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Re: Story of Maha Lakshmi and Jaya Vijaya-s

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Mohan Sagar • March 20, 2001 


Dear Sri Sadananda,

As your nephew, perhaps I should now step in to mediate :-)

Before continuing into more details on these issues, I think that
it is important to note the relative importance of stories such
as the ones that you suggest below in the context of our
satsampradAyam.   There are two different types of stories
contained within our sAstras, the purAnas and itihAsas.  The
latter of these include Sri Ramayanam and Mahabharatam, and as
the name would suggest (itihAsa - it happened like this), are
considered by our AchAryas to be accurate historical accounts of
specific incidents in the time of the vibhavAvatharas.

PurAnas, on the other hand, are stories that are "ever new."
While we really can never be sure about their historical
significance, we must recognize that these accounts have taken a
certain amount of poetic license in order to foster devotion in
those who read or hear them.  What is of great importance to a
SriVaishnava is the saulabhyam or accessibility of the Lord and
His Consort to this Universe that seemingly remains so distant
and detached from Them.  Consequently, what is emphasized are
some of the Divine Couple's anantakalyAna guNas. The purAnas
describe Their kindness (as is the case in the Bhrigu incident),
Their good natured mischief as children, Their superhuman
tendencies, etc., all in an effort to reveal to us one of the
most important qualities of the Divine, His Accessibility and
Willingness to Save.

AchAryas and AzhwArs go to great lengths to describe how these
qualities come from the Divine Love for all the beings in this
Universe.  It is a Love that far surpasses anything that we could
even begin to feel in return, and is of such a level that it can
actually motivate the Lord to totally sacrifice His position as
the solely independent Reality such that He can "rely" on the
simple affections of His devotees.

I think that seeing these stories for what they are worth in
their context may deepens one appreciation of them, but at same
time put them into proper context.

Regarding the mirror image idea,  this requires a deeper
understanding of the purAnas in relation to the upanishads.  As I
am far have not been taught much about this yet from my teachers,
I will defer this to more erudite members of this forum.

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Mohan

----- Original Message -----
From: K. Sadananda 
To: 
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 7:34 AM
Subject: Story of Maha Lakshmi and Jaya Vijaya-s


> I want to thank Shreenivaas Vijamuri for his response on
Mahalakshmi
> ( now that he has discovered that he  is my brother-in-law - I
dare
> to disagree with him!) Malolan Cadambi and lakshmikumar for
referring
> me to Shree Vedanta Deshika-s answers to related questions of
these
> type.
>
> Like all scientific investigations answer to any question will
lead
> to more questions and more funds needed for investigations etc.
>
> The answers are informative and educational but raised lot more
> questions as well.  I did not know that Lakshmi was born to
Bhrugu
> before - I presume this is the same Bhrugu of the tittiriiya
> upanishad-  Bhrugu valli -who was the student of VaruNa, his
father -
>
> Interestingly Lord says in Giita in Vibhuuti yoga -
maharishhiiNaam
> bhR^iguH aham - I am BhR^igu maharshii among all the mahaa
rushiis.
>
> In another story -  Shree Venkateswara descendence to the Earth
as
> Sriinivasa - there is a story circulated where Bhrugu goes to
Brahma
> loka, VaikunTa and Kailasa to find out who is the most
compassionate
> Lord among the Trinity - and ended up kicking Lord Vishnu on
the
> chest for which Lakshmi gets annoyed for kicking her own abode.
I
> get puzzled about someone cursing Lord NaaraayaNa who is very
abode
> of everything - May be this is all his Leela - In that case
being
> leela, no other explanation is required or valid.
>



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