DEIVATHIN KURAL # 84 (Vol # 6) Dated 16 Nov 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 84 (Vol # 6) Dated 16 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 568 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)

499.  The one doing the Nidhidhyaasanam correctly, sincerely and very seriously, when he keeps involuntarily merging into the Brhmam and coming out of it becoming aware of the surroundings repeatedly, it is Easwara who is causing him to do that.  From the starting point of ‘nitya anitya viveka vichaara:’ or even earlier to be duty conscious, or even from the time you did tapping on the fore head with closed fists, with the hands crossed in front of the chest, and you did three sit-ups known as ‘dobir-karaNam’ in front of GaNesha while slightly pulling on one’s ears, it is Easwara who is your constant companion egging you on and motivating you and improving you bit by bit.  But God will not reveal that he is doing all that.  The aspirant can only guess that, “Even I have some clarity of the mind and am able to control the mind and bring it to a standstill to some extent and that is good!”  Mostly we are likely to give ourselves some 75% of the credit and give only some 25% to God, even in this.  But as the Saadhak progresses on to Mananam and Nidhidhyaasanam, it is God who causes him to deeply merge, in a stage of inaction and thoughtlessness!  Till now there were many actions that he had to do.  Now he can only think of ‘what to do’ to reach the total stage of inactivity!  That will lead to the final stage of thoughtless awareness!

500.  We say that we have passed an exam.  Did we pass?  We only wrote the answers to the questions in the answer sheet, affixing our name for identity there.  We cannot declare ourselves as having passed the exam.  There is a whole organization there for doing the correction, assessment, totalling and declaring one to have passed or failed in an exam.  Our job is over once we have appeared in the exam and wrote in the answer sheet.  I am talking about the time when our country was not yet independent.  To cause the examiner to pass us, those were the days when people did not have the option to move a bundle of currency notes or show a pistol!  To write was our part of the bargain and it was the Examiner who was the Phala Dhaata.  For us to pass on to the world of No-action – to pass in the exam of Saadhana – it is The Phala Dhaata Easwara, whose Grace, is the Capital and force.

501.  To pass in the examinations of the world are only a word or an acronym like a B.A., or M.A., or M.B.A. that has only some relative value in comparison with others that would enable us to get admission for further studies or get employed.  There is no intrinsic value of its own in them.  But at the end of Saadhana, to get a ‘pass’ in the Nidhidhyaasana is the ultimate experience!  There is nothing more than that!  It is the Brhma NirvaaNa, Adwaita Anubhava, and Parama Nityaananda of everlasting bliss!  As a response to the Saadhaka-s never ending efforts and aspirations, God causes him to permanently merge in Himself and that is the truth.

502.  In Tamil they say something more appropriate than the ‘Bramara-Keeta Nyaayam’.  Among Wasps there are two varieties known as Social-Wasps and the Solitary-Wasp.  The Solitary Wasp acts as a predator feeding on smaller insects and bringing the paralysed prey back to its nest to become its young.  The wasp converted the worm into its own image by using the victim for target practice as though for its stinging.  This process as we said before has been named the ‘Bramara-Keeta Nyaayam’.  Here the Bramara or Wasp is the Easwara and It is aspiring Saadhak who is the Keeta. It is the repeated stings by the Wasp that reforms the worm in to the wasp’s own image and not just the aspirations of the Saadhak.  There is one more point of difference.  The one causing the change-over is Easwara and the change in the form is to the changeless and formless NirguNa Brhmam and not into another Easwara!  Moreover here, there is no conversion but, the Jiva loses his imagined separateness and resumes his reality.  So there is total inversion and removal of the effects of Maya.  So, the event here stands tall beyond comparison, to which no example can be given.

503.  From the beginning, Easwara who has been granting the improvements bit by bit without revealing his hand, even now remains in the back-ground often merging the aspirant in Samadhi, permanently renders this man Jiva as ‘Jivan-Muktan’ while living and then finally ‘Videha-Muktan’ after he drops the mortal coil.  Still the biggest difference now is that, till now he who was responsible for the aspirant’s Chitta Shuddhi, refinement and reformation; now completely erases his mind and the sense of separateness.  Once you have no mind of your own, you can take no notice of the SaguNa Brhmam also.  That is how Easwara’s work, happens to be always a mystery of hide and seek, unseen by the eyes.  Though unseen and not recognized by the other senses, millions of times more intimately, absorbs the aspirant in the oneness of existence, proving the truth of the Vedic statement with brilliant effulgence, “सत्यं ज्ञानं अनन्तं ब्रह्म”, to mean, ‘Truth, Awareness and Infinity is Brhmam’!  What is that effulgence?  PeriyavaaL laughs within himself while asking this question and answering it with another question!  Will it be as bright as a thousand watt bulb?  When we try to put into words, what is indefinable and what is beyond the reach of the spoken or written expression, this is the sort problem that we have to face!

504.  Indefinable by words or speech, incomprehensible by the mind – without anything greater than it in terms of bliss, peace, awareness and freedom; it is the indivisible One stuff of truest truth and unending state of eternity.  To reach there our AachaaryaaL has laid out a well maintained royal high-way as Adwaita Saadhana Krama.  By his grace, I got this opportunity to talk to you all and you could hear the same.  Let us all pray to him, for us to be able step into the path and make steady progress!

Immediate Action – ‘உடன் செய்யவேண்டியது’ (Udan Seyyavendiyadu)

505.  First thing to be done is ’Karma Anushtaanaas’; as clearly laid out in the Saastraas, without any slippage or breaking any rules.  Nowadays the tendency is to give up doing all Aachaara Anushtaanaas the moment the word Adwaita is mentioned!  To disregard all rules and regulations, Adwaitam is considered as the licence.  Questioning as to, “What is there in all these things”, they feel that all Aachaaraas are meant for people like me only!  Without the slightest experience of the oneness of Jiva and Brhmam, and without trying the least, they will start pontificating, “How can there be any rules and regulations for the Aatma?  Aatma has no Karma, isn’t it?  If you carefully look into it, you will find that all these restrictions are contrary to Adwaitam!”  A lot of such talk has become the way with people.  So, to be free enough to give into their whims and fancies, Adwaitam has come in handy as an excuse.  So that I may not contribute for such irresponsible talk, I have been keeping my mouth shut about Adwaitam for long.  Somehow I have been motivated to talk about this subject today (going on since Deivathin Kural # 33 of 03 Aug 2012, as our e-mails).  At the end I do not want to close this talk on a note of regret with a feeling of guilt.  Since our AachaaryaaL was of the opinion that everybody should know about Adwaitam as the ultimate goal at least in an outline, by his Grace, I have explained it to the extent that I am aware of and wish to finish it on a positive note.

506.  I am not asking you all to take it so seriously that all of you should take up Sannyaasa from today, which I anyhow know that you will not!  Just put it firmly in some corner of your minds that you and God are one and the same or in other words, Jiva and Brhmam are one only.  It will do the needful on its own, this very idea.  What you have to do ‘knowingly’ is to do the Karma as laid down for you sincerely and meticulously observing, all the Do’s and Don’ts.  These practices have been evolved by such great people of personal and practical experience and have defined that one is to proceed for serious Adwaita Saadhana only after due graduation through practice of Vedic Karma Anushtaanaas and after attainment of certain clarity and refinement. 

507.  As a basis for any future effort at Saadhana, we should endeavour to be good behaviourally and attitudinally first of all.  For us to become ‘एकं सत्’ one day, we have to start with humility and good intentions.   That word ‘सत् गुण” – “சத்குணம்” means the one true Brhmam as well as a thing of good nature aka ‘நல்ல குணம்’ Sri Krishna has said, in Bhagawat Gita (XVII.26.), “सद्भावे साधुभावे च सदित्येतत्प्रयुज्यते | प्रशस्ते कर्मणि तथा सच्छब्द: पार्थ युज्यते ||”, meaning, ‘The word ‘Sat’ is used in the sense of reality and of goodness; and so also, O Arjuna, the word ‘Sat’ is used in the sense of an auspicious act’.  We call good people who are good and harmless as ‘Sat’.  We say about some people as “That gentleman is a ‘sat’ and other chap is quite an ‘asat’,  wherein we are referring to their general attitude and behaviour as good, isn’t it?  So, by first being good in our attitude and behaviour, we can go to that ‘Sat’. 

508.  Good character qualities and Brhma Gnaana are not unconnected.  Our AachaaryaaL has said that, the former is a ‘sahakari KaaraNam’ that is a contributory factor.  (PeriyavaaL smiles when he says this.)  I am reminded of the production of the fruit of Mangoes.  Amongst all sorts of Mangoes the grafted variety in which two different types are physically grafted together, are said to be tastiest.  Such a variety of Mango is known as ‘sahakari’ mango.  In Kanchipuram under such a mango tree of the grafted variety, AmbaaL is inalienably attached to Ekambreswara.  That is how the ‘Sat GuNa and Gnaana’ have to be inextricably entwined.  In the Bhagawat Gita (XIII.5 to 11.), while explaining as to what is Gnaana, Sri Krishna goes on listing a number of excellent character qualities that need to be there in a human being.  He says, “He should be devoid of conceit and head weight; straight forward, kind hearted, patient, intelligent, tolerant and not be cruel or hateful.”  As he goes on listing such qualities, he himself raises the question as to how such good character qualities lead to attainment of Gnaana. Then he answers his own question by saying that, “Since these are ‘sahakari’ causes, I called this itself as Gnaana.”  Then he goes on to say that, for Gnaana to happen to come about, these qualities are essential.  This can be proved by noticing the fact that a man with negative qualities of egoistic tendencies, given to qualities such as hatred, conceit, cruelty and lust can never hope to get anywhere near divinity, isn’t it?

509.  Pride and egoism is contrary to humility and Vinaya Bhaava.  Let us also humbly make a start in trying to be good people.  Keeping that ‘Sat’ in our minds, let us try to inculcate and imbibe the good qualities of ‘सत् गुणं’ – ‘சத் குணம்’.  It is with that word only all things are completed by saying, ‘ॐ तत् सत्’. On behalf of all of you let me say ‘ॐ तत् सत्’ and complete this talk on Adwaita Saadhana!

Sambhomahadeva