Pls advice

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Sri Amirthavalli Nayaka Sametha Sri Yoga Nrishimaswamy

Parabramhane Nama:

Srimate Sri Lakshmi Nrishima Divya Padhuka sevaga

Srivansatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya

Nama:

 

Dear Bhagavatas:

 

Last week I had an arguement with my colleague for

which I believe I will get an answer from you. Pls

advice me.

 

the arguement was:

My friend says that if there is faith in Sriman

Narayana there should not be fear. My contention is

that just because we have faith it is not that we can

do any thing as we like. We should have the fear not

to do any wrong things. My friend says if u have fear

then the faith is just because of fear and imposed and

so it is not true.

 

Can u please advice me?

 

If I am wrong anywhere please pardon me.

 

Dhasan,

Rajagopalan

 

 

 

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SrI:

NamO Narayana:

 

Dear Sri Rajagopalan:

 

AdiyEn feels Devarir's view is right.

There has to be fear - NOT to commit

Apacharam.

 

The common terminology Bhaya Bhakti is

Always used in conjunction and AdiyEn feels

It could only be in this perspective.

 

Devotion / faith comes from the fact that

Sriya:Pathi is everything and we should be

doing everything as HIS kaimkaryam.

 

Moreover, the "Parathvam" of Sriya:Pathi

May make one have a little fear towards

Sriman Narayana.

 

However, Sriman Narayana, our Parakaruniko Bhagavan

dispels any doubt / fear in our mind by being with

us; in support of us and to take care of us.

 

Hence it is said "Parathvam kandu anjamaikku sowlabhyam".

One of His Kalyana Guna, Sowlabhyam is to ensure that

We Jivas have total comfort in Him.

 

At the same time, it is also said,

 

"Sowlabhyam kandu igazhamaikku Parathvam"

 

It is normal, in mortals like us, to take things for

Granted, when it is near us. We have been "warned" not

To take HIS Sowlabhyam in anyway that may mean to

Belittle Sriman Narayana. AdiyEn feels that this statement

Is meant to put "some fear" into us and possibly,

Bhagavatas are to have some fear, AdiyEn thinks.

 

It is good to have "Fear" vis-à-vis in order NOT to

commit Bhagavat / Bhagavata apacharam with the faith

That HE is ultimate.

 

dAsan

Anand Sampathkumar

1st January 2002

 

Srimad Azhagia Singar Thiruvadigale Saranam

Shrimate Shri Seetha Ramachandra Parabrahmane Nama:

 

 

 

Rajagopalan [brgkns]

Monday, December 31, 2001 12:55

 

Pls advice

 

 

Sri Amirthavalli Nayaka Sametha Sri Yoga Nrishimaswamy Parabramhane

Nama: Srimate Sri Lakshmi Nrishima Divya Padhuka sevaga Srivansatakopa

Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya

Nama:

 

Dear Bhagavatas:

 

Last week I had an arguement with my colleague for

which I believe I will get an answer from you. Pls

advice me.

 

the arguement was:

My friend says that if there is faith in Sriman

Narayana there should not be fear. My contention is

that just because we have faith it is not that we can

do any thing as we like. We should have the fear not

to do any wrong things. My friend says if u have fear

then the faith is just because of fear and imposed and

so it is not true.

 

Can u please advice me?

 

If I am wrong anywhere please pardon me.

 

Dhasan,

Rajagopalan

 

 

 

Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.

 

 

 

 

Srirangasri-

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Humble pranams to all the Bhagavathothamas.

With regard to Sri Rajagopalan's querry, Dasan's humble submission is:

Indefatigable faith in the Supreme Being, Sriman Narayana is a must. True faith

removes fear. Vishnu Sahasranam says, "Bhayakrth BhayanAsanah". The Lord

removes the fear of the devotee. There is a phrase known as "God-fearing." What

is sought to be explained by this term is not the fear of God but the fear of

sin. A true devotee develops love towards God and not fear. He keeps away from

sin for fear(!) of losing God's love. His steadfast faith and love of God makes

the difference. He knows for certain that Sriman Narayana looks after him and he

need not be afraid of anything. When he maintains equanimity of mind in success

or failure, joy or sorrow, he has nothing to fear in this world . Absolute

faith sustains Him and Achyuta never lets him down. - K.Devanathan

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Rajagopalan,

 

I would tend to agree with your friend. There should not be

fear, but there should be an awareness of the right and the

wrong. I am not as erudite as the esteemed people in this

group and they would definitely be in a much better position

by virtue of their learning to comment on this, but my

personal opinion would be that, our religion is not so much

about blind adherence to customs and practices but more of a

way of life. It serves as a beacon of light that shows the

wayfarer both the paths, i.e. the right and the wrong and it

then allows the individual to make his choice. I think this

is what makes it different from other religions which try to

force upon their followers a fixed set of ideas and notions.

 

Fear would only make an individual to abstain from doing

things which are considered taboo, but does that mean that

he is good or he has attained an exalted stated of being?.

In the Bhagawad Geeta, the Lord says "Not by non-performance

of actions does man reach 'actionlessness'; nor by mere

renunciation does he attain 'perfection'". My humble opinion

is that only the awareness of the good and the bad and the

ability to control one's mind to follow the path of good

makes a person better; hence fear or blind

abstinence/adherence should never be directing one's actions.

 

I am sorry if I have quoted out of context or if my

arguments seem flimsy. I would therefore request people in

this e-group to please excuse my ignorance and correct me

accordingly.

 

Regards,

 

Shridhar

[Guest guest]

Harihi Om

 

Dear Rajagopalan:

 

Your colleague does not seem to have grown out of his childhood. I don't know

if it still true but when I grew up, it was customary for the elders to

instill some fear in the hearts of little children with words such as "God

will get angry if you do bad things, etc". You are absolutely correct in

saying that if one has faith in God (Srimannarayana) one will not be tempted

to do wrong things. But again, in this age of "moral relativism", people will

argue about what is wrong and what is not. It depends on whether one takes

conservative view of things or a liberal view.

 

The bottomline is that we are all provided with a mind and intellect. We are

expected to use them to shape our lives. The answer to your colleague

therefore, should be that " the fear is not what Narayana would to us but

what we might do to ourselves by not exercising self-control and principles

of ethics and falling prey to the temptations of our times. We have as a

guide, what we have been taught by our Poorvaachryas well versed in the

scriptures. Since these teachings are sometimes voluminous and overwhelming

in the sense that we cannot know it all in one lifetime, we tend to take easy

way out seeking instant solutions.

 

Some modern day thinkers such as Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Chinmaya, and

so on, realized this predicament of the humanity and attempted to provide us

with solutions to the day-to-day problems. They however, appealed to the so

called elite in the society. Saints such as Basavanna, Sarvajnya,

Purandaradasa, Sant Surdas, Sant Kabirdas and so on attempted to bring the

values of Truth and Ethics to the people not so intellectual. Present day New

age religiosity represented by Sathya Saibaba, Swami Narayan and so on in the

East, Self-realization, Ammachi, many a meditation center and so on in the

West are all attempting to provide instant solutions and hence, are more

appealing to the masses.

 

It is my humble opinion that our contemporary acharyas may consider

attempting to bring the spirit of scriptural message to our day-today lives

as we live them in this day-and-age. Unfortunately, without this happening,

for the sake of "changing with times", people have been losing track of moral

absolutes that Narayana is endowed with and which we are expected to emulate.

At least if those of us who have understood the value of the teachings of our

poorvaacharyas maintain that as a goal, we can hardly go wrong. The

realization has to come from within and is not something that one can win in

an argument.

 

Adiyen Narayana Dasan

 

Keshava Prasad

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavata,

 

We should always refer to the authorized scriptures to

get a solution to such an argument.

 

Let us see what Lord Krishna assures us in the

Bhagavad Gita.

 

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender

unto Me. I'll deliver you from all the sins. Do not

'FEAR'."

 

Once we are born in this material world, we are sure

to commit sins, but due to the grace of the

Bhagavathas we will be able to understand our eternal

position. When we understand that we are not this body

but spirit soul and our duty is to surrender and serve

the Supreme Lord, our daily activities will change and

we will avoid commiting sins. When you surrender to

Sriman Narayana who is the source and abode of all the

spiritual and material worlds, you need not fear. It

is just like a young child asking a father, please

help me and the father will really help the child by

protecting him. Just like that, if we really surrender

ourselves to Him, He will really protect us from

commiting sins.

 

You are right when you say 'just because we have faith

it is not that we can do any thing as we like. We

should have the fear not to do any wrong things.'-

When you deeply analyse this statement, you can

understand that no devotee of the Lord wants to commit

sins. When you have faith and are devoted to Narayana,

you'll surely follow His teachings according to the

Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures by the acharyas.

When you strictly follow these scriptures and

surrender unto Him, the fear that you will commit sins

will no longer be there. In the advanced stage, you'll

not have time to think about this fear because you'll

be thinking of the Lord 24 hours a day. There is no

place for any other thought in your mind except the

Supreme Lord.

 

Moreover, it is natural for you to fear commiting sins

as you are a devotee of the Lord. The devotees of the

Lord should be always careful that he never commits

any sin. The devotees of the Lord do not want to

commit sins because they love Him. If you have such a

fear, it is NOT the normal fear found everywhere. It

is a symptom that you are following 'Bhakti-Yoga'. The

devotees want to be very careful in their life so that

they can love Him. So, still you are following

'Bhakti-Yoga'. This is the greatness of the Supreme

Lord and the Bhagavad Gita.

 

"One who performs his duty without attachment,

surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is

unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is

untouched by water". - Bhagavad-gita (5.10)

 

I hope this has answered your query. Please feel free

to write back for further clarification.

 

Ramanuja Dasan,

 

Kishan.

 

 

 

 

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Sri :

SrImathE RaamAnujAya Namaha

AzhwAr EmperumAnAr Jeeyar TiruvadigalE Saranam

 

Dear Sriman Rajagopalan and Anand

 

AdiyEn feels that whatever we do in our daily life, we should take utmost

precaution using our Baddha budhi and leave the fruits to the Lord. We

should not worry about the fruits and whatever palam HE gives we should take

with his grace. AdiyEn thinks that HE will not pardon for bad deeds done

with intention and recklessly trying to test HIS ability.

 

KayEna, VachA, Manas, Indriya, Budhi, Atma, Prakurthi, SwabAvAth,

 

KarOmi yath yath sakalam parasmai SRIMAN NARYANA ITHI Samarpayami.

 

We place on HIS LOTUS FEET all our acts done with utmost faith in HIM.

 

A devotee will not do any act which will displease HIM. In other words, if

we are staunch devotees of HIM, HE will not let us do any misdeeds.

 

Best Regards

 

G. Sundarrajan

PT. Aneka Kimia Raya Tbk

Wisma AKR, Jalan Panjang No.5

Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta 11530

Indonesia

Tel : 62-21-5311110 Extn. 898

Fax : 62-21-5311388

Mobile : 0811193742

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Rajagopalan / Bhagavathas,

 

Here is my humble

The moment you surrender (to PerumAl) with faith, there is no room for fear.

What you mean by "...should have the fear not to do the wrong things"

perhaps refers to responsibility - to behave appropriately.

 

Fear, uncertainty and doubt are all actively discouraged. Upon saranAgati

(surrender) you are in essence free from all these negative emotions.

 

This is emphasized by "..mAsuca:" meaning do not worry (out of fear).

"...kalakamilA vagaininra.." refers to the Sri Varadharaja Perumal Who

destroys all our doubts, fear, etc. "anjElenak karam vaithu" - refers to the

Lord's blessing hand held to signify there is nothing to fear.

 

Respectfully,

Sriram

 

Best Wishes For A Very Happy & Prosperous New Year!

 

 

 

Rajagopalan [brgkns]

Sunday, December 30, 2001 11:55 PM

 

Pls advice

 

 

Sri Amirthavalli Nayaka Sametha Sri Yoga Nrishimaswamy

Parabramhane Nama:

Srimate Sri Lakshmi Nrishima Divya Padhuka sevaga

Srivansatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya

Nama:

 

Dear Bhagavatas:

 

Last week I had an arguement with my colleague for

which I believe I will get an answer from you. Pls

advice me.

 

the arguement was:

My friend says that if there is faith in Sriman

Narayana there should not be fear. My contention is

that just because we have faith it is not that we can

do any thing as we like. We should have the fear not

to do any wrong things. My friend says if u have fear

then the faith is just because of fear and imposed and

so it is not true.

 

Can u please advice me?

 

If I am wrong anywhere please pardon me.

 

Dhasan,

Rajagopalan

 

 

 

Send your FREE holiday greetings online!

http://greetings.

 

 

 

 

Srirangasri-

 

 

 

Your use of is subject to

[Guest guest]

While I agree with most of the points that Shri Keshava has mentioned, I thought

it would be pertinent to mention one aspect which U.Ve. Karunakara Swami

mentions time and again during his upanyasams. He mentioned it last week once

again during the Thiruppavai discourse at Vani Mahal. He is of the decisive

opinion that parents / elders must not bring up children by telling them

"Ummachi kanna kuthiduvaar" etc. Obviously, God is not around to keep pricking

children's eyes all the time. When such inputs are given to children at such a

young age when their minds are like blank pages, these thoughts get firmly

established in their mind that Bhagavan is someone who is a demon who is out to

punish small children. (Whereas the truth is that He is always available to

anyone to help him or her. We have ample references to such instances in Swami

Desika's works and chiefly in Dayashatakam and Paduka Sahasram )On the other

hand, we need to project Bhagavan as the Supreme Being who would like small

children to do such things that He would like,(e.g.,speaking the truth, being

kind, refraining from fights with other children etc.) so that He showers His

affection on them. We need to portray the correct picture about Him and tell

children that such a great God may not be in a position to help if we do things

which He has asked us not to do. We should keep telling them stories where

children are helped by God like those of Prahlada, Dhruva etc. I think U.Ve.

Karunakara Swamy has a big point here so far as fear is concerned. If children

learn the right things from a tender age, they would be able to differentiate

between good and bad very easily as they grow up and the presence of fear would

be restricted to a minimum number of circumstances in life. We need to be

practical and understand that fear cannot be totally eliminated from our lives

but can only be minimised with faith in Sriman Narayana. We do not belong to

the category of Swami Desikas to be totally devoid of fear at all times. I hope

I have made myself clear here and any error or mistake is purely my

interpretation and certainly doesn't belong to U.Ve.Karunakara Swamy.

Adiyaen Ramanuja Dasan

  "KESHAVA B. PRASAD" wrote: Harihi OmDear Rajagopalan:Your colleague does not

seem to have grown out of his childhood. I don't knowif it still true but when

I grew up, it was customary for the elders toinstill some fear in the hearts of

little children with words such as "Godwill get angry if you do bad things,

etc". You are absolutely correct insaying that if one has faith in God

(Srimannarayana) one will not be temptedto do wrong things. But again, in this

age of "moral relativism", people willargue about what is wrong and what is

not. It depends on whether one takesconservative view of things or a liberal

view.The bottomline is that we are all provided with a mind and intellect. We

areexpected to use them to shape our lives. The answer to your

colleaguetherefore, should be that " the fear is not what Narayana would to us

butwhat we might do to ourselves by not exercising self-control and

principlesof ethics and falling prey to the temptations of our times. We have

as aguide, what we have been taught by our Poorvaachryas well versed in

thescriptures. Since these teachings are sometimes voluminous and

overwhelmingin the sense that we cannot know it all in one lifetime, we tend to

take easyway out seeking instant solutions.Some modern day thinkers such as Sri

Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Chinmaya, andso on,  realized this predicament of the

humanity and attempted to provide uswith solutions to the day-to-day problems.

They however, appealed to the socalled elite in the society. Saints such as

Basavanna, Sarvajnya,Purandaradasa, Sant Surdas, Sant Kabirdas and so on

attempted to bring thevalues of Truth and Ethics to the people not so

intellectual. Present day Newage religiosity represented by Sathya Saibaba,

Swami Narayan and so on in theEast, Self-realization, Ammachi, many a

meditation center and so on in theWest are all attempting to provide instant

solutions and hence, are moreappealing to the masses.It is my humble opinion

that our contemporary acharyas may considerattempting to bring the spirit of

scriptural message to our day-today livesas we live them in this day-and-age.

Unfortunately, without this happening,for the sake of "changing with times",

people have been losing track of moralabsolutes that Narayana is endowed with

and which we are expected to emulate.At least if those of us who have

understood the value of the teachings of ourpoorvaacharyas maintain that as a

goal, we can hardly go wrong. Therealization has to come from within and is not

something that one can win inan argument.Adiyen Narayana DasanKeshava PrasadTo

from this group, send an email

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>SRIMATHE BHOOMIDEVI SAMETHA SRINIVASA PARABHRAMANE NAMAHA

SRIMATHE NIHAMANTHA MAHADESIKAYA NAMAHA

Dear Sriman Rajagopalan and Anand,

Adiyen is of the opinion that if you have real faith in SRIMAN

NARAYANA you will not have any fear. In the sixteenth chapter of Bhagavad

Gita THE LORD SAID:

("FEARLESSNES, PURITY OF HEART , STEADFASTNESS IN KNOWLEDGE AND YOHA, ALMS

GIVING, CONTROL OF THE SENSES, YAJNA, STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES, AUSTERITY

AND STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS" form the divine traits in a mortal soul.

Fear in all of its forms resolves itself into the fear of being

hurt or killed. It is based on the ignorance that one is the body and not

the athman. The one given to fear is good for nothing. But all merits are

born of fearlessness. The symbolic pose of ABHAYA or fearlessness is

characteristic of all the Deities that represent Iswara. The idea is that

Godhood and fear are incompatible. As a sadhaka draws near God he rids

himself of all fears. )

Adiyen has taken this form the book on Bhagavad Gita by Swamy

Chidbhavananda.

Adiyen feels that this clarifies clearly.

lakshminarayanan