The Hindu : Miscellaneous / Religion : Repose faith in scriptures

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Friday, Jul 02, 2004

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Repose faith in scriptures

CHENNAI, JULY 2 . It is human tendency to shift the blame on God for setbacks in life without realising that man reaps the result of his Karma and that the Almighty only dispenses the result of man's deeds. The Lord is impartial and benevolent; in fact He condones the lapses of His devotees and mitigates their agony when they surrender to Him by giving them mental fortitude to face such situations. It is only in the case of very great souls that God makes them undergo trials and tribulations to highlight their spiritual stature to the world at large and to show how His grace operates in human lives. So one should not blame God for the suffering he faces in life.

In his discourse, Sri B. Sundar Kumar said human perception and inference could be misleading at times. Hence, it is all the more necessary to repose faith in the scriptures in spiritual matters, as God is beyond the ken of the human senses and the mind and it is possible to envision the Lord only with His grace. Just as a child comes to know its father only through its mother, so also, human beings can know the Supreme Being only through the Vedas, which are eulogised as a mother. A spiritual seeker should repose implicit faith in the scriptures, as God cannot be realised with one's faculties and efforts alone. The Bhagavata Purana in the context of explaining how the creation of the universe proceeded from the Lord mentions how even the creator Brahma at first did not realise the Supreme Reality. So he engaged in meditation unremittingly for a long period as a result of which Lord Narayana revealed His divine form to him.

Brahma then extolled the Lord, "You have revealed this form of Yours to me. I make obeisance again and again to You, who are disregarded only by people who are addicted to the pleasures of the senses... You never leave the lotus heart of Your devotees who take in through the opening of their ears the fragrance (delightful glory) of Your feet, wafted by the breeze of the Vedas, Your feet being held fast by the cords of supreme devotion. So long as a man continues to regard himself as apart from Yourself on account of Your Maya in the shape of the senses and their objects, the cycle of birth and death will not cease for him. Though this cycle has no reality, it is a perennial source of sorrows; for through this a man reaps the fruit of his actions." The descent of divine grace can be discerned when a person evinces interest in spiritual life and develops devotion to God.

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