Your Attention
Please
" Passengers, Your Attention, Please" a
familiar voice emanated from the speaker in the central station calling for our
attetntion.
Students do not talk, Be attantive
-commanded the teacher in the class.
"Can you turn your attention from serials
to your homework" is the regular dialogue from the mother to the kid in the
evenings.
The mobile phones, land lines act as a
deterrent in concentration. When I viist the client places, these interrupt the
attention that is needed for the subject matter.
We can observe the common thread in the
above scenes. Everyone is craving for attention-Undivided
Attention. This matarialisitc and fast world does not allow that to
happen and alas! attantion has become a scarce commodity.
How about the Lord ? one may wonder. Let
us take Sri Nam-AzhwAr's words from Thriu-voi-mozhi.
"Chikkenach siRidhOar idamum
pulappadAth thannuLLEa, vulagugaL okkavEA vizhungi,
pugundhAn,pugandhadhaRpin,
engum pakka nOkkaRiyAn -en
painthAmaraik-kaNNanEa" 2-6-2.
The Lord wanted to attend to Sri
Nam-AzhwAr without any disruption, without any interception whatsoever,
ceaselessly, without any distractions. When a person wants to be free from
disturbance what does he does?.He finishes off all his pressing works and then
settles down with whatever he wants to do with peace of mind. Similarly, the
Lord did not want any 'SOS' call from anybody.
He took care of the whole world.Swallowed in Him and tucked it safely in the
belly and after that with great peace of mind, entered AzhwAr's mind to cherish
the stay there without any perturbance. He did not see this way that way and the
Lotus eyed Lord-engum pakka nOkkaRiyAn.This is akin
to a king completing all his royal duties ere entering the
andhappuram.
Two references in EDu are worth noting in
this regard.
One is a reference where the Lord had got
distracted and one is when the devotees do not attribute due atteniton when they
enter the temples to worship the Lord.
When Sri ALa vandhAr appraoched Sri
kurugai kAvalappan who was in yOgam and was interacting with the Lord passively,
he could sense, a sense of restlessness from the Almighty. The Great Supreme,
who normally never gets distracted even when the pirATTimAr-s beckon
Him, started to peep with curiosity towards the entrance. Immediately relaising
the situation, Sri Kurugai kAvalappan enquired " ingu sottai
kulathavar yArEanum vandhAr vuNDA?" referring to Sri Yamunaith
thuRaivar's nearness.
That reflects the undivided attention the
paramAthmA attributes to the jEvAthmA.
Sri Nam-piLLai refers to some devotees who
remove their footwears at the entrance of the temple and constantly think of
these chappals outside when they are inside the sanctum-sanctorum. They think of
these sandals when they ought to be concentrating the Lord. 'seRuppu vaithu thiruvadith thozhuvAraip pOlEa' says swAmi
Nam-piLLai.
The Almighty gave us the physical body,
sAsthrAs and goes on repeating this act like a farmer -SombAdhu ippallurivai
ellAm padarvitha vithA-for ages. He is waiting in diva-dhEsams like
thirunaRaiyUr, thiruvarangam, thirukkurugUr-ninRa Adhip
pirAn niRka-to retireve us eternally. He tries to extricate us from
materialstic attachments --vaN kaLavanEan manatthai
valithu --Thriuvoimozhi
5-1-4;
We, the mortals, riding on our mundane
pursuits and immersed in the worldly pleasures refuse to meet Him eye to eye.
Deny to acknolwedge the nature of the jEvAthmA and ParamAthmA and stubbornly
insist on the attachments for ever.
Unlike the common perception, He is
craving for our attention and not vice-versa .
He is looking for us and tacitly wants and
says
"Your Attention
Please"
dAsan
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
|
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |