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Re: [A Request to newly Joined Members of the Bhakthi List ]

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Maruthi Pavan • May 17, 2001 


SriMate RaMaanujaaya Namaha,

I wanted to pen something more about Service to God.
The general saying is that "Service to God is Service
to Mankind".

But according to my Master Sri Chinna Jeeyar swamnji,
it is the somewhat like this. "Serving the Mankind
considering that it is service to God". ( "Maadhava
Seva gaa Maanava Seva" as told in Telugu )

I fully agree that according to our Vishistaadvaitaa,
it is the service to God which takes prominence.
Every living being in this Universe is existing and
breathing because of the compassion of the Lord. Out
of Love towards all of us, HE is ready to help and
serve any one irrespective of his history, background
etc. These are cleary shown in incidents like saving
Prahlaada, Gajendra Moksham and many more uncountable
and innumerable cases. I would like to discontinue on
talking about the pains that the Lord takes for us,
because I do not have words to express his Love
towards us.

All our great aachaaryaas and alwars could recognize
this mad love HE has for us and that Upakaara Smriti
made them serve him in return. When a real devotee
offers service to Lord, he doesnt do it for some gain
or even as a duty. It is spontaneous due to the Love
he has for the almighty who keeps working continuously
for us day and night. The best example is Sri
Srinivaasa Perumaal of Thirumala. From time immemorial
he is standing there offering abhayam to all his
children. Now a days he just sleeps for 5 minutes.
Before he goes to bed, he is woken up and his day
starts again. But he doesnt care for all that pain. It
is because of his love towards us. I wish that he
could get some more rest and sleep everyday. Some
authority at the TTD has to take this into
consideration. Everybody comes there only with their
wishes, people sing his glories and great qualities
but how many people recognize the pain he is having?.
When he comes in the form of our aachaaryaas, he again
similarly strives through out his life for us.

It is this mad love he has towards us, that our
aachaaryas recognized. When you really realize it, you
start serving and loving him madly. If a person says
that he loves the Lord and stays quiet, it is not true
Love. He is not fully into it. It is like a river in
floods which cannot be limited by its banks. It has to
break the banks and flow.

Examples of this can be seen in all our Alwars singing
Mangalaa saasanams ( like Thirupallandu )to the Lord.
So very clearly Service to God is the highest thing.
It is like the service a mother does to her children,
service of a loving couple to each other, service that
two close friends do for each other. There is no
expectation of any gain or anything in that. 

Now coming to serving the Mankind :

Every Atman is linked to God. God in turn is linked to
every Atman. So through this law, every Atman is
indirectly related to every other Atman ( It is only
through their link with the Lord ). When you realize
this, you start feeling Love for all the beings. Then
you start serving them, because you now know that
service to Lord's loved ones gives him more joy then
serving him directly. Our Mother Goddess Lakshmi takes
care of all of us as her children, because of her
shesatva bhaavana to the Lord. Any one who is his is
also hers. She is the first teacher to all of us after
the Lord. Similarly just due to compassion towards all
of us, all our great aachaaryas have left Vaikuntham
and came down to serve us. Any body who is dear to HIM
is equally dear to them. So they keep on striving to
bring us on the right path and make us experience the
great joy which they experience in Lords company.
Great examples of such divine personalities are Sri
Ramaanujaa and all our alwaars and our aachaaryas.
They could not bear any harm being done to any entity.
Raamaanujaa's brother ( I think it is Govinda bhattar
) put his hand into the mouth of a snake, to remove a
small stick which had got stuck in its mouth, to
relieve it from pain. He didnt even bother about its
true nature while protecting it. 

So I feel that, both the services are interlinked and
inseperable. One cannot find a difference between
them.

In trying to express my feelings, if I had commited
any mistake due to my limited english, forgive me.


                          Srimate Raamaanujaaya
Namaha.

                          Maaruthi Ramanuja Das.


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