DEIVATHIN KURAL # 154 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 Apr 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 154 (Vol # 5) Dated 05 Apr 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 957 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)


1014. Gowda Paada has written a Maandookhya Upanishad Kaarikai, to which our AachaaryaaL has written the Bhashyam, as part of Prasthaana Traya. In it Gowda Paada says, “Followers of other Siddhaantams, other than Adwaitins, keep fighting amongst themselves. We have no enmity with them.” While enlarging on this point, our AachaaryaaL says, “All other Siddhaantams are like the limbs of the one body of Adwaitam. Will somebody consider his own hands and legs as his enemies?” (‘yataa swa hasta paataadibhi:’) One may hurt one’s own eyes by his own hands or fingers accidentally. One leg may happen to trip the other leg. There could be pain due to biting one’s own tongue. As they are all parts of the same body, one will not feel offended by such incidents. Similarly all other followers of any Siddhaantam are still part and parcel of Adwaitam only. So an Adwaitin has no enmity towards any others. Further in the next sentence with greater amount of love he says, “For all those Dwaitins, the Adwaitin is like their Aatma only, isn’t that the principle?” That in Sanskrit is, “tata: paramaartato brhmavit aatmaiva dwaitinaam”, as he says.

1015. He has always spoken with due respect towards people who hold other viewpoints. He addresses an exponent of Meemaamsaka Sabara as, “AachaaryeNa Sabara Swaminaa!” Like saying ‘My Dear Sir’, he tells Upavarsha, “Bhagawato UpavarsheNa!” While pointing out Gowtama’s Nyaaya Sutram, he says, “Aachaarya Gowtamena praNeetam”. Similarly he has addressed them all with respect as, ‘Aachaarya, Swami, Bhagawaan’ and such words only, while referring in the Bhashyam or while directly speaking to them!

1016. In the books or poems which are his own creations, they are not arguments of Vedaanta but clear expositions, declarations and principles of Aatma Gnaana, nicely correlated like gems on a string. With that, there will be descriptions of a person who has moved from nescience to the clarity of Gnaana, in his works like ‘Viveka ChudaamaNi’ and ‘Upadesa Saahasri’. Similarly, ‘Jeevan Muktaananda Lahari’, ‘Dhanyaashtakam’, ‘Yati Panchakam’ and such are all descriptions of a person of Adwaita Anubhava, as to how blissfully happy that man is! In ‘Yati Panchakam’ he asks repeatedly at the end of each of the five four lined slokas, ‘koupeenavanta: kalu bhaagyavanta:?’, meaning ‘How lucky is that man wearing only a loincloth, roaming about without a care in the world?’ In ‘Dasa Slokee’ by which he presented his own introduction to his Sannyaasa Guru, Govinda Bhagawat Paada, he says, “tat eko avasishta: siva: kevaloham”, meaning that ‘he is that one indivisible Siva. In ‘Adwaita Pancha Ratnam’ he says, “saakshee nitya: pratyagaatma sivoham”, meaning that ‘he is the ever present witness of all, the Siva’. In ‘Brhmaanu Chintanam’, he says “ahameva param brhma vaasu devaagyam avyayam”, meaning that, ‘he is the primordial matter stuff not different from divinity’. In ‘Nirvaana Shatkam’ he says “aham aananda satyaadi lakshana: kevala: siva:”, meaning that he is the Siva whose definition is truth and bliss. In ‘Adwaita Anubhuthi’ he says “chidaananda roopa: sivoham sivoham”, meaning that, ‘he is the Siva whose very being is Aananda’! When you read such slokas, at least till one is chanting and mulling over them, we will feel like a spotlessly clean sky, blissfully happy and full of brilliant light!

1017. The one light of Chaitanya is what is lighting up the whole universe including all lights, scenes and seers; is described in ‘Eka Sloka PrakaraNa’. The essence of all Upadesa has been given in half a sloka for example in this “brhma satyam jagan mitya jeevo brhmaiva naapara:” – meaning that ‘Brhmam is the only truth, though at one level the world is seemingly real, in fact it is unreal; as the Jeevas the life forms have the same reality as Brhmam’! There is one sloka known as ‘Baala Bhodha Sangraham’ in the form of a teacher’s advices to children, starting from the basics. Then there is one in the form of questions and answers covering all the possible doubts that can arise in the Gnaana Marga, known as “Prasna Uttara Ratna Maalika”. The title of that book means a ‘Garland of Gems of Questions and Answers’! Then there are ‘Atma Bodha:’ and ‘Tatva Bodha:’. He has written as many Stotras and Stutis of Bhakti Marga as he has done slokas on Gnaana Marga. In these also there is enough to satisfy the devotees, intelligentsia and litterateurs! There are also descriptions of deities from head to foot and from the feet to the head. For example in the case of Siva both Siva Paadaadi Kesha VarNana Stotra and Keshaadi Paada VarNana Stotra are there. Similarly such descriptive slokas are there on Vishnu known as Vishnu Paadaadi Kesha Stotram. In Soundarya Lahari there is such a description of AmbaaL and of Murugan it is there in SubrahmaNya Bhujangam, to cause an outpouring of the sense of devotion overwhelming the reader and audience, when you cantillate. There are many slokas of many useful alleviations of diseases, problems and or other purposes such as, ‘Siva Maanasa Pooja’, ‘Mrutyunjaya Maanasika Pooja’, ‘Tripurasundari Maanasa Pooja’, ‘Devi Chatush Shashti Upachaara Pooja’, ‘Mantra Matruka Pushpa Maala’, ‘Bhagawan Krishna Maanasa Pooja’, and ‘NirguNa Maanasa Pooja Stotram’ in which instead of physical materials, abstract principles are used as ‘pooja dravyaaNi’; are all there! The list is not complete by any stretch of imagination! He has given a whole cache of both devotional songs and deep philosophical nuggets of thoughts, to keep our minds riveted on the one and only subject matter worthy of such attention of ours – ourselves – our inner beings – our Aatma – the Para Brhmam – God – call what you want! The Bhashyams are in prose and in PrakaraNa Granthas, there is more use of poetry and the Stotras are all in poetry only. Whatever it is, prose or poetry; they all have the same clarity, meaningfulness and are capable of providing pleasant peacefulness to our mind and heart!

Three Margas – Karma, Bhakti & Gnaana.

1018. One of his greatest contributions is to streamline the approaches to the three Royal Paths of Karma, Bhakti and Gnaana. We are not talking about Yoga Marga here specifically as a separate path, though at the end the destination of all the paths are one and the same finally. Even in his books on Gnaana, he goes on telling that all such efforts towards any improvement and ennoblement has to commence with doing our duties exactly as given in the Saastraas as per VarNa – Aashrama Dharma requirements and stipulations. Nowadays in the name of ‘Samatva’ or equality, they try to level anything and everything that cannot be considered at par at all! So in the name of ‘reformation’ they have introduced deformities in the society! AachaaryaaL did not do that! Now we have started politically advocating that anybody can do any work. But is there any sense of oneness between us? If one set of people are waiting for the opportunity to grab as grab can; others are waiting for revenge for real or assumed reasons! So, without the sense of oneness, there is so much of competition, anger, jealousy, hate and distrust.

1019. What do the Saastraas say about this? What did our AachaaryaaL say? Because of the differences in our Samskaara (our own past actions in so many earlier Janmas), there will be differences in the qualitative and quantitative attributes with which we are born in this life in nature. If we try to equate those differences, uncaring for what Nature has already endowed us with; it will be like serving a feast for someone with fever or stomach trouble and starving a healthy person and giving him medicines! So initially the work load apportioned to each has to be different in quality, quantity and intensity, suitably to ensure the progress of each. In the mind we should have the sense that all are the same one Chaitanya without any inferiority or superiority complexes about oneself and others, with universal unconditional Love towards all. But when it comes to one’s Karma, one should be absolutely disciplined in doing one’s allotted duties. He advices, “bhaavaad adwaitam sadaa kuryaat – kriyaadwaitam na karhichit” meaning – ‘Ever keep nourishing the sense of Unity, Integrity and Oneness in your mind, heart and attitude; but in action do not bring in Adwaitam ever!’ The very name of Adwaitam is ‘non duality’ and so is a state of total inaction. There is oneness without a second, and so there cannot be any coming and going; or give and take; or interactions! That is his advice based on the Saastraas. Now what is happening in the world and especially in India is keeping all nationalism, regionalism, parochialism, racism, casteism, and every type of differences alive, with no unity whatsoever! So, instead of Bhaavaad Adwaitam, we are trying for ‘Kriya Adwaitam’ by way of everybody telling everybody else as to what his duties should be – that is, we are all trying to become AachaaryaaLs!

1020. Coming back to our AachaaryaaL, thus he re-invigorated the three paths of Karma, Bhakti and Gnaana, exactly as given in the Vedas. Even a devotional song would somehow bring us around to Adwaitam somehow, by showing no differences between Gods and or between Gods and human beings. Prayers to any and every God or Goddess will finally come down to statements such as, “This is the be all and end all. This is Para Brhmam. There is nothing more than this that I know – ‘na jaane, na jaane!’ When singing about Lakshmi, he will say that she is Saraswathy, Parvathy and AmbaaL and say the same thing about each one of those Gods and Goddesses! Devotion per se assumes an entity that prays and another entity being prayed to! But in his writings, even a devotional song will somehow lead you on to the idea of Unity. In Sivaananda Lahari, having defined devotion in many ways, finally he ends with ‘sindu: sarit vallabham’ – ‘to mean that as all the rivers finally reach the ocean and become the same; the devotee finally becomes one with divinity’ (61st Sloka). In ‘Soundarya Lahari’ for example, he plays a beautiful pun on the word ‘Bhavani’ (22nd Sloka). On the one hand the meaning of that word is a name of AmbaaL and another meaning derives out of the word being divided as ‘Bhava – ni’. The devotee starts telling her, “Bhavani tvam” and she immediately takes it as ‘bhava ni tvam’ meaning, ‘I become you’ and the prayer is over and sanction of the prayer is also over in a flash; the devotee becomes the object of devotion, the very Goddess AmbaaL!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.