காணும் கண்ணுக்குக் காட்டும் உளம் போல்
காணவுளத்தைக்கண்டு காட்டலின்,
அயரா அன்பின் அரன் கழல்செலுமே.
Sutra. – As the soul enables the eye to see and itself sees, so Hara enables the soul to know and itself knows. And this Adwaitha knowledge and undying Love will unite it to His Feet.
Commentary
The Sutra treats of the way by which the soul unites with the sacred foot of the Lord and consists of two arguments.
First Argument
Churnika. – Hara feels what the Gnani feels.
Varthikam. – It is proved that the Lord knows whatever the soul knows, as the soul cannot perceive anything, except with the aid of the Lord.
Illustrations. – (a) As the soul becomes conscious of such objects only as it comes in contact with each of the senses separately, it cannot apprehend all the objects of the five senses at once, but apprehends them only one by one. But God sees and understands all things at once.
(b). When the soul unites itself to God and feels His Arul, God covers it with his Supreme Bliss and becomes one with it. Will He not know Himself who is understood by the soul through the intelligence of the soul?
Second Argument
Churnika. – If the Gnani has unfailing Love for Hara, he will become united to
Him.
Varthikam. – It is shown that the soul unites with the Feet of the Lord, through unfailing Love, as He, dwelling in each man inseparably, metes out to each, according to his desert.
Illustration. – (a) The blind will only see darkness even in the presence of the Sun; just so, the soul entangled in Pasa cannot see Isa (though he is present in everything), Just as the Sun only opens the Lotus flower (when it is matured), so the darkness of those who understand Him by their Love will be removed by his Arul.
(b). As the Moon dispels the deep darkness, so God, who is connected with the soul from eternity, in His Love, removes the Mala of the soul and attracts it to Himself, just as the magnet attracts iron and brings it under control. While so operating, He incurs neither weariness nor change.
(c). When becoming one with God, if the soul perished, there will be nothing to unite with God, as it perishes. If it did not perish, it cannot become one with God. Just like the salt dissolved in water, the soul, after losing its Mala, unites itself to His Feet and becomes the servant of God (loses its individuality). Then it will have no darkness (no separation.)
(d). Just as the rising Sun is enshrouded by the clouds and then appears, little by little, and when all the clouds are driven away, spreads its shining rays everywhere, so, the soul’s intelligence is enshrouded from eternity in Mala and brightens a little from its experience of the world; and getting rid of its Mala altogether, recovers its original intelligence and unites itself to the Feet of God.
NOTES
The last Sutra treated of Pasatchaya and the present one treats of attaining Pathi Gnana or Anubava. Leaving the case of those who postulate utter annihilation at this stage, in which case of course there could be no union (illustration 2c) and of those who postulate no Anubava at all, this Sutra points out how this Anubava arises. This Anubava is an Anubava of the soul in one sense, though not so in another sense. Here there is Adwaitham again. Dr. Bain instances the case of a man enjoying the keen pleasures of a warm bath as one of pure objective feeling or attitude; or as we would put it, it is the case of the man enjoying the pleasure of a cool bath during a hot day or what comes to the same thing, of the man who gets under the cool shelter of a spreading banyan tree (அடி நீழல்)after a hot and weary walk during the midday sun. Now substitute for the mind, the soul freed of Pasa and for the cool bath or cool shade, the Glorious Divine Light and its effulgence which permeates the soul through and through and diffuses all round it and completely bathes it in its Arul, and conceive then the soul’s feeling of pleasure, its Anantha, Bliss. It is the soul that no doubt feels primarily but it ceases to live as such, and that very moment it becomes transformed into the Divine Feeling or Anubava itself. Just as the mind, when enjoying the pleasure of a bath, becomes purely objective, the soul becomes purely Divine when it feels His Arul and God covers it with Bliss (Illustration 1 b). As you feel the coolness of the bath 126 or the shade more and more, your pleasure increases, so, as the soul feels His Arul more and more, its love of the Lord increases. So, it is this (அயரா அன்பு) undying love, True Bhakti, that is the cause of the Soul’s Supreme Happiness, Bliss and Pathi Gnanam. And in this Adwaitha Anubava, do we get the true definition of Love or Bhakti and see the profound meaning there is in the simple Mantra ‘God is Love’; and now let us read again the Divine Mantra (which can bear repetition).
“அன்பும் சிவமும் இரண்டென்பர் அறிவிலார்
அன்பே சிவமாவ தாரு மறிந்திலார்
அன்பே சிவமாவ தாரு மறிந்தபின்
அன்பே சிவமா யமர்ந் திருப்பாரே”
Herein we have the true Bhakti Marga, or the true Dasa Marga which at the same time is seen to be the true Gnana Marga. Herein is seen no conflict between Bhakti and Gnanam. Yet how often do we see the followers of the so-called Bhakti Marga sneer at the follower of the so-called Gnana Marga and vice versa, when neither party have the least title to either name. The words, Bhakta, Gnani and Mukta are synonymous and the condition of the Bhakta involves and implies the passing through of the stages of Suriya, Kriya and Yoga, and it was a bad day for us when a wave of false devotion spread from the north to the south, thus undermining all principles of true progress by the practice of True Tapas and spreading instead, gross superstition and absurd rituals and ceremonies. I cannot conclude this Sutra without pointing out an example of the exhibition of True Bhakti by a Jivan Mukta from the annals of the Saints recorded in our Bhakta Vilasa. Whom could I mean other than our Saint Kannappa?
“கண்ணப்பன் ஓப்பதோர் அன்பின்மை கண்டபின் ”
Says our Saints Manika Vachaka, whose Divine words are sufficient to melt even the heart of stone to tears, and where he has chosen to praise, why need I refer to the host of other sages and writers who have loved to sing the praises of us Kannappa.
Says our Sri Sankaracharya also in his Sivanantha Lahiri.
“A pair of wooden shoes, worn out in paths becomes a bunch of holy grass to the person of Siva; the spetting of water raising the mouth, a holy bath; a mouthful of flesh partly eaten, a fresh oblation; and a forester, a great Bhakta; for nothing is impossible for Bhakta.
I dare not follow the subject any further.
Says, our Thayumanavar.
“அத்துவித அனுபவத்தை அனந்த மறை யின்ன மின்னம்
அறியே மென்னும்.”
(d). This is a most beautiful analogy and this being the last, sums up briefly the whole of the doctrine expounded in all the preceding chapters. It exhibits in clear and unmistakable language the passage of the soul through the Kevala, Sakala, and Thurya Avasthas. As the first part of the illustration stands, it would appear that it is the Sun that is enshrouded and that which appears little by little and then shines brightly. No, the language will be unmeaning from the stand point of the Sun. From its position it knows of no covering or shrouds or shining less or more. It is ever bright in itself. It is from the stand point of the human eye that all this language is employed. It is the eye that is enshrouded by the clouds and prevented therefore, from seeing the glorious Sun and when the clouds are driven away little by little, the view of the Sun becomes better and better till at last, during the midday, the full refulgence of the glorious Sun is felt. The brevity of language, thus employed, in many of these analogies, have often misled many a thinker and we find the Hindu idealists use this very analogy to establish their theory of Ekathma Vatham. As they put it, the clouds proceed from the Sun and then enshroud it, so Maya starts from Brahm and throws a Veil over it and then they proceed to build the whole fabric, in the first place an analogy to have any probative effect must be true in itself, i.e., the same sequence and consequence must exist in the thing compared as in the thing sought to be proved or inferred. Here, in the illustration, if it be true that the clouds proceed from the Sun, then we can say truly that the Maya proceeding from the Brahm serves to veil it. In no sense is the Sun the material cause of the cloud as the Brahm is said to be the material cause (Upadanakarana) of Maya, Mulaprakriti, Jagat or the universe. This essential condition failing, the whole superstructure must therefore tumble down. But let me elaborate the analogy properly and see what results it yields. Well, the Sun (Brahm) is not the material cause of the clouds (Mulaprakriti) but yet it is a cause of clouds. It is by the action of Sun’s heat (Kriya Sakti) the clouds (Mulaprakriti) are formed out of water (Maya). Water itself cannot pass off into vapour and clouds but by the action of the Sun. So, Maya cannot evolve into Jagat or the universe but for the Kriya Sakti of the Lord. No doubt, when the clouds are formed by the action of the Sun, these clouds do enshroud, well, not the Sun but the human eye. The very instant you use the word shrouding or veiling, you imply a third thing placed on the other side of the veil. The human eye can no more be derived from the Sun than the soul or human monad from Brahm. Though in either case the eye or the soul can only see or know but with the dim or full light of the Sun or God, Brahm. The greater or less dimness is caused by the thickness or lightness of the clouds or Maya coating. And as the eye and the Sun approximate nearer and nearer, the clouds are dissipated away, and so, as the soul comes nearest to God, Maya vanishes.
Take another example of Analogy used by the same school of thinkers; and this is a most favorite one with them. It is the simile of the Sun shining in many pots of water, serving to illustrate the principle that the souls are derived from God. Here the resemblances are not exact and the consequence does not follow. In the one case we have only Brahm from which we have got to derive many souls. On the other hand, we have on Sun and many pots which are also filled with water to reproduce not many Suns but merely the shadow or reflection of the Sun. Neither is the shadow the same as the Sun nor are the pots and water derived from the Sun. but let us view the analogy from another point and see how pregnant it is. The Sun is Brahm, the pot is Maya or Pasa binding the naturally expansive water or the soul. And the reflection of the Sun is God’s presence in Man and the Sun’s reflection or light passes through the water and lies on it and yet is not contaminated nor touched by it. So, God being a Gnana Sorupi, chit or Mahachaitanyam, though in contact with the world and souls, are not tainted by it and feels no weariness nor change (illustration 2b). And the breaking of the pot, Pasatchaya, releases the water from its confined condition and it vanishes into invisible vapour before the heat of the Sun. (Arul of God). In the same way, almost every analogy employed by the Hindu idealists can be easily shown to falsify them own position and support the position herein established.
Analogy I may say is largely used in this work as a method of proof, as any other kind of proof is hardly possible when dealing with the nature of the very ultimate of all existences. The conjunction of the mind and body, it is admitted, is a unique phenomenon in nature. Its conjunction cannot be proved, being the very ultimate of all facts; and the position can only be proved or illustrated by various analogies, say for instance, the analogy of vowels and consonants (Vide Sutra No. 2). So, we pass on from this conjunction of mind and body to that of Soul and mind and to that of Brahm or God and Soul, and the unions in all these cases are analogous.