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Re: praying other deities...

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Mohan Sagar • January 22, 1998 


Sri Vijay Triplicane writes:
> 	mahA visvAsam (Great faith) on sriman narayana is definitely the 
> most important aspect of a srivaishnava. But how practical is it? How
mahA
> should this visvAsam be? This question of faith is very subjective. One
has
> to feel this mahAvisvAsam at heart. A mother wouldn't consider, praying
to 
> say karumAri amman for her ailing son, a sin. It could be a strong local 
> belief. Her immediate concern is her dear child. But she should not be 
> branded a sinner right away. She hasn't realized her relationship with
the
> narayana. ("un thannOdu uRavEl n^amakku iN^gu ozhikka ozhiyAdhu"). Our
dear
> PerumAL would realize this and try to induce the 'ruchi' in her someway
or
> other. BTW I am not saying that she is right (before somebody pounces on
> me :) ).

>  This realization of our eternal relationship (n^amakku 
> ozhikka ozhiyAdhu - that which cannot be destroyed by us or Him) is what 
> we lack when we pray the other dEvatAs. 
> 
My compliments to Viji on some insightful and thought provoking ideas.  His
responses came at a rather opportune time for me, for I spent much of this
past weekend struggling with some negative feedback to our recent Denver
Conference.

Viji's post reminded me that I had once asked Sri Tridandi Jeear a similar
question: what happens to someone who takes samAsrayanam, but continues to
worship the other deities?  His response was that samAsrayanam is but the
first small step on a long educational process.  With Perumal's kindness,
and the AchAryan's teachings, a person is slowly guided, as Viji had
suggested, towards coming to the realization of the eternal relationship.
But, it is very interesting that my even at my extremely early stage, I
often wonder at how I could have thought otherwise.

I must admit my ego has made me rather impatient with the often-asked
question of why SriVaishnavas worship Sriman Narayana alone.  I guess I
have forgotten that I also once had similar thoughts in the past.  Viji's
posting reminds me that it is He who answered that question for me, and it
should be left to Him to provide this answer to others, as well.  Ours is
just to be patient and steadfast in our path.

adiyEn,

Mohan