DEIVATHIN KURAL # 142 (Vol # 5) Dated 14 Mar 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 142 (Vol # 5) Dated 14 Mar 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 middle of page No 887 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)

916. What ever you do in life, whatever you aspire for, all the variously innumerable checks and balances, education, business, commerce, trade, arts and crafts and what not including sex; is meant to bring you back to the right track of tracing your way to the fountainhead of God! That is what the whole creation is meant for. Nobody can live forever except some who are destined by God to live forever and they are known as ‘Chiranjeevi’ or immortals. Rest have to die as per the order of things in nature. But when we die, our accounts of Paapa and PuNya (or Merits and Demerits) do not cancel out each other. Only when they cancel out, both sides of the ledger balance equal each other, are you back where you started, the fountainhead of God. Till they equal both sides with a nil balance at the time of death, you have to be born again and the cycle goes on.

917. When repeatedly such chances to be born again and again have to be given, there have to be a father and a mother. Between them there has to be mutual attraction and the urge to procreate. So it all boils down to the fact that, the natural urge to sex i.e., ‘Kaamam’ is nothing but a tendency for this process to go on till in some life time or the other the ‘Jeevan’, the individual Soul, gets a chance to finally reach the shores of Samsaara Saagara! So by money, food, abode, and maintenance of the body by exercise and medicines and human advancement by education and sciences; are all for this one purpose of individual refinement only. Without knowing this purpose, we tend to indulge in all the aspects of life, amassing wealth for the wealth sake; indulging in sex for the sake of sex; adding material for the sake of accumulation; go on endlessly misusing God given facilities, that ‘Artham’ (aka money, wealth, material, the wherewithal), becomes ‘Anartham’ (aka mischief, meaninglessness) and material becomes immaterial! That is what our AachaaryaaL says in the ‘Baja Govindam’ song, addressing our own stupid minds as, ‘mooda mathe’. That should be remembered. If we do so, using all the facilities of the world till required, we will rise above the need for them, using them correctly as a ladder, to reach our oneness with the fountainhead of God! That will be the right use of Artham.

918. All our Saastraas are such right direction pointers and so are all the works of our AachaaryaaL. Whether he sings to Maha Lakshmi for wealth or to SubrahmaNya Swami for health in ‘Bhujangam’; he never forgets the human mission to reach ‘Aatma Sreyas’. Even when praying to Anna PoorNeswari for ‘Biksha’ (alms), he ends in ‘Aatma Vairaagya Siddhyartham’, that is, Self discipline of dispassion only! Even when pointing that poor Lady’s penury as ‘akinchana’, by indicating ‘karma –garma’, he relates to not only removal of her poor state of affairs, but also to enabling her deliverance from ignorant involvement in being mired in the worldly affairs.

919. This Stotram Kanaka Dhaara Sthavam has 18 slokas as per one version and 20 or 21 slokas by other versions. Amongst them all, it is only in one sloka that our AachaaryaaL is praying for material prosperity. May be in one more, starting with the words, ‘Ishta visishta’, there is a hint about her readiness to grant material wealth. In all the other slokas, it is simply praising of Maha Lakshmi in all her glory. In one, starting with, ‘Kaalambudaali lalithorasi kaitabhaare’, it is a description of how she is adorning the wide vista of the chest of PerumaaL, that she is like the flash of lightening in the black rain bearing clouds of the monsoon sky! The other slokas are all descriptions of Maha Lakshmi, her greatness, endearing qualities and such things.

920. Thus while going on describing many things, poetical nuances and devotional ideas, only in one sloka, he has mentioned the purpose of his prayers. As the wife of the Governing Power of the entire universe, she does not have to be beseeched repeatedly. It is enough to just slightly indicate your concern and she will do the needful. ‘Please take care of this woman so pathetically incapable of helping herself like a fledgling small of a bird’ is a beautiful way expressing his concern!

921. The Seed of Later Day Upadesas in the Very First Poem of His! In this there are two more things that I have to touch upon. In his very first Stotra, there is the seed of two prominent ideas that he developed in his later day Upadesas. One is the important point that he related all actions as an expression of devotion to God. ‘Karma is not an animate entity and cannot give effect by itself. Easwara is the ‘Phala Dhaata’. Do all your actions as offerings to God! Then only this small dividend will be replaced by the Jackpot of intrinsic Chitta Suddhi – that is, cleansing of our minds and clarity of minds, heart, thoughts and actions!’ This is said for the purpose of guiding the wayfarers of Karma Marga into Bhakti Marga. The second is that he is telling the wayfarers of Bhakti Marga, ‘Do not differentiate between your God and his God. Instead of mine, yours and theirs, if you are devoted to whichever God, it will all reach the one and same God. Develop the feeling that all Gods are different forms of the self-same God. If you start like this that all Gods are one and the same, later you will also come to realize that every iota of existence, including every human being is also another form of God, permeated by the same divinity! Thus you will be taken from the Path of Devotion to the Path of Gnaana! Both of these two ideas find their place in Kanaka Dhaara Stotram.

922. Having asked for an outpouring of material well being for the Sadaka fledgling, in the very next sloka he says, “ishtaa visishta matayopi yayaa dayaardra drushtyaa trivishtapa – padam sulabham labhante”. Here he says that even those who have total reliance in the worldly benefits and later heavenly blessings of ‘Ishti’ that is, from the various Yagnya Karmas; get their yields easily by just a glance of Maha Lakshmi. (‘Ishti’ are all the actions done for the purpose of getting any benefits, whether they are traditional rituals in an organised manner as a Yagnya, or all our day to day actions aiming at returns of interest, profit percentage, dividend or favour.) However much they may think that their actions are giving them the benefits, it is the divine will of God in the form of Maha Lakshmi that does the needful, as clearly expressed by our AachaaryaaL here.

923. That all Gods are the various forms of the one formless God is the message in the next Sloka, wherein he says, “geerdevateti garuda dwaja sundareeti shaakambareeti sasi sekhara vallabheti I srushti-stiti-pralaya-kelishu samstitaayai tasyai nama: tribhuvaneika guros taruNyai II” The one God when active as the holy trinity in the play of srushti-stiti-samhaara (of creation, sustenance and reabsorption,) is also present as their respective consorts in each roopa as Saraswathi, Maha Lakshmi and Sakti, he says. Yes, OK but, in talking about the three powers why has he used four names such as, ‘geer devateti, garuda dwaja sundareeti, saakambareeti and sasi sekhara vallbheti. For three wives why has he used four names?

924. Brhma, Vishnu and Siva are the three officials of the management of the existence as though, are said to be the three forms of the one God. As per that Brhma’s wife is ‘Geer Devata’ the Goddess of speech, writing and music, the Vaak Devi Saraswathi. Next, for the Vishnu who has the Eagle in the flag, ‘garuda dwaja sundari’, his consort to whom the entire sloka is addressed that is, there is Maha Lakshmi. Then as the wife of Siva, two names are being mentioned that is, ‘Saakambari’ and ‘Sasi Sekhara Vallabha’. So the question remains as to why he is mentioning four names?

925. This name Saakambari occurs in Devi PuraaNaas. There it is said that during a very bad period of draught conditions AmbaaL created a variety of vegetables and fruits from her own body for the consumption of the hungry people of the world. It is since then she got a name as Saakambari. This is slightly not very appropriate. In the three jobs of ‘Creation, Sustenance and Samhaara; the wife of Siva instead of assisting in Samhaara is extending her wherewithal for Vishnu’s portfolio of maintenance! How can this be correct? That can be your question. But, come to think of it, it is all in the rightness of things. Though people know Lakshmi to be of eight special roles as Dhana Lakshmi, Dhaanya Lakshmi and so on, the moment you take the name of Lakshmi, what comes before your mind is only wealth of Aishwarya. But can money be eaten? He wished to picture her as the Mother who, feeds, provides, maintains, nourishes and takes care! That is why he called her as the Saakambari. Though it is the name of ‘Sasi Sekhara Vallabha’ the wife of Siva who has the crescent moon on his head, once you know the basic fact that ‘all is one’, you may not have any violent objection to Maha Lakshmi being addressed as Saakambari! She is the Brhma Sakti, Vishnu Sakti, Siva Sakti as well as the root source, Para Brhma Sakti and that brings in Adwaitam!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.