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Re: About the lord's compassion

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NAGARAVE • October 26, 2000 


Dear Kasturi
 
I agree with Mani that you have posed a very interesting and thought 
provoking question.
 
Based on reasoning Sri. Mani has reached the following two 
conclusions: 
 
- The Lord has no *personal* desire to be accomplished by creation
- He will not be bereft of pleasure if the lIlA-vibhUti
were to come to an end.
 
My take on this issue is different: 
 
The fundamental axiom of Vedanta is that the cycle of Creation and 
dissolution is eternal (without beginning or end), given this, it is 
not possible to conceive of any possibility of an end to the cycles.  
The infinitely many baddha jivas provide fuel for the repeating 
cycle. The Para Brahman, the ordainer, the most compassionate yet 
impartial orchestrator, has been and will continue to participate in 
this sport of creation and dissolution.  It is a game for all 
involved and one which provides pleasure to the ordainer (the 
reasoning for the pleasure is beyond us because we are under the 
delusion of avidya karma.)  Based on the readings I have done, my 
understanding is that the Para Brahman definitely has desires, but 
has the innate ability to satisfy all desires. Saying that he is 
desirous of granting moksha to all but is unable to do so, seems to 
contradict the knowledge that I gathered from my readings so far.
 
The Brahman of Vedanta is very different from the God of western 
theology.  As a result, the analysis of the lord's compassion should 
be qualified by this difference.
 
ramanuja dasan,
Venkat



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