Thus Spake the Divine - That is only This

Thus Spake the Divine

“That” is only “This” !

In this chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava explains the doctrine of Advaita in the simplest manner.

Once, there was a carpenter. He crafted a wooden elephant as a decorative piece for a temple. He took along another carpenter to inspect the same. His daughter also accompanied him. The child was terrified seeing the wooden elephant, thin king that it was a real elephant. When the child’s father proceeded towards the wooden elephant to check it, the child screamed, “Appa! Don’t go near the elephant! The elephant will jump on to you!” The father pacified the child saying, “Don’t worry baby! This is only a wooden elephant. It will not do any harm”. He also took the child near the wooden elephant.

For the child, the wooden elephant appeared as a live elephant. The precision of the carpenter’s elephant figurine masked the awareness from the child that it is just wood and it induced the child into thinking that it is a real elephant. At the same time, though it looked like a real elephant, the reason for the carpenter for not getting scared of the same was that he was aware that it was a wooden elephant. So, the ‘elephant-ness’ in the figurine vanished and the ‘wood-ness’ of the elephant was visible to him.

This metaphor is taken from Tirumandiram by Tirumoolar, which reads as follows:

“The wood was concealed by the mammoth elephant; the mammoth elephant had disappeared in the wood”.

Tirumoolar is a supreme sage; he just speaks out great philosophies in very simple terms. Tirumoolar explains the concept of Advaita with a beautiful simile. Just as the elephant and the wood are not two different substances, the Paramatma and the Cosmos are also not two different substances. The figurine of Cosmos is made up of the Paramatma, who is symbolised to be in the form of wood. Just as the child is not able to differentiate wood from the wooden elephant figurine, we don’t see the Paramatma within the hemisphere of the Cosmos. In our perception, Pancha Boothangal, comprising the five elements of nature viz. air, space, earth, fire and water have concealed the Cosmos, whereas in the perspective of sages and saints, the entire Cosmos is permeated with only Brahmam. For them, Cosmos and all the Pancha Boothangal have vanished.

You may ask what the significance of this story is. What we need on this earth is a sorrow-free and comfortable life. For that purpose, we need money and other comforts. So, someone may say why bother about the concepts of earth or Cosmos or Brahmam or, they may also ask “What is the need for all these kinds of wisdom?”

Let us assume that everyone becomes rich and wealthy. Will that help have a peaceful, fearless and calm life? Look at the countries, which are filled with rich people. How much anxiety and lack of peace exists in those countries? Though all people have accumulated a lot of money, they still remain greedy. Each one wants to possess more money than the other. This leads to bitter competition and clashes among them. It is not just enough to possess the comforts that we need. We also have the confronting mind set, which asks for more than what other persons possess. Even if we get all comforts of life equally, then too we will fight that we should get those comforts on priority; before the others can get them.

For example, see this issue, which is very trivial. It happens within this Mutt! Everybody is aware here that I will offer sacred water to all and only then move inside. But can they afford to stay in the queue with composure and with the hope that they would get it when their turn comes? What they look for is not that they get the sacred water from me, they should get it first! For this, they push each other to move forward and get it first. So long as this kind of confrontation is there, nobody will be content. Just economic comforts will not end confrontations and conflicting mind sets.

If you want to liberate yourself from confrontations and conflicts, you should be consciously aware that there is no ‘other substance’ that exists to confront with. Only then can we have a peaceful and contented life. Instead of asking “What is the need for all these kinds of wisdom?” one has to continually engage in self-introspection, which is a permanent solution for peaceful living. If one does not want to entangle himself with worldly traumas, one should keep assimilating the following thought, “This world is not what we think it is. This is pervaded by Lord Shiva. ‘That’ and ‘this’ are not different.” The contemplation “Wood is the elephant” and “Cosmos is the Brahmam” should consistently stay in our mind. Unless we attain this wisdom, it would mean that earth will remain engulfed with darkness in spite of acquiring any amount of economic prosperity. We should never give up our efforts to attain that magnificent wisdom, which will diffuse the darkness by penetrating through the earth. We should never let this light of wisdom fade away from us.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in & across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture & Tradition.