DEIVATHIN KURAL # 33 (of Vol 3) Dated 25 Dec 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 33 (of Vol 3) Dated 25 Dec 2008

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyavaal of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, over a period of some sixty years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published in Tamil by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each, as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from the middle of page number 140, of Vol 3, of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein the word 'man' includes 'woman' too. )
(Note:- These e-mails are all available at http://advaitham.blogspot.com constantly up-dated.
171. Poorta Dharmam: Collective Social Service. 'Poortam khaadaati karma yat' says Sanskrit dictionary 'Amarakosam'. That means, activities like digging a common facility like a well, pond or irrigation channel, are included in this word, 'poortam'. This responsibility is being ignored these days creating water shortage all over the world. In earlier times this was an important social responsibility that, if we call someone and he does not turn up, it became customary to say, "What great digging is he so involved in?" It would mean that, if the person referred to is so involved in an activity of digging as part of a 'poortam', may be he could be slow in responding to our call!
173. Now instead of digging, 'land filling' is the major pastime of many! When dirty, slimy water comes in the corporation taps, we feel bad that we had earlier closed a well or filled up a nearby pond. (KTSV adds:- In most of the towns all over the country, 'land filling' is not a pastime but a covert profession of many so called land developing companies or real estate businesses. The natural lay of the land is badly interfered with no social responsibility whatsoever but only the narrow aim of monetary gains in the short run. This is the reason for water logging leading to floods in the cities, often these days!)
174. In earlier times, when lakes were created, existing lay of the land was made use of, to deepen the feeding tributaries and draining branches emanating from the lake; to ensure proper input and drainage! A well would be useful only to the human beings who are capable of lifting the water. Whereas, a pond or a lake could be made use of by birds and animals too.
175. To lay a road is a Dharmam. To plant a sapling of a tree is another. While planting new trees, the old ones should be protected from damage. Having planted a tree, it should be nurtured over a period, till it becomes capable of self sustenance. One day in a year, we also celebrate 'Vana Mahotsava'. But there is no purpose served, if for that one day we ensure much publicity and then let the plants go uncared for! Instead, if someone removes the thorns or pieces of glass from the path traversed during the morning walk; that will clean up the path for others and give this man clarity of heart and mind!
176. The defects of each part of the body can be got rid of, by some act of 'Punyam' that can be done by that part of the body itself. This mind of ours is a dust bin! But, it could be cleansed by using the same mind for meditation and dhyanam. This tongue which talks of all nonsense, could be used for chanting God's name. This brain which does much scheming and planning, could be used for analyzing philosophical concepts. Like this we do many avoidable wrongs by our eyes, hands, legs and so on. By the same physical being we could make efforts to do things of social usefulness for eventually gaining 'chitta suddhi'. That is what is achieved by these activities of social service through ‘poortam’. Because for all these physical activities, our intention is the common good. Care and compassion are essential qualities of everyone’s mind. To give expression for those qualities, one has to do physical actions of social service!
177. What Vinoba Bhave used to call ‘sram daan’ or what the Sikhs call ‘Kar Seva’, are the same as ‘poorta dharmam’ mentioned in our saastra-s. It is my sincere wish that we should all be doing ‘sram daan’ at least once a week. We all take a day off once a week. On that day we should do some service which would be useful to all the people, with the clarity in the heart that it is being done for the sake of others as well as one’s own refinement.
178. Yes we are all likely to have many family responsibilities and jobs to be done. In the tight schedule of our daily jobs, we are likely to postpone many of them to that weekly holiday only! But, with all those family responsibilities, there is another bigger family responsibility of contributing our bit for the universal family of Parvathy-Parameswara, in which all the families and societies of the whole world are included! That onus remains due. We have to do our little bit for that responsibility! Doing social service as a ‘sram daan’ is exercise for the body and rejuvenation for the mind, leading to ‘chitta suddhi’
179. This should be a collective effort. We can achieve more when we do things together. That too in this Kali Yuga, collective effort alone will have the necessary effect. That is what is meant by, “kalou sange shakti:”. In the earlier Yuga-s individuals had much greater physical and mental capabilities. Now it is all gone. That is why we are seeing mostly ‘mass movements’, whether it is a strike or representation or ‘rasta roko’. Instead of being negative forces such as burning of buses and destruction of public properties, we should try and direct these ‘sanga shakti’ for socially constructive activities.
180. For people who wish to work like this, there are some necessary character qualities. The first is discipline. In the job under taken, there should not be any lack of care and responsibility. Inner purity and truthfulness are equally important. One should be able to talk sweetly with diligence. One should be above board in handling money with perfect accountancy and accountability. Capable of generating trust, they should be able to give clear and precise responses to genuine queries. There should be no irresponsible and flippant replies. Just because there are too many pointing fingers, one should not be too prompt to retire from public service either!
181. One should have some capacity to stand up to criticisms, without being too sensitive. Certain amount of leadership qualities are required in such a person. There is a saying, "na hi jaanapadam du:kam eka: sochitum arhasi". This literally means that, 'society's problems are not one man's worry'. That is to say, that it is everybody's baby, requiring a collective effort to tackle. But, this statement should not be taken to mean that we are not worry about such problems at all! First it means that you do not have to worry about such problems individually. Secondly, instead of fretting and fuming, one should get going with collective physical work to solve the problem.
182. When the tendency now-a-days is to get one's own job done, even at the risk of troubling others, what I have said above may sound ambitiously too fanciful! But ignoring one's own physical discomfort, when we get together with love and respect for each other in a joint venture of common good, the pleasure in such an activity itself is the great benefit!
(To be continued.) Sambhomahadeva.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 2 (of Vol 3) Dated 09 Oct 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 2 (of Vol 3) Dated 09 Oct 2008

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyavaal of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, over a period of some sixty years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published in Tamil by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each, as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from page number 8, of Vol 3, of the Tamil original. )
(Note:- All these Deivathin Kural e-mails are available in ‘http://advaitham.blogspot.com’, which is being updated every time this e-mail is sent. )
14. I said that these two words, ‘kombu(the semi circle) and kodu(the straight line), both have come to represent the tusks of Ganesha the Pillaiyar! He is called ‘eka dantar’, meaning single tusked, because as the story goes, He broke one and used it as a weapon. ‘Perumbarak-kodum’ means ‘the heavy line’, which again is talking about the tusk. When Avvai Patti says, ‘kOdu aayudattal kodu_ vinai kalainde’, she is talking about the same tusk. The first ‘kOdu’ is tusk, the second ‘kodu’ means ‘given’. She is saying that, ‘using his tusk as a weapon, He removes the given bundle of good and bad effects of our past Karmas, known as 'praarabdam'.
15. Avvai Patti wanted to avoid having to go through the rigmarole of falling in love, married life, child bearing and so on! She approached the forever young Baby-God Pillaiyar to give her instant-old age! So, at a young age itself she suddenly got the looks of an old woman. When you really come to think of it, you will observe that there is continuity between one birth and the next. Our present and future is dependent on our past deeds. The positive lesson that we can draw from this is that, by ensuring that our present actions are well measured and guided, we can eventually control our future! That refinement may come over many lives. The end point of this process is when, our individual will or ego becomes identical with that of God's. By then we have ourselves become a Mahatma or Realized Soul!
16. Till that happens, we are all like a piece of wood in the river current, with no control over ourselves. What happens to us is our fate or 'praarabdam', which is said to be written in our foreheads by Brhma, known as ‘thalai + chuzhi’, meaning the script in our heads! It is this script that would be suitably corrected by Pillaiyar Suzhi! So, Avvai Patti says, ‘kOdu aayudattal kodu_ vinai kalainde’.
17. Vinayaka’s Connection with Written Works. The small Pillaiyar Suzhi that we write indicates Vinayaka only symbolically. But in old time writings, it will be clearly written ‘Sri Ganatipataye Namaha’. Though it is customary to take His name before the start of any activity, I was wondering as to why, taking His name is so important in written literature. In that, I was wondering as to why, when He has many names such as, Vigneswara, Vinayaka, Vakratunda and so on; why Ganapati is preferred in written literature? When I discussed this with learned scholars, I got some understanding.
18. The word ‘gana’ has many meanings. Out of them, meanings related to written language are more. In Sanskrit grammar known as Vyakaranam, ‘gana’ means the root word from which many other words evolve. All the words from one root word, collectively would be known as a ‘ganam’. He is the Head or Leader of them all as, Ganaadipati or Ganapati. He is also the appointed leader of the, ‘Bhoota Gana-s’ the soldiers of Siva’s Army, and so known as Ganapati, Ganesar, Gananaathar and so on. Words are supposed to have emerged out of the sounds of Siva’s Damaroo or Udukkai, which He was holding in His forefingers and rotating alternately Right and Left, generating all the sounds. They are all Gana-s and Pillaiyar as their Leader is Ganapati. That is why, before writing anything, the custom is to write, ‘Om Sri Ganaadipataye Namaha’.
19. Vinayaka is the embodied form of Pranava. That Pranava is the basis of all sounds and words. So it is in the rightness of form to take His blessings before writing anything. There is one more reason too. He was the greatest copy writer Himself! The biggest book in the whole world is Maha Bharatam, as you will agree. If somebody talks too much, beating around the bush, do we not say, ‘cut out all that Maha Bharatam, come to the point straight away’! Maha Bharatam has One hundred thousand couplets divided into 18 major chapters.
20. The four Veda-s are 'ezhudak-kilavi', unwritten but continued to be remembered over tens of thousands of years by word of mouth! The Maha Bharatam considered as the fifth Veda was the first to be written down. Veda Vyasa who organized the Veda-s in to four parts, is also the author for this Maha Kavyam. He continuously narrated the text of Maha Bharatam and it was Pillaiyar who wrote it on the rocks of Mount Meru. We may consider Pillaiyar as the first known Writer of a major epic, though not the Author!
21. In olden times, not everybody knew writing. There were professional writers. Anyhow the Veda-s were not directly authored by any human being. Those were the times when, when even enormously huge original works were heard from the Guru and memorised by re-iteration. Even well read scholars, not necessarily knew how to write. There were some specially trained to write, like the calligraphists. These professionals used to think of Ganapati as their first.
22. He broke His own tusk and using that as the sharp instrument to etch, He wrote. Elephant's most valuable asset is it's ivory tusk. There is a saying in Tamil with a pun on the word, 'irandalum / irundalum' to mean that, 'the elephant is very valuable when living and equally so when dead too'! He was sincerely concerned that this book of Dharma should be known to the world. As an embodiment of the Pranava Mantra, as the foremost of Deities and Gana-s, as the first Son of the First Couple of Parvati Parameswara, this Maha Ganapati was ready to work as a mere Scribe, just for the sake of the spread of Dharma!
23. In another occasion, Lord Nataraja Himself is supposed to have written as Manikka Vaachagar poured out his heart in poetry. In Gita Govindam, Sri Krishna Paramatma Himself is said to have come in the garb of Jayadeva the author and wrote a few lines! But without a let or tiredness, it was Ganesha who wrote all the one lac couplets of the Maha Bharatam. So whosoever writes "Sri Ganaatipataye Namaha", gets the power to write without any interruptions! Having not been able to match the writing speed of Ganapati, Vyasa composed many complicated, intricate poems of very subtle interpretations, to delay Ganesha.
24. The contract between them was that Vyasa should dictate non-stop! The counter to this was that Ganesha should understand whatever is dictated. So, there was an intellectual war on! Vyasa interspersed at suitable intervals, Vyasa threw in a few difficult to understand poems, called Bharata 'Guttu'! When Ganesha stopped to absorb the meaning, Vyasa had his 'sort of commercial breaks'!
25. 'Guttu' in Kannadiga language means something secret, a tricky puzzle. Many of the words from that language have been absorbed in Tamil. There is an expression in Tamil that, when some hidden enigma has become revealed, they say, "the guttu has been broken!" We normally tap with closed fists, on our heads to show our subservience to Pillaiyar. That is called, 'Kuttu'. Vyasa kept the Guttu-s to put a break in Ganesha's speed of writing. Ganesha as the very essence of cerebral brilliance, would grasp the meaning in a flash! Instantly the 'guttu will be broken'. He will start writing again. By remembering Him, all our puzzles will get solved instantly and we will get the self confidence for progress.
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.