Pearls of Wisdom ~ Azhaikindran Arangan Episode June 14th 2012

Vairagyam (dispassion) is very much a necessary sadhana to see the bhagavan also known as virakthi. When we say "virakthi", it needs to be understood in the right context. Both virakthi and veruppu (dislike) although look alike yet they are distinctly different. Being in virakthi and not being friendly with others is a different thing which is nirvEgam or veruppu. I do not like this or that thing, this or that person is called veruppu. veruppu cannot mean virakthi. That is why being aloof and alone but still doing sadhana bhakthi for bhagavan is a different thing altogether from plain laziness. Doing nothing is laziness. Thinking always of bhagavan is the sattvic bhakthi.



Looking at such people one would think as if they were lazy but indeed their chittham would always be filled with the dhyAnam of the bhagavan.

We mentioned that veruppu and virakthi are different. There is one who does not have money today to buy some things for cooking and so goes to the neighbour to borrow some money but even they do not give money. He asked for rice and did not get that even. So he did not eat that day and stayed hungry. But there is another person in another home where everything is there and this person is capable of providing food to 100 or 1000 people, but the day being GokulAshtami or ekAdasi he is not eating. He has food but not eating. The other has no food and not eating. So we see two types - one is not having food and therefore not eating, we call this "pattini" - left to stay in hunger. Whereas another is having food but not eating, we call this "vratham" or the day of ekAdasi being in "upavAsam".

Thus our matham defined virakthi as not leaving everything but catching hold of the bhagavan. Leave everything, leave everything is not the mention here. How much ever you are catching hold of the material things, that much and much more should your hold towards the bhagavan be. If towards the bhagavan, this hold is not held, then it cannot be termed as virakthi. This indeed transforms itself as veruppu. 

Say one is not sleeping all through the night, that is fine, let him be. Another says I will not eat for my whole life, let him be. Yet another says I will not live in a house but only under a tree, let him be. Or another says he will roam in the forest, let him be. Just because he is not eating, sleeping, talking, living in a home or in a road he is not going to achieve anything. What this really means is actually veruppu. What is the use of this? Maybe he can be entered into the Guinness book of world records for being without food, sleep or talk for a long time. Bhagavan is not something you get by fixing a certain price. Just because you did something and due to that reason you got bhagavan as a thing is not correct. Even though you do the vaidheegha karmas, bhagavan will still not come because whatever it is, it is an innate thing. Out of an innate thing, the chaitanyam, which verily is the bhagavan will not arise. 

If you do not eat, what will really happen is that the indriyas will not be strong and due to this the kAma and krOdha will not surface and in this state it serves as a means to think of the bhagavan. So just one should not be without eating. On an ekadasi day for example one should not be just fasting and sitting idle. It is true that he should not eat but chant he must namakeerthanam the whole time.
Without sleep you should not watch TV, instead you can just sleep. If you are not sleeping then you should perform namakeerthanam. Thus on an ekAdasi day in addition to observing fast, having no sleep, one should perform "BHAGAVATH BHAKTHI" (in quotes), this is a must and very important thing to perform otherwise it is of no use.

Say one is holding the branch of a tree and hanging. What we tell him is that in order to leave the existing branch, he needs to hold on to another branch only then he wont fall down. With your eyes you are seeing worldly things, with ears you are hearing worldly things, with the mouth you are speaking worldly things but you should make attempts to turn all these indriyas to point towards the bhagavath vishayam. That is indeed virakthi, indeed bhakthi. 

If one says he wont see the worldly things, nor see the bhagavan then he is a jatam like a "POTATO". There is no meaning to have been born in this world itself. So if one has not sleep, no food and no bhagavath bhakthi, it is said in the Srimad Bhagavatham that it is just "Srama eva hi kevalam". Whatever difficulty you faced that much is your profit that is all. There is no benefit in unnecessarily making it difficult or torturing yourself for it. What is the real benefit of all this is that the mind, the indriyas, food and sleep must be controlled and must be turned towards the bhagavan. A river flows swiftly and then splits into 5 separate streams and as this splits the speed of the original river comes down. But by stopping one branch of the stream and then the next and thus narrowing down the 5 streams to become 1 again, the stream now begins to flow swiftly likewise, the mind which flows through the 5 indriyas it gets scattered. One must now attempt to bring the scattered indriyas flowing differently in different directions into one stream and then direct it towards the bhagavan. That indeed is bhakthi. If one is performing such bhakthi and say if the bhagavan himself comes in front of him and speaks with him always it is just not enough, one would still need an acharyan and a bhagavatha abhimanam associated with it as well. We mentioned thirukatchi nambi earlier. In the sannadhi of pEraruzhAlan at kanchipuram he was performing the Azhavattakainkaryam.

Once when thirukatchinambi was performing the Azhavattakainkaryam for our pEraruzhAlan there was a serthi uthsavam. For that serthi uthsavam, usually the Azhavattakainkaryam would be performed facing towards the perumal, but on that specific day it was done facing towards the thAyyAr side. Perumal will usually talk very informally and always be chatting with thirukatchinambi. Perumal mentioned to thirukatchinambi and asked "why this time you have changed places and fanning towards the thAyyar? Usually you would always perform the Azhavatta kainkaryam towards my side but today why have you changed the kainkaryam towards the thAyyar side and what is the vishEsham now?" Thirukatchinambi replied saying that it may be an "ukappu" (a hug) for you and that is why he did so. Perumal asks thirukatchi nambi how did he know that he had ever had a hug and why he did not mention about this earlier. In Srimad Ramayanam, Sita being in the Ashoka park was known only through Hanumanji, after which Sri Rama accompanied by Sugreeva and Lakshmana and the vanaras came to the shores of the sea. Now the bridge had to be constructed somehow. Looking at the shore of the sea, ramapiran looking at izhayAzhwar, (lakshmana) says this. "Lakshmana, as I am standing in the shore of this sea and as the breeze is blowing through me it is giving a great mental peace to me lakshmana". Then in response, izhayAzhwar says to rama, "I have heard, rama, that the breeze coming from the sea has that characteristic with it and have heard that it gives a sense of peace to the mind". Immediately ramapiran says that is not the reason lakshmana, there is another reason for this. What reason is that? "Once this 100 yojanas sea is crossed and lanka is reached and in Sri lanka within the Ashokha vanam, pirAtti Sita is there. That breeze is falling on Sita and then coming to fall on me, lakshmana and therefore it is giving me the shanthi". This was the bhavam expressed by Ramar. In this instance, thirukatchinambi tells to the perumal that in the vibhAvatAram as Sri Ramar mentioned about pirAtti to lakshmanAzhwar like this, so I am fanning on thAyyar and sending the breeze from the thAyyar to fall on yourself. Even perumal would have forgotten this in the vibhAvatAram but the bhakthas will never forget these things. Every minute as they are performing the anusandhAnam about this, how will they ever forget. Likewise another time in the palliarai, thirukatchinambi was performing the Azhavattakainkaryam to the perumal and while performing this he grew very tired and could not do anymore since he was quite old. Being old, pEraruzhAlan had told thirukatchinambi not to walk all the way from pooviranthamallee but to be in kanchipuram itself. Since he could not be without performing some sort of kainkaryam, he himself obtained a kainkaryam from pEraruzhAlan that he could do in his old age. Which kainkaryam was that? It was the Azhavattakainkaryam. There was a benefit for him performing this Azhavattakainkaryam because he was always next to the perumal and perumal was constantly chatting with him. Such a great benefit. Whilst the perumal was chatting, thirukatchinambi thought that he should also ask something for himself when perumal was quite happy talking to him and in a good mood. Like that one day, when the perumal was quite cheerful and happily talking with him, thirukatchinambi said as he has become old and weary, asked when will he be sent to the paramapadam? Perumal replied and said, "who told you that you are going to get the paramapadam?". Thirukatchinambi was shocked. What is this, thought thirukatchinambi "I have performed the pushpakainkaryam coming all the way from pooviranthamallee and then performed the Azhavattakainkaryam, not only that, perumal is always talking very closely as a friend with me and even if it was said that for now you do not have paramapadam it would have been ok, but instead perumal is saying who told you that you will get the paramapadam". "You are always talking to me and saying about paramapadam and why will I not get paramapadam then", protests thirukatchinambi. Perumal says that as you were fanning me and I was talking to you, it is settled between us. You fanned me and I talked and it is now settled between us nothing more. Then thirukatchinambi asks if he needs to attain paramapadam what he needs to do. Perumal says that he needs to get the blessings and abhimanam of an Acharyan. That is a sampradayam. Even if the bhagavan himself is there, only if one comes through an acharyan, the bhagavan accepts him. Which acharyan will thirukatchinambi now go to? Perumal himself says "please go and serve periyanambi". Will periyanambi take him? Thirukatchinambi thinks somehow he has to get the affection of periyanambi and he is not sure of what kainkaryam he has to perform to periyanambi and whether he will allow him to perform that. First he gets to know that everyday periyanambi would come to take bath in the thirucauvery river in Srirangam. As periyanambi being old himself, he would come in a bullock cart to travel to the river for taking bath. So very early in the morning, periyanambi would take the bullock cart and come to the river. Then having taken bath, performing japam and anustAnam again he will come back to his house on the bullock cart. Thirukatchinambi thinks that if he approaches and mentions that he would like to perform kainkaryam on his own, periyanambi may not accept. But pEraruzhAlan has told him to get the affection of periyanambi. So one day, knowing when periyanambi would come to take bath and while periyanambi was taking bath, he asked the driver of the bullock cart to stay aside and then thirukatchinambi masquerading as the driver, taking the stick and draping a towel over his head, after periyanambi had boarded the cart, he drove the cart. As he was driving it, the cart was shaking a lot going up and down as the wheels were sometimes falling into potholes, periyanambi shouted and asked the driver why are you driving like this today, can you not take care? Thirukatchinambi felt happy because an acharyan must take work from him asking him to do this and that, then only he can gain the affection of the acharyan. With an acharyan or a guru, one must not expect to be respectfully treated. How much ever they expect to get work done from us, so much is the freedom the acharyan have over us. Does the sandal and the thamboolam have any life, they will be in their places as they are, one should be like that. Being like that, thirukatchinambi comes to pEraruzhAlan. Let alone vairagyam, having bhagavath bhakthi itself is durlabham, what of utthama bhakthi. Sometimes bhakthi will come thinking of our difficulties, otherwise we desired something and did not get it and through this bhakthi will come. More than that expecting some siddhis, bhakthi will come. Some expecting kaivalyam will perform bhakthi. Bhakthi should come to one to please the bhagavan. Bhakthi should lead one to be able to speak with the bhagavan and being in such a state was thirukatchinambi and being so himself was still told by pEraruzhAlan to come under the affection of an acharyan and come through the bhgavathar, then what is the use of ordinary bhakthi or ordinary vairagyam. But one thing, our bhakthi need not be of such an exalted state, we do not need such a vairagyam. Being ridden with the samsAram, let us also be one amongst the many bhakthars. Amongst all this if we just have one thing then we can certainly attain liberation. Even if we do not possess deep emotional and tearful bhakthi like Andal, PeriAzhwAr or like the state of yoga that nammAzhwar was in or like thirumazhisai azhwar, if we but get the affection of an acharyan, we can get liberated, this is what shows.
Subham
Radhe Radhe
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