DEIVATHIN KURAL # 72 (Vol # 6) Dated 23 Oct 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 72 (Vol # 6) Dated 23 Oct 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 494 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)

391.  When the athlete is running towards the finishing tape, if he looks right and left or over the shoulder, that fraction of a second can be the difference between the first and second or even fourth and fifth placing!  Here it is not a race or competition between many, but between your real and imaginary self.  So any deviation of attention could be distraction and change of direction with the journey remaining incomplete, as the goal is not reached!  If somebody says that in such and such a village, there is a baby born with miraculous divine powers, what will we do?  Immediately once an idea is formed in our mind about the address, we will rush there already with a mental picture of that place, to make what we heard into a reality.  At that moment we will not be noticing whether the road is tarred or not and which shops were on either side!

392.  If you go to a Realized Soul – a Gnaani, he will not be talking about what is given in the Upanishad-s such as, Hrudayam, Naadi and Dwaaram and such things!  He has lost any and all knowledge of what he was before, in his past life prior to the Dawn of Gnaana!  Now he would not know also about when he was an aspirant and was endeavouring along whichever path!  Yes, the Upanishad-s were seen and read by such Rishi-s known as Mantra Drashtaa-s in Aakaasa.  Whether it was sky overhead or the Dahara Aakaasa, they would not have noticed!  But that happens after the attainment of Gnaana – after crossing of the threshold between being an Agnaani and a Gnaani – God makes such people his media for revelation and transmission of the life’s secrets aka Rahasya-s!  For such people, nothing has been kept as a secret – the way and process undergone by Upasaka-s and that undergone by the common public – the spiritual process of inversion from being too anxious about what happens in the outer world, have all become very clear to them!  Having come to know all the wonderful secrets and surprises in God’s ways, they have enjoyed the revelations and have been the conduit for the rest of the world!

393.  When such information and knowledge reaches the general public as second or third hand, it is inevitable that some additions, modifications, exaggeration and confusion result.  There has to be the ‘touch’ of Maya in all such situations.  If somebody goes to a Gnaani for clarifications, he is totally unaware of our terms of reference, and is in a different wave length as though, or he knows only as much as revealed to him by Paramaatma.  There is no urge in the Gnaani to know more as inquisitiveness is no more!  So, when everybody were assuming the ‘मूर्ध्नि’ Naadi going from the Hrudayam to the head as the ‘Sushumna’ mentioned in the Yoga Saastra, our AachaaryaaL’s Avatara occurred.  At the time of birth itself he was a ‘Sarvagna’ – the omniscient!  Though there was nothing not known to him still, having been born as a human being, as guide post for others, he displayed his knowledge only after due ‘Vidya Abhyasam’ under a Guru.  First as a Brhmachari he learnt under a Guru and then received the Brhma Vidya Saastra from a Sanyaasi Guru.  Then he wrote Bhashyam for existing Saastraas and original works of his own. 

394.  Then he did one thing with apparent extreme humility.  Despite being the all-knowing ‘Sarvagna’; instead of writing or saying anything as his own personal idea or version, (as mostly people tell others, “You listen to what I have to say”), he only quoted cogently and voluminously from the knowledge base as available in Saastraas traditionally available and based on strict ‘Sishta Aachaara’ of excellent model behaviour, by past masters who had been epitomes of good conduct!  If you speak from the personal understanding, grasp, comprehension and point of view, it can be correct only; if everybody else’s up-take and back ground is also similar, which can never be.  So he stuck to already existing materials with incisive analytical handling to arrive at workable plans by the yet to be Saadhaks and their would-be Gurus!  Making use of the existing approaches to the reality, such as Karma, Bhakti and Gnaana Marga-s, he ensured that they have to be customised to fit each individual Saadhak. Relate this to what happened in Buddhism and Jainism!  Wishing to bring in equality in the social milieu, instead of making everybody great, they ended up making everybody equally bad!  Anyhow that happened quite conclusively later.  But our AachaaryaaL’s Avatara was, amongst other things, for the purpose of countering those two religions and re-establish the Sanaatana Dharma.  So, our AachaaryaaL controlling himself, let tradition speak to the people at large through him.  Though there were some misunderstandings and misrepresentations, especially in the social matters – not concerned with one’s progress for Aatma Gnaana, he refrained from touching them, as it would become a ‘free-for-all’ situation.  Thus he lived and demonstrated the true value of our traditions.

395.  The phenomenon of the Hrudayam and Naadi from it, as given in the Vedaanta Saastraas is such a subject that knowing about them is not of much importance for a Saadhak and not knowing about them is no great loss either!  There is a big difference between the Sushumna Naadi mentioned by the Yoga Saastraas and these Naadis that are going out of the heart.  In Yoga Saastraas the movement of the PraaNa Shakti in those Naadis are all as per the efforts of the Saadhak, as part of the Saadhana.  Here the movement of the Uyir in the Naadis or Hrudayam, or the central aperture in the heart are not directly controlled by the will of the Saadhak.  They are dependent upon his attitude and perfection or otherwise in the Saadhana, automatically without involvement of his will!  It is like the difference between intended responses to stimulus by one’s will and involuntary reflex actions by the body; the difference between what happens in Yoga practices and Vedaanta Saadhana.  There in Yoga the success or otherwise depends on how well you move the power through those Naadis.  Here in Vedaanta practices knowledge of the Naadis or otherwise or even a misunderstanding of how the Naadis behave, does not make a difference. 

396.  There is yet another example that can be quoted.  The matter of Naadis in Yoga Saastraas is like climbing up a ladder step by step by your efforts.  In Vedaanta the Naadis are like the electrical lifts or elevators.  You do not have to do anything and not even know as to how it functions.   Even if you happen to have a wrong notion or misunderstanding about how it functions, it does not matter, as it will still fetch him to the destination!  That is why, when AachaaryaaL wrote the Bhashyam in the initial stages talked about the Sushumna the way it was thought to be generally, without expanding, but in brief.  But later when it came to that of writing the Bhashyam-s for Chandokya and Brihad Aaranyaka Upanishad-s, instead of saying the Sushumna, he said the Naadi going to the head.  Even then he stopped short of saying that it is not the same as Sushumna.  He is not one to give too much importance to minor matters.  (Smilingly PeriyavaaL says,) It is I, who is giving too much importance to these not very essential things!  It is better to remember that in Vedaantam, ‘matter does not matter’ and attitude does!

397.  Now the question that comes up is, as to why regarding UttaraayaNa and DakshiNaayana, he felt compelled to remove the general misunderstanding?  Because knowing the correct thing about it does not really matter in Aadhyaatmic that is in real spiritual affairs.  But it makes a small difference in thinking, a good for nothing character who dies in UttaraayaNa to be wrongly construed to a noble being who is likely to be going straight to the heavens.  Even that does not matter really.  But one would wrongly presume some great Mahatma who dies in DakshiNaayana, to be thought of as just a normal human being and that would be an insult to his greatness!  This point is very clearly brought out in our AachaaryaaL’s Bhashyam for Brhma Sutra (IV.2.20.).  The occasion is that Bhishma is lying in a bed of arrows, waiting for UttaraayaNa to commence before giving up his life!  Though normally nobody can have even one extra breath or one less, contrary to what is predicated as per fate / Praarabdam of Karma.  But in the case of Bhishma, his father had given him a boon as ‘Ichcha Mrutyu’ (‘इच्छा मृत्यु’), that he could die at the time of his choosing.  So he could postpone or delay his own death.  OK!  That is alright.  But, why wait for the ‘उत्तरायण पुण्य कालम्’ that is, UttaraayaNa PuNya Kaalam specifically?  Here AachaaryaaL says ‘aachaara paripaalanaartham’, that is ‘to abide with the general customs and beliefs, as well as to maintain the sanctity of Bhishma’s father’s boon, as implied!’  You can have a glimpse of our AachaaryaaL’s very liberal attitude here!

398.  Another surprising thing here is that originally this name Sushumna was meant to be the ‘मूर्ध्नि’ Naadi only. This name Sushumna was earlier meant for the first ray of the Sun.  The Sun is said to have seven horses, with which he rides his chariot.  The first one is Sushumna.  Relate it to the seven colours of the VIBGYOR!  Appayya Deekshidar in his Stotram on the Sun has mentioned that the first horse of the Sun is named Sushumna.  It is the Sun’s rays that go out to the various parts of the body from the Hrudaya through the various Naadis. They form or create the semi-gross juices such as blood, bile, and such enzymes.  Chandokya Upanishad (VIII.6.) contains this information.  Amongst them the Naadi going to the head is called Sushumna.  That name was adopted by the Yoga Saastra experts for the most important and central Naadi – the Agni Naadi.  In the Bhashyam for Brihad Aaranyaka, Chandokya Upanishads and Brhma Sutra having mentioned it as the ‘मूर्ध्नि’ Naadi, why did he not correct his earlier mention of the Sushumna in three places in the Bhashyam for Kata – Prasna – Taitreeya Upanishads?  We can give one reason for this.  Instead of putting the word Sushumna in all the places, having called it the ‘मूर्ध्नि’, leaving the earlier mentioned ‘Sushumna’ uncorrected or amended; his intention might have been to put across to the discerning public in a gentlemanly way that the ‘मूर्ध्नि’ and Sushumna were meant to be the name for the Naadi from the heart to the head.  Instead the exact opposite happened.  From the earlier mention of Sushumna, in rest of the places also, people in later days thought that the Yoga Saastraas’ Sushumna starting from Moolaadhaara is what is indicated as ‘Moordni’.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva