DEIVATHIN KURAL # 166 (Vol # 5) Dated 29 Apr 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 166 (Vol # 5) Dated 29 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 going ahead from the middle of page No 1032 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)


1118. What AachaaryaaL thought becomes an idea in the mind of Sureshwara and causes him to write the ‘Naishkarmya Siddhi’ for the other disciples to know the honesty and integrity of Sureshwara. As there was an initial obstacle, ‘Saareeraka Vaartikam’ for the Brhma Sutra Bhashyam was never written. But as desired by our AachaaryaaL and other disciples of his, he wrote the Vaartikam for the Bhashyam for two Upanishads only. One is the Vaartikam for the Bhashyam by our AachaaryaaL, for the Taitreeya Upanishad which is in wide usage in Krishna Yajur Vedam in South India; and the other is the Vaartikam for the Bhashyam for Bruhad AaraNyaka Upanishad of Sukla Yajur Veda followed by a majority of people in North India. Then he has written his meanings with comments on the DakshiNa Murthy Stotram by our AachaaryaaL known as ‘Maanasa + Ullaasam = Maanasollaasam’.

1119. Sureshwara AachaaryaaL is claimed as having been the Head of the Matams at the Kanchipuram, Sringeri and Dwaraka, as gleaned from their records! If you look deeply in the history of the Kanchipuram, we can make out that while Sureshwara was having the position of the Peetaadipathy, there was a Sarvagnyatmar like a prince in waiting, doing all the administrative jobs. That is Sureshwara was like a supervising authority after whose dehaviyoga, Sarvagnyatmar took over completely. So it is evident that Sureshwara must have been like a Roving Ambassador in all of them Kanchipuram, Sringeri and Dwaraka Matams, while there must have been a younger man in each place as the functional head.

1120. On the one hand Sureshwara had a reputation as an elder, highly learned and a great exponent of Poorva Meemaamsai, taken to Sannyaasa after sacrificing all that name, fame and wealth. On the other hand he might have been looked upon with some reluctant diffidence that he is after all come to Tureeyam after ‘having been a married man’! So some people might have desired that there should be no chance for any doubt to be created in minds of common folk. So, they might have thought of giving him the sort of position as suitable to his special abilities and organizational skills as a plenipotentiary while a younger man who has assumed Sannyaasa directly from Brhmacharya might have been entrusted with the day to day responsibilities of running the Matam.

1121. Even a Sanyaasi, once entrusted with organizational responsibilities as a Guru and Mataadipathy, has certain religious and some organizational secular work load. When the person doing certain duties as per the Saastraas, has no experience whatsoever as a householder, there is a unique gravity and clarity of innocence that is apparent to the public. A Sanyaasi has no Karma – to be done – duties; a Mataadipathy though a Sanyaasi has some such duties; whereas a householder has all of them! Sureshwara in his earlier Ashrama had done all of them without a let! Hence it is most appropriate that in Kanchipuram there is a street with his Poorva Aashrama name as ‘Mandana Mishra Agrahaaram’! It is gathered that some 200 Brahmin families shifted to Kanchipuram from Mahishmati permanently, as they did not wish to sever their allegiance to their beloved leader.

1122. Out of the other disciples of our AachaaryaaL, You heard the story of Padma Paada already. He wrote the Vyaakhyaana or explanatory notes for ‘Saareeraka Bhashyam’. A portion of it he read out to our AachaaryaaL. Then he went on Kshetraadanam to Rameswaram. At that time he took the palm leaf manuscript of his as yet incomplete Vyaakhyaana also for revision. On the way, in his uncle’s house in Jambukeswaram, he left the manuscript with the idea of picking it up on return from Rameswaram. His uncle read the manuscript in his absence. He was a keen adherent of Karma Marga. He felt that these ideas as given in the manuscript will completely annihilate the very Karma Marga! So, instead he wanted to destroy that whole manuscript! ‘Let us see if he writes the whole thing again’, he thought. He had two houses. He vacated the older one. Placed the palm leaf manuscript papers in that old house and set fire to it! Padma Paada returned from Rameswaram and the uncle play acted as though he is much grieved. Padma Paada thought of it as a punishment for having doubted Sureshwara and decided that he should not write it again!

1123. He reported the matter to his / our AachaaryaaL, who reminded him that he had written the explanatory notes for the four Paadams of the first chapter and the first Paadam of the second chapter. “You had read them all to me. I will repeat what you had told me. You can note them down and develop them further.” In a display of phenomenal memory, he repeated all that he had heard long back! As they were the explanatory notes for the first five parts of the ‘Brhma Sutra Bhashyam’, it was known as ‘Pancha Paadika’. We know for certain that he was detailed as the first Peetaadipathy of one of the Matams. But there are three different interpretations as to which one it was! Some say it is the Dwaraka Matam and some believe it to be the Puri Jagannaath Matam and in Markandeya Samhita and Aananda Gireeyam, it is said that he was the first head of Sringeri Sarada Peetam!

1124. Mauna Gnaani Hastaamalaka. Hastaamalaka is another of the important disciples of our AachaaryaaL. When we think of our Guru and pay our respects to him, it is good to do so for his Sishyas too. With love and devotion to God, there are those who excel in being devoted to his devotees, as it is said in Tamil, ‘adiyaarkum adiyen’ as most of the Nayanmaars did! Another way of looking at it is that we should not be making too much of a differentiation between the Guru and his Sishyas! Especially since DakshiNa Murthy Swami had said that, ‘like the four arms of Maha Vishnu, I will be born on earth with four of my main disciples’, they are to be treated as a part and parcel of his being. To differentiate them is not even to be thought of! But since the worldly drama has to be a series of dual transactions, we may get to know about them individually also. To even think of them as separate individuals, there has to be the element of duality.

1125. In his perambulations AachaaryaaL had gone to a place known as Sri Bali on the West Coast. There a Brahmin gentleman had brought his son to be introduced to our AachaaryaaL. The boy was hale and hearty and well nourished. But in terms of intelligence, he seemed to be a zero! No talking, seeing, asking or cognition or awareness! The father told AachaaryaaL, “I do not know as to what is wrong with this boy. You only have to correct him. He is all the time like a piece of wood or Para Brhmam!” In the eyes of our AachaaryaaL, he was pure Brhmam in reality. The surprising thing is that an idiot and a Gnaani are seemingly similar! Both a Gnaani and an Agnaani apparently have no sense of differentiation, comparison, evaluation, and or assessment! Amongst the seemingly dull idiots there are two types. One does not differentiate because he has realised the oneness of all existence and the other because his brain does not function. Amongst them also there are two types. One is a total inactive, inert and peaceful entity. The other makes a hue and cry of anything and everything, kicking, screaming, tearing, shouting and complaining! There is yet another type of Agnaani! He is worldly wise and spiritually a zero! The realized soul can be like any one of these three varieties described above. In ThiruvaNNamalai, Seshaadri Swami was like that sometime calm and sometimes violent, totally unpredictable. On people approaching him with love and ardent devotion, he may throw some stones. But that action itself may prove to be a great blessing for them somehow! For them, no rules or system or traditions, seem to apply.

1126. Coming to the differences between them, the idiot or insane person will either be inert and non-reactive like a piece of wood or overactive like the core of a volcano inwardly. Whereas the Gnaani will be absolutely placid, calm and happily cool inside. The agnostic will react with a hundred fold response for a small imagined insult. He does not need a reason but only an excuse for doing his mischief. On the other hand for a Gnaani, even an insult will be taken as a compliment, inwardly unaffected and unruffled and so seemingly like a dope or agnostic! The father of that boy had brought him to our AachaaryaaL hoping for a miracle cure. AachaaryaaL could make out that the boy was suitable to join his retinue. He asked him, “My Dear Boy! What is your name and where are you from?” The boy who had never spoken for years replied, “When all is one, what is the use of asking such inane questions? When everything is a dream and matter does not matter, what is the need for naming people and places? What name can I give for myself and say wherefrom am I?” In the form of a sloka he said, “I am not a human nor a Deva; not a Yaksha; neither any of the four castes; nor any of the four Ashramas; I am the form of knower of the Self – ‘nija bhodha roopam’.

1127. The father was thrilled with this miraculous transformation in his son! He took him home and the son was again as before! So he brought him back to AachaaryaaL and the boy was again gloriously loquacious! He told our AachaaryaaL, “He is your son and not ours”, and went away leaving the boy in AachaaryaaL’s care! AachaaryaaL included him as one of his disciples and named him ‘Hastaamalaka’. ‘Hasta’ means the palm of our hands. ‘Aamalaka’ means the Goose Berry. When held in the palm of one’s hands, that fruit stands clearly apart and so its whole outer shape is seen clearly while the fruit is almost translucent. It is the only fruit of the vegetable world whose inside and outside are so apparently and clearly visible, generating the pithy phrase ‘hastaamalaka’ in Sanskrit and ‘uLLankai nellikkani’ in Tamil. This disciple has the honour that for the slokas composed by him, our AachaaryaaL has written the Bhashyams! It is believed that he was the first head of the Matam at Puri Jagannath. There is yet another belief that he was the first Swami in Dwaraka Matam!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva