DEIVATHIN KURAL # 30 (Vol # 6) Dated 28 July 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 30 (Vol # 6) Dated 28 July 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 207 of Volume 6 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)

GURU’S LOVE AND SACRIFICE
42. I wished to talk about the fact that, because of experiencing the fully grown maturity, the one from whom delusion of Maya has ceased to be effective; such a Mahaan becomes a Guru capable of much sacrifice and shows extreme love and compassion to the disciple. This man while still in this world of ‘Iham’ (इहं) like anybody else is inwardly experiencing the totality of oneness with the reality, unlike all of us who are totally deluded. Our AachaaryaaL has written a work known as ‘Prodhaanubhuti’ containing a number of slokas, in which the Guru who is completely rid of delusion explains to his disciple, the state in which he is ‘स्वान्ते सम्यग् इह अनुभूतं’.
43. Why should a Jivan Mukta who is in such a state of completeness of experience devoid of all delusion, care to explain his state at all? It is not necessary for him and neither is he to gain anything by doing so. As said in Bhagawat Gita, Chapter VI, Sloka 22, “yam labdva chaaparam laabham manyate naadhikam tata:” – ‘यं लभ्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं तत:’ – having come to that stage, he has no more additional advantages to gain. In that stage there is no need for him to sing in praise of his own state. May be to do so, is likely to distract him and cause him to fall back on self pride! From the Sanskrit ‘prouda avastha’ of maturity, it may end up in making him proud! Yes, for a Jivan Mukta, whatever he may do apparently, it will not make any difference to his inner state and there will be no falling back or distraction. Still, it is certain that there is nothing whatsoever that he has to gain by such description. So why should he do so? He could simply remain in Samadhi and let the body fall off whenever it has to, isn’t it? So, why is he making this effort?
44. Our AachaaryaaL who himself was in that state of ‘prouda prouda anubhuthimaan’, still did ‘n’ number of such descriptions of the state of Gnaani, wrote many thesis on that subject extensively, analyzing the likely arguments for and against. He has written this ‘Prouda Anubhuthi PrakaraNam’, containing 17 poems, to explain the inner state of a Gnaani. Instead of beating his own trumpet by making it an Autobiographical Sketch, humbly hiding his own state, he has spoken as though some Gnaani is explaining his state to his disciple. To explain and teach a good and worthy disciple, “सद् शिष्य बोधाय”, a Guru takes the pains to do so! The aim of doing so is to motivate and encourage the disciple to make that additional effort to rise to such level of perfection and purification. For that reason the Guru comes down from his highest level of inaction and silence, to describe the state of a Gnaani to his disciple, though personally he is not looking forward to any gain whatsoever! It is the order and arrangement by God’s decree or whatever that, though the Guru has become inert, devoid of all feelings of bodily senses and mental constructs; he should continue to have feelings of love and a sense of sacrifice, so that the humanity at large may benefit. The Guru is already rid of all intentions, aims and missions. So, it is simply an arrangement by God to cause the Guru to have love for all and the readiness to sacrifice, like the parents. Parents do so, because it is their child, while Guru does similarly without the sense of me and mine!
45. In the first sloka of ‘Prouda Anubhuti’, our AachaaryaaL has used a string of words, ‘सच्छिष्य बोधाय सत्यं संस्मृतवान’ – ‘sachchishya bodhaaya satyam samsmrutavaan’ – meaning ‘that he recovered his memory in his non-existent mind as to what was his state ‘before and after’ that experience, so as to be able to tell that good and worthy student! Bodhna or Upadesam is done by mouth for which you have to remember, what your state was before and after the Anubhuti of Self-Realization. For which he has to do ‘samsmaraNam’, because he is not a ‘mouni’ whose power of speech has been blocked. But his mind has been annulled or erased, devoid of thoughts. To generate thoughts, to remember and keep record of past experiences and remember is difficult for him as his mind is no more! Such a man of transcendence has to come down to the mundane level first to be able to remember and recollect his own past state before he can explain his state before, during and after Saakshaatkaara!
46. It is as much difficult for him to reconnect with the mind, as it is difficult for us to disconnect the mind with its thoughts. By persevering and trying our level best, if we learn to discard the thoughts, we benefit immensely. But for the Gnaani, by reconnecting with the mind and recollecting his thoughts, he has nothing to gain. But still he does so, for the sake of the disciple – ‘सच्छिष्य बोधाय सत्यं संस्मृतवान’. First he has to revive his mind and then remember all the thought processes before, during and after that most important event of Aatma Anubhava. Then he has to come down further to put into words and advice his disciple about it all. It is not enough for him to have realized, but to enable another to similarly experience Aatma Saakshaatkaara, is the Gnaani out of infinite kindness becomes a Desika! In talking about his Self Realization and his infinite kindness, I am reminded of the Bhashyam by our AachaaryaaL for Aitreya Upanishad. (Refer to I.3.13-14.)
No Gnaana without Guru’s Upadesa
46. The individual who has come to realize the Aatma as ‘इदं’ or in Tamil as ‘இது’ or in English as ‘this’, as the very close thing, as the most intimate, becomes, ‘idamtran’ that is, ‘इदंत्र्न’. The first part ‘idam’ is about pointing and ‘tran’ is about vision or sight. So this word ‘idamtran’ is the one who has seen / known / identified Aatma as the very closest thing to himself. Still, great respectable people should not be referred just by their names isn’t it? So, after taking out one letter from ‘idamtran’, it has been given a special nom de plume as ‘Indran’ or ‘इन्द्रन’, as given in ऐतरेयोपनिषदि Aitreyopanishad.
47. Life entering a body through the hole in the top of the head and taking birth; then notes things and stuff after due analysis giving them names, identifying them as those and oneself as me; then getting to know that all that is seen and cognized to be the self and realizing them all to be oneself and then saying that “Now I have come to know the Brhmam here”; then by that cognition getting the name as ‘idamtran’; then out of respect and reverence and because Devas like to be not so very apparent, being called or becoming the ‘Indran’; and so on the Upanishad goes on describing. Nowhere is there any mention of a Guru there. But our AachaaryaaL observed and noticed a flaw there.
48. He felt as to how could a life can on its own analyze and get Brhma Gnaanam? Sucha thing cannot happen without Guru’s Upadesam and Anugraha, he noted. May be it is not mentioned because it is already known to everybody, he thought. When a person is detailed as a collector, it is evident that he has passed the competitive examination for Indian Administrative Service, isn’t it? Similarly, if someone has attained Brhma Gnaana, it is understood that he has been given Upadesam by a Guru, isn’t it? Still, we should make it evident for the readers and mention it in the Bhashyam, he thought. So, he added a sentence between ‘a life after taking birth and analyzing the world around him and before he cognizes his identity with the Brhmam permeating all the things around him’; inserted the sentence that, ‘by Guru’s Grace and Anugraha, because of it cognizes the oneness of all existence’. In very powerful words, he has explained the awakening of the individual soul to the reality of his being and existence, fully revealing the Guru’s Grace and role. He says, “The Guru with immense compassion drums into the ears of the disciple, the effectively powerful words of the Upanishads that could awaken Aatma Gnaana in the individual soul, through which he enables him to see the omnipresence and all pervasive permeability of Brhmam in the whole of all existence.” I am not putting one extra word here. I am quoting the Sanskrit original for you to grasp this directly, if you can, as the meaning has already been given! "परम कारुणिकेन आचार्येण आत्मज्ञान प्रबोध कृत् सब्दिकायां वेदान्त महावाक्य बेर्याम तत् कर्ण मूले ताड्यमानायां..."
49. Nobody should think that our AachaaryaaL has taken liberties with the text of the Upanishad and added any superfluous material. The message that, ‘Gnaanam is obtained only through the words of the Aachaarya’, is to be found mentioned in many places in the various Upanishads. For a man who is blind or his eyes are tied and lost in a dense forest, only those who have already known the way out can help and save him, isn’t it? Similarly for an ignorant man, as most of us are, only a Guru who is already a Gnaani, can show the way, as said in the Chandokya Upanishad (vi. 14.1 and 2.) – आचार्यवान पुरुषो वेद – that person knows who has a preceptor!
50. Mundakopanishad says, “गुरुं एव अभि गच्छेत्” – ‘Guru only is to be searched for and reached’. If Aitreya Upanishad is talking about a man who has researched and analyzed things, matter and materials; here in Mundakopanishad, it is talking about a man who is researching the Lokas or the Worlds! (Whether you are a scientist or an astronaut, or a banker sifting through the currency notes or a businessman muddling through the share market fluctuations, or simply a poor man rifling the wastage in a dump yard; it is one and the same thing!) These are all in some way related to work / Karma. The principle of Aatma Tatva is not about doing anything and cannot be reached or comprehended by action oriented efforts. Having understood this, you have to become delinked and dispassionate about worldly matters. Then to reach, know and comprehend Aatma, have to surrender to a Guru – “गुरुं एव अभि गच्छेत्”.
51. That statement ‘Guru only is to be searched for and reached’, means that, ‘You have to reach a Guru’ and that there is no other way! In the next mantra it is said that the Guru who is a Brhma Gnaani will, ‘Give him Upadesam on Brhma Gnaanam, as it is and thereby alleviate, assuage and give him solace’, says the Aitreya Upanishad. So there is no chance to think that our AachaaryaaL has added any unwarranted extra. While doing the Bhashyam for ‘Guru only is to be searched for and reached’ – “गुरुं एव अभि गच्छेत्”, our AachaaryaaL has clarified that, to emphasize and underline the fact that “Even a man well versed in the Saastraas, should not venture in to learning about Brhma Gnaana on his own”, it is said ‘गुरुं एव’. Only the man that knows could be our guide, especially in the spiritual field and that is ‘Desikar’.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva