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.

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.