You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Nov 2005

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00174 Nov 2005

 
Nov 2005 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


SrI:

Dear Smt Krishnapriya,

Wonderfully said. Padikka-p-padikka santhosham pravahikkkiradu! My
pranamams to you again and again.

You have beautifully expressed your experience about that Universal
Energy descending on the  worshipper.

But I think Bhagavad Aradhana is of a different kind and level. I
wanted to bring it in my forth coming mails (only 2 more:-)) but I
decide to bring it out in this mail itself as response to your mail.

If we look at scriptures, or more precisely, Gita, the give and take
policy for the balance of created universe in the name of yajna holds
good only for this - the created universe. Recall Bhagavan's words -
that He created Brahma deva onwards with yajna. This is for self
sustainment of creation, one round of which must last 100 Brahma years
or one Para which runs into trillions of years, say, roughly
4,32,00,00,000 x 2 x 365x 100 years.

But on what basis can we theorise that Brahman or Bhagavan also needs
to be brought into this Give and take equilibrium? By giving us this
Universe and this body, He has not reduced in his size. By taking up
something from us ,say by aaradhana, He wont be growing  in size. By
giving whatever or taking whatever from here, from there or from
anywhere, HE as Bhagavan has nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing
to get fulfilled, nothing to get satisfied. Remember the PurNAm verse
from the upanishads.

It is in Him we are, it is by Him we work, it is through Him we see
and learn and it is in Him we go back. His is about the Brahma yajna
which He says in verse 3-15. But this Brahma yajna is about the
created universe which must be seen as Brahman Himself, according to
Ramanuja Bhashyam.
This is what is being propitiated in Brahma yajna, the foremost of all
the 5 yajnas.

But Bhagavad Aradhana is a class apart.
This question why He must be worshipped and offered something has been
discussed in Shanthi parvam, Moksha dharmam. This question was asked
by  Yudhistira, for which Bheeshma replied that this is one question
which can not be replied without Bhagavan's  blessings, without gyana-
praapthi, not by arguments and might even take more than 100 years to
explain. But this Bheeshma-Yudhishtira samvaadam itself has been
ordained by Bhagawan in order that we the  very ordinary mortals of
this kali yuga may stand benefited. Can anyone of us pay back for this
compassion of the Lord for us??? Can the aaradhana we do compensate
for what ever He has provided with???

This doubt was in sage Narada's mind when saw God Himself in 4 forms
worshipping Himself.

It was witnessed in the Kritha yuga of the first manvanthra, the
Swayambhu manvanthra. It was then Sriman Narayana became His one son,
as sons of Dharma, as the 4 moorthys Nara, Narayana, Hari and Krishna.
These 4 moorthys began doing tapas and were doing deva karma, pithru
karma etc as per sashtras. Sage Narada was surprised to see this and
asked, what was it that He Himself had to worship.The reply to this
has been quoted by Bhagavad Ramanuja in his bhashyam to the verse 9-26
in  Gita on 'pathram, pushpam...'

The reply was that whatever was given with extreme devotion, the Lord
accepts them.
"Whatever acts are consecrated by those whose intellects are
concentrated  in SINGLE-MINDED DEVOTION, all these the Lord accepts on
His head." (shanti parvam -342).

The Lord needs nothing to be fulfilled. He is enjoyer of everything
and is Eternal Bliss. If one offers Him something thinking that he is
paying back, it is like a wife sharing the bed with her husband as a
payment for the comforts he has provided her. If you have a keen eye,
you will get lots of such  analogies from Purvacharya's granthams on
how the relationship is not something of give and take or paying back.

If you think that you do the aaradhana, with a prayer that He will
fulfil your wishes, acharyas provide us ready quotes  - it is like the
son asking the father to give him a promisory note that he will
defintely transfer his property to him (the son) !!

So it is not for paying Him back for whatever He has given, nor even
for doing us some favour in return for our aaradhana. If one thinks
so, God will certainly not be pleased.

 Can you feel pleased, if your son or daughter says that he or she
bought you a gift, because you fed them well or because you are going
to do them some help? Wont you feel beaten then? Wont you  feel bad?
Wont you feel let down?
Wont you think that your children have not understood you?

As  a mother you must have definitely not liked such reasons. I felt
so. Until recently my son was telling that he likes me because I cook
for him, because I help him in studies. I would just tease him, then
engage  a cook,you dont  need a mother. Engage a teacher, you dont
need me. But nowadays when he says that loves me because I am his
amma, I am just excited, elated, jump to beat his height, run, play
and enjoy him. I can visualise how Bhagavan would have been just
'pleased',  if someone worships Him because he just loves Him for His
sake, and not for any thing else, not for any benefit, not for any
kind of repayment.

This is what He precisely says in verse 9-26.  "priyathaathmana:" With
love, with devotion, with preethi..
If one gives in such mentality, He will go wherever they are, as he
went to eat the small piece of spinach from Draupadi's Akshya
paathram, walked to Vidura's house to eat his simple amudu, walked to
pamba to eat the fruit offered by Sabhari and demaded 'aval' from his
friend KushEla.

Under what circumsatnces, He accepts the offer has been told by
Himself. Duryodhana invited Him to have feast in his palace, when
Krishna walked to his kingdom for the sake of Pandavas to ask for
their kingdom.

Krishna said, that feast or food is taken under two circumsatnces,
one, when someone offers with prema, preeethi and love, food is
accepted whatever be its nature, two, when one is in extreme hunger,
he will accept  whatever is offered, with whatever intentions. Since
He (the Lord) was not hungry or in dire need of food, He was not
taking food from Duryodhana  and since Duryodhana was not offering
food with prema, again there was no need for Him to accept the food
offered by Him. So saying He left for Vidura's house and took what was
offered by Vidura with all devotion.

This must be remembered by us at all times.


We do daily aaradhana to Him, because we love Him.

We offer worship at temples, because we love Him. That is why our
elders have always done archanas only on PerumaL's name, even when
such archana is done on birthdays of some family member.

We offer some vasthram or jewels to Him at temples, because we love Him.

We write mails like this, because we love Him.

We talk about Him, because we love Him. (Have you watched young
mothers? They always talk something of their child only. Such kind of
obsession must be there. Only then as the Lord says, such a person
will be awake even when the whole world is sleeping. Such a  person is
one loved by Him.)

We ararnge for 'thaligai' in temples. because we love Him.

Do you know, Smt Krishna priya, that the kitchen in many of our
families is called as "thiru-maa-p-padi"? not as thaligai pandra uL or
samayal kattu etc. Thiru-p-padi maattru is the place where the food
items to be cooked for God are stored. In Tamil, the word padi means
food (we say 'avan padi aLAppavan' - giver of food). So our kitchen is
Thiru-maa-p-padi, the place where food is cooked for Him. It is not
for us. It is for Him. There is no thought of even food for our sake.
It ia not that we offer food before we take food. It is that He is
offered food out of preethi and we take the remaining of that food.

It is like how a mother always thinks of her child, sees to it that
the child is fed well and taken care well all the time. The only
intention behind all that is 'love' for the child.

This is from one point of view.

Let me tell from another point of view.

Imagine that you are under a king.
The king is the padi- aLappavan, gives you salary with which you run
your family.

The king happens to come to your place. You just rush in and bring
whatever you can from the kitchen and offer him. Is it because, the
king is hungry, in need of food?
Is it because you want to pay back the king for the  favours he has
done to you? If so, can you really pay back for all that you have
received from him?

Imagine, if you say so what the king's reaction would be . He will
laugh at you. Same thing with our Bahgavan.

He will laugh at out madamai, if we think that we are paying back by
our aaradhana.

He will go cross with  us, if we think that we do it for some future benefits.

He wants pure love, pure devotion and pure trust. If aaradhana is done
in this mindset, He will definitely come in some form and take it.
Try.
He is waiting for such an aaradhana, such a  devotee..

And another thing.
This aaradhana must be continuous - happening all the time. This is
what he expects from us when he further said in that chapter that
whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you
give away, whatever austerity you practice, do that as an offering to
Me (Him).

The Final one he is asking in this series, is phala-tyagam. If you do
that also, He will pervade You - something you said as Energy entering
your body. A male body or  female body is of no difference to Him. It
is you,  the Jiva who left Him eons ago for the world of samsara, whom
He is still following and trying to take back to Him.

He wants you (me, us) , not your offerings. But by taking those
offerings, He hopes to bring out a mind-change in us someday  so that
we will learn to offer sarva dharmaan at His feet, for His
consumption. The first step to this is the daily aaradhana.


Regards and expect more thought- exchanges from you or from anyone...
because this causes santhushti:-)
He causes santhushti,
His name causes santhushti.
His thought causes santhushti.
See how He is giving without us asking for this santhushti??!! So lets
not think about what He gives. Lets us think about what we can give
Him to express our Love for Him.


(PS - There is pramana from upanishads too. I have noticed you swiftly
coming up with related material. The above aspect about Love for God
being fundamental is expressed by sage Yajnavalkhya to his wife
Maitreyi. You can find it in Brihadharanyaka upanishad.)

-jayasree




On 11/18/05, krishna priya <neelakrishna2001@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Sreemathi jayashree ji;
>
>           In the course of answering and convincing my friends and my kids I
> learnt and understood   our customs in a particular manner  to some extent I
> could successively convince and brought  little change among them .But ,I
> would be sending  few one  by one madam so that I can correct myself if I go
> wrong anywhere. Now since god showed me such wonderful gurus I would like to
> take prior approval before telling them further anything.
>
>   This is what I feel about regular pooja /Aradhanam in general:
>
>     Aradhanam is done for thanking god and to guide us and requesting god to
> be us or in few cases to please god and to achieve what they/we want
> .Whatever be the reason Aradhana with all prescribed Upacharas   have
> manifold effect on the performer .Even though we say it for god or to please
> god it Is we who r finally being benefited. With my little knowledge I would
> try to put it this way:
>
> 1.      Having bath before starting pooja /Aradhanam is for physical
> cleanliness. But reciting shloka while having bath after bath clears energy
> around us and also puts us in the mood to start in required /prescribed way.
> 2.      Applying urdvapundrams/reciting dwadashapanjara sthotram/keeping
> tilakm protects the places from where higher energy got to be distributed
> all over physical body to subtle body. This implies that we r getting ready
> to invite higher energies to our home.
> 3.      Since ladies physical body cannot take energies invited by vedic
> chanting probably they r supposed to recite sthotras, but each sthotra has
> same power like homeopathy .mild but powerful.
> 4.      Udakam/water   is considered and proved highly powerful, auspicious
> etc., etc., by Vedas, Upanishads as well as science.
> 5.      After invitation of god prayers automatically prasadam is sanctified
> by gods blessing or higher energies.
> 6.      Once higher energies come person generally feels full cannot or do
> not feel like talking or uttering a word .some pleasantness creeps in .This
> is the stage where probably we sit to meditate to capture and hold back the
> feeling as long as we can.
> 7.      sashtangam or normal namaskaram  is  symbol to show our  reverence
> but again  it is like small exercise  for our good  to bring  body brain
> into alignment  to come back to our senses/to present world to attend our
> regular duties.
>
> But is it so easy to invite higher energies /god   and be with it? This
> needs training. Again here how person is trained, and personal effort, many
> comes into focus and needs attention too.
> Without showing any partiality   our great acharyas with the grace of god
> depending on the work/nature of work/duty stipulated by shastras each
> person/sect were given different methods depending on the   time
> availability again so that they are able to attend their family matters as
> well as spiritual duties. So totally, impartially balance was there as long
> as all were following what our poorvacharyas /sampradayam/shatra told. Those
> days (may be hundreds of years back) there was no restlessness among scholar
> or illiterate .May be education had different meaning those days. Therefore
> peace, tranquility was seen everywhere even though some incidents reported
> they were able to manage easily without disturbing/interfering nature's
> cycle.
>
>  Totally Indian /sanathanadharma follower's  life was not just meant to live
> a mere physical life.But it was great sadhana to become an aide  and was
> healthily taking part  to build and  rebuild  earthly properties  and  at
> the same  time see that he is not deviating from family life /whatever
> pattern of life he chosen and also reach god.
>
> So, Pooja rooms, temples were given important place as it is center of all
> activities
> Connected to universal understanding. (probably)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> Yahoo! FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click.
>
>




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page
http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list