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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00048 Dec 2006

 
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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya nama:
Dearest all, 

There are very religions in the world. In that, there
are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc..
There is a wrong notion among many of us that there is
no sectarian squabbles and splits within other
religions.  It is not the case. All religions have
different schools of thought within themselves. 

So firstly let us drop the notion or habit of talking
low and belittling our ancient and glorious religion
and sampradayam. Let us try to understand our
religion, see its greatness, understand its rich
tradition, enrich our awareness and inform others of
its vaibhavam as well instead of doing negative
campaigning. This is only mentioned with a view to
informing the greatness of our sampradaya. Please
forgive if it sounds preaching. 

As we saw earlier, our religions has three main
schools of philosophy, namely., Dwaita,
VisishtAdvaita, and Advaita. There is no need
elaborate any further as we have discusses about these
in the earlier posts. We have seen that VishNu is the
Supreme Lordship. And Srivaishnavas, especially
mumukshus [those desirous of moksha] do not worship
anyone other than Sriman Narayana. People talk of this
quality as being ?narrow minded? due to their
ignorance. They think that only if one goes to all
temples and goes to any deity then only it is broad
mindedness. It is not correct. Sriman Narayanan alone
grants all kinds of fruits to all. He is the One who
grants and bestows such powers to other deities.

If that is the case, what is wrong in praying to or
going to the temples of other demigods? ? one may
argue. It is not the right way to pray to Sriman
Narayanan. One can prostrate to the Head of the Family
and thus please all servants and children of the house
rather than prostrating at the feet of the gardener,
cook, gate keeper, son, son-in-law and NOT the Father
at all. The first one would please all; the second one
upsets and embarrasses everyone.

Ok- let this be uttered by VishNu bhakthas. We don?t
care and we can not accept ? others may say. But
Srimad Bhagavad GitA mentions this. Lord Krishna
Himself says so. Adi Sanraracharya in his commentary
on GiTA mentions that it is better to pray to Sriman
Narayanan than praying to other deities. Scholars,
paNdithars accept GiTA as the saasthra. It is one of
the prasthAna thrayam [three authoritative texts] of
our religions. 

Let us enjoy some of those verses here:

GitA 7.21- 
yo yo yam yam thanum bhaktha: sradDhayaarChithum
icchathi |
thasya thasyAChalAm SradDhAm thaamEva vidhaDhAmyaham
||

All the other devathas are only My Body and I am their
inner Soul. Even without knowing this truth, if any
devotee desires to worship with faith and devotion,
any devatha, then I consider that faith as relating to
My Body only [in the form of that devatha]. So I see
that he develops full and unshakeable faith in
worshipping that devatha. 

These devathas are also My manifestations as taught is
texts like ?He who dwelling in the Sun? whom the sun
does not know, whose body is the Sun [BrhadaraNyaka
Upanishad III.7]. whichever devotee desires to worship
with faith whatever manifestation of Mien, such as the
Sun even though not knowing them [these devathas] to
be My manifestations, I consider this faith to relate
to My Maifestations, even though he is ignorant of
that, and make that faith of his unshakeable and firm
i.e. free from interruptions. 

If one garland?s the king?s neck, the king?s AthmA
gets pleased. This is similar to that. Thus it is
ultimately the Lord Sriman Narayanan who gets pleased.
He alone grants just like the king grants not his
neck.. 

GitA 7.23 and 9.23 also echo the same meaning. 

Anthavatthu phalam thEshAm thadbhavathyalpamEDhasAm |
dEvAndEvayajO yAnthi madbhakthA yAnthi mAmamapi ||
[7.23]

In the case of people with weak intelligence, who
worship only Devendra and other devathas, the fruit
that they get is only mean and temporary. Why? The
worshippers of the devathas go to the devathas. Those
devathas themselves are not permanent firstly. They
also have a specific life time being in that position
of devathas. Their life time is much longer than that
of human beings. Therefore, these devotees who attain
these devathas and enjoy fruits with them also go down
with these devathas at the end of their lives.

But my devotees know that the works they perform, are
in the nature of My worship. They give up attachment
to the finite results i.e. objects of desire. They
wish only to please Me. Then they attain Me and do not
return to this samsaara, of births and deaths. 

GitA 9.23

yEthvanyadEvathAbhakthA yajanthE sradDhayAnvithA: |
thE(S)pi mAmEva kaunthEya yajanthyaviDhipoorvakam ||

People who are devoted to other devathas who merely
follow and be possessed of faith, and worship them,
they too without following the ordered rule, worship
Me alone oh Arjuna. 

Those who are devoted to Devendra, Rudra et al and who
follow the mere teachings of the three Vedas [karma
kaaNda], who are possessed of faith and who worship Me
in truth and in accordance with the principle
enunciated that everything, on account of being My
Body, hasa Me as its soul, and because words like
Indra, Sivan etc., actually denote Me etymologically.
So, without knowing this truth, ignorant people
worship other debathasm in an improper manner,
thinking that they [those devathas[ grant fruits. They
do not know that all yaagaas and yagnas constitute My
worship alone. And that I grant the desired fruits. 

Thus when these devathas complete their terms of life,
these jeevaathams have to be born again and start from
scratch. He has to be born again and again and it may
be even rarity to get human birth in the near future?
On the contrary, if one is devoted to Sriman
Narayanan, He would grant the devotee upto the end and
the devotee will finally be blessed with SrivaikuNta
praapti i.e. moksha. 

GiTA 9.24 and 9.25 also say: I am the One whorshipped
in all pujas, amnd I am the One who grants all fruits.
Those who are ignorant of this, hence attain lower
fruits and get back to this earth to suffer. 

Those who worship Me, attain My Abode Sri vaikuNtam, I
am the Omniscient. My bliss and happiness are
limitless and unbounded, After attaining Me, and such
eternal Bliss, such people do NOT return at all to
samsaara. Those people who worship other devathas
attain these devathas and after enjoying finite
pleasure with them in their loka, such people also get
destroyed along with the devathas [when those devathas
come to the end of their life cycles.] 

In advaita, one has to become a sanyaasi and renounce
everything to attain mOksha. Such restrictions are not
there in our Srivaishnava VisishtAdvaita sampradaya.
If one surrenders to our Sriman Narayana, He grants us
all including moksham. There is no distinction of
jeevathmas in this case. Regardless of race, castes,
colour, sex, creed, one can perform saranagati [self
surrender] at His Lotus feet and He would not let us
down. After attaining mOksham, the anubhavam is the
same for all. 

Thus it is a Universal Religion; Its catholicity is
thus thus beneficial to all human kind. Why human
kind. There are cases, where our Srivaishnava
aaacharya purushas have performed saranagati for even
the animals or insects, birds. 

anthaNar andhiyar...maRRum nondhavarE mudhaalaaga...

All that we need is interest to get rid of this
samsaara saagaram; repent for the past; 
For those who are interested in such glorious
sampradayam, you are most welcome and you are assured
of kaimkarya praapthi at Srivaikuntam. Here is the
solution. Here is the Super Highway to Highest Bliss. 

Is that so? what is so special about Narayana, VishNu
or Vaasudeva? what do these names actually signify...
Let us enjoy these wonderful names tomorrow

asmadhAchArya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsan  




 
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