Post by saidevo on Oct 3, 2012 8:56:37 GMT 5.5
Pages 156-161
A lot can be said about how SriCharaNar, who lived following the rules of the Shastras to their minutest details, observed the same discipline with respect to pujas also. Two cooked rice grains as indicative of the ready-to-serve state of the entire pot of sAdam!
On the day of the Vinakaya Chaturthi the gurumUrti who allays the karma (of devotees) does puja to Vigneshvara.
As he goes about each and every upachAra (service), the upachAra of offering a vastram (cloth) turns up.
SriCharaNar was observing the custom of doing puja under the vocal, scriptural guidance of a ShastrigaL for the naimittika (occasional) pujas on special occasions which were different from the nitya (daily) pujas done on his own.
On that day's puja, the ShastrigaL read 'vastra yukmam samarpayAmi' (I submit a pair of clothes), the line in the Puja Kalpam. PeriyavaaL looked at the thAlam (plate) on which the vastram was kept.
As he saw it, he continued to keep looking at it. He kept quiet without repeating the line of verse ShastrigaL chanted, or adorning Vigneshvara with the vastram.
Except when he repeated puja mantras, shlokAs and nAmAvaLis, SriCharaNar would observe silence during the puja times.
(All the mantras including the one mentioned above, he does not repeat vocally on most of the times. The devotee who spoke to him about doing nivedanam steaming hot had also asked SriCharaNar about this instance. The devotee had told him that to vocally chant the verses was the custom he had known. "gRustAs (householders) should chant the Vedasuktas only vocally. It would be better if it is possible for them to also chant the other verses vocally," was the only reply SriCharaNar gave the devotee. The devotee could guess (by that reply) that ascetics need not have to do a ghoSaNam (speaking loudly) of even the Veda mantras; and the term 'possible' indicated that the pressure of feelings that made it not possible for SriCharaNar to chant vocally, silenced him.)
No one could understand why PeriyavaaL kept silent without submitting the vastram to Vinakaya.
The ShastrigaL was nervous: "It is mentioned in the Kalpam as 'vastra yukmam samarpayAmi'. Was it that I made a mistake in chanting the verse?"
PeriyavaaL took the vastram and showed it, protruding a finger. The ShastrigaL understood it! The phrase 'vastra yukmam' meant a pair of clothes: a vEshti (dhoti) to tie around the waist and an uttarIyam over the shoulders. But the vastram which was kept on that day was a single one. Only after the second vastram was also provided as per the rule, the puja continued.
*** *** ***
The second example is one I witnessed personally.
The Maha Shivaratri night in 1968. The celebrations are held in the Eluru town of Andhra Pradesh.
The third kAla (session) puja in the late night. Everyone was tired due to upavAsam (fasting) and not sleeping up to that time.
The voice of the rudra pArAyaNa (chanting Rudram) people that rose gaNa ghoSa (as loud proclamations) during the pujas of the previous two sessions now sounds a lot less in strength.
The ShastrigaL who was arranged for the occasion could not withstand the strain.
As narrated earlier, for such naimittika pujas PeriyavaaL arranged a vAdyAr (priest) and followed him totally as we do. The vAdyAr is referred to as tantra-dhAraka (one who recites the texts) in the North. When doing this under his guidance, in the tradition of the disciple learning from the guru, only after he proposes, the one who does the puja should chant after the mantras and other texts. This is done in adherence to the puja saMkalpam (resolution) taken by the performer that he would do it 'AchArya mukhena kariSye' (I do it through the guru). It could be that PeriyavaaL who is the JagatAcharyaL may not say 'AchArya mukhena', but he kept it as his custom of not uttering the mantras until they were proposed by the ShastrigaL. In his case 'keeping it as his custom' does not mean that he did it according to his wish! It should be either a Shastra vidhi (presciption, rule) or a divya AdeshaH (divine sanction) obtained exclusively for him--only such things he kept as his custom. This custom of his repeating after the ShastrigaL chanted it should be one such.
The inconsistency the ShastrigaL displayed--being very tired by the time of the third session puja--in looking at and reading the Puja Kalpa text perhaps under the dim light of the tall, brass lamps! The strain he underwent to read the text, properly dividing it in the word boundaries!
Many of those shlokas--perhaps the entire thing--was for SriCaraNaaL already committed to mind!
Still... whatever that discipline! Waiting all along until the ShastrigaL understood the text properly and read it, and then repeating it either within his mind or by upAmcu-vAca (as lip movement), he conducted the puja at the pace of a turtle.
Such patience can never come to us! And that during the scene of offering arghyam at the end!
The sAhasam (daring act) as in a circus did by the Peruman of slim frame who had seen seventy-five years of his life, (sitting in a pose) like the PerumaaL Koyil Garuda Vahanam, the knee joint of his folded left leg touching the ground and his right leg folded in such a way that its foot rested on the ground! In those days since his hearing was becoming fainter he also had giddiness. Even then, in this Gaaruda pose he sat waiting until the ShastrigaL gathered the text letter by letter and chanted and then he repeated while offering the arghyam with three shlokas for Sambasiva, and one shloka each for AmbaaL, Subrahmanya, Nandikesa and Chandikesa.
In 'subraHmaNya mahAbhaga' when the ShastrigaL was totally confused and struggling, and faltered in reading out the text, it seemed to us that we should rush to the stage, seize the book from him and read out the text ourselves! But then PeriyavaaL who was very familiar with that vAcakam (saying) was simply looking at the vAdyAr's face, without any haste, like a quiet student!
*** *** ***
They speak of two kinds of bhakti: vaidhi bhakti (rules-based devotion) and anurAga bhakti (love-based devotion)*. Doing bhakti based on the rules of the Shastras is vaidhi. Doing it purely out of love is anurAga bhakti. Since rules cannot be observed in love, these two names came up. Some people say that since bhakti is in inself based on love, there is no such thing as vaidhi bhakti. His close devotees know it as completely true that SriCaraNaaL is one steeped in parA bhakti which is the borderland of anurAga. Nevertheless, there is none who did vaidhi bhakti like him.
He was the one who was the puzzle of puzzles remaining all the while the simplest of the simplest!
*** *** ***
Note:
* Rupa Goswami speaks of three kinds of bhakti:
www.sanskrit.org/www/Great%20Personalities/rupa%20goswami.html
Glossary:
arghya - n. worth or fit for an honourable reception. n. a reverential offering to gods or venerable men.
naimittika - occasional, special, accidental, produced by any or some particular cause
nitya - innate, native, own, continued, perpetual, eternal, ordinary, usual, fixed, necessary, obligatory, regular
sAhasa - boldness, daring, rashness, temerity, overstraining
upAmcu - recitation of a mantra in a hushed low voice so as to be heard by the reciter alone
yukmam - pair, couple, brace
A lot can be said about how SriCharaNar, who lived following the rules of the Shastras to their minutest details, observed the same discipline with respect to pujas also. Two cooked rice grains as indicative of the ready-to-serve state of the entire pot of sAdam!
On the day of the Vinakaya Chaturthi the gurumUrti who allays the karma (of devotees) does puja to Vigneshvara.
As he goes about each and every upachAra (service), the upachAra of offering a vastram (cloth) turns up.
SriCharaNar was observing the custom of doing puja under the vocal, scriptural guidance of a ShastrigaL for the naimittika (occasional) pujas on special occasions which were different from the nitya (daily) pujas done on his own.
On that day's puja, the ShastrigaL read 'vastra yukmam samarpayAmi' (I submit a pair of clothes), the line in the Puja Kalpam. PeriyavaaL looked at the thAlam (plate) on which the vastram was kept.
As he saw it, he continued to keep looking at it. He kept quiet without repeating the line of verse ShastrigaL chanted, or adorning Vigneshvara with the vastram.
Except when he repeated puja mantras, shlokAs and nAmAvaLis, SriCharaNar would observe silence during the puja times.
(All the mantras including the one mentioned above, he does not repeat vocally on most of the times. The devotee who spoke to him about doing nivedanam steaming hot had also asked SriCharaNar about this instance. The devotee had told him that to vocally chant the verses was the custom he had known. "gRustAs (householders) should chant the Vedasuktas only vocally. It would be better if it is possible for them to also chant the other verses vocally," was the only reply SriCharaNar gave the devotee. The devotee could guess (by that reply) that ascetics need not have to do a ghoSaNam (speaking loudly) of even the Veda mantras; and the term 'possible' indicated that the pressure of feelings that made it not possible for SriCharaNar to chant vocally, silenced him.)
No one could understand why PeriyavaaL kept silent without submitting the vastram to Vinakaya.
The ShastrigaL was nervous: "It is mentioned in the Kalpam as 'vastra yukmam samarpayAmi'. Was it that I made a mistake in chanting the verse?"
PeriyavaaL took the vastram and showed it, protruding a finger. The ShastrigaL understood it! The phrase 'vastra yukmam' meant a pair of clothes: a vEshti (dhoti) to tie around the waist and an uttarIyam over the shoulders. But the vastram which was kept on that day was a single one. Only after the second vastram was also provided as per the rule, the puja continued.
*** *** ***
The second example is one I witnessed personally.
The Maha Shivaratri night in 1968. The celebrations are held in the Eluru town of Andhra Pradesh.
The third kAla (session) puja in the late night. Everyone was tired due to upavAsam (fasting) and not sleeping up to that time.
The voice of the rudra pArAyaNa (chanting Rudram) people that rose gaNa ghoSa (as loud proclamations) during the pujas of the previous two sessions now sounds a lot less in strength.
The ShastrigaL who was arranged for the occasion could not withstand the strain.
As narrated earlier, for such naimittika pujas PeriyavaaL arranged a vAdyAr (priest) and followed him totally as we do. The vAdyAr is referred to as tantra-dhAraka (one who recites the texts) in the North. When doing this under his guidance, in the tradition of the disciple learning from the guru, only after he proposes, the one who does the puja should chant after the mantras and other texts. This is done in adherence to the puja saMkalpam (resolution) taken by the performer that he would do it 'AchArya mukhena kariSye' (I do it through the guru). It could be that PeriyavaaL who is the JagatAcharyaL may not say 'AchArya mukhena', but he kept it as his custom of not uttering the mantras until they were proposed by the ShastrigaL. In his case 'keeping it as his custom' does not mean that he did it according to his wish! It should be either a Shastra vidhi (presciption, rule) or a divya AdeshaH (divine sanction) obtained exclusively for him--only such things he kept as his custom. This custom of his repeating after the ShastrigaL chanted it should be one such.
The inconsistency the ShastrigaL displayed--being very tired by the time of the third session puja--in looking at and reading the Puja Kalpa text perhaps under the dim light of the tall, brass lamps! The strain he underwent to read the text, properly dividing it in the word boundaries!
Many of those shlokas--perhaps the entire thing--was for SriCaraNaaL already committed to mind!
Still... whatever that discipline! Waiting all along until the ShastrigaL understood the text properly and read it, and then repeating it either within his mind or by upAmcu-vAca (as lip movement), he conducted the puja at the pace of a turtle.
Such patience can never come to us! And that during the scene of offering arghyam at the end!
The sAhasam (daring act) as in a circus did by the Peruman of slim frame who had seen seventy-five years of his life, (sitting in a pose) like the PerumaaL Koyil Garuda Vahanam, the knee joint of his folded left leg touching the ground and his right leg folded in such a way that its foot rested on the ground! In those days since his hearing was becoming fainter he also had giddiness. Even then, in this Gaaruda pose he sat waiting until the ShastrigaL gathered the text letter by letter and chanted and then he repeated while offering the arghyam with three shlokas for Sambasiva, and one shloka each for AmbaaL, Subrahmanya, Nandikesa and Chandikesa.
In 'subraHmaNya mahAbhaga' when the ShastrigaL was totally confused and struggling, and faltered in reading out the text, it seemed to us that we should rush to the stage, seize the book from him and read out the text ourselves! But then PeriyavaaL who was very familiar with that vAcakam (saying) was simply looking at the vAdyAr's face, without any haste, like a quiet student!
*** *** ***
They speak of two kinds of bhakti: vaidhi bhakti (rules-based devotion) and anurAga bhakti (love-based devotion)*. Doing bhakti based on the rules of the Shastras is vaidhi. Doing it purely out of love is anurAga bhakti. Since rules cannot be observed in love, these two names came up. Some people say that since bhakti is in inself based on love, there is no such thing as vaidhi bhakti. His close devotees know it as completely true that SriCaraNaaL is one steeped in parA bhakti which is the borderland of anurAga. Nevertheless, there is none who did vaidhi bhakti like him.
He was the one who was the puzzle of puzzles remaining all the while the simplest of the simplest!
*** *** ***
Note:
* Rupa Goswami speaks of three kinds of bhakti:
www.sanskrit.org/www/Great%20Personalities/rupa%20goswami.html
Glossary:
arghya - n. worth or fit for an honourable reception. n. a reverential offering to gods or venerable men.
naimittika - occasional, special, accidental, produced by any or some particular cause
nitya - innate, native, own, continued, perpetual, eternal, ordinary, usual, fixed, necessary, obligatory, regular
sAhasa - boldness, daring, rashness, temerity, overstraining
upAmcu - recitation of a mantra in a hushed low voice so as to be heard by the reciter alone
yukmam - pair, couple, brace