Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya nama: Dear bhAgavthAs, Humble pranams to all. Thanks for the excellent posts on TiruppAvai by the erudite(ilove that word) Sri Vanamamalai Padmanabhan. Would like to share my(nay borrowed)views. We live in a ripened kali yuga and we fall prey to worldly temptations at light speed. Majority of the population is in the pursuit of money,power,lust and what not. How do we extricate ourselves from this infinite loop? We have been reading lot of articles on bhakti vs prappti/effort vs grace etc. Many SVs worship anya dEvatAs. On one hand they claim that Sriman NArAyaNa is the supreme and on the other hand they would be visiting shaivite temples and circumambulating navagrhas. Is it j~nAnam or aj~nAnam? Surely the second category. A "true" SV will only worship Sriman NArAyaNa. I have read couple of articles on "how a SV should be?" in related e-lists. Seriously I don't think it's possible for us to develop good traits on our own. One has to remember Sri PiLLAn's milk analogy. It's the Lord who fosters in us all the good qualities(which is like mother's breast milk)and the qualities developed by ourselves is like the milk bought from the store. We have ignorance in abundance! If we realise that NArAyaNa is the Supreme then we will not resort to any other demi-god or will not be desparate of material benefits either. The Lord says in BG that such realisation happens only after so many auspicious births! All we have to do is to wait patiently for that auspicious moment. When the mind is after material benefits,we dare to do business transactions with demi-gods and the Supreme God(NArAyaNa). One of my friend(we are birds of same feather) bet with the Lord of Tirumala Hills and had a pact that for every one lakh profit he makes (stocks in $),he would do kalyANa utsavam (the costlier one)for the Lord. He was making lot of profit(50 lakh)and decided to visit the Lord. Look at the beauty of the human mind. The mother said that both the kalyANa utsavams(cheaper and the costlier)are the same and they should perform the cheaper one. My friend also did and the next day he was in debt. I was telling my friend about the greatness of TiruvEnkatamudaiyAn and one should keep up the word with Him otherwise He will teach us what business is as He is the real "dAdA" in business. I also told him the greatness "ozhivil kAlamellAm(third decad and third tiruvAymozhi)and the power that TiruvAymozhi has and that Lord can grant anything from the lowest of the low to highest of the high puruShArthams that one need not go to any anya dEvathAs. People resorting to demi-gods instead of Sriman NArAyaNa reminds me of Sri PiLLai lOkAchArya's words. It is analogous to the wife's seeking another man(otherthan the husband)for "some" pleasures. Sometimes we are worried about what others think of us and even try bend our principles for no good reasons. My godsister asks me why I'm so picky about worshipping only Sriman NArAyaNa when she worships all gods. If I explain to her the greatness of Him,it will not get into her head. Instead I(being an admirer of Bertrand Russell in this mundane world) gave her a blatant reply saying that equality can be made at all levels and hence one can even exchange husbands and wives. She got zapped and told me that I was arrogant and rigid. At such times I only think of "thURRuvAr thURRattum pORRuvAr pORRattum pOgattum kaNNanukkE". Even EmperumAnAr could only convert some(and not all)people to SrivaiShNavam. Classic example is UyyakkoNdAr who believed in bhaktiyOga and couldn't appreciate prappati. EmperumAnAr replied that UyyakkoNdAr lacked His Grace and that's why he isnot able to appreciate SV. When His grace falls on us,we are blessed with an "authentic" AchArya who bestows on us the "authentic" knowledge. Untill then we are inside the circle of aj~nAnam with infinite radius. Pardon all errors graciously. I dare to say that Lord SriRanganatha has the power to deprive us of all material pleasures with the exception of the sole yearning for Him alone. "aNdarkOn aNiarangan en amudhinaik kaNda kaNgaL maRRonRinak kANAvE" samastha lOka DhArka rAm;sakala jIva samrakshaka rAm AzhvAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar TiruvadigaLE saraNam NC Nappinnai
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