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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00110 Oct 2003

 
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Sri Rama Ramananujacharya's comments on monotheism are insightful, but I would 
like to point out that there is a fine point of demarcation between Occidental 
and Oriental thinking that may still allow for the concept of a personal deity 
without the risk of falling prey to zealous fanaticism.

The religions that lay claim to X concept of Deity generally tend to place this 
Deity as ontologically distinct from the world, i.e., God is the Lawgiver, God 
is the Lord, but God has little other involvement than saving those who 
supplicate themselves to His Way directly either through an intercessor or by 
blind faith in an intercessor.

This contradistincts itself with what Vedic understanding tells us about Sriman 
Narayana. He is Compassion and Love, and He is the antaryAmi that stays along 
with each and ever soul, not just a few selected human souls who live according 
to His laws, as Western thinking seems to imply. Consequently, to see His 
Presence in everything and everyone, whether exclusive Personal or in what Sri 
Rama defines as "Abstract" would suggest that we regard all that we see in this 
world as being sacred, whether or not it involves Him or not. 

Be that as it may, however, I would concur that too much focus is being placed 
these days on avoiding in "anya-dEvatha arAdhanai" rather than engaging in His 
Service as Service to All Beings. While it is true that Bhagavad Sri Ramanuja 
never entered temples to other deities, I personally feel that this was more 
due to the fact that the worship of these other gods included the practice of 
non-Vedic rituals, some of which were and continue to be quite extreme. I 
personally would doubt that such an enlightened soul would find these places as 
being detestable because he felt that Sriman Narayana's presence was not there.

If I were qualified to teach or say anything on this subject, I would propose 
that we adopt the philosophical attitude much along the lines of the slogan of 
HH Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamy: "Worship Your Own, Respect All Others"

Ramanuja dasan
Mohan






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