Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya speaks about ‘Go Samrakshanam’/protection of cow, it is one of righteous deed should be done by all four Varnnas known as Bhramin, Kshathriya, Vaishya, and Shudhras, it is considered as one of the pious deeds by Buddhists and Jains as well.   The cow is believed as the mother of the Universe, except for cow rest of the living creatures feed their children only and that too for a short period of time.  The cow is the only animal which provides milk to the caretaker for a long period of time in their lives that is also one of the reasons the sacred scriptures strongly recommend the protection of cows.  All the Vedic rites begin with the veneration of cows, Veda praises the generosity of this animal, cows are considered as auspicious animals which abundantly supply with the ingredients for the performance of Vedic rites in this way they take a huge part in the life of a twice-born and performance of Vedic rites.  Protection of cows brings welfare to humans, milk is an essential part of our daily life,  not only milk various milk products like butter, ghee, buttermilk, curd,  cow dung, urine, etc.. are useful for personal as well as for religious rites,  therefore veneration of the cow is treated as most propitious act, it has the capacity to fulfill the needs of its calves and the people dependent on it.  Supreme Lord Krishna narrates the   three duties and responsibilities of a Vaishya, he should take care of agriculture and trade, he should protect cows, he should make sure to avail enough milk for the calves and rest of the milk should be utilized for personal use, he should take care of agricultural and farming for the welfare of other three Varnnas, business and trade is treated as the primary duty of a Vaishya, therefore a Vaishya who completely neglect his Dharma is a sinful deed.  A twice-born discarding his duties and responsibilities towards his family and dependents, living in woods and taking care of his needs also a sinful deed.  Vaishya doing his duty for the welfare of the society, therefore he should always remember that he is doing business not for personal motive, he should have remembrance of Lord who established the duties and responsibilities, it should be performed with intense faith then it is considered as a righteous deed.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya describes the heroism of six warriors of Kali, The first warrior lust/desire says ‘I am capable to destroy an individual completely; I can make a person act worse than an animal.’ The second warrior anger speaks ‘I have a stronghold which causes  distress, afflictions, pains, sufferings, miseries, and sorrows, in that fortress even the arrow of lust/desire cannot enter, that is the heart of Sage Durvassa.”  It is a known fact that desire/lust cannot enter into the heart of Sage Durvassa, but anger permanently resides in it.  A book can be read in the shadow of light, but it cannot be read under sunlight, it creates darkness.  The illustrious Yogishvara Thirumoolar who compiled Shaiva Siddhantha in twelve Thirumurai,  in which the first one is Thirumandiram, he composed these glorious hymns when he comes out of the transcendental state once in thousand years, he elaborately described the difference in individual perception about a single thing, he explains, where is the subsistence of supreme spirit? How can we conduct a search for the supreme spirit? What has enclosed the supreme spirit?  Etc..  The whole Universe is the essence of supreme spirit; he is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.  A person who is aware of the truth of the all-pervading nature of supreme spirit will realize the eternal presence of supreme consciousness in his heart as well, it will remove the darkness of ignorance in him.  Veda concludes with the description of supreme consciousness, these are called Upanishad, Sri Adhishankaracharya who is divine personified on the Earth for exemplifying the glories of the supreme spirit.  The whole universe is in brightness; therefore we are not able to realize the supreme spirit which is the essence of brightness and Universe, our darkness of ignorance causes not to realize the supreme consciousness, Acharya explained the lack of duality which is the philosophy of Adhvaitha.  The Universal soul resides as a soul in all the living things, hence it is all-pervading, and it is the knower of all.  None has the interest to know the nature supreme consciousness, all are immersed in the material world, all want to earn and earn money, all are want to satisfy their comforts and feed their senses, all want to live in peace, is that worth for long run when everything has perishable nature.   When we accumulate wealth, we will find the source to harm others, we earn sin as well as illnesses.  Acharya suggests an ideal way to cure all kinds of illnesses, strictly follow disciplines and continue spiritual and religious rites according to Varnna.  An individual is highly admired in the society and always remembered for his good deeds, strict disciplines, generosity, morality, and performance of religious and spiritual rites.  A wealthy person who is not having any qualities or not following any of the basic rites will not earn any respect in the society and people will not remember him for long.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya narrates the art of control over senses, darkness, and brightness are two segments, we realize the brightness when it gets dark, therefore the darkness is the cause for the realization of brightness, we cannot see the brightness of stars in the day light, but when it gets dark we can perceive the sparkling of stars, this is the essence of Vedantha, once we attain the self-realization and God-realization, the ignorance and illusions disappear.  If you concentrate on worldly matters, involuntarily the supreme consciousness vanishes.  If we learn to control anger, though it is difficult to bring into practice, many of the grief in our life will disappear.  There was a custom prevailed in our families, the woman of the house start her domestic work early hours of dawn, during these hours she will be singing glories of Lord in a musical form, therefore children in the home will be able to grasp some of it, in the later stages they will read stories from scriptures, further, they will listen to these glorious myths from the religious speakers.  Unfortunately, all those days are gone, later the theaters have come into existence, but most of the time they focus on worldly matters and little on the scriptures.  Now a day’s Orators has another responsibility to entertain his audience, he has to crack jokes to make the audience to sit and listen to his speeches.  Some have the opinion that scriptures are made up of stories, whatever it is, will it be soothing while listening or not? Scriptures have a sole purpose that is to bring peace and serenity to the listener.  Desire/lust is the major cause of sin and anger is more dangerous than desire.  Acharya beautifully narrates the story of Nalacharitham, in which Nala and Dhamayanthi were truly passionate to each other, it was the occasion of Swayamvaram of Devi Dhamayanthi, deities and Indras were enthusiastic to marry Dhamayanthi, they dressed up like Nala, but Dhamayanthi who has attained the blessings of Goddess Saraswathi, chosen the real Nala as her life partner, deities praised the virtues of Dhamayanthi and blessed her.  It stirred the anger in Kali, who was late to attend Swayamvaram, later he caught Nala for his minor mistake.  The poet describes desire/lust and anger is chief of army men of Kali, the rest of the warriors are greed, attachment, ego, and jealousy.