The Mercenaries

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika

Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

 

 

The Mercenaries

 

 

The queue stretched away in a serpentine formation, as far as the eye

could see. People had come from various nooks and corners of the country, taking

precious time off from their multifarious engagements. If one could take a head

count, one would probably come up with a mind-boggling figure of attendance. The

crowd was a mixed one. There were men, women and children of all hues, belonging

to all strata of society. Attired in their customary clothes, they presented a

kaleidoscope of colours, all dressed up in their finery and bedecked in

glittering ornaments. There were men of all ages, from the doddering old to the

virile young. Women there were ranging from the old and infirm to the coquettish

young ladies preening themselves with the full glow of youth enhanced by all

sorts of artificial aids to beauty. There were babes in arms and boisterous

boys. It was however not entirely a show of affluence-there were others too,

some with their poverty showing in their modest attire and some with penury

barely hidden. While some of the visages presented a happy look, there were

others too, care-worn and palpably unhappy. The closely- lined foreheads

displayed telltale evidence of persisting worries, major and minor.

 

 

 

The occupants of the queue were anxiously awaiting the ceremonial

opening of the gates to the sanctum sanctorum. They waited in eager anticipation

of having their momentary glimpse of the glorious Lord, resplendent with His

unfading beauty.

 

 

 

The benign smile on His beautiful countenance, His dazzling crown hiding the

curly, jet-black locks, some of which escaped from their confinement to fall

bewitchingly on the broad forehead adorned by an Urdhva Pundram, His inviting

lotus-like eyes full of compassion, the broad chest housing the Divine Consort,

a personification of all auspiciousness, the magnificent upper arms holding the

discus and the conch, ever ready to rush to the rescue of souls in need of

succour, the hand held in a gesture of munificence, promising everybody

fulfilment of their varied needs, the small waist adorned by a glittering golden

waistband, the beautiful thighs resembling the trunks of an elephant and hidden

from public view by gold-brocaded silk, the holy feet which are the source of

the Ganga and the refuge of all seeking spiritual solace, the innumerable

ornaments which added to their own beauty by adorning each part of the Lord's

tirumEni, the fresh flowers of various hues vying with each other for the

pleasure of association with His naturally fragrant body, the garlands of

Thulasi adorning Him from head to foot, making Him look like a veritable hillock

of greenery- all these and other aspects of the indescribable splendour of the

Lord awaited the devotees, come from far and wide. Though the huge backlog of

devotees afforded each only a fleeting glance at the bewitching beauty of the

Lord, that itself was enough to sustain them till their next visit.

 

 

 

The Lord too awaited the audience impatiently, listening with half an ear to the

paeans of praise being heaped on Him by His archakAs. The huge, all-day-long

crowd of people longing for a glimpse of Him prevented the Lord from having even

forty winks. As a result, His famed redlined eyes were even more reddish. Due to

this never-thinning crowd of audience-seekers, all His routines were severely

abridged and He often encountered the disapproving glances of the Veda Purusha

for short-circuiting manuals of worship, all in the interest of accommodating

more visitors.

 

 

 

The truth of the matter was that the Lord was as eager to have a glimpse of His

devotees, as they were. He was in fact on an endless search for a particular

devotee, or rather, a particular class of devotees. He had been standing there

patiently for aeons, scanning the face and heart of each devotee eagerly,

looking for telltale signs of the qualities He was after. So far, however, He

had been doomed to disappointment. True to His extremely sanguine disposition,

the Lord continued to await the arrival of this votary with undying hope.

 

 

 

When practically the entire world was at His doorstep awaiting His audience, who

was the distinguished devotee for whom the Lord Himself was searching so long

and had been unable to find in the vast sea of humanity that must have passed

His portal during all this time?

 

 

 

The golden gates opened at last with the mellifluous

chiming of the pretty bells adorning them, heralding the resumption of dharshan.

The devotees surged in, intent on having their eye-full of the Lord and His

brilliance. On the lips of each and every one of them was a prayer.

 

 

 

The first person in the queue, a modestly attired youth in search of

employment, took in the Lord's glorious form: but before it could reach his

heart and purify it, his lips started uttering a prayer for a lucrative job. He

promised the Lord that should He favour him with one, He would return

immediately and tonsure his head as a token of gratitude. Pushed by the

impatient crowd behind, he made his way out, reiterating his entreaty. He had

been egged on by his worried mother and promised that fate would surely smile

upon him, once he made the pilgrimage and had a glimpse of this Lord, and he had

faithfully fulfilled his part of the bargain.

 

 

 

The middle-aged lady who followed had her own grievance to air and boon to seek.

Her daughter, though having attained marriageable age five years back, was still

in search of a suitable groom. The matter was complicated by her insistence for

an overseas alliance, as she was bent on marrying somebody who was a permanent

resident of the Country of Milk and Honey. The anxious mother promised to gift

the Lord with a beautiful silk cloth, if only He arranged an alliance as desired

by her daughter.

 

 

 

The next in the queue, a doddering old man who had obviously seen and enjoyed

all that life had to offer, still had one area of dissatisfaction. He had come

for the express purpose of seeking the Lord's intervention in a property dispute

that had dragged on for decades, preventing him from raising a lucrative

skyscraper that would mint money. He showed the Lord the wad of mint-fresh

currency notes he had come to offer and prayed for an early end to the legal

tangle. He was a walking example of acquisition of wealth being an exemption to

the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, and would probably continue to crave

for the intoxicating ingots right up to his last breath.

 

 

 

The small child who followed also had a prayer, having been brought up in the

tradition of looking upon the Supreme Being as a Provider and nothing else.

Shanta next door had a beautiful bicycle, which she herself had been denied by

Mummy. If He was all that powerful as He was reputed to be, the child wanted the

Lord to change Mummy's mind and ensure that she was also the proud owner of a

vehicle, so that she could get even with Shanta.

 

 

 

And then there was the boy who had done badly in the exams but wanted a pass

desperately, the chronically sick man who was in need of a miraculous cure, and

innumerable others with varied wish-lists. Every single person in the queue had

something or the other he or she wanted from the Lord. To the child by her side,

who was yet to learn the ways of the world, the mother was whispering, " Pray to

the Lord to bless you with a long life and a brilliant academic career " , thus

initiating the child into the business of endless bargaining with the Lord.

There was none, absolutely none, without a prayer on his lips or heart. The

demands might have varied, but they were there always. If one person wished to

be showered with wealth without working for it, another prayed for restoration

of riches lost. If one prayed for marriage with an ideal wife, another sought

relief from a tyrannical spouse.

 

 

 

The Lord was disappointed. His normally benign countenance drooped with chagrin

at the mercenary attitude of people. Was there no one who had come to visit Him

just for the sake of it? Were none of the so-called devotees prompted solely by

love and affection in coming this far? What happened to the altruistic instincts

of mankind? Was everybody driven only by materialistic motives? Did everyone

look upon Him only as their Provider and not as their dear father, mother,

friend, guide and philosopher? Was He not to see the likes of a Sabhari, a Guha

or an Akroora, motivated solely by overwhelming affection for the Lord and

concern for His welfare? Were His words of wisdom, as enunciated in the Gita and

other Shastras, failing to penetrate these hardened hearts and tone-deaf ears?

Had these people become immune to the uplifting teachings of the various

mahAtmAs He had sent down to the earth from time to time?

 

 

 

Glancing up from Her exalted perch on the Lord's chest, the Divine Consort was

dismayed to find Her Eternal Mate's beautiful face clouded by sorrow at the

attitude of visitors, each of whom had a selfish purpose in coming to Him. She

told Him, " This is wholly unbecoming of You. You seem to forget that You are

the Universal Provider and that every single soul on earth has to look up to You

for all its needs. If they don't ask You, whom else can they? If they don't come

to You with their grievances, whom else can they take them to? Are You not the

Cosmic Father whose responsibility it is to cater to everyone's needs? The very

fact that they rush to You when they are in trouble and in need of solace,

indicates how close You are to them. Would a father call his children

mercenaries just because they seek him out every time they are in need of

things? If they lack the maturity to love You for Yourself, that is also Your

own mistake, for not having endowed them with the requisite wisdom. Are these

not Your own words-

 

" Chatur vidhA bhajantE mAm janA: sukritina: Arjuna!

 

ArtthO jigyAsu: artthArtthee GnAnee cha Bharatarshabha! " ( OH Arjuna! Four

types of people worship me- the distressed, the seeker after wealth, the

inquisitive and the wise man in search of the Absolute).

 

And did You Yourself not arrive at the conclusion, that the GnAnI, who loves You

dearly for Your own sake, sees You in everything and everything in You, and

seeks refuge in You-such a GnAnI is indeed hard to find? ( " Sa mahAtmA

sudurlabha: " ) These are after all Our children, and children will be children,

committing mistakes often and learning from them. Can You show me one single

person in this wide world who has not erred?( " na kaschit na aparAdhyati " ) "

 

 

 

This lengthy harangue from the normally sweet-tongued PirAtti, in defence of

Her errant progeny, restored the Lord's equanimity and He resumed lending His

sympathetic ears once more to the outpourings of distressed humanity, ready as

ever to provide succour and solace to all those who desired the same.

 

 

 

Srimate SriLakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan