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"Do we need to ask/beg Him?

From the Bhakti List Archives

M K Sudarshan • December 4, 1996 


srimathE sri lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha
sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

Dear bhAgavatOttamas,

Reading a few of your postings I am afraid that some of you seem to have the
got the drift of my allusion to "Category C"  vide.the Raghuveera Gadyam a
little wrong.

Literal and rigid meanings should not be read into a wonderful poetic
flourish such as the one in Shloka #41 of Swami Desikan's hymn.

The act of "grabbing" I described too was a literary figure of speech. What
I meant was that when a devotee evolves into a "paramEkAntin" such as
Sabhari was (which evolution too is the Lord's handiwork !) then he may as
well take the liberty of snatching "mOkshA" from the hands of the Lord, as
it were.There is no denying, none whatsoever, that it is the Lord indeed who
extends the grace of "moksha" in every single category !

Indeed, dear bhAgavatOttama-s, please tell me, hypothetically speaking, if
we all did and ever could possibly become "paramEkAntins" like Sabhari would
that Great Lord then have any objections to our "grabbing" "mokshA" out of
His Hands? Would He not be more than happy to stay a "mere witness" to that
farcical, and yet endearing, act of ours ? 

Does such affectionate "grabbing" not happen amongst our own families ? I
know it happens to me all the time. When I return home, say after a long
trip, with gifts in my arms for my children, invariably, I find myself
lobbing one to my son who, since he is a little old, often feels a little
awkward to openly "ask" his father if I have brought anything for him! But
my young little daughter all the time just runs up to me and "grabs" hers
from my hands and runs away!! 

As for me I merely remain then a happy but "mute witness" to her little act
of presumptuosity !!

It is perhaps that spirit of taking "easy liberty" with the Lord that Shloka
41 captures. 

Otherwise than in the above circumstances, can anyone dare take such
liberties with the Lord unless he were a true "paramEkAntin" like Sabhari ???!!!

I was talking not so much about the nuances of "shastra" in my last posting,
dear bhAgavatOttama-s, as I was about great poetry !!

srimate srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

sudarshan

  
srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha
sri vedanta desika guravE namaha