RE: Question :BhagavAn svayam - 2
From the Bhakti List Archives
• August 29, 1998
Sri:
Srimate Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha Para Brahmane namaha
Srimate Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha Divya pAdukA sevaka Srivan Shatakopa -
Sri nArAyaNa Yateendra mahAdesikAya namaha
Dear Sri rAm gopAlswAmy & other devotees ,
namo nArAyaNA. Kindly accept adiyen's pranAmams.
---- cont --------------
5. Qtn : Who is nArAyaNA ? what is the difference between Him & the
avatArams like KrishNA , rAmA , ranganAthA & PeraruLALan ?
Ans : nArAyaNA is not merely someone with 4 hands , conch , chakrA
etc . nArAyaNA is the paramAtmA who pervades everywhere with
infinite kalyAna gunAs & ever associated with "Sri" (Lakshmi).
"nArAyaNA" refers to the divyAtma svaroopam which pervades
everywhere & He is the Brahman (source of creation ,
the maintainer & in whom it dissolves ) .
nArAyaNA is always personal because of His infinite kalyAna
gunAs . Just because He is all pervading , it doesn^Ã’t mean that
He is impersonal . The same infinite nArAyaNA takes many
forms for the pleasure of His devotees & the body of such forms
are made up of the special aprAkruta material called
"suddha sattvam " & such incarnations are out of His own will
(ie.Not because of karmA). The infinite qualities of nArAyaNA
are not because of His form . It is based on His svaroopam &
His dharmabhooda jn~Anam both of which are infinite . For
example , a human being speaks , laughs , shows compassion to
others , makes friends etc because of the jIvAtmA & not
that the material body by itself is doing all these things .
Similarly,nArAyaNA is present inside the divine body (divya mangaLa
vigraham) & thereby gives oppurtunities to His devotees to serve
Him. Thus "nArAyaNA" is different from nArAyaNA^Ã’s form .
But , nArAyaNA eternally gives the sevai (darSan) with divya
mangaLa vigrahA at Sri VaikuNTham . But muktAtmAs &
nityasUrIs can also enjoy the divyAtma svaroopam of
nArAyaNA which is million times more blissful than His divya
mangaLa vigrahA .
Unfortunately , baddha jIvAtms can^Ã’t have the sAkshAtkAram of
Him (ie. DivyAtma svaroopam). It is debarred for them by the
sankalpam of nArAyaNA . Wherever "nArAyaNA" is mentioned
it refers to His divyAtma svaroopam & not to His form , of which
the four handed form which He takes is the most famous . A
baddha jIvAtmA can atbest know about nArAyaNA (divyAtma
svaroopam ) & discuss about His kalyAna gunAs & in that way
meditate on His divyAtma svaroopam , but cannot have its
sAkshAtkAram.
But nArAyaNA doesn^Ã’t wash away his hands . He is ever
merciful & thus takes beautiful forms . So , His
"divya mangaLa vigrahA" is the sole refuge for His devotees.
A yogi does the sAkshAtkAram of His divya mangaLa vigrahA
at his heart if he chooses that upAsanA . If some other yogi
chooses to perform some other Brahma VidyA (upAsanA) , he
can have the sAkshAtkAram of the divya mangaLa vigrahA of
nArAyaNA say in the orb of the sun. But , the greatest &
most merciful avatAram is the archAvatAram , in which even
the rouges , thieves , non - devotee , devotee , rich , beggar ,
athiest,animals & all sorts of living entities can see with
their material eyes the archA thirumeni ( divya mangaLa
vigrahA ) of Sriman nArAyaNA . This display of immense
Soulabhyam & Sowseelyam by Sriman nArAyaNA although
being the Param poruL (Supreme Being) is the main
reason for His ardent devotees like AzhwArs to dive into
various devotional moods filled with mystic experience in
communion with the supreme Lord & in that bliss comesforth
their most nectarian Divya Prabandhams , which is so potent
to change even a stone hearted athiest into a bhAgavathA
filled with all bodily horripulations during his bhagavad
anubhavam .
When we meet a friend , we don^Ã’t say that we are meeting a
"material body" of a jIvAtmA . The whole system of jIvAtmA &
the material body is taken together in consideration & thus we
say "I met Mr.X out there ".This is basically because ,the
jIvAtmA is inseparably united with the body , as long as it is
within it . Similarly , though we would have had the fortune of
seeing only perumAL^Ã’s archA thirumeni (or possibly only the
ornaments ) , we would say "I saw PerumAL in Garuda
vAhanam ( during temple Uttsavam)" because nArAyaNA
is inseparably united with that archA thirumeni .
The greatness of the archAvatAram is that the greatest
purushArtam of Bhagavad kainkaryam at Paramapadam
(Sri VaikuNTham) can even be experienced (though not in
same degree ) in this world of samsArA .Thatswhy , Divya
Desams are known as BhoolOka VaikuNTham - it doesn^Ã’t
belong either to the actual paramapadam , nor to the
materialistic world ( because of the special bhagavad
anubhavam & performance of kainkaryam ) . There is no
other refuge to a baddha jIvAtmA than to enjoy the Divya
MangaLa vigrahA of Sriman nArAyaNA in various Divya
Desams & simultaneously enjoy His kalyAna gunAs
through most nectarian Divya prabandhams
( anubhavam of AzhwArs) & perform various kainkaryams
to Him & His devotees . All these become possible only
because of the most merciful archAvatAram which rightly
makes the devotees act according to their svaroopam
( nature ) of being a seshan ( servant) of Sriman nArAyaNA.
But for the archAvatAram , the devotees would be like "fish
out of water" since their natural state (svaroopam) of
performing bhagavad kainkaryam won^Ã’t become possible in
that case .
The glories of archAvatAram esp. in Divya Desams is that ,
each such avatAram has a unique story behind it . The
story (sthala purAnam) by itself will be so much nectarian &
such leelAs of Sriman nArAyaNA can be remembered
forever. PirAtti takes the role of a jIvAtmA & teaches how
a baddha jIvATmA should yearn for Sriman nArAyaNA
culminating finally in their marriage of prapatti . What a
glorious way in which the Divya DampatIs preach the prapatti
sAstrA to a baddha jIvAtmA through their sacred marriage
(thiru kalyAnam) & kalyAnotsavam !! On top of this ,
nArAyaNA performs various leelAs in His archAvatAram
(Speaking with the likes of thiruk kacchi nambi & AzhwArs ,
order someone like Adivan Shatakopa Jeeyar for sampradAya
propagation , write taniyans for the likes of ananthAzhvAn ,
so on & on ) .
No stopping at this , He even brings apparent
suffering to Himself ( RanganAthA during Muslim Invasion
etc ) just like rAghavan (rAmAvatAram) was in deep sorrow &
cried heavily due to His separation from SItA . LeelAs such
as this can^Ã’t be beared by His devotees &
they still more vigorously engage in bhagavad anubhavam &
kainkaryam ( Just imagine the deep emotional traumAs that
our AchAryAs would have experienced during the time of
muslim invasion & how our AchAryAs saved ranganAthA &
sampradAyam ) . Infact , such leelAs are for those supreme
devotees , who would display their deep love to the fullest
possible extent in such situations since in archAvatAram ,
it is the responsibility of the devotee to even bathe &
dress Him ; what to speak of protecting Him from invaders ?
While contemplating on these things, one can say that
the leelAs of vibhava avatArams also fade away in
comparison with that of the leelAs of archAvatArams.
Thus , after understanding the actual tattvam of nArAyaNA one
can easily say that there is no difference between rAmA ,
krishNA & ranganAthA since it is the same nArAyaNA who
is taking various such forms for the pleasure of His devotees.
Be it a four handed form , two handed human form or
a form of a fish (matsyAvatAram) , it is the same nArAyaNA
(divyAtma svaroopam) who is inside such forms. Since the
paramAtmA who is the possesor of all kalyAna gunAs , is
the sameone irrespective of whether He is inside a four
handed form or a two handed form , the personality in rAmA,
KrishNA , ranganAthA & peraruLALan are all same though
their forms are different . So , it is completely wrong to say
that four handed form of nArAyaNA will have x number of
qualities , two handed KrishNA form will have y number of
qualities , four handed archA form will have z number of
qualities etc , since it is the same nArAyaNA (divyAtma
svaroopam) the possesor of all the kalyAna gunAs , present
inside all these forms . Moreover it is also completely wrong
to limit the number of qualities of nArAyaNA to a finite number.
He actually has uncountable number of qualities .
Having understood the tattvam , one should engage in
bhagavad anubhavam . Now ,if someone asks "who is nArAyaNA ?"
then immedietly the beautiful divya mangaLa vigrahA of
Sriman nArAyaNA in any one of the Divya Desam should come to
the mind in a flash :
( thiruk kamala pAdam , araich chivanda Adai , andhi pol
niRaththAdai , UndhI , thiruvayitRu udharabandham ,
thiruvAra mArbu , mutRum unda kandam , seiya vAi ,
kariyavAgip pudai parandhu miLirndhu sevvari vOdi neenda
ap peria vAya kangaL , kOlamAmaniyAramum muththuth
thAmamum neela meniyum , sudarAzhi , pAnchajanniyam,
kousthubam , Srivatsam , vanamAlai , thiruthuzhAi mAlai ,
kireetamum .....) . All the bhagavad anubhavams of
our AchAryAs & AzhwArs are perfect since they are
born out of the deep understanding of the tattvam , hitam
& purushArtam .
So , if someone holds the view that the form of nArAyaNA
is same as nArAyaNA , then hundreds of pramAnams which
describe Brahman / nArAyaNA , suddha sattvam etc are
violated . Neverthless , the deep love of a devotee towards
nArAyanA's divine form might make him think that He &
His form are same ( baddha jIvAtmAs have access
only to His form .
It is also to be noted that meditation on the divyAtma
svaroopam of nArAyaNA is completely different from the
theory proposed by mAyAvAdIs regarding the meditation on
Brahman who is nirviseshA (attributeless ) .
Sri U.Ve. KarunAkaran swAmy during upanyAsams beautifully
says regarding the thiru uLLam of Bhagavad rAmAnujA
on those who try to meditate on an attributeless object :
"First of all , for an object to be known , it should have
some attributes. Without any attributes , there is no
possibility of meditating on it , since how will you fix
its co ordinates ?. Actually , Brahman is full of attributes.
Nirvisesha Brahman is not supported either in pratyakshA or
anumAnA or sabda pramAnam . So, those who claim that
they are meditating on an abstract attributeless object are
#1 frauds for they are telling something which is
impossible ".
Anyway , by telling that an object is attributeless , an
attribute is ascribed to it !
namo nArAyaNA
adiyen
anantha padmanAbha dAsan
sarvam sri krishNArpanamastu
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