Posted Date : 06:00 (25/11/2014)
Kaivalliya Navanītham
P.N. Parasuraman. Images:
Nataṉam
Three
Afflictions or
Miseries (=
தாபத்திரயம்
tāpa-t-tirayam = Three miseries =ஆத்தியான்மிகம்,
ஆதி
தெய்விகம்,
ஆதிபௌதிகம்
= āttiyāṉmikam, ātitaivikam, ātipautikam).
Kaivalliya Navanītham describes Sādhana Cadhuttayam (=
'சாதன
சதுட்டயம்’
= Four Instruments or means): No one can perform any act without
Sādhaṉam or means.
Yes, it is true. For simple acts, we use means. For us to get freedom
from miseries, and enjoy liberation, we should realize Kaivalliya
Navanītham. For that, we need many means.
We should desire to obtain release from miseries and contingent on that,
a good Gurunāthar will come to our rescue and show us the way.
The worm on the hot surface, whichever way it turns,
twitches unable to tolerate the fiery heat. Likewise, the pupil has come
having been scorched whichever way he turned. That twitching man is the
representative of humanity. (Tattva Exposition 5)
There is a short list of his afflictions.
The list in the poem is known to us. Let us experience the beauty
of its categorization.
A proverb says, where there is beauty, there is danger. That list
depicts a pile of dangers. They are three:
Ādhiyātmikam,
Ādhi
Deivikam, and
Ādhi
Bhautikam (= āttiyāṉmikam, ātitaivikam, ātipautikam =
ஆத்தியான்மிகம்,
ஆதி தெய்விகம்,
ஆதிபௌதிகம் என்ற மூவகைத் துன்பங்கள்.)
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ஆத்தியான்மிகம்
āttiyāṉmikam , n. < ādhyātmika. Physical and mental afflictions
caused by worry about one's self, one of tāpa-t-tirayam;
தன்னைப்பற்றி வருந் துன்பம்.
*ஆதிபௌதிகம்
ātipautikam , n. < ādhi- bhautika. Affliction caused by the
elements or earthly beings other than oneself, one of
tāpa-t-tirayam,
ஆதிதைவிகம்
āti-taivikam n. < ādhi- daivika. Affliction caused by fate or
supernatural agencies, one of tāpa-t-tirayam, q.v.;
தெய்வத்தால் வருந்துன்பம். (சி. போ.
2, 2, 3, Tamil Lexicon |
Ādhiyātmikam:
Self-inflicted evil, bodily disease, animal, malevolent spirit, king,
thief, and enemy are the causes. Other’s wealth, education, and wife as
the cause of jealousy constitute
Ādhiyātmikam
Ādhidaivikam.
Pregnancy complications, Birth, grey hair, wrinkled skin, old age,
Svarga (heaven), Narakam (hell).
Let us research them.
In life, we should think of certain matters; then, we will discover
something about us. That helps us behave properly without going haywire.
Ādhidaivikam:
The pregnancy problems mean we remained inside the mother’s womb for 10
months. What is that? Is it a stay in a five-star hotel? If the hotel is
not to our liking and staying there is undesirable, we can immediately
exit. But, we cannot easily exit from the womb. Like it or not, stay
for10 months in the womb is mandatory. It reminds us of ‘House Arrest.’
No way out.
OK, what is around us (in the womb)?
Mother’s feces, urine, blood and such malodorous confusion
prevails. Having put up with confinement in such an environment,
undergoing passage out of the womb, and finding freedom outside, do we
really have peace of mind (knowing this will be our last birth)? We move
our hands and feet and cry. The relatives respond with bursts of
laughter. We are left helpless and unprotected, when bitten by the
mosquitoes, ants… We are unable to express our untold miseries.
In the next stage as youth, do we have the privilege of doing what we
want? What we see with our eyes magnetizes us. We have no idea where we
fell, when we got up and how we managed through them with wisdom and
balance; by then, our hair turns grey, eyesight goes dim, old age takes
hold of us, presses and weighs us down by an agile force.
What is next… We are subjected to the next man’s derisive talk and
contempt and unable to bear such treatment, we wonder and lament, heaven
or hell, whether the god of death Yama (Thanatos) lost his Book of
Death.
An immensely clever man he is and yet cannot escape from the net of
Ādhidaivikam. Education, wealth, or position does not have the
wherewithal to rescue you from Ādhidaivikam.
Thirdly…
Ādhibhautikam consists of the five great
elements, the causative agents of the good and the bad: cold, heat,
rain, wind, lightning and thunder, tsunami, mudslide, earthquake…
In the likeness of the man unable to escape from the three miseries
twitches and flinches and at last to attain a birthless state, runs for
water to douse the flaming hair on his head, runs seeking the
Gurunāthar. Navanītham Kaivalliyam gives an example to the man who runs
seeking the Gurunāthar.
Truth tastes bitter, so it is said. Likewise, this verse is a bitter
pill. Having begun the journey and facing the adamantine mountain in our
path of liberation, could the journey be discontinued?
To the extent possible, let us try to go up the mountain.
In the above verse, there is a mention about three desires. Do you know
what those three desires?
Will continue.