Hindu article-Simple approach to Divinity

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Simple approach to Divinity

 

 

CHENNAI, JAN. 21 . What is devotion? One may come up

with many answers, but essentially it is love of God

and structuring one's way of life accordingly. Sage

Narada describes it as the supreme target, the

attaining of which is the highest achievement in a

person's life. Once such a state is realised, even

fear of death loses its sting. Living in unalloyed

bliss, everything else appears insignificant except

worship. At its nascent stage Bhakti finds expression

in any form, including abstinence, severe penance,

conducting homams or singing hymns.

 

The torchbearers of this hoary tradition are saints

and seers, who lived among ordinary men, yet sought

and attained a higher level of awareness of the

Supreme Being. It is for the purpose of helping a man

build his spiritual edifice that God sends His

messengers in the form of saints. The Lord says in the

Bhagavad Gita, "On those ever united through

meditation with Me and worshipping Me with love, I

confer the yoga of wisdom through which they attain

Me". The variegated experiences of ascetics find

expression in devotional literature, which are the

source material for human beings, enlarging the

frontiers of vision as it were.

 

In his lecture Professor V. Balasubramaniam said that

devotion is one of the direct methods that one may

pursue in one's spiritual quest. There are nine modes

that one can choose from, namely hearing, singing,

remembering, service, worshipping, prostrating,

servitude, loving intimately and surrender. The great

tradition of Vaishnavisim is embellished with the

twelve saintly persons known as Azhwars. Exemplifying

the devotional path to salvation, they are rightly

considered to be the divine response to the collective

prayers of the humanity filled with the yearning for

salvation.

 

Their recipe for sustenance of the soul was based on a

fundamentally simple but pure approach to divinity. In

order to propagate the devotional culture the Supreme

Being has manifested in different locales as the

presiding deity. He has said, "You may worship any

God, but that worship comes to Me in the end."

However, the Azhwars held Lord Ranganatha as a special

personage residing in an exceptional place. Their

lives and achievements are yet another proof of the

Lord's benignity, since He reached out to them when

they were in trouble. Thondaradipodi Azhwar's

experience is a case in point. When he was under

emotional duress, the Lord came to his rescue, pleased

with his steadfast devotion to Him

 

Copy Right: The Hindu-Daily

 

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