material pursuits

From the Bhakti List Archives

• July 5, 1999


		srimathe ramanujaya namaha
		srimathe thuppul vedantha desikaya namaha
		srimathe srivan satakopa sriman narayana yateendra mahadesikaya namaha


		lakshmi natha samaarambaam naada-yamuna madhyamaam
		asmath acharya paryanthaam vandhe guru paramparaam

Dear bhagavathas,


I would like to respond to topic on material pursuits.

Unlike most other religions,sanatana dharma or the vedic religion,enjoins
one to live life with due emphasis on dharma ,artha and kama leading to
liberation or moksha.That is why the author of the "kama sutra" is venerated 
as a maharishi.

In our own visishtadwaita, our beloved udayavar has enunciated that the
doctrine of visishtadwaita culminates in "naayaka naayaki" bhava,where 
the whole world and its inhabitants are emberumaan's "naayakis" and
purushotomma,the one and only purusha is srimannarayana.Don't we find that
sriRama and srimathi sita devi exhibiting eternal love for each other in the
words of sriman valmiki "bhabuva drihtvaa vaidehi bhartaaram parishasvaje"

so, the objective of this life is to live,enjoy all the glorious things of
life as enjoined in the karma kaanda of the vedas,go through all the ashramaas
the brahmacharya,the gruhasthasrama,the vaanaprastha and finally the sanyasa 
asramaa.

The medaa sukthaam,for instance prays that one should live in bounty,full of
prosperity.Only,the wealth ,prosperity earned through rightful and noble means
in accordance with the dharma sastraas,should be given in plenty as "dhaanam"
to the lesser priveleged in society.
 
would a citizen of ayodhya during ramarajya,yearned for "vaikuntam" ?Did not
swami desikan say that he would eternally be a nithyasuuri at perarulalan
sannidhi than be a nithya suuri at srivaikuntam.(tat visnoh paramam padagum
sada pasyanthi suruyaha).

Ofcourse,our brilliant acharya-sage,philospher ,poet above all "nammudayavar"
has given us the unparalleled path of "saranagati".One does
saranagati,whatever
be his status/order/gender in life.After prapatti,one feels that he is free of
this material bondage and still can keep living in this material world because
the prapanna is sure that he has surrendered everything to his acharya,who
in turn is chained to
udayavar-alvandar-uyyakkondaar-naadamunigal-nammazhwar-vishvaksenar-sri-srip
athi.Nothing can go wrong in this illustrious and irrevocable and luminous
list of acharya-guru-sishya parampara.

so let us live in this material world,keeping in ming the path tread by our
illustrious acharyaas in the parampara.

	srimathe ramanujaya namaha..

	
regards and love 
ravi desikan	


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