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sandhya and dieties

From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishna Kalale • February 17, 1995 


sundar writes:

Agreed. How then do we reconcile this with the praise of Vedic dieties
such as Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Prajaapati,Agni, and Aryaman in day-to-day
rituals.. eg. in Sandhya Vandanam ?
"imam me varuNA shruteehava madhyacha mrdaya:" etc ?
or "mitrasya sarshaNeedrta shravo devasya saanasim" ? in the upasthaana
mantras of sandhya vandanam ?

dileepan writes:
     A distinction is made between nithya karmaanushtaanam
     and seeking moksham.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There is a confusion regarding the dieties addressed in sandhyavandana.
One has to resort to the bramha sutras to get clarification.  There is 
a 10 page article on this which is almost complete, but I am waiting 
for my Guru to correct it. it will take about 6 weeks for me to get it
but I will just state the answer to this question succinctly here:

the idea is that the terms indra, varuna , rudra etc. can directly mean
the in-dweller narayana, just like we call ourselves by our names say 
krishna, dileepan, sundar etc. the names refers to indweller of the bodies,
namely the jeevas in the bodies. But we do use the term "Oh here comes krishna"
after seeing a 180 lb mass of matter swing by! here we are referring to
the inner jeeva using the body as the pointer.  similarly narayana who is
the sarva shareeri. ie. the atman of all devatas can be referred to
using the terms indra varuna etc.  

the sutras confirm:  saakshaat eva avirodhaat jaiminihi - which means
the indra varuna terms can directly also indicate bramhan. hence there
are two systems in practice.  in punyahavachana - a purificatory rite,
some people use "varuna antharyaaminam bhagawantam naarayanam avahayaami"
meaning I invoke the Lord Narayana, the indweller in the diety varuna.
some people may use varunam avahayami - indicating I invoke varuna. but still
it will be the indweller narayana invoked here.  

In fact using the aprthak siddhi principle (please refer to SMS chari's book)
or any other book on visistadvaita), also understanding that aprthak siddhi
principle is 1 sided (in a way), the term varuna or any term cannot exclude
narayana, since without narayana nothing else exists!

mani might have our previous discussions on aprthak siddhi principle

krishna