Prayer - dyAnam - powerful medicine to unrest

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Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

 

Dear bhAgavatas,

 

Attached is a beautiful and powerful message from Sri U. Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan

Swami for our minds in this time of unrest.

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan

 

--

 

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. All the other wealth would automatically

be granted. Once in a while, make this jointly in a satsang, then the energy

gets multiplied and you start feeling the synergy.

 

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

 

SarvE janA: sukhinO bhavantu. Samasta san mangalAni santu.