[Vaideekam] Digest Number 271

[Guest guest]

Many Vaishnavites treat vinayaka and vishvaksenar as

same.This they do either out of ignorence or as a

compromise to satisfy smarthas.They do not consider

Sri Vishvaksena's staus in Acharya parampara or his

status as a Nithyasuri in SriVaikuntam.

This may be due to less information about him in our

scriptures.As in the case of ganesha or Shanmukha we

do not seem to have a purana about Sri Vishvaksena

giving details of his orign etc.,We have such details

on Garuda ,Sudharshana etc.,Or is there any such

source.Can the moderator kindly consider this and

reply?

Dasan

Madhavan

 

***Adiyen,

I try to get a text book about " Vishvaksenar " from our college.

VAsu VAdhyAr.

[Guest guest]

***Adiyen,

[This is the reply for the message given under by Mr.Padmanabhan]

Dear Padmanabhan sir,

I frank with you, reading a huge message in English is very difficult for me.

I hope the below slokam will reflect the meaning of your points :

" Aakaasath pathitham thoyam yathaa gachchathi saagaram|

sarva deva namaskaaraha Kesavam prathi gachchathi|| "

'Aakasathilirundhu vizhum jalamanadhu eppadi irudhiyil samudhraththai

chendradaikiradho; Athupol ella devadhaikalukkum pannum poojaiyanathu irudhiyil

ennaiye vandhu adaikiradhu'

 

When one know the above thathparyam and believing the thathparyam and also he is

having the facility in his house itself in the form of " Salagramam " why he has

to go outside to perform it?

It may be compared to : 'To tell a message to his father who is in the next

room, going to the STD booth located in the next street.'

 

To attain moksham bhagavan itself described three ways:

Bhakthi yogam, Gnanayogam and Prapathi yogam.

The first two are very very hard to perform by human.

So, Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are particular about 'Parpathi' also which is said as

a greatest upaayam of moksham by bhagavan.

 

Many people think that 'Prapathi' is a very very easiest thing to perform when

comparing with others. But in my views 'Prapathi' is the hardest thing to

perform. Because Swami desikan in his " Nyasa Dasakam " he describe abouth the

Lakshanam of Prapathi as:

It requres Five elements:

1. Aanukoolyasya Sankalpa: (poromise to do only what he likes)

2. Praathikoolyasya Varjanam (avoid doing all he dislikes)

3. Maha Viswasam

(Keep a great Visvasam that he will definitely do 'Rakshakam'.)

4. Kaarpanyam (Always you should be in the thinking that no one is there to do

Rakshakam except him, I coul not save myself also, He is the only Rakshakan)

5. Gopthruptha Varanam.

(By knowing all these and realising all these things I am leaving myself to him,

nothing to do for me here after)

Finally, our Acharyas are well known persons, they did many many arguments on

this subjects and conqured the oponents. We (I) don't have that much of

knowledge to argue and it is not wise arguing about the matter which had already

a good judgement.

 

Even Advaidins also said: " Aasai arumin aasai arumin Easarodaayinum aasai

arumin " So, finally, getting 'Virakthi' on this life only will lead you to the

way of 'Moksham'.

 

Azhwar Charithram:

Onece 'Thirumazhi Alwar' had sit in a place and stiching a cloth with a small

needle. At that time Paarvathi and Paramasivan came there and told, " ask any

'Varam' I will give you " .

He replied, " Can you give me moksham " ?

Siva replied, " You ask anything except moksham " !

Azhwar asked, " Then let the thread always be with the needle "

that shows he is not atall having interest in the worldly things.

 

VAsu VAdhyAr

 

 

 

Dear Mama,

With your kind permission, I join the debate on Vinayakar worship, Parvathi

worship - whether these are opposed to Sri Vaishnava Siddhantham.

1. In Bhagavad Gita, God tells us that He is the Atma in all beings ( should be

taken as inclusive of Devas such as Vinayagar, Parvathi etc.) He further says

that He is the beginning, middle and the end of all beings. - 10.20

2. The Lord says in the Gita in 7.21, whichever devotee seeks to worship with

faith whatever form, He makes that very faith steadfast.

3. In 7.22, He says that if you worship a deity with faith you get your desires

sanctioned by that deity, " which are indeed granted by Me alone " .

4. In 7.23 He says that fruit of these men has an end. The worshippers of gods

go to the gods. My devotees come to Me.

5. In 9.29 of the Gita He says that " I am the same to all creation. There is

none hateful or dear to Me. But those who worship Me with devotion abide in Me

and I do abide in them. "

Everyone knows that there is no greater authority than the Vedas and so long as

any Smritis or Puranas or Sastrams do not conflict with Vedas, they are also the

authority. Bhagavad Gita is the essence of Upanishads and this fact is accepted

by the Advaitins and Visishtadvaitins and of course Dvaitins (the prominent 3

sections of the Hindu especially in South India). I therefore say that next

only to the Vedas, Gita is the only authority for all of us.

To me, the sum and substance of Gita (including in particular the slokas quoted

above as example for whatever I am going to say) is as follows:

1. If your life's goal is to reach God (attain Moksham), your way of life should

be oriented towards that only and here comes the worship of Sriman Narayana (for

Vaishnavins) and Brahmam (also known as Parabrahmam, whose name is Sriman

Narayana according to Vaishnavite Acharyas) for all others.

2. Vaishnavites do the Bharanyasam or Prapathi which means surrender to Sriman

Narayana and as you, Mama, had elsewhere on the website explained, it takes

into consideration the utter helplessness of the Jivatma and the absolute

dependence of the Paramatma by the Jivatma both for life in earth and life

afterwards - even after Moksham - and one who has done this prapathi does not

therefore have to recognise the Anya Devas. No doubt, no one can repudiate

their existence and powers as that has been spelt out in the Gita by Lord

Himself - and therein lies the answer why some (or many, I do not know)

Vaishnavites do not worship Vinayagar or Parvathi.

3. Personally, I feel Devas - all Devatas - do worship their Antaryami who is

the Supreme Lord and whose name Vaishnavites have given as Sriman Narayana - and

therefore all Devatas are deemed as Devotees of Lord Narayana or Parabrahmam (if

one has any reservation in names).

4. We all know that God desires us to respect all His Devotees (which naturally

should include all Devatas including Lord Vinayagar and Goddess Parvathi) and

therefore if some (or many, I do not know) Vaishnavites respect Anya Devatas

without the intention of worshipping them as Parabrahmam and without seeking

favours or boons from them, there is nothing wrong. I do not know whether doing

Puja is showing respect or doing worship and seeking favours. I leave this to

the imagination of those who do the Puja. Incidentally, we could not have had

the Mahabharatham which includes the Gita and the Vishnu Sahasranamam, but for

Vinayagar taking dictation from Sage Vyasa, at the instance of Brahma, and that

too after understanding the meanings of words and statements dictated by Sage

Vyasa which later on were given to us as " The Mahabharatham " , the fifth Veda as

if it were.

5. If in spiritual quest, one combines material quest also, naturally he

worships such Gods who give him such boons as he wants for the pursuit of his

material life, like Navagraha worship, worship of other deities, etc. When a

person rises above the material sphere and confines himself to the spiritual

quest only, he has no desire to worship any God other than Sriman Narayana,

especially when he happens to be a Vaishnavite.

6. When people live in earth, they want to have enjoyments rather than

sufferings, and when by virtue of Punyam, they reach Swargam, they have more

enjoyments and perhaps no sufferings in the Swarga Loka. But they after Swargam

life, come back to this earth to pay for their Papa and other Punya Karmas which

are outstanding. That way the cycle of birth and death goes on for ever and for

ever. Moksham is the end of this cycle, where the Jivatma attains Moksham when

it has no outstanding in its account, debit or credit or papam or punyam, as you

rightly observed on so many occasions. Here again Gita is the authority in 7.19

in which sloka, God says that " At the end of many births, the wise find refuge

in Me realising that Vasudeva is all. " Such a great souled person is rare, even

according to God.

 

With kind regards,

Padmanabhan

 

 

 

 

 

 

T V Padmanabhan

Advocate

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160 Arcot Road, Vadapalani

Chennai 600 026, India

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