Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya nama: Dear Bhagavatas, Salutations to all. Thought would share mine too in response to Sri Venkatesan's and Sri Visu's posts. Although Bhagavad Gita comes under smrti text,it is in par with upanisads as it does nowhere contradict the sruti. The Sruti talks about so many topics (deviating from parabrahman,let alone the ocean of His kalyANa guNAs and His activities). Narada muni in Srimad Bhagavatham says this is one of the defects of Veda Vyasa and hence the latter feels incomplete even after compiling all the vedas and mahabharata. So,Bhagavad Gita which is in alignment with the sruti talks about karma yoga etc and then the trumpet/secret is released in 18:66. In Chapter 11 when the Lord shows His virAta swarUpam,mentions His attributes to arjuna and also says that He is only giving a few glimpses of His infinite,Divine glory. Not that He can't express His infiniteness to arjuna. The limitation is on the arjuna side. As such HE only had to supply arjuna the "divine eye" to see HIS Vishva rUpam. This being the case,why would AzhvArs,who through nirhEtuka krpa of the Lord,enjoyed His kalyANa guNAs thoroughly,mention about Bhagavad Gita too often in their hymns? Yet,you do find lot of references in NammAzhvAr's and Kaliyan's pAsurams(I have taken down all those but right now my NDP book is at home). The Lord could have bursted out the secret in the beginning itself. Why does HE have to wait for 18 chapters? Because Arjuna had wrong, false notions about dharma(Cf Sri PiLLai LokAchArya's Mumukshuppadi). Arjuna was not learned. So Mr visu,your assumption that "Gita is not for the common man" is "ABSOLUTELY" wrong. Lord KrsNA was not a fool to waste the purpose of His incarnation by only advising the learned men. It is only with the intention that "every jeevatma should get released from this never ending samsAra" ,HE gave GitOpadesam. And the majority of jeevatmas can only be classified under the broad category of "common man". Also one can learn a lot from Mahabharata. It's full of complexities. Life is simple yet it becomes complicated by ourselves. Children can't understand the nuances,intricacies and complexities of relations! So you can't tell the kid the importance of the "draupadi scene". Yet you can site some references from mahabharata to the kid to explain some simple things about life. I have come across so many oldies who ask the "purpose of life" at the age of sixty. Though I do agree that Bhagavad Gita requires "some" maturity,it is very difficult to draw a "clear line for maturity". My niece(4 and 1/2 yrs old) knows some information about azhvArs,ramanuja and manavALa mAmunigaL. If you ask her what Ramanuja did,she will give an instantaneous reply "he,out of compassion for all,told the secret of nArAyaNa manthram in TirukOshtiyUr". Why I am saying this is to refute your statement that "kids do not need an AzhvAr" Finally,we don't know in what form that Lord will come in front of us! Take the beautiful example of Kaliyan when he tried to rob the Divine couple who were in the guise of young married couple! Due to our Prakrti vAsana,we have the tendency to stick to false upAyAs and hence we may not even realize if the Lord were standing next to us. That's why HE says "I'm the eternal dharma;KrSNa dharma sanatanam and BG18:66". There are lot of people(including myself)who are physically matured but have wrongly understood the "true" message of the Bhagavad Gita. It's left to the individual(under the mercy of the Lord)to realize what "truth" means/is. Wrt nirhEtuka krpa,I like to quote Gandhi. Gandhi, in his book "my experience with truth" had openly declared that it is only out of "All-merciful" God(not throught his effort)that he was saved from committing mistakes wrt women(on three occasions) Just wanted to share my quota of experiences in life,beg pardon if said anything wrong or hurt anyone's feelings. Wish everyone a happy celebration of "Mudal AzhvArs(Poikai,bhUta,pEy)" Tirunakshatrams. mayarvaRa mathinalam aruLappeRRa AzhvAr tiruvadigaLE saraNam AzhvAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar TiruvadigaLE saraNam nappinnai
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