Miscellaneous - Religion   

Infinite grace

CHENNAI : The Supreme Being resides (Antaryamin) within every being and one must become aware of His presence. According to the Pancharatra Agamas, which are scriptural texts based on the Vedas, the Almighty has five modes of existence for different purposes. The foremost is His transcendental form (Para) and the next is the Vyuha form (four in number) for creation of this universe. They are Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The third is the form the Lord assumes during His incarnation in the world, which is called Avatara. The fourth is the Antaryamin and the fifth is His accessible form in consecrated images (Archa).

In his discourse, Tirupati Sri Rangarajachariyar said the Mundaka Upanishad described the presence of the Supreme Being in every individual through the analogy of two birds sitting on the branch of a tree. Of the two, one tastes the fruits of the tree (human being experiencing the result of his Prarabdha Karma) while the other looks on (the Lord present as Antaryamin). God is hence witness to man's thoughts, emotions and actions. One of Thyagaraja's compositions addressed to Lord Srinivasa is in the form of a plea to remove the veil in his mind, which conceals the Lord residing in his heart.

The opening verse of Vedanta Desika's Dayasatakam, which is a hymn eulogising the Almighty's auspicious quality of compassion, is addressed to the abode of Srinivasa— the Tiruvenkata hill personified as an Azhwar. The insight offered is that the deity's compassion to suffering humanity, which flows like a river in torrent, has solidified into the hill here and thus the surrender (Prapatti) offered at the outset is to the Lord's compassion which makes man's redemption possible.

This analogy may seem inappropriate because compassion is associated with a heart that melts on seeing someone suffer while rock (hill) has the quality of hardness. Here it must be understood as His grace become manifest in the form of this hill. Besides, the Divine Mother (Sri, being the personification of compassion) who adorns His chest always, by Her association makes the Lord benevolent.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Cartoonscape
The Hindu Crossword No. 8843
Solution to Puzzle 8842
Infinite grace
dated February 22, 1957: UN resolution vetoed
Weather

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu