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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00102 Jan 2003

 
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Jai Sriman Narayana,
For the past sometime now, there have been discussions about AnDAL seeking the 
help of kAma dEva to get to Her Lord.Here is another nice reason for it as 
told by my father :
It is a known fact that any act we do or any thought we cherish is good if it 
is directed towards the realization of the supreme. It is not wrong to approach 
any person for help and direction, if the objective of our effort is to get His 
attention and Love. If the person whom we approached can guideus towards our 
goal in a proper way, he becomes our AchArya. If not, thereis a hope that he 
can direct us to a better person.

It is mentioned that when a demon called Ghanta karNa (an ardent devotee 
ofSiva) asked Siva to grant Him salvation, Siva says to Him, ?You have knocked 
the wrong door?. There is another one who is the only fit one to grant such a 
boon. GhanTA karNa didn?t want to hear the nArAyaNa nAma and soSiva gives him 
the description of the features of Krishna and tells him that such a person 
will visit Badari in the future. You approach Him and please Him. He will grant 
you your wish.

So, here Siva became an AchArya to ghanTA karNa. He directed him to the supreme 
Lord. 

Here AnDAL approached kAma dEva. As we all know (by proper experience) 
thatkAmam is a force that cannot be conquered by any one, however great 
he/shemight be. Sage viShwAmitra had shown us through his illustrious life, 
thatits impossible to gain control over it without His grace and it can be 
sublimated by channelizing it in the right direction. Obviously that 
directionis none other than the Supreme Lord Himself. He Himself has commanded 
? ?Do your penace, austerities etc as an offering to me.? If these penances / 
austerities are done with some other purpose like gaining supremacy over the 
worlds or getting self-realization (the buzz word next in importanceonly to any 
latest IT technology) they can lead to the ultimate downfall of the person. 
Controlling such emotions is very dangerous as that kAma can silently grow 
without your notice and over-power you easily.

So, the desire towards worldly pleasures ceases when its directed to the 
supreme Lord. It is said that one can have any kind of relation-ship with 
thesupreme Lord. It is said that if SisupAla can get His grace by constantly 
hating Him, if kamsa can get His grace by being afraid of Him, How can the 
gOpIs be stopped of being subject to His endless Love, as a result of 
constantly longing for a communion with Him. The desire was there, but it was 
directed towards Him. It was directed to please Him and be in the blissful 
state of communion with Him. 

Here AnDAL, is asking the kAmam to be directed towards Him and not get deviated 
towards other petty worldly pleasures. 

If the desire is given the form of a demi-god called kAma dEva, it can be taken 
that AnDAL is seeking his help to direct her (and ?US?) only towards the Lord. 
It can be argued that when the Lord is both the means and the end, Why should 
we approach some lesser deity?. ? Yes its true. He Himself gives us that 
understanding and Love towards Him and makes us long for Him. But there is this 
karma, which drags us towards the materialistic pleasures. He has designated 
kAma dEva to grant us such wordly pleasures. So its nothing wrong to show 
respect to such designated authority and seek his help. By seeking his help, we 
are elevating him to the position of an AchArya. (It is just like respecting 
Brahma as the god designated for creation andseeking his blessings). Also, our 
AnDAL is fully aware of whom such an address will actually point to. She is 
actually addressing that antaryAmi in kAma dEva. The reason behind approaching 
kAma dEva is because he has been assigned such a task and as our karma directs 
us towards materialistic pleasures, lets approach the one who directs our 
desires and plead him not to direct our kAma in the wrong way.

Also, our AnDAL is adept at commanding all the gods. Being the divine mother, 
everything is under Her control. She had commanded varuNa dEva to rain nicely 
in the ?Azhimalai kaNNA? pASuram. Here it can be taken that she is commanding 
the kAma dEva ? not to misdirect her children who are devoted to Her Lord. She 
is telling kAma dEva ? ?O kAma dEva ? I am totallylonging for my Lord. I have 
no other wish. Direct me only towards my Lord and show the way to reach Him?. 
It has to be taken that She is commandingon our behalf. ?My children who are 
devoted to the Lord are not able to experience Him, by being deluded due to 
their karma. See to it that you do not keep them glued in their material 
pleasures and direct their kAmam in the right way towards the Lord. Its because 
you have been given the task of directing the desire towards its objects and 
effect their attainment?.

Our Mother has sung TiruppAvai for our sake. She has shown simple examples of 
the nature to explain to us about the nature of the supreme Lord. She out of 
Her love has explained the complicated things in the most easy way. 

We are philosophic fools. When something is presented to us in a simple way, we 
think that its not worth it. But are we in a position to digest and understand 
the nature of the supreme Lord and His attributes. Arjuna himself could not 
understand Him inspite of seeing His cosmic form. And we say that"She is in 
ajnAnam".

Our mother explains to us the supreme truths in the most easiest way, just like 
feeding a child by showing the moon in the sky. 

Lets pray for Her continuous well being and Lets always wish that we keep Her 
and Her Hubby happy by being the children of their choice. Lets pray fortheir 
eternal togetherness. 

Not only that lets also treat them as our own little children and take careof 
them with utmost care.

Jai Sriman Narayana.



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