--- sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > This is the stuff of which "patti mandrams" are made- are Stotras > prompted by overwhelming devotion, or born out of a desire to > please the Lord, who is a "stava priya:". However, in the ultimate analysis, it is the antaryAmi > who partakes of the pleasure, and this should absolve us of any > feelings of self-interest. > > These are off-the-cuff remarks, so to say, prompted purely by the > heart, without reference to doctrinal positions. Thanks again to > Shri Sudarshan and his enlightening inputs. Dasan, sadagopan. > Dear SrimAN Sadagopa Iyengar, I don't know much about "intellects" ("barren" or otherwise), nor much about "doctrine" but this much I can humbly tell you : Yes, this is the kind of harmless light-hearted banter ("patti-manram") that makes 'bhagavath-gunAnubhavam' leisurely and pleasant. I have often wished our cyber-groups (T'vengadam especially and others too if they may) engaged now and then a bit more in exchanges such as ours if only to relieve the tedium of the flood of serious, heavy and ultra-solemn postings we get to read day-in and day-out. There is no harm, I think, in occasionally making religion a little entertaining too. ********* ************ You have concluded that "in the ultimate analysis, it is the antaryAmi> who partakes of the pleasure" (of "stOtra"). This I'm able to entirely agree with for we see the Upanishad too affirming it in statements such as 'I am the Self' ('aham brahmOsmi') and 'I know the Self to be pure Ananda (Joy/Pleasure)('aanandam brahmanO vidvAn') etc. The real and highest purpose of "stOtra" is precisely that: To enable one to go into oneself (remember YagnyavAlkya's quest?) to that ultimate seat of joy residing within the Self ('antaryAmi') -- which is sheer joy unto joy even. And that indeed is the reasoning too behind the epithet "stava-priya:" given to God ALmighty in the Vishnu-sahasranamam. Thanks once again for a very lively discussion, Rgds, dAsan, Sudarshan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! News - Today's headlines http://news.yahoo.com
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