DEIVATHIN KURAL # 131 (Vol # 7) Dated 10 Apr 2014

 DEIVATHIN KURAL # 131 (Vol # 7) Dated 10 Apr 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 1009 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)

161.                  There is a high state of existence in which, instead of doing something separately as worship of God, we are forever thinking of him with love adoration and veneration, while just for the sake of the others play acting as though we are also participating in doing the normal activities of this worldly life.  Then whatever we do simply ordinarily will be seen to be, different parts of a formal pooja to that inner being called Antaryãmi or Antarãtma as well as the onlookers.  Our ÃchãryãL has prayed to Easwara and AmbãL that such a stage of maturity should happen to him.  In such a prayer he says: – 

Ãtma tvam Girija mati: sahacharã: prãNã: Sareeram gruham

आत्मा त्वं गिरिजा मति: सहचरा: प्राणा: सरीरं गृहं.  He talks about the four most important aspects or entities as, Ãtma, Manas, PrãNa and Body and says that this Ãtma is you God, AmbãL is this Manas or mind of each one of us, the five important breaths PrãNa, Apãna, Vyãna, Udhãna and Samãna are the family of GaNas of Easwara, the live forces; and the residence of all this is this very human body! 

162.                  Then he continues about the step by step parts of the Pooja known as 'poojãngam' – 'पूजाङ्गं': –

pooja te vishvayopa bhoga rasanã nidrã samãdhi: stiti: |

पूजा ते विश्वयोप भोग रसना निद्रा समाधि; स्तिथि: |

sanchãra padayo: prdakshiNa vidhi: stotrãNi sarvã ghiro:

संचार पदयो: प्रदक्षिणा विधि: स्तोत्राणि सर्वा गिरो:

yatyat karma karomi tatat akhilam Sambo! Tava Arãdanam ||

यत्यत कर्म करोमि तत्तत् अखिलं संभो! तव आराधनं || PeriyavãL repeats the poem and continues to translate from where he left off in the last paragraph after 'the human body is your residence'.  Whatever I enjoy seeing, hearing, smelling, touching by the senses are all part of are your Pooja; sleeping is the Samãdhi State; all my movements by the feet are PradakshiNa, whatever I speak are Stotras, whatever I do are all entirely your worship in adoration, Sambo!  The main thing we are concerned here is that this PradakshiNam has been mentioned as an important part and parcel of the procedure for worship in adoration!

163.                  Similarly in Soundarya Lahari worshipping AmbãL, there is a sloka in which our ÃchãryãL tells her, "Hey Bhagawati!  With the intention of offering all my actions to You in my mind, let my normal talk become your Mantra Japa, all actions of the hand be so many Mudra of the sign language expressing ardent devotion, my walking be in the order of PradakshiNa to you, my eating anything at any time be oblations offered to you, lying down be as good as Namaskãra to you, in addition whatever I may do comfortably with pleasure or say may all be considered as services and worship done unto you"!  (This is the 27th poem of Soundarya Lahari already explained in detail in Paragraph 693 of the DEIVATHIN KURAL # 150 (Vol # 6) Dated 02 Apr 2013.)  The Sloka I Quote: –

जपो जल्प: शिल्पं सकलमपि मुद्रा विरचना

japo jalpa: shilpam skalamapi mudra virachitam

गति: प्रादक्षिण्य क्रमणमशनाध्याहुतिविधि: |

gati: prãdakshiNyakramaNa ashanãdhyãhutividhi: |

प्रणाम: संवेश: सुखमखिलमात्मार्पणदृशा

prNãma: samvesha: sukhamakhilam atmãrpaNdhrushã

सपर्यापर्यायस्तव भवतु यन्मे विलसितम् ||

Saparyãparyãstava bhavatu yanme vilasitam ||

164.                  Here he has mentioned both the actions of PradakshiNam and Namaskãram whereas while in the earlier sloka addressed to Easwara there is no mention of Namaskãra.  What is mentioned as 'Sanchãram' there is 'Gati' here.  Whenever we walk, it should be in our minds that we are walking around the God from the left.  'Samvesham' means sleeping.  'Whenever I lie down to sleep, Mother let it be, as good as Namaskãra to you'!  Don't we just lie down with our hands and legs stretched, simply sans any action?  In that 'simply' there is a huge difference.  When we are tired as a natural reaction of the body, we lie down to sleep.  Similarly the real and true Namaskãram is one in which we 'simply' surrender in SaraNãgati to the divine power, without any reservations or actions of the body or mind. 

165.                  To be able to get to that stage of total surrender, as far as possible and as many times as possible, we should be doing this Namaskãra.  You should not be asking a flippant question, "Does it mean that he is telling us to sleep with our face down on our stomachs and chest touching the ground?"  The similarity is in 'lying head-long' without a care in the world, as they say.  You may sleep on the side or on your back.  Lying on your stomach is said to be 'Moodevi', a derogatory term not recommended traditionally as well as bad for digestion!  Lying inert is Namaskãra and walking is PradakshiNam.  Both are done without any thought other than devotion to the Divine.  The action of walking done with the legs of PradakshiNam should be done first ending in the Namaskãra, where this circumambulation from the left ends.  This PradakshiNam being called 'valam varuvadu' – 'வலம் வருவது' in Tamil, as I said earlier, means keeping the deity on our right all the time. 

166.                  If we come from the left, we will keep the centre in our right.  If we sit on the ground facing the East, our right side is the southern side isn't it?  In Sanskrit the right / southern side is called the 'DakshiNa Bhãgam' – 'दक्षिण भागं'.  This body is considered as the Temple of God in which the heart is the sanctum sanctorum, and that is located slightly to the right of the Centre.  Please note that we are not considering the physical heart which pumps blood all over the body and receives the 'to-be-cleaned' blood, returning from the body parts, as this centre 'Dahara Guha'!  O K!  Why should we be doing PradakshiNam around God?  We are often ticked-off not to be roaming around like a vagabond nomad!  Here we are being told to religiously go around, why?  Because this is against the normal, that is why.

167.                  What does it mean?  If you just keep looking at the world and keep copying, what is known as 'Loukeekam' – 'लौकीकम्', aka this worldliness will keep involving us that we will miss out on the purpose of being born as a human being.  When you are too involved in minor matters of day to day livelihood, we miss out on the more important logic of existence.  Exact opposite of Loukeekam is 'Deiveekam' – 'दैवीकं' of Divineness!  So instead of the normal involvement in sustenance and survival, turn your attention towards more noble ventures of getting to know the 'why and how' of Existence.   So instead of going round and round the world, go around the very centre of existence – go right around from the left.  God is there at the very core of even this-worldliness of Loukeekam also.  With the clarity that, without him there is nothing else, we must go around him, who is in all directions.  He is the centre of gravity of all planets, sun, stars and everything else too.  This truth should be constantly remembered that, we go around the temple of God.  That is the meaning of PradakshiNam. 

Orbit of the Stars and Galaxies and our PradakshiNa

168.                  One more reason for our going around the temples occurs to me.  This world in which we are all residing is known to be spinning around itself and the Sun forever.  Not only the Earth but all the planets too are spinning on their own axis and going around the Sun.   In our Indian Astrology, as per Jyotisha Sãstrã, excluding the Earth, but including the Sun and Moon we look at nine 'Nava Grahas'; whereas as per Astronomy excluding the Sun and Moon, there are said to be nine planets.  Their names in Tamil, Sanskrit and English respectively are, Sevvãi – Angãraka (Mars), Budhan – Budha: (Mercury), Vyãzhan – Guru (Jupiter), VeLLi – Sukra: (Venus) and Sani – Shani: (Saturn).  These are common between these two systems of Astrology and Astronomy.  Rahu and Ketu in the Indian System are not included in Astronomy and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not to be found mentioned in Astrology.  Spinning on their own axis is called rotation and going around the Sun is called an orbit or revolution.

169.                  Earth spins on its own axis from West to East, hence the difference between day and night.  Because of such spinning, for us looking out from the Earth all the objects in the sky seem to be moving from East to West, as from inside a train moving in a particular direction, the objects outside seem to be moving in the opposite direction.  Most of these things we have read in schools and (smilingly he says), have conveniently forgotten them also.  This movement of the Earth is ApradakshiNam (that is, opposite of PradakshiNam) and as per Sãstrãs we should never be doing that.  Let me make this clearer.  PradakshiNam can be said to be Clockwise and ApradakshiNam as Anti-clockwise.  Thus this rotation and revolution of all the planets on their axis and around the Sun are all anti-clockwise or ApradakshiNam only.

170.                  All movements are the influence of AmbãL whose name itself is Shakti aka Power.  The continuous movements in the micro and macro Cosmos is due to the influence of AmbãL.  She is the Left side isn't it, in Siva-Shakti Ardha Nãri Swaroopa?  Accordingly all the movements in the solar system are towards right facing the Sun.  This has been going on for millions of years.  We located within the Solar System also have to abide by the same Dharma.  So we have to keep the Ãtma Jyoti of Easwara as the centre and move around in a clock-wise direction, as levied by our ancestors.  Though the aim is to be relieved of all movements towards total Shãntam, till we are moving, we have to do it in PradakshiNa only.  As the earth is moving around itself and moving around the Sun, we should also be rotating around ourselves and revolving around the temple of God in PradakshiNa. 

171.                  In addition to keeping the God in a sanctum and go around him in PradakshiNa, at least for a few seconds understanding that inside us also there is God, at least as an assumption, that the assumed God is in the heart centre of the one assuming, this man assuming realising that what he assumed is the non-moving centre of existence, and do PradakshiNa by this body that is mobile.  This is the movement by the false 'I' around the real 'I' inside us.  While saying so, the first mentioned is the real Self; the second mentioned is the false 'ego'.  Since both are referred as Ãtma in Sanskrit, this action is called the 'Ãtma PradakshiNam'.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva