Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya talks about ‘Vinayam’/humility,  Sri Adishankaracharya who composed beautiful verses of ‘Saundharyalahari’ in this work of art entire verses praising the splendor of  Supreme Goddess who symbolizes the epitome of beauty, every stanza describes the incomparable loveliness of  Goddess that is why it is called ‘Saundharyalahari’/stream of beauty, Acharya at the end of the composition humbly offering all those verses at the  lotus feet of supreme Goddess, it shows the altitude of humbleness.  Further, he says that the supreme Goddess is the source of excellence in the construction of words, therefore all those compositions belong to her.    Usually, at the end of every composition, poets who compose the verses put his name as a signature at the end, or describe the fruitfulness of recitation of the particular verses in the form of Phalashruthi.  Sri Adishankaracharya who is divine personified on Earth, composed the endless beauty of his consort with humbleness, even the deities incarnates on Earth will follow all the disciplines of an ordinary human, they do not reveal themselves as divine personified, they live with utmost humility and they will maintain this quality in every walks of their life.  They came down to Earth to fulfill an objective; during their lifetime on Earth, they follow the rules of an ordinary human, so that they can attain the objective of their incarnation.    It is a lesson for people like us to learn those virtues.  We should learn to live without ego; it is a bigger obstacle for attaining self-realization and God-realization.   The divine personified did not reveal their immense strength, they have shown endless attributes, and they were void of impurities.  Supreme Lord personified as Sri Adishankaracharya in order to teach us the true nature of a devotee.  Goddess Sita who was a personification of Goddess Sri Mahalakshmi taught the lessons of humility.  Sri Adishankaracharya composed numerous sacred hymns and dedicated all those to respective deities. 

Vidhya Vinayasampanne Bhramane  Gavi Hasthini| Shuni Cheva Kshapake Cha Panditha: Samadharshina: || (Srimadh Bhagavath Gita – V-11 )

Therefore, the essential requirement for learning all the art form is humbleness, an individual without humility is considered as dull even though he is prominent in all scriptures.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya talks about Paropakara/ practice of benevolence, whenever we get an opportunity we should be willing to perform charity, it will bring permanent happiness and eternal appreciation to the family, society will always remember those great souls even after their death, generous-minded people will always be in the hearts of the people for their contributions made to society, in this way they made other peoples life better.  There are various ways to assist people, digging well will quench the thirst of a large part of the community and even the animals, building shelter house will be beneficial for the people who conduct long journeys, building shrine and conduct worship would bring endless bliss and piousness, construction of garden and serve people with buttermilk during summer, the highest of the pious act is serving the meal to needy, sharing knowledge is considered as the supreme act of benevolence.   Whenever we get an opportunity to perform the charity we should do it immediately without any second thought, children should practice benevolence from the early years of childhood.  The art of ‘giving is a joy’, it will bring supreme bliss to the doer.  God has given us wealth to perform charity, he gave us money to wipe off tears of distressed people, not to feed our sense organs limitlessly, if we do so, he will take away all that wealth.  Everyone should keep one-tenth of their income for charity purposes, this habit should put into practice from childhood.  Then the child grows up into a responsible adult who will perform charities abundantly.  Charity is another form of righteous deed, piousness earned by performing these deeds will follow an individual even after his death, expenses in our life are endless, but whenever we get opportunity we should spend for charity as well, we should not postpone charity at any cost, later we may not get the opportunity, or we will not have to heart to do so.   Whenever we meet great souls who constantly served our society, we should take a vow to perform charity, in this way we can collectively take part in building a better society.   Therefore we should make the practice of performing charity according to our capacity.  In this way, we can attain welfare while living in this word and piousness which follows even after death.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya continues, everyone should practice non-violence with their Thrikarana/words, action and intellect, if a child set fire on the house, we take immediate action to shut down the fire, we should have this attitude towards the people who commit crime, it helps to purify the intellect of others too.  A twice-born while initiating to asceticism accept non-violence as a primary vow, it ensures the safety of creatures in the vicinity of an ascetic, vow of non-violence applicable to all Ashramadharma, but an ascetic has to undergo strict disciplines to follow his vow of non-violence, he is not allowed to cook, he should abstain from any activities which are listed as violence.   Another Samanyadharma is truthfulness, any action which is followed by word and intellect is called truthfulness, Supreme spirit has given us the ability to speak the truth, to convey the ideas in the heart, truth should provide welfare to all,   desire and anger lacks truth if someone finding fault in other with an intention to degrade the person won’t be considered as a truthful act, truth should not hurt anyone or bring afflictions, while conveying a truth it is essential to bring out in a composed state, it should be pleasant to listeners.  Every individual should practice a vow of truthfulness with Thrikarana/body, mind and action.  Truthfulness has an Avantharaprayojana, when a person practices truthfulness with his Thrikarana, he is forced to think of truth, and eventually every word come out of him would become truthful, it is called excellence in speech/Vaksidhdhi, legend of Abhiramibhattar is an example for this incident, Bhattar a staunch devotee of Goddess Abirami mispronounced New moon day as Full Moon day, Goddess Abirami proved his words are right.  The practice of austerity, cleanliness, and abstaining from theft, are Samanyadharma which should be compulsorily followed by all.  Bodily hygiene augments mental strength, now a day’s people have lost interest in following basic hygiene, cleanliness is essential for all the religious and spiritual rites, if we cannot follow even the basic hygiene how can we achieve mental control? This basic hygiene would bring overall wellbeing to an individual, it should put into practice from early years of childhood.  Our Samnyadharma which is common for all is the practice of  perfect control over sense, we should not keep feeding our senses without any control, we should be controlled in feeding senses.  These five significant Samanyadharma which is the practice of non-violence, truthfulness, personal hygiene, abstaining from theft, and control over sense are the essential requirements for the people of all Varnna.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya!

Paramacharya continues, we have to learn to control the swiftness of thoughts, the practice of  Yoga is the medicine for control over thoughts, it should be reachable for all those people who are suffering from the illnesses, therefore we have to thoroughly understand the fact that Yoga is not only meant for Rishis or ascetics, it is meant for all common people like us.  Lord Krishna who symbolizes Yoga, has perfect control over his senses, like our preceptors.  Our illustrious Yogis Vidhyaranya and Sri SadhashivaBhramendhral recommend two powerful instruments that are internal and external to control our thoughts.   These two tools are the performance of charities, the performance of spiritual and religious rites of Swadharma, sun worship, the performance of fire sacrifices, recitation of Veda,  and help people who are suffering from poverty and distress if we engage our mind in doing any of these practices it will become serene.  You can see collective efforts in the practice of spiritual and religious rites, a number of people contribute physically as well as financial help in the performance of various tasks like initial preparation for spiritual rites, and these are the tools to bring perfect control over senses.  A person without control over senses is equivalent to an untamed elephant. Our mind has the power of an elephant; if it has no control it will be of no use.  We have heard about Sage Vishwamithra and Lord Anjaneya who had won over senses, that is why they have immense strength, we also have the same intellect, but we often neglect the usage of it.  Vedanta describes the whole Universe and its living beings were created by the intellect, once we controlled our intellect with intense practice of meditation and Yoga, afterward it will start to obey our commands, hence the important limb of Yoga is the practice of non-violence.  Manusmrithi, as well as Yogashasthra, persistently says non- violence as the essential requirement for achieving control over senses.  Every pious deed has endless merits, which involuntarily follows the primary deed, we are visiting Mutt to pay obeisance to a preceptor and witness spiritual rites, in between we get the opportunity to see numerous Veda Pundits and scholars, ascetics, happens to listen to religious discourses and music etc… these are called Avantharaprayojana.  The practice of non-violence with the Thrikarana/mind, deed, and words gives purity of intellect.  It is one of the greatest weapons to maintain peace in the family as well as in society.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya speaks about Samanyadharma/disciplines which are common for all the Varnnas which was written in the Manusmrithi.  The basic and essential virtues are respect and devotion to Mother, Father, Preceptor and deities, non-violence is another important virtue, we should not give any physical affliction to any of the creatures on the Earth and sense of non-violence are one of the major instrument for the practice of Yoga.  Yogashasthra defines the meaning of Yoga as bringing perfect control over senses, and control over thoughts.  Desires are the root cause for rousing all the emotions, it keeps burning like fire, and therefore we are undergoing various mental and physical afflictions because of lack of control over our thoughts.  Our mind is an instrument for worldly bondage as well as Moksham, our thoughts has great influence in our lives, we have two choices before us, we can use our intellect for building up worldly bondage or liberation from birth, aging and death, intellectuals and wise people choose the latter.  Our intellect never follows our intentions, most of the time it wanders through the darkness of ignorance, it never co-operates with the individual, we can control speech by observing the vow of silence, we can close eyes to avoid contact with the things, but it is impossible to control the mind, hence one thing is very evident that our thoughts are not in our control.  If the mind was under our control, it should listen to our commands, but often it reacts opposite to our intention.  A lunatic cannot control his speech in the same manner, we are not in a position control our thoughts, if we have perfect control over mind it should listen to our orders, it kindles various emotions like sorrow, fear, anxiousness etc.  It is essential to practice meditation and Yoga to bring perfect control over senses, it brings the permanent presence of Supreme spirit in our hearts which remove all the impurities, ego, pride, jealous, anger, etc..  When there is calmness in the mind we can feel the presence of the Supreme Lord who is supreme bliss.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya continues, people of all these four Varnnas should practice living in harmony and peace, should be always willing to help others in sufferings of poverty, and distress.  We cannot lend a hand to all our thoughts; it has a short-living nature.  The legend of ardent devotee of Lord Shiva is an ideal example for Varnnashrama Dharmam, Nandanar who was born in a low rank, a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva refused to enter inside the shrine though he was reverentially invited by the priests, Lord Shiva ordered Nandikeshvara to slightly move from his place so that Nandanar could envisage the idol of Lord Shiva, in this way Nandanar strictly followed his Varnnadharma.   In the olden days, in every village there were people of four Varnnas lived amicably, even though they had minor issues with the neighboring villages, they had compassion, unity and mutual understanding with the Varnnas in their own village, they stand for the rules of their village with other Varnnas.  Those days are gone, wealthy people migrated from villages and settled in big cities and started living in solitude with no sense of compassion or unity, they have forgotten their custom and religious rites, it has become a great opportunity for other religions to interfere in their lives, it happened in villages too.  We have failed to protect our religious and spiritual rites in the initial days; it resulted in the absence of unity and compassion within the Varnnas.  Why should we copy western style in all walks of life? Why not they copy our style of living? All Varnnas should put into practice their duties and responsibilities without any fail because it is not for any personal benefit, it is performed for the welfare of the Universe and its people, it will definitely protect the doer during the troubled times.  Therefore we should not leave our spiritual and religious rites for our livelihood.  We should be caring and compassionate to each other; all Varnna should be able to follow their disciplines fearlessly and sincerely, it would purify their intellect and removes sins and impurities.  Supreme Lord has established the four Varnna and disciplines for the welfare of the soul, each and every one of us is liable to follow those duties and responsibilities; He will give us the strength to follow the Varnnarshramadharma.

Sage of Kanchi –

Pranams at the lotus feet of Sri Paramacharya !

Paramacharya continues, those days there was strict discipline in the four Varnnas, therefore a country outlived without a King, there was a Village committee to ensure the safety and the welfare of the people, so there was not much crime because people were strictly followed their Varnna Dharma and they had a firm belief in scriptures.  As the year’s passes by, people lost their interest in following Varnna Dharma, they lost respect for each Varnna, and crimes were increased though there was a large number of police and prisons.   We have four Varnnas and each Varnnas follows different disciplines but these four Varnnas earns the same fruit of piousness while lifetime on Earth and after leaving mortal coil, probably that will be the reason for the continuation of Sanathana Dharma.   Acharya beautifully narrates about labor specialization, if there are four sons in a family, the eldest one will be doing spiritual and religious duties, the second one will be keeping a record of income and expenditure, the third one will be buying things for the family and the last one will be taking care of the agricultural and farm related works, in this way four of the sons divide their labor between them, it helps to run the family smoothly.  In the same manner, we have four Varnnas/Chathurvarnnya, and each Varnnas strive for the welfare of the Universe and its people.  A twice-born has to follow strict disciplines and austerities, recite Veda and performs Vedic rite for the welfare of Universe and its people, Kshathriya ensures peace and safety of the country, Vaishya takes care of commerce and agriculture, and Shudhras serves above three Varnnas, these are established for the smooth functioning of worldly matters, ultimately it provides peace and welfare.  This distinctiveness of our Sanathana Dharma is the reason for its permanence.  It is our responsibility to ensure peace and compassion among the Varnnas, we should have unity but it should not create any obstacle for the performance of rite or following austerities and disciplines.  We are not aware to strike balance between the Varnnas, therefore we need to have unity as well as difference.  We should have a love for all the Varnnas, like a mother who showers unconditional love to her children; it should not be an obstacle for them to follow their disciplines.