1-01PeriyavaOnSwami

By Periyava

Translation from Tamil: V. Krishnaraj

http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part1kurall01.htm

ஸ்வாமி என்றால் என்ன? : தெய்வத்தின் குரல் (முதல் பகுதி)

Swami: What does it mean? : Deivathin Kural (First Part)

Swami

We surmise, upon seeing a house, that a builder must exist. We come to know of the engineer of the building. The same is true of a car. It came into a form to serve a useful purpose. The home and the car did not spontaneously take shape. An intelligent being must have created it, we assume. This goes with all objects. There must be a plan and a creator or maker of all objects.

If that is so, there must exist of a Builder of the universe, with the later (universe) bound to multimodal disciplines and universal laws. He made it possible for life to exist on earth, in addition to Nature made of objects with multiple utilities. These are created with a motive. There must exist a great power to manage and maintain these objects.

We know who put together the cottage we occupy now.  Who made the plantain tree? We cannot see with our eyes the maker of the tree. But someone made it. In a plantain tree, we see layers of leaf stalks in perfect order. The maker has arranged them beautifully. We cannot show or identify the creator of the mountain, the stars, the moon… They came into existence long ago. We may ask how to identify and show the maker. This rose flower came into existence after the plantain tree. Day before yesterday, it was a bud. Now it is a beautiful blossom. There are hundreds of petals with minute veins and fragrance. It flowered right before our eyes. Yet, we do not see the maker of the flower.

We think we are the intellectuals. Consider this. An animal that goes around Chennai returns wonder-struck and not knowing anything it has seen.  Likewise, we live in this universe, not knowing its origin…  The one who is more intelligent than man kept him like this (with ignorance).

Rose flowers blossom under its own Dharma. So are the fixed mountains, the roving stars… under their own Dharmas. It is apparent one Engineer made all these. It is apparent there is one order under Kāraṇa-Kārya principle (Principle of cause and effect) that bind the whole universe, the maker of which is one Supreme Intellect.

The self-enamored, the self-assured and the self-described intellect, which is man, must know the Greatest Intellect of all times, because not only He is the First and the Foremost Intellect of all times but also a good Being. The Greatest Intellect having planned and created all these, exercises his power to protect all with compassion. He does us good, if we offer worship, knowing all these were his bounty and realizing that our intellect is a grant from him.

Only He is Svāmi.

Our intellectual endowment, though meager by comparison, is evidence of his existence. The footprints help us identify the thief.  The footprints of Svāmi, who stole our heart, mind, and soul, are the tracks seen all over the world. Our comprehending intelligence is evidence of his footprint. There must be a proven base or repository for our intellectual endowment which is proof (of his immanence) and his footprint.

We are the evidentiary proof of extant Svāmi. Can we ever draw the person-specific dermatoglyphics (ரேகைகள்) on the palms?  We see a great city layout because of the intelligence of man: roads, rails, highways, buildings, monuments… More surprising and complicated is the wonderous layout (anatomy) of God-created leaf: petiole, midrib, lateral veins, sublateral veins, terminal veins, borders…   The objects in this world are the evidence of that Great Thief’s dermatoglyphics (Palm lines). (We see his palm prints and fingerprints in all objects of the universe.) As the thief remains in hiding, The Great Thief -Svāmi-is also in hiding. Vedas say repeatedly that the Thief of all thieves hides in the cave (the cave of the heart).