Sep 11: Remembering Kanchi Mahaswamiji…
The Nama Sankirtan was performed by Nithyaji from Boston. Following this, Narayananji gave an introduction.
The Rohini Nakshatra falling in the tamil month of ‘Avani’ marks the birth of Avataras and Avatara Purushas. For one, it is the day of incarnation of Lord Krishna. And today happens to be that auspicous day of the year.
In the Vaishnavite tradition, the term ‘kovil’[temple] only refers to lord Ranganatha’s temple of Srirangam and the term “Perumal” is used only to denote Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam. Likewise the greatest of the Azhwars is Periyazhwar. Vishnu Chitta was his actual name, but because he had a special place among the Azhwars (with the Lord Himself being his son-in-law), he was called as Periyazhwar. Likewise, there are many scholars who have written different commentaries on the different scriptures of our Dharma. For instance, although there are more than a hundred upanishads, Adi Sankara and all other philosophers have taken up ten of them and written commentaries on them. The Vedas for the ‘Dravida Desam’ is the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. It is a collection of four thousand verses sung by twelve across in praise of the different deities of Lord Vishnu on this earth and beyond (called Divya Desams). These verses cannot be comprehended with ease by us in the form they are written. It definitely necessitates commentaries and expositions. While many have written such commentaries on Divya Prabandham, the work by Periyavachanpillai (1167 – 1265) is considered supreme. And so he gets the name ‘Periya’ ‘vaachaanpillai’ and ‘Vyakhyana Chakravarti’. Akin to Lord Krishna, he lived for one hundred and twenty five years.
The Rohini Nakshatra in Avani month marks his date of birth. He was born in a place called ‘Chenganur’ near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, the original name of it being ‘Shankapuri’. The beautiful Srinivasa Perumal who is the presiding deity of this town was also installed on the same day. So it is indeed a glorious day today.
Following this introdution, Sri Narayanaswamyji from Seattle talked about some incidents from the life of Sri Kanchi Mahaperiyava – Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamiji of Kanchi.
“Human beings are indeed the blessed ones when compared to other living beings. They are blessed with a head to bow down to the lord, a mouth to sing his divine names, ears to listen to his glory.
Bhagavatam says that rather than going to a temple or embarking on a pilgrimage tour, having the darshan of a great Mahan would accrue more merits. The difference between “man” and “Mahan” is the letter “h”. The letter ‘h’ ascribes to the term holiness. A Mahan’s actions and thoughts are indeed holy and are always directed towards the Almighty. It is our fortune that numerous such Mahans have incarnated in the same timeframe as ours, and and we get an opportunity to interact with them. One such Mahan is Sri Chandrasekharendra Swamiji from Kanchi Mutt.
He was born in 1894 and became the Kanchi Saint in 1907 at the age of thirteen. He was born to a devout couple and they named him Swaminathan. One day his parents received a call from the mutt requesting them to come to the mutt along with Swaminathan ad it was an emergency. Immediately they set out to the mutt and it was requested that Swaminathan travel in a separate cart. The reason was not known, but the young Swaminathan kept chanting two words incessantly, all through his way – “Rama Rama” till he reached the mutt. Upon reaching the mutt, Swaminathan was told that he was going to be accorded sanyasa. Such is the glory of chanting the Divine Name! Swaminathan became the pontiff of Kanchi mutt in 1907 at the tender age of thirteen with the title Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal. He was fondly called ‘Mahaperiyavaa’ by all his devotees.
One day a brahmin couple came to have the darshan of Mahaperiyavaa. After having the darshan, the couple handed over a suitcase full of money to Mahaperiyavaa. The couple humbly requested him to accept their donation. Mahaperiyavaa asked him for the source of his income. In reply, the couple mentioned to him that they hail from the neighboring village and he was into leather business. Mahaperiyavaa told him that a brahmin is not supposed to even touch leather and gently rejected the donation.
In another incident, Mahaperiyavaa decided to get the ‘Thadangam’ [ear-ring] of Lordess Akhilandewari of Thiruvanaikaval repaired. So Mahaperiyavaa requested some gold jewellery from his devotees. He had an overwhelming response and his devotees poured in a lot of jewellery. To everyone’s surprise, he accepted only about five sovereigns and gave back the remaining gold. Such was his greatness.
Mahaperiyavaa once visited Karaikudi. There was one great devotee of Lord Shiva in Karaikudi by name Ramanatha Chettiar. He used to perform Shiva pooja diligently for hours and only after the culmination of his pooja, he would even touch a morsel of rice. Such was his devotion. He was also a wealthy person and a great tamil pandit. When Mahaperiyavaa visited Karaikudi, He met with him a couple of times. He then asked Chettiar to accompany Him to a neighboring village. Chettiar also implicitly agreed to do so. The next day Mahaperiyavaa set out on a palanquin and upon reaching the destination he enquired with his close associates as to why chettiar didn’t come with them. Humbly chettiar came in front of him. He said “Mahaperiyavaa, I did accompany you. I was one among the palanquin bearers”. Upon hearing this, tears rolled over from Mahaperiyavaa’s cheeks. He said, “How could you do this? You are an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva.” Chettiar very politely replied, “Mahaperiyavaa, you are a re-incarnation of Lord Shiva and I am His servant!” This clearly shows how an affluent man was so humble and a simple life that he was living.
In another incident, Mahaperiyavaa was visiting a village. He camped there for some days with a few of his devotees. Suddenly he called out to all devotees who were in the kitchen and asked them to come out that very moment. To the last devotee who came out, he asked if everyone had vacated the kitchen. The devotee said yes and to this Mahaperiyavaa disagreed and said that one more person was in the kitchen. They went inside and found out that a cat was hiding behind the gas-stove and the cat was evacuated from the kitchen as well. After few seconds they heard a big thud and it was because the kitchen roof had collapsed. It was Mahaperiyavaa who had rescued and saved all his devotees who were in the kitchen.
In another incident, Mahaperiyavaa was visiting a village and was camping there for a few days. Devotees flocked Mahaperiyavaa and so in a few days all the groceries were used up and the manager panicked, wondering what he was going to do the next day for prasad. He went and confided this to Mahaperiyavaa and he replied “Lordess Kamatchi will take care”. But this did not convince the manager. After some time he again went to Mahaperiyavaa and repeated the same question. Mahaperiyavaa replied that he was going to fast from tomorrow and he went into meditation. This troubled his manager even more and he was started to spend a sleepless night. At about four in the morning, the manager heard the sound of bullock-carts and rushed out to see what it was. To his surprise, he saw fourteen bullock carts and they were all loaded with groceries. The landlord who had accompanied all these carts was a wealthy person and he stepped out from the first cart and told the manager that he wanted to have darshan of Mahaperiyavaa and he had brought the groceries to prepare prasad for all the devotees. The manager after witnessing this scene immediately rushed to Mahaperiyavaa and fell at his feet. Mahaperiyavaa told him that he was a responsible manager but had no faith on the Lord. It was Lordess Kamatchi who had sent all the groceries through this landlord.
At another instant of time, Mahaperiyavaa was visiting a village and upon his arrival, news spread about Mahaperiyavaa’s visit to all the nearby villages. All the scholars and other learned people came to have the darshan of Mahaperiyavaa. He had heard about one Vaishnavite scholar in that village and he was looking forward to meet him. But this scholar refused to meet Mahaperiyavaa. That scholar being a follower of Lord Vishnu did not want to meet Mahaperiyavaa. After three days, Mahaperiyavaa summoned his manager and asked him to go and meet the Vaishnavite scholar with vastram [dhoti], fruits etc. That is the tradition that is being followed till day to honor vedic scholars. On seeing this, tears poured from the scholar’s face and he immediately rushed to have the darshan of Mahaperiyavaa asked him for forgiveness. Mahaperiyavaa replied that he did not commit any mistake and that Shiva and Vishnu truly represent the Ultimate.
There once lived a dog in the Kanchi mutt. Whenever Mahaperiyavaa performed pooja, it would come and sit in front of Him and after the culmination of the pooja, it would eat the Prasad that was given to it by the mutt officials. It also travelled along with Mahaperiyavaa. Many people were wondering as to who this dog was. Only Mahaperiyavaa knew the true identity of the dog!
There is a place called Vadavambalam. It is in this place that Athma Bodendra Swamigal, who is the fifty eighth pontiff of Kanchi Mutt (and the Guru of Sri Bodendra Saraswati Swamigal)’s samadhi remains. No one knew the exact location of the Samadhi. Earlier, numerous devotees had tried to locate the exact location but were not quite successful. When Mahaperiyavaa visited Vadavambalam, he went around a particular spot many times and asked his attendants to dig that place and indeed, that was the exact spot where the Mahan’s samadhi was found. Mahaperiyavaa arranged for the creation of a Brindavan in Vadavambalam at that very spot.”
The satsang ended with prayers with Mahamantra Kirtan.
Mar-27: The Almighty and sin-cleansing
The Nama kirtan was lead by Bhoomaji from Dallas, TX. Followed by brief round of introductions, Ramaniji from Los Angeles talked about the basics of Sanatana Dharma, which were excerpts from ‘Deivathin Kural’.
Deivathin Kural is a series of lectures and interviews given by the Kanchi saint Sri.Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal. He is fondly called as MahaPerivaa.
If you see a house, one can quickly say that this house was built by a civil engineer. If you see a car, we can without any hesitation say that it was manufactured by some expert. A house or a car has been built for a specific purport. It cannot be said that it was here on its own or it came here by accident. Can we? No certainly not. It is very clear that there is intelligence involved behind all these creation. It is only right to say that there is a person behind all these intelligence. We see innumerable animate and inanimate objects in this universe. Though there are so many of them, they all behave in an orderly fashion as though they are bound to something or somebody. Acharya says that if there is an order then there must be some control and it is imperative that control cannot take place without a person. We so many different things not related to each other yet bind with each other to give us a specific output.
When we delve into this thought one can very easily conclude that there is an absolute supreme that has created all these for a reason. As mentioned earlier it is very easy to find the builder of the house or a car but on the other hand it is not possible to locate the person who created the tree. We wonder with awe as to what tools that person must have used to create a tree. Likewise it also baffles us to think about the person who created the mountains, stars and moon etc. One may argue that these were created too long ago to investigate the person behind their creation.
Well, then let’s take another classic example, a freshly blossomed rose. It is not as old as mountains, star and moon either. It has too many intricate petals. It just blossomed right before our eyes and yet we cannot find the person behind this splendid creation. Can we? We think that we are the intelligent species in this world and we fail to realize how ignorant we are. Acharya paraphrases it in a very amusing way. He says that we are akin to a wild buffalo that entered the city accidentally. The buffalo will be confused and scared and so are we on this earth. There is someone more intelligent than us who has kept us this way. The flowers are bound to a rule and it is case for all the celestial objects including earth. There is a person behind all these creation and keep them bound them in order.
Mankind should strive to perceive and know the person behind all these creation. The reason to know this person as Acharya mentioned is that he is not only intelligent but compassionate enough to keep everything in orderly fashion. Acharya calls this person as GOD.
A thief leaves some evidence in a crime scene. He calls God as thief who has left an impression all over the universe. The purport of this is to find him, know him and understand him. Even our intelligence is a classic example of his impression. There cannot be a better example to substantiate that there is a Creator in this universe.
Achraya questions if we can draw lines that are akin to the ones in our hands. Even though we admire man made creation and call them wonders of the world, yet can we draw the drawings close enough to the veins of a single leaf? Acharya re-iterates the impressions of this thief who is also known as god. A thief is one who concedes his identity and so does god. God lives inside a cave and that cave is our heart. He hides himself inside us and yet created all these wonderful creation on this earth. By wondering, he makes us search for him and that search is called Bhakti.
Following this, Narayananji from Boston talked about Srimad Bhagavata Purana.
We all know that Bhagavatha Purana is the one of the greatest Purnanas and it is the Satvik of all puranas. The puranas are eighteen in total. They are classified into three types namely the Rajasika, Tamasika and Satvika. Srimad Bhagavatam is the eighteenth purana and it is a beautiful blend of Bhakti and Vedanta. It is a very relevant purana in this age. Just as one would tend to read the first few and last lines of a letter or a telegram, if we take the first few verses of Srimad Bhagavatam it begins by meditating on the supreme who is the universal god and at the end it talks about ‘Sharanagati’ (surrender). The path prescribed for surrender is verily the chanting of the Divine Names of the Lord.
“nama sankirtanam yasya sarva papa pranashanam
Pranamo dukha samanaha tam namami harim param”The middle portion of Srimad Bhagavatam – sixth canto – talks about Ajamila Charithra. Srimad Bhagavatam talks about ten different lakshanas. One of the lakshana is the description of the universe. The fifth canto talks about the various concepts of astronomy, and it also expounds on twenty different hells. There are descriptions of all the hells and the specific sins associated with every one of them. The twenty sixth chapter of fifth canto briefly talks about all these infernal regions. .
King Parikshit who listens to all this intently, is worried. He says, the description of these entire abysses is so very gory and is frightening and asks if there are any atonement for all these sins? While there were atonements for the sins, people tend to commit more sins knowing that there is way out! But one needs to understand the root-cause that urges people to commit a sin.
Let’s ponder on this by looking at an example. A person speaks falsehood. Assume that there is a panacea for this. Let us say that the remedy for speaking falsehood is to donate a few dollars within a period of time, or else the person’s tongue will be cut. So the person tends to commit falsehood and tries to repair his wrong-doing by doing the stipulated donation.
But Sage Sukha says that the true way to come out of these sins is to cleanse one’s heart of these bad qualities that reside deep within the heart. Sage Sukha beautifully explains this with an example – “Manye Kunjara sauchavat”. An elephant likes to play in sand. The mahout scrubs the elephant and gives him a good bath. After the bath, he dries him and lets him wander while the Mahoop takes a quick shower. The elephant wanders it quickly puts sand all over its body. The same thing happens in our case too. Atonements are not a permanent means to cleanse the sins. It is only means to a vicious cycle. The more one gets involved in this worldly life, the more does the sins get firmly imprinted in our heart. What has to be done is, to cleanse the root cause of the sins by making the mind pure. At this point, Sage Sukha narrates the story of Ajamila.
Ajamila was born in a very orthodox and religious family. Good qualities that one possesses are not necessarily by birth. It comes through the society as well. Although Ajamila was born in a very pious family his mind got corrupted because of the influence of the society and he took to bad ways. The ‘sanga’ (company) in which one belongs will have a great influence. To underline this fact, Sage Sukha introduces Ajamila as a ‘dasipati’ (womanizer).
It is required to be in the company of Sadhus. Sadhus are the ones who are in divine communion with the lord and are always chanting the Divine names of the Lord. Ajamila committed a small sin and that sin lead him to do more and more sins. He gave his heart for lust and that had a lot of repercussions.
Sage Sukha talks about how Ajamila named his last son as Narayana and during his last moments of his life, he chanted ‘Narayana Nama’ and was immediately cleansed. He didn’t chant the Narayana Nama thinking of the lord Narayana. He just called his son and the Lord came to his rescue and reached the divine feet of the Lord.
It is said that even if one chants the divine names of the lord by mistake, it reaps lots of goodwill.
The satsang ended with prayers with Nama Kirtan.
Feb 27: Why did God create us?
Madhura, Sriramji and Nishaji performed Nama Sankirtan and started the Satsang. Followed by this, AravindJi from Orlando gave a talk on what is the purpose of our creation and what the world teaches us.
When Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal was appointed the next Peetathipathi of Shankara Mutt, he was 13 years old. So when old devotees of the mutt arrived, they asked to meet the Jagatguru sarcastically. Meaning how could a 13 year old boy be considered a Jagatguru and be appointed as the Peetadhipati (head) of a Mutt. When they were shown to Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal, he explained to them that the Sanskrit word Jagatguru must be understood word by word as in its split as ‘Jagat’ and ‘Guru’. He further explained what each word translates to that is Jagat meaning World and Guru meaning teacher, thus proclaiming the world is my Guru.
He said whatever the world teaches every moment is what I preach to my devotees. Now the learned devotees feel at the lotus feet of the 13 year old Jagat Guru to pardon their ignorance and bless them to relieve themselves of their ego.Now going by what Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal or affectionately called Maha Periyava says that the world is the Guru. Let’s look at the world and understand what it teaches us. Take an example of a family, why do we get married and procreate children knowing the time, effort and responsibility involved in bring up a child?
The simple reason is we want to share our love, to watch the small baby, to cuddle it, though we also know that they will one day grow up, go miles away for their living and get married and start their own family. But we still want to see them happy and shower our unconditional love wherever they are.
There will be times when the child has gone to a foreign land and does not call his/her parents for months. Even then the parents will always live in the memory of their child and praying for their well being. They may try to send a message through a relative or a friend who plans to visit the same place where their child currently resides. When this friend informs the child that his parents are eagerly waiting to hear from him/her at the earliest and still the child ignores the pleas as he/she is busy in their own life. But one fine day due to some need, the child suddenly calls the parents, the joy is over bound.
They will have tears of joy flowing to hear the well being of their child and be so happy that the child remembered them. They will be over exhilarated to help their child even after being ignored for several years. All they want is the happiness of their child.
That is exactly what God wants. He has created us to share his love. He has created us in the same form like Himself by giving us this human body to share the beauty of the world and all his creations with us. He is our father and mother. He always wishes well for us even when we don’t think of him. He always wants to show only love like our own parents.
A mother makes food, keeps our home clean, takes care of our health and provides us will all the nice things in life for the child. But the child takes everything for granted. But if one day the child turns to tell his/her mother, ‘your food was delicious today.. Thank you Ma’. Imagine the joy the mother will feel, she will be the happiest person on earth as her child though about what the mother has done to keep him/her happy and appreciates her efforts. That’s how God is! He has blessed us with so much of goodness in life. But do we thank him for every single thing? But if one day we turn to God and thank him for all he has been to us, imagine the joy God will feel? That his child has though about him! If we take 1 step towards God, he takes 10 steps towards us. But we should take the initiative to take that first step.
The sun shines everyday for everybody. It does not see any distinction towards anybody. But if we keep our doors and windows closed then we are the ones to lose the sun shine and light. Hence we should be open to receive the love God shows by his creations. We call this God with several names he is all pervading and all the same. Like a person can be a mother to a child, she can be a wife to her husband; she can be a daughter to her parents or a friend to someone. So each one calls the same person with different relationships such as mother, wife, daughter, friend, sister. Thus God also appears as different forms to different people. So finally all we have to do is call him and show him love. He will be happy, the world will be a happy place and we’ll also be happy.
A siddha has sung the following verse ‘Aasaiai arumin! Aasaiai arumin! Eesanodu aayinum aasaiai arumin!’ which means ‘Renounce all desire! Renounce all desire, even if it be for God’. When looked at superfluously we may wonder, “how could a saint ask us to give up the desire for God?” But, when seen in the right perspective we will understand what the saint really means – “Give up even the desire for the Lord and just love Him.” True love seeks nothing whereas a desire expects something in return. And when we fail to get what we seek/expect then it might turn into hatred.”
In Srimad Bhagavatam, a bunch of verses called “Venu Gitam” describes the beauty in the flute recital of Lord Sri Krishna. There it is mentioned that both the doe and the male deer worshipped the Lord by mere looks of affection and love.Sri Sri Swamiji, in His kirtan “Karunamurthy Nee allavo Kanna”, speaks of the love, grace and compassion of the Lord. His compassion and grace is so unique; He magnifies even our smallest offering and gives us unimaginable, multifold returns. The incident referred to in this context is the fruit seller’s episode. An old lady selling Jaumoon fruits, sees the little Krishna. On seeing such a beautiful child she offers a few fruits to him out of spontaneous love. Bhagawan’s tiny hands could have received only two or three fruits from her. Later the fruit seller finds that her Basket is filled with precious gems. Bhagawan had gifted priceless gems for a few fruits, returning her loving offering multifold!
Lets take a very worldly example of an ox and a dog. When an ox works so much to plough the farmer’s field, the dog just cuddles in one corner of his home. But the dog gets more attention and care, doesn’t it? What is the reason? It is because it is the dog showers its love on its master, while the ox only knows to work hard. Thus, the more you shower your love, the more you get back.
When we shower pure love on the Divine, we reach unto Him and get Him in our hearts. The easiest way of showing our love and gratitude to the Lord is by chanting His Divine Names.Lord Sri Krishna in is last verse to Sri Narada says that he does not reside in Vaikunta, he does not reside in the heart of Yogi’s who have conquered the world, but he verily resides amidst a gathering of people who sing his names and glories.
Naham Vasaami Vaikunte Na Yogena Hrudeya Ravau
Mad Bhakta: yatra Gayanti Thatra Thishtami NaradaSo verily Nama Sankirtan and satsang will lead us to love the glorious one and that is what we precisely are doing every week, without fail due to His grace.
We have nothing to worry and all will be well as we follow Mahans’ words.
This was followed by announcements and prayer requests after which a Mahamantra Prayer Session was held in the closing.
