sri Raja's questions...

From the Bhakti List Archives

• July 22, 1997


Hello sri Raja,
	I have been going through this too. If we all accept that our Lord,
sriman nArAyaNa is omnipresent, and that every atom in this universe and beyond
is a representation of Him, then by saying that i won't pay respect (not necessarily 'worship') to some particular form, aren't we denying the 
existence of nArAyaNA in that particular form? 

I have to carefully phrase the question here. I am not saying that a sriVaishNava has to go and worship some other form. That would amount to losing faith in sri nArAyaNa and seeking somebody else's help/support. This is like 
asking some passerby to take care of you when your father is so affectionate and graceful and kind to you and is immediately accessible to you. 
But once we realise that all living and non-living forms are nothing but sriman nArAyaNA, then do we still have to bind ourselves to the earthly boundaries?
By not seeing sriman nArAyaNA in all forms aren't we denying sriman nArAyaNA's all pervadedness?

I do not mean to hurt anybody's sentiments by asking this. This is just something that i want to know and to discuss. I feel that such man made boundaries actually take us away from the Lord. Not necessarily the boundaries between srivaishNavam and other religions, but it really hurts me to see such
differences within the sriVaishNava community (the kalai bhEdham)...

My sincere thanks to sri Raja for bringing up this topic.

ThiruvAymozhi 1.1.7:
(I have just separated the words so that it makes easy reading)

thida visumbu eri vaLi n^Ir n^ilam ivai misai
padar poruL muzhuvadhumAy avay avay thoRum
udal misai uyir ena karan^thu eN^gum parandhu uLan
sudar miku suruthiyuL ivai uNda suranE.

This is said to be the essence of Sri VaishNava phiilosophy...
This is impregnated with rich, highly philosophical concepts and hence I would personally prefer to leave the translation effort to some of the real stalwarts in this net.  


adiyEn
sri irAmAnusa dhAsan
Vijay Triplicane
(Viji)