DEIVATHIN KURAL # 159 (Vol # 5) Dated 15 Apr 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 159 (Vol # 5) Dated 15 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 second para on page No 987 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)

1056. Such is the real Aatma in each one of us as the ‘Subject’, as per grammer the ‘I, me, self and being’! Rest everything, not only the outer world, but also the body, senses, mind and intellect; are all the ‘object’ and not us, the ‘Subject’! The seer, the inner witness is only the Aatma. Rest everything is part of the scenery only. All that has been or is being seen as so many objects, scene and scenery are all part of the projections of the mind. When a person has this clarity of comprehension that the Self or Aatma is inclusive of all the scenery; he may be a Brahmin or belonging to any caste or family, he is my Guru, I feel sincerely – ‘saivaaham’. I am only that eternal witness of all; ‘na cha drushya vastu iti’; not any of the things being seen; when you have this absolutely clear; that is, though there may be enormous data, the intelligence that knows is only one; that firm clarity “dhrudha pragna api yasya asti chet” – whosoever has this unshakeable conviction – let him be ‘chandaaLo astu --- dwijo astu’ – let him be a ChandaaLa or a Brahmin or whatever, I am convinced that he is like a Guru for us all – ‘Guru: + iti = Gururiti eshaa manisha mama’; is my firm belief. (That is the first sloka of Manisha Panchakam. PeriyavaaL tells the audience with a smile on his face that he is not going to chant, paraphrase and translate all the five stanzas of Manisha Panchakam and that he is quickly coming over to the fifth one!)

1057. As the Panchaman had called the state of blissful awareness as an ‘ocean of happiness’ – ‘aanandaava bhodhaambhudhi’, our AachaaryaaL also starts off with two such phrases indicating oceans of peace and comfort – ‘soukhyaambudhi’ and ‘sukhaambhudhi’. The Sloka is like this – “yat – soukhyaambhudhi – lesa – lesata ime sakraadhayo nirvrutaa yach chitte nitaraam prasaanta kalane labdhvaa munir – nirvruta: I yasmin – nitya – sukhaambhudhou galita – dheer – brhmaiva na Brhmavid – ya: kaschit – sa surendra – vandita – pado noonam manisha mama II A disciple is supposed to reiterate and repeat whatever the Guru says, isn’t it? Our AachaaryaaL whom we consider as the Jagat Guru, that is the Guru for the whole world; the moment he came across some unknown character out of the blue, who was talking sense; repeatedly confirmed that he is fit enough to be his own Guru, that is our AachaaryaaL’s own Guru! Similarly, as tha Panchaman claimed, he repeats the point about his being an ocean of bliss also twice.

1058. When we compare a King with a common man, the King would have had greater amount of experience of happiness. That is why it is called ‘Raja Bhogam’ or ‘King’s Pleasure’! More than all the Kings of the world, the King of Divine beings, the King of Heavens – (the word ‘sakraadhayo’ in the first line of the above sloka is indicative of Indra, the King of Heavens and others like him) would have known more of happiness than anybodyelse! Even his that high level of bliss or thrill or happiness is only ‘lesa – lesata’, that is lighter than ‘lace’ I suppose! If the happiness level, vastness and enormity of the Gnaani, is like an ocean, the happiness level of even Indra must be ‘like a drop in the ocean’ only! That is the message conveyed here.

1059. In Lalita Sahasranaama, AmbaaL is called in pure Vedaanta as, ‘tat pada lakshyaartaa’, to mean ‘the aim and meaning of the word ‘that ’’; and then as ‘chid eka rasa roopiNi’ to mean ‘the very form of the one taste of mind or awareness’. All tastes are identified by the taste buds in the tongue. They are only the sensors. The one who tastes all types of tastes, like ‘the Man behind the Gun’ – is the Reality behind the Illusion! She is that! Then it says “swaatmaananda laveebhoota brhmaadyaananda santati:” meaning, ‘in contrast, a small fraction of her self-satisfaction causes the happiness of the whole family of Brhma and others in to a state of insignificance! In the same vein, the Bruhad AaraNyaka Upanishad says, ‘by an infinitesimal fraction of this happiness, the whole of humanity thrives’!

1060. Indra does not know this happiness as to what it is, but the Gnaani knows. In the second line of the sloka a Gnaani has been called the Muni. When the mind is pacified in to complete nullity, the Muni earns that state of perfect happiness – ‘yach chitte nitaraam prasaanta kalane labdhvaa munir nirvruta:’. Nirvrutti is the satisfaction of the self. Having first talked about the satisfaction of Indra and such divine beings, he is now talking about the happiness level of a Gnaani. Everybody else feels the senses through the sensory instruments of the body and the mind. Leaving the Self, the very Subject , they are catching hold of the Object and thus get only very little satisfaction. Whereas the satisfaction and happiness that the Gnaani experiences, is not of the mind. His body, mind and intelligence are all part of the object only, melted and dissolved – ‘galita dhee’ – in the eternal ocean of peacefulness – ‘yasmin nitya sukhaambhudhou galita dhee’! Till you are enjoying anything through the mind your identification of yourself and others are corrupted. Only when this mind has been either erased or kept under total control; its potential for corruption can be kept at arm’s length and you can know the Brhmam! Such a person is a ‘Brhmavid’. Though we are talking, writing and reading, using words that we can understand; here there are no two different entities as the thing that knows and the thing that is known! Till the process of knowing is by and through the mind, there has to be something that knows and something else that is known. That is Duality – Dwaitam. When the mind itself has (or has been) dissolved, how is the process of cognition done, using which instrument or equipment? After the mind has been dissolved, and Aatma and Brhmam are realized to be one and the same, the trio of knower, knowing and known vanishes. So in fact there is no Gnaani, as a separate person or being. There is nothing more to be known. So he melts in the ocean of happiness, without leaving a trace or a forwarding address, so to say! To call him ‘Brhmavid’ – ‘the knower of Brhmam’ is also wrong – though said so hospitably – this becomes that – ‘yasmin – nitya – sukhaambhudhou galita – dheer – brhma eva na brhmavid’.

1061. AachaaryaaL says, “Such a one who has become one with Brhmam is my Guru, your Guru and not only that, even Indra who knows only an infinitesimal fraction of the intensity and enormity of this one’s bliss; will have to come and fall in his feet as his disciple. That is my decided declaration and conviction – Manisha mama. He adds a ‘noonam’ here to mean again a ‘certain conviction’ – “ya: kaschit – sa surendra – vandita – pado noonam manisha mama” – he reiterates with rock like certitude and surety. What is that conviction? That when it comes to Gnaani-s whatever be their Age, Kulam, Gothram, Lineage or whatever – simply be respectfully obedient and beholden with gratitude’ is that conviction!

1062. The Samatvam / Equality of a Gnaani, is something different to what is equality in the social milieu. Misquoting the above incident and its message, the so called reformists of the society, especially in India are bringing in a totally unacceptable and dangerous interpretation! That is, they say that by this incident our AachaaryaaL has directed us all to remove all caste barriers and VarNa – Aashram Dharma, they say. Those who study the Bhashyams thoroughly know that, it is not a correct interpretation. Even well read scholars, who study the Sanskrit source materials and the Bhashyams, purposefully twist and turn Aadi Sankara AachaaryaaL’s statements to suit their point of view! It is alright for them to put across their point of views, but to put words in the mouth of our AachaaryaaL is totally unjustified and in fact an act of crime! Just to further get acceptability, such people often conduct meetings and seminars to show that they respect our cultural heritage and say that our AachaaryaaL gave respect to people of all castes equally; saying that he stood by their principles of equality; thereby trying to earn praise for themselves by praising him!

1063. In truth, what is the point of equality professed by our old and ancient Gurus, Rishis and Munis? To have a sense of complete equality between all castes, tribes, sects and life forms including the animate and inanimate; static (sthavara) and mobile (jungama); single celled and multi-cellular beings; creeping, slithering, swimming, flying and walking life forms; with one or two or three GuNas; with one to six of the senses of cognition; that universal oneness is the Samatvam that we are talking about! It is a mental equipoise and not action oriented. The idea is not to do away with the VarNa – Aashrama – Niyama that clearly delineates duties and responsibilities in the social infra structure; but to accept the starting point as given by nature – whatever good and bad, advantages and disadvantages – as God given – or self earned; from one’s past life. That is sheer acceptance of life as it is and progressing from there! In the name of reform, the so called social thinkers and Do-gooders have been ‘making a mountain of a mole-hill and flattening the existing high peaks of human excellence – calling it Samatvam!

1064. To do away with VarNa – Aashrama – Dharma is not equality. People of whichever caste are born into those castes with natural justice and logic of nature based the system of Karma. Anybody doing anybody’s work and everybody doing anybody’s work is not Samatvam. The right man in the right job, that is – the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole – that is Samatvam. The natural abilities, talents, culture and food habits match the needs and requirements. By mixing everything on the platform of equality, one will end up making a hotchpotch instead of a suitable blend! There are different varities of water, like rain water, tap water, water from the pond or lake or river and so on. The man with fever needs hot water and the one with ulcer in the stomach may need an antacid tablet with cold water. For a sacred pooja, for the purpose of anointing the divine idol, there may be some clean water kept aside with some unguents separately. Some water might have been kept for cooking food. Even the water in which clothes have been washed might have been kept aside, in which the mop cloth may be got cleaned. The water used for washing the rice or wheat before cooking, might have been kept aside for either the plants in the kitchen garden or for the cow or goat to drink! In the name of Samatvam if you just mix all these waters, you will deserve a kick in the bottom!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva