GITA 3.38

GITA 3.38

oru magaL thannai udaiyEn 

ulagam niRaindha pugazhAl

thirumaL pOla vaLarthEn

sengaN mAl thAn koNdu pOnAn

Today also we will see the 37th sloka. Perialwar says that he brought up Sri Andal like his own daughter and like Sri Mahalakshmi and She was taken by Sri Ranganatha in marriage. We are at the Perialwar sannidhi in Sri Villiputhur. While all other Alwars prayed the Lord for Moksham and free from the worldly sufferings, Perialwar never asked for anything. In the nearby Madurai there was a king Vallavadeva. He wanted to know Who was the Supreme God and he invited all pundits of all faiths to prove their statements. Finally, it was Perialwar, who proved that the Supreme God was Sriman Narayana, by quoting from Vedas and he prize money came automatically to Perialwar. The King praising the Alwar made him to come on procession mounted on an elephant.

 The Lord appeared on the sky, mounted on Garuda, and Perialwar saw this beautiful sight and was afraid the Lord might get some curses from the spectators and so he sang the famous Pallandu pallandu, using the bells of the Elephant. In all his verses he never asked for anything and this is a reason why he is called Perialwar. Daily Perialwar idol is taken out by the Archaka to the Vatapathrasayi sannidhi on the right. 

There the Arayar will sing Pallandu pallandu. 

We will see 37th sloka again. We may have a doubt, whether the Kama mentioned, is sticking to our body somewhere and whether we could wash it off. Sri Krishna tells that kama and krodha are manifestations of our intellect or Gyana. Our intellect when dominated by lust, is Kama and when dominated by anger is krodha. Our Gyana's various stages are Kama, sneham [freindship], bhakti[devotion], krodha, etc. But Gyana is connected with atman or soul, while it was told that Kama is grown by rajo guna, which is connected with Prakrit or the world and our body. So the question is how rajo guna could cover intellect? Sri Krishna tells that the atman is in the body. Atman's Gyana is surrounded by the body which has satva, rajo and tamo gunas and so the Gyana is influenced by the three gunas. This Kama never gets satisfied and demands more and more. Kama here does not mean only sex, but all passions for eating or listening or amassing wealth, and so on. Beyond a limit all these are Kama. This never gets satisfied and so Alwar calls it thoorA kuzhi or bottomless pit. Like fire, it glows more every time. So Kama is considered as enemy. Arjuna now asks that if rajo guna could influence Gyana to Kama, why not the satva guna in the body influence the Gyana and avoid Kama in us? The Lord replies that the strength of rajo guna is much more than satva guna and so the influence of rajo guna dominates. Statistically also satva is only one third and the other two evil forces are in majority. Besides, we are used to sensual experience for so many births and so, they dominate. Now Arjuna tells that if that be the case, we have to know rajo guna is going to dominate and so, there is no use in trying to practice any yoga and so we can remain passive. Sri Krishna tells that there is influence of both satva and rajo gunas. We have to wait and watch and grab the opportunity when satva guna influence is there. Thgough this may be small, we could nurture and uplift ourselves. Like the Sun is Atman and like the sun rays is the Gyana. Like a cloud hindering sunlight, Kama hinders Gyana. We should know Gyana can function only via the organs including mind. When the Gyana takes satva guna while functioning through the organs, we get bhakti or devotion. On the other hand, if it takes rajo guna we get involved in lower passions. It is like pure water coming out of a shower. If the holes of the shower have dirt, the water coming out of those holes are also dirty. So by involving our mind and organs in the service of God, the Gyana does not get converted to Kama. That is Karma yoga can make our Gyana pure.

                                                            (continued)