"Many A Slip..."

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

Many A Slip..

 

 

People say that Fortune smiles upon us at times. Whenever it does, we are

favoured with good things, be it winning a lottery, getting a seat in college,

landing a rich and good-looking bride or something else equally desirable. Thus

when the usually stern father is in a mellow mood on the day the dull boy's

report card arrives, when the usually argumentative wife agrees to the husband's

proposal without demur, when the habitually terrible cook refrains from burning

the breakfast again-all these are occasions when Fortune wears a benign smile,

instead of the usual slings and arrows it reserves for us. However, this smile

never lasts long, and we end-up losing in a jiffy whatever gain we notched up

earlier. The next month's report card finds the stern father in his usually foul

mood and the punishment is all the more severe: the wife resumes wordy duels

with a vengeance and the kitchen-help picks up where she left off in

overexposing food to fire. We thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings

are but flashes in the pan, transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us

for long.

 

 

 

We wish therefore for a continued run of good luck, or the preservation

and continuation of the blessings showered upon us occasionally in this

otherwise humdrum and pedestrian existence. It is thus as important to us to

have strokes of good luck as to have them with us on a firmer footing.

 

While defining "YOgakshEmam"(in the Gita sloka)-

 

"ananyA: chintayantO mAm yE janA: paryupAsatE

 

tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"

 

 

 

Sri Ramanuja takes Yoga to mean unprecedented good fortune and KshEma to connote

the continued enjoyment of that slice of good luck. What is the use of Lady Luck

smiling upon us, if it were to last just a fleeting second? How desirable would

it be to have Fortune smile upon one always, akin to the fixed and phoney smile

politicians habitually wear on their faces!

 

 

 

The TaittirIya Upanishad says, "annavAn annAdO bhavati", blessing the fortunate

one with sumptuous food that never diminishes with time or consumption. But what

is the use of plentiful food, if one is unable to partake of it? We often come

across the ironical spectacle of the extremely affluent, with a breakfast of

mouth-watering delicacies spread out in front of them, but unable to eat even a

morsel of the tempting fare, due to crippling complaints like Diabetes, Ulcer et

al. Is it not a case of "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!" The

true blessing therefore is not only to have one's heart's desire, but to enjoy

it too. This is why the Upanishad showers a blessing not only for possession of

plentiful food, but also the requisite health and connoisseurship to enjoy its

consumption-"annAdO bhavati".

 

 

 

History is replete with instances of slips between the cup and the lip, of

people favoured with a beaming smile from Fortune, only to have it disappear in

a trice, leaving them in a condition worse than before. One such instance

Azhwars have waxed eloquent about concerns the lament of Devaki, faithfully

rendered in verse by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal.

 

 

 

It is common knowledge as to how Sri Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva in

Kamsa's prison, on that stormy night. However, after favouring His parents with

a sight to gladden their hearts, He departed the same night to the safer haven

of Nandagokulam, situated across the Yamuna. To Devaki, from whom seven earlier

children had been snatched away by a merciless Kamsa, the departure of Sri

Krishna was the final blow and she could hardly reconcile herself to the loss of

the beloved child, whose arrival the entire world had awaited with bated

breath. She too had looked forward so much to this child, and when He did

arrive, She was wonderstruck at His beauty and magnificence-His lovable lotus

eyes, His radiant face resembling a thousand Suns shining simultaneously, the

tiny red lips resembling a ripe red fruit, the cute little feet which were the

refuge of the whole world and the deep navel from which the entire Creation had

blossomed forth. Who would willingly part with such a magnificent and bewitching

specimen of childhood? But part with she did, in the sole interests of the

enchanting infant, who would meet with instant end, if Kamsa came to know of His

birth.

 

 

 

Thus, though blessed with a child beyond any mother's wildest imagination,

Devaki did not have the good fortune to keep Him, to subject Him to the

smothering love and care of a doting mother, to watch Him take His first

unsteady steps, to witness His innumerable acts of mischief and misdemeanour

which endeared Him so much to the Gopis, to feed Him with a breast full of milk

which bore the distilled essence of maternal love and affection, to sing Him to

sleep with the sweetest of lullabies, to watch over His docile, sleeping form

with pride tinged with worry of the evil eye befalling Him and doing a hundred

other things that provide unending enjoyment to mothers.

 

 

 

Sri Kulasekhara Perumal records Devaki's dismay at her loss, in all of ten

pasurams in his Perumal Tirumozhi. Sri Andal hints at the irony of fate, at the

paradox of the surrogate mother snatching away the rightful enjoyment of the

natural one, with the lines 'orutthi maganAi pirandu, Oriravil orutthi maganAi

oLitthu vaLara". Thus though Devaki's cup of happiness was momentarily full, it

emptied itself before it could be conveyed to her thirsting lips. Fortune, after

casting a fleeting smile at Devaki, turned stony-faced again, leaving her to her

travails in Kamsa's gaol, and turned its beaming face towards Yasodha, giving

her the full treatment. As a result, all the happiness and glory, which ought to

have accrued to Devaki and Vasudeva, by virtue of their being the Lord's

parents, is appropriated, albeit unwittingly, by Yasodha and Nandagopa. The Lord

is described variously as "Yasodai iLam singamNandagopan kumaran" etc.,

identifying Him more with His foster parents, than the original ones. It is

Yasoda who attains the maximum enjoyment out of her motherhood-"tollai

inabatthin irudi kandAL", than poor Devaki, forced to part with her beloved

within hours of His birth and before even the cut umbilical cord could properly

dry and heal.

 

 

 

Food is verily regarded as the Supreme Lord Himself, as the Upanishad vakya

testifies-"annam Brahma iti vyajAnAt". This is the advice of Varuna to his son

Bhrigu Mahrshi, when the latter seeks clarifications on the Ultimate. If we use

this definition, of food being Brahma, in the aforesaid Shruti vAkya, "annavAn

annAdO bhavati", substituting "Brahma" for "annam", we arrive at the vEdic

benediction that the true knower not only attains the Lord ("annavAn bhavati")

but also gets to enjoy all the glorious facets of His magnificence, performing

constant kainkaryam to Him, deriving indescribable bliss in the process ("annAdO

bhavati"). Having realised the true nature of the Lord, the bhakta is rewarded

with pleasurable service and boundless bliss, never losing himself again in the

bewildering maze of samsara. The nectar of Bhagavat anubhavam is indeed conveyed

to the lips, without being lost in the process, without slipping in transit, as

happened in the case of Devaki.

 

 

 

Another case of the contents of the cup slipping before reaching the lips is the

asurAs' Herculean efforts to obtain immortality by imbibing Ambrosia. After all

the interminable troubles they went to in positioning the Mantara parvatam in

the Milky Ocean, harnessing the poisonous VAsuki as the churning rope,

persuading the Lord Himself to act as the bedrock, and putting in all their

efforts for churning up the ocean, when indeed Nectar did emerge, the asurAs

find themselves cheated out of it by DevAs, with the active connivance of the

Lord in His MOhini avataram. For all His professed impartiality, ("DEvAnAm

dAnavAnAm cha sAmAnyam adhi daivatam"), the Lord indeed tilts towards the Devas,

and with good reason too-for, the world would be a hard place to live in if free

reign is given to the evil-minded.

 

 

 

All this goes to demonstrate the truth of Sri Bhashyakara's words on Yoga and

Kshema-attaining some hard-to-get good fortune and also getting to enjoy it

fully. While some are lucky to achieve their mind's desire, it is only a few who

stand to benefit immensely from their attainment. Others only suffer double

disappointment, for the blow of not being able to enjoy the fruits of their

labour is indeed worse than not having achieved the goal itself. The Gitacharya

Himself tells us what we should do for attaining the Ultimate and also deriving

the accompanying bliss-

 

"ananyA: chintayantO mAm, yE janA: paryupAsatE

 

tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"

 

 

 

For those who reserve their thoughts solely for the Lord, with nary a notion for

anything else, hold Him dear to their hearts with an overwhelming devotion and

worship Him with the unadulterated adulation He deserves, the Lord Himself takes

care of their requirements. He ensures that they are blessed with the most

wonderful of good fortunes (that of realising Emperuman in all His glory and

splendour) and of deriving boundless bliss in His company and kainkaryam.

 

It is He who puts the cup of joy in our hands and steadies it too, so that it

doesn't slip while being conveyed to the lips.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Sadagopanji

Yet another thought provoking master piece article.

with all hard labor done for a full year the boy sees his results and feels

happy that he got the fruits of labor and all his prayers have been

answered; but within hours he notices that he missed admission under merit

list by visker.Without choice the daddy for the first time finds use for the

costly big leather vallet (which he had got in one

of his official seminars).

quote

We thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings are but flashes in the

pan, transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us for long.

unquote.

 

It is really interesting to learn the meaning for the word " yoga" - it is

sometimes understood as "be in union" or " unprecedented good fortune" or a

mind without desires and so on. Sometimes we say "yogam" in our day to day

usage. Probabaly the word carries meaning to the context - seek some

clarification-

 

I have heard people saying " pleasure is an interval between pains" or one

can look at the life as a dark night between two days or a bright day

between two nights. Pleasure and pain is like day and night.

 

Lord gave up His Lordliness and pose Himself as mortal to kill

Ravanan; Krishna had to be with the Cows at

Midnight; for the sake of little butter. Lord accepted His defeat for the

Love of His devotees by leaving the Vaikunta and came down while Jaya and

Vijaya still arguing to let the Rishies in ; Mahabali finally offered

himself accepted his Defeat; Great saints and sages gave up their pursuit

and resorted to surrender. This ping- Pong goes on and on . Nobody is a

winner!

 

I would think the real " yoga Kshemam" was for Gopikas of vrindavan. Others

thought Krishna is just a magician , but the Gopikas spotted Him as the

Paramatma thru their Intense Love for HIM and Lord could not hide His

Lordship from them. The lady luck kept smiling on the ladies of vrindavanam.

 

" If we have understood that we cannot understand Him; then we have

understood Him"

( the statement made by a mystic boy in chennai when I happened to meet him)

 

Learned members of this forum may kindly bear my scribbles.

 

Srimate Ramanujaya Namah

Srimate Vedanta Gurave Namah

Sri Satakopa Ramanuja Yathindra Mahadesikaya Namah

 

Vijayaraghavan V K

 

 

-

"sadagopaniyengar" <sadagopaniyengar

"" <>;

<>; "tiruvengadam"

<tiruvengadam>; "Oppiliappan" <Oppiliappan>;

"radha jagannathan" <radha; "j.srinivasan"

<j.srinivasan; "cs.srinivasan" <chetlurvas; "padmaja"

<ayodhyarama; "sukanya Murali" <sukanyamurali;

"mythily ramadesikan" <r_mythily

Cc: "sadagopaniyengar" <sadagopaniyengar

Wednesday, May 28, 2003 4:53 AM

"Many A Slip..."

 

 

>

> Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

>

>

>

> Many A Slip..

>

>

> People say that Fortune smiles upon us at times. Whenever it does,

we are favoured with good things, be it winning a lottery, getting a seat in

college, landing a rich and good-looking bride or something else equally

desirable. Thus when the usually stern father is in a mellow mood on the day

the dull boy's report card arrives, when the usually argumentative wife

agrees to the husband's proposal without demur, when the habitually terrible

cook refrains from burning the breakfast again-all these are occasions when

Fortune wears a benign smile, instead of the usual slings and arrows it

reserves for us. However, this smile never lasts long, and we end-up losing

in a jiffy whatever gain we notched up earlier. The next month's report card

finds the stern father in his usually foul mood and the punishment is all

the more severe: the wife resumes wordy duels with a vengeance and the

kitchen-help picks up where she left off in overexposing food to fire. We

thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings are but flashes in the pan,

transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us for long.

>

>

>

> We wish therefore for a continued run of good luck, or the

preservation and continuation of the blessings showered upon us occasionally

in this otherwise humdrum and pedestrian existence. It is thus as important

to us to have strokes of good luck as to have them with us on a firmer

footing.

>

> While defining "YOgakshEmam"(in the Gita sloka)-

>

> "ananyA: chintayantO mAm yE janA: paryupAsatE

>

> tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"

>

>

>

> Sri Ramanuja takes Yoga to mean unprecedented good fortune and KshEma to

connote the continued enjoyment of that slice of good luck. What is the use

of Lady Luck smiling upon us, if it were to last just a fleeting second? How

desirable would it be to have Fortune smile upon one always, akin to the

fixed and phoney smile politicians habitually wear on their faces!

>

>

>

> The TaittirIya Upanishad says, "annavAn annAdO bhavati", blessing the

fortunate one with sumptuous food that never diminishes with time or

consumption. But what is the use of plentiful food, if one is unable to

partake of it? We often come across the ironical spectacle of the extremely

affluent, with a breakfast of mouth-watering delicacies spread out in front

of them, but unable to eat even a morsel of the tempting fare, due to

crippling complaints like Diabetes, Ulcer et al. Is it not a case of "Water,

water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!" The true blessing therefore is

not only to have one's heart's desire, but to enjoy it too. This is why the

Upanishad showers a blessing not only for possession of plentiful food, but

also the requisite health and connoisseurship to enjoy its

consumption-"annAdO bhavati".

>

>

>

> History is replete with instances of slips between the cup and the lip, of

people favoured with a beaming smile from Fortune, only to have it disappear

in a trice, leaving them in a condition worse than before. One such instance

Azhwars have waxed eloquent about concerns the lament of Devaki, faithfully

rendered in verse by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal.

>

>

>

> It is common knowledge as to how Sri Krishna was born to Devaki and

Vasudeva in Kamsa's prison, on that stormy night. However, after favouring

His parents with a sight to gladden their hearts, He departed the same night

to the safer haven of Nandagokulam, situated across the Yamuna. To Devaki,

from whom seven earlier children had been snatched away by a merciless

Kamsa, the departure of Sri Krishna was the final blow and she could hardly

reconcile herself to the loss of the beloved child, whose arrival the

entire world had awaited with bated breath. She too had looked forward so

much to this child, and when He did arrive, She was wonderstruck at His

beauty and magnificence-His lovable lotus eyes, His radiant face resembling

a thousand Suns shining simultaneously, the tiny red lips resembling a ripe

red fruit, the cute little feet which were the refuge of the whole world and

the deep navel from which the entire Creation had blossomed forth. Who would

willingly part with such a magnificent and bewitching specimen of childhood?

But part with she did, in the sole interests of the enchanting infant, who

would meet with instant end, if Kamsa came to know of His birth.

>

>

>

> Thus, though blessed with a child beyond any mother's wildest imagination,

Devaki did not have the good fortune to keep Him, to subject Him to the

smothering love and care of a doting mother, to watch Him take His first

unsteady steps, to witness His innumerable acts of mischief and misdemeanour

which endeared Him so much to the Gopis, to feed Him with a breast full of

milk which bore the distilled essence of maternal love and affection, to

sing Him to sleep with the sweetest of lullabies, to watch over His docile,

sleeping form with pride tinged with worry of the evil eye befalling Him and

doing a hundred other things that provide unending enjoyment to mothers.

>

>

>

> Sri Kulasekhara Perumal records Devaki's dismay at her loss, in all of

ten pasurams in his Perumal Tirumozhi. Sri Andal hints at the irony of fate,

at the paradox of the surrogate mother snatching away the rightful enjoyment

of the natural one, with the lines 'orutthi maganAi pirandu, Oriravil

orutthi maganAi oLitthu vaLara". Thus though Devaki's cup of happiness was

momentarily full, it emptied itself before it could be conveyed to her

thirsting lips. Fortune, after casting a fleeting smile at Devaki, turned

stony-faced again, leaving her to her travails in Kamsa's gaol, and turned

its beaming face towards Yasodha, giving her the full treatment. As a

result, all the happiness and glory, which ought to have accrued to Devaki

and Vasudeva, by virtue of their being the Lord's parents, is appropriated,

albeit unwittingly, by Yasodha and Nandagopa. The Lord is described

variously as "Yasodai iLam singamNandagopan kumaran" etc., identifying

Him more with His foster parents, than the original ones. It is Yasoda who

attains the maximum enjoyment out of her motherhood-"tollai inabatthin irudi

kandAL", than poor Devaki, forced to part with her beloved within hours of

His birth and before even the cut umbilical cord could properly dry and

heal.

>

>

>

> Food is verily regarded as the Supreme Lord Himself, as the Upanishad

vakya testifies-"annam Brahma iti vyajAnAt". This is the advice of Varuna to

his son Bhrigu Mahrshi, when the latter seeks clarifications on the

Ultimate. If we use this definition, of food being Brahma, in the aforesaid

Shruti vAkya, "annavAn annAdO bhavati", substituting "Brahma" for "annam",

we arrive at the vEdic benediction that the true knower not only attains the

Lord ("annavAn bhavati") but also gets to enjoy all the glorious facets of

His magnificence, performing constant kainkaryam to Him, deriving

indescribable bliss in the process ("annAdO bhavati"). Having realised the

true nature of the Lord, the bhakta is rewarded with pleasurable service and

boundless bliss, never losing himself again in the bewildering maze of

samsara. The nectar of Bhagavat anubhavam is indeed conveyed to the lips,

without being lost in the process, without slipping in transit, as happened

in the case of Devaki.

>

>

>

> Another case of the contents of the cup slipping before reaching the lips

is the asurAs' Herculean efforts to obtain immortality by imbibing Ambrosia.

After all the interminable troubles they went to in positioning the Mantara

parvatam in the Milky Ocean, harnessing the poisonous VAsuki as the churning

rope, persuading the Lord Himself to act as the bedrock, and putting in all

their efforts for churning up the ocean, when indeed Nectar did emerge, the

asurAs find themselves cheated out of it by DevAs, with the active

connivance of the Lord in His MOhini avataram. For all His professed

impartiality, ("DEvAnAm dAnavAnAm cha sAmAnyam adhi daivatam"), the Lord

indeed tilts towards the Devas, and with good reason too-for, the world

would be a hard place to live in if free reign is given to the evil-minded.

>

>

>

> All this goes to demonstrate the truth of Sri Bhashyakara's words on Yoga

and Kshema-attaining some hard-to-get good fortune and also getting to enjoy

it fully. While some are lucky to achieve their mind's desire, it is only a

few who stand to benefit immensely from their attainment. Others only suffer

double disappointment, for the blow of not being able to enjoy the fruits of

their labour is indeed worse than not having achieved the goal itself. The

Gitacharya Himself tells us what we should do for attaining the Ultimate and

also deriving the accompanying bliss-

>

> "ananyA: chintayantO mAm, yE janA: paryupAsatE

>

> tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"

>

>

>

> For those who reserve their thoughts solely for the Lord, with nary a

notion for anything else, hold Him dear to their hearts with an overwhelming

devotion and worship Him with the unadulterated adulation He deserves, the

Lord Himself takes care of their requirements. He ensures that they are

blessed with the most wonderful of good fortunes (that of realising

Emperuman in all His glory and splendour) and of deriving boundless bliss in

His company and kainkaryam.

>

> It is He who puts the cup of joy in our hands and steadies it too, so that

it doesn't slip while being conveyed to the lips.

>

>

>

> Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

>

> Dasan, sadagopan

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Srirangasri-

>

>

>

> Your use of is subject to

>

>

>