BRILLIANT ARTICLE BY L. SRINIVASAN. HAD BEEN FOUND IN #"SAPTAGIRI"#, MAY 1996.
Tirumalisai Alvar calls God the cultivator of Bhakti. Unlike ploughing a waste land for the first time to bring it under cultivation, God’s field has been under agricultural operations for long and even without His having to sow fresh seeds, the old seeds of unexpected good actions counted as meritorious actions of God.
One small boy says to another, “Come here, i will tell you a secret". The other goes to him eagerly, and the first boy tells him “There is rice inside paddy". Evidently disappointed, the other boy exclaims, “Oh, what kind of a secret is this ?“
The first boy congratulates himself on his cleverness in having deceived his colleague. This is a kind of game among youngsters.
Let us suppose that
an elderly learned gentleman calls a young man and tells him precisely the same thing, viz., that there is rice inside paddy. It has been said that words uttered even playfully by the wise are pregnant with significance.
an elderly learned gentleman calls a young man and tells him precisely the same thing, viz., that there is rice inside paddy. It has been said that words uttered even playfully by the wise are pregnant with significance.
Periyalvar makes an appeal to God thus:
“Please do not be angry with me for talking foolishly because I have no control over my tongue, for, after all, intelligent people find meaning even in the meaningless noise made by the crow." (Periyalvar Tirumoli 5-1-1)
The crow sits in a compound and cries unintelligibly in its own way for some tune and goes away, but the intelligent take it as signifying the good tidings of the impending arrival of clear relatives.
Likewise, says the Alvar, kindly take my incoherent prattle also as meaning something good.
Moreover, the sound "kaakah" that the crow makes means in Sanskrit, “who, who?" (in the feminine and masculive genders respectively).
Kakasura went about shouting thus, evidently praising his saviours, Sita and Rama, by asking who was better than Sita and who was better than Rama, and his present-day descendants continue crowing in the same fashion.
According to the wise if so much meaning can be found in the empty sound of a creature like the crow, surely there must be some real significance in the trite and apparently meaningless saying of the wise elder addressed to the young man.
In the world we find that the farmer sows paddy and raises a crop. As if to show the world that He is also a peasant, Narayana has the plough as one of His adornments.
In the "Shodasa Ayudha Stotra", Vedanta Desika calls Him "Visva Kshetra Krishivalah", the cultivator ploughing the field of the universe.
A peasant puts up a hut on a raised platform in the middle of his field in order to look after it properly.
Likewise, Srinivasa resides here on the high hill in order to have afull view of his vast field and to supervise personally all operations relating to raising the crop, including prevention of depredations on it.
Daya Devi waters the crop of Saranagatas in time (through the Samaya or religion of Visishtadvaita which gives importance to Daya and Saranagati).
It is interesting but natural that the better half waters the crop being raised by her husband.
The world is then found to be full of Saranagatas, as Nammalvar envisaged in Tiruvaimoli (5-1), and Mother Earth pleases the Lord by wearing the garland of Prapannas (green pastures).
This is the sense of sloka 21 in "Daya Satakam".
Like paddy, the crop described by Periyalvar as bowing its head with the weight of grain (Periyalvar Tirumoli 4-9-8) the Saranagatas are weighed down by their fullness of true knowledge and bow low in all humility.
Crops are classified as Nan-sei and Pun-sei (wet and dry). Saranagatas are of the former class, which also means that they are performers of good deeds.
The others are of the latter category, those who indulge in actions of the opposite type. Thus, Saranagatas are considered to be paddy crop.
Tirumalisai Alvar also calls God the cultivator of Bhakti: "bhakti uzhavan" (Nanmugan Tiruvandadi 23).
Unlike ploughing a waste land for the first time to bring it under cultivation, God’s field has been under agricultural operations for long, and even without His having to sow fresh seeds, the old seeds of unexpected good actions, accidents counted as meritorious actions by God, which by themselves fall in this field, sprout, resulting in the crop of bhakti towards God, watered by the rain of grace from the cloud of the Lord, to become tall and sturdy.
Paddy is covered by husk and some thin filmy material. By using the pestle, paddy is dehusked. and from the dehusked paddy we remove the filmy material by washing it in water.
The rice that we get as a result is property dressed up or cooked and we eat it with the well known 6 kinds of savour.
Likewise, the grain of the Jiva is covered by the husk of the gross body, which leaves it at the time of death.
The liberated soul which passes through the Archiradi Marga is rid of the further filmy material in the form of the subtle body on coming in contact with the waters at the River Viraja, bordering Sri Vaikuntha.
The Mukta is then dressed up and invested with Brahma Alankara by the divine damsels of Sri Vaikunta, as mentioned in the Kaushitaki Upanishad.
This may be likened to the process of cooking rice. Like a precious gem regaining its original lustre on the dust covering it being removed, the jiva regains his pristine glory with the 6 qualities of Jnana, Bala, Aisvarya, Virya, Shakti and Tejas.
This is because the Lord invests him with His likeness. These 6 qualities may be said to be the six savours or tastes added to the dish of the Jiva.
God thus enjoys the repast of well-cooked rice with all the 6 savours in the form of the jiva shining with his 6 innate qualities.
The freed soul also sings of herself as “i am food of God" - "aham annam" according to the Kaushitaki Upanishad.
Thus, what is uttered by the great even in their lighter moments contain in them valuable spiritual essence.
The above text cited from
"Secret" article by L. Srinivasan
(originally published in
"Saptagiri" magazine May 1996 issue)
OCR by Vishnudut1926, August 2017
