DEIVATHIN KURAL # 121 (Vol # 6) Dated 29 Jan 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 121 (Vol # 6) Dated 29 Jan 2013

(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 829 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 consonantly)

382.  When on the one hand we worship God for getting rid of our weaknesses such as sensuality and lust, the very target of our devotion AmbãL is found to be responsible for Easwara to fall into Kãma, that is to be enamoured of Maha Vishnu as Mohini Avatara that they beget Hari-Hara Putra Ayyappa as an off-spring and for Rishis and Muni-s supposed to be past masters in controlling their sensuality as Jitendriyas, also to fall prey to the pulls of the senses; we cannot help wondering, if we are on the right lines or not!  Then we are hesitant that we may be committing a heinous crime, if we can find faults with Soundarya Lahari which has the reputation as one of our ÃchãryãL's famous works!  We know that the most intimate of all knowledge of the highest level occurs when the world and universe is erased from our vision!  But here there is talk of how the universe came into being!  Kãmam has to go for Gnãnam to happen or for Gnãnam to be comprehended, but here AmbãL is being praised and worshipped for the revival of Kãman aka Manmata / Eros / Cupid; to come back in to play after he had been vanquished and reduced to ashes by Easwara!  How can it be so?  Does it mean that Kãmam is equivalent to Anugraha of AmbãL?  There is an unavoidable puzzle and a quandary! 

383.  If you ask like that – one reply can be that there has to be opposing teams or sides, they have to clash, compete and fight with each other and break their heads in these head-on clashes and that enemy has to be vanquished and the flag of victory is to be hoisted.  That is a matter for pride and that is where the juice of livelihood is present and not in the hum-drum monotony of drab existence!  If everything is smooth sailing tick-t-boo you will not even know what is good that even the good or better or best will only be a bore!  The value of shade is to be found only in the scorching heat of the Sun!  For opposing forces to be catching hold of each other's hair, is to show that finally –'सत्यमेव जयते' – 'satyameva jayate', meaning that 'Truth alone wins'!  To demonstrate the truth of this statement only, within the passive, non-moving and inactive Brhmam this slight movement leading to coming into being of the whole universe and all the wide-spectrum of all sorts of feelings and sensations were input.  Then such a universe once created had to have the self- sustaining power to re-create and re-generate for the species to continue to proliferate!  So there had to be Kãmam in every one of them.

384.  The beauty of this difference between what is identifiable as good and bad is that, in good there will be some bad elements and in bad there will be some good!  It is in understanding these subtle nuances and fighting the battle of wits, exist the very purpose and beauty of this drama of life.  That sensuality and anger is bad is only a generalised statement.  If you go deep into those things, there may be some good aspects in them too.  You must exhibit anger against all things bad such as injustice, indecency, cruelty and partiality and so also we should have Kãmam for the good things of life such as beauty, decency, justice and excellence in arts and crafts!  So, Kãmam and Krodha meaning Love and Anger are not bad per se and the quality of its being good or bad depends on the context of their application.  On occasions what is apparently avoidable at times may be not wrong but necessary and similarly what is generally considered as likeable qualities may be hiding a malicious intent!

385.  More than anything else God's Grace or Anugraha and Man's Prapatti / SaraNãgati / surrender To God; two of the greatest things in the world are possible only if there is someone as the Creator and many as the Created.  Moreover in that creation there should be both good and bad as opposites for man to choose from.  If the greatest that God could give man is Grace, the highest that Man could do is to surrender!  (PeriyavãL smiles while saying this and continues.)  The realization that we can do nothing about anything is the greatest that we can do!  If we do that 'not doing anything', then only we will know the truth of the statement that Muruga is supposed to have told AruNagiri Natha, 'சும்மா இரு சொல் அற' meaning, 'keep quiet without any words or just be saying nothing'!

386.  Thus two.  If there was no creation or if the being so created are not incessantly pestered by so many desires and buffeted between such pulls and pressures, where is the opportunity for AmbãL to shower her Grace and exhibit her kindness?  If there was no conflict and no problems and everybody is hale and hearty and completely satisfied who will care for God's kindness?  Having fought against the negative forces of life as far as possible and having come to the firm conclusion that this battle cannot be fought by one's own abilities and power; then when you say, "Oh God! It is all yours, just you!"  Then and only then you can enjoy the pleasure of 'CharaNãgati' – 'चरण + आगत' – 'arrival at the feet' – surrender unto AmbãL!  Then only she will also get the thrill of coming to our rescue!  When that protection from God gets done, one side's Anugraha and the other side's surrender cancel out each other with the high flood of bliss remaining in the balance, with the flag of victory flying; in a state of lack of clarity as to whether it was the man who was successful or whether it is the God's Grace in play; without any chance for such research and analysis; this man Jiva Ãtma will be AmbãL herself, as when he surrenders he has simply erased his separateness! 

387.  Even if a million, ten million or even more number of people go in to the harmful, hateful and heinous things of life in fighting for or against them, it does not matter; as long as one man is successful in overcoming the binding ties of this creation; it is enough.  A tree may produce thousands of fruits and nuts.  Not all of them have to become a tree again, isn't it?  Similarly even if one man in a zillion attains to completeness, it is enough to achieve the purpose of creation in God's scheme of things!  Even if many are failures, not all of them are forever failures.  In our religion we do not contribute to the idea of eternal damnation.  Only Madvãcharyãr had that sort of an idea.  We can take it that his intention was possibly to turn people in the opposite direction against evil.  Our general belief is that even the worst criminal should have a chance for redemption.  We believe that AmbãL will one day or the other will pull those children also, correct them and give them all the love in her lap, like the Mother that she is!  One day or the other every wave that started in the centre of the ocean will reach the shore!

388.  It is good to remember here what Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra:-  (First the English transliteration of the sloka has been given and then in the Sanskrit script.)

"uddared aatman aatrmaanam naatmaanam avasaadayet |

Aatmeivahyaatmanor bandu: aatmeiva ripu: aatmana: ||"

"उद्दरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत |

आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्दुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन: ||"  It means that, "One should raise oneself by one's Self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the Self alone is the friend of oneself and the Self alone is the enemy of oneself".  Sri Krishna is saying, "Practise Yoga.  Discipline the senses and the mind.  Elevate yourself and attain to the gloriously dynamic heights of existence.  Do not demean yourself by becoming a slave of lust, greed and anger.  Rise above worldliness, become divine and attain Godhead."

389.  As the story goes, a King was going to the battle field camp.  He instructed one of his ordinary citizens to come and meet him there, after completion of some errand.  That man told the King, "My Respected Sir, nobody will let me enter the place where you will be camping.  Give me something for identification."  The King gave him a signet ring.  On a closer inspection it was found to be marked with a sign of the enemy King!  This man could not understand and the King himself explained.  There will be so many who will be desirous of meeting me about something or the other who will be having my personal signet ring.  Such a queue may itself be too long.  By the time your turn comes, the urgent matter on which I wish to meet you may be unacceptably delayed!  So we have some of these captured from enemy king's spies. All you have to do is to act a little suspiciously and my body-guards will apprehend you and quickly bring you before me on seeing this signet ring on you!

390.  Exactly similarly, AmbãL causes us to come to her by giving us these lust, anger, and such negative qualities, seeming like signet rings of the enemy, for us to try to overcome and seek her help when it is beyond our abilities!  It seems that Sri Krishna asked Kunti, the mother of Pãndavãs as to what boon she wishes for.  She replied, "Please shower me with all sorts of problems as then only, I will keep thinking of you constantly!"  How will we be faced with problems?  It is the pulls and pressures of Kãma and Krodha and the problems accompanying them that will cause us to think of God!  If we stretch the argument a little further, we will note that all the problems due to the whole list of evils such as anger, greed jealousy, atrociousness, beastliness, corruption, depravity, inequity and such unpleasant qualities are all AmbãL's Anugraha only for us to learn as to, "How not to be and how to be"!

391.  Then, if the purpose of giving the urge for Kãma to a Jiva is, as an opportunity for earning God's Grace; it does not end with that one individual only, but for it to flow to the subsequent generations of people yet to be born in his lineage.  The very fact of their coming into being as his descendants is because of this 'flow of kind-heartedness of divinity'.  As I say this, I note that one more matter is added to the list of 'contradictions to the ordinary' that I have been telling you.  There have been many great Mahatmas who have declared, "பிறவி வேண்டேன்!" (Thondar Adippodi  Ãzhvãr's  'Thiru Mãlai', 3.), which means that they are praying so as to avoid any future births!  Then the question arises as to how I am saying now, that from one man's Kãma the birth of his future descendants is to be considered as Anugraha for them, how is this 'out of ordinary' statement is to be accepted?

392.  It is alright for a highly evolved person to be praying for the cessation of the cycle of repeated births and deaths.  But when there are many souls in the interregnum, having bags of negative Karma back-log pending to be cancelled by future good deeds; they have to have the opportunity to do so by being born again, isn't it?  If there was no Kãma in the world, how are they to be born again?  If, after having been born, if they add to their already existing huge negative balance by further heinous actions, it is only their mistake.  The mistake is not in being born!  To be born is an opportunity to for one to attain to the stage of doing away with future births.  This is the crux of what one has to understand and do the needful, 'that you raise yourself by yourself' – 'उद्दरेदात्मानं आत्मनात्'!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva