DEIVATHIN KURAL # 45 (Vol # 7) Dated 29 Sept 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 45 (Vol # 7) Dated 29 Sept 2013

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavãL 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 page No 380 of Volume 7 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 continually)

'Uallathai Kulippattungal' – Bathe Your Inner Self

(This is also For Children)

6.       'உடல் தூய்மை' - Cleanliness of the Body.  You children should not get various diseases of the skin such as psoriasis and other such infections.  Once you contact them, you are the sufferer, as you are not able to study, play, sit down, eat or even sleep.  How and why do such diseases occur?  They happen due to dirt.  If you keep your body clean, by bathing after rubbing your body with soap or Seeyakkai (soap nut) powder such infections will not occur.  It is not good enough to do that only one day but, you have to do so every day, because the dirt keeps accumulating on the body every day.  In fact it is even better, if you can bathe both in the morning and evening every day!  From childhood itself if you get used to bathing in cold water, it is even better.  This habit will be a safe guard against cold and cough throughout one's life.  Cold water revitalizes the nerves and the mind will also be rejuvenated instead of feeling tired.  Body will be clean and the mind will be bright and cheerful with dynamism in work.  Cleanliness known as 'tooimai' – 'தூய்மை' in Tamil is said to be next only to Godliness.  Then dirt will not come near you.  First I told you about keeping the body clean.  Next is your dress.

7.            'உடைத் தூய்மை' – Cleanliness of the Dress.  However much you may bathe, it will be a wasted effort unless you maintain your dress clean.  Even if the clothes are dirty infections will occur.  If you launder your clothes they will give you the clothes washed, dried and pressed.  Everybody cannot afford that.  It is best if you can wash your own clothes and that could also prove to be a good physical exercise.  The very feeling of satisfaction that we have washed our own clothes so nicely shining bright can give you a sense of rightful pride that will make your parents happy while cutting the laundry bill.  By these two actions of scrubbing your body clean while bathing and wearing your clothes washed every day, you would have endeavoured to get rid of dirt and skin diseases.

8.            'உள்ளத் தூய்மை' – Cleanliness of the Heart.  In addition to the body and dress, deep inside is the 'Heart of the Matter'!  I am not talking about the heart that pumps the blood but the mind or 'manas' in the human being!  Your very thoughts, attitude and outlook have to be clean and their cleanliness is the most important.  Without that inner cleanliness all the cleanliness of the body and dress are of no relevance whatsoever.  To ensure that the mind is not coated with dirt, it has to be often scrubbed clean and bathed.  What is the dirt that accumulates on the mind?  The errors, wrongs and sins are the sort of dirt in the mind.  That is the dirt in the intentions.  There could be some errors in our actions that just happen unintended.  That is not a big thing.  Even an elephant may slip sometimes.  When we are doing some service which is socially very important, so that we may not develop too much of a head weight that we are doing something great and so that we may develop the perspective that, it is God's blessings that is more important, such errors do happen.  On such occasions it is best to pray to God and that will cleanse the situation and solve the problem.

'Poyyum Bhayamum' – 'Lies and Fears'.

9.            But when we make a mistake or commit a blunder, what is our own response to it?  Like a smudge in the mind it keeps irritating us.  Our first reaction is to hide it so that others may not notice it.  Truthfully if we pray to God, as and when such slippage occurs, that prayer itself will resolve the situation.  Instead when you want to hide the error, you have to lie, further complicating and confounding the situation.  If dirt instead of being washed and cleaned is simply covered and hidden from view only, it will become something like a festering sore oozing with pus.  What hurts the inner being of us most is this falsehood only.  One such lie leads to yet another and like an infectious disease becomes worse causing us to scratch and bleed!

10.          Why do we wish to hide our mistakes?  We wish to hide our mistakes from others as we wish to be thought of, as being good and efficient or due to being afraid that we will be found out and taken to task or punished.  Anyhow the whole thing is a lie and a façade.  That lie is very much like the skin disease psoriasis.  We have to have love and respects towards our elders but not unfounded and meaningless fears.  This fear itself is like dirt that affects the cleanliness of the heart.  Even when you have committed a mistake, you should be telling the truth to your elders and not cover and hide by a lie.  It may happen that the whole thing may come out that we have not only erred but also bluffed!  Elders may excuse us for the error but, may not pardon us our bluffing.  That may cause a greater hurt to our ego.  If we tell the truth elders may pardon us.  Even if they punish us, it is alright as they have a right to do so.  We should accept that with courage and the sense that, 'for the mistake that we have done we are getting what is our due'!  Courage and truthfulness are like the soap and shampoo that remove the dirt of the mind.

Jealousy

11.     This is another bug bear that affects children as well as elders.  If another child is better than us in studies or games or wearing a silk dress and comes to the class with much pomp and show or has seen the latest cinema on the first day of its release, the very look of that boy or girl instigates jealousy.  As the very spelling correctly indicates, we are at once under the spell of a lousy feeling!  That dirt affects our mind more seriously landing us in all sorts of further aggravating the problem.  We will try and fight that other person and if we cannot win by a fair fight, we may resort to complaining and falsely accusing the other person by innuendo.  Thus one lie and bluff leads to another spreading exactly like an infectious disease!  In the bargain our attention to studies and keenness in sports and games will be less.  Thus we will spoil our own knowledge, physical fitness and reputation.  In fact this jealousy is a completely unnecessary and 'good-for-nothing' feeling!

12.          Competitiveness in Studies and Sports.  Young children should have competitiveness in studies, more than in any other field, that when you see other children getting good marks, you should also get motivated to do equally well or even excel.  By hard work and diligent application of one's utmost, one should try to do better to become knowledgeable with excellent behaviour.  Competition is alright, but not jealousy.  The same applies in all fields such as sports.  To keep the body strong and mind active, you should be playing games.  Even without my saying children are very much interested in games.  Here is where you have to be careful.  Sports and games should remain a motivator in your spare time and not become a hindrance in your studies.  So you have to control your keenness for games and channelize it within limits.  You may compete very seriously in sports but without giving in to jealousy and hate.  The one who beats you should become your best friend and not an enemy.  To be friendly with all other students will keep our own heart clean.  In God's big family, we are all children.  So, more than friendliness, we should inculcate a brotherly feeling towards all.  That will give us maximum pleasure in all our dealings with others in the world.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva