DEIVATHIN KURAL # 200 (Vol #3) Dated 20 Mar 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 200 (Vol #3) Dated 20 Mar 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti 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. To day we are proceeding from the last para on page 920 of Vol 3 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitam. blogspot. com constantly updated.)

31. Siva - Shakti as Siva - Vishnu. One of the slokas of Kalidasa which is, as it is famous, is also quoted for subtle change of meaning with the change in breaking and rejoining of the ‘sandhi’ in between words. That is the second line of the very first sloka of ‘Raghu Vamsa’ invoking Gods! This sloka is known to even people who otherwise do not know Sanskrit, at least out of people of the past generation! The sloka goes like this:- vagarthaaviva sampruktou vak artha prtipaaddhaye I
jagata: pitarou vande parvati-paramesvarou II

32. The meaning. I pray to the Father and Mother of the world Parvathy and Parameswara who are, as inseparable as are the word and its meaning, so as to be able to get the correct and appropriate word of the apt meaning, (in this endeavour of writing that I have undertaken)! In this, the last two words could also be looked as ‘parvathypa rameswarou’! Now the meaning changes. It means that your prayers are addressed to ‘parvathy pathy parameswara and rama pathy maha vishnu’! It is not correct for me to say that the meaning has changed. I should say that the meaning has become more expansive and inclusive!

33. ‘Pa’ is ‘pathy’. ‘Adipathy’ can be simply ‘Adipa’. ‘’Nara pathy’ can be ‘Nrupathy’ for example, like ’nara simha’ becomes ’nrusimha’ and can be shortened further to, ‘Nrupa’. On similar logic, ‘parvathypa’ is same as ‘parvathy pathy’. Now, ‘rameswarou’ means ‘the lord of rama that is Vishnu! Thus what was ‘Parvathy Parameswarou’ (meaning the duo of Parvathy and Parameswara) becomes ‘Parvathypa Rameswarou’ ( to mean the duo of Parvathy’s lord Siva and Rama’s lord Vishnu)! Now the word ‘pitharou’ can be construed to mean the ‘two fathers’ Siva and Vishnu!

34. There is much sense in this. Sakthi, the Mother, Ambal, is Herself, Vishnu in the Male form! Sivam is said to be the ever male as the thing of ‘nirguna’ sans guna or characteristics. When He is with the ‘saguna’ Sakti, in the female form as Ambal, with her as the left half of His body, He is ‘Ardha Nareeswara’. When that ‘saguna’ power is in the male form, Siva-Vishnu are known as Sankara-Narayana. In other words Vishnu in female form is Ambal, the consort of Siva. Appar Swami says, “ari alaal devi illai aiyan ayyaranaarke”. So, there is nothing wrong in thinking of Siva and Vishnu as Father and Mother of all existence! With them as the parents is ‘Ayyappa Saastha’.

35. There is one more thing. Maha Vishnu in the Male form, is more satisfying to think of as with Maha Lakshmi! Ramanuja’s religion of Vaishnavam is ever known as ‘Sri Vaishnavam’ with the Mother Sri given the pride of place in the beginning. Easwara too similarly is to be thought of as ‘Sa + Amba + Murthy’ or ‘Sa + Amba + Mahadeva’ as ‘Sambamurthy or Sambhomahadeva’! That is, He is to be thought of as, with Ambal!

36. So, at the beginning of the Maha Kavya, if you think of them as Parvathy - Parameswarou or Parvathypa - Rameswarou; we think of one or both the divine couples of Parvathy - Easwara & Rama - Her Lord Vishnu! While praying to one you get the benefit of praying to both. By detaching and attaching the position of just one letter, we have so much more to gain! The most important additional advantage is that, like we cannot detach the word from its meaning, we learn to ever attach Saivam and Vaishnavam!

37. In the Saiva - Vaishnava sense of equality too, there is a popular saying in Tamil. It goes like this. “ariyum sivanum onnu; ariyaadavan vaayile mannu”! This means that, “ariyum = Hari and sivanum = & Siva; onnu = are one; ariyaadavan = the one who does not know this, that is the one ignorant of this; vaayile = (in his) mouth; mannu = mud”. Put together, it means that, Hari and Siva are one; mud in the mouth of the one who is ignorant of this!

38. Now comes another meaning of the second sentence, “....ariyaadavan vaayile mannu....”! Here it can be parted as, “ari + yadavan vaayile mannu. Ari that is, Hari was a Yaadava and in his mouth there was mud. Krishna had put mud in his mouth and shown His Mother the whole cosmos by just opening His mouth!

39. That is alright to say that they are one and the same! But why should you say something that sounds demeaning for Hari to have mud in His mouth? There is deeper meaning here too! One Brhmam is the power of God in being. As Siva He is Nirguna Brhmam of no variation whatsoever, so no creation, no guna, no distinctive characteristics. As Hari, He has the whole Prakruti Tatva in Him and becomes all the Earth and Cosmos of all Saguna! ‘ariyum sivanum onnu’, the first sentence, is about the Nirguna Brhmam Siva. Now the second sentence. The first word Ari means learn; learn what? Learn that “Yadavan vaayile” = learn through Yadava; “mannu” = all the worlds! That same Nirguna Brhmam becomes all these worlds, earth, solar system, star families, galaxies and the entire cosmos! Learn this!

40. In Sanskrit, there is a sloka in which by removing one letter, from where ever it occurs, what is a ‘ninda sloka’ (derogatory) becomes one that praises, that is a ‘stuti’! It is written by one Sri Rama Sastry of Chamaraja Nagar. It is the 18th sloka in ‘Sita - Ravana Samvada Jari’, printed by Kaasi Choukamba Press The first three lines are as being spoken by Ravana, addressing Sita, in which he is rather critical of Sri Rama! In reply, Sita tells Ravana, “kala! tam asakrun-maa sprusa giraa”, to mean, “You Menace! Do not repeatedly touch Him with your words”! When Ravana spoke derogatively thus about Sri Rama Chandra, it possibly sounded like desecrating Sri Rama with Ravana’s words soaked in his saliva! So she said, ‘kala’ = you mischief monger, ‘tam’ = Him; ‘gira’ = by words; ‘asakrun’ = repeatedly; ‘ma sprusa’ = do not touch! This is the apparent meaning. Now when we look at it in greater detail, it would mean, ‘do not touch Him repeatedly with those words starting with ‘ta’. Drop those ‘ta’ and you will see that you are actually praising Sri Rama! (Since in Sanskrit, there are four ‘ta, tha, da, dha’, here only the first letter ‘ta’ is referred.)

41. What is that ‘Ninda ‘ sloka? What happens when we remove all the ‘ta’ kara swara-s? The original sloka runs like this:- “adalpam nidralu: rajanishu durgatatama: maha kadaryadya: manasi viduta:-projvalayasa: I vadaan maamsaadaanaam bahu vimada laabou janakaje katam slaagyo raama:....”, after this is the line, ’kala tam asakrun maa sprusa giraa II’, as what Sita told Ravana, as mentioned earlier.

42. What Ravana said to Sita is as follows:- “Hi Janaka Putri!, He, your Rama does not even have a bed to sleep in. He does not know how to speak properly. He has gone too far down! He is too afraid. All his worth is gone. Having killed some Rakshasa-s he has attained many enemies! How can he be great?” ‘Rama:’ = Rama is; ’rajanishu adalpam’ = has no bed to sleep at night; ‘nidralu’ = sleepy; ‘kuwaak’ = speaks only bad words; ‘durgata tama:’ = gone too far down to the lowest; ‘manasi’ = in mind; ‘kadaryadya:’ = fearful; ‘viduta projvala yasa:’ = gone are the glories; ‘maamsaadaanaam vadaan’ = by killing carnivores Rakshasaa-s; ‘bahu vimada laabou’ = has obtained many enemies; (such a one); ‘katam slaagya:? = how could he be appreciated?

43. Now as suggested by Sita, let us set aside the letters ‘ta’ where ever they occur and look at the meaning of the same sloka! ‘atalpam’ becomes ‘alpam’, so, ‘alpam nidraalu:’ means one who seldom sleeps; As it is as a King he is not supposed to sleep too much. Now that he has lost Sita, he hardly sleeps! ‘kuwak durgata tama:’, with the two ‘ta‘ letters that are underlined, dropped, ‘kuwaak durgama;’ and the meaning changes from ‘bad mouthed who has reached the lowest abyss‘, becomes, one who is unapproachable by crass words or thoughts; from fearful becomes man of high achievements, whose effulgence has become more bright by the killing of Rakshasaa-s; and so on. By removal of the letter ‘ta’ the sloka become one of praise for Sri Rama!

(More to come.)

Sambhomahadeva.