Dear Seekers after Truth,
Only when we strive to see Saint Vallalar through the eyes of others, then the true dimension of Vallalar assumes significance on the horizon of wisdom.
Buddha in Dhammapada, in 6th century BC says in verse no. 33
“The mind is wavering and restless, difficult to guard and restrain: let the wise perfect his mind as the artisan forges the arrows straight.”
But Vallalar says in his greatest sermon on earth on 22.11.1873
“The experience of the soul which is the nature of truth is the life of experience”.
Buddha is a specialist. Buddha is the specialist of the Mind. It is wrong to say that he did not believe in god. Buddha did not want to answer any query as to the existence of God. He said the questions as to when the world came into existence and when it is going to end are not relevant for conquering the suffering that the human beings face in this world. Buddha said that even if someone says that the world came into existence on a particular date and it is going to end on a particular date, there is no one who can verify the fact. The prime question is how to end suffering as the life is full of suffering. Therefore, Buddha never denied God. It is like telling that an eye specialist does not believe in the existence of heart specialist with regard to medical profession. The concept of existence can be compared to the complexity of system engineering wherein every group contributes to the perfection of the purpose.
The three jewels of Buddhism are:
Buddham charanam kacchami
Sangam charanam kacchami
Dhammam charanam kacchami
But Vallalar pays first charanam to the Lord which is beyond the grasp of the intellect( Buddham)
The second charanam relates to the sangam which is not the congregation of mind but of soul and therefore, the sangam of Vallalar is distinct from that of the Buddha.
In the same way the third charanam to dharma of Vallalar is unique because it pertains to the soul.
Buddha says that nothing is permanent in this world and in that sense suffering is also not permanent.
Buddha has prescribed Four Noble Truth and Eight Fold Path.
Four Noble Truth are the four fundamental principles of Buddhism, expounded by the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, after his enlightenment in the 6th century BC.
· All existence is suffering
· The cause of suffering is ignorant craving for pleasure, striving for life, and the assumption that everything ends at death.
· Suffering can cease by withdrawal from and renunciation of craving.
· The path that leads to the end of suffering is the Eightfold Path.
The eightfold path elaborates three broad categories upon which Buddhist teaching is based: morality, meditation, and wisdom. The components of the eightfold path are:
(1) Right understanding
(2) Right thought
(3) Right speech
(4) Right action
(5) Right livelihood
(6) Right moral effort
(7) Right mindfulness, and
(8) Right concentration.
We may note that the eight constituents, viz understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, moral effort, mindfulness and concentration are categorically qualified by the great adjective “RIGHT”. It entails a situation wherein the spiritual inquiry deflects between what is right and wrong.
It may be appreciated that it is not the mind which wavers and becomes restless but it is only the person who actually wavers and has become restless. The signs of wavering and restlessness of the person are manifest through his mind. The mind is only an instrument for the person just as hands or eyes or ears. First of all, the prime question is how Buddha has initially come to the conclusion that the existence itself is suffering? Therefore, it is evident that Buddha’s medicine is only for the person who has considered that existence itself as suffering. In other words Buddha’s medicine is for the person who is suffering from the disease of suffering.
Now the most important question arises. Whether are we different from our mind? How to identify the dance from the dancer? The act of controlling the mind itself is to be undertaken only through mind. The object to be controlled is also mind. How the mind can be the doctor as well as the patient to be cured by the same doctor? If we desire to perfect the imperfect dance we have to correct only the dancer because without him the dance does not exist. The mind is actually the dance and not the dancer. Why Buddha gave importance to the dance?
Even Valluvar has given room for the thought as to whether the mind is different from the person.
“Being uncorrupt in mind is the virtue foremost,
Rest of all righteousness, lag only behind.”
How to become uncorrupt in the mind? What are ingredients of corruption? How to delete the virus from the system? The questions are looming large out of proportion.
Even one of the greatest of the English poets John Milton has also opened the question as to whether the mind is different from the person when he attributes heaven and hell as to the creation of the mind in his magnum opus, the Paradise Lost through the character of Satan;
“The mind is its own place and in itself
It can make a hell of a heaven or a heaven of a hell”
Vallalar is a specialist of the specialist by virtue of the glowing glory of grace. While Buddha wants to subjugate the mind Vallalar holds that we are the master of our mind. When one desires possession of other’s property, is it necessary to sit in meditation to resist the desire of such illegal possession? The same is the case when one wants to live a right living. It is not the case of any one that we sit in meditation to the right and wrong. We know already what is right and wrong. What is required is only application of what has since been known. Should we sit in meditation to apply what is known already?
Vallalar admonishes the mind in the following songs. He shows that he is the master of his mind.
In Song No.2. of “Thathuva Vettri “
“Oh Mind, you ignorant monkey possessed by the devil,
Don’t treat me as others and intimidate me, beware of me
If you act humbly as per my orders and remain here, happily
Reside with me, if you disobey my words in an act of revolt
Never will I allow you to exert even a grain of authority, in public
I will restrain you by the divine grace within seconds
Could not you recognize me, why you think that I am here
I am the good son of the Master in the Assembly of Wisdom”
In Song no.3 of “Thathuva Vettri “ Vallalar chastises the mind
“Before me, you are drop of snow dangling on tip of grass
I will restrain if you open your mouth, don’t you know me”
In Song no.4. of “Thathuva Vettri “ Vallalar admonishes the mind
“Know and understand and remain there as a painting
If you waver by restlessness, I will destroy you within a second”
Unlike Buddha, in the case of Vallalar, the world is not seen as the place of suffering but as a place of bliss. Vallalar also considers that the state bliss or suffering does not pertain to the mind which is only a servant maid but pertains to the person who is the actually mistress who is the enjoyer of existence. Therefore, Vallalar has not sought to prescribe any medicine for the servant but to the master only.
There are some who use to glorify the tantric attainments of the Buddhist monks that the Tibetan Monks have dematerialized into the transcendental void and strive to equate such feats with the dematerialization of Vallalar. It is one of the feats that could be achieved by controlling the mind as written in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Buddha was not in possession of the method which Vallalar demonstrated to this world. It is like telling that the present day achievement of science and that of Vallalar are one and the same. It is pertinent to note that while Patanjali speaks about eight siddhis which are classified under Karma Siddhi, Vallalar speaks in addition to karma siddhi, about yoga siddhi which speaks about 64 siddhis and gnana siddhi which speaks about controlling the forces numbering 64000 at will and controlling 647 crores siddhis independently as a monarch of all one surveys, not to speak of other things. The day is fast approaching when the world will rise in unison at the mention of the name of the greatest Saint ever walked on this earth. Everything is to be published in an international edition and would be placed before the people of this world for their assessment.
With regards
sivajayakumar
3 Comments
with wishes,
Prabhu
k.vaidyanathan,chennai.