DEIVATHIN KURAL # 81 (Vol # 6) Dated 10 Nov 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 81 (Vol # 6) Dated 10 Nov 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 last paragraph on page No 548 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 Who Knows and has Experience

468.  We are not talking about being qualified in academic education and so many years of experience as a teacher.  To be a Guru for Aadhyaatmic experience he has to be intrinsically knowledgeable of Aatma Saakshaatkaara and have that experience!  In the Upanishads he is referred to as ‘Brhma Nishta’ and in Gita as ‘Tatva Darshin’.  You do not have to worry if such a person, who has really had Aatma Saakshaatkaara, a Self-Realized Soul, be available as a Guru these days?  If sincerely the aspirant is very keen in his Mumukshutvam, within the available lot of such people the best will become known to him and even if he was not an out and out Brhma Nishta, at the time of this Mumukshu getting the Brhma Upadesa, God Himself will personify in his Guru.  That is how it will happen, in which you need not have any doubt!  It all depends on your sincerity and seriousness.  As you are wondering if there is a worthwhile Brhma Nishta who can become your Guru, God also is on the lookout for such a sincere soul thirsting for release!  So, when you are ripe enough, God will know when and how to intervene on your behalf.  He may even come within you as the subtle Guru and do the needful. 

469.  But if I say such a thing, in these days of unbridled independence (as PeriyavaaL was about to use some very strong words, suddenly checks his eloquence and tones his expression down saying), my words can be misinterpreted that, ‘there is no need for a Guru as PeriyavaaL says that Aadi Sankara said so!’  Without a Guru in the physical form, for one to become capable of giving the Brhma Upadesa to oneself is of course a rarity of the highest order!  It happens only in the case of some highly evolved and accomplished aspirants with such Samskaaraas as never before.  Even if that person happens not to be aspiring for Brhma Gnaana, God has come in the way and diverted him on to the right lines.  But those are exceptions and cannot be the rule.  (KTSV adds:  – Here PeriyavaaL uses a phrase in Tamil as ‘தடுத்து ஆட்கொள்வது’, which means, ‘interfering, stopping and taking over command of the situation’!  Such a thing historically happened in the case of Sundarar, one of the Naayanmaars.  In PeriyavaaL’s own time, there was this Ramana Maharishi.  When he was only 17 years of age, Ramana happened to ask a relative visiting their house, as to where he was coming from.  He was so over whelmed by the reply saying that he is coming from ‘அருணாசலம்’.  He asked further “Is there such place as ‘அருணாசலம்’?  Where is ‘அருணாசலம்’?  The visitor’s reply was that it is in ‘திருவண்ணாமலை’ that is, ‘ThiruvaNNaamalai’.  From that moment onwards he so irrevocably changed direction that he was a complete Sanyaasi without ever being given a Brhma Upadesa by any Guru!  No SravaNam, Mananam and Nidhidhyaasanam, as we understand it.  He had the death experience and soon reached ‘திருவண்ணாமலை’.  For years he was lost to the world in the underground enclosure known as ‘Paathaala Lingam’, within the premises of AruNachaleswara Temple in ThiruvaNNaamalai.  He was recovered and restored to this world as we know by the tender care and nursing by Seshadri SwamigaL, another great Gnaani by his own rights!  Read about them from the numerous books published by Ramana Ashram, ThiruvaNNamalai, in Tamilnadu, India.) 

470.  Total Commitment to the One Goal – ‘ஒரே குறியில் ஈடுபாடு’.  Once having taken Sannyaasa and received the Upadesa, what is he required to do?  He should not be doing what I am doing, totally forbidden, (saying so PeriyavaaL smiles).  Am I not talking with you all, various sorts of news, worldly affairs, history, geography, rumour and gossip?  A Sanyaasi should never be doing all that.  He should be forever thinking of Aatma as the only thought, speech and goal.  “Leave all words and worlds other than Aatma!  Taking hold of the bow, the great weapon familiar in the Upanishads, one should fix on it an arrow sharpened with meditation.  Drawing the string, O good looking one, hit that very target that is Imperishable, with the mind absorbed in Its thought.  Om is the bow; the Soul is the arrow; and Brhman is called its target.  It is to be hit by an unerring man.  One should become one with It just like an arrow.”  That is what is said by Mundaka Upanishad (II.ii.3 & 4.)

471.  Another Upanishad (Brihad Aaranyaka IV.4.21.) says that, “Other than the one golden word / phrase of ‘Oneness of Jiva and Brhmam’, all other words give only pain to the throat.”  Sri Krishna goes on stacking one by one (Bhagawat Gita V.17.), “तद्बुध्यस्तदात्मानस्तन्निष्टास्तत्परायणा: |

गच्चन्त्य्पुनरावृत्तिं ज्ञाननिर्धूतकल्मषा: ||”, meaning, “Their intellect absorbed in That(तत् बुद्ध्य:), their self being That(तत् आत्मान:), established in That(तत् निष्टा:), with That for their supreme goal(तत् परायणा:), they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.  This he said in ‘Karma – Sannyaasa Yoga’ the Fifth Chapter.  In ‘Vibhuti Yoga’ the Tenth Chapter, he says, “Those aspirants who have come to realise that ‘I am all in all’; with their minds and life wholly absorbed in Me, enlightening each other, ever speaking of Me, they are satisfied, thrilled and delighted”!  Bhagawat Gita (X.9.) says, “मच्चित्ता मत्गतप्राणा भोधयन्त: परस्परं | कथयन्त्स्च मां नित्यं तुष्यन्ति रमन्ति च ||”.

472.  As though reflecting the same idea Vidyaranya Swami while talking about NirguNa Upaasana, says the only thing to be done by sanyaasi-s, is to keep thinking, talking, conversing, and mutually appraising and exchanging notes about it the ‘Para Brhmam’ with each other, “तच्चिन्तनं तत्कथनमन्योन्यं तत्प्रभोधनं | एतदेकपरत्वं च ब्र्ह्माभ्यासं विदुर्बुधा: ||” (Panchadasi – VII.106 and repeated again at XIII.83.)  When many sanyaasi-s gather, they tell each other, ‘भोधयन्त: परस्परं’.  But normally they are not recommended to gather together.  The moment there is a crowd of such people, there is an immediate danger of people trying to find out about each other’s state of maturity, problems of language, expression and such things creep in.  In fact, a sanyaasi is not supposed to stay in one place for more than three days.  He is known as ‘परिव्राजक’ to mean that he should keep on moving, not sticking to one place, except those who are the Heads of permanent establishments such as Kanchi, Kaamakoti Peetam. 

473.  (KTSV adds: – There is a situation in  the life of Swami Ramadas, the author of two books ‘In Search of God’ and ‘In the Vision of God’, both of which became world famous and caused many foreigners to come to India searching for him as a Guru; in illustration of the point made above.  Swami Ramadas’ knowledge of Hindi language was rather poor.  He was roaming around the country side with a younger sadhu who was something like an assistant.  On his promptings, they went to meet another mendicant sadhu who was rather famous in that part of the country, (very reluctantly as far as Ramadas was concerned).  The Sadhu who had a number of followers was seated on a cot and the followers were hovering around.  He asked Ramadas as to what was his condition.  In all his innocence Ramadas took it as a test of his maturity in Aadhyaatmic field of spirituality.  He replied in his somewhat broken Hindi in all seriousness that he was ‘like the river which has reached the ocean and continues to flow in the same direction’.  There was no humour or joke in his reply.  But the assemblage burst into uproarious laughter as though he had said something very funny.  As Ramadas looks at everybody as only another form of Sri Rama, he did not take it as an insult.  However he felt embarrassed at his inability to make himself understood!  He had to escape from the situation, but how to do that?  Suddenly he thought of Hanuman the Monkey devotee of Sri Rama.  He just jumped up like a monkey.  Ramadas made a show as though he was scratching his armpit on the right and left, with the other arm extended askew.  Made faces showing his teeth and with a screech ran away from there post haste.  He did not stop for the next two miles.  He was so fast getting out of that place, that his assistant though much younger was finding it very difficult to keep abreast!  The point is that a Sadhu / Sanyaasi should generally avoid any company and prefer solitude as far as possible.)

474.  So, all told, after taking Sannyaasa and receiving Maha Vaakhya Upadesa, what one has to do is, to be solely interested in making the meaning of the Mantra become a personal experience.  That should be the constant and only endeavour of his.  For that purpose only are the process of Mananam and Nidhidhyaasanam.  It could also be called the Nidhidhyaasa.  With SravaNa, Manana and Nidhidhyaasa; the subject that we started talking under the heading as Saadhana – gets completed in detail. 

SravaNa – Manana – Nidhidhyaasana Definition

475.  To repeatedly mull over and analyse the Upadesa till one gets absolute clarity is ‘Mananam’.  Then, once you have the clarity, instead of giving any room for further research and analysis, to fix the mind and attention totally without the slightest wavering on that principle of Aatma Tattva, to become that completely is the final act of Nidhidhyaasana.  In the form of questions and answers, our AachaaryaaL has given us a book of vivified explanations known as ‘PrakaraNa Grantham’ in prose form called, ‘Aatma Anaatma Viveka’.  In it he has given the definition of these three words very succinctly.  By the six parts of establishing a fact as true, Guru will advise that the Vedas’ main thrust is to prove the Adwaita Satyam.  To listen to it is SravaNam.  To analyse that truth by our intellect in methods of reasoning strictly in accordance and conformity with Vedas and Saastraas to get the clarity on understanding and comprehension is Mananam.  Give due attention to the phrase underlined above in connection with Saadhana Chatushtyam, especially its Shraddha and Bhakti, to use one’s brains in the correct ‘Yukti’ instead of being over smart with ‘Kuyukti’!   Get to the purport of the message of the Vedas in the light of which Guru’s words should be analysed.  Get rid of the convoluted illogical logic of Kuyukti as our AachaaryaaL says in ‘Sopaana Panchakam’, “– दुस्तर्कात सुविरंयतां; श्रुति मतस्तर्को अनुसन्दीयतां”.  That is Mananam.  Then having focussed the mind and attention on the principle so understood as a continuous flow of comprehension is Nidhidhyaasanam.

476.  As I was saying ‘By the six parts of establishing a fact as true,’ in the tenth line of the above paragraph, some of you may be wondering as to what are these ‘six parts’?  Let us take as an example as to how we go about in identifying as to ‘What is the Subject matter of a book’?  By reading the introduction and conclusion portions of a book, we will generally know as to what is the purport of the book, don’t we?  That is known as ‘Upakrama Upasamhaaram’.  This is the first of the six parts.  A matter or an idea that is reiterated in a book will make it clear as to what is the subject matter of the book.  That is called ‘Abhyaasam’.  Third; when an idea is presented in a novel manner with emphasis, then that is the subject and this part is known as ‘Apoorvam’.  Fourth; having said something, if the effects of it are listed, then you will know it to be the subject and this part is ‘Balam’.  Fifth; when something is praised to high heavens, we can know it to be subject and this is known as ‘Arthavaadam’.  Sixth; is the ‘Upapatti’ in which, the subject matter is decided by analysing the cause and effect relationship.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva