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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00008 Oct 2004

 
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              (continued from Part 1)
-------------------------------------------------------

To return to the 4 primal motivations for human
Worship, as explained above, the one the Almighty
favours most is "gnyAna". Sri Krishna calls the
"gnyAni" a "mahAtmA", a Great Soul, one who has broken
free from the clutches of earthly "tri-gUNa". Having
expressed such clear preference amongst worshippers,
Krishna however quickly admits such men are an extreme
rarity:
 
        "sa mahAtma sudurlabhah:" (7:19)

The "gnyAni-s" of the world do not come by the
dime-a-dozen. It is unlikely we would come across a
'gnyAni' (like NammAzhwAr) under casual, daily
circumstances... say, while crossing the street on the
way to the market-place or at the local train-station.
Even if we did encounter a true "gnyAni" on the
street, ordinary mortals like us would hardly know how
to recognize one. The true 'gnyAni' comes into this
world silently, lives amongst us unseen, unknown and
unsung, and then simply and graciously disappears from
this world... In the beautiful expression the Gita,
the 'gnyAni" is "sudurlabha". In his own time, none
knew of the greatness of NammAzhwAr as a "gnyAni". The
world realized the fact only a couple of centuries
later when the memory of the great saint was
resurrected, as it were, from the mists of history
thanks to the immortal "tiruvoimOzhi" being unearthed.
 

For the limited purpose of this essay let us leave the
rarest of God-worshippers, the "gnyAni", alone. We do
not quite know him well enough... and perhaps shall
never know too. It's only fit that we speak less of
the 'gnyAni' or about his unique ways of Worship.

                 *********

In sharp contrast to the scant knowledge we have of
the "gnyAni", what is known about the ways of Worship
of the "ArthA" and the "arthArthi", however, would 
fill volumes indeed. 

Most of us who offer Worship to God fall in either one
or both of 2 common types. One is driven by 'Desire'
and the other by 'Fear'. Unlike the "gnyAni", it is
very easy to spot or recognize these types in
day-to-day life. They abound around us; they are
reflections of our own very selves; and they are
un-impeachable proof of the definition which says that
the human species is but a "bundle of desires and
fears". 

Let us briefly study the "ArthA" and the "arthArthi"
in their respective moments of Worship.

                **************

                (to be continued)
Rgds,

dAsan,
Sudarshan


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