Sri Parthasarathi thunai Srimathe Ramanujaya
Namaha Sri Vara Vara munayE
Namaha Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE
Namaha How to come out of this cycle of life
and death? This question lies in
most of our minds where to find the answer? Emperuman who has so much grace on us
will never leave us in darkness so he gifted us with the Vedas that alone can
clear all our doubts. Once Indra
and virOchanan approached brahma and asked, ?Please let us know about the athma
(nature of the soul)?? Brahma replied, ?that which you see with your eyes is the
athma?. Virochanan accepted the
same without any further questioning and believed that the body visible to our
eyes to be the athma but Indra analysed a little deeper and came to brahma again
and asked the same question. Now
brahma told him ?consider your prAnan (breath) to be the athma. Since the body has life only when there
is inhalation and exhalation?.
Again Indra started to think and couldn?t get satisfied. So he went back to brahma and
enquired. Brahma said,? consider
your mind to be the athma? In this way Indra refused to accept each time and
kept on questioning brahma and finally brahma told him the truth that the soul
who is a seshan (servant) to the emperuman and he who is jnanasvaroopan
(personification of knowledge) is the actual athma. So to learn the truth we have to analyse
and not accept whatever one says.
The Vedas are the text that does these analyses in depth and provides us
all the final facts. Thirumangai
azhvar feels his utmost gratitude towards emperuman to have granted the Vedas
with full mercy on each one of us.
So Azhvar next calls emperuman as (vEdam nAngAi) Oh! Lord the 4 vEdas are
none other than you yourself.
Emperuman himself declares this as,
?vedaischa sarvai: ahamEva vEdhya:? (I am the prime topic of all the
vedas and hence I am well understood only through the sastras). Among the three accepted pramAnAs,
prathyaksham, anumAnam and sabhdham only the sabhdha pramAna (the Vedas) can
actually show us the paramatma. But does the Vedas show only the
paramatma Sriman Narayanan? No. It
gives references to number of devas and even states them to be the supreme. Not only that the Vedas also specify a
number of karmas and ways to attain the supreme. Why are the Vedas not clear and why are
they confusing? True. The Vedas do talk about a variety of
things. Why? That?s because not all
of us are equal in knowledge and practice.
Each one of us differs in different manner. Our interests are different. Our understanding capacities vary. So the Vedas that are common to all show
different things suitable to different adhikAris (categories of people). The same is done by our dear
geethAcharyan also in his divine bhagavat geetha where he talks about karma,
jnana, bhakthi and prapaththi yoga to suit different adhikaris (categories of
people). GeethAcharayan says in the second
chapter, ?triguNya vishayA vEdA: nistraigunyO
bhavArjuna I nirdvanthvo nithya satvasthO
niryOgakshEma AthmavAn II? (2-45) (Oh! arjuna the Vedas say the good for
people with all three gunas. But
you can climb a step higher.
Overcome the doubles viz., joy and sorrow, hot and cold, profit and loss,
victory and defeat. Let your satva
guna grow day by day. Leave the yoga, effort in obtaining other objects other
than the athmasvaroopam and the kshemam, effort put in preserving the obtained
objects and get involved with the upliftment of the soul
alone) ?yAvAnartha udhapAnE sarvadha:
sampluthodhakE I thAvAn sarvEshu vEdhEshu brAhmanAsya
vijAnatha: II (In a big river (water source) a person
who is thirsty can drink only the required amount of water similarly out of all
the Vedas whichever part is necessary for a vaidhikan/mumukshu he has to choose
that much only. Not all will be
applicable to everyone.) Now arjuna didn?t really know which he
has to choose and hence krishna himself guides him in the next
sloka: ?karmanyEvAdhikArasthE mApalEshu
kadAchana I mA karmapalahEdur bhoo: mA thE sankOstva
karmani II? (For a mumukshu like you, your
concentration should be on your nithya naimithya karmas but never think about
the lowly results of svargam etc as your result to be obtained. Don?t consider
yourself to be the reason for both the karma and result. Don?t get involved in not doing the
karma that results in moksha) In this manner geethAcharyan instructed
arjuna the importance of karma yoga. In this manner emperuman stands as the four
vedas to show the right way to each one of us so that all of us will get
uplifted from this samsAram gradually.
Karma yoga is the first step that will lead to purification of our mind
that will in turn lead to Jnana yoga that will help us in attaining athma
sAkshAtkaram (knowing the soul) and then we will be able to indulge in the
ultimate enjoyment of the soul and permanently mediate on it. This is the crux of the first six
chapters in geetha.
(To be
continued) Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE
sharanam Adiyen ramanuja
dAsee Sumithra
Varadarajan
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