Immortality....

[Guest guest]

Thanks to Bhagavathas for their opinions and comments on the subject I

raised.

 

I agree with both Sri. Madhavakannan, and Sri. S V Raghavan's view points.

In fact I received some insightful comments from others as well.

 

I find their views are akin to what I expressed to the original

inquirer, before taking a shot at it from a different perspective.

 

But there is one small correction. The note I posted

as my reply, was in fact to a more (thought) provoking sub-query that the

inquirer raised.

Here it is:

 

" The Puranic characters, (Asuras, Devas, Sages and Kshatrias )

specifically asked

a boon for physical immortality after virtuously striving for it

through penance and yagnyas etc., so that they can fight and

win over their enemies in battle. Some did get it

whereas others were denied on basis of merit.

how do we justify for their boon if they are not among us?"

 

It is to this that I had to reply the way I did.

 

And I did include the concept of an eternal world beyond our (mortals)

perception to justify - just as 'all' of us dont 'see' Perumal ( I believe

some qualified seers do )

but everyone of us do perceive Him thru more than one way.

 

The more off-beat addition to my reply was that there is the temporal

limiting factor - the 'yuga'

which of course I believe many (including me) arent comfortable due to the

fact

that there are instances were the said characters transcend a particular

'yugam' and interact with characters in other 'yugam'.

 

And my quest in this respect is, is there any other way of providing a

substantial argument to the question apart from what I ( and others in our

group)

had expressed ?

 

I do acknowledge the inherent differences in 'expression', among

Vedas, Upanishads and subsequent mythologies / puranas and

the social and moral compulsions that existed during the time when they were

written.

 

But in saying so, it would mean that we accept some important

concepts in our epics are not necessary justifiable and would also mean

we are compromising on those ideas.

 

I personally did not want to tow that line and I know none of us would want

to either,

which might give a uninformed questioner the false joy of ' proving

the Epics/Vedas as mere fairy-tale stories with no basis'. And it is becos

of this, that

I had to repeatedly seek an improvisation in my replies to such queries, to

make it justifiable on all

fronts as much as possible. Because tomorrow, our children will ask us

similar questions and we need to give them a very effective reply, failing

which we would be doing a great dis-service to the Epics / Vedas, their

proponent, our Acharyas, our principles and practises, Sri Vaishnavism and

above all to Sriman Narayana. A recent note from Krishna Susarala calling to

counter the 'glorification of villanious characters' is very much inline

with

the above view, albeit in a different perspective.

 

 

Regards

Sriram Ranganathan