Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 19

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Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 19

(For KMDA – 18 see #44771

This series started with #43779

 

Tamil original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural313.htm

 

Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya' refers to Adi Shankaracharya. The

speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

The very Satisfaction results in Sorrow

 

Seeking happiness we fall into misery. We nurture our desires thinking that it

is going to give us happiness, but by that very nurturing we fall into

unhappiness. Here also the unhappiness is not because our desire is not

fulfilled. Even when it is fulfilled, there follows unhappiness. It is because,

we are afraid we may lose what we obtained on the fulfillment of our desire. And

along with this there is fear – fear, which turns out to be true. For, the thing

we desired and got, also leaves us. A dear one dies. A thief steals away our

money. Or the Bank goes defunct. Or, even when there is no obvious stealing, the

value of what accrued to us loses value because of inflation. We might have

saved, after great economy and frugality a lot of money for buying a house as

well as for a daughter's marriage, but all that is lost now because its present

value is not even sufficient for the ground value, nor for the preliminary

expenses needed for the marriage.

 

We desire something because we expect to get some satisfaction out of the

desired result. But to get that desire fulfilled we have to go through much pain

and suffering. We want to derive some satisfaction out of watching a movie in

the theatre, but just to get in we have to suffer the pain of a long wait in the

queue. And then there follows the sitting in the dazzling light, deafening

noises of the movie and sticky atmosphere of the crowded theatre. And we come

out with a head-ache and burning eyes. If we want to have the pleasure of

watching our favourite cricket match directly, it appears we have to present

ourselves even the previous night and spend the cold night in the open, in order

to get the right seat. Thus whatever it is from which we want to derive

happiness and satisfaction, we have to pay the price of a certain suffering for

it. And this is true even for a desire for the `good' things. Desire for

participation in a Vaikunta Ekadasi in Srirangam, or in an Arudra Darshanam in

Chidambaram may be a good thing but, for the fulfillment of it, one has to

suffer the jostling in the crowd, and braving the cold all night. Many of you

may have the desire – it is a good desire alright – to see the Puja held here in

the mutt and receive the holy water at the end, but I make you suffer by waiting

and fasting till as late as 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Even desiring a noble

objective by doing some yoga or sAdhanA entails various kinds of suffering

through obstacles. One wants to sit in PadmAsana but it is not easy; it breaks

your knee. Think of a Puja to the deity; there are rules and rules which

prohibit this flower for this deity and that flower for that deity and it goes

on like this endlessly. Religious fasting involves tremendous suffering.

Equally so a rolling circumambulation (anga-pradakshiNam) of a temple

sanctorum.

 

One may ask; `Then, does it mean that such difficult things like sAdhanA,

visiting of temples, doing pUjA etc. are not to be done?'. I shall come to that

question of suffering for good ends, at a later time. Right now, what I wanted

to establish is the fact that `Any Desire, for the matter of that, invariably

involves a certain suffering'.

 

Happiness (`Anandam') and Satisfaction (`tRpti')

 

Let us be clear. What is the root cause for any Desire? Certainly it is for a

definite satisfaction (`santoshhaM'). The word `happiness' may be the apt word

here. For, we may think `satisfaction' is pleasure, happiness, even more, bliss

and still even more, joy! But we are wrong. `santoshhaM' is nothing more than

`satisfaction' (tRpti). `toshham' itself means `satisfaction'; and `santoshham'

means `an intense satisfaction'. Maybe `to be happy' and `to be satisfied' are

closely related, but the two cannot be said to be the same. It is only in the

Anandam of the Atman, -- wherein it is said that there is nothing thereafter to

be dissatisfied about, and that that is the final end of all satisfaction – that

the two become one and the same. In all other things there is certainly at least

a shade of difference between Anandam and tRpti. When a cool breeze blows we say

we are happy; we don't say we are satisfied. Satisfaction comes only when we

have expected something and it is fulfilled. When we meet with a good thing,

having had no expectation of it, we only say we are happy about it.

 

Desire, Happiness and Unhappiness

 

I have been saying that we desire something for the sake of its giving us

happiness. But either that desire disapppints us by giving us only unhappiness;

or, it gives a little happiness and lots of unhappiness. Sometimes it gives both

in equal measure. Instead, sometimes, there comes a happiness by itself, without

our specially asking for it. Even if it is without any mixture of unhappiness,

it turns out to be short-lived. For, after some time it disappears into nowhere

and we come back to our usual depression and suffering. We could as well have

been better if this happiness had never visited us. Since anyway it has come and

gone, now we yearn for it to come again.

 

A man goes to the races thinking that money would bring him happiness. And he

loses whatever he had already and is now totally depressed. This desire

therefore is something which brings no happiness but only unhappiness. Another

goes to the movie thinking that he is going to have a feast for his eyes and

ears. And the movie totally disappoints him, by being nothing but ghosts and

murder. He is irritated that he has invited trouble for himself by paying for

it. Another goes to a music session. But the performer has a bad throat and the

music is a strain to hear. Another goes to a restaurant expecting to have a

hearty meal. But it turns out to be a rotten stuff. Having ordered it, he

somehow suffers it down his throat! And the trouble does not end there; the

after-effects of the meal tell on the stomach. Expecting a good feel of `touch'

for the skin, one goes for a shower bath and it turns out that the heater is not

working and he freezes under the cold shower!

 

All these are examples where one runs after a certain happiness but meets with

total unhappiness. I gave these examples relevant to the five senses of man,

through which one expects happiness – namely, sound, touch, form, taste and

smell (shabda, sparsha, rUpa, rasa and gandha).

 

(To be continued in Advaitam – 20)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to Kanchi mahaswamigal.

profvk