'Namaskara-Bhagyam':
( Beginning & Concluding
part of Kanchi Kamakoti Paramacharya's talk)
The
complete text may be seen in the linked file: Namo
Namah
Beginning:
"All
of you think of me as a saint and perform namaskara to me. I have also a great
yearning to perform namaskara to persons who are known to be real saints. But
my position as Jagatguru and Peetadhipathi, and the title of Bhagavatpada,
which have come and stuck to me at a young age, without any merit on my part
for deserving them, have deprived me from that young age itself, of the good
fortune of doing namaskara to saints, the great ones, moving about before our
very eyes. My receiving all your namaskaras, without my performing namaskaras
to any person, makes me think of my janma as empty and in
vain."
Our Acharya (Adi Sankara)
has done a great good in this regard. What is that? He has reminded that:
"Sannyasis, like us, to whom you perform namaskaras, regarding them as saints,
should never think that the namaskara belongs to us. It belongs only to the
one Paramatma and Parasakthi which conducts and controls all the affairs of
the jagat".
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the
Acharya has referred to the great causal principle of the Jagat by the name
NARAYANA. So, when he intends that the namaskaras performed to us must be
conveyed to the Jagat-Karana-Vastu, he instructs: Convey to Narayana. And to
carry out the instruction, he has made a rule, which appears easy on the face
of it.
Only
that Narayana, who has created all this and has endowed all this with vital
energy (sakthi), has the "right" to accept all the namaskaras. Namaskara to
any deity goes to Kesava. We recite the sloka: Sarva Deva Namaskara Kesavam
Pratigachhati. When namaskaras performed to the deities go only to HIM, how
can namaskaras performed to ordinary people belong to them? All these
namaskaras also go to HIM only. It is that we have been asked to always
remember when namakaras are performed to us. In order that we do not
"misappropriate" the namaskaras rightfully belonging to HIM only and make sure
that the namaskara is duly redirected to HIM, the Acharya has most kindly
defined a rule for us ? a rule, which as I said earlier, is seemingly easy.
The rule is that when someone performs a namaskara to us, we should say
"Narayana, Narayana".
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Concluding:
"I have dwelt at length on the greatness and importance
of Namaskara (Namaskara Mahatmyam). You may wonder why I chose this
topic to talk on. One respectable person was referring with sadness to the
steady decline among people in general in the qualities of humility and
reverence, in vinaya bhava. I started thinking about it and possible
antidote for it. I thought of placing before you the outcome of that
contemplation. It seems that ever since loud voices have started being made
about equality, freedom, self-respect and so on, decline in the wealth called
vinaya started, leading us to ways of indiscipline and violence.
Talking about "rights" and "rights", we are led into "fights". Viewed in the
economic and social context, it is not as if that these new perceptions are
without justification. I accept that without any objection. But
everything must operate within limits. If the new approaches are actualised in
practice within properly defined limits, things will be in their places, the
present day condition of calls and other social conflicts will ease and
conditions for peace, brotherhood and unity will be created. How to regulate,
how to set limits in these matters? The only way is to increase the wealth of
"vinaya" in the whole of society. Will economic wealth alone give
fullness to life? Certainly not. We have to seek spiritual wealth and with the
help of that, regulate the pursuit for economic wealth. Vinaya is the
only route to spiritual wealth. How do you get vinaya? Impelled with
the basic desire to seek vinaya, seeking the saints and doing namaskara
to them is the only way. This kriya will help raise, from what is
already "basic" (latent, dormant, underlying) in us, a visible edifice. The
timeless and enduring living tradition of this country has the power to
convert and soften the most stubborn conceit and self-arrogation. If a little
effort is forthcoming, in course of time, desirable changes in mentality will
be felt.
Spiritual advancement had been the main goal of life in
this country. Stricken by the disease of "ahankara", material
advancement has come to be considered all that matters. I have talked about
the only remedy that I know of. I considered it proper to place before you the
remedy and the reasons why I think it is a remedy. That is why I elaborated on
the subject. It seemed to me that, more than anybody else saying it, my saying
it will have a deeper impact. When I say so, does it mean that I am trapped in
my "ahankara"? No, that is not my meaning. It is because of people
pursuing "seats of power" mindlessly that loud slogans are raised in the name
of equality, freedom, self respect and the like, and this din has led to wars.
In such a context, I thought that a person like me, whom fate (providence) has
catapulted into a "seat above which there is no seat and to which there is no
equal" and "who does not find fulfillment in the situation that he does not
have to bow before anyone" letting it be known to the world of his acute sense
of a lack due to denial of the opportunity or occasion to show (and therefore
experience what it is to feel) respect and reverence, and therefore pining,
"what a janma", may cause people to realise in their inner being the
necessity and importance of "vinaya". That is why I said all
this.
You
have the namaskara bhagya, which I did not and cannot get. I
pray to Narayana, saying "Namo Namah", that all of you may make full
use of the namaskara bhagya, and receive the highest blessings in life.
And I do namaskara to HIM. "