Deivathin Kural # 45 of (Vol 2) of 10 Nov 2007.

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Om Namah Sivaya.

Deivathin Kural # 45 of (Vol 2) of 10 Nov 2007.

(Continued from DK # 44 of 08 Nov 2007. We are to remind the readers that herein, 'he' as a word stands for 'she' as well. Words in Sanskrit script not being available, the transliteration spellings and thereby the pronounciation, especially of names may be at variance from what it should be!)

277. In the previous e-mail, we had mentioned that, Meemamsa is like a Law of Interpretation, for the Eternal Law of the Vedas. Upakrama-Upasamhara m, Abhyasam, Apoorvatha, Phalam, Arthavaadam and Upapaththi; are the six touch-stones to test and ascertain the genuineness and veracity of any Statement / Paper / Thesis / Presentation. Upakramam is the Introduction or preamble. Upasamharam is the closing chapter or conclusion. One method is to look at the 'Upakrama-Upasamhar am'. If both are talking about the same thing, you can decide that to be the message.'Abhyasam', is what is repeatedly emphasised, in the body of the paper. 'Apoorvatha' means, something mentioned, not said earlier ever before, by which you know that a new idea or concept is being introduced! 'Phalam' means, to say that, if you do this and this, this would be the result. The purpose is to describe the procedure for obtaining that particular result. Another method is 'Artha Vaadam'. Having given much information, a story based on that data provided, underlines or high-lights a particular matter, you know that to be the message. 'Upapaththi' is proving through logic and appropriateness. These are the six methods.

278. That is how, one man came to me, after having seen the Start and End of the Vedas, claiming that the main message of the Vedas is, 'Fire Worship'. In Upakramam, it starts with the words, "...agni meele..." and ends with the word, 'agni', again! So it is 'Agni Upaasana', that Vedas is all about! I agree with him to some extent. 'Agni' is the fire in the hearth where food is cooked; it is the fire in Agni-Kundam for Yaaga Karmas; it is the 'jatara-agni' in the stomach, which digests the food; it is representative of all the Devatas for Reaching the 'Ahutis' to them; it is also the 'Atma Chaitanyam' which is Knower, Known and Knowledge! So it is worship of 'Fire', the essence of the message of the Vedas. But still, it is like what the four blind men said about the Elephant.

279. To say that 'fire worship' is the main message of the Vedas, is not an acceptable statement. Veda's greatness is in, not giving too much importance to any one Devata, as the 'Super God' or something! Actually Vedas recommend that Atma as the inner reality of all the Devatas, is the one to be venerated and reverred. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad (I.4.8.), says, "...atma should be the one to be seen, atma is the one to be heard, atma is the one to be remembered and meditated upon, atma is the one to be experienced and known...", is the advice that Yagnavalkyar renders to his wife Maithreyee, which is also indicative of the message or the 'goal' of the Vedas. If you call some thing the 'goal', it automatically coveys the meaning that the Goal is elsewhere and our initial point where we are now is different. From here if we have to go there. The Sanskrit word, "atha:" is 'that' at a distance being pointed out. Our present state or the starting point is, "idam", 'this' here. From here we have to go there!

280. But, in reality, is that aim ('atha:') there, not ('idam') here? Of course it is here too. When everything is Brhmam, it is here, there and everywhere! Both are the same. Actually there is no seperate this and that. What we think of as this and that, is all finally one and the same, true, matter-non-matter. Like "atha:", "tat" is indicative of the Paramatma, in the Vedas. 'That, atha: and tat', all mean the same thing. So when any job is done, it is said, "om tat sat", meaning 'that is the truth'. The word 'tvam' is added as an appendix to many nouns to make it into an adjective, such as, 'purusha + tvam = purushatvam' , 'mahat + tvam = mahatvam'. Here the 'tvam' indicates the quality. Purushatvam means manliness. Mahatvam means greatness. Then we use the word, 'tatvam' to mean the principle or concept. This word is also, 'tat + tvam = tatvam' meaning the quality of that. Here 'tvam' also means 'you'. So 'tatvam' also means 'you are that'. I will come back to this meaning of 'tatvam' shortly. Period!

281. Vedam says, 'tat' as that thing far away. Vedam also says,"...tat doore tadvantike.. .", to mean, 'that which is pointed out as being there, is also here very close!' There was a girl to be married. Within friends and distant relatives, a suitable 'varan' was selected and the marriage was being scheduled. But, the girl made a declaration that she will get married only to the 'foremost amongst all men'. The parents literally gave up their efforts. The girl said that in this country, the King is the best amongst all men. So, I will get amrried to him only. So saying, she was following the King whereever he went. The King while going somewhere in a palanquin, jumped out and did namaskar to a Sadhu. The girl said, this Sadhu seems to be greater than the king. I will get married to him. She started following that Swamiyar! He went and did 'dobir karanam ie., three sit-ups catching hold of his ears cross-wise and sashtanga namaskar' to the statue of Ganapathi in the road corner, under the banyan tree. The girl said, "I thought that this Swamiyar is bigger than the King, but now I am convinced that Ganapathy is still greater! He is the right person to whom I should be the wife!" That place was not even a proper temple. As she was watching, a whelp of a dog ran in there, lifted his leg and did 'that' to the Ganapathy statue! A village urchin saw this and hit the dog with a stone. The dog ran yelping in pain. Seeing this a gentleman ticked off that urchin boy, for beating the dog. The girls loyalty too quickly changed from Ganapathy, to dog, to urchin, to the gentleman; who happened to be the 'Varan' originally selected by her parents! She was searching for a suitable husband, running here, there and everywhere. But, the Husband for her was someone who was quite close to her. That was only a story in the lighter vein.

282. "Thinking that God to be there somewhere far away, you are searching all over for Him. Till you are not aware, He is far far away. You cannot see Him, however much you may search! But He is not far. He is your nearest." That is the message of Shruthi! "...tat doore tadvantike.. ."---'farthest amongst things that are far away as well as nearest than your self!', is the message of Shruthi! There was this young Stag. He got scent of a fragrance wafting around. He went in search of the source of the smell. Over the hills and down the wales, through steep slopes and thick woods. By evening, he was tired, hungry and thirsty, because, in his seriousness, he had forgotten to eat grass or drink water. There was this Saint sitting under the tree, on the riverside. One look and he knew the Stag's problem and pointed it out to the Stag that, the fragrance was from his own navel! Stories there can be plenty. But the fact is that, it is not there but, here and now---'iha eva that is, ihaiva'.

283. You know the horizon. From here, it will look as though the sky and the earth are touching each other, near that palm tree say. When you go to that palm tree, the horizon would seem to have receeded further far away. As you go nearer, it will go farther. Can we ever close this gap? Never, because the gap is only seen and not real. From a distance from the tree, it was seemingly upto this tree. When you are close to this tree, it is seemingly further away. So it is here only. What you think of as that, is here only, not only in space but also in time, Here and Now, 'ihaiva'. That is what the Vedam tell you. Your God is not somewhere else, but here within yourself!

284. You are that, says the Vedam as the Mahavakyam,"tatvamasi". In 'tatvam', 'tvam' is not the quality of 'tat', but the meaning here is 'you'. That is to say, 'that is you'. Now, put both the meanings of 'tvam' together in that sentence now, and see how the meaning changes! It means to say that, "The unconditioned idea of God becomes conditioned as you. God is 'Nirguna'. As you, He becomes 'Saguna'. God + guna = you. You minus gunas = God. Now you know that this sentence of 'tatvamasi' can be enlarged into an ocean of literature!" Using both these two meanings of 'tvam' as, 'quality' and 'you', Adi Sankara has written that poem starting with the words, "...bhavanitvam. ..", in Soundarya Lahiri! ( See Deivathin Kural # 179 of 06 April 2007.) The word 'tatvam' has come in to usage, in Sanskrit, Tamil and many of the Indian languages, to mean 'principle or concept or the truth of the statement' because it is a definition of the undefinable. What you think of as 'I or Me, naan, nenu, aham', is the Swami. When that Chaitanyam is not in you, you can't think, talk, feel, say or be! When you say, 'I think, I do or I feel', think about, 'who is this I?'. That awareness, that consciousness, is your self only. That and you are one and the same! This is the end statement of the Vedas.

285. What we call this 'I', is not without a root. This, 'idam' is not without a source or origin or seed. All the frontage has a background. All the facade has a backdrop. Tree cannot be without a seed. For this entire universe, hills and dales, oceans and lakes, rivers and channels, sky and space, earth, stars, planets and pulsars and quasars and the milky-way; animals, birds, crawlers, insects, germs; anger, love, hate, likes and dislike, irritability and boredom; inertia and energy; for all this, there has to be the basis. For all that can be pointed out as this, there has to be a that! What is seen, smelt, felt, heard, touched, thought, sensed, analysed and experienced; are all this 'idam'. Brilliant discoveries, inventions, surprises that are there and yet to be there, are all part of this 'idam'. All that is known and yet to be known is all this 'idam'. They are all from the same source. The causal root or the root cause is one and the same 'moolam' without which none of this would be there. For the human being there is a seed form. For the tree, there is a seed. For the entire macro cosmos, there has to be the causal seed. All the energy of this has to be there in potential form.

286. Try and sprout the seeds of a tamarind tree. If you open a sprouted tamarind seed, you will see its tree in the micro form. Every seed potentially contains the future tree. The potential is in every seed. This can be seen in the seed of a tamarind. In Mantras too there are 'Bija Aksharas'. As the seed contains the future tree, the 'Bija Akshara', contains unlimited power in them. On being chanted with one-pointed- concentration; that entire power can be grasped. For all the brilliance, power and capabilities, of the entire known and unknown universe, has to be there in that Lord God! None of these can be there without that. That is the message of the Vedas, being broadcast, over all methods of communication. Vedas' trident announcement is, "None of these things seen as this and this can come in to being without that root cause. That power of the root-cause is what is spread as all the exhibited world and universe. Where is that 'Moolam'? That which is seeing all this from within and without, is that Atma only." "...sarvadee sakshi bootham..."

287. When you look at a mirror, you see some images of those things that are in front of the mirror. When you keep some mirrors facing each other at slightly varying angles, what do you see. Endless number of reflections of your own face. All the thousands of faces is of one person only. The root cause of all of them is one, who is looking at all of them. The looking one is the basis of all those images being seen. That partitionless one is seen as a part in you.

288. This is a small bulb and that is a big one. That is the blue one and this is the green one. Many shapes, many colours. But, the electricity in all of them is one. That power which is there everywhere as electricity, is here lighting that bulb, running that fan or machine. That power is unitary, indivisible, becomes partitioned when in the circuit of one instrument. When it is raining and you see the lightning in flashes, it is revealing itself. Thus cause that power within yourself to flash to your awareness, through all the suggested processes of self refinement and ennoblement. Starting from Karma Anushtana, Yagnas, Devata Upasana, meditation of the Maha Vakyas; are all aids in the process. All the rules and regulations of attitudinal and behavioural morality are meant for self improvement without hurting others, without stepping on each other's toes. All that has been said in Vedas for, family and social responsibilities, as an individual, as a member of a group of people, as part of the government, and so on; poetry, medicine, geography, astronomy; virtually everything in the Vedas are meant for taking you, me and everybody systematically, step by step, towards that end state when it becomes clear in our minds that, 'this is that'.

289. On the way, in flashes of fractions seconds, it will be revealed to us that, 'tat' and 'tvam' are one and the same, as it says in Kenopanishad. (IV.4.) Practice makes you perfect. So the practice must continue, till the 'Anubhava' becomes continuous like the 'taila dhara', instead of being only in flashes. At that stage, one couldnot care less as to whether one is alive in this body or not, ie., whether it is 'Jeevan Mukthi or Videha Mukthi'.

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.