Meenakshi

[Guest guest]

Respected List members,

 

I am not learned like all of the members here,neither blessed with a shining

Light on the Path of Devi Upasana, not with such a pedigree that Gurus come out

to lead me on my request.. And I am neither a self-declared revealer of truths

of Hindu Goddesses nor a blind supporter of puranas. But I cannot control myself

from writing this mail after following few mails on Mother Meenakshi. I dont

intend to offend anyone on this and definitely, i dont do this a secondtime.

 

Millions have gone worshipping meenakshi as mother for many hundred years. I am

sure only few hundreds would have wondered whether she was reallya daughter of

Pandya or chola or gupta...Most of the things, even what one's Guru says, are

taken for granted. The very fact that Mantroposana leads to Mother is taken for

granted until and unless one follows the rules and goes along the hard path.

People can quote from puranas, but even puranas are just antiquated stories. If

translated in any other language, theycould be just termed as mythological. To a

non-hindu, puraanas are no different from ithihaasas.

 

So, what makes a dateless purana authoritative to a purana in non-sanskrit

language as out-of-sorts? who decides that? so millions of unread (like me),

farmers, laymen,non-scholars,pandits and faceless over the centuries,who

worshipped Meenakshi as the incarnation, a form of the Formless, a Divine Light

in a human frame- were they heretics? And that too just because one learned

person declares TV puranam cannot be equalled to other maha, upa puranams? And

so, human whims and fancies become determinant over the Glory of the Divine?So

did Ravana and sisupala, declining to accept the Divinity just because Rama and

krishna Avatars weren't quoted in the puranas and shastras they could have

studied!!

 

Does the living force, the Deity, the Godhead, the spark of the Divine, the

smiling beauty,the silent observer, the Divine Child, the prodigal daughter, She

the mother of the universe, who watches, preserves and smiles at ignorance,

intelligence, ignomy, the ever patient mother, the bestower of thirst for HEr,

she who gives her finger to the children lost in the mele to hold to, ever

Graceful - she my Mother meenakshi has to stand in court of evaluation whether

she falls within puranic dicta just because we, the learned - always quoting,

always finding words to define wordless, always trying to fit the vacuum in

space, always trying to fiddle with the ways of Divine,always self-centred,

always questioning faith, always doubting her,

always throwing books at her, always acting like a cop when comes to her ways -

we, the " learned" think that a story made of words doesnt fit into the

"authoratative level" of other stories made of words, that which, we the

"learned" consider pure, authentic and 100% original???

 

None of the nayanmars, alwars, shivanadiyars are mentioned in "puranas", so were

they non-authoratative? since puranas end with certain period, people who lived

after that become "out-of-sorts?"

One beleives a sthalapurana, purana or just says ,'oh,it is a purana'. Is there

any absolute myth and half-true myth? Are puranas, shastras the measure, scale

to evaluate the Divine?

 

I just want to quote from Angayarkanni anthati, a poem rendered ona small girl,

born to a king, who later who ruled over madurai but actually Who is the mother

of all Shrishti, the spouse of the Lord, Mother meenakshi. For a moment I

thought, there could be possibility of dating birth of the Birthless, checking

the form of the Formless, word the essence of Wordless. But this morning she

woke me up and made me understand it has never been so...

 

Angayarkanni anthati V.73:

 

Honey! Prodigal daughter of Malayathwaja!

Incarnated due to intensity of his penance for You!

Sweet Nectar ruling southern Tamil Land!

Please come with your Lord, who adorns a Crescent,

to bless me!!

 

This verse reflects the prayers of millions over the centuries, who never

stopped to check with the local

"scholar" whether it was mentioned in Maha,upa puranas that a pandya could ever

have Mother as his daughter. They just worshipped Her leaving "easy-chair

theology" to others.

 

Gopal