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God's compassion, His foremost quality

 

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06-10-1995 :: Pg: 24 :: Col: c

 

Cl: Religion

 

MADRAS, Oct. 6.

 

The Supreme Being according to Sri Vaishnavism is the

abode of countless auspicious qualities (kalyana gunas). While He

is the transcendent Lord of the entire creation of non sentient

and sentient beings, which makes Him the only sole refuge of all,

His nature of easy accessibility (saulabhya) on the other hand

makes it possible for human beings with all their weaknesses to

approach Him for succorn.

 

Sriman Narayana the Supreme One is also known as Bhagavan

because He is the home of the six gunas jnana, bala, aishvarya,

virya, sakti and tejas which have an important function in His

role of creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe. The

philosophy of this religion gives an important place to the gunas

of the Lord in the context of the redemption of the souls.

 

In his discourse Sri Veeraraghavachariar said, Vedanta

Desika in his Dayasatakam with poetic ingenuity goes to the

extent of declaring that without His guna of compassion (daya)

all other auspicious traits of the Lord will amount to blemishes.

Like the wealth of a rich man which only causes destruction when

it is not put to charitable cause, without compassion all other

qualities of the Lord will not be of any help to us.

 

This stotra work of 108 verses in ten different virutta

styles on the compassion of God is believed to have been composed

with inspiration from Nammazhvar's outpourings of the compassion

of Lord Srinivasa in his Tiruvoymozhi. One may rightly wonder

when the Almighty has innumerable auspicious qualities fit to be

eulogised.

 

His transcendent (Paratva) nature emphasises His omnis

cience, Lordship and omnipotence but, if His saulabhya nature

does not come to the fore it will not be of any benefit to human

ity. Thus with his rare genius Desika personifies the quality of

daya as a consort of the Lord making all his other gunas subser

vient to her.

 

When His quality of jnana shows up the faults of human

beings it is His daya which intercedes on their behalf and makes

Him overlook the faults. Further Desika explains in this poem

that it is His compassion which urges Him to create this universe

to provide an opportunity to the souls to strive for their salva

tion. It is His compassionate grace which sustains the entire

creation and when necessary withdraws it into Himself.

 

Another important point he makes here is that the Lord

who is considered as the first teacher to humanity, out of His

compassion comes to the world to teach the scriptural truths from

time to time in the form of different Acharyas. He compares the

Lord's compassion for man to that of a mother's unconditional

love for her child.

 

 

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