Prayer: - a powerful medicine: We can pray. We should pray. Will we pray?

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We can pray. We should pray. Will we pray?

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Sri:

 

Dear Devotees,

Beautiful and powerful message from Sri U. Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swami.

 

USA 2004 Visit: http://www.vedics.net/tours/vk2004tour/index.html

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Dear Bhaktas,

 

"SrI nidhim nidhim apAram arthinAm arthithArtha paridAna dIkshitam

sarva bhUta suhrdam dayAnidhim dEvarAjam adhirAjam AsrayE"

 

(Let my salutations be to Lord Devaraja whose unparalleled wealth

is Perundevi thayar, who Himself is the wealth of all the begging

jivatmas, who has resolved to grant all the needs of His bhaktas,

who is the well wisher of one and all and who is a treasure of

mercy.)

 

Swamy Koorathazhwan's invocatory verse of Sri Varadaraja stavam has

a lot to convey to us. It is all the more important in these days of

unrest. We need to pray together and individually for the safety and

well being of all our fellow citizens on Mother Earth. Srivaishnavism

and all the vedas accept that the whole universe is the divine body

of Sriman Narayana. All the residents of this earth, cutting across

countries, language, sex, community, caste , religion and above all

whether they are humans or flora or fauna, belong to one group -

Servants to the Lord. One attribute that is common to all of us is

SEshatva - absolute unconditional servitude to our Lord. This

jivatma's first and foremost identification is this SEshatva. Swamy

Ramanuja in his work, defines SEshatvam as (paragata atisaya AdAna

iccha...) i.e., a servant who is always wanting to add glory to his

Master. So let us try to add glory to the Lord.

 

Alas ! Adding glory to Him is impossible. If He is short of glory

I could add. But He is proclaimed as "avikArAya suddhAya nityAya

paramAtmanE, sadaika rUpa rUpaya vishnavE sarva jishnavE" .. (one

whose inherent nature,attributes and divine body is unchanged). I

would fail in my attempt to add any glory to Him as He is already

full with it. This failure pushes me to another problem. If I do

not serve him by glorifying him, I lose my status to be a SEsha.

This leads to the destruction of jivatmas' inherent nature.

 

Our preceptors have showed us the way to wriggle out of this

problem and retain our SEshatvam. He - is the embodiment of all

the sentient and non-sentient beings in this Universe. So SERVICE

TO FELLOW CITIZENS WOULD BE ADDING GLORY TO HIM. Service to

humanity would ultimately retain our SEshatvam. Now let us try

to serve humanity. But how?

 

WE can monetarily or physically help them in days of need. It is

misconceived that Srivaishnavas should help Srivaishnavas alone.

Are we accepting that Sriman Narayana is the Master of only

Srivaishnavas? Are the others not the divine body of the Lord?

Let us pack up these ideas and focus on serving everyone who is

in dire need. I will find some road blocks while implementing

this. You have access to known people to help them. Go ahead and

do your might. But how do we serve humanity at large? Seek the

help of someone who is close to all of them. That unique

personality is none other than Sriman Narayana. Whether others

agree to His Lordship or not, we agree to their servanthood. So

let us look upon Sriman Narayana to help everyone. He is the

one who can and who should give a helping hand.

 

This is why Swamy Koorathalwan calls upon us to collectively pray

to Him as He is the "sarva bhUta suhrt" (common well wisher).

Prayer is nothing but a call, a representation, a plea - not only

for me but for Him, for His well being. His well being would mean

the well being of this universe. So bhaktas, let us resolve from

today to pray together for the well being of our Lord and

humanity. This fetches many fruits in one throw. I retain my

SEshatvam, I have prayed for Him, I have prayed for everyone.

Lastly this prayer is nothing but a form of "dyAnam."

 

Swamy Ramanuja says that the first step to salvation is gnAnam -

knowledge about self and the Lord. (jivatma paramatma gnAnam).

But mere knowledge would make you grope in the darkness of

samsara. We need to focus this gnAnam on Paramatma which

transforms to dyAnam - meditation. Meditation can be in the

form of mantra japa, vigraha pUja etc. Mere meditation would

make us rigid and egoistic. One needs to refine it with love

and affection (snEham). Ramanuja says "dyAna arcana

pranAmadibhi: atyartha priya: tat prApti phala:" (the Lord is

pleased with meditation, pUja and surrender - His pleasure is

the means to salvation). He also defines bhakti as "snEha

pUrvam anu dyAnam bhakti:" - (meditation with love is known

as bhakti).

 

Swamy Nammazhwar says "eNNilum varum .. "(first centum tenth

decade of tiruvoimozhi). The Lord is waiting in the aisle to

come to our rescue - expecting us to think about Him. A humble

thought has the power to invoke Him.

 

I am sure you would all now appreciate the importance of dyAnam.

Is it just closing our eyes and thinking about our Lord. We

need to do more. We must enjoy his attributes, recollect his

divine actions during incarnations for our well being, plead

for His well being (mangalasanam / pallandu pallandu un sevadi

sevvi tirukkappu) and in turn ensure the well being of everyone.

Perialwar pleaded for the safety of His lotus feet which is the

embodiment of all bhaktas.

 

So make it a daily practise to establish an undisturbed stream

of focussed thoughts on Sriman Narayana. Pray to Him. Do not

plead for any mean fruits. Request for the well being of

everyone. Once in a while, make this jointly in a satsang.

 

We can pray. We should pray. Will we pray?

 

SarvE janA: sukhinO bhavantu. Samasta san mangalAni santu.

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