DEIVATHIN KURAL # 93 (Vol # 7) Dated 14 Jan 2014

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 93 (Vol # 7) Dated 14 Jan 2014

(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 the page No 701 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)

High Ideals of KuraL, Gita and Bible

Exemplified by EraNdakar

22.           In Gita, Sri Krishna has described the ideal state reached by the best among Yogis, calling him 'Parama Yogi (Gita 6.32).  He is not the one torturing his nose or hiding in the grottos of the hills, or the one fasting for months together or the one who has taken the KuNdalini Shakti from the Moolãdhãrã to the top of the head 'Sahasrãra'!  Then what is characteristics of identification does he give?

Atmoupamyena sarvatra samam pasyanti yo Arjuna |

आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन |

Sukham vã yadi vã du:kham sa yogi paramo mata: ||

सुखं वा यदि वा दु:खं स योगी परमो मत: || 

Sri Krishna is telling Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna!  Whether in splendour or sorrow, one who looks at it all equally with oneself as the yard-stick, he is the supreme Yogi.  That phrase 'Ãtmoupamyena' means setting oneself as the measuring yard-stick.  The world is too full of hypocrites who not only do not practice what they preach but also have different measuring scales for assessing themselves and yet another scale for others.  The golden rule of Bible says "Do unto others as thou wilt be done"!  So, it means that you have to treat others as you would like to be treated yourself!

23.          What happens in the present day world in which nobody is thinking in terms of Yoga at all?  'Our problems should be solved or removed by others.  Others should donate plentifully to erase our poverty.  If we are sick others should nurse us.  Our loads should be transferred to other's heads!  Instead of such an attitude, if we serve others, people, animals and the world, because of our understanding of the oneness of all living beings, that is, 'Ãtmoupamyam'!  If we interchange the idea of oneself and others, me and you, we will get some idea of this concept of 'Ãtmoupamyam'.  ThirukkuraL tells us that 'anbu' – 'அன்பு', unselfish and unconditional Love will make us imbibe this quality of 'Ãtmoupamyam' automatically!  Instead of universal love, when we are only selfish, we are greedy.  When the universal unconditional love based on the clarity of understanding that all are one, then from being a crass, narrow selfishness it becomes a flow that encompasses all.  Then the sense of me, mine and ours and ownership vanishes.  Then the sense of sharing, gifting, presenting, donating and sacrificing, takes over!  Then they would think of everything as belonging to others and so would like to give away their everything, including their very bones, like 'Dadhichi Rishi' contributed all the bones in  his body, so that Devas could make Indra's Thunder Bolt known as Vajra Ayudham.  That is what ThiruvaLLuvar is referring to in the KuraL,

'anbilãr ellãm tamakkuriyar – anbudaiyãr

'அன்பிலார் எல்லாம் தமக்குரியர் – அன்புடையார்

Enbum uriyar pirarku.'    

என்பும் உரியர் பிறர்க்கு.'

24.          I told you that both comfort and discomfort should be seen as one, as per Gita, isn't it?  This, instead of treating them as the comfort and discomfort of the world, can be considered as one's own happiness and sorrow.  When you see the world's Sukha and Duhkha as equal, there is no scope of going out of your way and being kind and endeavouring to do good to others, isn't it?  In fact Bhagawan has said that we should be uncaring for our own comforts and discomforts, and do all our actions only for the world's benefit and calls such action as 'Loka Sangraha'.  So, for the sake of 'Loka Sangraha', Gnãnis too though they are not doing anything for themselves, should continue to be doing their Nitya Karma Anushtãnãs and Swa Dharma Karmas as levied in the Sãstrãs, says Bhagawan in the Bhagawat Gita, for the sake of universal well-being. 

25.           When viewed from the position of Gnãna both happiness and sorrow are one, equally false.  Still, within that on the basis of kindness and compassion, when Easwara creates a scene as though he is looking at the world, even while being unaffected by the times and tribulations of the world, it seems that Gnãni is happy when others are happy and sheds tears when in the company of others in deep sorrow.  (KTSV adds: - When the visitors cried with some sob story, Ramana used to shed tears with them.)  So it will seem as though the Gnãni is also sad or happy in sympathy.  When he sees others crying, he will automatically come forward to absorb their sins and also to sacrifice himself.  While doing so, he knows that he is only sacrificing his body and not the life in him that has no death or birth! Thus as the supreme sacrifice, by Sri Krishna Paramãtma's definition of 'Atmoupamyam' as a Parama Yogi like 'Dadhichi Rishi', EraNdakar entered the hole with the whirlpool at Thiruvalanchuzhi and sacrificed himself! 

'Perum PaLLam' and Thiruvalampuram'

26.          Before he jumped in, the Cauvery had gone some miles eastwards.  When he entered the 'Bilam' the River came out to the surface through a hole on the earth again as a geyser, that the place came to be known as 'Perum PaLLam' – 'பெரும் பள்ளம்', meaning a huge depression.  At the point where she came back to the earth's surface, there was a Shiv Ling.  As the story goes, it is here that Maha Vishnu is said to have done Pooja to the Shiv Ling and got the right curving conch known as 'Valampuri Shankh'.  (When you hold the conch with its spout [or siphonal canal held upwards], then the conch's spiral twists rightwards {dakshnavarti}, then it is known as a 'Valampuri Shankh'.  It seems amongst the Shankhs which is a type of a snail / mollusc one in a 1,000,000, are likely to have this right curves in its construct and are thus considered as a rarity!)  Cauvery River went around the Shiv Ling flowing with a rightward turning curve and flowed towards the sea that place also came to be called Valampuri.  This place came to be known as 'Thiruvalampuram.

27.          The Temple Towns which got Thevãram songs about them are known as, 'Pãdal Pertra SthalangaL' – 'பாடல் பெற்ற ஸ்தலங்கள்'.  There are 274 of them.  Amongst them there are 44 stations about which all the three important Nãyanmãrs have composed Thevãram songs.  Thiruvalampuram is one amongst that 44.   The Cauvery River which went underground at Thiruvalanchuzhi came out at Thiruvalampuram.  Then the river flowed in the SE direction some three mile, converting and enriching Sãmba Pathy into 'Cauvery-Poompattinam' and flowed in to the sea east of it.

God's Play or Leela

28.          As the story goes, EraNdakar who went in to the abyss in ThiruvaLanchuzhi came out alive, hale and hearty in Thiruvalampuram.  From his side, he had given up with the idea of, 'Let this life end here'!  But may be so as to save the divine River from getting a bad name, or so that the public at large may benefit by a darsan of such a noble person till his death in time, it is God's divine will that he should be saved from a certain death.  Not only that, when EraNdakar drew to himself all the weight of people's sin, God seems to have cancelled it all in one stroke!  The Rishi having borne the flow of the river on his head had a depression on his head.  Now, as he came out the depression got transferred to the head of the Shiva Lingam.  Siva, who had withstood the fall of the Ganges from the heavens on his Jadamudi quite casually, to prove that a Gnãni and Divinity are one, possibly took the dip on to His head. 

29.          Bagiratha got the Ganges from the heavens to the earth.  EraNdakar lifted the Cauvery from under the earth to come out to the surface.  Then the underground gap got filled somehow or got blocked with earth that the river started flowing over ground.  So Cauvery River which had taken birth in the Kodagu Hills at Talai Cauvery, till it reached the ocean at Poompugãr, started flowing as a continuous stream.  She also created the Cauvery delta around the lower reaches, that Tanjore and east of it got the epithet as the Granary of Tamilnadu.  For all this EraNdakar's noble sacrifice was the main reason. 

Thiruvalanchuzhi PiLLaiyar

30.          In Thiruvalanchuzhi, where the River Cauvery came up to the level ground from underground, there was a Valampuri Vinãyagar aka PiLLaiyar, matching the name of the Easwara there.  That is, he was having his Thumbikkai or trunk with a twist in the clockwise direction that is known as 'Dakshinãvartam', which is once again a rarity.  So, the deity is famous as 'Dakshinãvarta Ganapathy'.  In Thiruvalanchuzhi there is another famous Vinãyagar nowadays, by the name of 'Sweta Vinãyagar' made of marble stone with a Sannidy of his, located outside the Valampuriswarar Temple.  In that temple the windows made of marble are exquisite pieces of art work of Tamilnadu.  As the story goes, the King of Devas Indra got Amrita by praying to the Sweta Vinãyagar, it seems.  But this Sweta Vinãyagar is not the one I mentioned as the 'Dakshinãvarta Ganapathy.  Sweta Vinãyagar has the quite ordinary left twist of his trunk only as 'Vãmãvarta Ganapathy'.  The Valampuri Vinãyagar instead of having a separate temple has his Sannidy, inside the Sivan Kovil only as one of the many deities represented there.    

31.          The Cauvery River that came from underground to the surface went around in a clock-wise Pradakshinam of this Ganapathy, who has his trunk twisted similarly left to right and then continued in the Easterly direction towards the sea.  This Cauvery River which had started flowing because this PiLLaiyar had come as a black raven and toppled the Kamandalu of Agasthya Muni, having got over the 'Vignam' in her path, having gone around this Valampuri Vinãyagar in a Pradakshinam, in this town where this Sweta Vinãyagar is also located, and continued on her way towards the East.  Normally to start with people go around PiLLaiyar.  I am finishing this story after three Pradakshinam of this Dakshinãvarta PiLLaiyar.

(Deivathin Kural will continue with the next episode.)

Sambhomahadeva