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Selected Writings - V.Siva Subramaniam
Worldly Attachments: Revisited for the 21st Century
[the experience of Saint Manikkavasagar]
19 November 2006
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Introduction The support of Saivites was canvassed for fine-tuning the teachings in the scriptures in line with the present day aspirations. This was proposed in ‘Saivite teachings for the 21st century’. There is scope in the Saivite scriptures to delve in deeper for relevant spiritual truths and to present them in a form or style that stimulates bhakthi in the inhospitable 21st century spiritual environment. Most Saivites draw spiritual inspiration from the life and teachings of Saint Maniccavasagar. Sivapuranam serves as the regular prayer mantra. (Please see ‘Sivapuranam – in context’ in AMJ of Oct/Dec 2002). The objective of this analysis is to re-align the teachings in Thiruvasagam to the needs of the 21st century. For this purpose the essence of the spiritual truths in Thiruvasagam with reference to the Saint’s inner struggles in his spiritual journey were re-examined. In the absence of biographical records on the Saint’s life, Thiruvasagam put in perspective throws invaluable light on the Saints’s spiritual experiences. Thiruvasagam delves into the sage’s spiritual experiences from the saint’s consecration at the feet of god-guru and his struggles to detach his soul from worldly attachments until deliverance. Reciting the verses set in the context of saint’s spiritual experiences gives life when the verses are recited. Saint Maniccavasagar and Thiruvasagam were products of the age of bhakthi when the spirit of dharma governed the lives and values of Saivites. In contrast the radical changes in the attitudes and values in the last two centuries hold today’s devotees captive to crude individualism, materialistic, acquisitive and the notorious egoistic values. Hence the need to re-state the teachings to meet the 21st century social values. To most Saivites though the core teachings of the Saivite scriptures are timeless (be it the 21st century or the bhakthi age), the extent to which devotees follow the teachings of the scriptures is a function of the spiritual environment in which Saivites live. Still there were aspirants who overcame the situational constraints and attained spirituality. Throughout the ages sages renounced the world (living most times in ascetic isolation) to attain spiritual deliverance (moksha). Would renunciation continue to appeal to devotees today? This requires a clearer understanding of the essence of renunciation. Renunciation – purifying the soul of the sins of worldly attachments The Saint’s experience of the divine is a story of the intense mental struggles that began with his vision of God-Guru at Perunthurai. Thiruvasagam vouches to Saint’s intense mental struggles when the loss of the Perunthurai vision amounted to a separation from his Lord. The Saint mourns. Confused over what caused this loss of vision he swayed between blaming himself either as not deserving of the vision or that he had not done enough to hold on to the vision by purifying his soul of the bonds of worldliness.
The saint’s bemoans the loss of god-guru’s vision but acknowledges the Lord’s grace for the vision despite his imperfections. Thus with extra-ordinary sorrow and humility the Saint gradually renounces worldly pursuits cultivating instead an intense love of the Lord. He became an enlightened soul; a jeevamukta. I, low and foolish one. I passed through the fire, my heart Burst not with shame. To Thee, O Father, even yet may I attain! May I yet dwell with Thee (Sacred Cento 79) The Saint’s inner struggles were to purify his soul by abandoning worldly attachments. He was rewarded with more visions of the Lord especially at Kalukkuntram and Thillai. The reference to these visions in Thiruvasagam reflects the Saint’s inner consciousness of the Lord’s manifestations. Numerous verses in the Thiruvasagam give expression to the saint’s yearnings and the divine joy of the visions. An analysis of the Thiruvasagam is beyond the competence of the author. Only verses expressing the saint’s emotions during the stages relevant to aspirants of spirituality today randomly selected are analysed. For today’s aspirants earning the vision of the Lord remains in the realm of dream. Though the Saint was better placed in the pre-Perunturai stage the mental struggles of the Saint at this stage is most relevant to present day devotees. Since Thiruvasagam begins with the Saint expressing the divine joy of the Perunthurai experience in passing to the saint’s experiences of the pre-Perunthurai stage (often overlooked) in the verses are invaluable to devotees. Saint’s inner struggles to win back the lost vision More poignant and relevant to seekers of spirituality are the verses that express the pain of the saint’s struggle to regain the lost Perunthurai vision. The verses express the pangs of separation from his Lord; the saint’s desperate search for the causes and his struggle to remedy them. The Saint blames the unworthiness of his soul fouled by worldly attachments or desires and his incapacity to eradicate the attachments that lay hidden (lurk) in the saint’s soul. He struggled to purify his self of these desires to become worthy of God’s grace. With hands raised and folded up in prayer (Sacred Cento – I) the Saint trembles in un-controllable grief, tears flowing, the sense of loss overwhelming. ‘In pleasures false I plunged, and sank deep down, Each day of earthly prosperous joy, I thought it true, and thus enslaved I lay; In grace revealed, He made me his! Call Him ‘my teacher’… TO BREATHE HIS PRAISE, THOU HUMMING BEE (Humming Bee 17) thirukkothumbi ‘In this mad world, ‘mid stress and strife confused, From birth and death that ceaseless spring;- Where hoarded treasure, women, offspring, tribe, And learning’s store, men prize and seek;- He calms the storm of mental changing states, and clears from error’s mists the soul. (Humming Bee 6) The saint’s post-Perunthurai struggles reveal the emptiness of the worldliness and the pursuit of the material as ends in themselves. The saint’s realisation includes the truth that purifying the self in him turns the saint’s mind towards God. The saint’s passing references in the verses to the possessive streak is wide; covers material objects (hoarded treasure), kith and kin (women, offspring) community (tribe), and knowledge (learning). The Saint’s pain was all the more intense as the penalty for the mild attachments that lingered on in him was his separation from god. The Saint in ‘Foresake me not’ longs for the Infinite to overcome the oppressive burden of the finite (world). In Sacred Sadness the saint thanks god that though “I (the saint) was iron-willed” God let him go his way yet god’s grace dragged him back again towards him (god). That the realization of the hollowness of earthly life purified the mind finds expression in the Miracle Decad. My iron mind full often didst Thou, and Melt my frame; Thy feet to me didst show, …….. The jackals all Thou mad’st great horses; thus didst show Thy grace (Sacred Sadness 1) Commentators discern a symbolism here; the senses drifting uncontrolled in using the term jackals. The word ‘freed’ used in several verses refers to purifying the mind on gaining true wisdom realising the hollowness of worldly life (Miracle decad 10) Unlike in the simple dharmic world of the Saint, shallow glitters nourish rampant worldly attachments and the worldly sins associated with it today. Also sages (like The Saint) honestly and with humility (attributes sadly missing today) bemoan the sins of worldly attachments. Most devotees today obsessed with attachments overlook these obstructions in their pathway to god. The saint ridding attachments is succinctly put in the Tirupulambal 39 verse: I seek not kith or kin; place or name I prize not. The wise, no more do I desire, nor knowledge- Lord of Kuttalam! Thy beauteous Feet I seek, Like the mother cow yearning for its calf. Is the level of piety today as intense that devotees would abandon the worldly attachments in this manner for the love of god? To purify the soul of the illusory worldly attachments, breaking the bonds of attachments was the first step. Purifying the self elevates the Saint’s devotion to the Lord to become worthy or deserving of god’s grace. The Saint’s early life nurtured in the environment of the bhakthi age was intensely spiritual and this process continued until deliverance at Thillai. Renouncing worldly attachments today involves much more. Most saints experienced the divine after renouncing the worldly pursuits. Renunciation occupies a central position in Saivite spirituality. The philosophical truths, under-pinning suggests that bhakthi (god-love) basically requires more than a mental discipline to purify the senses. It requires one’s worldly actions to be subordinated to the love of God. Controlling the senses when the social forces today are more deluding than in the age of the saints requires a higher level of bhakthi .The bhakthi fervour in Saivites is generally nourished through temple worship and religious observances. Sages who renounced the world also made temples their homes from where they meditated and served God. The Saint is an example of that. That Lord Shiva is portrayed as an ascetic meditating in isolation on Mount Kailash bears testimony to the importance of the world-renouncing path to deliverance. Will renouncing the world and meditating in isolation appeal to the spiritually inclined devotees today? The answer is “yes’ provided the devotees opt for the substance as distinct from the form in renunciation. The substance of attachments itself has changed for the worse, especially ego, managing which calls for immense spiritual endeavours. The Saint’s experience – god love replacing self-love or ego The saint’s awareness of his unworthiness enabled him to turn away from ego or self-love (a form of attachment,) to love of god. When did this occur for the saint? There is no direct reference in the verses that the saint became a sannyasi. What is sannyasa then? Sannyasam is a detached state of mind. External trappings, saffron robes and professing piety are at most times deluding, being Sannyasa without substance. The Saint despised the world because it obstructed his path to god. A longing and love for the unseen reality (god) needed an inner strength to battle against the mind’s attachment to self-love. The moment, He became my inner Light That moment, I crossed the sea of desire. The moment that I starved my preying senses, That moment, they fled helpless from me! Ego annihilated, “I am”- thus play we Thonokkam Thiru thonokkam 15 (15.14)
Let others speak of me as a lunatic, but let me feel one with Thee Sacred Cento 3 The saint won the mind over without the external trappings of asceticism. The saint taunted as a madman wandered unconcerned; a perfect yogi with loin cloth and the begging bowl. Absorbed in an intense longing for god’s vision the saint was absorbed in deep meditation and craved for the company of other like-minded disciples of god. How prepared are today’s devotees to follow the Saint in this manner giving up the worldly for god love? Worldly attachments (desires) – the role of senses and ego The saint’s spiritual struggle is in effect a god-love vs worldly attachments tension. The space vacated by the illusions of attachment was more than adequate to accommodate the passion for god. Worldly attachments today especially self-love have grown out of proportion since the days of the Saint that the illusion of attachments almost squeezes out the passion for god from occupying any space in the soul. Only devotees consciously controlling the passion for worldly attachments allow a role for the passion for god in one’s soul. The following verse in the Sacred Cento expresses feeling that flows in the sage; When PONDERING Thee the thought goes forth, To reach ……….. Thee, Who art all the world, the senses five Know not, How Gain the Father’s foot that rests in all that is and every sphere beyond? (Sacred Cento 76) Torn by the tension between the mind responding to the call of the spirit and the senses dragging and deluding the mind for worldly attachments (desires) the Saint realized that senses stimulate attachments that mere reliance on the intellect to remove the illusions of worldly life was insufficient without the mind focused on god-love. In the final analysis the realization of the Absolute (god) ends desires or attachments completely. Meditation disciplines the mind for gnana or divine knowledge to turn the mind away from the worldly towards God. Self love (ego) – the most lethal of attachments today Most devotees today unwittingly identify the ‘self’ or soul with the body. This linking creates self love; a most lethal form of attachment and a major hurdle in the path of spiritual progress. To end the illusion of the body-self identity some devotees inflict physical pain; (pulling out nails, pricking with thorns) to disassociate the body from the soul for the soul not to be disturbed by bodily pain or sufferings. But the Saint broke the body-self identity not through physical but mental suffering. Egoistic attachments are much more rampant today that devotees lead a life of the unreal; a veritable complex of attitudes and values that strongly identifies the soul with the body whose senses create worldly cravings. Self-love or ego expresses itself in many ways; notably craving or longing for self praise and or recognition, The consciousness of the ‘I’, holding fast to one’s own notions of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, amongst others are egoistic illusions. Ego or self-love may tempt one to expect recognition of the scriptural knowledge that one acquires like seeking recognition for successfully acquiring wealth. True gnanam involves much more and comes from a realization or wisdom that body is not self or soul and that the thought of the divine is reflected in the attitudes, values, thoughts and actions of the seeker; in effect in the total personality.
Ego leads to the make-belief, body-self entity that nutures crude individualistic tendencies. Individualism is a widely practiced creed today. The communal living in the simple society of our sages is long gone; instead urbanization, population mobility, competition for economic survival leaves little room for social values that nurtured the caring dharmic culture of the past. The family unit has shrunk that most children look forward to living by themselves; that individuals young and old as in Western societies are left to fend for themselves in good and difficult times. In form at least such a life style has the hallmarks of sannyasam minus the caring spirit or the pasam of the kith or kin and tribe around. According to the scriptures Pasam is also a form of attachment that needs to be detached at some stage. In the social order today pasam has abdicated its role that cultivating instead god-love is easier provided devotees also detach themselves from the more distracting cravings after the wealth-name-fame combine. Devotees in effect live the life of house-hold thuravis; only that pursuing the love of god is not as it should be. Hardly any devotee today sets his sights on seeking vanavasam with a view to proceeding to sanyasam and further. In the present social milieu the only viable alternative to spiritual deliverance is to divinize the household thuravi-hood. God love and company of like-minded souls In the post- Perunthurai stage the saint for absorbing god-love sought the company of other god’s disciples to focus on meditation or god love along with like-minded souls. (Sacred Cento 60). Hail O my God! In grace behold me; Hail! Hail! I pray Thee melt my soul within me, Make me Thine! (Sacred Cento 64) When the soul identifies with god the thought of one’s separateness from god and the concern for the worldly disappears. So pure is the flame of divine love that it burns up all attachments; ‘physical and self-love’. Advanced soul act according to god’s will, that their actions rise above good and evil that unlike self-love, god-love inclines towards good. The mind is poised; the saint rid of the consciousness of virtue and vice, neither loves virtue nor hates vice; he acts as an instrument of god; god acts through him. How many devotees have such divinity to become instruments of god divorced from the I’ness or Ego that is so strongly entrenched in the attitudes and values of Saivaite society today. The teachings (in “Who am I”) of Saint Ramana Maharishi becomes an invaluable Saivaite scripture more so for the 21st century. (vide “Relevance of Ramana’s Message” in AMJ October/December 2004). The truths on self-love or ego in Thiruvasagam are timeless that Saint Ramana who devoted himself to god-love and renounced the worldly realized the potential divine within each and every individual without the I’ness in them. Most times Shri Ramana meditated alone, observed mounam in the search of his true identity which to him was not the “I” but the atman. He earned peace and indifferent to the vagaries of life, relished divine joy. Though devotees are possessed of the I’ness today; references to the truths underlying ego or I’ness are found in Thiruvasagam as in “Who am I”. In effect the Thiruvasagan is a fore-runner to “Who am I”.
Divinity creates a sense of oneness with god; the saint acted with the thought of god and not on the basis of good or evil that the body-soul entity determined. How many devotees reflect on their divinity before venturing to pass judgments on issues big and small affecting individuals, families and the community?
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