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vraghuna_at_calfed.com
Date: Mon Jul 10 2000 - 17:02:09 PDT
Dear Bhaagavathas,
A few postings back, there had been a question as to why the Lord of
Tirumala has his eyes covered with TirumaN kaappu. Sri Sri Tridandi Chinna
Jeeyar Swami gave a very kind explanation this weekend at the Shiva VishNu
temple in Livermore, CA. (It occured to me that perhaps a Bhakti groupmember
had asked him this question during his tour...but since no one else has
mentioned this answer I venture to parrot his explanation.) He said that
when Sri Ramanujacharya went to Tirumala, he was saddened to see the red
eyes of the Lord. The Lord had come down to help the "maNNor" (people on
earth) along with the "viNNor" (the Nithya sooris), but like a mother
watching the road for her child's return, He had been awaiting the return of
all us sinners for a long, long time. His eyes had grown red. Sri Ramanuja
then covered those sad and reddened eyes by extending the TirumaN...
(Of course I'm tempted to note here that Lord Ranganatha looks at the same
situation and seems to say, "Nee varappo vaappa. Adhuvaraikkum, naan inga
pooncholaigaLukku naduvule chettha neram thoongindu irukken..". He's so
cool, literally and figuratively)
It was an exhilarating experience to perform Lakshmi puja along with about
500 others with the guidance and moving explanations of Sri Sri Chinna
Jeeyar swamigaL. Sometimes we hear that
- People have lost 'Ruchi' for the Lord
- People have not organized charitable giving
- People give but some city governments are corrupt, etc, and we may feel
powerless.
It was energizing to spend a few minutes in the presence of this son of our
soil who's blissfully carrying out all kinds of activities to keep the flag
flying high. He was supposed to talk until 9pm. No one moved until he ended
his talk at about 10:30pm. He even used silicon valley jargon to make his
points: "He is easily downloadable into your heart", "He is the server, and
has all the energy needed, you just have to login to Him..". He spoke of the
kind of palace one could build for the Divya Dampathis in one's heart, how
expandable the heart is etc, and suddenly, ruchi multiplied in the room
without dollars and cents....
Om Namo NarayaNaya!
Viji Raghunathan
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