Miscellaneous - Religion   

Spiritual values

CHENNAI: Saints, philosophers and thinkers have unanimously claimed that spiritual progress depends on an individual’s ability to gain control over the mind and knowing the tremendous effort required to tame one’s mind, they realise this is possible only with God’s help. The commonly used analogy of the monkey illustrates the mind’s fickleness and its uncontrollable nature.

In a lecture, Sri M. N. Sankaranarayanan pointed out that the profound wisdom of Saint Manikkavasakar was manifest in his fervent plea to the Lord for divine guidance without which none can hope to strive for salvation. The saint traces the entire range of forms and beings in creation, animate and inanimate — grass, plant, worm, tree, beast, bird, snake, stone, man, demon, celestial — and claims that after being born in each of these species and having grown weary he has finally been rewarded with the nectar of God realisation. He experiences a sense of ultimate release when he realises the truth of God as the indwelling spirit in his soul. The Lord’s grace brought an awakening of true wisdom that easily chased away all falsities that had deluded him till then. It is now clear that God is the all pervading essence who supports each and every aspect of creation with all the varieties and contradictions in it.

Such saints exemplify the nature of true devotion when there is no necessity to sport any external marks of devotion. Saint Tirumoolar’s Tirumandiram, which is a repertoire of the knowledge contained in the Vedas and the Upanishads, reiterates the simple values of life that are the very essence of day to day dharma applicable to all human beings, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, nationality, etc. The practice of cultivating fellow feeling towards all beings and objects in creation, by which one gains the eligibility to receive God’s grace is brilliantly captured in a synoptic verse. True devotion is manifest in an individual who sincerely worships God by offering a Bilva leaf, and shows kindness to animals (by offering grass or leaf) and to fellow human beings (by sharing food). If one is capable such simple practices, one can be sure God will take care of one’s other requirements.

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