The Hindu : Miscellaneous / Religion : God is in everything

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Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

God is in everything

CHENNAI, AUG. 4. The devout are often puzzled by certain aspects of spiritual lore, sometimes declaring that many episodes defy logic. Such a state of confusion arises largely due to the fact that these are judged in accordance with human attributes complete with the attendant limitations. Men of wisdom on the other hand perceive human life as an opportunity to resolve the conflicting levels extant within themselves, and to overcome the material encumbrances in whose confines all of us are caught. Material frames are to be seen only as processes to a larger goal, and not as an end in themselves.

The pontiff of Sosale Vyasaraja Math, Sri Vidya Vachaspati Theertha, in a discourse said seekers should not be confused with regard to the transient value attributable to physical frames. Equally futile is the perception of the Supreme Being's games in His manifestations as impossible or beyond the pale of anyone. For instance, the innocent games of Lord Krishna performed at Brindavan as a five-year-old child was to make Himself visible to aspirants and to impart to them the ethics of living. The observance of discipline while taking a bath for example, is an aspect emphasized in the scriptures and the same was reiterated by Lord Krishna. The tree wherefrom such a discourse was given is of course a hallowed spot, for that is where He danced and sported on the hood of the deadly Kaliya, with effortless ease. Why did God manifest and undergo such rigorous challenges? It is for the benefit of every individual that such events have taken place.

Devotees are known to state that disbelievers often raise questions of credibility of the divine games. Detractors see in these episodes only the obvious, and fail to grasp the abstruse. Lord Krishna's feat of lifting the mountain Govardhana with a ``tiny'' finger is not to be seen as a message that God is in everything and everything is in God. This is fundamental to understanding all the concepts, from the most basic to the highest metaphysics of the Supreme. Even in Brindavan many who had not understood Krishna's divinity wondered, ``How is it that this boy with such wonderful powers has been born amidst us villagers, a birth that is not at all compatible with His greatness?'' Nanda then revealed to them that the ``boy'' was, as Gargacharya had predicted, none other than an embodiment of the Supreme. An eminent scholar, in his commentary on the Bhagavatham has stated that the flute on which Krishna played was none other than His Consort.

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