SRI: SrImathE Ramanujaya namah: Dear Smt Sridevi Krishnan, Just explain to them (which we already now): The five senses- the discrimatory powers, the intellect, who gets these rarest gifts from the Lord? Of all the beings, being a human itself is a blessing by the Lord. For some good karmA that we had done, sometime in our past births (or deemed by the Lord as good deed, though it was not done intentionally), we are born human; that too in the sampradayam that answers all (ALMOST) questions that are raised by one and all unambiguously. And above all, where do we get the paths laid out by Poorvacharyas in such clear crystal manner? A simple thinking that mere existence of our lives itself is His kripa. If He decdies to call it a day and with a wave of His Hand, he can wipe out, like a tecaher wipes off it on the black board. Swamy desikan lists His mercy (upakaaram- help) in upakaara sangraham very beautifully. Any intelligent person will have queries like "Who am I?" ; "Who is God?" ; "What is my duty ?" ; "Why am I suffering through the process of birth , old age , disease and death ?" ; "What is death ?";"What is the relationship between myself and God ?"; etc. These are highly important queries, which leads one to know the actual realities. The fact is that, everyone is individually a spiritual entity called jIvAtmA , who is eternally subservient to the Supreme Lord Sriman NArAyanA . Due to the karmA (good and bad activities) associated with the jIvAtmA , it takes varieties of bodies like that of a bacteria , plant , bird ,animal , human being etc. It is very very rare to get a human body. Once a jivAtmA gets the highly precious human body, he ('he' refers to jIvAtmA even though there is no gender associated) has to start knowing about the actual purpose of life. There may be so many varieties of knowledge floating around. But he has to pick up the 'sAram'(essence). He should choose that type of knowledge, which will answer all such important queries as raised above. These fundamental queries are answered by the spiritual knowledge. Materialistic knowledge (as explained by modern science etc) finally doesn't help the jIvAtmA.For instance , a glorified Nobel Laureate may take the body of donkey in the next birth. What is then the Credit of being a Nobel Laureate in his human birth? The purpose of human birth is to have the realization of God ( Sriman NArAyanA). If this human body is used for other purposes, then the activities of that person boils down to eating , sleeping and mating. Of course , this is the way an animal also spends its life. As long as one identifies himself as a body made of flesh and not as a jIvAtmA , he leads a life of an animal and thereby wastes the most precious human body. The greatness of Spiritual Knowledge is that it makes one understand the truth that he is a jIvAtmA, subservient to Sriman NArAyanA and not the body housing him . It also gives the processes ( Bhakti YogA and Prapatti ) by which one can terminate the repeated cycles of birth and death in this material world , and reach the spiritual kingdom of Sriman NArAyanA known as "Vaikuntam", thereby attaining complete bliss. One has to start knowing about himself first ,rather than speculating about matter. Without knowing the answer for the question "Who Am I ?" , what is use of studying so many other things ? Without knowing the purpose of human life , what is the use of engaging in varieties of activities ? So an intelligent seeker of knowledge gets hold of the spiritual knowledge which is complete in itself and thus understands the Ultimate knowledge one needs to know. For more of this, read Sri Anand Karalapakkam's article on Samasrayanam. If you wish to know anything else, let me know and I can be of little assiatacne to you performing this kaimkaryam Regards Namo Narayana aDiyEn -----Original Message----- From: sridevi krishnan [mailto:sridevikrishnan@xxxx] Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 3:21 AM To: vijayragmcc@xxxx; vmadha@xxxx; SriRangaSri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; sv-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [SriRangaSri] Hinduism Hello Everyone Learn religion from a video game is a very interesting article. Very well written to explain the concepts to even a very small kid. Following this, I have a request. I know a couple of people around me who have turned agnostic in the recent times. Personal failures turned them away from god and religion. Is there any article that someone can point me to that will help me talk to these people about God and religion? Tracing back to the old old issue of what is the proof of existence of god...... How do I talk to these people to make them understand that God guides our life path. I kindly request someone to throw some light as I really want my dear ones to start believing in God. Thanks Sridevi _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |