bhakti-posts of the past week

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srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s',

 

Normally one sympathises with a person who is heavily indebted.

 

Our scriptures too, as we all know, recognize the seemingly perennial debt

we humans owe to the great "rshi-s", the "pitru-s" and the "dEvatA-s". These

"debts", it is said, accrue to us daily even as we laboriously accumulate

true knowledge called 'Atma-svarUpa gnAna', all-round material prosperity

called 'bhOgha' and happy progeny called 'santAna-prApti', all entirely

being the benevolence and grace of such 'rshi-s', 'pitru-s' and 'dEvata-s'.

 

Much like modern-day victims of "plastic-cards", hire-purchase schemes and

loan-sharks, the price we pay for enjoyment of the "good things of life"

("goodies", as you Americans call it!) is steady and ever-increasing

"indebtedness". As the "meter" of our respective lives "ticks" away (the

heart), we realize with a vague sense of unease that it is also continuously

registering, in a morbid sort of way, the alarmingly high levels of debt

owed to the great 'rshi-s', 'pitru-s' and 'dEvatA-s' by us.

 

In the language of the modern world of "corporate finance" (to which I

belong in the 'loukika' sense), one could say that the human condition is

one of chronic and dangerously "high leverage" ! In every moment of our

waking lives we become, again and again, indebted to our great 'rshi-s',

'pitru-s' and 'dEvatA-s'. For at every stage in our life, if you think about

it seriously, we do acquire, albeit incrementally, a bit of 'gnana' here, a

bit of 'bhOga' there, don't we ?

 

Our Vedic and theological scriptures, therefore, take enormous PITY on this

human predicament of "indebtedness" ever multiplying like "meter-fares" on

"auto-rickshaws" plying the city-streets of Madras, India.

 

It is out of great PITY for our pathetic condition, indeed, that our great

scriptures proceed to prescribe, for us, the means by which "debts" get

liquidated ("RNa mOchanam") as early and as painlessly as possible during

the course of our brief sojourns on earth.

 

Those paths our hoary faith and traditions suggest we should take, to be

able to unburden our soul of its "existential debts", are, as we all know,

"japam" (constant meditation of the Lord), "kAryam" (obeisance to our

forebears) and "yagnyam" (oblations into ritual sacrifice).

 

By 'japam' (of 'gAyatri', for example), it is said, we pay-off our debt to

the 'rshi-s'; by 'kAryam', debts to our 'pitru-s' are said to be serviced;

and verily, by 'yagnyam'(ritual sacrifice), it is said, our debts to the

'dEvatAs' are liquidated.

 

Now, in any assembly of 'bhAgavatOttamA-s' -- whether in the precincts of,

say, some 'pravachana-mantapam' in India or in the cybernetic "band-width"

of the "bhakti-list" -- wherever there is a holy communion ('sat-sangham')

of God-devoted minds, there is also ever present, I believe, an element of

all the three means of "debt-liquidation" i.e. 'japam', 'kAryam' and 'yagnyam'.

 

When someone(like Sri.Sadagopan) posts a piece on 'Raghuveera-gadyam' or

(like Sriman Anbil) on the "RahasyatrayaSaram" or (like Sri.Mani

Varadarajan) even raises contentious issues of 'sAstrA' or (like

Sri.Rangaswamy) expounds on the esoteric principles of "chakram" and we read

and enjoy them all on our screens, aren't we all unconsciously doing the

following ?:

 

A) "japam"

e.g. after reading an especially enlightening post, we dwell in our inner

minds sometimes, don't we, on what, say, Sri.Mani said or what Sri.Jagannath

said on this particular 'kalyana-guna' or that of the Lord ?

 

B) "kAryam":

e.g. we read through a post of, say, Sriman Anbil, Sri.Sadagopan or

Sri.Dileepan, and then we are suddenly reminded of some association of an

idea, feeling or memory that we can "connect" with some past 'guru' or

'acharyA' we knew or read about or with even some near or remote ancestor of

ours; we may be reminded of what our 'grandfather' once had to say on the

Sahasranamam, perhaps; or we may be reminded of what the 44th-Jeeyar of

Ahobila Mutt had to say on some matter like the Jatayu-episode, perhaps ....

this sort of "recollection" also is essentially a 'kAryam' in honour of our

ancestors.

 

C) "yagnyam" :

e.g. we all know, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', that sharing 'bhagavath-vishayam'

in a 'satsangh', is no easy matter -- it certainly is no easy picnic for

those who take pains to study, refer, research and present it to an audience

such as the one on this "bhakti-list". So here the pains and "sacrifice"

that persons like Sriman.Anbil, Sadagopan, Rangaswamy, Rengarajan, Mani

Varadarajan and others willingly shoulder in their efforts to share their

experiences of 'sat-vishayam' are, indeed, akin to the wrenching efforts

required of one who has taken 'sankalpam' to perform the simplest of

"yagnyam-s" (say, a simple "Ayush-hOmam" or 'navagriha-hOmam') today in our

homes. Posting on the "list", if done with sincerity and for

"nArAyaNa-preethyartham", calls for a certain amount of "sacrifice" in terms

of individual time, effort, patience etc. It may be a "labour of love", dear

friends, but we should not forget that it nevertheless is an act of truly

"hard labour".

 

So dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', if you all think deeply about it, the reason we

all congregate on the 'bhakti-list' is because we feel that it is a

"wonderful association OF debtors, FOR debtors and BY debtors" (courtesy

Sri.Abraham Lincoln) !!

 

We all participate here (as we perhaps would in an ordinary 'bhAgavatha-

satsangh" back home in India) because deep in our hearts we know that by

doing so there might be a half-chance that we will perform, even

involuntarily, 'japam','kAryam' or 'yagnyam'!! And thereby, perhaps, we may

be enabled to alleviate, in some measure at least, our 'existential

indebtedness" to the great 'rshi-s', 'pitru-s' and 'dEvatA-s' for the fine

gifts of 'gnanam', 'bhOgham' and 'santAna-prApthi' they have blessed us all

with !!

 

In such an august congregation of ours, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', as in this

'bhakti-list', where is place for such inauspicious things like "apachAram",

'manastApam', aggression, one-upmanship, personal rancour and pique or

flaunting of empty 'pAndityam' (pedagogism) ??

 

In a wonderful congregation like ours, as in the societies of all this

world, there can perhaps be differences with regard to comparative 'states

of indebtedness' -- 'jAthi' -- but is there any qualitative difference in

the fundamental reality in which we all live i.e. of being in real, BIG DEBT

to the Lord, the 'rshi-s', 'pitru-s' and the 'dEvatA-s' ?

 

And that, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', is the inescapable nature of phenomenal

reality in all "congregations of the world". It has been that way and it

always will be !! The degree of "indebtedness" to the Lord may vary from

person to person, but there is no gainsaying the ever-looming reality of

"DEBT" itself !!

 

We all belong now, as in the past and ever in the future, to the only caste

that ever prevailed through the ages --- the caste of those "indebted" to

the Lord !!

 

Therefore, what does it matter, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', that the debt is

US$1 million or INR.1 million ? To the individual 'borrower'(of whatever

'jAthi') in his unique station in life ('varnAshrama'), the oppressive

burden of one is as crushing as the other !!!

 

Rather than perorating anymore on the 'states of indebtedness' -- jAthi --

can we not instead turn and follow on this "list" the scriptural roads of

'japam','kAryam' and 'yagnyam' which lead us surely to 'Rna mOchanam' at the

feet of the Lord ?

 

 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

lakshmi-nrsumha priyan,

sudarshan