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Re:Question on dEvatAntaram

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bindinganavale suresh • April 23, 2001 


Dear suresh,
            You wrote :-

Dear Devotees of Sriman Narayana,

In the Vedas we find sUktAs or prayers for all the
different devathAs.Even in our daily sandhyAvandanam
we do Namaskarams to different devathas in all the
directions and finally prostrate to Lord
narayana.While eating food we offer to Ana,apana...and
finally Brahman or SriMan Narayana.
So All the different dEvathAs are expansions of Sriman
Narayana(SharIra SharIri bhavam) and all such DEvathAs
are actually looking after various functionings of
Nature/Vishwa thereby assisting SriMan 
NarAyana, should we not consider them as BhAgavathAs?
In the Upanishad it is declared that 'Shivscha
Narayanaha, shakrashcha Narayanaha,...' 
In the BhagavadgIta Lord Sri Krishna has said
'RudrANAm ShankarscAham...' etc.,
Even in the VishnusahasraNama phalasrhuti Eshwara
reveals the SriRAma mantram to PArvati which is
equivalent to chanting the entire Vishnu 
sahasranAmam.So should we not consider Shiva as a
BhAgavatha and worship as we worship a BhAgavatha?
When the Lord SriKrishna declares mAmEkam sharaNam
vraja should we not see the 'Sarva Bhootastham Ekam
NarAyanam? He is also SarvaBhootAthmabhootAma!!
As VishNavas are we not supposed to see the same
vishnu in a learned brahmana, a chandAla, a stone or a
tree? then why not in other dEvathAs.
The purport is that one should not consider other
DevathAs as seperate from Sriman Narayana and worship
them independantly.
Should we not take example from the great AchArya Sri
Narada Maharshi who will be continuously chanting
Narayana Narayana and happily moving around with All
the DEvathAs , RaKshasAs etc., working and 
wishing for the good of the whole universe?

Kindly enlighten me.
Namo Sriman NarAyaNa

Suresh Srinivasamurthy

*******************************************************

First,let me tell you that the logic and corresponding
reasoning given by you in the above posting which is
in harmony with the visistaadvaitha vedhantha is
itself enlightening.

Now,when our acharyas tell "worship only sriman
narayana and avoid worship of other deities(as part of
the requirements of saranagathi)",their main intention
is to generate "one pointed devotion in the shishya or
student to sriman narayana who is the core or
antaryamin of the entire existence,from whom all else
i.e jiva(in different karmic states as
chandala,king,devatha etc and also in their natural
state free from ties of karma) and
prakriti(water,fire,stone etc) derive their existence
".
This one pointed devotion is as a result of 
recognition of the fact of sriman narayana being the
"Reality of realities i.e satyasya satyam",which
includes the recognition of the"aprathik siddhi or
inseperability of the jiva and prakriti from sriman
narayana". 
So,One pointed devotion to sriman narayana also
includes love and respect to his amsas or parts i.e
jiva and prakriti as it is in accordance with the
reality and what is to be avoided is the above
feelings as a result of knowledge devoid of
recognition of the core of the very existence i.e
sriman narayana in its proper place. 

I hope the above answer helps.

Sri krishnaarpanamasthu
Suresh B.N.
  



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