Wonder as Worship: The Way of the "jignyAsu" - Part 2

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(continued from Part 1)

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To return to the 4 primal motivations for human

Worship, as explained above, the one the Almighty

favours most is "gnyAna". Sri Krishna calls the

"gnyAni" a "mahAtmA", a Great Soul, one who has broken

free from the clutches of earthly "tri-gUNa". Having

expressed such clear preference amongst worshippers,

Krishna however quickly admits such men are an extreme

rarity:

 

"sa mahAtma sudurlabhah:" (7:19)

 

The "gnyAni-s" of the world do not come by the

dime-a-dozen. It is unlikely we would come across a

'gnyAni' (like NammAzhwAr) under casual, daily

circumstances... say, while crossing the street on the

way to the market-place or at the local train-station.

Even if we did encounter a true "gnyAni" on the

street, ordinary mortals like us would hardly know how

to recognize one. The true 'gnyAni' comes into this

world silently, lives amongst us unseen, unknown and

unsung, and then simply and graciously disappears from

this world... In the beautiful expression the Gita,

the 'gnyAni" is "sudurlabha". In his own time, none

knew of the greatness of NammAzhwAr as a "gnyAni". The

world realized the fact only a couple of centuries

later when the memory of the great saint was

resurrected, as it were, from the mists of history

thanks to the immortal "tiruvoimOzhi" being unearthed.

 

 

For the limited purpose of this essay let us leave the

rarest of God-worshippers, the "gnyAni", alone. We do

not quite know him well enough... and perhaps shall

never know too. It's only fit that we speak less of

the 'gnyAni' or about his unique ways of Worship.

 

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In sharp contrast to the scant knowledge we have of

the "gnyAni", what is known about the ways of Worship

of the "ArthA" and the "arthArthi", however, would

fill volumes indeed.

 

Most of us who offer Worship to God fall in either one

or both of 2 common types. One is driven by 'Desire'

and the other by 'Fear'. Unlike the "gnyAni", it is

very easy to spot or recognize these types in

day-to-day life. They abound around us; they are

reflections of our own very selves; and they are

un-impeachable proof of the definition which says that

the human species is but a "bundle of desires and

fears".

 

Let us briefly study the "ArthA" and the "arthArthi"

in their respective moments of Worship.

 

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(to be continued)

Rgds,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

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