DEIVATHIN KURAL # 152 (Vol # 6) Dated 06 Apr 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 152 (Vol # 6) Dated 06 Apr 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 second paragraph on page No 1042 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)

713.  Looking at the Solar System, the whole of the biosphere is a world full of life as the Jiva Loka, by the continuous release of the energy from the Sun reaching all the atoms permeating the whole of the cosmos.  As noted a little earlier that the Photo Synthesis provides the food for the animal world as found by science barely a hundred years back, was known to the Indian intelligentsia many thousands of years back.  Going far ahead of science's discovery which is only an observation of what happens in the plants; instead of stopping at only nourishment for the body, we have been told as to how we can tune in to the power of the Sun through Surya Namaskãra.  To be able to directly receive and imbibe the power from the Sun, the Gayatri mantra has been given to young boys from the age of five!  The power behind the Sun is known as the 'Savita' or 'Sãvitri', which is only another name for the nourishing body part of loving Mother Parãsakti, says our ÃchãryãL! 

714.  How was Chandra the Moon was also mentioned as Mother's breast?  What food do we get from the Moon?  Moon looks cool and pleasant which by itself is as good as food, yes!  Not only that. When we indulge and over-eat the various foods that we get by the Sun's rays and fall sick, we go in search of medicines.  The medicinal plants known as herbs get their sustenance from the rays of the moon only.  Amongst all herbs the top most is 'Soma Lata' a creeper plant mentioned in the Vedas.   The word 'Soma' itself is a synonym for the Moon.  The juice of that plant, known as 'Soma Rasa' can be equated to Amrita or Nectar.  In the famous 'Soma Yagna' oblation of 'Soma Rasa' is the crucial central act.  Yogis experience the flow of Amrita from the top of their heads, is also said to be from the Moon. 

715.  The ebbs and tides of the oceans, seasonal winds and rains are due to the interplay of the gravitational pull of the Moon interacting with that of the Earth and Sun.  It is the Sun's rays that evaporate the water from the lakes and oceans causing the rains aiding production of various crops, as known to all of us.  In creating the rains the tides also have a role to play.  Since the Moon has a major role in creating the tides and the changes in seasons and trade winds; he is also equally important in feeding the mouths of the world!  So, if we say that as Anna Poorneswari, Mother AmbãL is virtually breast feeding all of us through Sun and Moon as her breasts, we are not wrong but absolutely right and to the point!  Sun's heat rays and the Moon's cool rays of light do much more causing snow falls and ocean currents.  What is information as general knowledge and truths of the science, in the language of devotion is breast-feeding of all living things by the Universal Mother!

716.  If the Sun is considered as responsible for the cerebral brilliance in people, Moon is the deity ruling over the mind!  As the New and Full Moon cause tremendous variations of enormous power as ebbs and tides in the salty oceans, so also it does on the human mind!  'Luna' in Latin is the Moon and a man who has gone mad is referred as a 'Lunatic' isn't it?  Amãvasya the new Moon day (including the night) is said to be the 'wholesome day' or – 'நிறைந்த நாள்'!  That day is preferred for offering oblations to the manes that is, to do TarpaNam!  During the time of eclipses it is considered to be most efficacious to do Mantra Japa due to the influence on both Iham and Param!  Since both the eclipses are due to either the moon coming between the Sun and the Earth or the Earth coming between the Sun and the Moon, you can see the connection between the effectiveness of the Mantra Japa and the close interaction between the Sun, Moon and the Earth at those times!  All said and done, finally it all comes down to the fact that AmbãL is breast feeding all the life-forms through the Sun and Moon – "शशी मिहिर वक्षोरुहयुगं".

717.  Traditionally it is the custom to consider the Sun and the Moon as the right and left eyes of God the Ultimate or Paramãtma!  Within Soundarya Lahari there is a Sloka No 48, which says that, as Sun your right eye forms the Day time and as Moon your left eye creates the Night!  The Sun and the Moon are shining as the right and left 'Thatanga-s' respectively says the Lalitha Sahasranãma, as I told you earlier.  More than all this, what touches our hearts with an intense sense of gratitude is this idea that treating us all as her loving children she breastfeeds us all with so much care, love and compassion!

சேஷ-சேஷி: உடைமையும் உடைமையாளரும்

Sesha-Seshi: Owned and the Owner

718.   After this in talking about more abstract matters, let me explain the meaning of considering AmbãL and Easwara as having a relationship of 'Sesha-Seshi'.  There is this body in which there is this life, the owner of that body.  When our ÃchãryãL tells AmbãL, "शरीरं त्वं शम्भो:" it means that AmbãL and Easwara have the relationship of the body and the life in the body.  Among these two, because the 'உயிர்' is in the body that is the 'உடல்', question arises as to who is the owner and who is the owned!  When the purse is in my pocket, I am the owner and the purse is the property that is owned.  When it comes to the house and owner of the house, the man who lives in the house is the owner, isn't it?  That is exactly the same relationship between the body and the life in it that is, between 'உடல்' and the 'உயிர்' and not the other way around.  As our ÃchãryãL says in the 'Shatpadi Stotra', it is the waves which belong to the ocean and not the other way around.  It is the'உயிர்' that runs the 'உடல்' and if the life is to leave the body there is immediate degradation of the body while the life in it takes up another body!  So, life is the owner and the body is the property.  'Swam' is Ownership and 'Swami' is the Owner and 'Swat' is the property that is known as 'சொத்து' or 'soththu' in Tamil.   As Thãyum Ãnavar says, 'எல்லாம் உன் உடைமையே' – the whole Universe is the property of God!

719.  'Seshi' is the owner and 'Sesha' is the owned property.  Just before saying that 'everything is your property', Thãyum Ãnavar did start with 'எல்லாம் உன் அடிமையே', meaning that 'everybody is your slaves only'!  As directed by the life in us, the body is only like a servant that obeys the orders.  This is an important tenet in Sri Ramanuja ÃchãryãL's Visishtãdwaitam, to call God as the Owner, Lord and Swami while the Jiva-s and the every-thing-else in the world are that which is owned.  As per Adwaitam, if Parameswara is the NirguNa Brhmam, his I-consciousness is AmbãL. The first half of the very first Sloka has that as the inner meaning. Then in a later poem (sloka No 4), openly he calls her the 'Aho Purushika!' In that stage, without being able to differentiate between the owner and the owned, they are indivisibly one. Then when you accept the practical reality of the dual world, he has talked about the Trinity of the Creator, Governor and Re-absorber and the Murthys responsible for the five major jobs of Srushti, Stiti, Tirodãna (screening of the reality), Maya (depiction of the unreal) , and Samhãra (of re-absorption); isn't it?  At this stage it is her power that causes all these actions!  It is by the dust of her feet that all this action takes place (as per sloka 2).  The slightest movement of her eye-brows it is, that causes all these five major jobs of management of the world to take place.  All these are indicative of the fact that she is the 'Seshi' and they are the under-command work-force!  Within that five there are three non-different from Siva as Rudra, Maheshwara and Sadasiva!  So, she is the Seshi and they are the 'Sesha', which is of particular interest to our sloka. 

720.  Over and above all this, starting from the one-celled animal to the Pancha-Kritya-Murthys, the creator & in-dweller in all of them is that one life force.  So, to that one Seshi we are all the Sesha including Siva or Easwara. Then by the principles of the Sãkta religion also, our ÃchãryãL confirms that AmbãL is the 'Seshi' and everybody else are the owned properties, by saying "तवात्मानं मन्ये भगवति नवात्मानमनघं"!  Starting from Time, there are nine differentiating factors by which Swami and AmbãL are said to exist; by which they are called as 'Navãtma', in all of which She is the Sareeri and Seshi and Easwara is the Sareeram and Seshan, for her!

721.  `All this is on one side.  Another side to it is that, if there is a power there has to be someone who has that power!  The owner of Parãsakti is that Siva! So now he is the owner and she is the owned property!  Even when she gets the entire job done through him, with him as the SaguNa or Kãrya Brhmam, she is the form of the whole body of his works!  He is Seshi and she is the property!  Generally Sesha gives the meaning as remainder or what is left in balance as the part.  So, there has to be an original being as the wholesome thing to start with isn't it?  That original is the Seshi.  From it what is expressed in bits and pieces is the entire seen world whether you see with your eyes or electronic telescope or your imagination!  So the seen world is the Seshi and Easwara is the Sesha.  When the Shanti Mantra of Shukhla Yajur Veda says, 'the source is complete from which this part is taken; the part contains the whole and hence it is also complete; then the whole anyhow remains complete even after this part is taken out'; it is this alternating relationship between the Sesha and the Seshi, between Easwara and AmbãL and the created world and the source of its creation!  AmbãL is the Shakti or power and so is the moving force of all existence!  So she is the life or 'உயிர்', but at the same time she is of the form of the whole world and so she is the body in the view of, "शरीरं त्वं शम्भो:" she AmbãL is the Sesha and Swami is the Seshi!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva