Maha Periyava tells us methods to lead an auspicious life

Maha Periyava tells  us  methods  to lead  an  auspicious life

Translated and Abridged 

By

P.R.Ramachander

(This is based on a Tamil  supplement of  KUmudam Bhakthi   of 30^th may 2019.. I am like a small  speck of dust   before Maha Periyava   who is like the Mount Kailas.  And so  I know that  my translation would be greatly inadequate..I humbly beg the pardon of all of you)

1,We can see  God.

When the   atheist    asks  us, “Does  your God  have a form?”

We have to say to them, “To the person   who believes  ,

That  he has a  form, He does  take several forms   and show them.

To the one who has never   tasted   anything that   is sweet,

It is not possible    to explain    what is a   sweet taste  ,

And to you who never  believed  in him  , it is not possible,

To show him to you , because   you would know  that it is God.”

2.What can we give to our God?

  All of us want  to give God, some thing  he does not have

And whatever  we Think of  , God   has it   and so,

We think that   we cannot give anything   to God,

But a poet  searched  for  all that  he has  , but God ,

Does not have  and he  easily   found out   the answer,

He has a  mind   but God does  not have it, ,

And we    give it to him, he   will accept  it from us happily.

3.Stable mind

If we want   to  see anything clearly  ,

We would need   a stable flame,

To throw   light on it   and similarly,

If we    want to see and realize  God,

We need to have a very stable  mind to do it.

4. Avoid    anger

Anger is like   a huge rubber   ball  and if we throw,

It on a wall   , it would come and hit us very badly.

Our thinking   that our anger   would hurt another person,

Is very much wrong, and to know  about   it  ,

Get extremely angry and see   yourself in a mirror,

Your body would be   horrible    to look at  ,

And then think , how  our mind   would look like.

5.Penance   and fasting

Take any machine that   human being s have made,

All of us know that , if it continuously    works ,

Without any rest, it would get hot and get spoiled.

Think of our body, mind as well  as brain, and we all know,

All these  three  things   work without    any rest  ,

All religions prescribe penance   and fast   so that,

Body , mind and brain get   rest and never get spoiled.

6.Everything is same

All the things that  we make   with sugar are sweet,

And like that  though we  pray God   in several  forms,

WE   are  only  praying God   and just like  rain water,

Falling all over  the world   reaches   the ocean,

All our  prayers to various forms of God , reaches  the God..

But to understand this we  need  great spiritual wisdom.

6.Breath  control and the   mind.

Yogis  teach us to control breath  to control mind,

And many  of us do not  understand their relation.

Though we know   that  suddenly   if we   get  ,

A billion  rupees  in a lottery  our breath  will stop  for a second,
And if  our family members  die   without  any reason,

Suddenly  our breath  would stop   for  a second,

Does it not prove   that breath  controls the mind.

7.Cleaning  and again  and again is essential

Though we clean our teeth one day   and  ,

Take bath   and clean our body  one day,

We know  that to be clean  the body, we have  do it daily,.

Similarly    should we not also clean our mind,

By thinking  and meditating on the God ,

And daily clean our sins   again and again.

8.Charity of food

God has told in Gita   that  , he who    works  ,

Only to feed himself, should  have all his sins for  himself,

That   is he who does not feed  any others,  is eating,

His own sins    daily and would  suffer  due to indigestion of  sins,

Apart from that  the only charity   that  would make  ,

That person satisfied  and make him say  ,

“No more my sir,  I do not want  any more”

Is the charity  of food and charity of food only.

9.The sameness of different things

We all know   that   there  is only  one Sun,

But suppose  we sprinkle   water  on earth,

In each drop  of water   we will see  an image  of sun,

And like  that   there  is only  one power  ,

In the entire  earth   and  it gets , reflected,

In all beings and appears to as different powers,

10.God’s place

Suppose  there is a pond  and  the shell of fruit  ,

Is lying deep down it  , we all know   that ,

That shell is full of  the sediment  dirt of the lake,

And if we clean  the shell, slowly   it rises  up.

And similarly  mind full of dirty thought s,

Is down deep  and sunk and if we   want,

Our God to sit on our mind   , we have to clean it.

11.Sandhya vandhana

Sandhya vandhana   is the   saluting of  God,

During the dawn and dusk and it is at this time,

Lord Nataraja    dances in Chidambaram ,

And all the Gods   come   to see and pray to him.

The Dawn   and dusk    are  the time of the day,

When our mind is very calm     and is most  ,

Suitable time   to pray   that  God.

12.Cause  and result

When the baby eats  dirt  or the mud ,

The mother  ties  its hand  , the baby cries,

Curses  its own mother but the  mother laughs,

Because she knows   that our good  this sorrow is a must,

Like that  the Goddess  who is  our mother  knows,

When to give gifts and when to punish   us.,

She will never   do it  without    any cause .

13.Worship God like a  child

If we   worship  the goddess  with a  baby mind,

Assuming her  to be our mother , She  would,

Take care  of us  in all ways  like a mother,

Taking  care of her  little baby, She would ,

Make us passion proof, anger  proof and pride  proof.

Though most of us    do not know about it  ,

The rural folk     everywhere  knows it well,

They  make  Kathyayani   as Kathayi,

And   Goddess  Saraswathi   as Pechayi(goddess  of speech)

14.Learn in the first  quarter 

If we assume   that  our full life span is 100   years,

It is during    the   first   quarter of life  that we learn,

(Quarter is “Kaal”   in tamil    and quarter  age,

Can also   be possibly   called  Kaal age(college)

The youth should understand this  and they also,

Should know  no knowledge  is complete  ,

Without   the clear  understanding   of God.

15.Leaning  with devotion

Major aim  of  Learning  is to know God,

And to get humility but nowadays  ,

Those who learn try to go away  from God,

And   go away from humility  and get filled with pride,

Why is it that  learning   which leads   to good character,

Leads  to the opposite way and one of the reasons,

Is that  those who learn do not have  any devotion to their teacher.

16.Donation   for temple work

Each and every one   should contribute  ,

Their mite   in building    and repair  of God’s  Buildings,

Even if you are  not  able to con tribute  money,

It does  not matter and at this time  I remember,

A great Saivite saint called  “Appar” who  was,

Moving the  over grown grass  in Temples and,

When I was doing  Kumbhabhishekam  of Kamakshi temple,

Money was pouring from various   sources,

But a hawker   in Tirunelveli   sent me rupees one,

And I always thought   it was  a great contribution.

Good mind  and willingness  is more  important,

To contributions    we make  to divine works.

17.Where from Joy comes?

Real joy does not come   from outside  ,

But comes   from our own self   and we keep it,

Covered with our  basic  ignorance and  all joy,

Comes from  each and everything   which  is ours.

And if that  relation is not there  that joy goes away,

For example   suppose   we are farming a land,

And we get joy as long as  it is our own and suppose,

We sell it and next year   the buyer  gets a good yield,

What we get will definitely be not joy.

18.It is his work

When we go to god , when we are worried,

Or   we go to him   , so that  we can thank him,

Slowly the strength  in believing in him increases,

And we will start thinking , He does and I do not,

And slowly  joy and peace  would pervade our  mind.

19. Strength  of speech

Speech  is the gift given by god  only to humans,

And it has been given to him    to chant  God’s name,

And if we   do not do it , In our   next birth  ,

God will give us a form  which does not have speech.

It has been told    that in the  Kali age,

Chanting his name grants us more blessings,

Than any other  rituals   and holy deeds.

20.What  is prayer?

Asking God to give us something   ,

Does not appear   to be a real prayer,

Because  The God who is our parent  ,

Knows what  we need and will give it  to us.

We cannot say    this  is completely true,

Because  in  Bhagawad   Gita  , the lord,

Includes , prayer to get cured  of ill ness,,

As well as  praying  asking for something as prayer,

I feel that  A prayer  is a prayer  if it does,

Not create   problems  to any other people.

21.Veda is what is hidden.

There is ca complaint  that  Vedas are ,

Not chanted Publicly   and is supposed ,

To be   chanted  only by a  sect of people  ,

They say it is not  public but hidden,

But   Veda   is the   root  of our religion,

And no root   is visible  outside  though,

Plant, flowers and   fruits  are visible,

I believe   that  vedas  were  not hidden,

And there  were  no letters  to write them,

And it was composed  by sounds  ,

Which were learnt   and taught ,

It is not hidden and in the form of sound ,

It  is public and  fills up the world.

22.Strength and Brain

Though God’s creating us as humans  appears,

To be great, on deeper examination we   find,

That God has given animals   equipment to  protect themselves,

The Bull has horn , the tiger  has horn,   the sheep  has,

Blanket  to cover itself during cold   and so on,

And  he has not given any weapon   to us at all,

Except brain , which makes him invent weapons,

Make blankets to protect    themselves and so on,

And if we think deeply    we find that  all animals,

Live in a particular   region and need   a particular weapon,

And Brain the weapon of man who lives   all over the world,

Helps him to protect himself from everything  , everywhere.

23.Helping others

Every one in the world  should help others.

In the way    which is possible    to them,

A poor man  help  by service   with his body,

A rich  person by   giving  monetary  help,

And those  in position, by helping others,

To improve their position  and those  ,

Who have knowledge   can teach others,

And all those who have   special abilities,

By  helping others  without monetary   compensation.

24, Our Dharma

There  is a serious argument  between people  ,

As to whether  their Dhama  is important  ,

Or is it  , the prescribed    rituals    for them?

But  once we understand   that  all of  us,

Have originated from one God , we understand,

The god shows us path of love and truth.

Bhagawad  Gita    tells us  that all of us should do,

Our prescribed Dharma without passion or anger ,

And if we do like that, every one would   have  ,

Great   aims  , great paths  and great  principles.

We have to follow this    and not quarrel   as to  ,

Follow this  or that   needlessly and unnecessarily.

25.Catch hold of god 

All of are  worried and want to get out of this mess,

Which is like an ocean   and we know    that,

If we want to get out of   this slippery   ocean,

We have to catch hold of some one who is firm,

Stable and not worried  and God is the only person like that .

26.You will become that

A  cube of ice  well preserved  retains its form,

But if put in water  , it merges and get mixed in water,

Similar to sacred  water  of rivers  getting mixed  ,

In ocean and loosing their individualitry,

Similarly once we understand   God,

We will know that   we are only a part of him,

And then the word  “I” and :He”   vanishes.

27. Think of only   good things

Psychologists tell us   that  if we  keep on thinking,

About some thing always   , we will become that thing,

And our religion tells   that if we  keep on thinking  ,

About God, we   will become   God himself,

And would become personification  of love like him.

It seems in Ramayana   when Sita   was only thinking of Rama,

She suddenly Got a doubt    that   she will become Rama only,

And Trijata told her that rama, thinking of only Sita  , will become Sita

27.Hari    and Shiva are  the same

 When  we go to a new place   we do not  know  ,

Which is east, west , north and that is because,

Though we have  knowledge   we do not have experience,

 And this leads    to confusion   , but if we stay   in the same place,

We will  have knowledge and experience   and will know directions,

Similar   is the  confusion that we have  of Shiva   and Vishnu,

We get confused about them  without  devotional experience  ,

And once we get it  ,  we will not find any difference   between them.