Maha Periva's words on The Vedas

The Vedas consist of hymns, thousands and thousands of them. They represent an ocean to which countless Sages have contributed, going back to a period when there was only the spoken language and no script.

The hymns of the Vedas represent thoughts and revelations that came to the Sages of yore during their meditations. These revelations were in the form of hymns, which the Sages transmitted to their disciples. Thus it was that they were passed from generation to generation.

For centuries, all this happened entirely by word of mouth. The written version came much later. Thus the growth of the Vedas is like a series of small streams joining to form tributaries that feed big rivers, the rivers all finally merging into the ocean. This analogy is very apt, because the water that the streams get is from the rain, whose source is really the ocean.

In the same way, the revelations that the Sages had were from the Divine; and the Ocean made up by the collection of revelations that constitutes the Vedas, is also Divine.

The Sound Aspect of Vedic Hymns – It’s Significance:

The first is that the Vedas exist in the form of chants, and the sound aspect is therefore very important. The Vedic hymns must be chanted properly and there is a spiritual significance to the chant, which the late Paramacharya of Kanchi explains as follows:

Vedas must be chanted with grandeur so that the sound can be properly heard. Vedic Mantras not only produce beneficial vibrations in the pulse of the one who chants them properly, but also similar vibrations in those who may hear them. Since it is spread in the atmosphere, it ensures wellbeing here and hereafter.

The outstanding feature of the Vedas lies in the fact that the sound of the Mantras by itself when chanted has a meaning, apart from the words themselves, which too are pregnant with significance.

The sound aspect has been preserved from very ancient times and that is something remarkable. The sound aspect is linked intimately to the words, and the two, namely the sound and the word together have been so intertwined that over time, Vedic hymns have defied corruption and mutation. This is an important point and needs some reflection.

Maha Periva - Divya Drishti

Sri Ekamram (had been a personal attendant to Mahaswamigal for nearly three decades) said that once when Mahaswamigal had camped in Pandaripuram, there lived in this holy kshetra a young boy who used to do severe sadhana.

He used to visit Mahaswamigal every day. He used to have ‘jadai’ (unkempt hair) and wore religious marks on his body. He repeatedly sought sanyaasa from Mahaswamigal.But Mahaswamigal’s only response to all his pleadings was silence.

Whereas, there was this man who was doing ‘Bhiksha Kainkarya’ (cooking and serving food) to Mahaswamigal and who was not in the least interested in sanyasa. But Mahaswamigal coaxed him into it!

This man went on grumbling, ‘I did not want sanyasa but Mahaswamigal has given it!’ And people around found fault with Mahaswamigal’s actions. They said, “ How religious and spiritual this young boy is but Mahaswamigal has refused sanyasa to him whereas He has given it to another who does not want it and does not seem to deserve it!”

People see and judge a person outwardly whereas a Mahaatma ‘sees’ through him and knows him inside out.

After some years it was learnt through newspapers that this boy who had sought sanyasa from Mahaswamigal, had married a foreign lady!

With our limited mind we cannot see within. But a Mahaatma’s viewpoint (‘drishti’) is always right.

Maha Periva's usage of Mantra Shastras

Mahaswamigal took sanyasa at the young age of 12. He came to the Peeta at this tender age.

Just as we say a father should behave like a father, a mother should behave as befitting her status, so was Mahaswamigal as a ‘Peetadipathi’ (Head of a Religious Mutt). He was an example of how a Peetadipathi should be.

He was so in all aspects – as a Sanyasi, as a Guru, as a Vidwan and as a Tapasvi. He possessed highly exceptional qualities that were beyond description. He was an adept in mantra Shastras.

Once a boy came to Mahaswamigal in deep anguish. He was not wealthy. He had none to call his own except a sister whom he had married off. But now she was mentally deranged and her in-laws were pressuring him to take her back. He had no permanent earning or place of stay, and so was perturbed about bringing his sister back. She used to behave abnormally.

Mahaswamigal asked the boy to bring the sister while He performed Chandramouleeswara puja. Mahaswamigal said that after the puja He would do japa with the sandal paste (‘chandan’) which He would splash on her. And she will react violently and run to a mango tree.

Mahaswamigal instructed, “No one should follow her or stop her”. She was very restless when brought in and would not stand there. Mahaswamigal did as He had said. She ran out and hit against a tree and fell. She then became all right as the ‘brahma raakshas’ that had caught hold of her had left her!

Rare Video of Sri Maha Periva - Part 2 of 2

Here is the second part of the wonderful video.

Rare Video of Sri Maha Periva - Part 1 of 2

Catch a glimpse of the Living God, as he delivers a lecture on Thodakacharya

Vairaagyam - Part 15 of 15

(Continued..)

It is in such a land of ours we have modern Sannyasis who say they cannot remain without coffee or ovaltine! And if you ask, they may say: “We are ati-varNAshramis, who are above the Sannyasi level; as that low-caste woman said, we know what to do and what not to do”

Instead of showing off like this, if one wants to be really in possession of Atma-jnAna, the one single thing very, very necessary, is vairAgyaM. It is said (e.g., in Jabala Upanishad IV and other Sannyasa Upanishads) that when that vairAgyaM has been acquired, then that very day one can leave home as a Sannyasi -- *yad-ahareva virajet tadahareva pravrajet*.

But one should not leave home or karma in disgust of the present life not giving any permanent happiness. Such a thing will turn out to be dry. The disgust about the present impermanent life should be accompanied by the thought about the permanent bliss of the Atman. Then only it will turn out to be a right SAdhanA and in turn lead to everlasting bliss. Once the Realisation is reached, the disgust also will disappear and everything will be full of Love.

In other words it is in association with the comprehension (vivekaM) of the syndrome of the permanent and the impermanent that one should practise vairAgyaM. Neither vairAgyaM without that vivekaM nor vivekaM without the vairAgyaM will suffice. They have to combine.

The very fact we are asked to analyse the distinction between the permanent and the impermanent is to discard the impermanent through dispassion.

To get that dispassion is the first step of the spiritual ascent. That is why ‘AparokshAnubhUti’ gives importance to vairAgyam and classifies vairAgyaM as the first step. In ‘VivekachUDAmani’ also *mokshhasya prathamo hetuH* (Verse 69/ Verse 70 in another reading) – An extreme vairAgya in things impermanent is the first cause for Moksha – thus combining the two in a symbiotic way.

Thus these constitute the first two of SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM.

Vairaagyam - Part 14 of 15

(Continued..)

There is a similar story in the life history of Sadashiva Brahmendra. He sings in his Atma Vidya Vilasam (#46): “With the folded hand as pillow, the sky as blanket, the bare ground as bed, and dispassion as wife – thus sleeps a renunciate in the blessed state of samAdhi”.

Once he was himself in that blissful pose of sleep on the ground in an open field. A farmer girl who was passing by, remarked to her friend, with a sarcastic smile: What a sannyasi! He needs a head-rest for his head; what type of renunciation is this?

This made Sadashiva Brahmendra think: ‘How come I am thinking like an ordinary man that the head has to rest above the level of the rest of the body in order to sleep? Unless I get rid of this attachment to the body my sannyAsa is not worth the salt. It is only Mother Goddess who has come in the form of this low-caste woman to give me this upadesha’.

Thus thinking, he removed his hand that was used as a head rest and lay on the ground without any headrest. But the same woman who had commented earlier passed that way again, saw the change in the posture of the sannyasi and again gave a sarcastic laugh followed by an equally sarcastic comment!

She said: “A Sannyasi should know things for himself. Just to keep reacting to comments made by passers-by does not speak well of renunciation!”

That was the day when Sadashiva became an honest-to-goodness non-reacting, non-acting, non-responding inert-like entity, Sadashiva Brahman!

Thus even the commonfolk seem to be knowing what kind of vairAgyaM should a Sannyasi possess.!

(Continued..)