Search:
Bhakti List Archives

"The Lord Remembers"

From the Bhakti List Archives

sadagopaniyengar • March 5, 2003 


                        
Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

                        The Lord Remembers

          People have long memories. We tend to remember words of insult decades after they were uttered. A friend's refusal or even reluctance to help at a crucial moment rankles in our memory as long as we live. An injustice, real or imaginary, meted out to us, continues to simmer in our heart forever. Denial of due recognition in our official or personal lives results in persisting dissatisfaction and demoralization, which at times endures even after the grievance has been redressed.

         Paradoxically, our memory for favours received is deplorably short. When our elderly parents are dependant on us physically and financially, some of us forget the Herculean struggles they had undergone for bringing us up and ensuring that we have a sound start in life. Timely assistance extended to us at critical periods is forgotten, once the crisis passes. Even the Lord is not excluded from the ambit of our oversight-we pray to Him sincerely for this and that, offering to do something or the other for Him in return. However, once we get what we want, we conveniently forget our part of the bargain. Thus, ironically, our memory retains all the wrong sort of things, but relinquishes with alacrity matters it ought to retain.

       The Ramavatara, which is model of how a human being ought to conduct himself towards everyone he encounters, has a lesson for us in this regard too. Sri Rama, who was a repository of all auspicious attributes, is reported to have forgotten in a jiffy all bad turns done to Him, however grave and numerous they were, while being eternally pleased by even a small favour somebody did in the distant past. Here is Sri Valmiki's beautiful sloka-

"katanchit upakArENa kritEna EkEna tushyati
 na smarati apakArANAm satamapi Atmavattaya"

The Lord's magnificent habit of remembering with everlasting gratitude even an insignificant good turn done in the distant past, is known as "Kritagyatvam". This divine attribute is of extreme importance to us mortals. The Lord is reported to store it away in His memory, each time we utter His haloed name or even the name a divyadesam. And He never forgets any such meritorious action of ours, however inconsiderable it is. It is these positive records that prompt Him to lead us in due time to an Acharya and through him, to liberation. We are extremely fortunate that we have a Lord with a prodigious memory for the right sort of things, for we shudder to think where we would be, if He remembered only our sins and functioned only as an Avenging Angel. 

Hence Emperuman is "Kritagya:", one who remembers our good deeds. This attribute, due to its singular significance, comes in for generous accolades at the hands of various Acharyas. We have for instance Sri Alavandar praising this in his Stotraratnam-

"KritI Kritagya: tvamasi svabhAvata: samasta kalyANa guNa amrutOdadhi:"

Sri Alavandar points out that this attribute of Gratitude is natural to Emperuman and not something acquired with effort-"svabhAvata: Kritagya:asi".

The mere utterance of His name by a devotee makes His heart brim over with indebtedness, says the Lord Himself in Sri Mahabharata-

"Govinda! iti yat Akrandat KrishNA mAm doora vAsinam
  RINam pravruddham iva mE hridayAt na apasarpati"

The distressed Droupati's cry of "Govinda, PundarIkAksha, raksha mAm sharanAgatAm" enters the heart of the Lord located thousands of miles away, and its intensity multiplies by the moment, like an unsatisfied debt contracted at usurious rates of interest. This makes the Lord restless to rush to her aid, boring into His heart. This is the effect the utterance of a single nama with devotion can cause, and attests to the Lord's sense of indebtedness (Kritagyatvam) to His votaries who utter His tirunAmam, even by accident.

 We all know the story of AjAmila, who was snatched away by the Lord's acolytes from those of Yamadharmaraja, all for having uttered the name "Narayana" at the time of shedding his mortal coils. The point to note here is that AjAmila was calling to his own son Narayana and not to the Paramatma, while speaking the name. Still, the Lord utilized the unintentionally acquired merit as a means to save Ajamila from the fires of hell.

 Addressing the Lord of TiruppEr nagar, Sri Nammazhwar poses a very pertinent question -" You have pervaded me now, seeking to liberate me and take me to Paramapadam: but why did You not bother at all about me all these millions of years, when I continued to wallow in the misery of samsara? In short, why save me only now, and not earlier? For, I do not remember to have done anything to merit Your special attention now!"

"indru ennai poruLAkki tannai ennuL vaitthAn
  andru ennai puram pOga puNartthadu en seivAn?"

When Emperuman doesn't reply, Azhwar racks his brains for something he must have done, which has made the difference between the Lord's earlier attitude of indifference and the current one of infatuation. Then it strikes him that he has indeed done something to merit the Lord's undying attentions-he has uttered the haloed name of the Lord's abode, viz., ThirumAlirumsOlai.

 "ThirumAlirumsOlai endrEn, enna ThirumAl vandu en nenju niraya pugundAn", acknowledges Azhwar, realizing that the Lord felt so much in the Azhwar's debt, merely for Azhwar having uttered the name of a divyadesam, that He decided to do what He had not done for ages-liberate Azhwar from samsara and take Him to Paramapadam. This is another instance of the Lord being a Kritagya. The Lord remembers such small things, keeps them in His broad mind and rushes to our rescue at the appropriate juncture.

The Lord Himself declares that He has an exceptional memory for the good that we do. He assures Sri Bhoomidevi in Varaha Puranam, that all that a devotee has to do is to surrender to Him, when in full possession of his faculties. At the moment of death, even if the devotee were to lie unconscious and senseless as a stone, the Lord with the long memory remembers what the devotee did when he was well, takes the person under His wings and bestows on Him the best of all worlds, viz., Paramapadam. "aham smarAmi mad bhaktam", assures the Lord, telling us that not a single good turn we do Him (!) is forgotten.

 Sri Periazhwar and Sri Kulasekharaperumal bank on the Lord's prodigious memory, when they apply well in advance for His attentions, confident that they would be in no state to think or act cogently when the spirit is about to leave the body-"appouzhudaikku ippoozhudE solli vaitthEn" says Sri Periazhwar, while Sri Kulasekharazhwar concurs, " Krishna! Tvadeeya pada pankaja pancharAntam adyaiva mE visatu mAnasa rAjahamsa:"

Just as the King is pleased by the mere offer of a lime fruit (given him by visitors as a token of their respect and affection), the Lord too is floored by our mere utterance of His tirunAmam or that of a divyadesam. If we take Him a flower, a fruit or even plain water, He is pleased beyond measure and gives us everything we aspire for, even the coveted MOksha itself. Did He not endow the penniless KuchEla with immeasurable riches, in return for just a handful of "aval" offered with love? Did He not afford unlettered Sabhari a passage to the same worlds as attained by her erudite Acharyas, pleased with a few wild fruits offered by Her with affection? Did He not liberate even DhadhibhAndan's clay pot, in return for paltry favours? Did He not, as a toddler, give away His gems and jewelry, all as price for His favourite "nAga pazham"? 

All these are but a few instances of how great a virtue His memory for our good deeds is. Clearly, this "KritagyatA" is perhaps the greatest of Emperuman's attributes and the one that is the most significant for samsAris like us. We should perhaps pay obeisance to this virtue first, before worshipping the Lord. Alas, I am not endowed with the magnificent poetical prowess of Swami Desikan-had I been blessed with even one-millionth part of it, I would have composed a "KritagyatA satakam", as a counter to Swami Desikan's Daya Satakam. 

 Bhagavat KritagyatAyai nama:

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/