| You are here: Sri Vaishnava Home Page : Bhakti List : Archives : July 1999 |
From: A. Bharat (kbharat_at_giasbg01.vsnl.net.in)
Date: Thu Jul 29 1999 - 09:12:36 PDT
Our PoorvAchAryas keep telling us that it is the AchArya who brings together the devotee and God. we see this happening all the time.But they also say that it is God who brings together the devotee and his AchArya in the first place and also throughout his life.This aspect we rarely think about. This point was brought home to me forcibly today by a certain incident: Yesterday there was a function connected with my AchArya which I did not attend due to laukika reasons.And the guilt feelings were there through the night and continued when early this morning I went for my usual walk.Suddenly on the way I saw my AchArya sitting in a car waiting for someone - me perhaps.I rushed to him,he blessed me and my mind became clear and light again. This is possible only because essentially there is no difference between the two.My friend T.P.Mani who is a great devotee used to say,"Don't you see ? It is the same person.He puts on a blue cap and says I'm the AchArya.Then he takes it off,puts on a red cap and says,See,I'm God." Sri Krishna does exactly the same to Arjuna.He first tells him - <ISwarah sarva bhUtAnAm hrddESE-rjuna tishTati..tamEva SaraNam gachha.." and a little later,"mAmEkam SaraNam vraja" EmberumAnAr TiruvaDigaLE SaraNam! aDiyEn BHARAT