TAMIL
Precepts and practices
NEDUNTHERU S. KANNAN
THIRUMAL THIRUVARUL: V. N. Gopaladesikachariar; Thiruvarasu Puthaka Nilayam, 23, Deenadayalu Street, T. Nagar, Chennai-600017. Rs. 100.
FOLLOWING HIS earlier Maraimurthy Kanna comes this collection from this scholar with a broad sweep of the essentials of Visishtadvaita derived from the Upanishads and the soulful hymns of Azhwars with a host of precepts and religious practices.
Every act of the Almighty is an act of compassion either explicit or implicit. The riddle of the compassionate Providence permitting both good and evil with the illusion of happiness is lucidly explained in terms of the inexorable law of Karma. While Upasana is a long-drawn-out pursuit, surrender with faith is the unfailing alternative route to liberation.
The countless sins of past births are wiped away, the proneness to continue in the sinning spree is halted and man is happily set on the journey from here to the highest bliss at the end of this very life or even earlier if desired. The nitty-gritty of surrender has been so well perfected by Vedanta Desika on the authority of the Upanishads and the Pancharatra that the mystery of its efficacy is wrapped up in the simplicity of its execution.
With Sankara’s reflections at one end and Ramanuja’s findings at the other, the reader is really taken through a grand vista of the message of the Gita.
The author’s facile skill in rendering difficult concepts and ideas in simple, elegant language is wistfully reminiscent of the style of his illustrious father Sriramadesikacharya.
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