sandhya and dieties
From the Bhakti List Archives
• February 17, 1995
sundar writes: Agreed. How then do we reconcile this with the praise of Vedic dieties such as Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Prajaapati,Agni, and Aryaman in day-to-day rituals.. eg. in Sandhya Vandanam ? "imam me varuNA shruteehava madhyacha mrdaya:" etc ? or "mitrasya sarshaNeedrta shravo devasya saanasim" ? in the upasthaana mantras of sandhya vandanam ? dileepan writes: A distinction is made between nithya karmaanushtaanam and seeking moksham. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ There is a confusion regarding the dieties addressed in sandhyavandana. One has to resort to the bramha sutras to get clarification. There is a 10 page article on this which is almost complete, but I am waiting for my Guru to correct it. it will take about 6 weeks for me to get it but I will just state the answer to this question succinctly here: the idea is that the terms indra, varuna , rudra etc. can directly mean the in-dweller narayana, just like we call ourselves by our names say krishna, dileepan, sundar etc. the names refers to indweller of the bodies, namely the jeevas in the bodies. But we do use the term "Oh here comes krishna" after seeing a 180 lb mass of matter swing by! here we are referring to the inner jeeva using the body as the pointer. similarly narayana who is the sarva shareeri. ie. the atman of all devatas can be referred to using the terms indra varuna etc. the sutras confirm: saakshaat eva avirodhaat jaiminihi - which means the indra varuna terms can directly also indicate bramhan. hence there are two systems in practice. in punyahavachana - a purificatory rite, some people use "varuna antharyaaminam bhagawantam naarayanam avahayaami" meaning I invoke the Lord Narayana, the indweller in the diety varuna. some people may use varunam avahayami - indicating I invoke varuna. but still it will be the indweller narayana invoked here. In fact using the aprthak siddhi principle (please refer to SMS chari's book) or any other book on visistadvaita), also understanding that aprthak siddhi principle is 1 sided (in a way), the term varuna or any term cannot exclude narayana, since without narayana nothing else exists! mani might have our previous discussions on aprthak siddhi principle krishna
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