The Hindu : Prayer fetches God's grace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Prayer fetches God's grace

CHENNAI FEB 18. Is there ever a time when God's kindness to mankind is not present? Never, since He is a perennial fount of mercy. Often, many people are heard to decry several aspects of life. Any variation in behaviour, attitude or value system is often attributed to the onset of Kaliyuga, making one sound as if he were from a bygone eon. The reign of Kali is for many thousands of years, and the immediate problems of daily life can be addressed, challenges faced and desirable changes achieved by sincere prayer to God for His grace. A case in point is Pundarika whose steadfast faith so pleased the Supreme Being that He, along with His Consort, appeared before him in Pandaripuram and blessed him. The works of Nayanmars and Azhwars also chronicle the attainability of the Lord.

The grace of the Lord is never denied to the true and the faithful, said Sri P.M. Vijayaraghava Sastrigal in his discourse. The Bhagavatam is replete with examples. Kamsa sent Akrura as an emissary to Brindavan, to bring Lord Krishna, ostensibly for the ceremony of worship of the bow, but with the real intent to kill Him and Balarama. While physically undertaking to carry out the chore in his line of duty, the messenger's faculties were one with the Supreme Power, whom he hoped to espy in the city of the cowherds. "Would not the Infinite one place His hands that give refuge to all those who run to Him out of fear of the speed with which the serpent of time is approaching them?" he yearned. Caught between his duty and his devotion, he nevertheless invited the Lord to his home.

The all-seeing One, aware of the deeper conflicts raging within his virtuous devotee refrained; however, as a proof that God offers special blessings to individual devotees He appeared in His pristine form, fully adorned and reclining on Adi Sesha before the king's minister as he was bathing, a vision normally reserved for the most exalted. That God gives unsparingly to those who repose faith in Him is amply proven by His kindness to the cowherds who formed His retinue to Mathura. He undertook a conducted tour of the famous city with the aim of showering the humble herdsmen with all the rich deportment fit for a king. En route He performed His perennial task of establishing virtue by punishing the arrant washer man, and blessing the hunchback sandal paste maker, rendering her as a peerless beauty. One's view of God may differ as per one's perception, but there is no duality with regard to His justice and mercy.

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Prayer fetches God's grace

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