The Status of Prayers

[Guest guest]

After a long time let me offer my humble salutations and good

wishes to all the members (old and new) on the list. The letter from

Ram Chandranji woke me up. I started spending some time with the

Mirror archives beginning with the latest. The first thing I bumped

into was the query by Srimathy Narayananji. on the Status of

Prayers.

Whatever religion one belongs to, whatever school of philosophy

within Hinduism one adheres to, the efficacy of prayers is the one

towering truth that stares you in the face. And it is interesting to

note that every saint and every devotee in the Hindu roll call of

honour has left behind prayers of the following kind. Oh Lord!

Whether I will be born again as a human being or not I do not know;

but grant me Lord, that in all my human births my mind should never

forget you or your name! It is in these common characteristic

prayers that one sees the unity of the religion in spite of the various

differences in interpretations and observances.

Now let us try to answer the basic question. Is knowledge of the Self

necessary to take us nearer to the Lord? The way I have framed this

question, 'knowledge' has to mean 'intellectual understanding'. If

'knowledge' means 'Realisation' - which is what the Advaita experts

would want it to mean - then there is no question of going nearer to

the Lord. Because 'Realisation' means you have reached the

Infiniteness implicit in the Lord.

So let us reframe the question in a simpler way. 'How much does my

understanding of the esoteric and philosophical speculations about

the Lord help me to go nearer to the Lord?. This takes us back to

Chapter XII of the Gita and particularly the verse 12 that formed the

jumping board for Srimathy Narayanan's question.

So the bottomline is: Do I have to know so much in order to take my

steps towards God.?

The answer to this question is an emphatic 'No'.

The recipe to be followed comes from the Lord Himself in Sloka

No.27 of Ch.IX. It is the dedication of every action or thought to

Him. Dedication is easier said than done. By dedication one means

'voluntary acceptance of suffering for the sake of the deity of

dedication'. Where is the 'suffering' here supposed to come from? It

comes from the fact that dedication means you do only those things

which are acceptable to your deity of dedication and you avoid

doing things which are not so acceptable.

In the case of a legitimately ambitious student in his teens this may

mean simply dedicating all his efforts to his mother whom he loves

most. This becomes karma yoga par excellence but at that level it is

also bhaktiyoga par excellence and that certainly leads to the

student's right acquisition of knowledge thus paving the way for an

excellent future for him.

In the case of an ordinary 'god-fearing' householder this becomes

bhakti yoga par excellence and that leads him on to the right source

of knowledge, namely a Guru who opens up the Spiritual World for

him. This is what the texts would lead us to believe.

In the case of a spiritual seeker who is already on the Quest it

accelerates the process of spiritualisation through his devotion to

the Quest. It is also Bhakti Yoga in another form, because the very

seeking is done as an offering to the Lord.

There is not a single advaitic scholar worth the name who has not

also been a good devotee.

The other side of Srimathi Narayanan's question is: 'Is intellect

influenced by chanting of prayers and stotras? Do they help in my

getting vairagya (dispassion)?'

The answer now is an emphatic 'yes'. The intellect is influenced in

the following way. The intellect slowly and gradually realises that it

is not the Master. This intellectual revelation is fundamental to the

ultimate sublimation of the lower self to the Higher Self.

This de-ranking of the intellect that happens in one's own mind

automatically leads to dis-passion.

Then a final question, which Srimathy Narayanan did not ask. It is

'How does this happen?'.

The answer is: That is the million-dollar mystery of the Lord's Name!.

It erases the unclean vAsanAs from one's mind and substitutes the

urge to pursue the Divine more and more intensely. There is no other

detergent for the evils that are rampant in one's mind.

 

With praNAms to all the advaitins. Yours, profvk

You may access three on-line books of mine at the following site:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk

The books are:

Science and Spirituality - A Vedanta Perception

Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought, Vision & Practice

Overview of Hindu worship with spl. refce. to South India

 

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[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Sri Krishna's assurance is conveyed in Gita 10:10, 11 -

 

To these, ever devout, worshipping Me with love, I give that devotion

of knowledge by which they come to Me.

 

Out of mere compassion for them, I, abiding in their Self, destroy the

darkness born of ignorance, by the luminous lamp of wisdom.

 

 

teshhaa.n satata-yuktaanaa.n bhajataaM priiti-puurvakam.h .

dadaami buddhi-yoga.n ta.n yena maam upayaanti te ..

 

teshham eva anukampaartham aham aj~naanaja.n tamaH .

naashayaami aatma-bhaavasthaH j~naana-diipena bhaasvataa ..

 

 

Regards,

 

s.

 

 

 

advaitin, Srimathy Narayanan <srimathynarayanan>

wrote: "How

much is JnAna

> (knowledge about self ) ie the prajnA of Aham BramAsmi ( awareness

of Iam the

> Brahman ) necessary for everyone to get into the Fold of the Lord ?

How far

> praising the Lord will help to obtain the knowledge ?" Sri Vaishnava

> samprathAya (the belief of Vishnu Bhakthi ) or Shaiva siththantham (

the belief

> of Shiva Bhakthi ) prescribe surrender ; with out asking who I am ,

whether I

> can become eligible for the Lord's grace , people can become His

devotee . Our

> Guru Sri ShankarAchArya have authored many sthOthrams , simple

prayers binding

> the chanters and the Lord . How much these will help to bring any

one to the

> jnAna path . How far will they help to build up vairAkya

(steadfastness )?

[Guest guest]

Nice to hear, that too with a big bang, from Shreeman Prof. V.K. We

were all wondering for his long silence.

 

It was refreshing to read the explanation from Prof. V.K.

 

To add just a word - in the VishishhTaadviatic tradition - knowledge

of the self - to say more correctly jiivaatma j~naana is the step

towards Paramaatma j~naana - since jiiva is an anga or part of that

paramaatma in terms of vishishhTa advaita. One can strive for the

total knowledge in steps but it is not necessary to make a separate

effort. The study of the shaastra-s through shravanam mananam one

gains the intellectual understanding of the nature of the jiiva and

nature of paramaatma - This is paroksha j~naana. By nidhidhyaasana

or constant contemplation on the Lord one gains the Bhakti ruupa

j~naana or aparoksha j~naana which leads to the culmination of the

samsaara. Hence knowledge of the self is a step towards the Lord

where the knowledge of the self involves understanding of

sheshha-sheshhii bhaava - dependent-independent nature of the

jiiva-paramaatma sambandha or relationship.

 

Prof. V.K. has explained beautifully the role of j~naana and bhakti

in the advaitic tradition.

 

Hari OM!

Sadananda

 

 

>

> Whatever religion one belongs to, whatever school of philosophy

> within Hinduism one adheres to, the efficacy of prayers is the one

> towering truth that stares you in the face. And it is interesting to

> note that every saint and every devotee in the Hindu roll call of

> honour has left behind prayers of the following kind. Oh Lord!

> Whether I will be born again as a human being or not I do not know;

> but grant me Lord, that in all my human births my mind should never

> forget you or your name! It is in these common characteristic

> prayers that one sees the unity of the religion in spite of the various

> differences in interpretations and observances.

 

--

K. Sadananda

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Naval Research Laboratory

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