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Devotion as an end

CHENNAI : Inclination to pursue the spiritual path with the objective of realising the goal of liberation in this life is the result of spiritual merit gained in previous births. Lord Krishna has stated in the Bhagavad Gita that it is only, "At the end of many births (of striving), the knowing one makes Me his refuge, realising that Vasudeva is all. A great soul of that type is rare to find." But this should not be a deterrent to a spiritual seeker because there is no time frame for sincere devotion to take root.

In his discourse, Sengalipuram Sri B.Damodara Dikshitar said King Pareekshit who developed unalloyed devotion to God and attained liberation in seven days after listening to the Bhagavata Purana was a perennial source of inspiration for spiritual aspirants. When the king expressed his reservation that he had only a week to live, within which he had to realise God, Sage Suka assured him that he could and cited the case of the royal sage Khatwanga who attained liberation by surrendering to the Lord renouncing everything when he learnt from Indra that he had only an hour to live in the world. Suka then narrated the Bhagavata Purana as the antidote to the ills of worldly life and as he listened to the glory of the Supreme Being in His descents Pareekshit became so engrossed that he forgot even to eat and sleep, and the reason for which he had undertaken this exercise — devotion to God became an end in itself.

Bhattatiri condensed this Purana in his Narayaneeyam, which he composed before the Lord of Guruvayur. Hagiological accounts attest that the deity responded to him when he addressed Him and thereby confirmed His glory and deeds recounted in the Purana. In the very opening verse Bhattatiri describes the nature of the Absolute Brahman and equates Him with the image form of the Lord in Guruvayur: "Brahman, which is pure existence, consciousness and bliss, which is without parallel, which is absolutely free from the limitations of time and space... that very Brahman is present in concrete form in the temple of Guruvayur (in the form of Lord Krishna). This is indeed a great good fortune for the people."

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