SRIMAN NARAYANA, SRI LAKSHMI AMMA (DAYA DEVI) AND THE HOLIEST OF HOLY WORKS OF THE REVERENTIAL AZHWARS ( MYSTIC SAINTS ) OF THE SOUTH OF INDIA. ( Part 3 / 21)
SriLakshmi Amma, Daya devi (an ocean of compassion) ( Part 3 of 21 )
SRIMAN NARAYANA WITH BUMA DEVI AMMA AND SRI DEVI AMMA
( TIRUPATI TIRUMALA, LORD MALAIAPPA SWAMY)
LORD NARSIMHA WITH SRI LAKSHMI AMMA- AHOBILA MUTT
Countless salutation to our most beloved Sri Lakshmi amma who is not only our loving mother but who also personifies, among countless other fine qualities, "Compassion " to the superlative. It is mentioned in our highly revered scriptures, that if one were to truly understand the term Daya ( compassion, kindness ) then in the entire three worlds she is the first and only one who has daya in the highest percentage, and is forever willing to forgive even the gravest of grave sins of her children. She is the female energy of our most beloved Sriman Narayana and hence is embedded into him as one whole. Only due to her divine intervention, does our most beloved Lord Sri Krishna forgives each one of us who are steeped in sins.
According to our Srivaishnava practices, there is a very strict chain of command even in the path of our spiritual progress. One has to first , chose a learned, erudite guru the likes such as SriRamunjacharya acharyan, Sri Gyaneshwar mauli, Srila Prabhupada etc who themselves are an embodiment of all that our lord desires in his creation, surrender whole heartedly unto the lotus feet of our guru, then our guru would intervene on behalf of us to Sri Lakshmi amma to take her in her fold and finally our universal mother, SriLakshmi amma, would on behalf of each of her children intermediate and ensure that our lord Sri Govinda draws us close to him, if this entire process from the learned guru to Mahalakshmi amma to our Lord is not completed then surely a jivatma cannot approach our lord directly. The two intermediaries one a very evolved compassionate guru just like our most beloved Namazhwar ( an incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna himself in the kaliyuga) whom we will read about in our succeeding series and then at a higher plane our beloved mother only can lead us to our supreme personality of godhead Sri Madhava.
There have been numerous cases, where our most beloved lord was not convinced about a jivatma and did not want to accord salvation but only on the gentle persuasion of our mother and at her request did he even consider the merit of their case, such is the power of our dearest mother with our king of the entire cosmos, whatever she says, he will listen and act, there has been no exception till date. He loves her beyond any boundary, our most loved mother is the centre of his core of existence. With this we can imagine, how powerful , how loving and how dear she is to our beloved creator.
One more request, as per our shastras and our reverential scriptures please always pray , bow and surrender unto the divine consort, never call upon any one of them separately for they feel very pained and hurt, it is just like in the mortal world when both the parents are to be taken into confidence, and one should not supersede the other and hence they are very rightly called DIVYA DHAMPADI (divine consort). Even if we wish to approach our lord Sri Krishna directly it would never be possible for he will not accept us without her consent and blessings.
Also , one very important point to be borne in our mind, is generally most of us associate our dearest of dear mother as only Goddess of wealth, which should be avoided. Yes, she is the queen whose divine husband, our most beloved Lord Sri Krishna is the owner of all the worlds, but her qualities do not limit to only that, she is a repository of compassion, of prosperity, of good luck, of protection against all evils, she is our armour, our very core of existence , the brightest light of our home, in her absence the only thing that will engulf each one of us is total darkness, despair and gloom. In Sanskrit the right word is Sri Lakshmi Kaataksham ( she is our only benevolent mother who can over brim our cups with happiness, peace, best health, bright future , without her , the richest of rich, also would seem a mere pauper because she is an epitome of goodness in all its glory).
To highlight this point, am reminded of a beautiful event that took place in the life of our dearest of dear Sri Vedanta Desikan acharyan, who had completely renounced the world and only served the divine consort, nothing at all did he ever accept, the very best part is one of his well wishers felt very bad that such a learned scholar ( he is known as Sarva Tantra Swatantra ,meaning all in all ,one who is excellently versed in all walks of life ) is living his holy life in penury, so they hid few gold coins in his daily biksha (alms )which he used to collect from home to home which was the order of Brahmins in those days. Brahmins had to live only for that day, not to store or hoard anything for more than a day , such was the dharma of the austere Brahmins.
His wife was such a simpleton and loving person, when she was preparing the annaprasadam she came across the hidden gold coins and did not even know what they were, she showed it our revered acharyan, who with the Darbha grass separated it and did not use it, for he felt that those who loved the divine consort should not fall prey to even the slightest maya (illusion), such are our greatest of great acharyans, who loved our divine consort not because they were an embodiment of wealth, but our acharyans cherished their majestic and noble presence, they did not want anything at all but only wanted their divine grace and blessings.
Another incident to further the point , that wealth is not only the consideration of our beloved mother, with her around us, even if we do not have any riches at all, our mother staying with us is more than enough, rest all is to be strictly discarded. Once our most respected Desikan acharyan wrote and sang about our beloved mother Daya Devi, her sterling qualities and her love for each one of us and so many loving traits about her that while she was listening in rapt attention to our acharyan's verses in praise of her, she became ecstatic , just like a normal mother who feels overjoyed when her children praise her, she craves nothing but only our genuine appreciation after which she grapples us so lovingly to her.
In her highest happiness, she starts showering continuously countless gold coins over our acharyan Sri Vedanta Desikan but because he had strictly renounced every material riches he did not take any one single gold coin showered by our loving mother, he kept on singing and dancing in glory of her immense praises that little did he pay heed to the coins too. So happy and thrilled our mother was at her child who is not bothered about anything and is totally engrossed in her love that she gives him a promise that in one of the biggest srivaishnava temple SRIRANGAM, she accorded him a separate sanniddhi (sanctum sanctorum) next to her very own and also promised that after this no other acharyan in the kali yuga would be accorded that special status other than our very own dearest of dear Sri Vedanta Desikan acharyan.
WHAT A COMPASSIONATE MOTHER TO HER WORTHIEST OF WORTHY SON!. THIS ONLY GOES TO PROVE THAT OUR MOTHER IS THE HAPPIEST WHEN HER CHILDREN LOVE HER FOR WHAT SHE IS AND NOT WHAT SHE HAS. THERE IS A VERY HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO, HOPE EACH ONE OF US FIND A PLACE IN HER HOLIEST OF HOLY LOTUS HEART BY SINGING HER GLORIES, DANCING TO THE TUNES OF HER LOVE FOR US AND FOREVER GETTING ETCHED IN HER HEART . JAI LAKSHMI AMMA! ....JAI SRIMAN NARAYANA!.
Please treat our beloved lakshmi amma as our dearest mother, she wants only that position after which the status she would accord us would be next to our one and only one "PARMATMAN, THE CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE WORLD." From all this, what we gather is , our dearest cosmic father and mother have no expectations at all from us but they pine for our true love, and the very best part is apart from truest of true love what else can we offer to our creator, for each and every single molecule belongs to them , they pervade the whole universe by a tattva known as "TRUTH". Am amazed that in the mortal world we have to keep on pleasing people gifting them so many material possessions yet we fail to satisfy them, whereas in Sri Parmapadam all it takes is our pristine devotion to capture the holy hearts of our divine consort. WHAT A MARVEL!
WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT OUR DIVINE MOTHER SRI LAKSHMI AMMA ADORES?
- Just like our beloved Sriman Narayana who cannot survive for a billionth of a second without our divine mother and hence we find that in his lotus heart , permanently dwell, Bhudevi amma ( our dearest mother earth) and Sridevi amma ( Sri Lakshmi amma) , which goes to prove that they are an eternal part of his whole divine body. Our mother too , only wants each one of us to sing the praises of our Sriman Narayana only, she is the happiest when her children come to her and sing glories about her divine husband and our divine father. In our sashtras it is clearly mentioned that a devout would approach our dearest mother in her sanctum sanctorum and sing the praises of our Lord Sri Krishna and near him sing about her glories, such is the love of our divine consort. Henceforth we too should follow the same principle , in front of her sing about her beloved husband our dearest Lord Sri Krishna, she would be very happy.
- Beautiful sandal paste, turmeric paste, holy kumkum, beautiful colourful bangles with fine patterns, very soft bright hued silken vastram (holy attire), scented flowers like jasmine, rose, lily etc, beautiful anklets and of course tasty annaprasadam. My dear brothers and sisters, all these beautiful things which she adores is least expensive, only it has to be offered with the highest love, if one cannot afford any of them , please do not worry, mentally offer the same. How great is her glory! that we need not even physically offer her, if due to an old age, disease, financial constraints etc we can mentally conjure beautiful image of dressing her, of feeding her and ensuring she takes adequate rest.
CAN'T WE DO SO LITTLE FOR OUR MOST BELOVED MOTHER WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS TO GET ANGRY , SHE WHO PLEADS ON BEHALF OF EACH ONE OF US TO OUR MOST BELOVED SRIMAN NARAYANA, CAN'T WE JUST HOLD HER CLOSE TO OUR HEART, SHE IS WORTHY OF COUNTLESS BENEDICTION AND LOVE FROM US, FOR ALL SHE CRAVES IS THE SIMPLEST OF SIMPLE WHICH EACH ONE HAS IN ABUNDANCE, ONLY WE NEED TO SURRENDER IT UNTO HER LOTUS FEET THEN THE MIRACLE WOULD BE UNBELIEVABLE , DIRECTLY WITHOUT EVEN A BLINKING OF AN EYE LID WE WOULD BE TRANSPORTED AT THE LOTUS FEET OF OUR LORD SRI KRISHNA, ZERO EFFORTS FROM OUR SIDE, JUST BY ACCORDING HER PRISTINE LOVE NOTHING BEYOND THAT.
- She, at all times, wants us to practice love, compassion, honesty, humility and a very strong strength of character in all what we do, just as our worldly mother would want us of. The moment she is assured of our sincerity, she will run to us and not the other way round when we have to seek her , she will encircle us to her forever here and hereafter and be a divine part of ourselves. WHAT MORE CAN A JIVATMA ASK FOR?.
- Please note, to love our divine consort does not mean to become a sanyasi or total renunciation but to enjoy every worldly pleasure with all our family members to the fullest ,but with a sense of surrender that all this which we call ours is for a temporary period, each one of us here is a mere traveller, when the call comes from the heavens we have to pack up, but whilst we without an end enjoy the transient material comforts , a sense of deep gratitude to our creator who has bestowed us these gifts purely on account of their mercy and not on any of our merits has to be fully understood by us.
Contentment , gratitude and deep appreciation is a combination of the four words "TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS" AND TO BOW OUR HEAD IN HIGHEST OF HIGH REVERENCE BEFORE OUR CREATORS AND CONVEY TO THEM HUMBLY THAT EVERYTHING BESTOWED UNASKED , UNDESERVED IS ONLY BECAUSE OF THEIR GRACE AND THANK THEM PROFUSELY FOR EVERY LITTLE THING. THANKS AND TO RECIPROCATE IN TOTAL HUMILITY IS A BEAUTIFUL WORD WHICH ACTS AS A PERMANENT GOLDEN BRIDGE OF LOVE , AFFECTION , CARE AND DEVOTION BETWEEN THE PARMATMAN AND JIVATMAN.
- Another quality she loves in her children is CHARITY . To help the needy, to take care of each of her children and to give without any expectations but as a duty to our lesser fortunate and more deserving brothers and sisters. Please see , when we start sharing everything , we get manifold times returns than what we have given , this is the law of Providence.
This entire world is a beautiful magnet, what we do gets attracted and there is a full boomerang effect, love for love, kindness for kindness, humility for humiity. Hence we have to stay away from all negative aura for if we practice any of the negative trait , surely one fine day, it would bounce and come back to us with a cumulative effect and therefore we have to at all times take due care of all our actions and above all, we have to perform those actions which immensely please our dearest Lakshmi amma for then only we can reach our lord,
WE HAVE TO MONITOR EACH OF OUR THOUGHTS, ACTIONS AND FRUITS OF ACTION AND SURRENDER UNTO THEIR LOTUS FEET FOR THE MOMENT IT TOUCHES THE DIVINE, EVEN THE WORST OF WORST ACTION GETS BURNT TO ASHES. Let us know for sure that this whole world is one happy family, our soul does not have any gender distinctions and is not limited by any other boundary , so we need to spread peace, happiness and goodness for this is what our dearest of dear mother wants of us.
SRI VITHOBHA MAULI ( MAULI MEANS MOST COMPASSIONATE MOTHER ) AND SRI RAKUMAAI AMMA OF PANDHARPUR
OM SHREE MAHALAKSHMYAI CHA VIDMAHE SRI VISHUN PATNAYI CHA DHEEMAHI, TANNO SRI LAKSHMI PRACHODAYAT ..... OM TAT SAT
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAAMA HARE RAAMA RAAMA RAAMA HARE HARE.
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