Oh God! I do not know when I would be able to control my mind and travel through various worlds of the universe and be quiet and peaceful in the space beyond.
It does not mean inactivity; but find up peace, rest and happiness in the mind. The restless mind must start concentrating on one thought. As we all know the mind is restless; it goes on jumping from one thought to another. In order to anchor our mind, we must resort to certain sure ways. For example we can learn recite a particular word, or phrase continuously. We can sing religious songs in praise of God. We can avoid going to various places, but visit temples. Instead of involving in violent and undesirable acts, we can sit and read religious and philosophical treatises. We can meet spiritual teachers and have philosophical discussions. We can tell others about the meaning of life. We can write and publish books.
Somehow or other, the mind must revolve around spiritual thoughts always. Thus we must realize where our mind anchors and rests.
God dwells in two eyes in the body as the soul. Our mind stays in the eyes which are responsible for the thoughts of the mind. We often mention that we see through our mind’s eye. Thus eyes are responsible for our rise and fall in the life. Eyes are the root cause of all our thoughts – both lustful feelings and saintly thoughts are brought forth by eyes. Let us not look at things outwardly. We must see inwardly and look into eyes. This will make you experience a rare feeling, beyond the eyes. This is what one must achieve.
When the feeling is inside, mind will not go out. Mind will concentrate on the inner feeling of divinity. As we practise this experience on and off then mind will have its own control on the feelings and thoughts. Finally mind becomes inactive and restful. The soul will not feel that there is mind. This is “the supreme state of being peaceful and mindless” (_Summa Iru__).
“Being mindless” is a rare and extraordinary state of soul.
The following incident illustrates the significance of this state. Once an auditor visited a temple and checked the accounts of the temple. There was an entry about providing food (ball of rice) to someone who was sitting quietly without any activity. The auditor asked the accountant why he provided food for an inactive person, a lazy person. Servants of the temple took him to the saint who was sitting quietly. The auditor asked him what he was doing in the temple. The saint replied that he was not doing anything, just sitting with an inactive mind;. “should we provide you food for doing nothing?” asked the auditor.
The saint asked if the auditor could sit quietly. The auditor said it was quite easy for him and sate near the saint. Immediately he started thinking about his auditing work he had to finish. He also felt that he was arguing with the monk and wasting his time. He became restless and could not spend even a minute without flow of thoughts. After five minutes he admitted his defeat and instructed the temple authorities to provide two balls of rice instead of one for the same saint who sat without any activity of thoughts.
It is really a tough task to be quiet with inactive mind. Thoughts flow continuously. The penance is the way to become mindless. It is through the meditation of divine feet that we achieve this inactive, thoughtless mind. Soon we will realize that we will become Lord Shiva. “The divine feet lead you to become Shiva”, says Thirumoolar.
Mind must become inactive. Active mind generates thoughts which must be made to disappear through the power of penance. This is true successful achievement. So many saints have sung in praise of meditating upon God’s feet. They have expressed these spiritual guidelines through subtle phrases which can be understood by wise interpretations. This is because the sages of _____expect us to think and understand the meaning independently, and analyze the meaning and become wise.
Complete knowledge leads one to wisdom. Then practise what you have learnt. This will provide you necessary experience and the experience will make you realize the significance of supreme enlightenment.
Some of the expressions about the worldly life must be interpreted carefully. The deeper meaning is beyond our imagination. For example: “_____”. On the surface level it means : The wife who had been protected by her husband, was kidnapped by another man. Succinctly it means: one who protects us is Maha Vishnu. His consort is goddess Lakshmi who symbolically represent wealth. “Another man” refers to thieves and robbers. So the subtle meaning is: one struggles hard and saves money; the hard earned money is taken away by thieves and robbers.
The messages is: “even money and property will desert you one day or other”. We create, protect and destroy things. Thus, we perform all the three activities of God. Everything is inside us. As we think more and more about the wisdom, and realize the true nature of man and our wisdom spreads far and wide throughout the universe. This is what we mean by “complete knowledge”.
Vallalar once mentioned: Now my wisdom spreads throughout the earth, planets and goes across the vast space of universe which consists of many solar systems. What we could not even imagine about the universe, the saint have experienced the presence of vast space and the universe.
Must we not understand that there is such a stage? If we lead the life of an ordinary man, it leads to rebirth. We must realize the divine path through our eyes and drink the divine nectar and grow to become one with God. This is what the exp Such a life is the perennial life of deathlessness. We are alive because of the supreme power of God.
We are “selfless” souls aiming to become one with God. This is the self-realized state of perfection for the soul (Mukthi).
The most suitable path to realize the supreme God is “summa iru” (be in the inactive state of mind).
People follow different paths of liberation, yoga and austere penance. This is not at all necessary.
Lord Murugan went round the world in order to get the fruit of wisdom from her parents. But Lord Vinayagar went round the parents and claimed the fruit. The left eye is Sakthi (the mother goddess) and the right eye is Shiva, the father. If you go around your parents you can reach the supreme state of wisdom.
Avvaiyar says: the moon and the sun are responsible for the liberation from birth and deaths.
People advocate many forms of worship to satisfy gods. But God advised “be thoughtless” (___) to Arunagirinathar. He enjoyed worldly pleasures, suffered greatly and finally decided to commit suicide from the tower of Tiruvannamalai temple. When he jumped Lord Muruga, disguised as a Brahmin priest saved him and said, “summa iru”. He sat in the pillared hall and started penance to achieve inactive state of mind. Finally when he realized God, Arunagirinathar became a parrot in the hand of Lord Muruga and became one with Him. Arunagirinathar praises God in his Thiruppugal song: “I have not understood the deep meaning of the holy phrase “summar iru”. The great master Lord Muruga has neither birth nor death”.
He also insisted: It is not necessary to wear saffron clothes, grow beard, eat fruits and live in the forest. The soul must find solace in the cool lotus feet of God (the two eyes). This is what we must achieve in this life.
Let me tell you my dearest people if you want to conquer death, “practise thoughtless mind”. The God, the purest form of divinity is to be accepted as our “husband” and become one with Him. Lord Krishna is known as “Kannan” (_). Meditate upon him – the pupil of the eye. This is the greatest and highest form of happiness.
These secrets of divine wisdom must be known to all of us. The spiritual saints wanted all of us to know these succinct paths to live a life of deathlessness. I have expressed openly these secrets of attaining spiritual wisdom in both treatises – Kanmani Maalai and Arulmani Maalai. Regarding the knowledge of spiritual path there is nothing to hide. I have made it open to all.
If saints hide these spiritual knowledge they are doing irreparable harm to society. They must hide the evils of the society. Instead, through mass media, they make anything public throughout the world and spoil the mind of others. There is no one to question this.
There are many spiritual leaders and bogus monks who hide secrets of self-realization and liberation from the public and lead a comfortable life in this world.
All saints have expressed the ways and means of achieving supreme state of deathlessness, in order to make people follow the path of righteousness.
The saints wanted people to know all about the worldly life and the ways to become divine souls. The ______ about the path of wisdom lies in handling the methods and not in hiding them from the public. The saints wanted to share their knowledge and divine experience with all of us. The saints have expressed their views of conjugal love too. “Kamasutra” tells us how we should experience the physical relationship. Adhi Sankarar has talked about this. As a Tamil saying tells us : Learn about everything including stealing and then forget it. However, you must forget evil ways; learn about the wise path and lead the life of righteousness. According to saints, conjugal relationship also has relevance in this life, so long as the disciplined practice of physical relationship is maintained. If one realizes this, he can lead good life with power and efficiency.
Human soul is covered with three types of impurities. Once we burn these impurities with the heat produced from the penance and divine knowledge, the souls become pure, brilliantly shinning. The true nature of soul will be revealed. This is the achievement of human soul through spiritual wisdom.
The divine light is experienced through eyes; practice of penance through the eyes will lead one step by step to the perennial life of deathlessness. Being with restful thoughtless mind is the way to reach the highest blissful state. Let the beautiful enormous beam of light shower his blessings on you!