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From: Murali Karamchedu (karamche_at_scf.usc.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 17 1995 - 19:02:30 PDT
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God's compassion, His foremost quality
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Date: 06-10-1995 :: Pg: 24 :: Col: c
Cl: Religion
MADRAS, Oct. 6.
The Supreme Being according to Sri Vaishnavism is the
abode of countless auspicious qualities (kalyana gunas). While He
is the transcendent Lord of the entire creation of non sentient
and sentient beings, which makes Him the only sole refuge of all,
His nature of easy accessibility (saulabhya) on the other hand
makes it possible for human beings with all their weaknesses to
approach Him for succorn.
Sriman Narayana the Supreme One is also known as Bhagavan
because He is the home of the six gunas jnana, bala, aishvarya,
virya, sakti and tejas which have an important function in His
role of creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe. The
philosophy of this religion gives an important place to the gunas
of the Lord in the context of the redemption of the souls.
In his discourse Sri Veeraraghavachariar said, Vedanta
Desika in his Dayasatakam with poetic ingenuity goes to the
extent of declaring that without His guna of compassion (daya)
all other auspicious traits of the Lord will amount to blemishes.
Like the wealth of a rich man which only causes destruction when
it is not put to charitable cause, without compassion all other
qualities of the Lord will not be of any help to us.
This stotra work of 108 verses in ten different virutta
styles on the compassion of God is believed to have been composed
with inspiration from Nammazhvar's outpourings of the compassion
of Lord Srinivasa in his Tiruvoymozhi. One may rightly wonder
when the Almighty has innumerable auspicious qualities fit to be
eulogised.
His transcendent (Paratva) nature emphasises His omnis
cience, Lordship and omnipotence but, if His saulabhya nature
does not come to the fore it will not be of any benefit to human
ity. Thus with his rare genius Desika personifies the quality of
daya as a consort of the Lord making all his other gunas subser
vient to her.
When His quality of jnana shows up the faults of human
beings it is His daya which intercedes on their behalf and makes
Him overlook the faults. Further Desika explains in this poem
that it is His compassion which urges Him to create this universe
to provide an opportunity to the souls to strive for their salva
tion. It is His compassionate grace which sustains the entire
creation and when necessary withdraws it into Himself.
Another important point he makes here is that the Lord
who is considered as the first teacher to humanity, out of His
compassion comes to the world to teach the scriptural truths from
time to time in the form of different Acharyas. He compares the
Lord's compassion for man to that of a mother's unconditional
love for her child.
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