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Abode of compassion religion

CHENNAI: Among the myriad auspicious qualities (Kalyanaguna) of the Supreme Being, His compassion (Daya) is the most important from the standpoint of humanity. The Lord’s graciousness has been the subject of many hymns by mystics and saints. Vedanta Desika’s hymn, Dayasatakam, is a masterpiece in 108 verses in which he has personified Daya as the Lord’s consort, Dayadevi. Desika says that when Dayadevi is ever ready to condone the faults of human beings and mediate on their behalf to the Almighty to redeem them from bondage (which is the basis of Self-surrender, Prapatti), if one were to doubt whether She would excuse the bundle of accumulated sins, then it would tantamount to casting aspersions on Her supremacy and indomitable will.

Bharata’s state of mind when he learnt about Rama’s exile to the forest after his return to Ayodhya offers insight into this. It was his mother’s machinations that had made him a suspect in everyone’s mind. It was with great indignation that Bharata asked why they all did not pause to think whether “he who was born after Rama” would even entertain the notion of aspiring for the kingdom. Bharata’s contention was that as His younger brother he would never question His supremacy.

If a devotee were to have reservations thinking whether his sins were so much that they would thwart divine grace, then he is foolish. In the constant tussle between man’s sins and Dayadevi’s compassion Desika attested that it was Daya who always won, said Sri M.V.Ananthapadmanabhachariar in his discourse. So man cannot commit so much sacrilege that Daya cannot condone. Such assurance given by preceptors offers hope to erring humanity to surrender to the Lord. It should never be misinterpreted as a licence to commit more offences.

Dayadevi is the Lord’s will and hence it is She who assumes all the cosmological roles including man’s redemption. Her will is absolute, and Desika notes that all the other auspicious traits of the Lord stand in attendance on Daya and serve Her. She waits in anticipation of a pretext (Prapatti) to embrace even the vilest sinner as a mother would her wayward child, and redeem him from bondage.

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