demigod worship

[Guest guest]

Sri Madhavakkannan wrote:

> I am sorry, Sri Mani, if I have spelt out some rahasyam as I was not aware

> of it. [...] Thanks very much, Sri Mani for

> "thirutthi paNikOLLu"fying (correcting) adiyEn.

 

Dear Sri Madhavan,

 

Please don't apologize! I don't mean to say that rahasyas shouldn't be

discussed at all, but that these subjects need to be approached with

delicacy in a mixed audience. The idea of Emberumaan being a 'nAyaka'

in the SRngAra-bhAva makes sense only to those who have surrendered to him;

therein, I humbly feel, lies the rahasya. And I don't mean to correct you

but to mediate between two honest opinions.

 

With respect,

dAsan,

Mani

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees:

 

Born in an Udipi brahmin family, my favorite form of

god to worship is Udipi Sri Krishna. I am partial to

this form. Please advise me if I am wrong in doing

that because I am not worshipping the Lord as Narayana

but Sri Krishna. After all, I thought Sri Krishna is

an incarnation of Lord Vishnu/Sriman Narayana. I am

confused by all the out pourings of learned men of the

group on worship of demi gods. Please enlighten me.

During my course of study at the University I came

under the influence of many who were partial to the

Advaita doctrine and I tended to adopt their view that

that there is only one paramatman who is formless and

though he is called by many names, there is only One

Supreme Spirit. No offense to any of the devotees of

the list but I humbly seek answers.

 

=====

Bhavani

 

 

 

 

Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!

/

[Guest guest]

The Supreme Spirit, Sriman Narayana has several attributes like His Forms,

Properties (This pyhsical universe & Sri-Vaikunta), His infinite auspicious

personal qualities (Merciful, Very-accessible to everybody, Non-condescending,

Steadfastness etc..)

 

All His attributes including His Divine Forms are REAL!

The Supreme Spirit, Sriman Narayaa assumes different forms like Sri Krishna, Sri

Narasimha, Sri Rama, Sri Varaha etc to protect His Devotees and to bring order

to the World whenever necessary.

 

More importantly Sriman Narayana assumes these forms so His Devotees can have

His pleasant company.

 

But, unlike Jiva-s who are born with imperfect forms made of filthy

flesh/blood/bones and in complete ignorance of our true Spirtual nature, Sriman

Narayana is never conditioned by ignorance & Karma when He takes different forms

like Sri Rama, Sri Krishna etc.

 

His physical form is NOT made of filthy flesh/bone/blood like ours.

His physical form is rather made of a different material called Suddha Sattva.

 

So if you worship Sri Krishna or Sri Rama, you are doing the right thing, since

these incarnations are identical to Sriman Narayana in both Spirit and Form

which are eternally untainted by Karma.

 

Rememeber that Jivaatmaa and the Sriman Narayana (= Paramathmaa) are different

Spirits. So you should be careful not to worship the physical forms that

conditioned Jeevaatmas are forced to take due to their punya/paapa-roopa

karma-s. (Before you start workshipping a Form, make sure it is indeed an

avathaara of Sri Narayana by consulting the Scriptures/Devotees).

 

Acutally worshipping the Divine forms of only Sriman Narayana will gradually

destroy one's sins which prevent one from knowing ones' true nature, that of

Sriman Narayana and nature of the relationship between oneself & Sriman

Narayana.

 

You should avoid worshipping the Spirit and Forms of even famous Jeevas like

Chathur-muka-brahmA, Siva, Gowri, Ganesha, Subramanya, Kaali because these

Personalities (and their forms) are subject to Karma and birth/death of form.

 

- Venkatanatha Dhaasan

 

 

 

bhavani nirmal wrote:

>Dear devotees:

>

>Born in an Udipi brahmin family, my favorite form of

>god to worship is Udipi Sri Krishna. I am partial to

>this form. Please advise me if I am wrong in doing

>that because I am not worshipping the Lord as Narayana

>but Sri Krishna. After all, I thought Sri Krishna is

>an incarnation of Lord Vishnu/Sriman Narayana. I am

>confused by all the out pourings of learned men of the

>group on worship of demi gods. Please enlighten me.

>During my course of study at the University I came

>under the influence of many who were partial to the

>Advaita doctrine and I tended to adopt their view that

>that there is only one paramatman who is formless and

>though he is called by many names, there is only One

>Supreme Spirit. No offense to any of the devotees of

>the list but I humbly seek answers.

>

>=====

>Bhavani

>

>

>

>

> Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!

>/

>

 

 

Get your FREE Email and Voicemail at Lycos Communications at

http://comm.lycos.com

[Guest guest]

Srimathe Narayanaya namha

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong in you partiality towards

worshipping only Krishna. Sri PoigaiAzhwAr in his mudhal

thiruvandhAdhi says

"thamarugandhadhu evvuruvam, avvuruvam thAnE

thamarugandhadhu eppEr, maRReppEr - thamarugandhu

evvaNNam sindhithu imayAdhirupparE

avvaNNam AzhiyAnAm"

 

Looks like this pAsuram is to clear your doubt exclusively. Here Sri

PoigaiAzhwAr says, He (Sriman Narayanan) takes the form that His

adiyAr likes and takes the name that His adiyAr spells. So in whatever

form you think it is ultimately Sriman Narayanan. Hence adiyEn sees

nothing wrong in your partiality towards Sri Krishna.

 

Regarding the advaitha influence, there could be two views on your

inclination. First your freedom to follow any philosophy. Secondly,

this being a list devoted to the VisishtAdvaita philosophical

discussions, adiyEn would request you to kindly browse thro' various

articles discussed on the advaitha Vs VisishtAdvaita in the archives.

However great achAryAs like Swami ALavandhAr, Swami EmberumAnAr, Swami

Desikan and many other AchAryAs have done great works proving that the

advaitha stand point regarding the Brahman is wrong and that their

interpretation of the vEdhas and upanishads to prove there stand point

is also wrong.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

 

 

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

demigod worship

Author: bhavani nirmal <bonnie605 at JPINET

00/08/26 î?æO 7:22

 

 

Dear devotees:

 

Born in an Udipi brahmin family, my favorite form of

god to worship is Udipi Sri Krishna. I am partial to

this form. Please advise me if I am wrong in doing

that because I am not worshipping the Lord as Narayana

but Sri Krishna. After all, I thought Sri Krishna is

an incarnation of Lord Vishnu/Sriman Narayana. I am

confused by all the out pourings of learned men of the

group on worship of demi gods. Please enlighten me.

During my course of study at the University I came

under the influence of many who were partial to the

Advaita doctrine and I tended to adopt their view that

that there is only one paramatman who is formless and

though he is called by many names, there is only One

Supreme Spirit. No offense to any of the devotees of

the list but I humbly seek answers.

 

=====

Bhavani

 

 

 

 

Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!

/

 

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>

Remember four years of good friends, bad clothes, explosive

chemistry experiments.

http://click./1/8013/5/_/716111/_/967319763/

-->

 

-----------------------------

- SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -

To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list (AT) eGroups (DOT) com

Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information

[Guest guest]

Visishtadvaita philosophy rejects the advaitin notion

that the Supreme Being is one without any qualities.

Srivaishnava samprathayam teaches us that Sriman

Narayana is endowed with infinite divine qualities

(kalyANa guNankaL). This is very clearly shown to us

by nammAzhvAr in the first line of the first

thiruvAymozhi pAsuram.

 

"uyarvaRa uyarnalam udaiyavan yavanavan"

 

To illustrate: In those days (and on rare occasions

even now) musicians would sing for several hours on

one particular ragam only. But it was always important

that the audience was made aware of what the ragam was

within the first few minutes. It would not be a good

musician that took a long time to make clear what

ragam he/she was presenting. nanjeeyar whenever he

made upanyAsams on nammAzhvAr's thiruvAymozhi, always

expressed his amazement at the fact that nammAzhvAr

denied the advaitin notions and brought out emperumAn's

true nature in not just the first verse, but in the

first line of the first verse (almost like a slap in

the face).

 

Vedas also desribe Sriman Narayana as posessing

countless divine qualities as well as countless poor

qualities (dOsha gunaNkaL). This is explained by our

Acharyas as: He has infinite divine qualities and hence

they cannot be counted; on the other hand, He has no

poor qualities and hence they cannot be counted as

well (there has to be at least one to even start

counting). Of course, that is the exact opposite for

us.

 

On a side note: while talking about making the main

concept clear very early in one's presentation, it is

also said that to understand a presentation, one only

has to read the beginning and the end. In this context,

the following two words were taken out by our

poorvAchAryAs from thiruvAymozhi. From the first verse,

the key word is "aruLinan" and from the last verse the

key word is "veedu peRRa". With those two words,

nammAzhvAr defined the Srivaishnava philosophy. That

is, His grace (aruL) is the means (upAyam) and reaching

Him (veedu) is the end (purushArththam).

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dhAsan

T.C.A. Venkatesan

 

 

bhakti-list , bhavani nirmal <bonnie605> wrote:

> Dear devotees:

>

> Born in an Udipi brahmin family, my favorite form of

> god to worship is Udipi Sri Krishna. I am partial to

> this form. Please advise me if I am wrong in doing

> that because I am not worshipping the Lord as Narayana

> but Sri Krishna. After all, I thought Sri Krishna is

> an incarnation of Lord Vishnu/Sriman Narayana. I am

> confused by all the out pourings of learned men of the

> group on worship of demi gods. Please enlighten me.

> During my course of study at the University I came

> under the influence of many who were partial to the

> Advaita doctrine and I tended to adopt their view that

> that there is only one paramatman who is formless and

> though he is called by many names, there is only One

> Supreme Spirit. No offense to any of the devotees of

> the list but I humbly seek answers.

>

> =====

> Bhavani

>

>

>

>

> Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!

> /

[Guest guest]

> bhavani nirmal <bonnie605> wrote:

> > Dear devotees:

> >

> > Born in an Udipi brahmin family, my favorite form of

> > god to worship is Udipi Sri Krishna. I am partial to

> > this form. Please advise me if I am wrong in doing

> > that because I am not worshipping the Lord as Narayana

> > but Sri Krishna. After all, I thought Sri Krishna is

> > an incarnation of Lord Vishnu/Sriman Narayana. I am

> > confused by all the out pourings of learned men of the

> > group on worship of demi gods. Please enlighten me.

> > During my course of study at the University I came

> > under the influence of many who were partial to the

> > Advaita doctrine and I tended to adopt their view that

> > that there is only one paramatman who is formless and

> > though he is called by many names, there is only One

> > Supreme Spirit.

 

 

There is indeed only One Supreme Spirit who is manifests in infinite forms.

For example, there is Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Hayagriva, and Rama.

(See my site http://www.avatara.org)

In addition there are two other types of entities: matter and the

infinitesimal souls (jivAtmas). When the jiva-s get elevated within the

material world, they get the bodies of demigods and are thus called demigods

(devas) and weild great power. However, that is not the goal of life. The

goal is to surrender to the Lord and uncover one's intrinsic form which

serves Him in Vaikuntha.

I hope this is clear.

 

ys

Gerald Surya