DEIVATHIN KURAL # 113 (Vol # 7) Dated 28 Feb 2014

 DEIVATHIN KURAL # 113 (Vol # 7) Dated 28 Feb 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 page No 861 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)

Sankara in Rik Veda

24.          I will tell you something about which all of us as followers of Ãdi Sankara can be really proud.  There is one word in Sanskrit which is pronounced like the English words 'sum' or 'some' – 'सं' but having meanings of good, pleasant, beneficial and 'MangaLa karam' or 'Lakshmi karam', as though it is a synonym for Sivam – 'शिवं'!  Our ÃchãryãL as a great benefactor for all the people of the world has a name 'Sankara' – 'शंकर', as though to mean 'the do-gooder' that his natural name that is 'iyar peyar' – 'இயற் பெயர்', also became the 'kãraNap peyar' – 'காரணப் பெயர்' or causal name! In the first Suktam of the Rik Veda that I quoted in the previous paragraph, the Sixth Mantra says, "Let him do good for us all, all people, all men and women, for the whole society, for all cattle and other animals and living beings too, let him do good and give comfort."  So, it is given in the root mantra of Rik Veda that let him be the 'सं' + 'कर', to mean 'good' + 'doer'.

24.          In Tamil the Vedas are known traditionally as 'marai' – 'மறை', which also means 'hidden'!  That is, Vedas do not directly describe the truth, but indirectly point out, 'what it is not'!  So, the Tamil name as 'marai' which means 'hidden' is very appropriate.  That is the way adopted throughout the Vedas.  Had it been saying 'for our sake – let him be a do-gooder', it would have been, 'na +sam +kara' – 'न: + सं + कर = न: संकर'.  Instead it is saying 'सं + न: + कर', changing the order indirectly, with 'सं' and 'कर' on either side of 'न:'!  Somehow 'संकर or शंकर' is revealed.  In the very first Suktam that the Veda Mãtã is submitting to Parameswarã, somehow reveals him to be the same as 'शंकर' our ÃchãryãL.   When Veda Mãtã said earlier that he is omniscient as 'Prachetas', that is also applicable to our ÃchãryãL as the winner of the title as 'Omniscient' when he ascended the 'Sarvgnatva Peetam' – 'सर्वज्ञत्व पीठं' in Kashmir.  Then when he is described as 'Donor par excellence', that is also equally applicable to our ÃchãryãL, as he is described as 'karuNãlayam' – 'கருணாலயம்', as in the sloka:-

"sruti smruti purãNãnãm Ãlayam karuNãlayam |

"श्रुति स्मृति पुराणानां आलयं करुणालयं |

namãmi bhagawat pãda sankaram lokasankaram ||

नमामि भगवत् पाद शङ्करं लोक शङ्करं ||  That sloka means – 'Amongst all heard and remembered Vedas the most treasured repository, as a temple of kindness is this Do-Gooder of the world known as Sankara, to whom I respectfully pay my obeisances'!  The third characteristic of identification as given in the Vedas as 'Maha Balishter', is very much applicable to our ÃchãryãL too, as he must have been physically very well endowed indeed, to have been able to what all he did within 32 years of his life on earth.  It is just super-human for him to have done so much of successfully participating in debates with opposing contenders of other religions winning over them all, writing so many Granthãs of worshipful Slokas and PrakaraNams gloriously motivating, while going around this vast sub-continent three times by walking covering some nine to ten thousand miles on foot!

Good and Bad in One

25.          Our religion has the most sacred belief that, all the good and bad aspects of life are in that one idea of what is Paramãtma.  In fact there is nothing good or bad by itself, as the difference is in the perspective only.  The essential truth of what we call as God or Paramãtma is indescribable, indecipherable, illimitable and formless.  That one thing by Mãyã is seen as so many sentient and insentient, animate and inanimate, animals, birds, plants and materials that are good and or bad, as seen or assumed.  We do not subscribe in our religion, to the idea of a Swami or God for doing only good things and a Satan or some other such entity for everything bad.  What do I mean that we do not subscribe to such an idea?  I mean that those fore fathers of ours, who had experienced the truth and known and seen the very truth of existence, have not seen an Easwara Shakti or Godly power, for all things good only and a non-Godly power for all things bad as practically experienced by them.  Totally immobile, immutable, imperishable and at peace is the true thing known as Brhmam or Paramãtma.  When it plays with the power of Mãyã, remaining itself as it is, without any changes or mutation, is seen relatively as good and or bad; is what they have come to know and told us.  They have also told us the ways and means of rising above and going beyond these differentiations of good and bad and go on to the Parabrhmam and merge in it or merge there.  As the very idea of that Parabrhmam is not simply an idea or concept, as governed by the limitations of time and space which are not absolute; when you understand or comprehend clearly, you reach as well as merge in it, because comprehension also brings the clarity of knowledge of oneness!  So, qualities of fierceness and greatness, forcefulness and persuasion and sharpness and softness are not irreconcilably opposites, but quite easily possible in one and the same person simultaneously!  So Rudra can be and is at one and the same time the Sivam too, like the ferocious soldier fighting tooth and nail for survival in the battle field can be and is a soft hearted individual with his friends, relatives, wife and children at home!

The Aryan-Dravidian Race Theory is Sheer Racism

26.          Those from a religious back-ground of seeing God as an embodiment of everything good and noble and Satan as the epitome of everything evil, looking at Rudra as per the Vedas, misunderstood and misinterpreted.  Since Divide and Rule has always been a convenient ploy of theirs to be resorted to whenever and wherever; here was a suitable opportunity to bring in the Aryan God and a Dravidian God!  It was sheer racism, but it suited their purpose!

27.            The all capable 'Sarva Saktan' is that one Easwara.  If he was not omnipotent, he could not have deserved the name as Easwara.  When you say 'sarva' – 'सर्व' meaning 'all', it has to include all that is good and bad, isn't it?  In the famous Rudra Suktam-s, that is how he has been described in detail.  Only as a good power is this Easwara and there is no evil power opposing him as an enemy as Satan or as a second power in being.  Not that these idiotic Hindus just to appease that devil of a Satan gave him also an exalted status as a Devata and installed him in the temples of theirs to be venerated!  There are no two deities, only one Rudra – Siva is there.  There are not two different races in India.  But being a vast sub-continent with varying geographical and other parameters, people have evolved varyingly.  It is all one people of one Vedic community and one Indian culture!

28.          O K, it is alright as I accept that I am a bit of an archaic old man too conservatively oriented.  So it may look as though I am talking against the scientific findings of great scholars!  But there was Swami Vivekananda and there was Aurobindo.  They were not like me.  They were much knowledgeable in terms of historical research and modern views, reforms and supporters of revolutionary ideas and have roundly criticised religious conservatism!   Those two people also have not only, not accepted but also rubbished this whole idea of 'Two – Races Theory' of India being a country of Dravidians and that Aryans came over as aggressors from elsewhere in Asia / Europe!  As some amongst you may have aptitude for research and have a scientific outlook and are likely to discard my views I took the names of Vivekananda and Aurobindo, in support of my argument.

Ever Fierce is also Ever Pleasant

29.          As I am saying that this country does not have people of two different Races and so also the Presiding Deities of Kedãrnath and Amarnath in the North to this Ramnath or Rameswaram at the Southern tip of India are no different Gods but, one and the same only.  Neither have two different Races have intermixed nor are different Gods of different ethnic origins have been coalesced on to one.  There are two places in the Yajur Veda Rudram (First Anuvãga 3rd Mantra and 10th Anuvãga 2nd Mantra), where Rudra with the fierce aspect is addressed with the words 'te sivã tanoo:' – 'ते शिवा तनू:', meaning 'the very pleasant aspect of you as Siva'.  It is clear here that the Rudra himself has the pleasant form also.  Does it mean that at times he is pleasant and on other occasions he is very fierce?  In fact he who is ever the 'Ugra' – 'उग्र' is also ever the 'शिवा', beyond our knowledge, understanding and comprehension.  From that being 'शिवा ' is the name as 'Sadasiva' – 'सदाशिव', as the word 'sada' means 'ever'.

30.          I compared it with a soldier who is fierce in the battle-field and pleasant at home.  But for Swami, the world or universe itself is at once the battle-field as well as his home!  On the one hand God is the creator, as well as the Samhãra Karta and also the Paripãlana Karta.  If in one part of the earth there is an earth quake, elsewhere there is a good rain or a pleasant breeze.  Two countries are at war and elsewhere neighbouring nations are friendly with each other.  We are seven billion plus people on earth.  God is the indwelling reality in all of us as 'antarãtma / antaryãmi' – 'अन्तरात्मा / अन्तर्यामी' causing us to do whatever.  Many amongst us thinking of the wellbeing of all of us behave ourselves and many amongst us due to some real or assumed grievances of our own, are proving to be terrorists as a human-bomb or car-bomb, causing the destruction of many!  If both these things are happening at the same time, doesn't it mean that the 'antaryãmi', the indwelling reality in us is both fierce and pleasant at one and the same time, isn't it?

31.          As I said earlier, when he is in his true state, he is neither good nor bad as these are part of the apparent state only, when he is reflected as so many of us.  The true basic stuff as Easwara is the source for all relative aspects of good and bad.  When it is manifested as so many of us, some are good and some are bad.  In all that, it is the pleasant aspect of what is forever 'Sadãsiva' that is prayed to and worshipped.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva