DEIVATHIN KURAL # 180 (Vol # 5) Dated 27 May 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 180 (Vol # 5) Dated 27 May 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 page No 1123 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)

MANGALA AARATI

ANJANA’S SON MAY GRANT US GOOD HEALTH

1. There is a famous sloka that is chanted at the start of Ramayana ParayaNam (chanting) on Aanjaneya (Son of Anjana Devi and the God of Air, Vayu); which is like this, “buddhir balam yasho dhairyam nirbhayatvam arohataam / ajaadhyam vaak patutvam cha, hanoomat sharaNaat bhavet //.” It lists all the benefits of thinking about Hanumaan the son of Anjana Devi and Vaayu Bhagawan. What are those things? First is Buddhi, the power to discern, comprehend, analyse, assess, evaluate and come to a decisive conclusion. As you can see in it are included all the control over the sensors, inputting devices, collection, collation, analysis and evaluating of data – all intellectual processes. Then the benefit is ‘Balam’. This can be taken as the strength of mind as well as the strength of the body. Then is ‘Yasha:’ the name and fame, followed by the courage of convictions. OK. We should be brave and courageous, all right. Why is the very next quality mentioned is ‘Nir Bhayatvam’, meaning fearlessness? The answer to that question is that, it is not only your courage that is necessary, but also that you should not be causing fear in others. Only then others will feel free to approach you, isn’t it? Sanyaasi takes a Deeksha to get rid of his ferociousness, so that he may not cause fear in other animals! Next point is ‘arogataam’ that is, to be healthy enough to be free of diseases. The devotee who does SmaraNa (that is to repeatedly remembering the name and qualities of Hanuman, happens to get so healthy to be rid of any and every type of disease. Then is this word ‘Ajaadhyam’ mentioned, meaning ‘not being inert like a piece of dead wood’. Then finally is added the quality of ‘vaak patutvam’ to mean the power of spoken and written expression. Not only as a matter of the beauty of words and their appropriateness but the correctness and incisiveness of the idea and thoughts behind it, is ‘vaak patutvam’, that is extolled in other words as, ‘vaakku vanmai, nava vyaakaraNa pandita:’ and ‘sollin selvan’ as coined by Kalki Ra.Krishnamurthy.
2. Buddhi, Balam, Yashas, Dhairyam, Abhayatvam, Aarogyam and Vaak-Patutvam are the seven very important qualities required in us all right. Without anybody telling us, we will pray for these things ourselves alright. But the eighth ‘Ajaadhyam’, (listed as the seventh in the Sloka), requires a little more attention. It may not be clear as to why we should be praying for it especially! But to me, that quality of ‘Ajaadhyam’ seems to be more important than anything else, looking at the way things are going on in this world of ours. This is what we should all be praying for and this is what Anjaneya Swami should be showering on us plentifully, it seems. Instead of being ‘Jadam’ to be sentient, meaning what? To be a dullard, without any sprightliness, to be lazy and spiritless. All lifeless matter is Jadam, while animated lively forms are all ‘chaitanyam’ evolving out of ‘Chit’. From the root ‘Jada’ is ‘Jaadyam’. The human life is supposed to have evolved from the knot of ‘chit – jada granti’. It is this connection with matter that keeps us grounded in ‘thinking ourselves to be the body instead of being aware of our spirituality! Gnaanis tell us to get rid of the ‘bodily awareness’ and become purely ‘chinmaya’!
3. Let it happen whenever it has to happen, that waking up to reality. Now, while still in the material body, let us try to the extent that we can, to keep doing things of relevance for us and others; instead of being dull and lazy. Let us be active and wakeful. Now we are in the grip of Jaadyam’ completely. We are dynamically involved in totally non-essential activities such as gossip, rumour, political discussion; drinking coffee or tea; reading second grade or even worse fiction. Thus having spent all our energies on wasteful ventures, we do not have the necessary vim and vigour for the activities we should be involved in. Half our distraction is due to applied science and the so called modern amenities of life and their sales / marketing gimmicks. Another half of the distraction is due to the inputs from the society in the name of reformation, renaissance and revolution! Despite seeing such people being shamelessly involved in purely crass and selfish ventures, people are sitting as impotent and imbecile idiots, letting Dharmam be swindled and vandalised, allowing Saastraas go to dogs and permitting Indian culture go to smithereens! When the great warrior Arjuna was losing heart and sitting on the ground on the battle field, having dropped his arms and weapons; did not Sri Krishna exhort him saying, “Don’t be a gutless creature like a dog with his tail folded between his legs – ‘klaibyam maa sma gama: Paartha’,” he said! Today Aanjaneya Swami has to motivate us like that a lot.
4. There were supposed to have been 64 different disciplines in existence for which there must have been the basic books of Sciences, Arts, Crafts and Saastraas! There have been highly qualified expert maestros in every field and disciplines of knowledge and their achievements are still there for the world to see, for which there must have been the basic and advanced theoretical books. Even if the experts are not there, what happened to all the literatures? For these irreparable and irredeemable losses, wasn’t our lethargy and slothfulness the reason? To save us from our own torpor, and likely further losses, we need Hanuman’s Anugraha of ‘Ajaadyam’, very badly! ‘Ajaadyam’ has been mentioned before ‘vaak patutvam’. Today we are all, ‘vaai chol veerargaL’ in Tamil and ‘tees maar khan’ in Hindi, claiming to be great verbally and good for nothing in actual practice! I wish that Anjaneya Swami may reduce the ‘vaak patutvam’ part a little and to that extent increase the ‘Ajaadyam’ part, while sanctioning, thereby making us more effective in action!
5. He was like that only, as a living example of all the qualities described in the poem, of Buddhi, Balam and so on. He was ever active, always on the move. That is how he is seen in the paintings and sculptures. Effortlessly lifting a hill, flying high in the air, without any indication of tiredness or laziness, forever working for the fairness and rectitude. Especially faced with any amount of opposition and obstacles, he was never to give up his efforts and was invariably successful! Are we not the exact opposite? As it is, it is very rare that we launch ourselves in such ventures, worth persevering for. Then, if at all we do so, faced with the slightest opposition, we are ready to call it quits! “This is the Kali Yuga. The very Saastraas say that this is the time for the domination by elements that are bad and evil. So let us simply stand aside and watch the fun or listen to the story!” Since we are endowed with quite a bit of ‘vaak patutvam’, if required we will go one step higher and as an explanation use such words as ‘Adwaita’ and ‘Maya’ and finish with it! But our AachaaryaaL who came down as an Avatara for that very purpose and wrote copiously of Adwaitam, did not use it as an excuse and did not keep quiet either. If there are two great historical characters for relentless perseverance and enormous hard work, they were One, Anjaneya and Two, our AachaaryaaL! If we are to be just quiet bereft of all activities, it is not a state where we can wilfully go and sit down! Starting from the first step in the ladder, if we keep progressing, at one stage or the other, we will be made to sit down quietly doing nothing! That is the real ‘summa’. So, the ‘summa’ that we say now, is all ‘summakosaram summa’. (Periyavaal laughs saying this, as there is a double entendre on the use of the word ‘summa’! The phrase ‘summakosaram’ means ‘just for the heck of it’!) Even when physically we are all quiet, the mind will be running hither and thither, doing all its mischief or dope around! ‘Over working like a dog and sleeping like a log’, both are equally matters to be ashamed of, for a human being endowed with the sixth sense, as compared to all others in the animal kingdom!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva