Mark of respect

[Guest guest]

Dear Devotees,

 

Shriman Sadagopan Iyengar has written another great and interesting

article that has great relevance to spiritual conduct in life.

In this context, members may be interested to read another article --

this one, by the (late) Kanchi Kamakoti Paramacharya titled

"Namaskara Bhagyam" :

'Namaskara-Bhagyam' Beginning & Concluding part of Kanchi Kamakoti

Paramacharya's talk)The complete text may be seen in the linked file:

Namo Namah

Beginning:"All of you think of me as a saint and perform namaskara to

me. I have also a great yearning to perform namaskara to persons who

are known to be real saints. But my position as Jagatguru and

Peetadhipathi, and the title of Bhagavatpada, which have come and

stuck to me at a young age, without any merit on my part for

deserving them, have deprived me from that young age itself, of the

good fortune of doing namaskara to saints, the great ones, moving

about before our very eyes. My receiving all your namaskaras, without

my performing namaskaras to any person, makes me think of my janma as

empty and in vain." Our Acharya (Adi Sankara) has done a great good

in this regard. What is that? He has reminded that: "Sannyasis, like

us, to whom you perform namaskaras, regarding them as saints, should

never think that the namaskara belongs to us. It belongs only to the

one Paramatma and Parasakthi which conducts and controls all the

affairs of the jagat".

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the Acharya has referred to the great causal principle of the Jagat by

the name NARAYANA. So, when he intends that the namaskaras performed

to us must be conveyed to the Jagat-Karana-Vastu, he instructs:

Convey to Narayana. And to carry out the instruction, he has made a

rule, which appears easy on the face of it. Only that Narayana, who

has created all this and has endowed all this with vital energy

(sakthi), has the "right" to accept all the namaskaras. Namaskara to

any deity goes to Kesava. We recite the sloka: Sarva Deva Namaskara

Kesavam Pratigachhati. When namaskaras performed to the deities go

only to HIM, how can namaskaras performed to ordinary people belong

to them? All these namaskaras also go to HIM only. It is that we have

been asked to always remember when namakaras are performed to us. In

order that we do not "misappropriate" the namaskaras rightfully

belonging to HIM only and make sure that the namaskara is duly

redirected to HIM, the Acharya has most kindly defined a rule for us

– a rule, which as I said earlier, is seemingly easy. The rule is

that when someone performs a namaskara to us, we should say

"Narayana, Narayana".

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Concluding: "I have dwelt at length on the greatness and importance of

Namaskara (Namaskara Mahatmyam). You may wonder why I chose this topic

to talk on. One respectable person was referring with sadness to the

steady decline among people in general in the qualities of humility

and reverence, in vinaya bhava. I started thinking about it and

possible antidote for it. I thought of placing before you the outcome

of that contemplation. It seems that ever since loud voices have

started being made about equality, freedom, self-respect and so on,

decline in the wealth called vinaya started, leading us to ways of

indiscipline and violence. Talking about "rights" and "rights", we

are led into "fights". Viewed in the economic and social context, it

is not as if that these new perceptions are without justification. I

accept that without any objection. But everything must operate within

limits. If the new approaches are actualised in practice within

properly defined limits, things will be in their places, the present

day condition of calls and other social conflicts will ease and

conditions for peace, brotherhood and unity will be created. How to

regulate, how to set limits in these matters? The only way is to

increase the wealth of "vinaya" in the whole of society. Will

economic wealth alone give fullness to life? Certainly not. We have

to seek spiritual wealth and with the help of that, regulate the

pursuit for economic wealth. Vinaya is the only route to spiritual

wealth. How do you get vinaya? Impelled with the basic desire to seek

vinaya, seeking the saints and doing namaskara to them is the only

way. This kriya will help raise, from what is already "basic"

(latent, dormant, underlying) in us, a visible edifice. The timeless

and enduring living tradition of this country has the power to

convert and soften the most stubborn conceit and self-arrogation. If

a little effort is forthcoming, in course of time, desirable changes

in mentality will be felt.

Spiritual advancement had been the main goal of life in this country.

Stricken by the disease of "ahankara", material advancement has come

to be considered all that matters. I have talked about the only

remedy that I know of. I considered it proper to place before you the

remedy and the reasons why I think it is a remedy. That is why I

elaborated on the subject. It seemed to me that, more than anybody

else saying it, my saying it will have a deeper impact. When I say

so, does it mean that I am trapped in my "ahankara"? No, that is not

my meaning. It is because of people pursuing "seats of power"

mindlessly that loud slogans are raised in the name of equality,

freedom, self respect and the like, and this din has led to wars. In

such a context, I thought that a person like me, whom fate

(providence) has catapulted into a "seat above which there is no seat

and to which there is no equal" and "who does not find fulfillment in

the situation that he does not have to bow before anyone" letting it

be known to the world of his acute sense of a lack due to denial of

the opportunity or occasion to show (and therefore experience what it

is to feel) respect and reverence, and therefore pining, "what a

janma", may cause people to realise in their inner being the

necessity and importance of "vinaya". That is why I said all this.

You have the namaskara bhagya, which I did not and cannot get. I pray

to Narayana, saying "Namo Namah", that all of you may make full use

of the namaskara bhagya, and receive the highest blessings in life.

And I do namaskara to HIM. "