Periyava Golden Quotes 1030-1031

Periyava Golden Quotes-1030

It is the nature of the mind to always go to extremes. It can never follow moderation, on its own. That is why the scriptures have laid down that the mind can go to these two extremes. ‘If you are asked to eat in moderation, your tongue will not listen. Isn’t it? Then here we give a number of festivals where you can eat all the delicacies to your fill’. But you should not stop with that. To compensate this it lays down stipulations for complete fasting on some occasions. So on some festive occasion, the scriptures allow you to eat to your fill and dance/sing to your satisfaction and on some other occasion’s calls for observing strict silence and fasting. The scriptures connect both these ‘extremes’ to the ‘Path of Divinity’. It lays down several mode of worship like ‘Pitru-Kaaryam’ (Ancestor worship), ‘Panchaayathanam’ (Worship of the five main deities), ‘Vaishvadevam’ (feeding the all living beings) and to compensate (these external worship), also instructs us to remain in silence and meditate on the Supreme (Aham Brahmasmi).  – Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal

Periyava Golden Quotes-1031

Humans are unable to follow the moderate path on their own, in their daily life. To help them practice this moderation, the scriptures have laid down these two extreme modes. Balancing ‘feasting’ through ‘fasting’, balancing ‘activity’ through ‘silence’, etc. will help us to be moderate on all aspects of our life like the Scales, which is balanced when equal weight is put on both sides. It will help us achieve ‘Yuktham’ (Uniting with the Divine) through ‘Mitham’ (moderation) in our life. So practice of these two extremes alternatively, will lead us on the path of moderation.  – Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal