DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol # 5) Dated 07 Feb 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 124 (Vol # 5) Dated 07 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 para on page No 771 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)

723. The Avatara of Paramasiva was thus born with one of the names of Siva as Sankara, (the name itself indicating that he is the one doing the most beneficial for all humanity,) on Visaka – Sukhla – Panchami with Love! This very assembly here is the proof of what I am saying. Just notice as to how so many people are assembled here with absolute calmness and peace with love and respect for each other. He is not here in person, having vanished from physical existence some 2,500 years back! Still despite such long separation in time, just thinking of him and whenever we think of him, he seems capable of giving us solace and peace! Is there anywhere else such peace and mutual love obtaining? Passion, hate, greed and one-up-man-ship is the order of the day. Any assembly and any get-togethers end in anger and hurt. All these strikes, demonstrations, objections, protests, raasta-roko and bundhs prove the fact that peace is the most elusive commodity in to-day’s world! Now relate that fact with what is obtaining here in Sankara Jayanthi, as to how all of us despite being so busy with all the organization and arrangements, are so calm and peaceful in our hearts as well as in our apparent behaviour!
724. The very name Sankara is so formed from, “sam karotee iti – samkara: ”. That means amongst all sorts of happiness ‘sam’ is the most salubrious. All of you assembled here by your very behaviour only prove the truth of the above statement. This is not there in power, position and pelf. When those things increase, peacefulness vanishes. But to think of our AachaaryaaL is to immediately feel the peace and quiet. The trouble is that we just do not ever think of him! That is why, I am saying that you should celebrate his birth day and make it the biggest of all such celebrations!
725. AachaaryaaL was born in the Vasantha Kaalam aka Vasantham that is, the Spring Season. Like the Spring Season, the great Mahatmas of this world, without looking for any returns of anything, do the best to the world. Our AachaaryaaL is the one to make this above statement and by his words, actions and his very life was a proof of the truth of his statement. The month in which he was born is Visakam or what we call Vaikasi. Visakam means a plant without any branches. Other trees and plants big or small have branches except the creeper, isn’t it? This month Visakam has another name as ‘Madhavam’. Madhavi means the Jasmine plant. Thus both the names for this month are connected to the Jasmine creeper. Moreover, from the same root as Vasantham, is the word ‘Vaasanthi’, which is another name for Jasmine! It is very appropriate that the time of our AachaaryaaL’s birth so intimately related to the Jasmine flower. It is pure white and pleasantly fragrant, imparting a sense of coolness to the onlooker in the summer. Accordingly our AachaaryaaL too was a coolant like the jasmine flower for the mind, body and soul of all the people being roasted in the scorching heat of worldly life. Having come on earth as the Jasmine flower of Gnaana, the do-gooder Sankara’s Jayanthi is also the Vasantha Madhava Jayanthi! Let it cleanse all our minds to pure brilliant whiteness! Let it fill our minds with fragrance of love for all existence. Let it grant us the Siva Gnaana soaked in loving Sivam!
726. The fragrance of love that merges us in the pure effulgence of brilliant white light. As we inhale the fragrance deep, let it become the PraaNaayama that causes laya. I will tell you a little more on this connection to Jasmine. In our Matam when we give the Sree Mukham, there is a longish statement about our AachaaryaaL. In it, it is said, “atulita sudaarasa maadhurya kamalaasana-kaaminee tammilla sampulla mallikaa maalikaa nishyanta makaranda jaree souvastika vaak vijrumbaNaananda tuntulita manishee mandalaanaam”. That means, ‘the fragrance and sweetness of the words of our AachaaryaaL which causes the minds and hearts of all knowledgeable devotees to bloom; cannot be matched even by the flow of honey from abundant number of strings of jasmine flowers worn in the hair by Saraswathi Devi who is the wife of Brhma who is seated on the lotus flower!’
727. To make our AachaareyaaL’s ‘sarvagnyatvam’ that is, omniscience known to the whole world, Saraswathi so manipulated a situation that she had a debate with our Aachaaryaal and lost to him. To honour her, AachaaryaaL established the Sarada Peetam in Srungeri and seated her there. Amongst ten types of Sannyaasis, Bharathi and Saraswathi are with her names. In Srungeri the renouncing saints are called the Bharathi-s. Here in Kanchpuram, they are the Saraswathi-s. Within the Sannyaasi-s named Saraswathi, there are two traditions – one Aananda Saraswathi Sampradaaya and the other Indra Saraswathi Sampradaaya, followed by Sringeri Sarada Peetam and Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam respectively. There it is Sarada Peetam and here it is Sarada Matam. Born in the month of Jasmine, our AachaaryaaL’s spoken and written expression is said to be softer, mellifluous, fragrant and sweeter than the jasmine adorning her hair!
728. Sri Sailam: ‘Arjuna’ Kshetra-s. Our AachaaryaaL’s source Parameswara is also intimately related to the flower Jasmine. He is all white by himself like a Jasmine. With the name as ‘Mallikaarjuna’ he has a special place ‘Sri Sailam’. Our AachaaryaaL has a strong affinity to that Kshetram. In Sivananda Lahari of a hundred slokas, he has made a special reference to that station at the centre – that is, the 50th and 51st slokas – the end of the first half and the start of the second half! It is natural and to be expected that he has referred to Sri Sailam in Sivananda Lahari, as the whole work is one of devotion to Siva and that place is one of the most important stations for the devotees of Siva anyhow. More than this, even in a work completely given to Yoga and Gnaana, namely in ‘Yoga Taravali’, in the 28th sloka, he has made this special reference to Sri Sailam with so much adoration and longing! He is asking, “When will I be seated in the caves of Sri Sailam so merged in Samaadhi with no body consciousness whatsoever, with creepers winding around this body and birds making nests around my ears?!”
729. There are three places having Maruda Maram as the Sthala Vruksham. First is Sri Sailam in the Andhra Desam in the north on Patala Ganga aka the Krishna River. In Sri Sailam, the Jasmine creeper Mallika is spread on the tree known as ‘Arjuna’ and that is, Mallikarjunam. Arjuna tree as it is called in Sanskrit, is known as Maruda Maram in Tamil. South from Sri Sailam is the Madyarjunam or Thiru Vidai Maruthur, on the banks of the Cauvery River. Both in Sanskrit and Tamil, the name itself is indicative of its being located in the middle. Further south is the Thiruppdai Maruthur on the banks of the River TaamrabaraNi and that is Putaarjunam.
730. What is the meaning of a creeper entwining around a tree? The Arjunam tree is the clean white static principle standing unconcerned like a piece of log and that is Sivam. The creeper plant Mallika aka Jasmine is the dynamic, mobile and seeking principle of Shakti. That results in the pure, clean and fragrant Jasmine flower. Sivam and Shakti are thus the cause of all creation and existence. The Arjuna tree is Sivam and the Mallika creeper plant is AmbaaL – that is one form of representation. Another way of looking at it is that the flower Jasmine in the Mallka creeper is the pure white Sivam. The beetle that hovers around the Jasmine flower and keeps drinking the nectar in it, is the AmbaaL, the buzzing Bhramarambika! In Sri Sailam the AmbaaL is called Bhramaraambika and he is the Mallikaarjuna Swami. This idea has been described in double meaning Slesha Alankaaram by our AachaaryaaL in the 50th Sloka of Sivaananda Lahari. As I said, each phrase in the sloka has two meanings.
(We will look at the sloka and its meaning in the next e-mail.)
Sambhomahadeva.