are all covered in the first part. In the second part of the Sloka is the ‘Katapayaadi Sankhyai’ matter. In the year of Raktaakshi in the Vrusha month of Vaikaasi, on eleventh day of the waxing moon (sukhla paksha ekaadasi), he attained Mukti as clearly stated in the second half of the Sloka in plain. The names of the years are as per a list which contains 60 names and so, a year with a particular name will recur after every 59 years. Thus, if this year is Raktaakshi, the next one with the same name will be the sixtieth.
718. So the question is as to which Raltaakshi that we are talking about? That is clarified in the third line of the Sloka; and it also clarifies as to what was his age was at the time of Siddhi. These two counts are given in Katapayaadi Sankhya. In ‘Saraacharaabde’, ‘sara’ means ‘arrow’ and ‘chara’ means ‘moving’ – and so sounds as some meaningful movement of an arrow! In truth it is indicative of a Katapayaadi number. As per ‘Kaadinava sutra’ let us work out. In ‘yaadyashta’ after ya-ra-la-va-sa, ‘sa’ is the fifth and ‘ra’ is the second. In ‘kaadinava’, ‘cha’ is sixth and ‘ra’ again is the second. Putting them together, ‘sarachara’ indicates 5262 and that has to be turned about, isn’t it? So, after Kali Yuga, in the year 2625 which was Raktaakshi Year, in the month of Vaikaasi, in Suddha Ekaadasi, our AachaaryaaL completed the Avatara!
719. We learn that there are such systems of indicating numbers by letters in western languages too and it is known as a Chronogram. In Roman numerals, ‘I’ is indicative of numeral One and the letter I. V for example is capital letter V and numeral 5; and X it ten as well as letter X. Thus using letters chronograms are created. In Tamil also ‘ka’ is 1, ‘u’ is 2, ‘ru’ is 5. When Avvaiyaar calls somebody ‘ettekaal lakshaName’, what she means is ‘8 into ¼ = 2’, that is, ‘two legged’ in one interpretation. In another interpretation, if you replace 8 and ¼ by chronogram letters, 8 becomes ‘a’ and ‘¼’ becomes ‘va’; so lakshaNam becomes ‘avalakshaNam’, which means ugly! Do you understand?
720. Our AachaaryaaL attained to Siddhi in Kali Yuga year 2625. Start of Kali is 3102 B.C. That means that, our AachaaryaaL dropped his mortal coil in the year 477 B.C. What was his age at that time? That is given as ‘phale swaamin swaayushi’. In that word ‘phale’ there is a double meaning. If you take the letters ‘pha and la’ as indicative of numbers, in ‘paadi pancha’, ‘pha’ is after ‘pa’ the second and so indicates number 2; and in ‘yaadyashta’, after ‘ya and ra’, ‘la’ is the third and so indicates number 3. Together they become 23 and turned around, it becomes 32. We learn that he passed away in his 32nd year of life. The word ‘phala’ has another meaning. When you sow a seed, it sprouts, grows, becomes a plant and as a fruition of its existence, it gives the fruit and that is ‘phal’. So ‘phale swamin’ means that, he abided in his self as the Aatma! The fruit in his being, as the fruition of Yagnam, Daanam, Tapas, Bhakti, Gnaana and what not; he merged back in his own Parameswara Swaroopa!
721. The Avatara / Jayanthi Day. Let us go back from the Siddhi / Aaraadhana day to his Date of Birth, the Jayanthi day. If the Siddhi is in 477 B.C., his coming down to earth is 509 B.C. As given in the books that Siddhi occurred in the year Raktaakshi and Avatara is in the year Nandana, and we note that 509 B.C. is Nandana and 477 B.C. is Raktaakshi. This can easily be counter checked. There is a system in Kerala to name the new born baby, based on the Month, Paksham and Titi. (The fortnight before the full moon [that is also after the new moon] is known as Sukhla Paksham {first Paksham} and after the full moon / before the new moon is known as Krishna Paksham {second Paksham}. Titi is the night one to 15 after full / new moon is counted as the ‘prathama’ for the first, ‘dviteeyai’ for the second and so on.) There is also a method in which the Star galaxy ascendant on the birth day becomes the name. Now the King is known as Chithirai ThirunaaL (that was when PeriyavaaL was talking about this in the year 1960 A.D.), before that it was Moolam ThirunaaL, and prior to that Visaakam ThirunaaL. Swathi ThirunaaL was the king before that. He was also a composer poet, made famous by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer’s singing. That is naming on the Janma Nakshatra.
722. I was talking about naming based on the number of the Month, Paksham and Titi in Katapayaadi Method. Our AachaaryaaL’s parents and elders in the city wished to name him by that system. He was born in Vaikaasi, the second month of the year in Sukhla Paksham, that is, the first Paksham. The Titi was Panchami the fifth day after New Moon. So, you have the number 2 – 1 – 5. For Katapayaadi method, you have to read it as 5 – 1 – 2. Put it into letters it gives you, ‘sa ka ra’. To make it meaningful the name becomes ‘Sankara’ the ‘Greatest Benefactor for the whole of Humanity’! Check back! As per ‘Yaadyashta’, Ya – ra – la – va – sa, sa is 5, the Panchami Titi; as per ‘Kaadinava’ Ka is the 1 – the first fortnight / Sukhla Paksham; and Ra in ‘Yaadyashta’ is 2, the second month Vaikaasi. Parameswara has planned to be born on a particular date of a specific Month, Paksham and Titi, to rightfully get the name Sankara, it seems. There is no gain saying the fact that Sankara Jayanthi is meant to be the most important of all such Birth days, deservedly so!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.