Search:
Bhakti List Archives

"A Dog's Life"

From the Bhakti List Archives

sadagopaniyengar • January 23, 2003 


                            
        Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

                                               "A Dog's Life"

         Many of us feel employment constricting. Few are blessed with bosses who are understanding and give full play to the subordinate's initiative, recognising merit and rewarding it in time. Most of the time, service is a grind, with inadequate rewards and in many cases, involves sacrificing one's independence of thought, word and deed. Enlightened employers, who treat their workers with the regard they deserve and as partners in a common endeavour, are indeed rare. The run-of-the-mill boss, especially in countries where labour laws are lax, treats the workforce as little better than slaves. The dignity and independence that characterise self-employment, be it selling pencils in the street or being a professional (doctor, engineer, etc.), are woefully lacking when one is in somebody else's employ. So much so, Manu compares service to a dog's life, and wants us to avoid at all cost ("SEvA shva vritthi:  tasmAt tAm parivarjayEt"). 

Just as the dog is made to wear a collar to indicate ownership by a superior being and is held on a tight leash to make it tow the line of the master, those in service too are hemmed in by rules and regulations framed by their employers governing their conduct and lives, denying them  all freedom of action, thus being reduced to mere "His Master's Voice". However exalted be the person you serve, your status remains the same, that of a servitor: simply because a person is the personal valet to the President, he is not accorded any protocol privileges.

While defining Liberation or Moksha, Shastras tell us that it represents freedom from the unending and vicious cycle of births and deaths, ascent to Sri Vaikuntam and the partaking of eternal bliss in the service of the Lord. It is the last part of the definition that is puzzling, the bit about service to the Lord. It is understandable that one should pay obeisance to the Supreme Being, out of adoration: but why serve Him? Isn't service of any sort a lowly occupation, irrespective of the stature of the entity you serve? And what sort of liberation is it, if it entails another spell of servitude?

One has had one's fill of serving others in the world of mortals-"pirarrkE uzhaitthu Ezhai AnEn" laments Sri Thirumangai Mannan, recalling the countless aeons spent in serving others without doing anything for one's own upliftment. At least in the mundane birth, the period of service is limited to the life term, while we are told that the service to the Lord is eternal, involving unending servitude.

Is it correct to call this state of eternal bondage "Liberation"? Is it not leaping from the frying pan of limited service to earthly masters, into the fire of eternal servitude to a Divine Master? What the Upanishad says of the liberated soul, "Sa SvarAt bhavati" (He becomes his own master) doesn't go well with the concept of kainkaryam.

 However, notwithstanding all this, Sri Nammazhwar prefers to be a constant slave to the Lord-

"ozhivil kAlam ellAm udanAi manni 
  vazhuvilA adimai seyya vENdum nAm"

Sri Ramanuja prays to the Lord to accept him as an eternal servant-"nitya kinkaratAm prArtthayE"

Sri Alavandar yearns for the day when he would be pleasing the Lord through the performance of all sorts of intimate errands-

"kadAham iykAntika nitya kinkara:
 praharshaishyAmi sanAta jeevita:?"

 Sri Kulasekhara Azhwar prays to the Lord of Seven Hills to accept his services in some form or the other, at least to hold the Lord's golden spittoon-

"VEnkata kOn umizhum pon vattil piditthu udanE pugapperuvEn AvEnE"

ILaya PerumAL is so greedy in this matter that he wants to monopolise all types of service to Sri Rama at all times-

"aham sarvam karishyAmi jAgrata: svapatascha tE".

And even the inhabitants of Sri Vaikuntam are in constant competition among themselves for appropriating to themselves the maximum amount of intimate service to the Lord. Take for instance Sri Adisesha, who performs multiple roles as the Lord's footwear, umbrella, throne and bed-

"ChendrAl kudayAm irundAl singAdanamAm
 nindrAl maravadiyAm-neeL kadaluL
 endrum punayAm maNiviLakkAm poom pattAm
 pulgum aNayAm ThirumArku aravu"

What makes all these worthies hanker after what is clearly a "Dog's Life" according to no less a person than Manu?

The answer to this and other such questions lies in what we consider as demeaning service. It is true that service of any sort, to one's employers and to others, which one is forced to perform out of a compulsion to earn one's living or out of fear of retribution or for achieving some material end, is indeed demeaning. We never perform such service with a free heart and would any day refrain from such servitude, given the option. It is the absence of alternatives that engages us in such service, which lacks the element of voluntariness.

However, there is quite a different type of service, which we perform quite of our own volition, with no element of compulsion. Our parents, who bring us into this world and endure all sorts of inconveniences to bring us up, are entitled to some sort of reciprocation, though none can be found that can adequately recompense them for all their sacrifice. Thus when we serve our parents, we do it gladly, without any expectation of a quid pro quo, happy at the opportunity to be of help to those who are responsible for what we are today.  The same applies to service to one's teachers and Acharyas, who transform us from being mere fireflies living for the cosmic moment into eternal beings entitled for endless bliss. One is thus glad to serve one's preceptors with love and respect. Similarly, when we do something for our children, who are our own flesh and blood, we never consider it a chore and do it just for the pleasure of seeing their visages bloom with delight.

There is nothing some people wouldn't do for their beloved, be it lovers, spouses, children or parents-no chore is too demeaning or beneath their dignity.

 We thus see that service performed voluntarily, to gladden the heart of those we love or venerate, doesn't evoke in us the feeling of loss of self-respect.

If this is the way we feel towards others who are our relatives in this birth, consider how beholden we should feel towards the Lord, who is our Guardian Angel in birth after tedious birth, always hovering protectively over us to ensure that we come to no harm physically or spiritually, and rushing to our aid when we do harm ourselves by not listening to His homilies, as detailed in the Shastras. It is He who gives us this precious human body, enabling efforts for redemption, it is He who sends us Acharyas in an effort to wean us away from the path of misery and destruction that we insist on treading time and again, and it is He who has perfected paths like Prapatthi to lead us straight to His own abode. The love and affection He has for us should be evident from His never giving up His endeavour to rescue us from the bottomless pit of Samsara, despite our failing to grasp His proffered hand, loathe to emerge from the ensnaring pleasures this world has to offer. His infinite mercy in residing with us in the 

The Lord is thus our all and doubles as doting parent, loving wife, adoring child, true friend and sincere guide, in all our endeavours throughout our endless journey through the corridors of Time, unchanging in His affection irrespective of the ups and downs in our physical and spiritual state. When we consider the exaltedness of His stature and our own unspeakably low nature, our eyes fill with tears at Emperuman's endless love and concern.

 Given all this, is it any surprise that Azhwars and Acharyas covet the life of service, in any and all forms, to this Supreme Being? When He has done and is doing so much for us, is it wrong for us to show our appreciation, adoration and affection in some form or other of service?

When you love somebody beyond measure, it is natural for you to long for some way to demonstrate such affection by doing something concrete. It is natural for us to wait hand and foot upon the person whom we love or adore with an overwhelming passion. Thus is born the concept of "Kainkarya", which is derived from the word "Kinkara", a person who is always at the master's beck and call, eager to please with whatever type of action the master may require of him.

Going a step further, when someone is extremely dear to us and is the object of our deep affections, we find that those dear to that person become, ipso facto, precious to us too. If our bosom friend loves someone, we too start cherishing the friend's friend. What is dear to our beloved becomes dear to us too. Thus, to a devotee who has great love for the Lord, all that is dear to the Lord become objects of adoration, veneration and regard. And what can be closer to the Lord's heart than His devotees?

  In case this sounds like a Chinese puzzle, in simple terms, all the Lord's votaries are dear to us, because the Lord is dear to us. And we should yearn as much for service of such exalted bhAgavatAs, as we do for the Lord's kainkaryam. In fact, Acharyas go a step further and declare that kainkaryam to the Lord's devotees is more pleasing to Him than that to Himself. This is the glorious and distinguishing tenet our Sampradaya has to offer, the concept of "BhAgavata Kainkaryam", laid down by the Lord Himself in the Gita-

"Mama mad bhakta bhaktEshu prIti: abyadhikA bhavEt
  tasmAt mad bhakta bhaktAscha poojaneeya visEshata:"

In view of all this, don't you feel like exclaiming, "Oh! For a Dog's Life!"?

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/