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aNutva of jeevatma ... question?

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Rajagopalan, Murli • February 4, 1998 


Dear BhagawatAs,

I have been going through the excellent, truly thought-provoking book 
"The life of Azhwars" (don't remember the exact title) by Alkondavalli 
GovindAcharya.  The azhwars have been described as amsAs of bhagawan 
in some instances, and amsAs of the divine celestial servants of the 
Lord - nithyasUris in some other instances.  Some of us also celebrate 
some of our acharyAs in a similar way ... e.g., Ramanuja is celebrated 
as an avatara of Adisesa.  This brings me to a question of the nature 
of the jeevatma.  Our acharyas and rshis have shown that the vedAs 
confirm the aNutva (monadic nature) of the jeevatma.  This is also 
emphatically confirmed by some thiruvaymozhi paasurams by nammAzhwar 
 (cannot quote the appropriate ones at this time).  As far as I have 
understood, aNutva or monadic nature means the nature of being 
not-all-pervasive.  Bhagawan and pirAtti are all-pervasive (vibhu). 
 Loosely, the jeevatma can be considered as a speck of infinite 
conciousness and bliss.  This being the case, how can a jeevatma exist 
in two places - in paralokam as a nithyasUri and in ihalokam as an 
azhwAr or acharya as is implied when we say that the azhwars and 
acharyas are amsAs of nithyasUris?  Can the same jeevatma exist in 
more than one sarira simultaneously?

Also, we know that in an archA mUrthi of NarayaNa he exists in all his 
divya man~gaLa rUpam (although our material eyes cannot perceive him). 
 That should be easy for him because he is vibhu.  How about the 
mUrthis of our Acharyas and our Azhwars?  We even do samproskaNa to 
these mUrthis.  Does the jeevatma of our acharya exist in that mUrthi? 
 And we may have several mUrthis.  Example ... you find Desikar 
sannidhi in many major divya deshams.  What about then?

Could any of the knowledgeable likes of Krishna Kalale, Prof Dileepan, 
Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, Dr. Sadagopan provide an explanation to this.

Adiyen,
Murali Kadambi