Sutra 69. Teertheekurvanti teerthaani sukarmeekurvanti karmaani sacchastreekurvanti Saastraani.
[They (such devotees) impart sanctity to places of pilgrimage, render actions righteous and good and give spiritual authority to scriptures.]
Teerthaani: holy places.
Teertheekurvanti: make holy places
Karmaani: actions
Sukarmeekurvanti: make meritorious actions
Saastraani: scriptures
Sat-sastreekurvanti: make authoritative; make sacred
scripture .
This Sutra is an extension to the previous Sutra where we read that the family / nation / world where such men of realization exist, stand blessed!!
When, in devotion, a devotee merges with God and exists as a divine being himself, God has a purpose. God gives such devotees, intuition as to how they have to serve mankind.
On the contrary, Sri Ramana did not go around like other few Saints, he remained more or less near Arunachala, spoke very less and that was his intuitive path. Even in that silence, in the Sage's Aura, there were disciples who got Realization, notable amongst them is Sri Muruganar.
The list is endless.
So, the essence is that when a devotee merges with Bhagawan, Bhagawan gives him intuition and sends him to this world to serve mankind in some unique way. So, in God's mission, it is but obvious that wherever such a saint goes, that place has to be sanctified, whatever he speaks, it has to be the voice of God, whatever he writes, it is God's own scripture!!!!
Such noble devotees turn ordinary bathing places into sacred
places of purification, ordinary acts into pious deeds and words of
instructions into holy texts.
Their presence adds holiness to the place where they
live. Their thoughts are dynamic. Their thoughts transform their environments infusing peace and
joy into them.
We do not know of any one who has become a saint by
reading Shakespeare, Herbert Spencer, Milton, Goldsmith or Shelly, but there
are thousands who have adopted a new divine life by studying Gita, Upanishads and other such treatise.
Each time these books are studied by a
man, they receive a greater power to transform the hearts of the reader.
When we study the works of Sankara, Vivekananda and of those who came a little later like Swami Sivananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi etc., we are able to read / experience a sense of beauty of their own Self Sacrifice, of their selflessness and compelling aroma of their constant love for their mankind.
One such life can inspire the whole world to strive for such an ideal existence.
It is these noble men of Realization who move about serving humanity and joyously sharing the ecstasy of their love, their experience that add a secret glory to all actions. They lend a compelling authority to the scriptural texts.
Goddess Ganga was propitiated by the austere penance of
King Bhagiratha. She appeared before Bhagiratha and said, “All the sinners of
this world will wash their sins and purify themselves by immersing their sinful
bodies in my holy waters. Where shall I
wash the immense store of sins they deposit in my watery body ?”
Bhagiratha replied, “O sacred Mother ! Holy saints will
bathe in Ganges and purge you of all your sins, because Lord Vishnu, the
dispeller of all sins, dwells in their heart.”
Bodhgaya, Jerusalem and Mecca have all been regarded
sacred only on account of their being respectively associated with Buddha,
Jesus and Muhammad.
It is the Saint that constitutes the real Tirtha.
That which enables a man to cross over an obstacle, such
as a boat in a river, is a Tirtha.
The stones on which they sat, the paths on which they
have trodden, the villages through which they have passed, the lakes in which
they have taken baths, the trees under which they have taken their food are
sanctified.
Their names are even now associated with these places and objects.
Guru Nanak’s name is linked with Panchasahab near Taxila. His fingers are shown
in the Kund.
Bodhi Tree in Gaya is associated with Lord Buddha.
There are numerous such places which are sanctified by the presence of such yogis.
Love.
