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sri and sriyafpathE

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sudarshan • September 2, 1998 


Dear friends,
I have been browsing through all your excellent discussions on the position
of Sri: and BhagavAn in SriVaishnava theology.

Please permit me to make a small interjection.

To the uninitiated --- to those of you who may have trouble understanding
the true relationship between BhagavAn and Sri: (and how the two in the
SriVaishnava ' vadagalai sampradAyam' are held to be inseparable and in
fact are said to cohere into each other as One and the Same) ---  to those
who might be grappling with that particularly difficult concept (made
doubly difficult by the profusion of Sanskrit terminology accompanying such
discussions), I have a small and simple suggestion to share and which I
believe might help : 

"Please take time to dwell a while on the theoretical concepts of
electricity".

Ask yourself if you can conceive of electricity without its so-called
"polar" aspects. 

At the kinetic level electricity  is defined as energy-source made up of
"positive/negative" charge. But at a functional level  --- at the level
where energy is multifariously applied and used --- do you perceive
anything even remotely suggesting the "duality" or "polarity" of electric
power at work? 

A force that is essentially "dual" in conception is actually a "unit" of
kinetic function, isn't it? 
(Hasn't it ever struck you as strange that power should always be expressed
in "UNITS" of Kwh or Mwh!! Compare this on the other hand with something
like, say, "pressure" which in the case of "blood-pressure" we all know is
always measured in terms of its essential "duality" i.e. its "systolic and
diastolic" components.)

In similar fashion, thus, "BhagavAn" and "Sri:" too may be roughly
conceived of as the "dual/polar" charges of the central "unity"
constituting upanishadic "para-brahmham". 

One does not, indeed, cannot exist or function without the other. 
They are different and yet are the same. 
They appear discrete even while they inseparably cohere!

Please carry on with your very interesting discussions.

adiyEn,
sudarshan